Missing Mountain Biker Found Dead on Brown Mtn!?!?

Anyone else hear about this, or have more info? I saw a bunch of search and rescue choppers and vehicles the last 2 days up around the San Gabes... checked online and I guess they found the poor guy dead. Not much info online, but definitely sucks to hear....

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2016...-biker-found-dead-in-angeles-national-forest/

 

Wow! Bummed!

 

Bummer. That's why it's always a good idea to ride with a partner or leave ride details with someone before you hit the trails solo.

 

Jaime and I were talking just about that a few days ago. When riding alone there is that risk of getting hurt and nobody around to help. I was thinking of leaving a wakie talkie at the ranger shack/station when going into CHSP and picking it up on my way out, this servers two ways, 1) I would have a way to get help if injured and 2) the ranger would know that something is wrong with me if I haven't picked it up at the end of the day.

 

I didn't know him but I think his name was Evan Sisson.
A few of my buddies knew him. Not sure yet of what happened,?...

I was riding through Camp Millard yesterday and did hear the helicopter.

R.I.P. Fellow mountain biker..

 

Hope there was no suffering. Condolences to those left behind.

If you ride alone and drive to the trailhead you can leave a note on your dashboard what time you left, route you are taking and ETA. I do that often plus on some very remote rides I let someone know where I am and setup a call time when I will be done.

Dean

 

Louis, there is a better way to accomplish what you propose:
http://www.westmarine.com/personal-locator-beacons-plbs

Yes, it costs money (one-time purchase; no additional). Gasp, I know – it's not bike parts or trailhead gas money. But unlike those things, it easily could save your or someone else's life in the field. Or minimize taxpayer dollars and family anguish in expeditiously locating your body.

My beacon is soon at its 5-year (battery) expiration date. I will have a new one before that time. I hope to replace the new one eventually, unused as well.

 

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/gen...ntain-biking-accident-in-forest-near-altadena

 

Brown Mountain Fireroad remote? Not!

Took 13 hours to find him? 3 miles from a trailhead! Goes to show ya need to take care of yourself out there and not think your are going to get rescued.

Dean

 

Mike.. how do these work? How do they compare to the SPOT Tracker or the ICEdot crash sensor?

 

From what I read yesterday, his car was found at Millard and his cell phone was in it. I believe they found his car by "pinging" his phone. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone knew what his specific route was so they had to search in all directions.

Yesterday afternoon, I saw the Sheriff ATV tracks above the first Brown saddle. The tracks stopped before the Ken Burton saddle. Well more than 3 miles from the trailhead but maybe they were measuring that distance from Millard and not the normal JPL Windsor lot.

 

Heartbreaking news. Prayers sent up.

 

Erik -

I carry the DeLorme InReach Explorer on me at all times when I go biking and hiking. The downside it that it's a bit pricey, and requires a monthly subscription fee. However, the fees include search and rescue/medivac coverage/insurance, which gives myself and my family piece of mind that if something bad happens (and I'm still conscious), that I'll be able to contact someone for help. Features include an SOS button, satellite connectivity with 2 way texting, and a slew of other cool things. I highly recommend it!

 

Erik, you purchase the beacon and register it with NOAA, including two personal contacts and what mode of travel you normally use. In a life-threatening situation you activate the device, which sends its signal over a dedicated sat frequency; local emergency services are notified. You re-register every two years, but there is no direct cost other than the beacon. I've seen many beacons, like mine, with a five-year battery.

Unlike A SPOT, it has to be activated to relay position, and it can be used only once. It's really a hail Mary device, not something to monitor progress.

 

I'm not an expert on the various personal locator beacons, but I did get both an ICEdot crash sensor and a DeLorme inReach SE 2-Way Satellite Communicator a couple of years ago, and each serves a different purpose.

The ICEdot Crash Sensor is great if you ride alone in areas with cell coverage (most of our OC Regional Parks). The ICEdot depends on your cell phone to communicate, so it only does any good if you have reception. What it does that none of the locator beacons do is detect if you have a crash where you hit your head, and sends out an SOS automatically, which is great if you're alone and incapacitated. After a friend crashed alone, and was found unconscious by other riders, I decided this would be a good idea. It sticks onto the back of your helmet, and you don't even notice it once it's on there. After you charge the tiny yellow puck via USB, you pair it with your phone via bluetooth. Using their website and app, you input contact info for any emergency contacts you want. You also set "deactivation timer" for anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. If it senses a crash, you'll hear an alarm and if you don't disarm it before the timer runs out, it sends out an SOS to all of your emergency contacts with your GPS location. It does require a monthly subscription, that I think is $10.

