Hiker Dies After Falling From Mountain Trail

A Sierra Madre man on a sunset hike with his daughter died Thursday after he slipped off the side of a steep trail in the San Gabriel Mountains and fell hundreds of feet while his 8-year-old girl helplessly screamed out for him.

David Trinkle, 44, a bank vice president, was found barely alive in the narrow canyon late that night, but was pronounced dead shortly thereafter, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Kenneth Handcox.

The Sheriff’s Department did not remove his body until 8 a.m. Friday because navigating a helicopter in the mountains at night is extremely dangerous, officials said.

Trinkle’s death comes as prime hiking season begins and thousands of people pour into the rugged terrain of the so-called front range, where trails follow scraggly canyon walls straight from neighborhood streets into the isolated wilderness. The Mt. Wilson Trail is one of the most popular and historic, winding to the Wilson summit, with its world-famous observatories.

But the unique geology of the San Gabriels creates special hazards, forestry officials warn. Because the mountains are so young and fractured by seismic faults, the rock is loose, the trails are narrow and the slopes are steep.

Trinkle was an ultra-marathon runner who decided to take his daughter Andrea on a hike because she was out of school for spring break, according to friends.

“He was trying to spend time with his daughter,” said one friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He has a very high-pressure job.”

Trinkle took part of the afternoon off from his job at GMAC Commercial Credit bank in Los Angeles.

His wife dropped him and his daughter off, along with their Dalmatian, at the Mt. Wilson Trail near Baldwin Avenue in Sierra Madre. Trinkle and his daughter started up the twisting path, traversing rocky, sun-beaten terrain toward a lush creekside spot called First Water.

About 6:30 p.m., Trinkle and his daughter were walking back to town when a jogger named Will Sera came up behind them. Just above some steep switchbacks, he saw them climb off the main trail, over a berm and onto an old trail that had been washed out.

“Those of us who go up there a lot, you know the area and want to see what happened to the trail,” said Sera, explaining that he too had once climbed onto the lower trail.

Sera kept jogging past them. But suddenly, he heard the little girl scream, “Somebody help!” and turned around to see her and a plume of dust. He rushed to her and could see her father hundreds of feet below, slumped in a heap. Then Trinkle slid off another cliff out of sight.

Sera blocked Andrea from the view of her father, and brought her down to the trail head, he said. When Trinkle’s wife arrived, Andrea was waiting at the bottom in a frenzy. It would not be until the 11 p.m. television news that she learned of her husband’s fate, according to friends.

The Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team reached the cliff about 8 p.m., according to Sera. He said the rescuers had difficulty getting down to Trinkle because the rock was so loose that they could not set spikes on which to tie their rappelling ropes. When they finally reached Trinkle, he was still breathing, Handcox said. But he was pronounced dead about 11:30 p.m.

Officials of the rescue team did not return calls seeking comment.

George Duffy, wilderness and trails program manager for the Angeles National Forest, described some problems on the trails: “The angle of the majority of slopes in our wilderness area exceeds 60%,” he said. “It’s like navigating a rooftop.”

Duffy said hikers must pay attention and understand that the ground may not be as stable as it looks.

Still, he said, it is rare for a hiker to slip off a trail. Most people in need of rescuers have climbed up slopes they can’t get down, or have overextended their journey and found themselves wandering blindly at night.

About 7,000 people hike the Mt. Wilson Trail every year. Spring and fall are the busy seasons because the weather is favorable.