On a hot mid-September afternoon, WCSART received an SOS Alert from an Apple Dispatch Center about two hikers lost on Osborne Bend Trail along the Lost Branch junction. This was the third such call this year. A set of coordinates were provided by the Dispatch Center, and the hikers were advised to stay at that location.
A WCSART hasty team was dispatched to the area to locate the hikers and bring them back to a trailhead, but after hiking in approximately 4 miles, the group was not located at the coordinates.
The hikers made the decision to continue moving and in an opposite direction from where our team was hiking in on. Although the group made it out on their own, team members spent many hours hiking over 8 miles in very rugged terrain. Fortunately, WCSART was able to make cellular contact with the search team members to advise them that the hikers had self-rescued.
Although this was certainly a good outcome to know the hikers came out safely, the lesson here is that if anyone calls for rescue assistance, it is important to follow the directions provided. The result of the group not following the directions given tied up valuable resources for hours. If WCSART had not been able to contact our teammates in the search party, they could easily have been searching many hours for the hikers in that general location as coordinates are not always precise.
