San Gabriel Valley / COVER STORY : REAL LIFE CLIFFHANGERS : Tragedy Can Be Just a Step Away for Those Who Enter the Angeles National Forest Unprepared for Its Deadly Variety of Natural Hazards.

Rick Perez was a standout college baseball player more at home on a baseball field than on a hiking trail.

The 20-year-old El Monte resident was on a rare tramp July 2 through the Angeles National Forest, on his way with friends to go swimming in Santa Anita Canyon. He stepped off the trail to take a shortcut, lost his footing and tumbled 75 feet down the steep, rocky incline into the canyon.

Perez was one of six people killed accidentally since January among the rocky canyons of the 655,000-acre forest northeast of Los Angeles. During that time, the Angeles also was the site of 17 nonfatal falls; 18 incidents of people getting stuck on cliffs; seven mountain bike accidents; 76 motorcycle accidents; scores of incidents of people driving cars, motorcycles and recreational vehicles under the influence of alcohol--and sometimes off cliffs--and 44 reports of overdue friends and relatives, most of whom eventually turned up alive and well.

“People like to think of the forest as their back yard. I don’t think they realize sometimes that their back yard has ticks and rattlesnakes and uneven ground that you can’t hike on in thongs,” said U.S. Forestry Service spokeswoman Randi Jorgensen.

Its proximity to a vast urban area can make the Angeles appear to be just

another version of Frontierland or a scenic neighborhood park, rangers say. As a result, it draws many inexperienced hikers or people who don’t take its wild and rugged nature seriously.

In comparison with other disasters and near disasters in the forest, Perez’s story is not all that unusual. Many people who go into the forest for an afternoon or once-in-awhile weekend outings don’t know what they’re getting into, forest officials and county rescuers say.

A typical scenario goes something like this: A person or group decides to get away and goes into the mountains for a day of hiking, biking or skiing. At first, there are plenty of other people around and there doesn’t seem to be much chance of getting lost or hurt. But as time passes, they move farther into the wilderness and farther from other hikers. The sun and the temperature start going down. The terrain becomes a little less familiar, a little more dangerous. By this time it begins to sink in that they’re lost. And they can’t find the right trail to get out.

Such was the case with three Southern California Edison Co. contract workers from Burbank who in May, 1993, entered the forest at Big Tujunga Canyon to clear brush away from power lines near Suicide Canyon, known for its scenic waterfalls and steep cliffs.

By the time they were finished working, the sun had set and the three men found themselves standing on a cliff, clueless as to how to backtrack out of the wilderness. They were all wearing short-sleeved shirts and jeans, inadequate clothing for a night or longer in the mountains. They had no food or water with them. Luckily, a sheriff’s helicopter spotted them the next day.

A similar rescue occurred just this week. Justin Van Hecke, 20, of Diamond Bar didn’t know much about hiking in the wilderness when he and two friends from Wrightwood set out Sunday morning for an overnight camping trip to Pine Mountain, just south of the vast San Gabriel Wilderness. When Van Hecke separated from his companions in thick, 12-foot-high brush, he became hopelessly lost. His friends had given up the search and spent the rest of that day walking out of the woods to the nearest ranger station for help.

Van Hecke might not have known much about camping, but he did know enough to stay put, said Sheriff’s Deputy David Smail. In a few hours, Van Hecke was spotted from the air and lifted to safety by a sheriff’s rescue helicopter. He was treated for scratches and abrasions at Foothill Presbyterian Hospital and released.

“He just stayed there,” Smail said. “That’s what kept him alive.”

Not all unprepared hikers are so lucky. In late 1992, Jeremy Sullivan, a senior varsity football player at Katella High School in Anaheim, was hiking with four friends near the East Fork Ranger’s Station, just north of Glendora Ridge, near La Verne. His father says Sullivan, 18, was an inexperienced camper. While walking along a trail, the teen-ager slipped, dropped 40 feet off a mountain trail and died.

Possibly the most famous cliffhanger in the forest in the past two years involved 23-year-old Christopher Simon, nephew of movie director Steve Spielberg through his wife, actress Kate Capshaw. In this case, Spielberg personally made sure the story had a happy ending.

In early July, 1992, Simon was on an outing at Strawberry Peak near Mt. Wilson. When Simon didn’t return home, his roommate called the Sheriff’s Department. After county rescuers were unable to find Simon, Spielberg hired two jet helicopters, at a cost of about $2,700, and Simon was found later that day, standing on a cliff.

“I think people look at the forest as an extension of their own locality (in the city or in the suburbs). It’s a lot greener. A lot cleaner. And I don’t think people really give it a lot of thought as to what the true environment is,” said Capt. Alex Kirkaldy, head of the sheriff’s 24-member Search and Rescue Team.

