Stranded Hikers Rescued by Search Unit

Using a cellular phone to guide their rescuers, two stranded hikers were plucked off the side of a cliff Wednesday by crews from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department search and rescue unit.

One of the hikers severely sprained his leg toward the end of a four-day, 20-mile hike through the Sespe Wilderness along Alder Creek after starting at Dough Flats, said Senior Deputy Tim Hagel.

Mike Norton, 34, of Reno had fallen Tuesday while “boulder hopping” through Sespe Creek, Hagel said.

On Wednesday morning, Norton and his partner, Jim Froude, 24, of Newbury Park tried to begin the last day of their hike but realized that the injury was too severe to complete the trek.

The two men, who had both been in the military, brought along a cellular phone and a global positioning system--a hand-held device that uses satellite links to help pinpoint the user’s location using latitude and longitude.

But before they could call for help, the hikers had to climb a steep cliff to get to a point where their cellular phone could transmit a signal, Hagel said. At about 10 a.m. the hikers called 911.

It took rescuers about an hour of searching with two helicopters to find the pair standing in brush on a steep gorge. The rescuers harnessed the two men and used the helicopter to lift them out of the area.

The two were treated by paramedics at a helicopter landing site in Fillmore, then chose not to go to a hospital but to get treatment on their own.

“One thing this incident shows is how much having a cellular phone in the backcountry can help in an emergency,” Hagel said.