Body of Hiker Who Fell Down Ridge Recovered

Thomas Pewdo had just turned around to warn his hiking companions about slippery rocks ahead. As he resumed walking, he tumbled off the sharp ridge and somersaulted to his death 600 feet below.

Pewdo, 50, died Saturday about 2:30 p.m., but it wasn’t until 1:50 p.m. Sunday that his body was finally extricated from dense foliage and jagged rocks by rescuers forced to rappel down from the ridge top.

“He absolutely was doing what he loved, with people for whom he had great, great affection,” said his best friend, Russ Lutz. “He was a wonderful, giving person.”

Pewdo, his son-in-law, Bill Lawson, and his son-in-law’s brother were on an annual spring trek. They had hiked up several miles from Live Oak Canyon Road and were approximately a mile south of the east dead end of Modjeska Canyon Road, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. William Francis.

“That’s wilderness between those two roads,” Francis said. “It’s rugged country. With the rains we had earlier this year, the trails can be pretty messed up. It’s obviously pretty dangerous.”

Francis cautioned hikers in the national forest to contact U.S. Forest Service rangers for trail conditions before hiking. Rangers check trail conditions as frequently as possible, with certain truck roads and areas of the forest closed off during the dry season when the risk of fires is high, starting in May.

After Pewdo fell, Lawson scrambled up the mountain trail for help, hailing a group of mountain bikers on a truck trail who had a cellular phone. At the same time, Lawson’s brother slid down the mountainside to where Pewdo’s body had landed.

“Steve slid down to get to Tom, and said he was unconscious at that time. He stayed down there for quite a period of time. It was obvious there was massive head trauma,” said Lutz, who was phoned by his friend’s wife Sunday afternoon, and who spoke to both men.

Lutz said he had taken the hike with Pewdo in the past, and Pewdo knew there was a washed-out area that could be dangerous. Pewdo had camped and backpacked throughout the Sierra Nevada, family members said. He was safety-conscious and avoided unnecessary risks.

“This was a very close family,” said Renee Lutz, Russ Lutz’s wife and also a friend of the Pewdos. She recalled how Pewdo and her husband had been separated from their families on a day hike in Yosemite National Forest in 1990 after a forest fire raged out of control.

“They spent the night in Tom’s car, shivering under space blankets,” she recalled. “We met up with them back at home. We laughed about it for years. He’s going to be so missed.”

Pewdo, a former U.S. Marine stationed at the El Toro base until 1971, worked at Xerox in El Segundo for more than two decades, most recently as a services manager for advanced electronic copying equipment, Lutz said.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and Marine Corps pilots were involved in a lengthy recovery operation that had to be suspended at nightfall Saturday and was hampered Sunday by fog and clouds, Francis said.

Sunday afternoon, under dark, low clouds, the body was strapped into a rescue basket by county firefighters and sheriff’s personnel. The basket was hooked by cable to the “Duke,” a Sheriff’s Department helicopter, which flew out of the mountains to a waiting coroner’s vehicle.

Pewdo is survived by his wife, Lynda Jane of Lake Forest, and two daughters, Tina of Rancho Santa Margarita and Amy of Long Beach. Funeral services will be at Grace Church in Lake Forest.