I received an email from AZ Mike asking if I would post the following account of a rescue that took place Saturday morning. As I was also witness to some of these events, and spoke with some of the young people rescued, and also in keeping with the tradition on this forum of talking about Mike Castro as much as possible, I agreed to post Mike's (AZ)
account of the incident in his own words.
Another successful rescue mission by Mike Castro:
Last Friday night, a group 14 teenagers arrived at Bowen Ranch to
celebrate one of the groups members birthday. They were excited about
going down to the hot springs, but Mike Castro instructed them not to
go until morning when it was safe and legal to do so. None of them had
been to the hot springs before and shortly after setting up base camp at
Bowen Ranch, apparently decided to go the springs anyway and had then gotten lost in the dark of the night.
Early Saturday morning, Mike Castro was asleep at Bowen Ranch and was
wakened by call from the sheriff's department at approximately 5AM.
They informed him that they received a 911 call from a hiker with a cell
phone that was lost in the desert and had with 13 others in his group with
him. Mike immediately got out of bed and headed out to look for the lost
group of 14 teenagers on his dirt bike. Matters had gotten worse
through the course of the night, because the group of 14 broke into three
groups,... 3 in one, 3 in another and 8 in another yet. After Mike had
located the large group of 8 teenagers and because they were a very far
distance from his property (The Bowen Ranch), that he decided to call the
sheriff's dept for additional help. What was needed, was vehicle to
transport them back to Bowen Ranch. Mike took one of the group of 8
back to base camp and the ranch where he then met up with two sheriff's
deputies, one in a marked car and one in marked SUV. One deputy
remained at the ranch and thee other in the SUV followed Mike into backcountry to look and rescue the others.
Because of Mike Castro's knowledge of the backcountry and the
efficiency of how he conducted this search and rescue mission, reduced the time and bother of the sheriff's rescue team. All 14 members of the group were accounted for in relatively short period of time, thanks to Mike
Castro!
(Story written by Arizona Mike who witnessed much of what took place
that morning.)
All I would add to that is that AZ Mike also had a hand in this rescue, and didn't give himself enough credit, and that 3 members of the group found their own way back and arrived at the campsite as I was talking to the group already rescued. One member of the group then hastened to tell the sheriff about the three who had come back, so that Mike Castro would not keep looking for them. Oh...and I hope Mike Castro didn't leave any motorcycle tracks anywhere near anyone's vehicles just in case they were to get vandalized and provide "proof" that he did it.