Deaths climb in California national forests
By Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee
Yosemite National Park has gotten all the attention for a spike in visitor deaths this year. But fatalities also are up on national forest lands throughout California, such as an expert kayaker who drowned in a remote creek near Sonora.
Data provided by the U.S. Forest Service show there have been 27 deaths in 18 national forests in the state through Aug. 15, the most recent data available.
That is about equal to the total number of deaths in each of the last three full calendar years, said Stanton Floria, a spokesman for the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region, which is based in Vallejo and oversees all the California forests.
“We have been noticing a trend toward more injuries and fatalities,” Floria said. “We’re already at the point where we’ve been in past years, and we haven’t concluded the year yet, so that’s fairly telling.”
The Bee reported in August about a similar deadly trend at Yosemite, after prominent incidents at Half Dome and Vernal Fall. Since then, six more people have died at Yosemite, bringing the park’s total for the year to 20 fatalities.
As at Yosemite, many of the deaths on forest lands are water-related, including instances in which people were swept into creeks and drowned.
“This might be a result of a link to the heavy snow year, with heavier and longer runoffs,” John Chang, chairman of the California Mountain Rescue Association, said via email. The addition of a mild summer may have “led to more people being caught off guard.”
Some of the deaths are connected to extreme sports.
“professional kayaker”? Really? Everybody wants to go big, but they don’t all have the skills. The back country isn’t Disneyland and your cell phone won’t necessarily save you.
I have done a good deal of hiking and backpacking up and down the Sierras. I ALWAYS get lost in cities but never got lost in the back country. I learned to read topo maps and use a compass. I also learned that the back country was not intended by God for us to set records in but to enjoy, value and preserve. Every aspect of life is becoming some kind of a contest and attempt to overachieve. Loss of life is too high a price for “winning” and it becomes the greatest loss of all. Slow down folks and smell the roses – or, in this case, the wildflowers…
Dogwoman … take a look at some words from people who were there and others who knew Brent. Facts have an interesting way of telling the real story.
http://forums.boof.com/archive/index.php/t-760.html
Wow dogwoman. A new low.
Don’t take it personally Julie. Usually her ignorance doesn’t affect others.