VIDEO: It’s not the heat of summer or the cold of winter that sees the most search and rescue call outs; it’s actually this time of year. Cache County Search and Rescue says out of the 100 or so call outs they get a year, the vast majority are around this time. That’s because it’s 70 or 80 degrees and sunny a lot of people think it’s going to stay that way all day. But the weather can change quickly, and when it does, people can be caught by surprise and find themselves in trouble. It may not feel like fall yet, but the leaves don’t lie.
Whether it’s the color change, trails, or back country calling your name, there are a lot of reasons to head into Utah’s beauty this time of year. “Nature here is pretty beautiful. Can’t complain at all,” said hiker Charlie Zwierzchowski. You can’t ask for better weather right now, but as avid hikers like Zwierzchowski and Alicia Mache know, that can change quickly. “It just had a little bit of rain in the forecast, we’re like, ‘it’s going to be fine.’ it turned into hail and it was brutal,” Mache said about a previous time she was surprised by the weather while hiking.
