October 2, 2020 – On the evening of Tuesday, September 29’th 2020, the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office received a call of an overdue Mountain Biker. The reporting party stated he and a friend were riding their E-Bikes up Lavezzola Road towards Chimney Rock at around 11am.
The reporting party’s bike lost its charge, so he came back to town; however, his friend continued towards Chimney Rock and was supposed to be coming down Saddleback and into Downieville around 2pm, but still hadn’t made it back when the report was made at dusk.
A group of the missing person’s friends from the mountain biking community and his wife had gathered as Deputy Rust performed a hasty search of the area looking for tracks.
Just before midnight, Deputy Rust and the reporting party located what appeared to be the missing person’s bike (and foot) tracks near Bunker Hill, but were unable to travel any further at that time. It was reported the tracks led in many different directions and believed the missing person had become disoriented.
Just before dawn the next morning, Undersheriff Dempster, along with Search and Rescue Team Leaders Pete Sainsbury and Kurt Haselton coordinated search and rescue efforts to locate the missing person.
CHP Helicopter H-20 also joined in the search, flying the steep ridges and narrow canyons of the area.
At approximately 11am, the subject was located by ground searches and safely returned to his loving wife. The sheriff’s office would like to thank all the friends and family in the mountain biking community for their help!