1st Lost Deer Hunter Of The Season

[radiofish]

Well our local firearms deer hunting season started this last Saturday Sept 17th.

Well apparently one of the local deer hunters got himself lost up in the mountains. There was texting between the two hunters, and the local Search and Rescue Teams were called out to look for this person. I listened to some of the radio traffic for the searching of this person.

http://www.times-standard.com/ci_189...ce=most_viewed

Search suspended for missing hunter; 25-year-old Willow Creek man lost in Trinity County wilderness
Thadeus Greenson/The Times-Standard
Posted: 09/21/2011 02:20:10 AM PDT

Never ever go off on your own, without proper equipment!!!

Well apparently, the hunter walked himself out of the wilderness earlier today.
After the authorities called off the official search for him/ or his carcass.

http://www.times-standard.com/ci_189...ce=most_viewed

Missing Willow Creek hunter found
The Times-Standard
Posted: 09/21/2011 11:01:06 AM PDT

A 25-year-old Willow Creek man is safe and sound, if a bit blistered, after friends found him late Tuesday night, some 86 hours after he went missing on a hunting trip in Trinity County.

Evan Cutting was hunting with a couple of friends when he separated from the group at about 11 a.m. Saturday and became lost. The Trinity County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue team spent much of Sunday and Monday canvassing the area -- a ridge in the Corral Bottom area between Big Bar and Hayfork -- but came up empty and suspended the search Monday night.

Dakota Fullerton, 21, of Willow Creek, who was the last person to see Cutting Saturday, said this morning that a group of friends went out searching for Cutting late Tuesday night.

Fullerton said the group drove the back country roads around where Cutting was last seen, periodically firing gunshots into the air. At about 11 p.m., Fullerton said, the group heard a gun discharge from off in the distance, and a short time later heard someone yelling for help.

Fullerton said Cutting was eventually found at about 11:30 p.m., dehydrated with blistered feet but otherwise OK.

Cutting spent Tuesday night home with his parents, Fullerton said.

I am very curious as to how well the person was prepared to be out in the boonies for several unexpected days, with just what he had with him. It is about 40 miles East of here, and it is a very rugged remote area that is miles from nowhere!

I wonder if he had any navigational aids such as a GPS, a map and a compass, or did he just go for a walk in the woods with empty pockets? Apparently, he had enough ammunition, for him to fire off rounds to try and attract attention for help.
Also I am wondering, if he ever got himself a deer?
Or did he go hungry for those 86+ hours

[Bearfootfarm]

I wonder if he had any navigational aids such as a GPS, a map and a compass,

I can't imagine anyone having those AND getting lost for 86 hours.
Sounds like he wasn't prepared at all

[megafatcat]

Even just a compass. My simple nav when hunting, is to determine which way the road I start from runs (map). If it runs E-W and I know that I am on the north side then all I have to do is walk south and I will hit the road. Walk up/down to truck or if lucky ask a passing farmer if he saw a tan Suburban coming up. If not then the truck is the other way.

Another survival point, I notice that all reports of someone lost has them dehydrated when found.

[sherry in Maine]

wonder if he will get charged for the search and rescue, since he walked out alive?

[Pelenaka]

radiofish, u should send an email out to the paper asking those questions.
Perhaps they'll do a follow up ?

If he went home to his parents & not the hospital for IV hydration then I am assuming that he had or found water @ the very least.


~~ pelenaka ~~

[radiofish]

Pelenaka - that area is bordered on the South by the Trinity River and CA Hwy 299 (you can't miss them). It is a very rugged area with many watersheds, so obtaining water would have been no problem even this late in the summer. But I would be concerned with water borne pathogens such as 'giardia' or bacteria contamination. Or even the chemical laden runoff from the folks with their marijuana gardens up in the hills. Plus he ran out of food - maybe he had just a snickers bar, or a couple of slim-jims in his pocket, for emergency supplies.

I am amazed that the lost hunter didn't stumble into someone's marijuana grow scene, up in that area. Then he may have been never heard from again - it has happened in the past.

I had worked that area in fisheries, so there are many creeks, streams, and watershed that flow Southward down into the Trinity River. Yet we always had an old school compass, maps, and several folks that knew where we were working at and when to expect us back out of the boonies and into the office. That was before the days, when everyone could afford and had one themselves of them newfangled GPS navigation devices.

I see there is a new update in today's local paper, as to the lost hunter being short of food and water. So that tells me he didn't even have a minimum of gear in his pockets, when he went traipsing off by himself. And the paper keeps posting he is from Willow Creek, which would make him a 'local' from that area - on the Humboldt County side of the Humboldt/ Trinity County border. He got lost about 15 miles up the Highway 299, over in Trinity County.

If my dial-up ISP at 28.8 kbps finally lets me make a comment on the story at the newspaper's web page. I am gonna raise the question as to whom is gonna pay for all of the search efforts used including a helicopter search, to locate this young foolish hunter!!

I may have to get a hold of my former renter's boyfriend (from the old house down the hill), who is a volunteer Deputy on the Sheriff's Posse, of our Humboldt County Sheriff's Office - 'Search And Rescue Team'. And to see if 'Scarry Larry' has any juicy details about this search and rescue episode, that didn't make it into the local paper.

<<------------------------------------------------->>

http://www.times-standard.com/ci_189...ce=most_viewed

Missing hunter found; After 86 hours in woods, Willow Creek man emerges
Thadeus Greenson/The Times-Standard
Posted: 09/22/2011 02:30:22 AM PDT

A 25-year-old Willow Creek man is blistered but safe and sound after he was found late Tuesday night, some 86 hours after he went missing on a hunting trip in Trinity County.

