Missing PCT Hiker
March 23, 2024
PCT Trail near Anza
2024-007
Written by: Eric Holden
At 2300 hours we had just finished the carryout for the climber off suicide rock, 2024-006, when we received another callout, this time for a missing PCT hiker near Anza. Two PCT Hikers started their hike around lunch and vowed to meet each other at the next stop. When one didn’t show, the other PCT hiker went all the way back and never ran into her missing friend. At this point she assumed the worst and hit the SOS on her PLB around 9pm.
Coby, Matt, Blake, Solan and I still had gas in the tank and started to do some planning on this search in the Idyllwild Fire Departments station when blizzard conditions began outside. We quickly got off the mountain and down to Lake Hemet Mountain Station where it was only raining heavily. With the weather the way that it was it was decided to drive a few of the dirt roads that crossed the PCT and see if there were any hikers in the area that had spotted our subject. Coby, Blake, Solan, and Matt all went out in two vehicles to search the trail intersections. Matt woke several PCT hikers up and unfortunately found that even though these hikers knew the subject, they hadn’t seen her all day. With heavy rain and wind, it was determined to suspend the search for about 5 hours so we could get some rest and the weather was to clear up by then. The next morning the subject was found by a deputy near another dirt road intersection still in her tent. Turns out she had passed her hiking partner sometime the day before and all were perfectly ok, and still on the trail.
RMRU Members Involved: (Coby Brown, Matt Frenken, Eric Holden, Blake Rankin, and Solan Watts)