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Miyuki Harwood: California Hiker Missing For Nine Days Found Alive, But Injured

By Aaron Homer
Published on: 07:33 PST, Aug 29, 2015

Miyuki Harwood, a 64-year-old California woman who has been missing in the rugged central California mountains — while wildfires rage around the area — has been found alive but injured, KFSN (Fresno) is reporting.

The Sacramento-area hiker went missing on Thursday, August 20. Authorities say she was hiking with some friends from the Sierra Club in the area around Horsehead Lake in the Sierra National Forest, about 100 miles from Fresno.

She had been on the hike since Tuesday, August 18, and had last been seen alive at around 1:00 p.m. on Thursday. It is unclear, as of this post, how Ms. Harwood became separated from her hiking companions.

Early efforts to locate the missing hiker were hampered by smoke from the Rough Fire, one of many wildfires burning in California. It’s the height of the dry season — and wildfire season — right now in California, and the Golden State has been parched from the historic drought.

On Wednesday, rescuers took advantage of clear skies to step up their efforts to find the missing hiker. At the time, Fresno County Sheriff Lt. Kathy Curtice explained to KFSN the difficulties in finding the missing hiker, even in the best of circumstances.

“So (it’s a) great big area and we’re covering all the possibilities. We’re covering all the trails that are far away in case she got disoriented and is lost but we’re also covering this rocky area in case she’s close by and injured. [Rescuers] might not have been able to land at the insertion area where we needed the searchers to be.”

Additionally, drones, dogs, and a ground-based search-and-rescue team were deployed to the area to aid in the search.

At about 10:43 a.m. Saturday morning (California time), KFSN broke the news that Ms. Harwood had been found alive. Although initial reports claim that the missing hiker is injured, the nature of her injuries has not been made clear, as of this post.

This is a breaking news story; more information about the condition of the missing hiker will be provided as it becomes available.

[Image courtesy of: Shutterstock/Kamila Starzycka]

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