Massacre Canyon Hikers

Written by Cameron Dickinson

Approximately 12:40am on Sunday morning a call went out to the team regarding two hikers that were stuck in the Massacre Canyon area. I was quickly on the road and on my way to the trailhead.

When I arrived at the trailhead, team member Glenn was already on scene as well as Riverside sheriff’s deputies. Another team member Kirk was in route and not far behind, and would takeover radio communications once he arrived. A debrief by the deputies would explain the scenario with our hikers. We were searching female and male hiker in their late teens, stuck in a steep canyon, cold, and had no lights. They initiated their hike at 4:00pm in the afternoon. Glenn and I packed our gear, and off we went.

As we hike into the steep ravine, we eventually stopped at a high point on the canyon and did a quick voice call-out, with anticipation that we hear some response from back our stuck hikers. Sure enough, we heard “we’re down here!”. I shouted back to them to stay put, and that we would be coming down to them. To get to them, we had to carefully scramble down the loose and steep hillside. It turned out they ended up hiking down to the creek wash below. We would soon reach them in good condition, however cold, and a little hungry (they did have enough water).

We provided them with warm jackets, extra headlamps, and a little food. We advised that safest way would be to hike up the hillside back to the trailhead. Because of the steep hike out, we harnessed them up for safety purposes, and slowly began our hike back out. Once we out of the canyon and back on the trailhead, we continued to maintain a higher level of caution as we traversed the trail across the hillside due to many sections of the trail being washed away likely from the previous winters rainfall. Soon we’d return back to the back to the trailhead, all safe and sound.

RMRU Members Involved: Kirk Cloyd, Cameron Dickinson, and Glenn Henderson.