#107. Jan Friedrichsen: Veteran Rescuer Explains How Search Dogs Track, Find, And Bring People Home

A missing hiker. A cold night. A single clue: the faint scent left on a car’s gas cap. That’s enough for Jan Friedrichsen and her K9 partners to turn uncertainty into a plan—and a plan into a save. We sit down with Jan, commander of Humboldt County Search and Rescue and a CARD-certified evaluator, to unpack how volunteer teams mobilize fast, work with the Sheriff’s Special Services, and blend K9 skills with tech like drones, UTVs, and real-time mapping to bring people home.

Jan walks us through the anatomy of a modern search: triage from the first ping or 911 call, building sectors, deploying trailing dogs to lock direction of travel, and sending area dogs to sweep for any live human. She explains the difference between trailing and area work, why recertification every two years keeps teams sharp, and how human remains detection brings closure when outcomes turn tragic. We talk mental health first aid—keeping found subjects warm, fed, and calm—and why most rescues hinge on quiet judgment more than heroics.

The conversation also zooms out to community. Jan’s Humboldt story runs from Cal Poly Humboldt days to land trust projects and a life lived close to the marshes and trails. She shares a multi-day search near the McKay area that rallied multiple counties, lessons from a difficult river recovery, and a leadership style shaped by service over spotlight. For hikers, families, and civic-minded listeners, this is a clear-eyed look at how K9 search science, volunteer grit, and local generosity save lives in Humboldt County.

If this resonated, support Humboldt County Search and Rescue at HumboldtSar.org, then subscribe, share with a friend who hikes, and leave a review so more neighbors can find their way to the show.

Transcript

Meet Jan And The SAR Team

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, it's Scott Hammond with the 100% Humboldt Podcast with my new best friend Jan Frederickson. Hi, Jan. Hello. How are you? I'm well, thanks. Tell us the Jan story. What do you what's your day job? And what do you do with the search and rescue?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Well, I'm happy to say that I'm retired, yet I have a very full day job. Currently uh it is with search and rescue, the Humboldt County search and rescue team. And I'm the commander of the team as well as one of the two canine handlers.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

So that's all under the county sheriff's department?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

They oversee us, yes. We are part of the sheriff's department, but the key is we get no money from the sheriff's department.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

Ah. What do you want to say to Billy Hansel about that?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

You know, interestingly enough, I just saw him yesterday.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

What a nice guy.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

He's a great guy.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

Yeah. Hey, Billy. Everybody everybody likes Billy. I don't know. I that's probably not true. Let's say most everybody l loves you, Billy.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Does the best he can, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Is he your boss necessarily, or he just in the sense that he's over the agency that's over y'all?

SPEAKER_00 1:04

He yes, that's more of a we the search and rescue team works with the special services department of the sheriff's department. So that is a sergeant, Sergeant Gomes, and three deputies. Wow. Willoughby and Norton and Hunter Etheridge.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

So I think I know Willoughby's parents. You do? Asie and Carl?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Yes, you do.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

Oh yeah, she she's great.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Great people.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

Yeah, she's super good friends and haven't seen them for a minute, but special folks. So um so you guys do rescue backcountry and water and bay as well?

SPEAKER_00 1:41

We do I'm kind of involved in two search and rescue groups. One is Humboldt County, and the other is the California Rescue Dog Association.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Which is the certifying agency that many counties use for dog teams. It's one of the larger dog teams in the nation. I think I was trying to find the numbers. I think we're around 120 certified dogs.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Um, and that could be one dog that does two things.

Roles, Funding, And K9 Overview

SPEAKER_03 2:10

Do you mean like Daisy?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yes, like my little black lab Daisy.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

There's Daisy. What a black labs are so cool. We had a Jake that was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

He was part of our family. Then we had a son named Jacob. So and there's Rowdy.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

That's the border collie Rowdy.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

Who owns Rowdy?

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Maya Conrad is Rowdy's handler and best friend.

SPEAKER_03 2:30

Maya Conrad High. We knew that Maya was going to come in the show uh verbally, because Joni said, don't forget Maya's part of your team, right? You're right. Yeah. And here's Shadow.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

And Shadow is our elder ambassador, uh, another one of uh Maya's dogs.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

Wow. That's cool. So how does it uh I guess we'll get into how it works. I want to know how you got here. Where'd you grow up and how did you get to Humboldt?

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yeah. Well, I grew up in the Bay Area in the 60s and 70s in Foster City. Wow. Which in those days was only 500 homes. Wow. It's not like that anymore.

SPEAKER_03 3:08

500,000.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah, it's it's a whole different place. But um hindsight is that wasn't too bad of a place to grow up. I bet. And uh every summer I went to a summer camp for a month. Oh wow. And uh so I got older. Um, my counselor said, you know, Jan, you're gonna you might like Humboldt State as your college. Uh and so that um was the first seed that was planted. And so came up here and looked at it and looked at Davis, and it's like, duh, this is easy. It's gonna be Humboldt.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

So parallel universe with you and my wife. I'm gonna use my prop because I I like to. So this is Humboldt County and Humboldt State, which is now Cal Poly Humboldt, whatever. It's true, is uh right up there in Arcada, California, not Arcadia for you from LA. And for uh anyway, so um yeah, Joni was gonna go to Davis and wound up at Humboldt State.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yeah, so I came up to Humboldt in '78. Um, I think kind of like you, I was gonna be a range management major, but I quickly decided that probably wasn't for me. And I ended

From Bay Area Roots To Humboldt

SPEAKER_00 4:20

up with a degree in psychology.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

Better.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Uh-huh. Very helpful degree, but hard to find a job. So uh, but towards the end of my undergraduate work, I got involved in athletic training and the athletic department.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

So I graduated, took a semester off, came back, and just slid right into the athletic training room and ended up getting my master's in uh physical education.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

That's where we know each other because I was a recreation major. Yeah. We're housed all in the same area.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

So yeah, parallel universes came up in 78 from San Diego and uh was a rec I was going to be an oceanography major and then wildlife, and then I was going, Oh, I I'm really not very brilliant in sciences. So so unless you're ready for chemistry, calculus, and physics, Scott, maybe you would do well as a liberal arts major. What do you say, partner? Yes, sir. That sounds good. Yeah. So you play to you play your hand. Yep. You play to your game. And I did, and and I love my my degree at Humboldt. It's it was a great experience.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Yeah, well, it's psychology you use all the time. You know, I really use it in trauma. Yeah. So it's that was handy. And it was also very handy as an athletic trainer. I traveled with the Humboldt State men's soccer team for several years.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

And then left that and went into uh started working for a private clinic. And then on my summers, I fished with my husband, who was a commercial fisherman.

