Having used to live in OC, I am very familiar with the Holy Jim Trail. You need a high clearance vehicle to drive to the trailhead.
Too often I have seen people who should have never stepped foot on this trail. They think it is an "easy" trek in the Cleveland National Forest.
Wrong.
Out in the CNF you can take the "wrong turn at Albuquerque" and you are asking for trouble if you are not prepared.
Depending on when they started their hike, when the sun sets, it gets so dark there you cannot see your hand in front of your face.
I imagine it was a hastily planned hike given it was Easter Sunday. It was "something-to-do-so-let's-do-it" kind of hike.
Glad to hear the outcome did not turn tragic. I pray for both hikers a speedy recovery and a lesson learned.
I am sure this qualifies as an episode of "I Shouldn't Be Alive."
I learned my lesson the hard way on May 1, 2004 on the Indian Truck Trail on "the other side." It was a very hot day and my friend and I were very lucky to be alive. It was a bad day for "summit fever" to get to Santiago Peak. And we all know that if we are at the summit, we are halfway there. Stifling heat, water rations and rattlesnakes. We would have been better off watching the Kentucky Derby.
I will leave it at that.
