Geocaching Death in California

[+Tacguy]

Sadly a local 22 year old So. California man passed away this weekend while hiking to what may have possibly been this cache (GC672) up in the Santa Monica Mountains. I have logged the cache before, so I can tell you that the description is fairly accurate since it is the most remote area in this conservancy.

 

Bascially the victim's hike consisted of a 3 hour trip which later resulted in heart failure dur to Heat Stroke, the more serious heat condition which begins as heat exhaustion. The temperatures in this area have been somewhat unusual for this time, but nothing that has not been experienced before. This location has no shade and is an exposed hike depending on the time of day. They tried to cool him down by using the correct means, dousing him with cool running water, and later by IV during the Paramedic treatment. But the dehydration was too far along and he could not be saved.

 

The report says that the family was interested in completing the hike to the location to log him into the cache log after the funeral.

 

My sympathies to the family and others that were with this young man. Please, all be careful. Makes me want to run the cache again just to log him in.

 

The full article was outlined here :

Deadly Hike

[+Breaktrack]

Oh man, that is a shame. It's never a good thing when someone passes but I'm really sorry to hear about this one. I commend you for bringing this to us in here.

 

My sympathies as well to the family. With all the silly stuff going on lately this really brings you back down to earth.

 

"Afghanistan was a battle. Iraq was a battle. The war goes on."

[+RJFerret]

Wow.

 

Just wow. Thank you for sharing. That is such a shame.

 

(From my read of the article, it seems he had already logged it and they were returning--the family intended to return to view his name there.)

 

A good example of age not influencing abilities... Hopefully his family and parents will persevere.

 

Sobering,

 

Randy

[JamesAG]

It is a sad thing. My sympathies to his family and appreciation to those who did their best to help.

 

Be careful out there. I mean it.

[Loop Choke]

Very sad indeed. I always take more water than I need. Drink even though you are not thirsty. I was a Marine stationed in 29 Palms. In our desert survival training it was stated repeatedly that the best place for water to be stored is inside your body, not in your canteen.

 

By the way, the red coffee can was the summit log.

 

Jason

 

SO THAT ONE MAY WALK IN PEACE.......

[+Faveral]

How sad!! This is actually not Boney Mountain. Boney does not have a register that I am aware of. It's called Goat Hill and we are totally familiar with it. We have a cache within feet of the summit (GCF3B5) Palos Verdes to Santa Barbara View The register on Goat Hill is in two red coffee cans. The first time we tried to do this hike, I had to come back down 2 hours into the hike because I was feeling the beginning of dehydration and heat stroke. The second time I made sure to drink plenty of water and eat before the hike and I made it. This has really hit me hard... We'll definitely have to make the trek up there again and read the register notebook...

 

And the weird thing is, take a look at the log on the cache page for the same day. Looks like it just wasn't a good day for that hike.

 

Thanks for sharing Tacguy and good to hear from you! We've done a few of your caches in the Santa Monica Mtns.