Couple in 70s lost on hike survives for a week on water from puddle, CA rescuers say

After getting lost on a Valentine’s Day hike on the California coast, a couple in their 70s survived by drinking water from a puddle, CNN reports.

Carol Kiparsky, 77, lost her shoes and Ian Irwin, 72, injured his ankle in a fall while lost in dense brush near Tomales Bay in Marin County, KNTV reported.

On Thursday, rescue efforts shifted to a recovery effort to find the Palo Alto couple’s bodies, ABC News reported.

But searchers in heavy brush earlier considered impassable heard someone calling for help Saturday morning and found the couple in an overgrown drainage ditch, Fox News reported.

“This is a miracle,” said Sgt. Brenton Schneider of the Marin County Sheriff’s Department, according to the network. Kiparsky and Irwin were hospitalized for hypothermia.

The couple got lost after leaving a vacation rental in Inverness for a Valentine’s Day hike to watch the sunset and taking a wrong turn in the dark, KNTV reported.

Housekeepers cleaning the home the next day found their belongings and the couple uncharacteristically failed to show up for a Feb. 16 appointment, Fox News reported.

Wearing only light clothing, Kiparsky and Irwin had no food or water, ABC News reported.

After Irwin hurt his ankle, Kiparsky tried to hike out for help using pieces of her scarf to mark the trail back to her husband, but couldn’t make it out of the brush, according to the network.

“They thought this was the end for them,” said Schneider, Fox News reported.

Volunteers and sheriff’s officials searched for the couple for days using drones, dogs and boats, KNTV reported. Then dogs trained to detect bodies reported several alerts near Shell Beach on Tomales bay and searchers switched to recovery operations.

But a search team looking through heavy vegetation Saturday morning heard voices, CNN reported.

“At first we thought it was another team, but they started yelling ‘help.’ We looked at each other and were like, ‘That’s them!’” said searcher Quincy Webster, according to the station. “They were like, ‘Thank God you found us.’”

Irwin is a leading researcher into Parkinson’s disease while Kiparsky is a prominent linguist and author of several books, Fox News reported.

This story was originally published February 23, 2020 at 11:32 AM with the headline "Couple in 70s lost on hike survives for a week on water from puddle, CA rescuers say."