Ventura County first responders had to rescue a hiker who was infamous in the Santa Paula Gorge on Saturday to attract teenagers to take risk leaps with sometimes fatal consequences.
Authorities say the victim has not been determined, injured in a popular punching bowl area about 10 miles west of Ojai, and must be lifted by a helicopter and taken to a local hospital.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department has not specified how the person was injured or described the extent of the injury. However, these punched bowls have long been called the area where adventure hikers enter the cool waters of Santa Paula Creek. While diving can be exciting, sheriff's department officials say they respond to dozens of reports of injuries each year, including fractured bones, skull fractures and near-cutting. Sometimes these injuries prove deadly.
“The Ventura County Aviation Department encourages our beautiful backcountry to explore, but wants to remind them of every potential risk of injury in these remote areas and the extreme difficulties of these rescues,” the sheriff said in the Instagram post.
