Lost Portland hikers rescued on Columbia Gorge trail
PORTLAND, Ore. – Two Portland hikers who were lost and stranded overnight on a trail in the Columbia River Gorge were rescued early Sunday morning.
Elizabeth Flanagan, 36, and Sue Giordano, 44, got lost Saturday afternoon near Nesmith Point at nearly 4,000 feet. One of their husbands called the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office at around 3:15 p.m. to report they were lost.
Search and rescue teams began to work their way up to the hikers just before 7 p.m.
Rescuers found the two women at 12:15 a.m. Both were in good condition, according to Lt. Steve Alexander with the sheriff’s office.
Flanagan and Giordano were prepared for the elements, Alexander said.
They were reunited with their families at 3:45 a.m.
A day hike to the 4000 ft Nesmith Point? Good grief, let's start the parade of people claiming they did the right thing by calling in their position via 911 and sitting tight until the rescue arrives. Did these people not understand there is lots of snow above 2k ft, did they not read the papers from last weekend? What is your goal once you get into heavy forest with 2-3 ft of snow, keep going until it gets better?
 @dynamited77 Maybe they should be billed for the cost of the rescue.
 @Jim330rifle  @dynamited77 Sure, let's bill them. As long as we're on the billing kick, let's also bill anyone that calls 911 for any service. As far as I know, the people lost on Nesmith are tax payers. They already paid for their rescue.
 @Harry Tuttle  @dynamited77 They knew the weather was bad.So they went out anyway and got lost.So they were dumb,so charge them for it.
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What is it about people that want to go for hikes and for other personal desires in bad weather? Is it an unspoken death wish they have, or just being clueless? Glad they were found anyway....safely, without harm to the rescuers.
 @jpk  No kidding, I don't get it, but dumbarses have no sense of reasoning. They get an idea and they just go with it. Sometimes costing them their lives.
You must mean like the "flying squirrel" skydiver missing and UTL up in Washington?Â
 @SerenityWowz  @jpkÂ
Yes I know, pretty cool Suites, I am more concerned with him jumping in BFE and after four days, they still can not find him. Not too bright on Rocky's part.
 @jpk Yep.."Rocky the Squirrel" is another one. Hey I am going to skydive and land in BFE so no one can find me. You just can't fix stupid, but only with death.
Losing your tracks when it's snowing? Who'd have thunk it? LOLÂ Glad they're okay.
 @special effects As someone that hikes on a regular basis in the gorge, including in the winter, and on this particular trail, I can tell you that it isn't always like that. Most of the time there are plenty of tracks to follow, or blazes. In their case, I would guess that it was not snowing when they got to the summit lookout point, and then when heading back, they realized that the trail was snowed over. The upper part of Nesmith is sort of featureless forest on a plateau. Perhaps it's time for us to go up and paint some blazes on the trees to assist in case of sudden snow.
 @Harry Tuttle  @special effectsÂ
Some trails have blue spots painted on the trees, about 12 feet up the trunk. Which helps when the snow is thick.
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Other trails people have blazed the old way, by cutting chunks from the bark.
They were prepared to be overnight, the rescue crews got some more practice
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Glad they all made it out safely.
How about a sign instead, warning the hikers about the dangers ahead; instead of marking up the trees!
 @jpk The sign at the bottom is no help once you're stuck at 3000'. A simple set of blue or orange paint marks are better than nothing. They have saved my butt on many a trails in the Gorge.It's time for the upper part of Nesmith to have them too.