A hiker lost in California backcountry for nearly two days was found after volunteer rescuers followed her shoe prints and called her name for hours, deputies said.
The woman’s family called the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office just before 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, deputies said in a news release.
The family last heard from the 50-year-old woman at about 8:30 a.m. the day before when she sent a text message saying she was going for a hike “near the Lake Morena campground in Campo,” deputies said.
While they were looking into the missing woman’s case, deputies said the San Diego County Parks and Recreation told them she “had missed her checkout time at her cabin near Lake Morena.” Her things were also still inside the cabin.
Not long afterward, deputies found her car parked close to a nearby trailhead.
Volunteers from the sheriff’s office search and rescue team started looking for the woman, while a sheriff’s helicopter did an aerial search, deputies said.
Using an off-road vehicle, members of the San Diego County Parks and Recreation also scoured the area, according to deputies. A team with the U.S. Border Patrol also looked for the woman with a rescue dog, deputies said.