Marin County (BCN) — Three hikers are safe and unhurt after being rescued from an unstable cliff perch and a beach at Point Reyes National Seashore, a Marin County Fire Department spokesman said.
A Good Samaritan alerted authorities about the stranded hikers around 8:15 p.m. Monday, Battalion Chief Bret McTigue said.
The caller said a man ran up to her on the beach to report four of his friends were stuck on a cliff. The rescue area was near Alamere Falls, about three miles north of the Palomarin Trailhead and six miles northwest of Bolinas, McTigue said.
Two of the hikers who were stuck on the cliff made it down to the beach, but two others were stuck 100 feet from the clifftop and 75 feet above the beach. The hikers on the beach were cut off from access to the trail by rising tides and waves, McTigue said.
Thick brush prevented a rope rescue and helicopter crews from the California Highway Patrol and U.S. Coast Guard responded, McTigue said.
The CHP helicopter rescued the hikers on the beach, while the Coast Guard helicopter rescued the hikers on the cliff at 12:41 a.m. today, after they had spent more than four hours on the cliff, McTigue said.
The male hikers in their 20s and 30s were checked at the Coast Guard Air Station near San Francisco International Airport and then released, McTigue said.