Good Samaritans rescued a hiker and dog stuck in the ravine below Juneau Falls on Resurrection Creek Trail in Cooper Landing on Sunday evening.
Emergency services got a report of a hiker in trouble at 5:12 p.m. Sunday. The caller and her boyfriend were hiking Res Pass Trail. One of their dogs went off trail and got stuck down below the falls. The caller’s boyfriend tried to rescue the dog but couldn’t get himself back out of the ravine. The caller ran toward the trailhead on the Sterling Highway to get cell reception to call for help.
Cooper Landing Emergency Services responded, along with two Forest Service law enforcement officers.
“We were in the process of deploying our trail equipment to get to the person, and dispatch called us and told us that some other hikers along the trail had got together and helped the guy out and got him back up to the trail and the dog showed up, so everybody made it out OK,” said Michael Hawley, an EMT2 firefighter with CLES.
The falls are just up from where the new section of Sterling Highway will cross Juneau Creek and the Resurrection Pass Trail. Once the highway bypass project is complete, it will be a short stroll the see the falls, rather than the current hike, which is just under eight miles, round trip.
Hawley says he suspects rescue calls will increase in the area as the new section of highway makes access easier.
“You know how that is, if there’s access along the road people are going to utilize it," he said. "That was a concern we had with this whole project is, ‘Hey, there’s going to be a lot more people back on that trail system.’”
The organization already covers a wide and diverse area in the Kenai Mountains, not only traversed by a highway, but numerous recreational trails. The organization is already spread thin and reliant on volunteers and community support.
“It’s a concern for us considering we are completely volunteer and a 501c3, so we don’t get any tax money. We don’t have any outside funding. We are completely reliant on donations and people supporting our service,” Hawley said.
For more information on Cooper Landing Emergency Services, visit cooperlandinges.org.
