Search and dive team rescues stranded hikers
In the blue jacket and white helmet is BSDRT rescuer Pat Bennett; working across the stream in orange is BSDRT rescuer Adam Reeves. The other two rescuers in orange, working downstream safety, are Stuart Yoder and Michael Powers.
Courtesy photos
(Courtesy photo) In the blue jacket and white helmet is BSDRT rescuer Pat Bennett, working across the stream in orange is BSDRT rescuer Adam Reeves, as they set up the rescue highline across McCormick Creek.
Bennett works with rescuer Adam Reeves across the stream, standing next to the three stranded hikers.
NAPLES — Early on Sunday morning, May 31, members of the Boundary Search and Dive Rescue Team responded to an SOS alert from a personal Garmin inReach device in the area of McCormick Creek in the Pack River drainage.
The initial dispatch report at 7:15 a.m. indicated two subjects were stranded on the north side of McCormick Creek at Fault Lake Trailhead 59, approximately 10 miles west of Naples, said Andrew O’Neel, director of the Boundary County Office of Emergency Management.
Rescuers from Boundary Search and Dive Rescue Team and medics from Boundary Ambulance arrived at the trailhead at 9:28 a.m. and located the two subjects on the north side of McCormick Creek near the parking lot. While rescuers were in the process of setting up a rescue highline, a third subject who was not with the original party also arrived at the trailhead.
“All three subjects were successfully rescued via the highline and in good health,” O’Neel said in a press release.
O’Neel said all three hikers had entered the National Forest prior to Saturday’s thunderstorms by wading through McCormick Creek at the trailhead. Warm weather last week created a rapid snowmelt and rising creeks and rivers in the area. Saturday’s heavy rainstorms added to the creek’s rise, which become impassable by Sunday morning.
“Boundary Search and Dive Rescue Team would like to remind everyone to plan wisely while recreating during this time of year,” O’Neel said. “A small stream you crossed today may be a raging river tomorrow morning, so check the weather forecast prior to going into the backcountry and take all weather alerts seriously when planning.”
