When two young women went missing for several hours on the evening of Wednesday, February 10, the community sprang into action to look for them.
It all began on social media. The darker the night got, the more Facebook posts popped up from concerned residents who offered to search different trail-entry points and logging roads.
By the time the good news spread that the two women had been found near Dodd Lake, after going on a hike and returning to find their truck had a dead battery, thousands of eyes were closely monitoring the online developments.
The incident, and other recent ones in our community, has raised questions about the power of citizen engagement in search efforts, as well as some of the safety steps residents should take before heading out in the woods.
While Powell River RCMP and Powell River Search and Rescue Society applaud the efforts of those who dropped everything to jump in their vehicles and search for the missing women, they do have some concerns about how such efforts could affect those of their own.
According to search and rescue society president and ground search team leader Laurence Edwards, using tools such as social media can be the quickest way to get information
out, but not necessarily the most accurate way to perform a search.
“You’re never going to stop it, and we can’t say people shouldn’t do it; I’m not saying that at all,” said Edwards, “but it does get difficult when we have a search going on and people are doing all kinds of things in the woods and we don’t know where they are.”
Edwards cited the case of a two-year-old girl who went missing south of town in early December. The girl was located after three hours, unharmed but very cold, after one of Edwards’ trained search and rescue volunteers found some footprints near a ditch.
This leads Edwards to wonder what would have happened if someone else had disturbed the site where the child was found. Every untrained searcher must go out with a trained one under search and rescue protocol, with good reason, said Edwards.
“So, this trained searcher is in his ATV and he pulls up in a muddy area, and he knows what he’s got to do, so he gets off and looks around to find some footprints or tracks, which he did do, and we found her,” said Edwards. “Now, if people were just running around out there and had driven over those tracks, the outcome could have been completely different.”
Edwards said the recent call about the two young women was search and rescue’s second that week, and in the last two years the volunteer team has had just over one call per month. So far this year the team has already received 10 calls.
The local search and rescue is run by a non-profit society with 30 volunteers on the team, including Edwards who said it is nearly a full-time job for him. The search team receives reimbursements from the provincial government to cover vehicle costs for emergency call-outs. Edwards said the society has no fixed budget, but is working on securing steady funding.
RCMP constable Tim Kenning said the two women found near Dodd Lake were lucky enough to regain cell-phone service around 8:30 pm and were located shortly after by someone they knew. He said both women were 19 years old and were close friends who went out for an afternoon hike.
Kenning said he is impressed by the community’s quick ability to organize and begin a search of their own as RCMP vehicles were already checking trail entrances on dirt roads in the area. However, like Edwards, Kenning said residents need to be cautious and aware that what they are doing could impede or be a detriment to an official search.
“If somebody wants to help, that’s fine. People are more than welcome to help,” said Kenning. “We just have to be careful that in doing so we don’t hinder any investigations. On social media we had people confirming with absolute certainty that they had checked certain areas, but how can we be certain that it was fully checked?”
Kenning said every search effort is different. Often people are found shortly after a report is made to police by locating them through friends or family, but in cases where “time is of the essence,” or daylight is an issue, Kenning said search and rescue is quickly notified and deployed.
“In this case, we were called by RCMP,” said Edwards, “and we were trying to organize and we were ready to go out, but the RCMP had very little information and they couldn’t say we needed to go anywhere particular, which was unfortunate.”
Powell River Ranger Patrol’s second-in-command Peter Behr spent the weekend of February 20-21 teaching young park rangers from all over the province survival skills in the woods. Behr has advice for anyone planning an outdoor expedition in order to cut down the risk of getting lost or stranded, especially after dark.
Aside from taking along relatively inexpensive GPS devices that can track a hiker’s location by satellite, Behr said common sense is always the best tool hikers can use.
As the two women at Dodd Lake quickly found out, cell phones can be rendered useless in backcountry trails, but simple tools such as fire-making supplies and suitable clothing can help lost or stranded hikers.
Also, due to the many valleys in the region, walking downhill can often lead a person to a logging road, said Behr.
“Like in any situation, it’s really good not to panic,” he said. “I’ve been hiking here for over 40 years and I’ve never gotten stuck overnight, but if you get lost, generally you’ll run into something if you go downhill.”
Edwards stressed that communication is the key to not getting into trouble in the woods. It comes down to making sure one very important rule is followed before heading out on any journey.
“If people would just let other people know where they are going. It’s so important because it focuses any kind of search area down to a manageable search point,” said Edwards. “At least if we knew [the two women] were toward Dodd Lake, that’s where we would send someone straight away. We would have had an initial search team with four people in a truck and we’d be gone while everyone else was getting ready.”
Edwards also added that a common mistake hikers make is running out of time and valuable daylight.
“Think about your time. If you’ve only got a couple of hours, don’t try to do a six-hour trip, you’ll be beating the hell out of your vehicle and you’re going to be late and then people start worrying,” said Edwards. “Even for just a short hike, think about the weather and the way you are dressed.”
Edwards said maps are also crucial, even more than a cell phone.
“People think, ‘Oh, I’ve got a cell phone, so I’m good to go,’” said Edwards, “but there are a lot of areas out there where cell phones won’t work. In fact, I think Dodd Lake is one of them.”
