By Mary O’KEEFE

A Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s deputy kept a hiker on the phone Sunday keeping him calm after he had fallen off a cliff in the Angeles National Forest.

A call came into the CV Sheriff’s Station Sunday about 4 p.m. Dep. Steve Toley took the initial call of an injured hiker who wasn’t certain of his exact location.

The 22-year-old man and his friend, a 21-year-old man both from Temple City, were hiking when the 22-year-old fell off the side of a cliff.

“We were told later he was two miles past the ranger’s station about a mile down from [Switzer’s] water fall,” Toley said. “He said he had fallen on his back. I told him to stay there.”

The man told Toley he was hanging onto a bush and was in a precarious position.

Toley added he could hear the injured man yelling at his friend so he knew he wasn’t alone.

The hiker said he saw a helicopter but Toley wasn’t certain if it was Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Air Five or one that the L.A. County Fire had sent out.

“I told him to stay calm and that [help was on the way],” he said.

Toley said he was impressed with the way the injured main man remained calm.

Air Five found and rescued
the two hikers and trans-
ported them to a nearby hospital.

“He was just lucky that
his cellphone worked. You usually don’t have any phone reception in the [ANF],” Toley said.

  Angeles National Forest, Hikers