Members of California’s San Dimas Mountain Rescue were chatting with local hikers about safety at the Bridge to Nowhere trailhead near Los Angeles on March 1 when what had been a preventative search-and-rescue mission became an emergency. In a Facebook message, the team recounted that a “frantic runner came charging up the trail yelling for help.”
“A young mother had fallen in at the second river crossing and was swept away by the raging current,” the team wrote. The hiker had been on the popular Bridge to Nowhere hike, which is known for its rugged terrain, swimming holes, and the eponymous bridge, a 120-foot span crossing the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. The standard route involves 9.6 miles of hiking, and 1,230 feet of elevation gain that features several different river crossings along the San Gabriel that often become swollen and impassable in spring.
San Dimas Mountain Rescue immediately began searching for the missing hiker, alongside Los Angeles County Fire and Sheriff’s personnel. After what the team described as “a grueling search,” they eventually discovered the hiker’s body…