SPEAKER_03 5:54

Oh, wow. Off of Trinidad or Eureka Humboldt?

SPEAKER_00 5:56

All over. It was a salmon. We had a salmon boat. So we were uh California and Oregon. And then uh I tough tough work, right? It was hard. And I got mad when the athletes would say, What'd you do this summer? I said, I commercial fish. He says, What a fun vacation. And no, it was not a vacation.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

You don't understand.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

But I did that for a while, and then I switched hats pretty significantly. I went into natural resources and I did that for oh almost a decade. I ended at uh natural resource division of RCAA. And I was their uh kind of contract manager, um, administrative assistant.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

Aaron Powell Where are they based? Are they here in Eureka?

SPEAKER_00 6:39

They're here in Eureka, right on G Street, nice Victorian house.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

Yes, they oh, the beautiful one.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yeah. The huge one.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Yeah, they're they do a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Yeah, so the natural resource division is a bit of an outlier. Um everything else tends to be more social service type things. But uh that was the organization that was instrumental in the Hammond Trail. The um particularly the newer part.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

The Hammond Trail?

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

And uh Did you know that I'm I'm related? I've heard the story. Oh, you have?

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Okay, so I can't BS my way.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

I often try it with new friends. So my great-great-great-grandfather Andrew Hammond, which is the name of the guy that started Hammond Lumber, the Hammond Trail, the Hammond Bridge, the Hammond Railroad line. Uh true guy, real, real fella. And uh I guess he had kind of a mixed bag. He was actually kind of cool and ruthless. I don't know what that means, but he had the biggest holdings, holding of redwood. He had a redwood monopoly in in America. And they sold it in the uh they what did they call it when they break a monopoly? They break a monopoly. Anyway, no relation. If Jenny was here, she'd be going no. She always waves everybody off on that. Anyway. Um so natural resources with RCAA, what did you what were their resources? What did you manage or what were she?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

We did um a number of trails. Um the Hickshari. And this was in the early 2000s. Wow from about 2000 well, actually 2006 through 12 or 13.

SPEAKER_03 8:23

Because Hammond Trail's beautiful. You guys, you got were you guys solely responsible?

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Oh no, no. We were uh we provided the um the labor uh CCCs. We hired CCCs through for the summer, and it was the multi-use

Career Pivots And Community Projects

SPEAKER_00 8:40

part on Murray and that whole section there. Um that was a big project.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

And then uh upgrading the stuff around Hiller Park by the uh river, you know, all sorts of different projects like that, and then things that Jen Rice worked on with um safe routes to schools, walkability things.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

So Jen Rice is a name.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

She sure is. Yeah, she's a great person.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

What does she do?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

You know, she helps people.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

She's gone into uh consulting on her own and uh haven't been in touch with her for a while, but it sounds like she's keeping herself busy.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

She's on my uh list from Julie Fulkerson.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

All right.

SPEAKER_03 9:23

My pr my uh unofficial producer. Hi Julie. Yeah, I heard Jen Rice heard heard her name a couple times now.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Yeah, she it was instrumental. She was probably one of the top five people that got the bay trail done.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Really? Okay. Yeah. Which is no small thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

It was no small thing. Twenty years.

SPEAKER_03 9:43

It's such a cool thing, too.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

It's a great thing.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

My wife Joni rides it pretty much weekly from Dows Prairie to sometimes the power plant.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

But at least to Dick Taylor chocolates. Oh, wait. Dick Taylor chocolates.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

There you go. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Slid that right in there. Yep. That's usually our turnaround spot, too, is Dick Taylor. She has to stop there and get like a $27 mocha. So love you, hon. Just kidding. I know that they're good. Um, she's turned me on to some of some of their Mexican mochas. Just so good. So uh so tell me more. So what what after RCAA?

SPEAKER_00 10:19

So after RCAA, I um retired. And um during that time, I had my first search and rescue dog. So I was with the Humboldt Sheriff. At that time, it was called the Posse. Um, now it's called search and rescue. Posse became a little antiquated and wasn't a good description of who we were and are. Um so right about when I retired, I lost my first search dog. It's very special one. And so I got another one and um started training Gracie. Um, it takes a tremendous amount of time, about two years before you're ready to even certify.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

And because we're so remote, I was the only dog handler up here, which meant I traveled every month.

SPEAKER_03 11:08

A lot, I bet. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

A lot.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

Where would you go?

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Bay Area or often over towards mid-Sierra, Auburn, Chico, that that area where um other Carta handlers were. And it just let me realize that it really does take a village to do what we do. And um it is difficult. But and I will say that the neat thing for me is when I was 40 with my first dog, that she taught me my passion. You know, it's I was that age when I realized this is I get it, this is what makes me really happy. Wow. And so um that's what's on her little tombstone. Nice. The dog that taught me my passion.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

That's really neat.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah. So I I worked with uh Gracie and um got a bit of property, and then I was been active in the um sheriff search and rescue team, not to the level that I am now. And also active in the community. Uh, my husband and I were founder, founding members of the Jacoby Creek Land Trust. Oh, wow. And then now we're quite active with um the North Coast Regional Land Trust.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

So they're they're kind of sister organizations? Um They're different, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Yeah, the Regional Land Trust is much larger and overseas quite a bit more. Been a couple of their events and I think we're members and Yeah, their their boots to Birkenstocks is a great event.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

Yeah. Yeah, they're they do a lot of and I know about you guys. So uh search and rescue, is that are you sort of on call then?

