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Eel River rafters located after going missing overnight
On Sunday morning Heidi Anton, Joseph Enlow, Silas Keys and Jennifer Thacker of Willits; Robert Nappi of Cotati and Carrie Viarnes of Sacramento; and Nicholas Thomas of Ukiah all were located and transported to the Trout Creek Campground in the Mendocino National Forest, according to Lake County Sheriff's Office public information officer Michelle Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said the seven had been reported missing the previous evening after beginning a rafting trip.
At about 10:50 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office received a call for assistance. seven river rafters on float tubes had entered the Eel River at the Soda Creek Bridge at about 4 p.m., according to the report.
Gonzalez said the rafters had planned to raft approximately nine miles to the Trout Creek Campground where they were camping. They believed the trip would take three to four hours and had only swim wear and no supplies to spend the night.
Because the area on the Eel River is near the Lake/Mendocino county line in the Mendocino National Forest, Lake County Sheriff’s deputies requested the assistance of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Gonzalez said. Deputies checked the area, but did not locate the missing rafters.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office called out Search and Rescue and K-Corps, which responded to the area about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, according to Gonzalez.
She said that Enlow had left the group at a small beach area and continued on, in the dark, to an area where he climbed up a steep embankment to a logging road. A local resident picked him up and drove him down to the Trout Creek Campground where he met with the Lake County Sheriff’s team.
The resident told them that the group was most likely in a steep cavernous area of the Eel River. Gonzalez said the Lake County Search and Rescue and K-Corps proceeded to the area and rappelled down approximately 500 feet, but were unable to reach the rafters on the beach.
The rafters were told that they could not be rescued from that particular location, and that they would need to wait for daylight and float to another area to be picked up, Gonzalez said.
She said sheriff’s deputies requested a California Highway Patrol helicopter to locate the rafters and provide possible routes of travel for rescue.
On Sunday at about 9:30 a.m. the missing rafters arrived at the designated meeting point, in good condition and good spirits, and were transported back to the Trout Creek Campground, Gonzalez said.
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