Last Wednesday, for the third time in six weeks, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office launched a search and rescue effort on the Mad River for an overdue rafter. At about 9 p.m. the Sheriff’s Office received a report that a 49-year-old Arcata man had failed to meet his prearranged pick-up ride after an inner tube trip down the Mad River. Shortly after 10 p.m. the reporting party notified the Sheriff’s Office that the overdue man was in Blue Lake. Sheriff’s Deputies contacted the man and he explained that he had put in at the Maple Creek Bridge earlier in the afternoon and had planned to float to the Mad River Fish Hatchery. He had expected the trip to take a few hours but the water was running too shallow and too slow. He had to walk most of the way down river.
On Sunday night (July 6), the Sheriff’s Office received a similar call when three adults and three children were overdue after a rafting trip on the Mad River. That search and rescue effort lasted until the party was recovered at 3 a.m. Monday morning. The circumstances were identical; the river was running too slow and too shallow. The party ran out of daylight before they could complete the trip.
The Sheriff’s Office reminds the
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