SPEAKER_00 12:49

We are on call 24-7.

SPEAKER_03 12:51

Okay. Is it all volunteer?

SPEAKER_00 12:53

It is all volunteer.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

Wow. Um And you're not on horseback. We've talked about that before the show.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Not on horseback. Our team, we have got our local team has about 22 active members. And um we have a ground unit, which basically everybody is a part of, and then we have a marine unit.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Uh we've got three boats, and then we also work, we work very closely with the Sheriff's Department.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

Aaron Powell, would it mostly be in in like the mud zone inside the bay?

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Well, we worked on the floods in the beginning of the year. Uh we we do drownings, rivers. So there really is no place we don't go.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

Aaron Ross Powell Even offshore?

SPEAKER_00 13:36

We're typically not called for those.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

That's usually Coast Guard territory, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:41

Yeah. So walk walk me through one. So I'm I'm hiking with Joni, we're lost, we're up in the yellow bullies or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

Um what and somehow you get a signal that we didn't come home to McKinleyville. What what what kind of for example, what happens?

SPEAKER_00 14:00

So there's a number of ways that the Sheriff's Department is notified. It would be, it could be, say, for we just had one recently, that somebody had an N-Reach, the GPS tracker kind of thing, and they pushed it. And that NREACH goes right to the Office of Emergency Service, uh, the law branch, which our dog team works under as well. And they then contacted the county that that ping came from. Right. And so at that point, it goes to the sheriff's

Enter Search Dogs And Training

SPEAKER_00 14:30

department and then it goes directly to our special services that oversee search and rescue. And they do uh the deputies do uh a quick assessment and said, is this really going to be a search or is it or it's something they can handle themselves. So if it is a search, um, a text goes out to everybody and um with a brief description and when we're leaving and who to contact.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

And then um kind of a rendezvous point at that point.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Right. And depending on the situation, sometimes it's not until the next morning, or sometimes it's within two hours. It as it is an emergency, but it doesn't happen quite as fast as sometimes people would like.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

On television.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Yeah. There's a lot of moving parts that have to allow Imagine you have to do it right to get it. You do it right, it works right.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 15:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

And so we get and I would say 90% of our memberships at least works halftime. Most of them are full-time employed as well as um volunteering for this. So it depends on what day the search falls on and who's available, and people will take time off. Uh people's bosses are really understanding. It's a great cause.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

It costs those lost people nothing. We don't charge for our services.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

Unlike subcounties might for law enforcement might have a fee.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

I don't I'm not aware of any county that really um changes it.

SPEAKER_03 16:06

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: So back to our scenario, our story. Joni and I are lost. Help, we're lost. Uh it's late at night, so y'all saddle up in the morning. So what does that look like? Get to our rendezvous point. I imagine there's on f on foot and then horseback and ATVs?

SPEAKER_00 16:23

We don't use horseback. We use um now we use UTVs because we can move more people quickly. And so we'll get teams out into um different areas where it seems like the ping or whatever information we have where the missing person or people could be. And we get multiple teams out. Um typically we try to get the dogs out first, and then each dog handler has at least one or two people with them.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

So would Daisy go in front of you, or would she be kind of on alongside, or would she Well, Daisy is a trailing dog.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

So if we knew Scott Hammond was missing and typically we would know where your car was, where the trailhead is, I'd go to the car and uh get a scent article, and I can get it a number of ways so it smells just like you. Break the window and get Culturally, I don't need to do that. I can get I can get scent off your car.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

Okay. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

And uh you're probably the only one that fills your tank up with gas.

SPEAKER_03 17:29

Right. Good one.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

So I take a gauze pad and rub that, and there's my scent article. Wow. Um, so I give that to her. She picks up where you go, and I'm on a 20-foot line behind her, and off we go. Wow. So now we've gotten which direction you went.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

So she could pick up a scent from a day or two before.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

Whoa.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

And uh I'm confident that we well, we test um for 48-hour old trails in the wilderness. So two nights. That's outstanding, really, when you think it is humbling to watch these dogs work.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Yeah. 48 hours.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

Huh.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

And so we'll get going. And it's like, okay, it looks like they went down this trail. So I'll call Maya, whose dog works loose and just looks rowdy looks for any live person. So I said, Maya,

How A Search Actually Unfolds

SPEAKER_00 18:20

it looks like they went down this way. She'll get in a UTV, they'll move her further down, and then they'll deploy. And typically uh it's the area dogs, which rowdy is, that find the people. And the neat thing is it's still a team effort. It's not about who finds them, it's that they are found.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

It's not where's Waldo.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

No.

SPEAKER_03 18:39

Yeah. No. So um UTV like a Polaris, like a little side-by-side that called a number of things.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Yeah. And then we just jump off and off we go.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

Because there's a lot of logged roads, so you can take those probably a lot of places.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Right. And then while that's all going on, um there's drone up. We've got, you know, a couple yeah. Our deputies are very good drone operators.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Got the drone folks.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

And then if it becomes a multi-day or gets more complicated, we'll bring in um air support from Sacramento, from Butte County has a couple helicopters.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

Just to patrol around and look.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Yeah. Uh certain uh one of the planes out of Sacramento has some special um equipment on it that can pick up heat and movement and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 19:33

So would it ever go to satellites?

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Uh well, we are kind of using satellites when we're using our um our navigation systems.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

I guess you are, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Um and I can't answer that question. You know, I think that it could be uh, I'm sure it's a capability, but I think currently what we're working with is more than sufficient.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

So if Obama got lost in the wilderness, we're gonna reposition his satellite probably. If he's somebody that's super important.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Yeah, that's above our pregrade.

