The lightning ignited Rough Fire is still only three percent contained at 32,400 acres even though it started on the last day of July. FM89’s Ezra David Romero reports that the blaze isn’t only affecting the community of Hume Lake, but backpackers as well.
Twenty-five hikers finally made it out of the back country of the Sierra Nevada today after being trapped at roads end in Kings Canyon National Park for up two days.
ROMERO: “How’d you guys get here?” BACKPACKERS: “We hiked out! WE got up at 5:00 o’clock this morning and hiked up a 5.5 mile 3,500 foot hike. We are dead.”
Backpacker Don Dufur came off of his first 40 mile trek in the Sierra Nevada to find that he couldn’t return to Orange County when he wanted to.
“I was pretty delirious when I got to roads end and EMT’s were right there and they put me on oxygen and everything because I couldn’t breathe," says Dufur. "Forty-five minutes worth of oxygen did me good."
The hikers were put up at Cedar Grove lodge where they showered, ate and slept. Many of the hikers had to leave their cars at roads end before their trek out of the park.
Richard and Patsy Hughes from San Diego were on a five day cross country excursion. They didn’t even know there was a fire burning.
“Then our campsite on the fifth day almost at 12,000 feet was engulfed in smoke," says Richard Hughes. "We knew it was coming from the west of us, but we didn’t really know where the fire was.”
The backpackers say they’re relieved to finally stop hiking, but say there are others still out in the backcountry. The twenty-five will take shuttles to Fresno where they’ll l rent cars so they can return home.
