Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team Members Help Missing Hiker in The Sierra
Two members of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team (SBCSAR) are back home after assisting in the rescue of 62-year-old Miyuku Harwood, a hiker lost for nine days in the Sierra Nevada National Forest near Fresno.
The story made national headlines, but Don Gordon and Craig Scott only knew they had a job to do, to the best of their ability, when their Search and Rescue Team received a state-wide mutual aid request from Fresno County to help search for Harwood.
The SBCSAR’s Type I Mountain Rescue Team, was assigned four separate search areas that covered about 4 miles not far from Harwood’s last known location. Harwood was eventually found alive by a team from Marine County Search and Rescue, down a ravine about half a mile from where Gordon and Scott were.
Gordon and Scott quickly responded to the location where Harwood was found and, “Assisted in her medical treatment and rescue, which included packaging her in a stretcher, raising her up over a ledge out of the ravine, and then carrying her mile to a landing zone,” said Kelly Hoover, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.
“We train hundreds of hours each year for these types of search and rescue missions. To help in her rescue after all these days was an amazing experience that just reinforces why we do this work,” said Scott, a six-year veteran of the SBCSAR.
Harwood was airlifted to a Fresno hospital with two broken legs that she had suffered from a fall. After nine days of being missing, some felt that Harwood was at the end of the time period they thought one could survive. The weather wasn’t favorable recounts Gordon. “It was very cold at night as was evident in the ice I found in my helmet when I woke up Saturday morning, so to find her alive after all these days was incredible,” he said.
Officials credit Harwood’s excellent health condition and mental toughness in her survival. Without food and with two broken legs, her tenacity led her to find shelter near a small creek. Every night until her rescue, Harwood would crawl down to the creek to fill up her water bottle. Due to the trees in the area, helicopters flew right above her but never saw her.
The Sheriff’s Department says that it wasn’t until Harwood heard voices up on a ridge, that she took out a whistle she had with her to alert the searchers to her location.
Both Gordon and Scott said that this was a rescue they will never forget. “To have dozens of volunteers throughout the state give up their personal time to participate in this search is pretty incredible,” noted Scott.
