A couple of South Bay folks got a good scare in the form of five frigid nights at Castle Rock State Park. Seems they set out late Saturday afternoon and got lost in the dark, then for reasons still unclear (very, very unclear) they spent not only Saturday night in the woods, but also Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Searchers found them Thursday afternoon in a ravine near Goat Rock, one of the most prominent features in the park.
I’m sure in subsequent stories they’ll explain what happened. So far the reports say they huddled under a rock the first night then spent the next four in a hollow tree (no word on elves issuing eviction notices).
Hikers around the newsroom I spoke with were mystified that anybody could get lost that badly at Castle Rock. It’s one of the most popular hiking parks in the South Bay and only has one major loop trail and a few minor side trails. The last couple Sundays I’ve been there, it’s been mobbed with Boy Scouts coming home from camping.
Near as I can tell, they must’ve decided to stay put where they had shelter and wait for rescuers to show up. Once the search was on in earnest Thursday morning they were found within a couple hours.
I guess people just figure it can’t happen to them, especially in the most heavily traveled state park in the area, one where the notion of staying lost more than a few minutes seems positively laughable.
But it’s not so hard to see how things can go wrong:
- Suppose our couple gets caught out after dark on a Saturday, spends one nasty night in the woods but figures things will be fine on Sunday because they’ll cross paths with park’s reliable crowds.
- But it turns out to be an especially cloudy and rainy Sunday at the end of a holiday weekend, so hardly anybody comes to the park on this Sunday. So, night number 2.
- Come Monday, the park is empty and they’re exhausted from two nights of shivering. This renders them essentially immobile, even though the weather is clear and they should have no trouble navigating in the daytime. All they can do is wait for somebody to come find ’em.
- As luck would have it they aren’t reported missing till Tuesday and large-scale search doesn’t ensue till Thursday.
Reminds me of the adage that experienced outdoors people are not looking for adventure — they’re looking to avoid it.
Other news accounts: S.F. Chronicle | NBC 11 | CBS 5
I remember the “stirring” account of a rescue in the Mount Shasta area a couple years ago.
A pair of hikers got lost and called for help on a cell phone. They were in full view of two easily identifiable mountains (Mt. Shasta & Mt. Eddy) and in fact could hear the freeway (I-5) noise.
Some people could get lost in a shopping mall.
This story wouldn’t have been considered news if they’d been out a couple days, but the fact that they’d been gone six days and five nights made it newsier. One of the stories mentioned they hiked down into a ravine to find the bottom of a waterfall … sounds like they got stuck down there.
It rained all day Sunday and if they hadn’t found shelter they could’ve fairly easily succumbed to hypothermia as the weather got town into the 30s and 40s every night.
Getting lost in Castle Rock for 5 days is a pretty impressive accomplishment.
Heck, finding a place in Castle Rock that isn’t in earshot of a road or the gun club is a pretty impressive accomplishment.
Let’s not forget we haven’t heard a first-person account of what actually happened … I’ll post a link if a follow-up story surfaces.
It sounds like they followed the standard “sit tight and wait for rescue” advice, which is the best way to avoid getting even more lost … it just took a really long time for a search to get under way.
You wrote: “Reminds me of the adage that experienced outdoors people are not looking for adventure — they’re looking to avoid it.”
My definition of adventure has always been something like: An experience that the best part is the telling afterwards.
Castle Rock Ridge Topo:
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=37.22833&lon=-122.10639&datum=nad27&u=4&layer=DRG&size=l&s=50
Hard to see anything near Goat Rock where going uphill wouldn’t have brought them right back up to the trail. The slopes and chapparal are pretty brual near there tho, its possible that they slid/scrambled down something that they couldn’t get back up. Not a whole lot of civilization to the south of them if they managed to get down into the valley.
The rescuers mentioned needing ropes to get them out of the ravine … I’m guessing Sunday’s rains made it too slippery to get out on their own.
The Merc wrote a follow-up story in today’s paper.
Link here.
The brother of the guy who found them had this to say:
Having hiked past the waterfalls many times I can confirm the ravine near its bottom is not someplace I’d want to be.