SKAMANIA COUNTY, Wash. — Rugged terrain, cold weather and the deep woods kept Skamania County search and rescue crews busy on Sunday and Monday with three calls in a short period of time.
"These were exceptionally long and exhaustive," Skamania County Sheriff Summer Scheyer said. "The first one we had with the mushroom picker was the short one; they were in the field for over four hours."
Over a 12-hour period from Sunday evening — Oct. 27 into early Monday morning, Oct. 28 — rescue crews received three different calls for help.
At 6:18 pm, a lost mushroom picker called for help.
According to the department's Facebook page, the lost mushroom picker was near Forest Service 43 Road, northeast of Carson, Wash. After four hours, the team brought them to safety, returning them to their vehicle.
"It's in the middle of the night; there are no trails. They are just going through the brush, heavily wooded areas to be able to try and find this person," Scheyer said.
An hour and 10 minutes later, at 7:28pm, a call for help from a hiker near Norway Pass northeast of Mount St. Helens. The sheriff's office says the caller's hiking partner was having a medical emergency. Search and Rescue crews tried locating the two hikers but had problems locating them because of accessibility due to a forest road closure and bad weather. They then requested air support from Whidbey Island Naval Air Base, but because of visibility, the air support needed to wait until a clearer window in the morning opened allowed them to fly.
Rescue crews went back out in the daylight and were able to locate the lost hikers, but the person that had the medical emergency did not survive.
At 5:28 a.m. on Monday morning, just over 11 hours after the first call, a third rescue call came in. It took rescuers 11 hours to locate and help a cold, exhausted and stuck motorcycle rider to safety.
"It really is extreme. It really is. It is such a burden, not only on our volunteers, but the sheriff's office ourselves," Scheyer said.
Over the last month in Skamania County, there have been eight calls leading to the rescues of 10 people in 28 days. Scheyer calls this the new normal.
Scheyer said when the Eagle Creek Fire in 2017 closed trails in the Columbia Gorge, she saw a spike in hikers accessing trails in Washington and an increase in calls for help. She added that the number of rescue calls has increased over the last five years.
"We're right on track at this time to meet numbers from the previous two years," Scheyer said.
Scheyer advises if you go out to hike, be prepared, and keep these tips in mind:
- Pack extra emergency items, like food, water and clothing.
- Know where you are going, your ability level and the difficulty of the terrain you are hiking.
- Bring a compass and a map and says with advanced technology and internet access to research what you need to go hiking. There's no excuse for going out for a hike unprepared.
