Photo: Placer County Sheriffs Office
It’s been a crazy year for lost souls who used whatever they had at their disposal to signal rescuers: two men whose boat overturned near the Micronesian island of Weno used palm fronds to write HELP and a women lost in Arizona used sticks to write HELP in the dirt. And this week, Cody Michael an avid hiker and backpacker who’d been missing since Monday used duct tape to write the word on rocks so searchers in helicopters could see him.
Michael and his dog Bauer went missing after their last contact with family on Monday. Apparently Michael became disoriented on his trip near Donner Summit. He was found three miles from the Loch Levin trailhead off Interstate 80. The trail is well marked but according to authorities, it’s easy for hikers to become disoriented as it crosses granite or can be covered in snow at higher elevations, resulting in hikers sometimes losing the trail.
The National Guard sent out a pair of Black Hawk helicopters and a Pave Hawk heli to find the missing backpacker from Rocklin. But Michael, who called his rescuers “heroes,” wrote HELP with duct tape on the rocks, which one of the pilots spotted, then used a blue tarp to wave down rescuers. He was fed, sent to the hospital for a check up and then went home with his family. The extensive search consisted of the helicopters, people on foot, skis and snowmobiles. “Fortunately, there were a lot of people, a lot of support, looking out for me and they pulled me out,” Michael said. “That’s really what it came down to.”
