lost their bearings – December  30, 2020

Call overview December  30, 2020

Duration 2 hours 30 minutes

We received a call at 4:30pm from 2 people who were hiking on the SBM trail and they lost their bearings. They knew they were on a trail that has a split onto another trail. After a discussion, we learned that they started on Willow Grove Road to the trail with the Fire Tower and the Big Hill shelter. They were dressed well and seemed like they headed out at 11am.

As it was getting dark, we advise them to stay put at their location and make themselves comfortable. After reviewing the intel we found three possible locations where they were.

Call Details

• Call came in at 4:30pm

• Call was activated at 4:45pm to stage at the Ramapo Equestrian Center.

A little later we moved to a different staging area.

• Command Center was activated with units #55 and #95 on board.

• 5:05pm 1st unit advised he was on location.

• At 5:18pm, the 1st team was dropped off on Route 202. They started to bushwhack to a woodsroad up Catamount Mountain to the “SBM”.

• At 5:38pm, the 2nd team entered from Ramapo Equestrian Center. They took the Pine meadow trail to the SBM.

• At 6:05 pm, the 1st team made Visual contact using their flashlights.

• 13 members responded

Challenges

• Was a cold night

• Trails and woodsroad were blocked with a lot of  fallen trees from the last storm.

• it was easier to have a visual through the trees since there were no leaves left. Definitely better than in the summer when there are leaves on the trees.

• Subjects walking from their starting point to the location where we intercepted them was over 5 and a 1/2 miles.