Photo: ABC
A family of three stranded at the top of a 40-foot waterfall in central California turned to an old trick when needing rescue: a message in a bottle.
Curtis Whitson, his 13-year-old son Hunter Whitson and Curtis’ girlfriend, Krystal Ramirez, were on a four-day hiking and camping trip in the Arroyo Seco tributary of the Salinas River in June, when they became trapped in a remote area called the waterfall,according to ABC News.
The trio knew it was a long shot, Curtistold theWashington Post.
“We’ve done all we can do,” Curtis, 44, recalled telling Ramirez, 34, and Hunter, according to thePost. “The only thing left to do now is wait.”
Hunter added: “It was a little scary. We hadn’t seen a single soul the entire trip.”
Curtis said the water currents were too strong for them to rappel down, and a rope usually bolted to the rocks for climbing was nowhere to be found,he told CNN. They tried to hike up and over, but there was no way out.
After retreating upstream — what should have been a two-minute trip took 30 minutes — according to CNN, they spread out a blue tarp and assembled rocks to spell out “SOS.” Then, they continued to wait.
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Meanwhile, two men found the bottle and alerted the camp post. After midnight, the trio could hear California Highway Patrol yelling over a loudspeaker: “This is Search and Rescue. You have been found.”
They were removed from the area later that day. Now, Curtis is hoping to find and thank the two mystery men who found the bottle, according to CNN. As for Hunter, the teen told ABC he’s still trying to wrap his head around the entire ordeal.
“Stuff like that only happens in the movies really,” Hunter said. “Seeing, like, an actual message in a bottle be the reason someone actually got saved is just mind blowing to me.”
source: people.com
