The rainy gloom of winter will soon give way to the sunshine and flowers of spring. That means hiking trails are sure to get busier in the Columbia Gorge and other popular destinations near Portland. But even experienced hikers can lose their way or get stranded as a mild, sunny day turns to a cold, damp night outdoors.
That’s where the Green Hornets can help keep a bad situation from getting much worse. They’re a search and rescue team within the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office who are experienced backcountry athletes and sheriff’s deputies who can mobilize within minutes to find lost or injured hikers. According to Sergeant Aaron Sieczkowski, the Green Hornets perform about a dozen search and rescue missions a year, primarily in the western Columbia Gorge. He joins us to talk about their work, including a recent rescue on Larch Mountain, and how to stay safe on hikes.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. About two weeks ago, a 911 call came in. It was after 7 p.m., the sun had set and two hikers in the Columbia River Gorge had not returned. Pretty quickly, a specialized search and rescue team within the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office kicked into gear. They’re known as the Green Hornets. They’re made up of sheriff’s deputies with backcountry skills and endurance who can mobilize within minutes to find lost or injured hikers, and that’s what they did two weeks ago. It was one of about a dozen search and rescue missions they carry out every year.
Sergeant Aaron Sieczkowski is in charge of the Green Hornets, and he joins us now. It’s great to have you on Think Out Loud.
Aaron Sieczkowski: Hey, thanks for having me on, Dave.
Miller: So I understand you were not on that recent rescue on Larch Mountain, but can you give us a sense for what happened?
Sieczkowski: Yeah, you bet. It’s a pretty standard kind of search that we encounter quite often in the Columbia River Gorge setting. In this instance, it was one of those cases where we had a deputy that was working who’s also a search and rescue coordinator. They recognized that this party was kind of late, the sun was setting as you described. [They] proactively reached out and offered, “Hey, do you guys need search and rescue resources?” And at that point in time, the hikers, the two that were out there, declined, and said that they were figuring it out, and they were going to be able to kind of self-rescue. The deputy provided them with their callback information and basically said, “Hey, if that doesn’t work out, give us a call.”
And that’s what happened. So at least those hikers had the wherewithal to recognize that they were getting lost, that they were running out of food and water pretty quick and things were getting cold. They called back the deputy and said, “Hey, we, we need some help over here.” And they did something that we really appreciate over in search and rescue, which is they stay put. We were able to kind of vector in on the coordinates that were provided by their phone. We use cellular data quite frequently to identify exactly where these people are. As you can imagine, the topographical terrain of the Columbia River Gorge is really complex. There’s a lot of canyons, valleys, trails, waterfalls, cliffs. But to that effect, as long as those people have a good cell signal, at least, or at least we’re able to find out where they are and stay put, we’re able to kind of direct those resources.
Miller: And you can triangulate in general pretty well if someone stays where they are anywhere in the Gorge?
Sieczkowski: I wouldn’t say anywhere. It really depends on which aspect that that antenna is reaching. And I always tell people too, if you need help and you don’t feel like you have a signal, you can’t make a call out, that sending a text message sometimes gets through too. We also have ways of identifying where people are through text messages.
Miller: Is there one of your own rescues that really stands out to you?
Sieczkowski: Yeah, certainly. And it’s very similar again to this. This happened about summertime last year. Same thing, it’s getting dark, it’s getting cold out there. In this particular instance, the person who was missing was a very strong hiker, someone who’s very familiar with going out into a wilderness setting but was unfortunately disabled, had a hearing impairment, wasn’t able to hear. So the wife of this person had called us and said, “Hey, my husband’s out there. I don’t know where he is. His cell phone’s dead and we need to find him because it’s getting bad out there.”
So we responded to that location. It was Sergeant Brown and I, and we kind of planned a route that would go up and if this individual was coming down, as most people try to go downhill, we would encounter him. Well, that didn’t happen. We kept going up and up all the way up over Franklin Ridge. Just on a hunch, we went and swung by the Nesika Lodge, which is over there on the other side of the Oneonta Canyon, and were able to encounter this individual. He was desperate for help. He’d ripped off some of the siding from the building over there and had written ‘Help me’ on the side, so someone flying overhead would be able to see that he was in distress. But that one stuck out in my memory.
Miller: How did the Green Hornets start?
Sieczkowski: It’s a good question. We were seeing gaps with a response time for search and rescue services, and we were also having individuals who were going out into the gorge, not necessarily to recreate but maybe the contact wasn’t appropriate for volunteer searchers. We’re talking folks who maybe they’re out there for criminal reasons or they’re suicidal, and in that instance, we wouldn’t be sending volunteer searchers who are untrained to deal with those circumstances out there.
So at the time, this is like 2013, our captain had a really big passion for trail running. He said, hey, if we have folks who are already patrolling out there in the Gorge, how about we give them some training and build a program around it, to where they can go respond directly while they’re out there, and kind of cut that time that it takes to stage and to summon volunteers, and hopefully address at least like the low lying fruit – which is a majority of these callouts where people are on the trail, they just simply are backwards, lost, cold, need help.
