Four hikers plucked from Widgeon Lake

Coquitlam Search and Rescue volunteers took to the air on Sunday after four hikers found themselves on the wrong side of a swollen creek near Widgeon Lake.

The hikers were on their way to the lake, about 20 kilometres north of Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, when the weather took a turn.

“It was hammering rain and lightning,” said Al Hurley, a manager with Coquitlam Search and Rescue. “They did the wise thing, they hunkered down in their tent.”

What followed was probably a wet, scary night, Hurley noted.

“There was fork lightning hitting the mountain all night.”

In the morning, the hikers discovered the small creek they’d crossed had “exploded” overnight, Hurley said. Drenched and stuck, the group elected to call 911.

The search and rescue team pinged their phone and got what turned out to be a fairly accurate location. However, getting to that location was a challenge.

As ground teams rode e-bikes as far as they could before hiking to Widgeon, a Talon helicopter circled overhead.

It was about 30 minutes of “trying to find a hole in the clouds,” Hurley reported.

Eventually, the team found a patch of blue in the Coquitlam dam area and flew over the top of the hill.

There was pouring rain and snow on the ground, but the four hikers had followed instructions and were waiting with their gear at the ridgeline, Hurley said.

“They were shivering when we got there.”

While there was no imminent danger, there was a risk of hypothermia if they’d had to spend another night, Hurley said, noting that time was a factor in getting back in the air.

“Everything to the east of the ridge they were standing on was completely socked in,” he said. “We had just enough time to load ‘em up, fly back across the lake, pop over the ridge down into the Coquitlam watershed and then fly back down to the fire hall.”

If the weather hadn’t cooperated, “it would’ve been a long, wet night,” Hurley said.

The team brought the hikers to the Coquitlam Fire Hall at Town Centre, where they were picked up their mother.

“She had the mother look,” Hurley said, recalling a conversation about donations to Coquitlam Search and Rescue.

The incident, Hurley said, is a reminder to pay attention to weather reports and to look at your gear and ask yourself if you’d like to be wearing it after a two-day rainstorm.