Search for Giant Tree Turns Into 8-Day Ordeal
Edward Allen Carley’s search for one of the world’s biggest sequoias turned into a grueling, hunger-filled, eight-day ordeal.
The 59-year-old Loma Linda man disappeared Aug. 5. The Tulare County Sheriff’s Department distributed a missing-person flier but couldn’t conduct an intense search because deputies didn’t know where Carley entered the forest.
Carley was looking for a group of sequoias but got lost and couldn’t find his way back to his car, which he had parked on a dirt road on the outskirts of Sequoia National Park.
For the next week, Carley roamed the woods. He drank water from streams but went without food.
At one point, he heard a helicopter, but it turned out the pilot was looking for another missing hiker, Michael Taylor Jr., 26, who was found Sunday. Carley even saw a group of children at the top of a waterfall, but the roar of the rushing water drowned out his cries for help.
On Sunday, he finally found the dirt road where he had parked his car. He drove to a store and called his wife.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