SPEAKER_03 20:02

Yeah, we somebody else would make that phone call. Yeah, yeah. Daisy would find him way before. Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

I I would hope so.

SPEAKER_03 20:09

Anyway. Well, that's that's so so uh Maya's up front, and here comes Rowdy. And somehow we're gonna get found.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Yeah, so what typically happens is um Rowdy's way ahead of Maya. My first dog did the same thing that Rowdy did. And uh Bama found somebody and they were a quarter mile away from where I was. Wow. So Bama got the scent and off she went and um found him, turned around and came all the way back and told me by sitting right in front of me.

SPEAKER_03 20:44

And then walked.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

And then she had to take me back.

SPEAKER_03 20:47

Wow. So Lassie is real.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

They are. They are.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

Although probably very staged on that one. But how many lassees were there? There are several, right? Probably. Yeah. Yeah. Remember watching that. So dating ourselves here. Wow, what a great story. So they get found, and then you um you mentioned trauma. So I imagine folks that get found are traumatized to some degree in st well upon upon discovery, but how do you what what's that process? So Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

So there's a new term, new word term in search and rescue and wilderness medicine, maybe medicine in general, is uh mental health first aid. And um so that's a really important part as far as keeping somebody calm. Um I've been on over a hundred searches, and there have been very few that there was a significant injury. Um, so it's mostly getting them warm, getting them fed, getting them calmed down, and then assessing at the same time can they walk out? Do we need to get them airlifted and just um Uh confront the situation with what it's what's there and to for us to stay calm.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

And uh it's exciting when you find somebody.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

I bet. I bet it's really refreshing and rejuvenating, especially for them. Um so airlifting mean like a hilo would pull somebody up on it?

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

Huh. So do I remember watching a movie that most people that get lost don't they die of shame. I mean, that's an overstatement from Anthony Hopkins and it was the movie The Edge with the Bear in Alaska. Is there do people kind of freak out in terms of just like they just feel awful about getting lost, or is that or they're just happy to be found?

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Uh there's been a mix and search and rescue's changed a lot through the 20 plus years I've done it. When I started, we didn't have GPSs, we didn't have all that kind of stuff. Map and compass and a paper map is what we had.

Trailing vs Area Dogs Explained

SPEAKER_00 23:00

The types of people that were getting lost or that we were looking for were a little bit different. Um overdue loggers, for instance. Um a fair amount of that would happen.

SPEAKER_03 23:11

They just get lost to the woods?

SPEAKER_00 23:12

They didn't get lost, they were injured.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

They were either out there by the or there something happened to their truck. So that was kind of a common thing, too. Something happened to their truck and they couldn't get back. And so um we would go out and out and find them. We don't have that now anymore. Uh we have certainly have more uh situations where um unstable mental health is an issue.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

So somebody went backpacking and flipped out.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

Yeah, or somebody local. We do a lot of local stuff. They've left their home and took a walk. Yep. And they've either had a psychotic break or you've got a dementia patient. But um so that's where the training of that mental health first aid is really important.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Trevor Burrus, Jr. You can go up outside of Field Brook somewhere and find somebody.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:04

Yeah. Probably a lot easier than the wilderness areas.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

Yes, if they want to be found. Yeah. You know, sometimes people don't want to be found.

SPEAKER_03 24:11

How about drugs? People OD on drugs and just flip out and that that can be too.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

Um, but I will say the sheriff's department is very careful on what they send our volunteers to. Everything, if it's not safe, we don't go.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

Gotcha. So they'll they'll take that job.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Yep. Um The other thing that our dogs do, um unfortunately, we do more of this, and it's the dark side, is what they're also human remains detection dogs. So if somebody's missing and has been missing for a long time, we can send our dogs in.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

So they're they could spell cadavers.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 24:49

Wow. That's super useful.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

It's very useful. Yeah. And it brings those folks. It brings closure to the family. It's uh it's tough, but and it's very it's hard for the dogs because it's intense for them as well. But um it's fascinating on the scientific side of it, the dog handling side of it.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

So my wife's a hiker, and my concern is always not like it used to be, like Arcata Forest used to have a little bit more of a creep factor. Um how much violence is done in the backcountry that is related to search and rescue? Would you do people go out and get violent?

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Aaron Powell I don't I can't recall any anything like that. Obviously, some of the human remain stuff we do has got a uh criminal nexus to it. Right. But as far as people getting lost and we're looking for a missing person, it's typically not a violent thing that, you know, if somebody went hiking, it's I would I don't have the numbers, but I think it's more a mental health and maybe somebody wasn't doing well and they said, I'm gonna go for a hike and then get turned around or would the cannabis industry play into any of this this discussion in terms of missing people or crime or crime adjacent.

unknown 26:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

Oh yeah. The term grant that did something terrible or who knows.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

Yeah. And oftentimes when we're called in, um and it's it's frequently the K-9 team and a couple other people. We don't need a whole bunch of uh team members. We are briefed with the need to know type of thing. I don't need to know the whole story behind this. And quite

Drones, Air Support, And Tech

SPEAKER_00 26:40

frankly, when you do as many eyes as I've done, I don't want to know the whole story.

SPEAKER_03 26:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

I want to find them and I want to bring closure to their family.

SPEAKER_03 26:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

But I don't want to know.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

You did your part.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:51

I like that. And to walk away.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

That's uh that's really cool and humble and good. And probably mental health stuff for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Yeah, we really take care of one another.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Yeah. Yep. We found the body, it's over there. It's everybody's wrapping up. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Yeah. Some are definitely harder than others.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

Oh, I bet. Especially with probably young people or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:13

Um, well, thanks for sharing all that. Hey, let's talk about Humboldt.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

All right.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

But before we do, it's quiz time. Oh, Nick, there's my bell. So this is uh for a Dick Taylor Black Fig Bar. Ooh. I think I'm gonna have it right now. Uh actually my favorite 72% Tanzania dark chocolate black fig can be yours, Jen, if you answer the questions to my liking. Just kidding. Um question number one: who are you and what do you want?

