Hiker with medical issue rescued south of Sisters

A report of a hiker with a potentially serious medical issue needing assistance Saturday afternoon prompted a rescue operation near Little Three Creek Lake south of Sisters, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said.

Dispatchers with 911 got a call around 2:40 p.m. from a hiker advising that a member of their group, Dennis Crowell, 63, of Bend, was experiencing a medical issue, said sheriff’s Deputy Joshua Westfall, assistant search and rescue coordinator.

A group of five had been hiking on an unmaintained trail in the Snow Creek drainage about a mile northwest of Little Three Creek Lake, Westfall said.

Three DCSO Search and Rescue volunteers responded as a hasty medical team to Park Meadow Trailhead, where they deployed on the trail shortly after 4:30 p.m.

Two members of the hiking party met the team on the trail around 5:10 p.m. and led them to Crowell’s location. After a medical assessment, they determined his condition was stable enough to be brought back to the Park Meadow Trailhead on a wheeled litter, Westfall said.

The SAR volunteers, a deputy and the rest of the hiking party brought Crowell about four miles back to the trailhead by wheeled litter. They were met by the Sisters Fire Department, which took him by ambulance to St. Charles Bend for treatment.