On Feb. 23, the California Department of Parks and Recreation rescued two lost male hikers ages 51 and 39 of Indiana in Mt. San Jacinto State Park.
At about 4:30 p.m. State Parks received a phone call from the lost hikers. The hikers said that they had taken the Palm Springs Tram to Long Valley and then hiked to Mt. San Jacinto Peak about 6 miles away.
As they started their descent from the Peak, they accidentally began heading down the North face, which has no trail. After two hours, they came to an area with a cell signal and called for help.
The Riverside Sheriff’s Aviation Unit located the hikers about 7:15 p.m. in the saddle between Mt. San Jacinto peak and Miller peak.
Unable to safely extract the two men, the Sheriff’s Department relayed their location to the State Parks Rescue Team, who hiked in and reached the hikers about 10:30 p.m. Both were uninjured.
The Rescue Team and the hikers walked to the Long Valley Ranger Station, where they arrived about 12:30 a.m., Wednesday morning, and waited until the Palm Springs Tramway re-opened Wednesday morning to leave the mountain top.
The California State Parks would like to remind hikers to have proper hiking equipment, a well thought out plan and to stay on the trail.