When rescue workers finally spotted Miyuki Harwood on Saturday, she was clinging to life at the bottom of a rocky ravine. It had been nine days since the 62-year-old hiker had gone missing, and it seemed like a miracle that she was still alive.
“She was a fighter,” said Rusty Hotchkiss, the California Highway Patrol pilot who flew Harwood to a hospital.
“Fighter” hardly does her justice.
Harwood, a slightly built computer systems analyst, survived for more than a week in the California’s rugged Sierra Nevada range without any food.
When she shattered her leg trying to hike back to camp, she crawled for miles to a creek bed, where she used a water filter to stave off certain death. And when rescuers drew close, she blew on a whistle until they found her.
Harwood’s survival story is a testament to her own ingenuity as she overcame injury and the elements to escape alive.
It’s also a triumph for rescuers, who battled adverse conditions including smoke from a nearby forest fire to find her in the nick of time.
Harwood, an employee of the semiconductor giant Intel, went missing Aug. 20 during a seven-day Sierra Club backpacking trip in Kings Canyon National Park, about 100 miles northeast of Fresno, said Trey Pollard, a spokesman for the environmental organization.
She was last seen about 1 p.m., when she became separated from her group, according to the Sacramento Bee. When her fellow hikers couldn’t find her, they called authorities, who launched a massive search.
Fourteen agencies pitched in to try to find the missing hiker. Fresno County sheriff’s deputies searched the remote stretch of the Sierra Nevada on foot and horseback. When that didn’t work, they tried using search dogs, helicopters and even a drone.
Rescuers were stymied in their work by a nearby wildfire, which blanketed the mountainous terrain in ash and smoke. The Rough Fire, which has scorched nearly 100 square miles, came within 3 miles of rescue workers, said Fresno County sheriff’s Lt. Rick Ko.
The wildfire was the least of Harwood’s concerns.
“She was at about 10,000 feet altitude,” Ko told The Washington Post. That elevation can cause altitude sickness and disorientation, he said.
“The forest there is dense and rocky. It’s very treacherous terrain,” he said.
In addition to the unforgiving terrain, Harwood had to overcome exposure to freezing cold nights and wild animals, including bears, mountain lions, coyotes and snakes, Ko said.
Harwood, a widow, went missing almost exactly a decade after the sudden death of her husband, Bret Michael Harwood. It appears as if she took up hiking after his death, posting photos from her hikes on social media.
She had recently moved from Orangevale to Folsom and didn’t know anyone on her hiking expedition, a friend, Curtis Hendrickson, told the Sacramento Bee. Harwood was used to hiking solo and was a “a very knowledgeable, experienced backpacker,” he said.
Harwood’s resourcefulness would be harshly tested. After becoming separated from her group, Harwood tried to make her way back to camp but fell on some rocks, shattering her leg, Ko told The Post. It isn’t clear when, exactly, she was injured.
Without food or water, Harwood dragged herself several miles to a creek, where she used a bottle and filter to strain water to drink.
“It took her two days to get to that water source,” Ko said. “But it probably saved her life.”
As the horizon glowed an angry orange from the nearby wildfire, rescuers slowly closed in on Harwood’s location on Saturday. When she heard them approaching, Harwood summoned the strength to blow on a whistle, alerting them to her location.
Harwood was then airlifted by helicopter to a hospital, where she underwent surgery on her broken leg.
She is in stable condition but has not yet spoken to the media.
