Two women hikers were rescued and flown to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital on Saturday after separate incidents in the Santa Barbara backcountry.
The first incident was reported at about 1:20 p.m., on the Upper Cold Spring Trail above Santa Barbara, according to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
Firefighters were called out after a report that a 32-year-old woman had sustained minor injuries while hiking, and was unable to make it back to the trailhead on Gibraltar Road, fire Capt. Dave Zaniboni said.
He said firefighters and sheriff’s Search & Rescue personnel located the injured woman, and carried her back up to the trailhead, a process that took some time.
She was loaded into a waiting county helicopter, and flown to the hospital.
Assisting in the operation were crews from the Montecito and Santa Barbara fire departments and the U.S. Forest Service.
The woman’s name and details on her condition were not available.
Shortly before 5 p.m., emergency personnel responded to Aliso Canyon, off Paradise Road, to assist a 68-year-old woman who was suffering from possible heat stroke, Zaniboni said.
The woman was about a mile and a half in on the trail when she was stricken, and her husband hiked out for help.
Forest Service, county fire and Search & Rescue personnel responded and carried the woman back to the trailhead, where she was picked up by a county helicopter and flown to Cottage Hospital.
Her name and details on her condition were not available.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
