Point Reyes Light - August 10, 2000
Bolinas minister saves life of Mill Valley man
A Bolinas minister with a full bladder saved a man's life on Tuesday after stopping beside Highway 1 just east of the Green Gulch driveway near Muir Beach.
Tom D'Onofrio, a minister and wood sculptor, on Wednesday told The Light that while he was stopped around 4:45 p.m., he heard someone yelling "Help!" in a gully above Green Gulch.
D'Onofrio said that although the cry for help "was very faint," he yelled back three or four times but received no response. D'Onofrio got back in his truck and started to drive away but then changed his mind and drove down to Green Gulch - just in case someone really was in trouble.
At Green Gulch, an organic farm operated by the Zen Center, D'Onofrio found resident Mick Sopko, who agreed to ride with D'Onofrio in the sculptor/minister's four-wheel-drive truck to the area where a remote house sits by a rock outcropping.
Finding fall victim Far below them they could hear the voice of Mill Valley resident Daniel McDonald, who would later say he had been yelling all day without anyone hearing him.
Deep in brush with about 20 feet of willows over his head, McDonald did not know where he was but shook a tree when the rescuers yelled at him to do so
After confirming where the victim was, D'Onofrio and Sopko called 911, and a massive rescue was launched that included a Highway Patrol helicopter, a Coast Guard helicopter, Muir Beach and county firemen, and Park Service staff.
Golden Gate National Recreation ranger Terry Swift said the CHP chopper was able to locate McDonald but did not have a long line to lift him out of the ravine, so a Coast Guard helicopter was dispatched from SFO.
Coping with poison oak Meanwhile county fireman Luke Juniper climbed down the ravine through thickets of poison oak and found McDonald with his dog, a 13-year-old German shepherd mix.
(The county fireman is immune to poison oak, but some of the Muir Beach firefighters who took part in the rescue are not so lucky.)
Juniper was able to approach the dog by feeding it granola and then got the dazed man, who was covered with cuts, and the dog into a basket lowered by the Coast Guard helicopter.
After they were lifted to safety, the chopper returned and picked up Juniper. Meanwhile, the dog proved to be less friendly to other rescuers and gave a Muir Beach fireman a serious bite.
As McDonald told D'Onofrio and ranger Swift, the near-disaster began when he parked at the Miwok Trailhead and took the dog for a walk about 8 a.m. Monday in heavy fog.
Heavy fog led to fall Because of the fog, the pair managed to fall off the trail and tumble down a steep slope of the ravine. Several times, said Swift, McDonald grabbed a hold of brush only to have it give way or for him to be pulled down by the dog. By the time they finally stopped rolling down the slope, the two had fallen 500 feet.
And there they remained for 35 hours with McDonald spending a cold and wet night dressed in only his shoes, sweatpants, and a t-shirt.
Swift and D'Onofrio said McDonald probably could have rescued himself immediately after the fall, but his dog was old and arthritic. And at about 150 pounds, it was too heavy to carry.
"If he had left his dog behind, he should have been able to get out the day before," said Swift on Wednesday.
Followed instincts Instead, McDonald managed to scoop out puddles in a small creek and provide him and the dog with water.
But by remaining a day and a half outdoors, he was suffering from mild exposure when found. However, he refused to be taken to a hospital, saying he just wanted to go home, take a warm shower, and go to bed, Swift noted.
The ranger credited D'Onofrio with saving McDonald, saying: "Tom was pretty persistent." As for D'Onofrio, he said that if he had driven away as he started to do, he would have lain in bed all night wondering if someone really had been in trouble.
"I'm so glad I followed my instincts," he remarked.