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As the lost hiker grew desperate, a stranger with an unusual pastime was trying to rescue him

- By Sydney Page. Photograph by Jose Mandojana

RENE COMPEAN WAS no stranger to Angeles National Forest. He’d hiked the park near his home in Southern California numerous times. But after venturing along a new path last April, the 45-year-old mechanic was lost.

As the day faded into dusk, following several hours of aimless roaming, his concern turned to fear. The terrain was remote and rugged. With no flashlight, only a liter of water and a power bar in his backpack, and less than ten percent battery remaining on his cell phone, Compean was unprepared for anything more than the two-hour trek he’d planned.

Compean climbed to a spot, some 7,000 feet above sea level, where he found at least one bar of signal. “SOS. My phone is going to die. I’m lost,” he texted a friend, attaching a photo showing where he was. The shot showed his soot-stained legs hanging over a steep cascade of rocks.