Fire and coast guard teams in Humboldt County staged a laborious rescue operation Saturday after a hiker who strayed off California’s Lost Coast Trail plummeted 100 feet down a rugged cliff and had to cling to a 60-foot bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The hiker was “barely holding on” with hiking poles for more than an hour, according to the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay.
The hiker and a companion had wandered off the remote 53-mile hiking path that follows the northern California coastline of redwoods and black sand beaches on the afternoon of March 22 when one of them fell 100 feet.
Bleeding from injuries and with a dislocated shoulder, the hiker used poles to cling to an almost vertical cliff, dangling perilously over a beach of gravel, rocks and boulders.
The other hiker, who was not hurt, was stranded above.
Shelter Cove Fire Chief Nick Pape said the hikers ventured about 400 yards off the sign-posted Lost Coast Trail onto a much narrower deer or bear trail.
“They were definitely in an off-trail area and a dangerous spot,” Pape said. “It kind of looks like a hiking trail. However, it’s not — and that trail leads to a very dangerous portion of the cliffs above the beach.”’
Initially, Pape said, the hiker at the top of the cliff was holding on to his friend by the hiking pole and couldn’t hold him anymore.
“He slipped down and was very lucky to get caught, because it was a lot worse fall just below him,” Pape added, noting that the bluff went from a steep landslide to a sheer, completely vertical cliff, with a 60-foot drop to boulders below. “He would have been seriously injured, if not killed.”
The rescue operation was launched just after 2:20 p.m. when the Shelter Cove Fire Department got a call that the hiker was stranded near Miller Flat in the King Range National Conservation Area
Due to the treacherous terrain and the area’s track record of challenging rescues, the duty officer immediately requested helicopter support from the U.S. Coast Guard Sector and deployed a rescue boat and jet ski with four rescue swimmers, the fire department said in a statement.
Once the jet ski team located the hikers stranded 75 to 100 feet above the beach on a near vertical cliff, Pape said they sent a rescue swimmer from the jet ski to the beach and found it was too dangerous to send the swimmer up to help them.
“At one point the hiker did try and shift, and they slid down another foot,” Pape said. “That’s where our rescue swimmers just started yelling at them to not move and wait for the helicopter.”
The rescue operation was further challenged by weather conditions and limited fuel supplies.
“Both hoists required intense crew coordination due to the loose cliffside, dead trees, and limited power,” U.S. Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay said. “With no winds and limited power, the crew had to make quick decisions regarding fuel and patient delivery.”
After 3:30 p.m., a coast guard helicopter rescue team arrived on scene.
Video footage posted by the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay showed a helicopter flying along the steep coastline and, coordinating with rescuers on the ground, locating both hikers along the steep cliffside.
“I think I can get in without too much rotor clearance issues,” one member of the crew said.
“Roger,” another said as a crew member, wearing a helmet and an orange and yellow jacket, held on to a cable and jumped out of the helicopter.
After the rescuer reached the injured and bleeding hiker, they waved back to the crew above.
Then they hoisted the hiker on board the helicopter, flew them to land for a medically assessment by an EMS team at Shelter Cove Airport, and then went back to the cliff to rescue the second hiker from a deer trail.
“Both hoists required intense crew coordination due to the loose cliffside, dead trees, and limited power,” the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement. “With deteriorating weather to the north and only 15 minutes of fuel remaining, the crew was forced to shut down at the airport in Shelter Cove.”
A crew from Cal Fire drove for four hours along winding roads on Shelter Cove to provide the helicopter team with gasoline so they could return back to base, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
In total, the fire department said, six different agencies — including a mix of paid and volunteer crews — worked on the rescue, drawing on millions of dollars of training and specialized equipment.
Pape said his team has conducted between 40 and 50 rescues on the King Range section of the beach since he joined the department in 2011. In the last five years, they have seen a surge of 911 calls and rescues as more people have discovered the Lost Coast since the pandemic. The north portion of the Lost Coast trail has become particularly popular, he said, as it’s a relatively flat trail with little elevation gain, unlike parts of the Pacific Crest Trail, and most of it is on the beach.
“However, you’re exposed the entire length of this trail to the coastal conditions, so wind, rain, tides, animals, all that kind of stuff,” he said. “You’re definitely in a rural environment. That’s what a lot of people like about the trail, but when it comes to rescues, there is a considerable time lag to get rescuers into that area.”
The spot where the hikers got into trouble, Pape said, was eight miles away from the boat ramp where rescuers launched their jet skis. There was no easy hiking for rescuers by land, he added, noting that during bad weather the helicopters can’t get in to help and land rescues sometimes took as long as 16 hours.
Pape urged hikers to take time to prepare before hitting the Lost Coast Trail.
“This is one of the most beautiful hikes in California,” he said. “We want people to come enjoy it but be prepared. It is definitely not a beginner hike. You have to do your due diligence and study and prepare a route and have a backup plan.”
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