JSAR was notified around 1930 on Saturday of an SOS sent by an InReach device on the Lower Big Quilcene Trail. Seven volunteers responded. SAR deputies and detectives responded either to the scene or to the task of working with Garmin to gain more information about the alert and attempts to communicate with the InReach user.
A hasty team of 2 inserted via the Notch Pass Trail for a quick and downhill route to the coordinates provided. Before 2100 they located a hiker with an ankle injury who had been given a tent, sleeping bag and the InReach device by another hiking party, who had left one person on scene while the other departed for the trailhead in hopes of reaching cell service.
The main JSAR teams hiked in from the lower trailhead with a wheeled litter and more medical supplies. The patient was splinted, loaded into the litter and wheeled back to the trailhead, arriving around 2315.
For three of the JSAR volunteers on the ground teams, this was their first mission having just completed introductory field training with the team the previous weekend, when they responded to a similar but more complex scenario.