Sickened hiker describes being rescued in 16-hour operation by Monterey County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue team
MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- On Monday, a 16-hour search and rescue mission ended with the Monterey County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue team able to locate a hiker who was too sick to continue his hike through the Ventana Wilderness.
Clayton King says he was with his friends camping at the Sykes Hot Springs in the Ventana Wilderness area when everything turned into a nightmare for their annual trip.
King says he was feeling fine when the trip first started back on December 27, but around 4 p.m. two days later he started feeling weird.
"I just started throwing up out of nowhere, King says.
King says he was too weak to continue so one of his friends ran the entire trail to get to a ranger station to call for help.
That's when the sheriff's office search and rescue team arrived.
However, due to weather conditions, helicopters were unable to assist the hiker and Urban Search and Rescue team members had to join in the rescue by foot, according to deputies.
At one point the sheriff's office says the rescue team was unable to cross a river where water levels had gone up, leaving the crew stranded.
The sheriff's office says teams on the ground described the effort to help Clay and his friends as "physically exhausting," with 16 miles of steep and rugged trails to go through.
"If they were struggling, they didn't let me know," says King. "They worked through it and showed their best side. They did a lot of leg work getting me through so I imagine it was very taxing on them."
Clay was finally transported to the hospital where he was told he suffered from the norovirus.
Now he's in good spirits, getting ready to celebrate the new year.
"To the team that came out and got me, that was phenomenal. I wouldn't have been as happy or professional as you were during that ordeal. Sorry I didn't shed a few pounds to make things easier. It was the Christmas dinner, I blame it on that," says King.
