Mother Calls for Warning Signs for Canyon Pools

When Dominic Ortega hiked into Santa Paula Canyon a week ago, his mother, Susan Doherty, had no idea he was entering one of the most dangerous wildlife areas in Ventura County.

Later that day, Ortega drowned trying to pull a friend from a rain-swollen swimming hole at the back of the canyon, which is above Thomas Aquinas College near Santa Paula.

According to a member of the Upper Ojai area search and rescue team, Ortega was the fifth person to drown in the canyon’s streams and pools since 1972.

Doherty says her son’s death should persuade Los Padres National Forest officials to post warnings throughout the canyon about swimming in the natural pools near the hiking trail.

“This is not a freak thing,” Doherty said. “It’s happened there before, and it’s known by the public service agencies.”

A Los Padres National Forest official said he saw no reason to post warning signs along the canyon trail. The area is no more dangerous than any other in the 319,000-acre national forest, said Ojai District Ranger Ron Bassett.

“If you go off the pavement, there are safety factors to be considered everywhere,” he said. “If we put up a sign in one place, then we have to sign everything out there.”

Ortega, a 19-year-old Air National Guardsman studying to become an emergency medical technician, set out on the hike with two friends, Darrel Brown, 21, and Brian Smith, 20.

The men had hiked the popular four-mile canyon trail before. When they set out from the trail head, it appeared the previous day’s heavy rainstorm had passed.

At the end of the hike, Brown, a Marine on leave from Twentynine Palms, decided to go swimming, but was pulled under by the roiling stream. Ortega dove in to save him.

Smith managed to pull Brown out with a branch but could not reach Ortega.

“I really think that there should be signs posted, that there are real dangers if you go swimming back there because of the flash floods that can occur,” Doherty said.

Bill Slaughter, a member of the Upper Ojai area search and rescue team, was on the crew that recovered Ortega’s body last Sunday.

Slaughter, a longtime area resident and avid hiker, remembered others who had drowned in the canyon. The list included a teen-ager who was pulled over the Jackson Hole Waterfall in 1972 and an adolescent who was sucked under by a whirlpool in a swimming hole near Second Crossing in 1973.

All the drownings occurred within a mile of the swimming hole where Ortega died, Slaughter said, and each happened in canyon streams swollen by heavy rains.

“In times of high water, I just don’t think people have a proper appreciation of the possible dangers,” Slaughter said.

Bassett acknowledged that he did not have all the information on the drownings from years ago, and he said his staff may research the issue further.

“If we’ve got a known hazard, and if that area (the Santa Paula Canyon) is identified, we might have to do something,” he said.

Ventura County search and rescue officials, who have responded to numerous drownings in the canyon, were not sure that warning signs would keep people out of the pools.

“The mere fact of placing a sign as a warning does not mean that people are going to stop doing foolish things,” said Lt. Arve Wells, head of the search and rescue team.

Wells said many of the drownings in the canyon happened when people were unprepared for the wilderness.

“People go up there to take advantage of the scenery, or to get into a wilderness environment, without being prepared for weather changes and not familiar with the water flow,” Wells said.

Drowning, however, is not the only danger to backcountry hikers in the Santa Paula Canyon, one of the most easily accessible areas of the national forest for Ventura County residents.

Search and rescue teams are called to the canyon two to five times a year, Slaughter said.

In the last two years rescuers have searched for lost hikers, aided injured swimmers, directed helicopters to other injured people and recovered bodies. Still, Slaughter said he does not believe the canyon trail is dangerous.

“When people are injured, it is primarily a factor of either being an inexperienced hiker or exercising poor judgment, or both,” Slaughter said.

Santa Paula Canyon is not the only wilderness trouble spot in Ventura County.

The steep, narrow path leading to Rose Valley Falls, a popular hiking trail in the national forest 15 to 20 miles northeast of Ojai, is another notorious spot for hiking accidents.

Shaun Rhoades, a 13-year-old Oxnard schoolboy, fell more than 100 feet to his death at the falls in April after hiking during a weekend camping trip with family friends.

Shaun’s parents also said that warning signs should be posted, but none have been put up near the falls.

Bassett defended forest officials’ decision not to post danger signs in the park.

“A sign can be effective, but my problem is they make very good souvenirs too,” he said.

A third dangerous spot is Mugu Rock, where three people have drowned in the last 18 months. The popular surf-fishing and rock-climbing spot three miles south of Point Mugu Naval Air Station off the Pacific Coast Highway has had warning signs for years.