SPEAKER_00 27:48

I am a community member of Humboldt County. And what I want is to continue to help make Humboldt what it is.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Good answer. Love that. Question number two. What would you like to see of the future for Humboldt County?

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Well, now that I'm getting older, one of the top things on the list is better health care.

SPEAKER_03 28:17

Ah. Top priority.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

And uh with that, where we are really, I think, heading in a good direction is more outdoor. I mean, Humboldt County has a ton of outdoor activities. But that bay trail, that's amazing. Yeah. Just to continue to build that out and um go to Blue Lake, Annie and Mary. Annie and Mary. Um, go a little bit further north. Um, just make it and I think kind of with that, and the other thing is just a we're such a welcoming county in general. I mean, I I travel all over working in different places. And the sense of community that Humboldt has is uh outstanding.

SPEAKER_03 29:00

It's a recurring theme here. A lot. Yeah. It's it's magical. So we could extend the trail up to Trinidad or at least to Moonstone a little bit. We could extend out, of course, to Blue Lake to downtown Blue Lake. And then south, I guess we could go to what, Lolita, and then down even into Fortuna?

unknown 29:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Rio Del Scotia. And it'd be nice to have an easy way to get to CR, I think, and that's getting closer.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

Yeah. That'd be good. Yeah. And Lolita, I think they were talking about it being the launch point for the great Redwood Trail someday.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

There's ice cream at the trailhead. That's right. It's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:38

What's up, you guys? Uh yeah, no. We were just down there. It was fun. Took took the kids from and grandkids from Medford.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 29:45

And Lolita's just a cool town.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 29:47

Now it has Luisa's Mexican food. So good. Same one as these guys. Yeah, good. All right, shout out. All right, question number three. You get the day off, 12 hours to be with your sweetie. Do whatever you want in Humboldt. Money's not even in question. What do you how do you spend your 12 hours time off?

SPEAKER_00 30:03

Well, it's got to start with a dog walk that is also a bird walk. My husband's very active in the Audubon Society. He's a docent at the Marsh, Arcade of Marsh.

SPEAKER_03 30:17

You must know Gary Bloomfield. He does? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_03 30:20

Just to work with Gary. Yeah. What a nice man.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

He's a great guy. Great artist.

SPEAKER_03 30:24

And a good artist.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

And a good birder. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

So we would what is it called? Godwit days?

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Godwit days. Um he helps just with a number of of things. Yeah. And uh yeah, he's a great guy. So we do that.

Mental Health First Aid In SAR

SPEAKER_00 30:40

And then uh we might go up to Big Lagoon and pump up our inflatable kay that could hold two dogs. And up until three weeks ago, we had two dogs. Um and uh go paddle.

SPEAKER_03 30:55

Fun. And then must be a big kayak.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

It's uh not a real big kayak. And I have one small dog and one medium-sized dog.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

We all could we all could fit, but nothing more. And then we'd uh either have a picnic there or maybe go to Lariton, uh, maybe go down to Renata's, you know, nice dinner, and uh go home and relax. Nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:24

We call that quiet night in.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

We we like the quiet night in. Uh last question. What do you uh what's life giving and what is soul crushing for you, Jen?

SPEAKER_00 31:39

Life giving is kind of what passion is. And for me, it is uh working with the dogs that I work with, not just mine, but many, many others. And the gift that not only do they give the handlers, but they give their community. And that is uh really, really rewarding and fulfilling in many ways. The hard things, I think, now in particular is just the lack of people communicating well with one another.

SPEAKER_03 32:17

Well said. Yeah. We'll talk about that later. I wish everybody wants the answer to that one. It's like, why why are we not talking? It's because can't hear you. I don't are you talking? Yeah, it's sad. Well, hey, um, what's not sad is the fact that you are a proud owner of a um a black fig. This is my favorite one, by the way. Uh, it's Gary's favorite too. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Oh, thank you. That's great. And the nice sailboat on the on the Yeah, great guys.

SPEAKER_03 32:47

They're super, super kind. Um, love those guys. Oh, you know what else I love? Quality body works.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Oh, we go there. Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately.

SPEAKER_03 32:57

Yeah, Ross is fortunately, unfortunately. He just uh stepped down from two years at the uh Eureka Chamber. He was the president.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

Good for him.

SPEAKER_03 33:05

Great guy. His wife's a bodybuilder, got to meet Alex the other day. She's super kind, and I have a 21-year-old that wants to get into it. So she kind of picked her brain. So uh let's let's move on. Um talk about uh legacy for a minute. What do you want to be remembered for?

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Um I would like to be remembered for someone that gave more than they took. And I feel like now at least the trajectory I'm on that's happening. You know, I work with, like I said, a number of dog teams. I uh instruct, I go around Oregon, Washington teaching a little bit in the summertime. Um mostly to make search and rescue dogs better.

SPEAKER_03 33:59

Wow. Kind of paying it forward a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:02

I like it. Yeah, I feel that way too, a little bit. A little bit more.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:06

Yeah, it feels good.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

I like to share the importance of community. You know, teams will come up to Humboldt County for me to evaluate and Maya and I to help them with some things. And for instance, we'll go to we live in Arcata

Changing Case Types And Safety

SPEAKER_00 34:20

and we'll go to Murphy's there at Sunny Bray. And I know the checkers, they know me.

SPEAKER_03 34:25

The delegays.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

And yeah, we always see people we know.

SPEAKER_03 34:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

And friends from the Bay Area, they're there, they don't even, they don't get it. I mean, that may that's so foreign to them.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

They're going to Whole Foods, where you yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

That you're you're just another person. And I share that with them just so they can get that little snippet of this is what a community really is.

