Cell phones have aided many lost hikers to call for help, but this time an additional use for cell phones was discovered.
A couple who became lost on a trail at Towsley Canyon Park in Newhall relied on their phones to help Los Angeles County firefighters find them, a sheriff’s lieutenant said.
The couple contacted the sheriff’s department at 9:20 p.m. Sunday to report they were lost in the Park near the Old Road and Towsley Canyon Road, said Lt. Derek Sabatini of the Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Station.
Santa Clarita Urban Search and Rescue was en route to the scene when firefighters reported they had the couple at 10:20 p.m. – partly because the hikers used their cell phones as flashlights, Sabatini said.
Firefighters were dispatched because the woman in the couple claimed she was lost and felt dizzy and lightheaded, he said.
When the couple saw firefighters arrive on the road to the park, they shined the lights from their cell phones toward the firefighters who hiked a mile up the trail to locate them and help them down, Sabatini said.
There were no injuries and no one needed treatment, he said. The woman’s dizziness and light-headedness may have been due to anxiety.
—City News Service