A lost hiker whose unusual rescue made headlines had entered an off-limits area of the Angeles National Forest before going missing last week, officials said.
Rene Compean, 45, was airlifted from a remote region of the forest Tuesday after a GPS sleuth used a grainy photo posted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to determine his approximate location through satellite imaging and geolocation tools.
The area where he was found — between Triplet Rocks and Twin Peaks — is one of the least accessible locations in the San Gabriel Mountains, the U.S. Forest Service said. It is also deep inside the area burned by the Bobcat fire, which whipped through the wilderness in September.
“We want to understand what happened so we can identify what needs to be done to keep future hikers from wandering so far into a closed fire recovery area,” Angeles National Forest spokesman John Clearwater said.
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