Community Corner

'My Mouth Turned to Sand,' Rescued Hiker Says

Now that Ed Rosenthal is back at home in Culver City, he recounts his six days in the desert with no food or water.

When rescued hiker Ed Rosenthal returned to his home on Emerald Way last week, 20 pounds lighter after six days with no food and water in Joshua Tree National Park, he had a singular conclusion:

"God is real," he said at a Tuesday news conference, recalling the times he prayed for rain and for survival during his long wait in the desert.

The man who by day is a real estate broker and by night is a well-known poet around town left for a day hike Sept. 24, hoping to celebrate a recent real estate deal involving the sale of the historic Clifton's Brookdale cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles.

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However, he lost the trail that he had hiked five or six times in the past, and began what would be six days of dehydration and starvation, a mouth that "turned to sand" and reliance on a hiking stick that he said saved his life.

He remembers the experience in great detail: "Going back, I lost the trail, which was a huge surprise. I wandered through a few scary canyons and the drops got worse and worse to go from one canyon to the other. There was no end to the canyon—everything got browner and browner.

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"I went through five or six of these canyons that I've never seen before. I went to Hard Rock canyon pass, which went on for several miles and out into the Mojave. I turned around after 20 miles, and I slept in this cute baby canyon. But on Saturday morning Sept. 25, it wasn't so cute."

After another day of wandering in search of shelter, 64-year-old Rosenthal found a small five-acre canyon on Sept. 26 where he sought refuge from the blistering heat. By that point he was so weakened from the lack of food and water that he could not "sit up against a rock." He rubbed antiseptic on his cuts to prevent infection and moisturize his skin. He leaned back in the desert rain to gather a few drops of water to cool his parched tongue.

So desperate was Rosenthal's thirst that he tried to drink urine, he said.

He remained in the small canyon for five days, with only his hiking stick, a hat on which he wrote what he thought were his last notes for his wife and daughter and a horsefly for company.

Despite his weakness, Rosenthal set up fires and elaborate shadow signals for the rescue crew, and walked only 10 steps a day in order to preserve his strength. He was rescued on Sept. 30—25 miles south of his original hike—by crews that had been searching for him since the afternoon of Sept. 25.

A helicopter took him immediately to Hi-Desert Medical Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., where he recuperated and was released Saturday.

When asked what was going through his mind at the time, he said, "I felt like I didn't care about myself, I cared about my wife and daughter. My main concern was to survive."

Sgt. Jeff Joling, who is with the volunteer forces with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and a member of the rescue crew, credit Rosenthal's survival to not only his strength but also his choice to "hunker down" in the wilderness and not "give up."

Back at home in Culver City where he has lived for 20 years, Rosenthal has a new outlook on life and a renewed appreciation for his home.

"It seemed like my house looked gigantic," he said with a smile. "Everything seemed 10 times the size it was. Even my car was amazing to me."

Grateful for his second chance at life, Rosenthal is looking to raise money for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and its rescue efforts. He has set up a way to raise funds through an e-mail account, ed.rosenthalsurvivor@gmail.com, saying that it is a "blessing to have these people helping you."

But most of all, he said that his survival and rescue signified something larger than himself. "At first I didn't think I had the strength to survive. I don't think it's about me, this whole event," he said. "I never had the kind of energy. There is some amazing energy around us." 


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