Text message to friend aids in hikers’ rescue

A cellphone and text message to a friend helped a mother and her 6-year-old daughter lost on Waimano Ridge Trail on Monday night get off the mountain safely.

The hiker called a friend at 9:12 p.m. Monday after she and her daughter got lost in the darkness. But the woman couldn’t get a voice signal and instead sent a text message saying she wasn’t able to come down from the top of the trail.

Fire Capt. David Jenkins, Honolulu Fire Department spokesman, said the woman’s friend called fire officials.

Fire rescue personnel got the hiker’s GPS coordinates from the woman’s cellphone, reached the pair at midnight and accompanied them off the mountain three hours later.

The mother and daughter did not need medical attention.