Three hikers were rescued near Arlington Peak in Santa Barbara in separate incidents on Saturday.
Crews from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, County Search and Rescue, and Santa Barbara City Fire Department responded to a report of a group of hikers experiencing mild dehydration, with one hiker experiencing severe dehydration, and the group running out of water near Arlington Peak around 11:58 a.m.
Crews responded to the scene and while hiking into the location of the distress call they discovered a 66-year-old female hiker who required assistance.
Rescuers and an air support helicopter believed this to be the caller for their emergency response and hoisted the hiker into the helicopter for medical transport.
It was soon determined that this was an additional hiker in distress and not the original caller, so crews continued to hike towards the area of the distress call.
Trail Rescue – Arlington Peak, Santa Barbara Front Country Video. pic.twitter.com/G9xHpbf54f
— Scott Safechuck (@SBCFireInfo) August 31, 2025
Emergency crews and the helicopter returned to find the group of hikers and hoisted the hiker suffering from dehydration, a 22-year-old male and UC Santa Barbara student, for medical transport.
Both the male and female hikers were transported to Santa Barbara Airport with ground ambulances waiting to transport them to the hospital. However, both individuals declined hospital transport and were released at their own discretion.
Search & Rescue and Santa Barbara County Fire personnel met with the remaining group of hikers running out of water on the Ridgeback Trail, provided them water, and escorted them safely down.
Along the way, rescuers encountered a third dehydrated hiker in distress. Crews provided water and medical care before escorting all remaining hikers to the trailhead.
“Today’s incident serves as a vital reminder to always hike prepared: bring more water than you think you’ll need, start early or hike during cooler hours, and recognize that trail temperatures can be more than 20° hotter than at the trailhead,” the Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue Team stated.
“Be mindful of the trail’s difficulty, distance, and your rate of water consumption. If you notice you’re drinking faster than expected and risk running out of water before reaching your destination, the safest choice is to turn back and try again another day,” Search & Rescue stated.
The Santa Barbara area experienced high temperatures this holiday weekend with some areas in the front country reaching close to 100 degrees.
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Thank you SBCSAR!
Jesus Christo! News flash…Bring plenty of water hiking in the summer heat. What is so hard for these people?? These are little front country trails where if you feel maxed out you just turn right around and get back to your car, with your friends to help you back down the trail. Helicopter rescues for not bringing a bottle and not knowing your limits? Absurd.
Amen. Unless these people are from someplace that doesn’t get hot weather, they should be charged at least $100 for taking a stupid risk. I’vew heard people say, “don’t worry. They’ll come and get you out.” THere’s a big difference between and honest ‘accidental emergency’ and knowing better and taking the risk because someone else will take the responsibility. I’m not saying don’t rescue them but that it should be well known that it will cost you if you need others to take the responsibility and cost if you knew and did whatever anyway.
ok Basic and Luvaduck, we’ll charge you, your friends and family when they need assistance. I’m former SAR and a K9 handler. your perception of how this works and the causes and effects that you seem to want to trumpet each time some one is rescued, leads the majority of us to believe that A, neither of you have a life or leave home very much and B) you’re very self centered, callous, demeaning, lacking any shred of empathy. I read and re-read your posts and just shake my head.
KNEIN – nail on the head there guy
Sure. I’d be happy to pay for the helicopter if I needed it. Deal. Everyone should. Sounds good to me.
So you’re wrong, those that leave the house most often are those very ones like me who know better to bring water, know the weather, the terrain, and your limits. Preach to your own choir – those clueless types who never get out in the heat and are always ready with the iPhone to get a rescue. lol!
Disparaging me personally and claiming you speak for a majority won’t silence my opinion. To put in simple terms, “You’re not the boss of me!”
I always carry at least 2-3 liters of water hiking the local trails and more in the back country. Glad they were okay, but the costs associated with this are high and a not carrying enough water is not excuse for everyone having to foot the bill for rescue.
Amen. The helicopter alone must cost thousands.
did it come out of your pocket, Luvaduck? No? then why are you crying? because someone needed help and received it?
No one is “footing” any bill. It didn’t cost you a single penny more than you’ve already paid in taxes to support rescue operations like all civilized societies do.
Hey, just stop paying taxes if you don’t like it. Go for it!
Ever heard the saying “money doesn’t grow on trees”? Or how about “there’s only so much money to go around”?
You must have but you choose ignore those. We can tell. That’s the problem with your political and social philosophy. You have no sense of fiscal policy or simple economics. None. Money gets allocated. There’s only so much to go around – law enforcement, education, infrastructure…there are a lot of needs out there. Helicopter rescues for clueless “hikers”. We should walk that one back, a lot.
Your take is simply being an enabler for everyone to get a free this and free that – and it’s is just dumbing down our society. Case in point with your take on the local trails. Stupidity gets a free pass. Ehh…no thank you.
BASIC – funding for SAR and other rescue services are part of civilized life in a community such as ours.
Now tell us when the County ever had to raise our taxes because people were using rescue services.
Better yet, Mr. Economics, explain how much you think they will LOWER our taxes if less people need rescuing.
This will be fun. What you got?
