A 23-year-old Washougal woman was rescued Saturday in Gifford Pinchot National Forest after she fell near a waterfall and was swept over, according to the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies received a report at 5:41 p.m. that the hiker, Rachel E. Goodwin, had fallen and gone over Spirit Falls, on the Little White Salmon River near Cook. Goodwin was able to swim ashore and was behind the waterfall, unable to safely get out due to “the hydraulics of the falls and steep cliff face,” the sheriff’s office said.
Goodwin’s hiking partners called for help, and a search and rescue team responded along with medics. The group found the stranded hiker behind the falls; she appeared uninjured. Additional resources were requested, and the Clark County Tactical Rescue Team responded to help raise the woman to the top of the falls, according to the sheriff’s office.
Goodwin was taken to a hospital for treatment of mild hypothermia.
The sheriff’s office lamented the need for a number of rescues within the Gifford Pinchot and Columbia River Gorge.
