Missing 85-Year-Old Hiker Found in Angeles National Forest
An 85-year-old hiker spent Saturday night shivering on the side of Mt. Baden-Powell, but a sheriff's search and rescue team found him alive the next morning and loaded him into a helicopter for treatment of mild hypothermia.
Donald Buchanan of Temple City was found about 10:30 a.m. off a trail near Mt. Baden-Powell, said Deputy J. Ames of the sheriff's Palmdale station.
On Saturday morning, Buchanan had gone on a day hike in the Vincent Gap area, near Wrightwood, said Lt. Darren Harris of the Palmdale Sheriff's Station.
"When he didn't return home, his son drove to the area and found his father's car still parked at the trailhead" late Saturday, Harris said.
Although nighttime temperatures in the area were in the mid-40s, Buchanan was an experienced hiker who carried a backpack with survival gear.
"He was found at 10:30 a.m. He was pulled out about 10:40 a.m.," Ames said, and transported to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena.
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