SPEAKER_03 34:50

I like that. We go to Trinidad Murphy's because we do our date night up on Camel on Scenic Drive. Oh, nice. And Trinidad has the same vo vibe. A couple more tourists and a couple of Trinidad people, but just down home, know my man at the deli, call my order in, and it's like, yeah, it's fun. Yeah. See, you know, kind of see some of the people at Moonstone Crossing or just, hey, there's Terry, the mayor of Trinidad. Right. And we have all that and it's funny, we take all that stuff for granted, right?

SPEAKER_01 35:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

And people at the Bay Area go, I haven't seen the same person in a store in five years, because it's always this.

SPEAKER_00 35:29

And they don't look.

SPEAKER_03 35:30

Yeah, they learn to not look.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We look, you know, that's the difference.

SPEAKER_03 35:35

Hopefully we do. We slow down enough to pay attention.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

Yeah. I mean, checkers will say, I'll get like a piece of sausage from the breakfast thing and go, Oh, you're training the dog this morning, huh?

SPEAKER_03 35:44

I like it. Yep. So I want to cycle back to training, um, training Daisy and what what you did to go back and forth from say Chico. And uh what goes into the training of a dog to make it to make her amazing?

SPEAKER_00 35:58

Yeah, it most people will get a dog as a puppy. Uh Daisy, for me, I got, I rescued her at six months old. I I adopted her at six months. Somebody had her, and it was way too much dog. So often the dogs that we are using are not dogs people would like to have in their home.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

They're very high drive and can be a fair amount of maintenance. So you start with it's a game. You start developing your relationship. That's the most important thing. And uh with her with trailing, I would just put little treats out and just build from that. And as she got better and she needed new people to find or a different, uh, different location, I'd head over to Chico and meet with the two handlers over there and say, This is where we are. And they say, Okay, we'll set you up just what you need. Wow. Yeah. So instance last week, last weekend, uh, Daisy and I are getting ready to recert. We have to recertify every two years. And we need to recertify our cadaver test. So I called up a friend in Auburn and said, Hey, can you set up a mock test for me? And we'll come over and we'll run that so I can see, make sure everything's we're doing just fine. And then I've got two weeks to fix anything. And so we went over there and she set it up. Daisy ran it. She found two things on an acre in four minutes. I said, I think we've got this.

SPEAKER_03 37:25

Go, Daisy.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

Yeah. And then uh I asked a friend to set up an urban trail uh the next day in Nevada City, since I'm someplace. And so she had somebody lay that trail the day before. And uh we she said, This is where their car was. And 25 minutes later, we've gone a mile and a half and through downtown Nevada City or neighborhood. Yeah, a little bit of both. Those roads are really narrow.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

They are.

SPEAKER_00 37:51

And uh, so it's that type of uh commitment that it takes to um stay proficient at it. Um I evaluate for Carta. And um, so I'll go down and test people, and it's really interesting. I love seeing other dogs work. And it takes two to three years before they have all the skills they need, but more importantly, that the person has all the skills that they need.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

So you're training people and dogs.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Yeah, that's what CARD is so good at is they train the person to become a searcher

Awards, Leadership, And Legacy

SPEAKER_00 38:30

as well. And there's not many canine teams that do both.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

Wow. So that's a whole headspace and a mindset that is probably caught many ways than taught. Imagine both, but a little bit of both.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

I mean, you have to prove your proficiencies. And a lot of that. Many of the dog teams that are certified through CARTA are part of a county team. Like Maya and I are part of Humboldt, and other friends are Butte County.

SPEAKER_03 38:55

How many on the team here, roughly?

SPEAKER_00 38:57

Uh two dog handlers and probably 20 other active members. Wow. Which um I've been on the team since 1999. And this is probably maybe that not the highest number of members, but certainly the highest number of active members.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

Oh, so you've been around a while with this.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

So kind of legend.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Uh maybe.

SPEAKER_03 39:22

Let's see what AI has to say about this. So this is the portion of our show brought to you by AI. You're ChatGPT. I can't even probably even say that. Um And then I want to go to a couple stories before we go, maybe a couple memorable stories so you can kind of work on that. So um I kind of like this. This was sweet. Um, AI has something sweet to say. We'll see if it's accurate. I think I've teed this up for far too long. Jan Fredericks's work has earned respect from local law enforcement, emergency agencies, and the community. I like the community part of the dog thing, the whole dog community, the community, the relationship with the dog, but also all y'all. That sounds like it's like a really bonded kind of a cool cadre of people. I love it. Her calm, uh her calm under pressure, innovative problem solving and dedication uh saves lives and inspires others. It's almost flattering. I it's I'm I'm probably tending to think this is real. As a woman leading in a traditionally male-dominated field, she breaks stereotypes and motivates a new generation of volunteers. Was it mostly male in the past?

SPEAKER_00 40:37

Well, uh on the dog side of it, no. Uh on the search and rescue side of it, yes. Okay. Um but barely, you know, barely dominated.

SPEAKER_03 40:49

Okay. Um shall I go on? It's too too flattering or weird.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

I've I just was awarded uh a distinction a month ago, and I'm I'm hearing a lot of this. I I know where that came from.

SPEAKER_03 41:07

Um rather than read on, tell me what what tell us about your award.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

Well, it was um uh an award that Carta presents, um, but it covers the entire state. It's called the Larry Peabody Award for Outstanding uh Excellency. And it's basically an award. Larry Peabody was the uh dispatcher for California Rescue Dog Association, and he was the first member. We have card, we've got ID numbers, and he was number 101.

SPEAKER_03 41:45

So if you had a state uh rescue, he would dispatch a team on the telephone. On the phone.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

On the telephone.

SPEAKER_03 41:53

Four cell phones, probably.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 41:54

And so everybody would gather in Hayfork or wherever Potent, California, Nevada City.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

Yeah, he would call people individually.

SPEAKER_03 42:02

So there are some that's that some of these rescues take a statewide effort. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:07

For instance, Paradise Fire.