I've been very happy with it so far. I was concerned about false alarms going down a rough trail or clipping a branch. If I had to stop all the time to deal with false alarms, I wouldn't use it. I've used it about 2 years, and never had a single false alarm. I've even had a few crashes that I thought would set it off, but I guess since my helmet never made contact, it wasn't a hard enough crash to trigger the alarm. I've only had one OTB crash that triggered it. I was fine, but I was glad to know it worked. I got my phone out of my pack and turned off the alarm with about 15 seconds to spare before it would have sent the SOS to my family. For me it's given me peace of mind when I ride alone in places with coverage.

I got the Delorme Satellite device after the mountain biker died up in the Santa Anas during a winter storm a couple of years ago. I liked that it is a Satellite beacon, and it has two way texting capabilities to be able to communicate with rescuers. I think you can communicate with anyone, but it can be pretty expensive to text, so I only plan to use it for emergencies. I suppose it does give you another option where you could text a friend if you need help, but not a full blown rescue. I've used it's built in self-test feature a couple of times, but fortunately never had to use it to call for help. It does require a subscription as well. I think it's about $12/month or something like that, and there might be different options for the subscription plans.

 

So sad to hear, RIDE IN PEACE bro....
I get very sad reading news like this one..
I look to my 2 princesses and makes me very fortunate to be here, be safe out there my family even though you ride the same trail/feature lots of times, remember everything can change in seconds..... It is a very good idea to leave notes on the car and/or let someone about the trail or time to call when done, as for me I will take a screenshot of the trail and send it to wifey and let her know the name of the trail along with an ETA. Will look on the beacon @mike

 

If you go deep into the CHSP park, you won't get a cell signal.

 

So I have been wondering about how "pinging" a cell phone by the authorities works. If you've moved out of service area do they get no response? Or are they able to see where your phone last contacted a cell tower?

 

Yea that's interesting on how they were able to ping his cell? I have never been able to get a signal at the Millard parking lot.

 

probably last contacted.

 

This is something I'd really like to confirm. Would be good to know if you rode out of cell service if rescue workers can find out the last spot you were with reception.

 

I frequently use Glympse, which is a free location sharing app, so my wife can see where I am during a ride. I can set how long I want it to share my location, and who to send it to. If I go out of cell range it just stops there and picks me up again when it gets a signal.

There are probably other similar ways to do this, but I've been using this one for years, so I've stuck with it.

 

@MattB .. this Glympse app is very interesting to me. You basically share your location each time you start a ride and set the time period for sharing? Looks like you can only set a max of 4 hours and then it expires? So if your ride is longer than 4 hours, it stops updating, right? Unfortunately that seems to be a deal killer for me. I would want it to keep sending for longer rides, etc.

Once it "expires" can your wife still see your last location? Or does the link go dead?

 

You've got the idea. The most you can set it to is 4 hours, but you can extend it later. So, if you're 3 hours in, you can extend it 4 hours, and you'll be at 7 hours total. You could keep doing this, but the constraint will be you battery. Since its using GPS and data to send your location info out, it can drain a battery. When I've used the full 4 hours, I've usually charged it in the car on the way home.

From memory, you're right that it will just show your last location after it expires. It will leave a track on the recipient's map of where you've been, but it might only be the most recent 1/2 hour or hour. She won't see the entire ride showing up like on Strava. Just where you are now and where you've been recently.

 

Doesn't "pinging" a cell phone need a response? I always thought a ping was a message sent to a device and the result was its response.

 

Yes. but remember it pings to more than one tower. In a case where a rider goes into a large state park the last ping will be the one right before it reached its limit, the rider may go miles after that and the tower wouldn't it. Rescue/law enforcement would look for the last known ping and that would be their starting point.

 

A Beacon is the way to go. I was going to buy this one about a year ago. About $300.00.
I just never pulled the trigger on it.
For those of us that do solo rides often... It could be the difference between living and dying.

 

^^^ I agree, Mark. No cel reception issue. Southern exposure, out from under the canopy should do it.

I take mine every ride, in case someone on my team or another backcountry user has an issue. We already bought the satellite...might as well be prepared to use it by coughing up a couple hundred more.

 

Many times you can get data, like texting, on a phone but not good enough signal to make a call.

 

I have one of them in my pack that I carry on long rides. I considered getting the Spot assist because they are always on in case you get knocked out or are immobile, but when I read the reviews it sounded like there were a lot of dead spots on coverage, etc. That was a few years ago so I don't know if they've improved.