DCSO SAR volunteers help injured mtn. bike rider near Phil’s Trail, lost hikers SW of Sisters

(Update: Adding second rescue operation Friday)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Deschutes County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue helped an injured mountain bike rider from Eugene make it back to the Phil’s Trailhead parking lot west of Bend Friday afternoon, and later rescued two lost hikers in the wilderness southwest of Sisters, deputies said.

Dispatchers received a call shortly before 1 p.m. Friday of an injured rider, said Deputy Shane Zook, assistant search and rescue coordinator.

The caller said they needed help getting the injured rider, a 52-year-old Eugene woman, back to the parking lot.

Nine SAR volunteers and a deputy responded to the scene and found the injured rider about 7/10ths of a mile down Kent’s Trail from the parking lot, Zook said.

Search and Rescue medical team staff assessed the rider’s condition, and she was then loaded into a wheeled litter and was carried by SAR volunteers to the parking lot.

A Bend Fire & Rescue ambulance crew was waiting at the parking lot. Zook said the woman declined an ambulance trip and said she planned to seek further medical treatment on her own.

Around 8:30 p.m., dispatchers got a call from two lost hikers near Yapoah Lake, a small wilderness lake about 11 miles southwest of Sisters, Zook said.

The 30-year-old woman and 31-year-old man, both from Yamhill, said they were lost and their cellphone was nearly dead.

Dispatchers were able to get the coordinates of their phone, and a special serviced deputy contacted the hikers and advise them to stay at their current location.

The deputy paged out DCSO SAR volunteers to help the lost hikers. Six volunteers responded and were sent to the area.

Because of the remote location and the fact that the two had wandered some distance from the nearest trail, it took until 12:40 a.m. for the SEAR volunteers to reach them. The man and woman were in good health and were able to hike back with the volunteers to the trailhead where their vehicle was parked.

Search and Rescue volunteers were back at the headquarters and secured by 3:30 a.m., Zook said.