VENTURA : Lost Youths Rescued in Los Padres Forest
A group of Ventura High School baseball players got lost in the Los Padres National Forest north of Ojai Saturday and spent a chilly night huddled against some rocks until they were discovered by a Ventura County sheriff’s rescue team early Sunday.
Sheriff’s deputies found the five boys at 5:30 a.m. Sunday, more than ten hours after they were separated from the rest of a group on a weekend camping trip at Lion’s Camp in Rose Valley, Lt. Joe Funchess said.
Danny Belitski, 16, said he and his friends didn’t realize at first that they were lost. “We went right and kept running, playing around, and ended up where--we didn’t know,” he said.
Belitski, second baseman for Ventura High School’s junior varsity baseball team, said 12 other team members and four adults spent the weekend in Rose Valley. Also lost were Rene Caro, 16; Josh Escalante, 16; David Magallanes, 14, and Eddie Centeno, 15.
When the boys realized that they were lost, they huddled on some rocks for warmth and waited for morning, Belitski said.
“It was unbelievably cold. The temperature got below freezing,” he said.
After the search-and-rescue team found them, they trooped back to camp and then went home, Belitski said.
No one was hurt, but everyone was exhausted. “I am all right, just real tired,” Belitski said.
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