Kirkaldy’s squad averages about 90 calls a month, from stranded and lost hikers to cars that have gone over the side of roadways, Kirkaldy said. The number of incidents in those three categories breaks down about evenly into thirds, with most rescues performed from ground level. Air 5, the sheriff’s medically equipped helicopter, has assisted about 40% of all calls for help this year, he said.

Most rescues occur when the weather is nice, rangers said. In the winter, however, when the forest is especially beautiful--and treacherous--rescue efforts present unique challenges. Snowfall in the forest’s 8,000- and 9,000-foot elevations offers some of the best back-country skiing in Southern California. But the price of skiing unchartered slopes can be high, as four experts found out last winter.

The men had driven to Waterman Mountain, just east of the Arroyo Seco and Mt. Baldy Ranger District Line, and thought they were headed for the fresh powder left by an avalanche on the west side of the mountain. Instead, after skiing about 3,000 feet downhill, they realized they had gone the wrong way and were headed south, straight for the bottom of Devil’s Canyon, Kirkaldy said. It took a full day for the rescue helicopter to pull the men to safety.

“They were all very capable skiers. They just got on the wrong side of Waterman,” Kirkaldy said.

Even the most experienced outdoors person can run into serious trouble.

Roger Dahl of La Canada Flintridge was considered an expert in his field of mountain biking. A mechanical failure on the bike is blamed for causing the fall that led to Dahl’s death.

“There’s a variety of ways people get in trouble,” said Pasadena environmentalist Tim Brick, director of the Arroyo Seco Council and an avid mountain bike rider and camper in the forest.

“One way is not being prepared to go up there for a day. People get stuck and end up staying there overnight,” Brick said. “They have signs posted all over the place. But people from the city come up here not aware that it’s a wild area, and they end up getting lost.”

Brick knew Dahl and also was aware of Dahl’s bike riding abilities. Brick also knows that, as he says, “it’s real easy to fall.”

Two years ago Brick was riding near Switzer Falls, just north of Altadena. His front tire went out and Brick went headfirst down a 12-foot slope. The bike was inoperable. Brick, 44, suffered cuts and bruises and ended up walking nine miles to a hospital in Pasadena.

Reece Vogel, 40, of Pasadena, estimates he has logged about 20,000 miles riding his mountain bike in the San Gabriel Mountains over the past 11 years. “People do underestimate how rugged the San Gabriel Mountains are,” he said. But Vogel doesn’t.

Vogel said he’s had no serious mishaps, primarily because he is safety-conscious and always prepared. Vogel doesn’t hit the road without wearing a helmet and packing food, water, spare bike parts and tools. He warned: Make sure everything works and tell someone where you’re going.

As for the forest being possibly too wild for greenhorns from Los Angeles, it’s all a matter of common sense and being ready for the unexpected. “I’ve had worse luck driving a car in the city,” Vogel said.

STAYING SAFE

Here are forest rangers’ top 10 tips for safety when visiting Angeles National Forest:

1. Don’t feed the animals. The animals are wild and may bite if disturbed.

2. Wear appropriate shoes and watch where you put your feet. Rattlesnakes are year-round residents of the forest.

3. Don’t hike in steep, undeveloped areas.

4. Know where you’re going, stick to established routes and don’t take shortcuts.

5. Don’t dive into streams or rivers. They’re often shallower and rockier than you think.

6. Carry drinking water.

7. Tell someone where you’re going and what time to expect you back.

8. Check weather forecasts and be prepared. Also carry a flashlight, blanket, tire chains (after October) and a jacket in your car.

9. In the wintertime, avalanches are a real danger. So is ice on the trails. Watch your step.

10. Get a fire permit if you want to start a campfire.

TRAGEDY IN THE ANGELES

In the first eight months of this year, six people suffered fatal accidents in the Angeles National Forest:

Jan. 15: A swimmer drowns in Jackson Lake, near Big Pines Highway west of Wrightwood.

Feb. 11: A hiker is killed at San Antonio Falls, just above Mt. Baldy Village on Mt. Baldy Road.

June 30: A diver drowns while swimming in San Gabriel Canyon, just north of Azusa.

July 2: El Monte’s Rick Perez, a star baseball player with the Upper Iowa University baseball team, falls from a mountain trail and later dies at a Pasadena hospital.

July 31: A motorcyclist crashes and dies in a late-morning accident on Angeles Crest Highway near the Arroyo Seco Ranger Station.

Aug. 14: Another motorcyclists dies, this time on Bouquet Canyon Road, north of Santa Clarita.

Source: U.S. Forest Service. Identities of most accident victims were unavailable.