A Hermosa Beach Couple visited our office this week to tell us about a 2001 hike with their two golden retrievers that ended with what was reported at the time as the first hoisting rescue by one of Riverside Sheriff Office’s then-new high elevation helicopters.

Alan and Mary Ann Benson had hiked the South Ridge trail to Tahquitz some two years earlier, but dry conditions had made the trail harder to recognize as it crossed bare granite and gravel. They made it to the meadow, but got lost on their way down, and after several hours called 911.

The dispatcher told them that they would send help, but that the helicopter would not be able to take their dogs. This left the Bensons apprehensive, worrying as they waited that they would lose their animals. But when the copter arrived the rescuers first winched Alan up, then the dogs in a cargo net. The dogs, Alan recounts, were not brought into the aircraft but left dangling, slowly spinning in the net as the helicopter made the brief trip to Keenwild. The craft then returned for Mary Ann.

The Bensons were informed that the new helicopter had just been certified and this was their first actual hoist rescue. Before that time, helicopters could help locate lost hikers and then drop off rescuers, who would either walk them out to a trail head or a safe landing area, often with the help of Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit volunteers.

The Bensons still get emotional recounting the events of that day, and say that they send Christmas cards every year to the dispatcher who took their call, and to RSO. They also keep a copy of the photograph that appeared in the Town Crier of them and their dogs in a frame in their bedroom, “as a reminder of just how quickly your life can change.”

Alan recounts that he was a neighborhood watch captain in Hermosa Beach for a decade, and an Emergency Preparedness Commissioner there for even longer, and has a great appreciation for the work of first responders.

Mary Ann pointed out an amusing possible confusion in the November 29,2001 Town Crier article about the incident: the caption of the photograph said the readers might recognize Mary Ann from “her role” in the NBC daytime television drama Passions. Ms. Benson tells us that she was a video editor for that series and General Hospital, and a member of the Directors Guild, but stayed behind the cameras during her career.