Celia, affectionately known as “BG” or “Baby Girl,” is a four-year-old husky mix. She joined owner Brittany Briley and a friend on a nearly 56-mile hike on Thursday, July 18. Briley kept Celia leashed for most of the journey as they hiked the Tutka Bay Front Door trail and the surrounding backcountry in Kachemak Bay State Park. However, BG ran off when they reached Graduation Peak, approximately five miles from the City of Seldovia.
“As we were coming down the last peak, I unleashed her and she took off, which is totally unlike her to take off running down a steep cliff, and I didn't see her again,” Briley said.
Despite the day's fog and limited visibility, Briley searched for her dog for several hours before calling for help from Seldovia, several miles away. Celia’s other owners, Drue Smith and Sandro Sani, hiked into the mountain range on Friday and heard Celia, but they couldn't find her because of the treacherous terrain.
“And then Saturday morning, it was a sunny day and they were able to spot her in a very precarious spot on a cliff. It looked like she had gone on, maybe some kind of goat path, or something that was not accessible to humans,” Briley said.
Briley contacted Bernie Brunner and Bill McKenna, friends with mountain climbing experience, to attempt a rescue from above. However, the loose ground and steep terrain made it impossible to rappel down to the dog.
By this point, Celia had been stranded on the ledge for two days without food or water. Briley began to consider more drastic measures.
“I'm still ‘command centering,’ I've called tons of people to see if they can help. And I'm starting to wonder if this is going to be a very specific helicopter rescue, not just like a helicopter or a long line, but like a human on the helicopter rappelling down because she was inaccessible to human reach,” Briley said.
Rescue efforts picked up the next day as the mountaineers attempted to free-climb from below the ledge, ascending the mountainside without any ropes or harnesses. They finally got within a few hundred feet of Celia and coaxed her down.
Briley said the rescue drew support from all over the communities of Homer and Seldovia. The supporters included Jaime Sylva, who owns Moonie, a dog that went missing and required leg surgery earlier this month.
“Even Moonie’s owner had reached out to me, still encouraging us and hoping for the best, which was really sweet. It was very cool that people were so kind and willing to give resources, just anything, people were listing off numbers, people were calling me saying, ‘What do you need?’ But yeah, it was a pretty great testament to the amazing community that we live in,” Briley said.
Celia was reunited with Briley and was dehydrated but otherwise uninjured.
