When Harold Sauffley IV, 52, of Ben Lomond, climbed into his kayak on Rancheria Creek at Mountain View Road on a Friday about 11am back in January of 2008 he expected to arrive at Hendy Woods about 2pm that afternoon. An experienced kayaker like him, Sauffley the Fourth calculated, could cover the turbulent winter-time flow of 15 miles in three to four hours.
Mrs. Sauffley would be waiting at Hendy Woods to meet her adventurous mate.
Harold Sauffley IV had tamed wild winter streams before.
Lots of kayakers have done it before. Some of them get lost, real lost, because they under-estimate the time it takes to ride the Rancheria from the little bridge way up on Mountain View Road, not realizing that the Rancheria zigs and zags through as wild a country as there is in Mendocino County’s untamed backlands. And there’s nothing back where the Rancheria winds its way west of Boonville before it finally re-appears in the tame area of Ray’s Road, Philo, where it merges with Anderson Creek and Indian Creek to form the Navarro River.
Nothing back there? Did I say nothing back there? There’s mountain lion and bear and, in the summertime, the most committed pot growers in the county were back there, and they’d shoot you dead if you walk up on them.
But Harold Sauffley IV had made the trip before. He had his wetsuit on. He had his lunch. He’d read his maps. He knew this river. Harold Sauffley IV was ready!
Sauffley the IV had no excuse for getting lost. But Harold Sauffley IV did get lost. And a whole lot of rescue people, about 20 of them over two days, were called out to look for him. One of those rescue persons described the kayaker as “an idiot.”
The idiocy began to kick in around 2pm when Harold Sauffley IV failed to appear at Hendy Woods. Mrs. Sauffley waited. And waited. Then she waited some more. Harold Sauffley IV did not appear. As it developed, he’d sailed right on by Hendy Woods, and on down stream, past his anxious wife, way, way, way past their agreed upon rendezvous point at Hendy.
Mrs. Sauffley became alarmed. She called State Park Rangers. The Rangers called Anderson Valley Fire and Rescue, and the hunt for Harold Sauffley IV was on. Twenty selfless volunteers were soon walking up and down the Rancheria and the Navarro calling out, “Harold! Harold? Harold!”
Harold Sauffley IV had been sighted in the vicinity of Hendy Woods twice between 2pm and 3pm on Friday so the rescue team knew he’d gotten that far. The initial search for him centered around there, but maybe the people who’d said they’d seen the kayaker were wrong, so the hunt was expanded to the upper Rancheria and the upper Navarro. And then it got dark and cold, but the searchers searched on, “Harold! Harold? Harold!”
Volunteer firefighters continued looking for Harold Sauffley IV until around 10:30pm when they knocked off for some sleep. Harold Sauffley IV was out there in the very large somewhere, out there in the cold, the damp, the dark. It occurred to some of the would-be rescuers that Harold Sauffley IV might not ever emerge from Anderson Valley’s wild, riverine heart.
At 7am Saturday morning the volunteers were out again. This time they were accompanied by the Sheriff’s Department’s Search and Rescue crew team.
“Harold? Harold! Hello, Harold!”
The searchers' cries rang through the back country like distressed sea birds.
Still no Harold Sauffley IV.
The search continued until about 2:30 Saturday afternoon when, suddenly, Harold Sauffley IV called his wife to say that he was alive and well. He’d been walking back up the Navarro when he ran into a couple of fishermen who let him use their cellphone to call home.
Harold Sauffley IV said he’d become “disoriented.”
Harold Sauffley IV’s abandoned kayak had been found about noon the day before, a mile down the Navarro from Hendy Woods where Mrs. Sauffley was waiting for him. Harold Sauffley IV had unknowingly rushed on past his loyal mate, borne swiftly past her by the Navarro’s high winter water before Harold Sauffley IV, looking around, realized he didn’t know where he was.
He’d never been on the river past Hendy Woods.
Harold Sauffley IV had said he’d made the run down Rancheria Creek before and was an experienced kayaker. But not everybody was convinced that his experience counted for all that much — especially after the rescuers knew Harold Sauffley IV had paddled right past his wife and Hendy Woods and had arrived in that disorienting, unfamiliar downstream territory.
Harold Sauffley IV told volunteers that he thought he’d recognize Hendy Woods when he got there, but the view of Hendy Woods was blocked by the high bank as he floated by, he explained. The obscuring high bank wasn’t a new high bank, and if Mrs. Sauffley had been standing on top of its alleged obscuring bulk Harold Sauffley IV certainly would have recognized her.
But she wasn’t and he didn’t.
Harold Sauffley IV had continued his kayak ride on down the Navarro for several more miles, continued on until dark when he ditched his very cool, watertight kayak and started walking back up stream, aware that he was lost.
Harold Sauffley IV spent the night on the riverbank in his wetsuit — yes, wetsuits really work against the cold — then resumed his hike upstream, heading towards Hendy Woods whether he knew it or not, disoriented as he was.
On Harold Sauffley IV trudged, through quite rugged terrain, around narrow, steeply canyoned, unpassable sections of the Navarro, trying to figure out where he was, how to get back to Mrs. Sauffley and a hot cup of coffee.
Little did Harold Sauffley IV know that if he’d continued on a few hundred more yards from where he’d ditched his kayak, he would have run straight into a picnic table at Dimmick Park where the ridge between the Navarro River and Highway 128 ends, and he could have simply walked onto Highway 128 and into the arms of Western Civ.
By the time Harold Sauffley IV was finally reunited with Mrs. Sauffley, 16 Anderson Valley volunteers, 4 deputies, 6 Anderson Valley fire engines, several private vehicles, and two Sheriff’s rigs with rescue kayaks had searched for him.
Then-Boonville Fire Chief Colin Wilson prepared a bill for an “out of district response” which was expected run into several thousand dollars.
Note: During the search, volunteer firefighter Judy Long of Navarro said she saw a mysterious reflection on the River. An ghostly oblong reflective surface appeared near the opposite streambank which “glowed” white but disappeared when Long shined her flashlight on it.
We know now that it wasn’t Harold Sauffley IV.
Harold Sauffley IV was subsequently given an “out of district” response bill for the bargain price of $6,652.29 by then AV Fire Chief Colin Wilson which he promptly and gratefully paid by personally delivering a check for that amount to the Boonville Firehouse.
How do u sail by the greenwood bridge without seeing it?