Family of eight rescued in Rogers Creek Trail

A Family of eight, including a baby, were rescued Sunday night after getting lost in Rogers Creek Nature Trail.

Three adults and five children began their hike from the Rogers Creek trail head along the Alberni Highway around 4 p.m. The Alberni Valley Rescue Squad (AVRS) were notified of the missing family around 7:30 p.m., said Erik Waldriff, AVRS search manager. Close to 25 AVRS volunteers weer dispatched to search for the family.

“They called 911 and the call gets rerouted to the emergency coordination centre and then we get called out from there,” Waldriff said. “We were lucky that they did have a cellphone on them and were in cellphone range.”

Search and Rescue members were able to establish GPS coordinates from the family’s cellphone.

The family were found at about 9:30 p.m.

They were located about a kilometer south east of the hole in the wall, so about 600 metres or so from the end of Dundalk and Sherwood Avenue,” Waldriff said.

All members of the family were found in good condition.

“Just cold, hungry and wet but they were all good,” Waldriff said. “One of the children was one year old so there was a bit of an urgency as far as the temperatures last night and a little bit of moisture so we wanted to get to them as quick as we could. We were lucky we had two ambulances on stand by with us.”