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CBS – Newspath video
Krystal Ramirez (left), Hunter Whitson (right), Curtis Whitson (right), photographed as lifeguards after their ordeal
A family of three caught in a raging waterfall were rescued after passing an SOS message in a bottle by a river.
Curtis Whitson, his girlfriend and his 13 year old son made a return trip to central California in June.
Their plan was to follow the Arroyo Seco River through a canyon to the waterfall.
At the waterfall, they came down a rope and continued their journey to a campsite.
But on the third day of the hike, the family was stuck in a narrow part of the canyon where the walls were 15 meters high on each side.
The rope expected by Mr. Whitson was not there, which meant that they could neither descend nor descend. To make matters worse, the waterfall was flowing too fast for them to enter.
"My heart sank when I realized that the water volume was too dangerous to make rappelling possible," Whitson told CNN.
Without any telephone signal or "one soul" in sight, Mr. Whitson concocted a plan. He wrote a note on a bar order form that his girlfriend, Krystal Ramirez, 34, had won to keep the scores of the match: "We are stuck here at the waterfall. You please, "reads the note.
Mr. Whitson put the note in a bottle of green water and etched "help" on the side. Then he threw the bottle in the water. "With a stroke of luck, he passed directly over the waterfall," he told CNN.
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Cindi Barbour
Curtis Whitson placed the SOS note in a green drink bottle, shown here
The note was found downriver by about two hikers who rang the alarm, Whitson said.
The rescue crew found Mr. Whitson, his son Curtis and Mrs. Ramirez around midnight on June 15, just hours after the hikers discovered the floating message.
"They were really out of options if they did not get the message out that way, it might have been a long time," said California Highway Patrol Todd Brethour.
Mr. Whitson, a repairman of doors and windows in Morro Bay, California, said he wanted to find hikers who had found his message.
"I am impressed by how everything went perfectly," he told the Washington Post. "What are the chances?"
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