Thanks, mule

At 2:45 p.m., on August 26, the Mono County Sheriff’s Department received a call that a 77-year-old San Diego woman became quite ill and was unable to continue with her hiking group.

She reportedly had fallen behind the group in the Barney Lakes Basin area, about 13 miles west of the Eastern Sierra town of Bridgeport. A friend had stayed behind with her, and eventually had to ask other passing hikers on the trail for help, and to try and reach 911.

Thirteen members from the volunteer Mono County Search and Rescue (SAR) responded to the Coldwater Trailhead. A team of two quickly departed to locate and assess the hiker. Three other teams with rescue gear and a wheeled litter followed, along with a mule and packer from the Mammoth Lakes Pack Outfit, assisting in quickly transporting the wheeled litter to the hiker’s location.

Placed on the litter, the hiker was evacuated down the trail about three miles, where she was met by paramedics and transported to Mammoth Lakes Hospital.

Mono County sheriff’s spokesperson Jennifer Hansen said, “In most rescue cases, SAR does not release the names of those they help.”

Once recovered, most hikers are embarrassed at all the commotion they caused and don’t want their names released to the public.

The woman was from the 92119 zip code, in the San Carlos area, according to the sheriff’s department’s records.