THANKS TO the efforts of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team, Big Sur’s latest foolish hiking adventure had a happy ending.

According to Sgt. Joe Moses, on Feb. 24, an Atascadero woman, her two 12-year-old sons and 9-year-old daughter attempted to follow Villa Creek (65 miles south of Carmel) downhill about 2.5 miles to Highway 1.

After dropping his family off in the Big Sur backcountry, the woman’s husband drove to where Villa Creek meets the highway and awaited their arrival.

But darkness arrived before the hikers did, so the husband drove a short distance to the tiny hamlet of Gorda and contacted law enforcement.

“He was a little nervous,” Moses said. “He figured someone tripped and fell.”

Moses and a crew of four rescue workers were called out just before 8 p.m. After preparations and a lengthy drive from Monterey, they hit the trail at about 11:15 p.m. Two rescue workers drove up Willow Creek Road and descended down the creek, while the other three hiked up the creek from Highway 1. It was the second group that reached the hikers first. “They got to them at about 4 a.m.,” Sgt. Moses reported.

The hikers, it turned out, gave up their trek only a quarter-mile from Highway 1 — but they had no idea they were so close. No doubt shivering as the sun set and temperatures headed toward the 30s, they built a fire on a sandbar along the creek.

While the hikers told rescue workers they were trying to follow a trail, they were essentially boulder-hopping down the creek. “They were knee-deep in water and scaling around a couple waterfalls,” Sgt. Moses said.

Rescue workers spent the night with the woman and her children, and everybody hiked out in the morning. Sgt. Moses and his crew returned to Monterey at about 10 a.m. Feb. 25 — 14 hours after their odyssey began. Nobody was injured.

“In hindsight, they probably could have made it out by themselves, but we couldn’t take that risk, especially with small children involved,” he added.

As is typically the case, taxpayers will pick up the tab for the cost of the rescue, though Monterey could ask the family’s home county of San Luis Obispo to reimburse them.