Helicopter crews, rescues, fuel, operating expenses …. that costs a lot of money. Whatever we spend on these rescue missions is money that could be allocated somewhere else, as I’ve already very clearly stated. Not to mention the fact that supporting people’s negligence and cluelessness on our trails is pretty sad, don’t you think? Oops. Of course you don’t. We differ.
BASIC – you didn’t answer the question, at all.
Again, this money is already allocated for rescue operations. It does not get refunded to us if no one needs rescuing. The SAR is volunteer based. These people and these taxes are used to fund these services to be ready for anything and anytime. As long as we are a civilized society, this won’t change.
Your constant crying about your tax dollars being spent to rescue people changes nothing. If people bring water on hikes and avoid the heat, it changes nothing. Nothing will change in the way we fund and prepare our first responders, SAR and rescue services. NOTHING.
The money will (AND SHOULD) always be available for them to be properly trained, gassed up, maintained and ready to go.
You have 2 choices and ONLY 2:
1) Stop crying
or
2) Move to a city that doesn’t have the natural resources/terrain/opportunities that we do in the hopes that less of your precious tax pennies will be spent on rescuing people.
2 choices. What will it be?
“Again, this money is already allocated for rescue operations.”
So, if we don’t have these frequent rescue operations requiring helicopters (hint – they are NOT volunteers dude, amd the chopper isn’t free!), next fiscal cycle and then going forward we can start shifting money towards other needs. It’s not complicated. You have a pot of money and it gets ALLOCATED into various places. The more spent in one area the less is available for all others. I don’t know how else to explain it to you. You’re looking backwards, others like me are thinking forwards.
It’s very simple.
When you’re simple minded, everything is simple, especially when you spend all day in an armchair waiting for the phone to ring.
BASIC – “they are NOT volunteers dude”
From the 1st page of their site:
“SBCSAR is an all-volunteer, not–for–profit professional rescue organization” – https://sbcsar.org/
I mean FFS, man. Is it really so hard to fathom why NO ONE on this site believes you’re educated enough to have been a physician?
Are you really so eager to lie that you don’t even bother to verify the stuff you say despite the contrary being spoon fed and proven factual to you ad nauseum?
Still waiting, BASICNOREAD. What’s your choice? You clamming up for once or moving?
Anytime she gets owned by the facts she disappears.
You’re casting aspersion on an edhat poster by referring to them as “she”?! As a woman, I find that offensive. Not a good look.
How would I know you are a woman? I use the outdated practice of alternating between he and she when gender is not known. I need to start using “they”. With all that is going on in the world that you feel offended by something as tiny as this then you might consider living in a bubble.
Do you have some sort of template or auto reply set up for every time someone gets lost and needs help? You should.
Thanks to these guys and all their work. I have to wonder how many of these people were newbies to the area. It’s HOT this time of year, and it was extra hot this weekend. It’s always hotter the further up you go. It’s important to know your limits… more than once I remember seeing people 9 miles into the 13 mile Pier to Peak who turned around … A good rule of thumb is that once you have gone through 1/2 of the water you brought…turn around.
Time to install check-in/out kiosks at all of the trailheads that are staffed by people who are knowledgeable about hiking safety. Paid staff or volunteers, I don’t care, but someone needs to check each and every trail user to ensure they have at a minimum: x amount of water/fluids, charged cell phone, safety whistle, sunscreen and/or sun hat (lifeguard hats are best). It’s completely ridiculous that we have so many folks requiring rescue. There are many other unreported instances of those who are “rescued” by other hikers. Trail rescues now occur almost daily or certainly multiple times per week.
Bends knees with more rambling nonsense.
BEES – “It’s completely ridiculous that we have so many folks requiring rescue.”
No, what’s ridiculous is wanting to PAY someone to check every single person on every single trail on every single day.
Like holy feeeuuch, do you ever listen to yourself?
Also, it’s not ridiculous that people need rescue, it’s part of living in a community with all these fabulous natural features that attract people to the outdoors and away from their computers.
Same 2 choices as BASIS has, and again… there are ONLY 2:
1) Quit yer moaning since this will NEVER change
or
2) Move to somewhere in a flyover state with no natural features that people need to be rescued from
Which is it? You and BASIC going to splurge on a cozy studio in Dodge City?
BeesKnees – it sounds like you would prefer to live in a bubble. Pull yourself up by your boot straps and enjoy the natural world.
Pretending that nothing can be done is not a solution, and neither is making light of the very serious nature of these rescues and potential loss of life. Make jokes all you want if convinced that’s going to help. I don’t know of anyone who thinks these rescues are in any way “funny.” Go ahead with the plan to not help.
BeesKnee. Making up an absolutely ridiculous “solution” that is neither logistically or financially possible certainly doesn’t help prevent loss of life. Having well trained rescue crews does. Strange how some think Santa Barbara is the only place in the world where this happens. Please quit pretending you are the arbiter of righteousness.
BEES – nothing needs to be done. We’re already doing it. Our volunteer based SBCSAR and our taxes are used to train and prepare our rescue personnel and services to do their job, which they do.
There is no problem that needs solving, other than your incessant crying about rescuers doing their jobs.
Funny though that you worry about loss of life and then at the same time want less money to be used for rescue services…….
Honest question here: are you a chat bot?