Hiker Dies in Friend’s Arms

The body of a young Garden Grove man was recovered from a remote creek bed in the Cleveland National Forest on Monday afternoon, 20 hours after he and four friends set out for an afternoon hike to a waterfall.

Brandon Coday, 19, died in the arms of one of his friends after plunging down a steep, unstable slope above Harding Creek, several miles into the forest near the community of Modjeska Canyon.

The five had set out for Harding Falls about 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Orange County Fire Authority spokesman Paul Hunter said. Coday clambered up a steep rock face about 6:30 p.m. and tumbled about 500 feet straight down.

“It’s a very steep slope, heavy terrain, heavy vegetation,” Hunter said. Two of Coday’s friends stayed with him until daybreak, officials and canyon residents said. The other two companions tried unsuccessfully to hike out for help.

The first news that something was amiss came about 6:40 a.m. Monday. Modjeska resident Michael Relyea was driving to work past Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary when a dazed young man walked unsteadily toward his truck and reached in the window to try to touch his arm.

“Can you help me?” the young man told Relyea. “Five of us went hiking, two of us are missing, and one of us is dead.”

“Are you sure he’s dead?” Relyea said he asked.

The young man told Relyea that his friend, who was crying a few feet away, had cradled Coday in his arms until he died.

“I’ll get help right away,” Relyea responded.

Within minutes, the air raid siren atop Modjeska Fire Station No. 16 was wailing, and volunteer firefighters raced up the Harding Truck Trail. Leaving a rescue truck perched on the lip of the creek bed, they hiked to the site, which is covered with trees and scrub, and radioed back to confirm Coday’s death.

A helicopter pilot located the two missing hikers and directed them out of the canyon. At 10 a.m., as rescue personnel struggled to retrieve their friend in the forest behind them, Pat O’Brien, 21, and his sister Gail, 19, both of Garden Grove, hiked out, scratched but unharmed.

They had tried to hike out for help Sunday, got lost and spent the night in the mountains as well.

“Somebody wanted to go rock climbing, and it’s not really a good place for a rock climb,” Gail O’Brien said, her arms and legs covered with scratches and welts. She and her brother had tried to take a shortcut but lost their way.

All four survivors were taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where they were examined and released.

The O’Brien siblings’ mother, Betty, said Coday was married with a young child, and was a longtime friend of her children’s. “He was a great kid,” she said, crying as she spoke.

It took five hours in steadily rising temperatures for rescue personnel to recover Coday’s body.

County firefighters with urban search-and-rescue units hiked and helicoptered in, but couldn’t land in the steep terrain. Sheriff’s deputies followed with machetes, a bloodhound named Star and other rescue gear. Rescuers used ropes to gently load the body into a basket dangling 50 feet below the helicopter, which then flew out.

“I’d say they were pretty lucky, since their friend didn’t make it,” firefighter Greg Highberg said.

Rescue personnel urged hikers, mountains bikers and others to use common sense and to be prepared for the worst. While beautiful and accessible, the rugged Cleveland National Forest can be deadly.

Thomas Pewdo, 50, slipped, fell and died while hiking there March 22, 1997. Jeremy “Jake” Michael Beecher, 15, was found dead at the bottom of a ravine after he went for a solo hike during a family outing April 9, 1990; he died of massive head injuries. Rescue personnel bring an injured person out of the national forest about once a month, Hunter said,

County search-and-rescue firefighter Louise Martin, who lives in Modjeska, said of the latest tragedy: “They weren’t locals; they didn’t know where they were. They came out late in the day, dressed in shorts and T-shirts. . . . The whole thing was kind of a disaster from the get-go.”

Relyea’s wife, Pande, agreed. “It’s so beautiful out here,” she said, gesturing to the mountains outside her front door. “But I don’t think people realize how dangerous it is.”

Staff writer Scott Martelle contributed to this report.