Features

Mill Valley mother, child found safe after lost in Maui

The Associated Press
Wednesday April 03, 2002

HALEAKALA NATIONAL PARK, Hawaii — Park rangers on horseback found a California woman and her 3 year-old-daughter Tuesday morning near a cabin in the crater of a dormant volcano on Maui, where they had spent the night after losing their way while hiking the day before. 

Julie Reinganum of Mill Valley, Calif., and her daughter, Maya, were found near Holua cabin in the crater of Haleakala, said Karen Newton, chief ranger at Haleakala National Park. They had spent the night at another cabin, Kapalaoa cabin, Newton said. 

Park operations chief Ron Martin spotted the two with binoculars Tuesday morning, and a ground crew was sent in on horseback to meet them, Newton said. 

They were escorted from the park unharmed, park officials said. 

The pair had been missing since Monday morning, when they got separated from a companion, Nadine Newlight of Maui, during a rainstorm. 

Park visitors found Newlight on Monday night on the Sliding Sands trail, so cold that she had difficulty communicating. She was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center suffering from hypothermia. 

The two women and the child had spent Sunday night at the Kapalaoa cabin, before setting off early Monday morning on the Halemanu’u trail, about 8,000 feet up on Haleakala’s west slope, Newton said. 

During a rest stop they were caught in a heavy rain shower, and Reinganum took the child in search of shelter toward the Sliding Sands trail, which is at a higher elevation. 

The women became separated when Newlight paused to collect her belongings, Newton said. She tried to catch up to Reinganum but got lost, she said. 

Park rangers, who did not learn of the incident until after sundown Monday, spent two hours hiking into the area where it seemed likely Reinganum would end up.