SPEAKER_03 42:10

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

Yeah. The campfire. Um, which I spent days at. Uh so anyway, that was that was the award. It's uh it's a nominated thing. Um it truly was an honor. Uh I am not a real flashy person. I'm pretty low-key. So getting something like that was like great.

SPEAKER_03 42:36

You know, it's I read something this morning, this devotional

Life In The Duck Hunter Shack

SPEAKER_03 42:40

I read. It was really great. Learning to let others serve you. And that's it blesses them to be blessing you back. Yeah. So it's it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 42:50

Yeah. You know, I've I do have one thing that I haven't shared yet that kind of makes us a little notable to some humble people. Uh I met my husband in 1985, and he lived and had been living since 1970 in a little house that a lot of people noticed and many did not. It was a little red duck hunter shack on 101 by Jacoby Creek.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

The duck hunter shack.

SPEAKER_00 43:17

The duck hunter shack.

SPEAKER_03 43:18

He was the guy that lived there?

SPEAKER_00 43:19

He was the guy that lived there.

SPEAKER_03 43:20

Was he just him?

SPEAKER_00 43:21

It was just him. And you know, I have a Subaru. I do. But no, he had he had truck.

SPEAKER_03 43:27

Oh, that was you visiting him.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

And um he uh I would pass that cabin all the time. That's funny. I wonder who lives there. I bet it's some hermit kind of guy.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

Weirdo hunter.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

And little did I know I would meet him and live in that same shack for 15 years. Is that right? Gary was there for 30, I was for there for 15.

SPEAKER_03 43:48

Wow, did it have power?

SPEAKER_00 43:50

Nope. Wow. It had natural gas though, because it was right on the pipeline.

SPEAKER_03 43:54

Oh, perfect.

SPEAKER_00 43:54

So our lights were gas, our refrigerator was gas. We were really lacked for for nothing. And it was a Simple, simple life. But that um that's kind of a definitely 100% humble place.

SPEAKER_03 44:06

That is. That's iconic.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

Yeah.

unknown 44:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:08

And going further down the road, remember the wooden dragons and all the sculptures? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 44:13

Yep. Did you guys ever get flooded out or we never got flooded out because we were three and a half feet up on stilts.

SPEAKER_03 44:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

But we did have fish swimming underneath the house. Wow. Our first dog learned to swim as a puppy because he stepped off the step and he was in the water. Swim. Um but he was a water dog. So uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:31

Did you eat a lot of duck back in the day?

SPEAKER_00 44:33

I'm not no, you know, I don't really care for duck. Uh what we did do, because we were volunteers for the refuge.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

We he Gary lived on the property when it was privately owned, and the feds bought it. And we uh we didn't manage the r duck hunters, but we did keep track of the numbers and give them an evil eye if they were really not doing it.

SPEAKER_03 44:59

Did I did I understand that the skull boat design came from Humboldt Bay?

SPEAKER_00 45:04

That whole I wouldn't be surprised.

SPEAKER_03 45:06

The flat boat thing. I thought I read that recently anyway. Oh, so you guys love the little duck thing.

unknown 45:13

Huh.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

I had Kevin Hoover on from the Arcada Eye, which is now the sorry Kev, I forgot your name of your paper mo momentarily. The um McKenleville Press. No, that's the other one.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

Mad River Union?

SPEAKER_03 45:26

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:27

It's really weird getting older, you know. It's like I came to the cupboard to get something in the pantry. Why am I here? So um he was talking about the guy that lived up in Arcata Forest.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:39

That came and went mysteriously in the night.

SPEAKER_01 45:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:42

Obviously had lived there for a while, and then one day they went back and it was completely clean.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

That was cool.

SPEAKER_03 45:50

And I like I like uh Kevin's approach. He goes, you know, I'm 100% good if you want to ever tell your story. And if you never do, you do you, man. We're we're good. It's respect that equally. Sure. I thought that was a good answer. So a couple of quick stories before you go that were amazing rescues that um that are memorable, top three takeaways.

SPEAKER_00 46:10

I think um one of the more recent ones took place in I believe 2024. It was uh a woman that walked away from her uh kid's house in um by the McKay track down off a walnut.

SPEAKER_03 46:27

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

And um

A Multi‑Day Save Near McKay

SPEAKER_00 46:30

she had walked away before and she was not mentally stable at that point, so they weren't concerned. She walked away again. We couldn't find her. So uh the search was initiated, and um we searched all day of the first day, which was a Sunday, and I started at the house with my older dog, Gracie, and she gave us a lot of information saying there's a lot of places she's not, and she might have gone this way, but it was hard because she had been walking all over the place. And so the next day it was a full-fledged search. We called in additional dogs from different Ricarda. We had four more dogs show up. We had another 20 searchers come in from different counties.

SPEAKER_02 47:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

And when that happens, all of a sudden we've got people to feed, we've got people to house, uh Logistics, yeah. Yeah, a lot of logistics and a search to run. So at that point, I stepped back and was not in the field but was in search management. So I was working with Deputy Willoughby and uh Travis Rogers, Sergeant Rogers now, um, making sure we were keeping updates on the maps. Our new navigation system is real time, so we can see where everybody is. Wow. And so that was day two. Day three, we call in more. We still don't have her.

SPEAKER_03 47:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

And day four, um I think it was day four, it might have just been three days. And the last day we had almost 40 searchers.

SPEAKER_03 48:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 48:08

And all in the McKay? All actually along the we rolled out the McKay and the private property in between Walnut and uh like uh Lumbar Hills. Okay. That whole area. Um, and then all the way down to Elk River Road.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

So a big area.

SPEAKER_03 48:28

Well, the area.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

And uh a Sonoma team came in and uh they were walking the road and they found her. Nice and she was alive.

unknown 48:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

And so that was a lot of effort and uh the whole community came together and um that was a big that was a big search for us.

