Search & Rescue Spend All Night Looking for Hiker

A 27-year-old San Diego man hiking in Santa Barbara’s front-country had County Search & Rescue out all night looking for him after he went off trail in what he thought was a short cut.

The UCSB graduate was in town visiting friends, and set out to Tangerine Falls at 3 p.m. He told them he would return for dinner but never showed up. He’d gotten stuck above the falls and was scrambling up an unmaintained, old trail, hoping to reach East Camino Cielo Road.

After Search & Rescue rolled out around 10:30 p.m. and began checking the various Cold Springs drainages, one team finally located the hiker at 3 a.m., pushing through and crawling under thick chaparral eight feet high to get to him. It took a second team using mapping technology to find a way down from East Camino Cielo to reach them by about 8 a.m., which is how they all got out again.

The hiker was thirsty but uninjured, and he was able to drive off around noon after being taken back down to his car at the Cold Springs trailhead.