Motorcyclist found after crashing, undressing, falling off Highway 1 cliff

A man who appeared to have crashed his motorcycle along Highway 1, removed all his clothes and then apparently wandered about a quarter mile before falling 40 feet off a cliff, was rescued by emergency responders Monday.

The man, who was not identified, was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital with “significant injuries” according to Dennis Meredith, chief of the Timber Cove Fire Protection District.

The discovery of the motorcycle, found on its side along the coastal highway near Kruse Ranch Road just after 5 a.m. Monday morning, prompted an area-wide search for its rider. Emergency personnel found a helmet and leather motorcycle gear along with a man’s clothing, including shoes, pants, shirt and underwear, which was folded up in a neat pile on the side of the road, Meredith said.

“The motorcycle was cold,” he said. “He had taken all his clothes off. We did a fairly extensive search but we were unable to find him.”

They searched for another hour without finding any other signs of the rider nor any indication that he was injured, he said.

Some three hours later at about 9:30 a.m., a state park ranger found the man alive but severely injured on the rocks in Fisk Mill Cove, where he had fallen some 40 feet. It would be another three and a half hours before they would be able to bring him up the cliff.

A number of factors complicated the effort, including a low, dense fog cover, which meant the Sonoma County sheriff’s helicopter Henry 1 could not be used to quickly pick up the man with a long-line rope rescue. In addition, firefighters had to use chain saws to cut through a thick bramble of branches and trees at the top of the cliff.

A state park lifeguard used a jet ski to access the beach below where the man had fallen.

“It was an extremely elaborate and involved rescue,” Meredith said. “It required a multiagency effort that was very complicated and took a long time.”

Once firefighters cut through the brush at the top of the cliff, they had to lower ropes down to the man and slowly hoist him up. He was loaded into a helicopter at about 1 p.m., Meredith said, which was some eight hours after his motorcycle was found on the side of the road. The man suffered a number of injuries, most likely from the fall, but his condition was not yet known.

Meredith said it was not clear why the man took off all his clothes and wandered off, eventually walking off the side of the cliff. Neither officials from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office or the CHP have said if they were able to determine what caused the accident or if alcohol or drugs were a factor in either the crash or the man’s behavior afterward. Both agencies, along with state parks, Timber Cove, Cal Fire and Coast Life Support participated in the search and rescue.

“We assumed he had some sort of head injury,” Meredith said. “But at the time we started searching, there was no sign of any trauma or blood. It was weird.”

The lengthy hunt for the rider included searching for miles along the curving rural highway, in case he’d walked for help, and farther off of the roadway into nearby campgrounds and beach areas.

Staff Writer Julie Johnson contributed to this report.