RBC I The Rio Blanco County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday that the county’s search and rescue team has been deployed twice on back-county missions in the past week. Both calls were to the area of the Buford-New Castle Road and the intersection of county roads 10 and 17.
On Friday, the sheriff’s office received a report of a 79-year-old man who had fallen off his horse near the Bailey Lake Trailhead and that he couldn’t move.
The RBC Search and Rescue crew and the Meeker Fire Department sent teams up into the area in Northwest Rio Blanco County, off County Road 8.
According to RBCSO Sgt. Travis Mobley, an investigator and coordinator on the search and rescue team, John Henderson of Fairfax, Colo., near Colorado Springs, had received stabilizing medical care at the scene where he was found, and that Care Flight out of Grand Junction set up at Henry Kravis’ helipad and flew Henderson to the Grand Junction hospital.
“We had all kinds of people at the scene,” Mobley said. “Before we even got there, a deputy on the scene and others had gathered him up, gotten him to the helipad and he was on his way to Grand Junction in the Care Flight (formerly Life Flight) helicopter.
In the second incident, on Sunday at roughly 2 a.m., the RBCSO received word through Garfield County that a Jarrod Reid, no age or hometown available, who had been separated from his brother while hunting in the Meadow Lake/South Fork area, was unaccounted for and had been missing since sometime on Saturday.
According to Mobley, Reid had built himself some cover and a fire to keep warm and that in the morning he found his own way back to those who were looking for him.
Mobley said that he and three other rescue personnel had joined in the search in the area off of U.S. Forest Service Road 601, which is off CR 17, not far from the intersection of county roads 10 and 17.
“We understand that Mr. Reid came out of the area on his own and contacted his brother, who picked him up and took him back to where they were staying,” Mobley said. “Apparently he was fine and was not in need of any medical attention.”