Missing hiker on San G.

[AlanK]

From The Press-Enterprise

By SANDRA STOKLEY

CORONA - A Corona woman who spent two days and two nights lost in the San Bernardino Mountains said she has had her fill of hiking for now.

"No more hiking," Grace Hilario, 21, said in a telephone interview Sunday after her release from Loma Linda University Medical Center. "I'm terrified of rocks and trees now."

And, Hilario added, if there is a lesson to be learned from her experience it is that "you never go it alone."

"Even though you might think you can do it by yourself, always take somebody with you on a hike," she said.

Hilario was airlifted out of the mountains Saturday morning.

She had traveled about eight miles from the summit of Mount San Gorgonio, which was the destination Hilario and her hiking companions had set out for Thursday morning.

She said the hardest part of her ordeal was spending Friday night out in the cold after she made contact with rescuers.

Because of the darkness, a helicopter rescue would have to wait until Saturday morning, she was told.

"I said, 'No. Please send someone. I can't stay another night out here,' " Hilario said.

She was dressed in shorts, a T-shirt and a hoody sweatshirt.

"It was so cold out there," Hilario said.

She was treated for hypothermia, dehydration and bruises to her legs at the hospital.

More than 100 volunteers participated in the search.

Hilario, her sister April, 22, and three friends arrived at the Vivian Creek Trail near Forest Falls about 7:15 a.m. Thursday.

At about 11 a.m., Hilario decided to move ahead of the rest of her group because she had to work that night at the Guess store at the Galleria at Tyler.

Hilario said she reached the 11,499-foot summit of Mount San Gorgonio about 1:45 p.m., took a short break and then headed back down.

But it was difficult to figure out which was the right trail because "they all looked the same going down."

Hilario said she came across a well and a power box and tried unsuccessfully to break into the power box, hoping someone would notice the circuit had been cut. She also used poles to make three large X's that could be visible to a helicopter.

She said she worried about bears but saw only squirrels and what she described as a monkey, walking and then running through the trees.

A thunderstorm passed through and Hilario huddled under a tree for shelter.

Her companions reported her missing at 11 p.m. Thursday.

At daybreak, she began walking east toward the sun. She drank water from a stream and then paid for it later.

"I threw up and had the dry heaves," she said.

Hilario began clambering up some boulders and, at one point, saw helicopters passing overhead.

"I started waving my arms and yelling," she said.

At about 10:15 p.m. Friday, Hilario turned on her phone and finally got a signal. She called her sister April, who instructed her to call 911.

Hilario said her lowest moment came Friday afternoon when she was sloshing through a mountain stream.

"I thought to myself, 'What if I don't make it,' " she said. "But then I knew I had to keep going."

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[HikeUp]

She said she worried about bears but saw only squirrels and what she described as a monkey, walking and then running through the trees.

I don't even know where to begin commenting on this.

[Perry]

WTF? Maybe a ringtail in the dark? Or a mountain lion? Or somebody's pet monkey got loose and decided to explore the Yucaipa Ridge?

[KathyW]

When I'm tired at the end of a long hike I see a lot of crazy things too, but no monkeys yet.

[Hikin_Jim]

She said she worried about bears but saw only squirrels and what she described as a monkey, walking and then running through the trees.

I don't even know where to begin commenting on this.

It's Moe the chimp! We've found him!

Yipes! What an ordeal for that gal. I'm glad they found her. I had a 2 unplanned night out experience once as well when I was in a hurry to get back at a certain time. Not fun. And she was alone and not an experienced hiker. That's a tough situation, mentally.

[halhiker]

I bet it was a chupacapra although I didn't know they ever went that high.

[zippetydude]

Perry wrote:

"WTF? ..."

Just as a side note, did you know that if you dial into AM 610 (for traffic info) going through Corona on the 91 fwy, it says, "This is KWTF radio"!
How appropriate, huh? You grind to a halt, going zero miles per hour on the freeway, and what's the first thing you say? "KWTF", right?

Anyway, about that monkey/chimp. (It would be cool if the chimp was still alive, but the chances seem vanishingly small.) I wonder what she saw - she sounds rational, so I don't see any way to simply discount what she says she saw. Hmmm.


z

[Hikin_Jim]

Ohmigoodness! DB Cooper! We've found him!

[AlanK]

http://hikerhell.blogspot.com/2008/07/missing-san-gorgonio-hiker-talks-about.html

[lee]

Maybe she saw this chimp:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25470323/

Toilet-trained chimp on the run in Calif. forest
Animal served as owner's best man at wedding; linked to horrific attack

Associated Press
updated 3:50 a.m. PT, Tues., July. 1, 2008

LOS ANGELES - A 42-year-old chimpanzee who is toilet-trained and can eat with a knife and fork is believed to be at large in a Southern California forest after escaping his cage.

The chimp called Moe disappeared Friday from Jungle Exotics, which trains animals for the entertainment industry. The chimp wandered into a house next door, surprising construction workers who saw him head for a nearby mountain.

A weekend search in the San Bernardino National Forest 50 miles east of Los Angeles came up empty.

"I yelled his name out for hours, for hours, with no one else around. Nothing. Not even a hoot," said LaDonna Davis, who owns Moe with husband St. James Davis.

'Probably disoriented'
The Davises, who raised Moe in suburban West Covina for more than three decades, contracted a helicopter to fly over the forest Saturday and Sunday, hoping the noise would flush Moe out of hiding, said Mike McCasland, who's serving as the couple's spokesman. "That's the one thing that does spook him," he said.

"We think he may be hunkered down near a water source," said McCasland. "We think he's in a contained area a quarter-mile away but he's probably disoriented and the brush is extremely heavy."

Searchers also were making noise and calling Moe's name as they scoured the forest. "His survival instincts would probably kick in, even though he's been in captivity for a long time," McCasland said. San Bernardino County officials were not involved in the search because the chimp did not pose an immediate threat to public safety, but Moe's escape will be investigated, said Brian Cronin, chief of the county's Department of Animal Control and Care Services. "It's our impression that this was just an error," he said. "Jungle Exotics has always had exemplary ratings."

Mother killed by poachers
State Department of Fish and Game officials were investigating whether there was any violation of the facility's permit, said spokesman Steve Martarano.

St. James Davis brought Moe home from Tanzania in 1967 after the baby primate lost his mother to poachers. He and his wife treated Moe as their surrogate son, toilet-training him, teaching him to eat with a knife and fork and letting him sleep in their bed and watch TV.

But local authorities didn't view Moe in the same light. For years, the Davises waged a legal battle to keep Moe in their home.

Cop's hand mauled
They finally lost in 1999 when Moe bit part of a woman's finger off when she inserted her hand in his cage. The Davises said he mistook her red-painted fingernail for his favorite licorice. The incident also came after Moe mauled a police officer's hand.

Over the Davises' protests, Moe was taken to an animal sanctuary. But in 2005, when they took a cake to celebrate Moe's birthday with him, the couple was viciously attacked by two other chimpanzees who had escaped their cages.

The chimps nearly killed St. James Davis, chewing off his nose, testicles and foot and biting off chunks of his buttocks and legs, before the sanctuary owner shot the animals to death.

Moe was transferred to Jungle Exotics, where the Davises built him a state-of-the-art cage, McCasland said.

"He's a very personable, sweet, nice chimp," McCasland said. "He's not going to be aggressive unless he's provoked."

The couple, who have no children, broke down in tears at a press conference in Los Angeles.

"What am I going to do?" sobbed LaDonna Davis.

"He meant the world to us," said St. James Davis. "He was the best man at my wedding."