Yet another weekend began to edge its way to closure when, shortly before midnight on Sunday evening, my Search & Rescue (SAR) pager went off. Looking at my text pager I saw that there was a missing 35 year old male mountain biker that was believed to be somewhere in the Forest of Nisene Marks. I grabbed my gear, boogied down to my car, and headed off to Aptos County Park where the search was going to be headquartered. Mind you, I was going into the search already with a sleep deficit from being up most of Saturday night at an injury accident with Felton Fire and then needing to be up at 5am for a network/firewall change control at the University
Once at the park we formed the IC, drafted up the initial search plans, SO did interviews, and my partner and I were given our mission. After grabbing additional suplies and doing a radio check we were brought up into Nisene and dropped off at the designated trail head. We were tasked with going deep into the park on a specific route and search 10 feet on each side of the trails we were to cover. Surprisingly, radio communication was great, though GPS reception was non-existent most of the night.
Although we were on a search, I was also able to appreciate the immense beauty of the south facing hills of Nisene Marks; flowing streams, deep cut ravines, carpets of fallen leaves, and enormous trees with a canopy that literally swallowed us up from the night sky…that is, until we reached the ridge where we could once again see the stars and moon.
Eventually, the sky began to lighten as dawn broke. The animals started their daily routines, and a helicopter flew overhead. At first we thought it was a chopper that was searching for the missing subject. We later found out it was a news helicopter. The media also started to reach critical mass back at search headquarters.
Keeping a constant fix of where we were on map as we moved along, we soon reached the end of our mission. The lost mountain biker was located shortly after 7am on Monday morning and transported back to HQ.
When I got home I showered and then fell asleep. Work at the University continued to pile up for my return; fortunately, I was able to take care of some of it remotely
