Girls rescue lost hiker on the North Shore's BCMC trail

Mike Danks was about to gofor a hike on the North Shorewhen the call came in a young woman was lost near the BCMCtrail on the North Shore, where he just happened to be withhis three young daughters and two of their friends.

TheNorth Shore Rescue team leader doesn't typically five girls, all under the age of 10,on arescue. But Danks took it as an opportunity.

"It was a really rare circumstance," he said."For once I could bring these guys along."

"It was just kind of a fun thing to do with the kids and engage them in what I do."

His daughters, nine-year-old Alex, eight-year-old Sadieand four-year-old Millie, were all familiar with the steep, three-kilometretrail. In fact, Millie had climbed it for the first time on her own the year before, when she was three.

The lost hiker wasn't far from thetrail.Danks said she called because she wasin a bit of a "precarious situation" and didn't feel comfortable trying to find her way out.

"On the front side of any of the local mountains, as soon as you get off trail you get into real steep terrain.So that girl did the right thing by staying put," he said.

Racing up the mountain

The girls waited in the car while Danksgot the hiker's coordinates.

After that, he said, the hardest part was controlling them as they raced up the trail to be the first to find the young woman blowing on the whistles tied to their backpacks and calling out her name.

To teach them how easy it can be toget lost in the wilderness, he let them lead. They veered off the trail alot. About 10 times, by Sadie's estimate.

Danks said when they found the lost hiker, "it really threw her off" to be greeted by a posse of kids.

The young woman was in good condition, so Danks said he offered her some water and shared some of his secret ingredient.

"Jujubes. That's the motivation to get them up the trail. That's the real key to get kids hiking," he said.

A field team arrive shortly thereafterand escorted the young woman off the trail.