After 72-year-old Mary Beth Granbery fell 100 feet down a steep embankment off Northern California’s Cabin Creek Trail, she spent six harrowing nights stranded in the wilderness while enduring nighttime temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. On September 28, a 72-year-old California woman fell 100 feet from the Cabin Creek Trail, a remote but popular hiking route that connects to the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) near Mount Shasta, California. The hiker, identified as Mary Beth Granbery, spent the next six nights stranded and injured in the wilderness, surviving overnight temperatures that dipped below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Search-and-rescue responders found her on October 4 at the bottom of a steep embankment, according to the Siskiyou and Shasta County Sheriff’s Offices. She had injuries consistent with a fall,” Tom Campbell, Shasta County head of the Office of Emergency Services, told Outside. Cabin Creek Trail is located in northern California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
Forest Service, the trail sits at an elevation of 3,000 feet and is a quarter-mile walk to the PCT. The trail climbs 1,700 feet to Girard Ridge, and then descends into the Sacramento River Canyon. About a 30-minute drive south of the town of Mount Shasta, where Granbery lives, the trail requires little technical expertise.
According to the Siskiyou Sheriff’s Office, Granbery left for a multi-day camping trip September 28 with a camper, and was supposed to return home to Mount Shasta within four days. When she didn’t, friends and family grew concerned. Rescuers located her camper van at the trailhead on October 3, and rescue operations began.
Officials were initially uncertain how long the woman had been stranded. Responders airlifted her by helicopter and transported her to a hospital. Sage Milestone, spokesperson for the Siskiyou Sheriff’s Office, told Outside that Granbery was carrying multiple clothing layers, as well as supplies for a day hike, which helped her survive.
Campbell described Granbery’s survival as “incredible,” but said accidents like this remind people to anticipate the unexpected, even on day hikes.
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