Multnomah County Search and Rescue share tips on staying safe when hiking

PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV) Two separate hikers, both in the Columbia River Gorge, had to be rescued within 24 hours! Now Multnomah County Search and Rescue have tips on how to stay safe when hiking.

25-year-old Ryan Bradley, was stuck on Larch Mountain on Sunday. He says he didn’t realize how much snow there was and used a personal locator to get a hold of first responders.

“I decided to make the call and had my GPS, luckily. You should always bring that on any nice solo hike,” said Ryan Bradley.

On Monday, a 51 year old man wearing flip-flop sandals, was hiking a closed trail to Munra Point. He lost sight of the trail and got stuck with mild hypothermia. He was spotted by a volunteer rescue after lighting a small warning fire.

“The trail is an unmaintained trail and it’s really rough, lot of loose rock, a lot of scree tons of poison oak. There was rain showers and a couple snow showers that came through to us. The wind picked up when we were on the ridge,” said volunteer rescue for Hood County, Hugh Brown.

Rescue crews said though it’s spring, with cold temps and heavy rain, it’s not always safe to go on hikes. As a reminder, any trail above 3,000 ft. in elevation, are covered in snow.

There are 10 essentials you should always bring while hiking. A flashlight, sun protection, first aid kit, extra food, water, clothes and navigation.

In both rescues, hikers weren’t wearing the correct hiking gear. Search and Rescue said if you don’t have the proper equipment or skill set, you should turn around at the first sight of snow. They also said the locator beacon likely prevented Bradley from being lost overnight.

“I thought I can go without lugging all that gear but again that’s 10 pounds of all the extra stuff but that10 pounds will get you out of a bad circumstance,” said Bradley.

Copyright 2022 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.