The Press Enterprise
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A man spent days wedged between two boulders on Riverside’s Mount Rubidoux, 200 feet down a steep slope from the paved hiking trails where hundreds of people must have passed by.
He may owe his life to a dog that pulled its owner over to the spot where he was trapped early Monday, March 25.
The man, conscious but severely dehydrated, was rescued by firefighters and taken to the hospital.
Ramon Llamas was hiking up a steep incline on one of the many dirt trails that shoot off from Mount Rubidoux’s main path. About 8 a.m., his 1-year-old German shepherd-chow mix named Molé began whimpering and pulling Llamas to a cluster of boulders.
At first Llamas thought the dog saw a large animal. Then he heard a man’s call for help.
“He said, ‘Please don’t leave me. Help me,’” Llamas said. “He was very skinny. It looked like he was trying to dig out with his hand for days.”
The man, who identified himself as “Paul,” told Llamas he thought he’d been trapped for four to six days. Emergency workers said given his dazed condition, it was hard to tell how much time had passed, but they believe he was stuck for anywhere from one to five days.
Llamas gave Paul a bottle of water, then a second bottle he’d brought for Molé. He then flagged down other hikers to call 911 and summon a rescue crew.
“Until now, I don’t think anyone was going there,” Llamas said, speaking in heavily accented English. “If we didn’t go this morning, and no one else goes now, I think it would be too late. We find him at the right time.”
Firefighters worked for about an hour to free the man from the rocks. He was then hoisted into a rescue litter and taken down the mountain in the back of a pickup to a waiting ambulance.
His blue jeans and white tennis shoes were left trapped in the rocks.
It’s unclear how the man slipped and became lodged between the boulders. Riverside fire Capt. Bruce Vanderhorst said it’s possible that because the man was trapped on a relatively isolated section of the mountain, none of the hundreds of hikers who use the trail daily could see or hear anything.
“There were very steep, loose rocks and it’s not very well traveled,” Vanderhorst said. “Nobody heard anything.”
It did not appear that the man had any food or water with him.
He was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, where he was resting and listed in good condition, hospital spokeswoman Cheri Russell said Monday afternoon.
“He wanted to thank the family and the dog that rescued him for saving his life,” Russell said.
Llamas said friends have told him Molé was likely to save a life someday.
“My dog climbs rocks and people say someday he’s going to find somebody. Today he did.”
He offered some sage advice: “Don’t climb big rocks by yourself, you’ll get hurt, and who’s going to call for help?
“No one knew he was there,” Llamas said. “If not for my dog, no one will find him.”
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