Miller: Compared to Mt. Hood National Forest, which is just south of there, or let alone the vast expanses of Northeastern Oregon or parts of Central Oregon, the Gorge seems, I guess because of its proximity to Portland, proximity to 84, it just seems more accessible, and maybe tame and safe to a lot of people. What do you see as the less obvious dangers of the Columbia River Gorge?
Sieczkowski: Certainly, everything that you mentioned really plays into this … its proximity to the metroplex. I mean, we’re looking at Multnomah Falls, which receives about 2 million visitors annually just to that one location. And just beyond Multnomah Falls is a very extensive trail system. Quite often the signage is wooden, it’s carved into wood. The Forest Service has very specific means in which they have to identify and mark trails. Sometimes for the uninitiated, that can be a really challenging solution.
Another thing about the Columbia River Gorge, at least on the Oregon side, is that it’s north facing, so you’re going to see that sun setting a little bit quicker. Things get darker, it’s very cliffy. I mean, we’re looking at the river, [it] did its work through there, right? And that’s how we have these magnificent waterfalls that all can enjoy. But what people often underestimate is that there’s a large buy-in to get to those kind of upper level trails: the top of Multnomah Falls, Larch Mountain, stuff like that. You’re looking to get to the top of Multnomah Basin, it’s close to a 1,200 foot to 1,500 foot elevation gain that a lot of people frequently underestimate. And certainly when you get up to the top there, the downhill way isn’t so obvious anymore. You could be actually heading further south, thinking that you’re going downhill, when the river’s actually to the north of you. It’s a very confusing location.
Miller: What do you have to do? What kind of tests do people have to go through in order to be able to join the Green Hornets?
Sieczkowski: Understandably, we have pretty high standards when it comes to this. There’s a big ask, not just from the training that we provide, but my expectations, at least in leading the team, is that folks generally have a passion for the outdoors, they have experience in the outdoors. It’s not necessarily a requisite, but it really, really helps. And also that desire to go out and assist people. So a lot of our search and rescue coordinators are also Green Hornet Hasty Team members as well. A lot of our folks that are on the team have extensive backcountry backgrounds: skiing, climbing, ultramarathons, mountain biking. That all kind of plays into that fitness aspect for it.
Some people on our team are really effective hunters as well, and so they’re very familiar with navigation basics and seeing themselves in a wilderness setting and being self-sufficient. That all kind of plays into that role. So when it comes time to do the fitness test, a lot of the folks that put in are already there.
Miller: What is the fitness test?
Sieczkowski: Right now, we have a standardized … it’s about a 10K. It’s actually a little bit longer than a 10K. And in that 10K, it’s not just a straight trail run. We have what we call an O course. It’s an orienteering course where there’s a number of control points set up around and folks have to orient themselves to a map, use their navigation device to go and tag these geolocations, essentially, in the middle of this run. And we also have a muscular endurance fitness test where they have a weighted rock that they have to go up part of the Forest Park trails to complete. And then you add everything together, see how they perform, make an evaluation.
Miller: How much quicker might the Green Hornets team respond than the standard search and rescue team?
Sieczkowski: Yeah, it could be between two to three hours quicker.
Miller: Wow. Do you have trail running shoes in the trunk of your car, just ready to go?
Sieczkowski: That’s correct.
Miller: Are you wearing them right now?
Sieczkowski: I’m wearing Hokas.
Miller: But you’d get the call and if you’re close, you just drive to the trailhead, put on your trail running shoes and literally run up the trail?
Sieczkowski: Yeah, we have a system for it. It’s a little bit more organized, as much as I like to get out there and get after it. We want two searchers going up there. We want to have a plan for where our searchers are going to be going, because search and rescue operations are kind of a big, complex beast. It’s very expensive to do as well. So we’re trying to cut down those costs. We want to work in tandem with search and rescue coordinators in order to effectively go to the most direct spot or in a manner that also rules out other aspects, so that when additional search and rescue resources arrive, they know what’s been cleared and what hasn’t, and then where our teams are actively in the field.
Miller: What advice do you have for hikers, recreators, as we get closer to the busy season in the Gorge or anywhere?
Sieczkowski: Yeah, it’s not complicated. Please just tell someone where you’re going, have a buddy, use the buddy system. I understand a lot of people are very independent, go out and hike alone, but at a minimum leave a note in your car [that] lets people know where they’re going. Make sure you have your 10 essentials and then if you do need help, it’s all right, we’re there for you. But if you do initiate a search and rescue response, just stay there so that we can find you where we think that you are.
Miller: What are those essentials?
Sieczkowski: 10 basic essentials. Yeah, I’ll ramble down the list as best I can off the top of my cuff here: fire, fix it (like a multi-tool), shelter, your food, your water, additional layers of clothing, illumination … Oh, you put me on the spot.
Miller: Folks can find this online as well.
Sieczkowski: Certainly, there’s a lot of it. Yeah.
Miller: Aaron Sieczkowski, thanks very much.
Sieczkowski: Appreciate you. Thank you.
Miller: Aaron Sieczkowski is a sergeant in the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and the leader of the Green Hornets trail rescue team.
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