Big Search Ends as Hikers Walk Back Into Camp

Two missing hikers trudged into their Cleveland National Forest campsite about 12:30 p.m. Monday, sheepish but safe, as an Orange County Sheriff’s Department helicopter hovered above them and their surprise welcoming party: a search crew with a bloodhound and reporters with photographers.

It was a happy ending, but the moral of this story, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said, is to leave travel itineraries with friends--and then stick to them. The hikers conceded that neither of them had worn a watch.

“There was some discrepancy regarding the original information (the family gave us) about what their plans were,” Sheriff’s Lt. Dick Olson said. He said relatives had expected the pair home by Sunday morning because one of the hikers was to be at work, but the hikers said they were forced to stay longer to avoid forging through rugged terrain in the dark.

Randall Henry Sykes and John Edward Parker, both 25-year-old Fullerton residents, left the Blue Jay campground--10 miles from San Juan Capistrano off Ortega Highway--about 3 p.m. Saturday.

Scheduled to Work

Their families, who last saw them about noon Saturday and reported them missing about 1 a.m. Monday, told the Sheriff’s Department that the men were to be home Sunday morning. Sykes, a retail clerk, said he was supposed to be at work that day.

The hikers explained that they underestimated how long it would take them to reach the falls at Hot Springs Canyon and return to camp--a round trip of about 10 miles.

By their estimate, it was about 11 p.m. when they decided to stay the night rather than make the cross-country return trip in the darkness.

“We got caught in the dark,” Parker said. “We didn’t expect to be out so long.” But the pair, who had hiked the same area before, had enough supplies for them to endure an additional day.

The search party included eight deputies, five reserves on foot, two reserves on horseback, the bloodhound and the helicopter, with a command center set up at the Blue Jay campground. The searchers, who began combing the hills at about 5:30 a.m., had difficulty communicating because the hills blocked radio signals.

Messages Relayed

The police helicopter had to relay messages between searchers and the command post.

Wearing their backpacking gear, the hikers were greeted on their return to the campground by a barking voice from a loudspeaker in the helicopter, checking their identities and physical condition.

Olson said that when venturing into the wilderness, hikers should “please file a plan with somebody back home; tell them how long you’ll be gone, where you’re going and when you expect to return.”