Hiker lost on San Jacinto

[Cy Kaicener]

The Idyllwild Town Crier says that Richard could not move because there were flames above him and a cliff below. The rescuers had to put the fire out first which is difficult when they couldnt land the chopper. I wonder if Richard is going to write a book about his adventure.
The body found on the Deer Springs trail was thought to be there from one week ago.
http://www.towncrier.com/pages/stories/ ... 71115.html

[Hikin_Jim]

Interesting article although it's hard to know what is correct vs. incorrect in the papers. This article reports Harris as "formerly of Texas" which he is not according to other reports; he apparently was driving his gf's car which has TX plates, but he's from Vallejo and currently residing in PS.

Hopefully the gist of the article is correct.

[magikwalt]

I've had a few chats with groups leaving the summit that get turned around up there. Two had a similar starting point. Each was trying to see the upper Snow Creek area better. They moved off the summit to the NE and sort of followed the edge of the face downward through a pretty easy section. I spotted each group from the summit and just knew they weren't sure of their location.

First they miss the cabin and then they miss the trail where it swings back to the south towards Wellman Divide. Next thing you know a signal fire is needed to find them.

Someone told me that if you stood on Hwy 111 and looked up into Snow Creek that Harris was on the left hand side of the drainage. If so then it wouldn't surprise me that this is how he got to his position.

Okay I just looked at the RMRU picture of where Richard was located and wow he had made it a long way past where I would have expected him to hold up. Looks like he made it all the way into the middle of Falls Creek drainage. Maybe like 2.2 miles from Snow Creek village. It gets real sheer if you come down into the drainage.

[Cy Kaicener]

Walt - I would estimate it at almost 4000 ft in 2.2 miles. He would have needed a rope to rappel down. The whole route is about 9000 ft in slightly less than six miles. That lower section has a lot of rattlers in warmer weather.

[magikwalt]

Obviously the water out of the mountain creeks will have some amount of contamination/bateria in it from the local animals. That be said I agree with Hal's statements about its being clean. The skinny dipping shrinkage thing shows why clorine is used in the water systems.

As I understand the Desert Water Agency system there are three collection points out in that area. Snow Creek, Falls Creek and Chino Creek all have collection points which pickup surface water and transport it to a water station.

From its point of pickup until it reaches the water station it is not considered potable water. Once it reaches the water station it is tested, treated with clorine and tested before it is released into the municiple water system.

Surface water from all of these points are also part of the natural recharge of our Whitewater River Subbasin.

Walt

[Cy Kaicener]

Here is a follow up editorial from the Desert Sun that says he got below the cliffs and that the fire was below him. The rescuers have had cases where the hiker has hidden from them for fear of being billed.
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... 04/opinion