SEARCH FOR MISSING HIKER IS 4-HOUR WILD GOOSE CHASE

Search and rescue personnel went on a four-hour goose chase near Joshua Tree National Park yesterday. About 9:30 Monday morning, a call came in that a hiker was missing in or near the park; the reporting party didn’t really know where they had been hiking. About 10 searchers from Fire Station 36 in Joshua Tree, Morongo Basin Ambulance, and Air Rescue-6 helicopter from the Sheriff’s Department searched popular hiking areas inside Joshua Tree National Park and just outside the west entrance to the park in Section 6 for about four hours before being notified that the “missing person” wasn’t really missing at all, but was at home.