Lost hiker found after intensive search

Published 11:18 am Tuesday, September 25, 2018

It took two helicopters, 45-50 ground searchers and two-and-a-half days of searching, but search and rescue teams, including the National Guard, located a missing hiker in the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

The 69-year-old hiker from Portland had been in the Red’s Horse Ranch area when she began her hike. She was last seen at about 11 a.m. Sept. 20. The call to alert officials of her disappearance came the following day.

Mike Hansen, Wallowa County Search and Rescue team leader during the latter half of the search, said the hiker had taken a day hike from the horse ranch, traveling the trail toward Moss Springs. She then took a side trail she didn’t know that led to the Minam River and went off-trail to examine rocks.

“She got off the trail to explore something, and when she couldn’t find the trail anymore, she got turned around and didn’t know which way to go and ended up wandering the wrong way,” Hansen said.

Hansen said the hiker was found about 3.5 miles down the Minam River spotted by the helicopter around 3 p.m. Sept. 23.

Resources used to find the hiker included several horse teams that rode 40-50 miles of trails in the area. Ground teams, including 10 on Sunday, made grid searches near the area where the hiker was last seen. Other teams walked trails in the area. The National Guard helicopter flew in from Salem and searched open areas on both Saturday and Sunday.

Hansen said the hiker was cold and hungry but otherwise in good condition considering the ordeal. He strongly suggests hikers use a GPS or even download a GPS app for their phone before going on a hike.

“There’s a lot of them out there now, and they’ll pretty much tell you where you are,” he said. “For navigation, it’s the very best thing.”

He also suggested hikers remain aware of surroundings and keep track of where they’ve been.

“One thing I do,” he said, “especially if I’m off trail, I’ll walk a little ways and I’ll look back at the direction from which I came. I try to remember rocks, trees or landmarks. A tree may look like every other tree, but your brain looks at a set of trees, and if you’ve seen it before, it looks familiar, and it will usually get you back in the right direction.”

He also advised to take a friend whenever possible.

Hansen said the length of the search as well as the combination of resources made it one of the more extensive searches in which he has participated.

“It was a hard search,” he said. “It was a big effort, and in the end, it all turned out and it was a good result.”

Teams from Wheeler County, Union County, Baker County, the U.S. Forest service and the National Guard participated in the search.