Skamania County search and rescue teams responded to help an injured hiker, a missing mushroom hunter and a Washougal man who fell while rappelling down Big Creek Falls over the weekend, according to the county sheriff’s office.
At about 7 p.m. Saturday, the sheriff’s office received word of an injured hiker on Mount St. Helens, two miles up the trail from Climber’s Bivouac near National Forest Road 830. Callers said the hiker had three others in her group, and she might have broken an ankle.
A Skamania County sheriff’s deputy and a North Country EMS crew responded and determined rescuers would have to go up the trail and carry out the hiker, identified as Louise Bowman, 53, of Dallas, Texas.
They found her at the tree line, about where callers said she’d be. With the help of the Volcano Rescue Team, rescuers packed her into a litter and brought her to the trailhead around 11:30 p.m. She rode in a private vehicle to get further treatment.
The same evening at about 8:40 p.m., the sheriff’s office received word that Colleen F. Mannahan, 56, of Port Orchard was overdue from picking mushrooms in Skamania County.
A caller said it appeared Mannahan might have headed to the Willard area northwest of White Salmon or the Stabler area north of Carson, the sheriff’s office said.
Considering the lack of information, the caller was encouraged to contact local law enforcement. The sheriff’s office tried calling Mannahan, but the phone cut out before they could learn anything from a woman on the line.
Another caller later contacted the sheriff’s office to advise that Mannahan was in the Stabler area, with a possible direction of travel. He later called back to report finding her car on the National Forest Road 4309 spur off National Forest Road 43, northwest of a ranger station.
Deputies responded, found the car and started a search and rescue mission. Mannahan was reportedly inexperienced, wearing light clothes and had a medical condition that increased the risk.
Teams began their search shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday and were out all night, with more searchers joining by 8 a.m. Searchers, including members of Silver Star Search and Rescue and Multnomah County, Ore., and Clark County search and rescue groups assisted, and found Mannahan around 5 p.m. The sheriff’s office said she was evaluated and walked back to the search base.
And on Sunday morning, crews responded to help a climber who fell while rappelling down Big Creek Falls.
Someone called the sheriff’s office about 9:30 a.m., saying a climber on the falls — off National Forest Road 90, 26 miles east of Cougar — fell the last 15 or 20 feet down the 113-foot falls into the rocky pool below.
A deputy, North Country EMS and the Volcano Rescue Team responded, and officials requested a helicopter to hoist the man out.
A North Country medic was able to reach the climber, identified as John F. Johnson, 72, of Washougal, and found he was critically injured, the sheriff’s office said.
A Coast Guard helicopter crew dispatched from Astoria, Ore., attempted to hoist Johnson out, but was unsuccessful. Search teams managed to use rope to get Johnson to the top of the falls and take him to Pine Creek Ranger Station, where a Life Fight helicopter took him to a hospital.
His condition was unavailable.