SPEAKER_03 48:48

And does Sonoma get Dick Taylor chocolates or anything? Do they they get they get high fives, right? Must be a bit of a everybody wins because the team won.

SPEAKER_00 48:58

Right. And then, you know, I will run into these people at other things, and I said, that will you guys will come to Humboldt anytime.

SPEAKER_03 49:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 49:05

Because we we treat them right. So that was a real good one.

SPEAKER_03 49:08

And now you kind of owe them to if they ever call to possibly reciprocate.

SPEAKER_00 49:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:12

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

We had we've had, I think, five mutual aid searches uh last year. Mendocino County, Trinity County.

SPEAKER_03 49:20

So logistics are they all set up by the sheriffs to go to Redwood Acres or wherever, right. Or a hotel or specific stuff. Everybody eats at Samoa Cookhouse, which is they bring us food mostly.

SPEAKER_00 49:31

Well, that's we've got we've got food, food brought in.

SPEAKER_03 49:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 49:34

Which was which is great. So that was a good one. And I think the one that was so difficult was um there was a drowning on the Klamath. Uh, I believe it was in July. And it took a few days for us to uh find the body. And we had a lot of our teammates there. We had some water dogs coming in from out of the area, and that person was located. Um, but that was a really hard one. And um it it hit the Native

River Recovery And Team Care

SPEAKER_00 50:10

American community hard as well as our team. Um, and so what we did is, and I was out of town, so I was managing everything by my phone at the Giants game looking at stuff.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 50:23

And uh the end of that last day, I was on the phone. I called every single member, make sure, hey, how are you doing? And then we made sure we had a complete debrief with the with the whole team. Wow. That's um that's what's really important. Yeah. And that built um, that built, they made our team a lot closer. So the tough stuff we do because that's what we do.

SPEAKER_03 50:48

I love it. That cadre, that military sort of been through it all together.

SPEAKER_00 50:55

Yeah, we've got saying, you know, train hard and so others may live.

SPEAKER_03 50:59

Love that. I like that. So um how do we get a hold of y'all? How do we support you guys as a do you guys take cash?

SPEAKER_00 51:12

We take it all.

SPEAKER_03 51:14

I mean it takes money to do your your thing.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

It does. And uh we are at a place with our team. It's really taking off. We're uh jumping to the next level, which requires additional training, which requires more money. Travel, and travel and the training itself. Um so in the past, what we've done is set out a donation letter, but we are stepping it up. We're sending out a quarterly newsletter for that. And there's a QR code if you want to donate. And it is tax deductible. It comes to Humboldt County Sheriff Search and Rescue Inc. uh sheriff's department.

SPEAKER_03 51:52

100% of it's used for you.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

100% of it's used.

SPEAKER_03 51:54

How do we do that?

SPEAKER_00 51:56

Um websites. We have uh Humboldt County, it's HumboldtSar.org. Um and that's our website.

SPEAKER_03 52:05

HumboldtSar.org.

SPEAKER_00 52:06

HumboldtSar.org.

SPEAKER_03 52:08

That's S A S A R.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

S-A-R. Okay. Search and Rescue. Yep. Uh that's one way. Um we hope to have uh some more fundraisers. So we're out. We're at at parades and stuff like that. Uh but the website's a great spot. And um we also thank uh Southwest Rotary. They have we're they the canine team is a beneficiary of theirs every year or other year. That's cool. And so we've got a canine fund that is great club. Critical for us to be able to get the training that we have.

SPEAKER_03 52:47

Southwest Rotary, Rotary Rotarians. I get my blue badge on Monday, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

Oh, good for you.

SPEAKER_03 52:52

I know. I was Southwest, I moved over downtown, and uh sometimes it's special being 66 and getting a little badge.

SPEAKER_00 52:59

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 53:00

Imagine me. Yeah, I would love to support. Uh you guys probably do Venmo and all the thing, PayPal or something.

SPEAKER_00 53:05

Yep, we do PayPal and we'd take cash checks, smiles.

SPEAKER_03 53:10

Sure. Gold bull again.

SPEAKER_00 53:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:11

Old cars.

SPEAKER_00 53:13

Yeah, we can skip the old cars, but how about a jag? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:17

We'll figure it out. Well, delighted. Uh last

Training Regimen And Recert

SPEAKER_03 53:20

question. Um kind of piggyback on the legacy. What would what do you want to have on your tombstone or tombstone adjacent if you were say scattered instead?

SPEAKER_00 53:30

Um I think it would sort of be twofold. One is she found her passion. Because I really want everyone to be able to have that joy.

SPEAKER_03 53:43

It's powerful. It's really good. Found it early.

SPEAKER_00 53:47

40. I felt like that's pretty dang good. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 53:50

I've got to say, you were ahead of the curve on that one.

SPEAKER_00 53:53

So I've been doing the dog thing for a while. And that I gave back.

SPEAKER_03 53:58

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 53:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:59

So that's found the passion and and gave back.

SPEAKER_00 54:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:03

Maybe we all do that. We love that. Well, Jen, thanks.

SPEAKER_00 54:06

My pleasure. Appreciate it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:09

I'm going to do uh my uh I didn't ever do the break in. Hey, if you're just joining us, it's Jan Frederickson. Now we have to go. Sorry. I got it in though. Um if you want to support us, which is possible, uh hundredhumbold.com. We're on all the podcast platforms. We're on YouTube. We're on Access Humboldt on the channels, which is fun. And uh just know us, like us, subscribe to us. You can send us your Jag or your gold bullion. We'll we'll we'll figure out what to do with it. And thanks to Dick Taylor and to um um Dutch Bros Coffee, to Quality Body, and thank you, Nick, and uh Growing Pains, my favorite podcast and podcast producer. And thank you to Joni. I don't ever ever thank this much. Thank you to all my former guests and new guests coming. And thank you, Jen. Appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_00 54:59

My pleasure. Thanks, Scott.

SPEAKER_03 55:01

Thank you.