NEWBURY PARK : Rescuers Search for Missing Man, Son

Ventura County search-and-rescue workers were combing Potrero Canyon late Sunday for a Newbury Park man and his teen-age son who got lost while hiking and used their cellular telephone to call for help, authorities said.

Dennis Love, 50, and his son Jason, 15, telephoned a neighbor who called police about 6 p.m., Sheriff’s Sgt. Bruce Watlington said.

In an attempt to describe their location, the pair said they had hiked above a waterfall in the Santa Monica Mountains off Potrero Canyon Road, Watlington said.

“They’re not on any kind of a trail,” he said. “It’s my understanding they’re wet and they’re freezing.”

Watlington said the hikers’ cellular phone had sounded as if it were losing power by about 7:15 p.m.

After a Sheriff’s Department helicopter was unable to spot the hikers, who were not carrying flashlights, a ground crew was called in.

But Watlington said the search effort was slowed by mud and flooding in the mountains, which forced rescue workers to abandon their vehicles at the base of the trail and walk.

“We’ll keep going till we find them,” he said.