With its maze of mountain biking trails that stretch for 44 miles, Galbraith Mountain can be a tough place to find your way around.

Never mind being hurt and trying to direct rescuers to your location.

But a new coordinated approach led by South Whatcom Regional Fire Authority is allowing rescuers to find and get to people on local trails faster.

"So that we're not searching all over," said Jim Peeples, special rescue division chief for South Whatcom Regional Fire Authority.

Called the Wilderness Rescue Program, it includes a bright-yellow all-terrain vehicle - dubbed the Bumble Bee - and new emergency checkpoints that already are in use on Galbraith.

The fire authority developed the program because it has numerous high-use recreational areas that it responds to for medical emergencies, fires or lost people.

Those areas can be steep, heavily wooded, have trails that are narrow or stretch for miles, or otherwise require special equipment and training.

They include Galbraith, Stimpson Family Nature Reserve, the Chuckanut Recreation Area and shoreline, including Pine and Cedar Lakes trails as well as Raptor Ridge-Hemlock trails.

The fire authority launched the program in collaboration with other rescue agencies and, in the case of Galbraith, the WHIMPs Mountain Bike Coalition.

In addition to training for rescuers such as mapping and GPS, details of the program include:

• The four-wheel drive Rescue 2802 vehicle, also known as the Bumble Bee. It was purchased from the Depoe Bay Fire District in Oregon for $12,500.

Donations from Ram Construction, Fanatik Bike Co., and the Lake Samish Fireman's Association paid for the purchase.

The vehicle can bring in up to three rescuers, has a trailer that can be used to bring out a patient to a waiting ambulance, and has water-carrying capacity to fight a small brush fire.

"It's really designed to be used off road. It's not going to be something that we're going to be running down the roads with," said Dave Ralston, fire chief of South Whatcom Fire Authority.

Not only can the Bumble Bee get into trails that an ambulance, for example, couldn't, it also saves the legs of rescuers. Imagine running up the steep Pine and Cedar Lakes Trail to help someone, while carrying equipment.

"That can be a long haul up," Ralston said.

The Bumble Bee also can make it easier to evacuate a patient, an effort that can require four to six people to carry a stretcher.

• The opening of the authority's "28 House" on Samish Way. Located down the road from the Galbraith Lane entrance, it has been staffed since Sept. 1.

• Coordinating, creating and mapping 14 emergency checkpoints on Galbraith Mountain. Such checkpoints could be created for other areas in the future.

For now, they're only on Galbraith, where the number of calls for help has risen with its growing popularity, according to fire authority officials.

The newest version of the Galbraith Mountain Trails map created by Chris Behee marks the checkpoints, which all have letters associated with them. "A," for example, stands for checkpoint Alpha.

This effort was a collaboration with the WHIMPs through its secretary Matt Durand, medic and avid mountain biker Drew Trimakas, Hardware Sales, Signs Plus, and Whatcom Medic One.

"We're certainly grateful that they recognize the need and are willing to help us do something like this," said Mark Peterson, president of the WHIMPs, which is the group that builds and maintains trails on Galbraith.

The idea is that rescuers can be directed to someone hurt on Galbraith through use of the emergency checkpoints, especially helpful for people who don't know the name of the trail they're on.

"If you are injured, have someone with you go to the nearest checkpoint and call," Ralston said.

The new checkpoint system has been used already.

On Aug. 14, the day after the signs went up, South Whatcom Fire Authority received a call about a 31-year-old mountain biker who crashed while going over a jump on a trail called Unemployment Line.

That trail was marked with a new checkpoint Delta at the top and Bravo at the bottom.

Rescuers said they were able to find the hurt man quickly with the new system. He was pulled out to checkpoint Bravo, where they met up with Whatcom Medic One. He was taken to St. Joseph hospital and treated for multiple fractured ribs and blood and air in his chest cavity.

"For him, it made all the difference because he had pretty significant injuries," Peeples said.