83-year-old missing hiker found safe near Lake Tahoe just as temperatures dipped
A missing hiker was found safe in the Tahoe National Forest before temperatures were expected to dip into the mid-30s, the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday.
The hiker, an 83-year-old woman, was reported missing Sunday afternoon to the Sheriff’s Office, a spokesperson for the agency wrote in a Facebook post Sunday night. The woman, who had begun to experience cognitive impairment, was hiking with a group of family and friends toward old train trestles in the area.
After becoming tired, she decided to sit and wait on the trail as the group went ahead. However, when her loved ones returned to walk back with her to Little Truckee Summit, she was nowhere to be found, Sierra County Sheriff Mike Fisher said in an interview Monday.
Family and friends immediately launched a search of the area. When they were unable to locate her, they notified the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office.
“Given the age, the time of day, this cool weather that we’re having — looking at the forecasted lows, they were going to be down in the mid-30s — it gave — not that there wasn’t a push to find her immediately — some additional urgency,” Fisher said.
Sierra County deputies requested support from the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team, the U.S. Forest Service, California Highway Patrol Air Operations, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, and the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue, including its Raven helicopter, to locate the hiker before temperatures dropped.
But as deputies were preparing search flights, ground searchers reported they had located the hiker.
“We’re just thrilled that we found her, we found her quick, and there were no injuries,” Fisher said.
The woman was reunited with her loved ones and was not injured.
