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(CNN) - Curtis Whitson thanks two strangers that his family is alive today. Two brave hikers pulled a lime green bottle from a river and alerted the authorities about the SOS message they found inside.
LOOK: A message in a bottle saved their lives
Whitson, his 13-year-old son and girlfriend, Krystal Ramírez, had decided to spend Father's Day weekend touring the Arroyo Seco River.
This was the bottle that saved their lives.
They spent their days jumping rocks and floating on tires in the river, and at night they slept under the stars, wrapped in lightweight sleeping bags, with nets over their heads to keep insects at bay.
Whitson was in a familiar territory: he makes up to 20 trips to the coastal forest of central California every summer.
Throughout the trip, the family's goal was to reach the Arroyo Seco Strait, float through the water sprout and lower the waterfall before joining friends to float the last kilometers to a camp. After two and a half days of carrying 22 kg bags, the family reached the straits, a place on the river surrounded by solid rocks up to 12 m high on each side.
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But the water currents were too strong for them to pass safely.
"My heart skipped a beat when I realized that the volume of water was too dangerous to make rappelling possible," Whitson said. Usually, he said, there is a rope that goes through climbing carabiners that have been screwed to the rocks.
"This time, the rope was not," Whitson told CNN.
A lucky throw
After trying to walk again and again, Whitson and his son continued to reach dead ends. There was no way out.
The three could not see anything beyond a curve in the canyon walls, but heard voices on the other side. They tried to scream for help. They tried to record a message on a stick and throw it away. But they soon realized that a stick would not be enough, so they came up with a new way to get someone's attention.
Whitson saw a bottle of lime green Nalgene water and etched the word 'HELP' on the outside of durable plastic. Ramírez, his girlfriend, had brought eraser paper to keep track of when they played. He made a quick note and put the piece of paper inside the bottle.
"With just one lucky throw, he went straight over the waterfall," Whitson said.
The group returned upriver to a small beach where they had previously stopped for lunch. They had been able to float down from the beach in about two minutes, but it took them about 30 minutes to get back up.
Before settling down, the family extended their blue tarpaulin into a clearing and gathered white rocks to spell "SOS." When the sun set, they used a beacon to keep that message illuminated.
“It was one of the best feelings”
Some time after midnight, the trio was awakened by the sound of a California Highway Patrol helicopter overhead.
“This is search and rescue. We have found them, ”said someone on the speaker.
LOOK: A bottle with a message - and reward - from the past
"It was one of the best feelings," Whitson said, "nothing was sweeter than those words spoken by CHP."
“We are stuck here in the waterfall. Get help please. ”
Whitson said he was told that two men found the bottle with the family's note, floated to the beginning of the path, then walked a couple of kilometers and arrived at the camp where they alerted the host of the camp.
That host told Whitson about the hikers, but added the two left before the rescue without giving their names.
During the rescue, the CHP crew aboard that helicopter used night vision goggles and infrared technology (FLIR) to detect the campfire and located Whitson and his family, according to flight paramedic Todd Bainbridge, who was on the mission .
The family was told to stay in their place and stay warm, and a rescue team arrived early the next morning. Whitson is still excited to remember the rescue and his gratitude for the crew members and their family.
Now, he wants to find the two hikers who found his family's message and saved them.
BottleMessageRescateSurvival
