[Rescuers helped] an injured hiker from China Beach on the Saturday. The hiker blew a whistle, which alerted others, who called 911 and directed first responders to the hiker's location. Separately, a 70-year-old mountain biker was airlifted out of Englishman River Falls Park near Parksville on the Friday when he fell off a steep embankment on one of the park's challenging mountain-[bike trails]; this required Arrowsmith Search and Rescue crews to call in a helicopter to retrieve him from difficult terrain, and traffic had to be stopped in the park to accommodate the air operation. On the Saturday another injured mountain biker was airlifted for medical attention in the Burnt Bridge area near Shawnigan Lake.
Written from the article text only. Where the scan is hard to read, the summary was taken from the page image rather than the OCR.
Details
Headline
“Mountain biker, 70, airlifted by rescuers after fall near Parksville” Not recorded in the catalogue — read from the clipping image. Check it against the clipping below before quoting it.
The China Beach whistle rescue recorded here is almost certainly the incident Victoria Clarke describes in the May 2025 preparedness article also held in this archive, where she recounts an injured hiker near China Beach using a whistle to attract a passer-by. If so, this page is the contemporaneous report of the story she later told as a lesson in what to carry. This page was recovered from inside the ProQuest bulk export already held in the archive, where it had been listed as referenced but not held.
The clipping
The full page. The article region could not be verified automatically, so the whole page is shown rather than risk a clipping that cuts off the article. the whole page is shown; the article region within it has not been isolated.
Read the original online
ProQuest — the scanned page in the Times Colonist digital archive ↗subscription or library card Recorded exactly as captured, including the Greater Victoria Public Library proxy address — it needs a GVPL card or a ProQuest subscription. Without one, search ProQuest for the document ID in the address. This link opens through the Greater Victoria Public Library and asks for a library card number before showing the page. Cards are free for Greater Victoria residents — sign up on the GVPL site; an online temporary card is enough for the digital databases. Outside Greater Victoria, ask your own library whether it offers the ProQuest Times Colonist archive. http://search.proquest.com.proxy.gvpl.ca/pdntimescolonist/newspapers/august-7-2024page-a4/docview/3091224547/sem-2?accountid=6051
These links leave this archive and point at the publisher. They may change or disappear — the scan held here is the archival copy.
This is a full newspaper page and carries unrelated stories as well as the article summarised here. The text is the OCR made from the ProQuest bulk export during the 2026 research phase, not a fresh pass. Recovered from page 28 of the bulk export. The page carries three separate rescue items from across Vancouver Island; only the China Beach one is in this team's area. The responding team at China Beach is not named in the recovered text - Juan de Fuca Search and Rescue is listed on the strength of the location and the 2025 Clarke article, and should be confirmed against the scan.
Record id 2024-08-07-times-colonist-pa4-page-scan. Original file in the project archive: 02_articles/2026-07-16_proquest_bulk_export_50_articles_2012-2026.pdf (page 28).
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In the timeline
7 August 2024[Rescuers helped] an injured hiker from China Beach on the Saturday.
