By Mary O’KEEFE

It was a long and difficult week of searching through the Angeles National Forest for Eugene Jo. Search and rescue teams from Marin and Contra Costa County to San Diego responded to a statewide call for assistance in searching for the 73-year-old Jo who disappeared on Saturday, June 22 during what was supposed to be a short trip to Mount Waterman.

The seasoned searchers were “hoping for the best but feared the worse,” said Sgt. John Gilbert, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept./Crescenta Valley Station. All who were searching for Jo knew that he was an inexperienced hiker who had been out in the wilderness without food or water for several days.

“On Saturday [June 29], we were entering our eighth operational period for the search,” Gilbert said. “There were upwards of 85 people on the effort. This was the largest contingency [of searchers] by far.”

The teams had met, like they had so many mornings before, at 7 a.m. to go over their daily briefing.

“We had one of the Altadena two-person teams assigned to search Devil’s Canyon along the wash area,” Gilbert said. That was an area that had not been searched before because of the low probability of Jo being there. It was an area that was very difficult to reach but, because there were so many crews out searching, Gilbert was able to have teams look in even improbable locations.

Around 11 a.m. the Altadena team came across a couple of campers in the area. They told the team they had not seen anyone matching Jo’s description. The team decided to sit down and have lunch before continuing the search when they heard a cry for help. They followed the cries and found Jo.

They called for help and [helicopter] Air 5 hoisted Jo aboard and transported him to Huntington Memorial Hospital.

There is some discrepancy about how long Jo had been in that area with estimates being from two to four days.

“When rescuers contacted him, they commented on how remarkably in good shape he was for being in the woods a week,” Gilbert said.

When news spread throughout the teams that Jo had being located, many were shocked that not only was the missing hiker found alive but appeared in good condition.

Jo had traveled about two-and-a-half miles from the last place family and friends saw him on June 22. That may not seem like a long way for some but his journey took him through some very rugged and thick terrain. A picture taken while Jo was aboard Air 5 showed that the bottom of his shoes was worn away.

“They were perfectly fine before he got [lost],” Gilbert said.

Jo told rescuers he had survived by drinking water from the creek.

Gilbert said Jo had apparently attempted to call attention to himself by using a foil-type blanket as a reflector but the blanket was old and did not reflect well. He did yell for help, which allowed the team to eventually find him; however, flowing water in the area created a lot of background noise that perhaps prevented him from earlier being heard.

Jo was transported to Huntington Hospital where Montrose Search and Rescue team leader Janet Henderson attended to him. Henderson was the operations leader for most of the days of the search. She had been at the search briefing on Saturday morning but had to leave for work as an emergency room nurse at Huntington Memorial.

  Mary Okeefe