Evan Cutting was hunting with a couple of friends when he separated from the group at about 11 a.m. Saturday and became lost. The Trinity County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue team spent much of Sunday and Monday canvassing the area -- a ridge in the Corral Bottom area between Big Bar and Hayfork -- but came up empty and suspended the search Monday night.

The story of exactly how Cutting emerged from the woods around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday remains a bit murky.

In a press release, the Trinity County Sheriff's Office said Cutting made cell phone contact with family and friends at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, telling them he was close to where he and his hunting party had left his truck Saturday morning and that he was walking out of the woods. The release states that Cutting “walked out of the wilderness to his vehicle.”

Cutting's friend, Dakota Fullerton, 21, who was hunting with Cutting on Saturday and was the last person to see Cutting before he advanced alone down a ridge in pursuit of a deer, told a different story.

Dakota Fullerton said a party of three of Cutting's friends -- Chase Fullerton, Serefin Machado and Joseph Calvosa -- went out unprompted Tuesday night, searching the area where Cutting was last seen. He said the group drove the area's back country
roads, periodically firing gunshots into the air. Dakota Fullerton said the group heard a gun discharge from off in the distance at about 11 p.m. Tuesday, and a short time later, he heard someone yelling for help.

Cutting was eventually found “quite a distance” from where he'd been last seen Saturday, Dakota Fullerton said, adding that his friend was found dehydrated with blistered feet, but otherwise OK.

Dakota Fullerton said Cutting spent Tuesday night home with his parents.

Reached Wednesday afternoon, Trinity County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Lynn Ward maintained that Cutting had walked out to his truck and said her office couldn't explain why he was able to use his cell phone to call for help after being unreachable on it for some 72 hours.

Cutting and Dakota Fullerton were hunting on a ridge in the area early Saturday morning when Dakota Fullerton said he began to feel ill and told Cutting he was heading back up to their truck. Cutting continued down the ridge in pursuit of a deer, Dakota Fullerton said.

Hours later, Dakota Fullerton said, he received a series of text messages from Cutting indicating that he was lost and asking his friend to fire some gunshots into the air to help Cutting get his bearings. Dakota Fullerton said his gunshots did little to help his friend, and the messages soon became concerning.

”He said, 'I'm out of food, out of water. I'm hungry. I'm thirsty. My legs are cramping up,'” Dakota Fullerton recalled.

Dakota Fullerton said he received a last text message from Cutting late Saturday night, indicating he was going to set up camp for the night and start a fire with the hopes his friends or search and rescue team members could see the smoke or embers. A helicopter with thermal imaging equipment deployed Sunday morning found no sign of Cutting, according to the Trinity County Sheriff's Office.

Rescue workers also tried to locate Cutting through his cell phone by triangulating the signal, according to the sheriff's office, but was unable to do so because there is only one cell phone tower in the area. The sheriff's office said the best location available was that Cutting was in a 12-mile radius of the tower.

On Wednesday, Dakota Fullerton said he's relieved to have his friend of 10 years home safe and sound, if a bit rough around the edges.

”He's having a hard time holding down food,” Dakota Fullerton said. “He was just exhausted, and his feet are blistered up.”

[Pelenaka]

It would be interesting to read the the total cost of the rescue.

Hadn't thought about the pot fields not to mention any meth labs. Stumbling on to an operation could indeed make it so a person would never be seen from again.

Didn't they bill that couple who claimed their son was in a weather balloon thingy for the search & rescue ?

~~ pelenaka ~~

[Wags]

Something seems a bit fishy about the story.... but it might just be that he complained of thirst so they called him "dehydrated". And he might have been hungry - but he was far from starving.

[radiofish]

Wags - I also was wondering why he didn't text or try to call on his cell phone from Saturday night until late Tuesday night.. Right before he was found by his friends, after the official search was called off.

Plus those so-called smart phones with built in GPS (with those commercials of "where you at?") just don't work up here in a very remote area. Heck down in the bottom of valleys surrounded by high ridges, it is difficult to get radio contact with the Forest Service/ Law Enforcement using a 5 watts handheld radio or with a 30+ watts mobile radio with a vehicle mounted gain antenna - let alone using a low powered cell phone signal.

Heck even when I go for a walk up here, I have my small waist pack with a kit of goodies on me at all times. Just in case I fall, tweak out my leg injury even worse, or encounter an unexpected two or four legged varmit. One of the items I carry in most of my packs, is a small whistle, compass, thermometer - all in one. I see them in the stores for around 4 dollars each, and the sound of a shrill whistle carries much further that a person shouting.

Pelenaka - If I recall the parents of the "Balloon Boy" had to pay restitution for the extensive air and ground search efforts, narrowly avoided having their children removed by C.P.S., and are still under court ordered probation/ supervision. All for their wanting to get media coverage, and the possibility having a 'reality TV show'.

[ejagno]

This has happened here a few times. Now when you enter a lease you have to log in and also put what stand or area you are hunting as well as log out. A local resident checks these logs twice per day and in the last case it saved a mans life who'd had a heart attack. We don't have cell service up in those thick woods so this was the only solution. They also have an siren that alerts all hunters to come back to base due to an emergency.

[radiofish]

Our local lost hunter was on US Forest Service land.

Well I found a story today in the Anchorage Daily News, of some hunters in Alaska that were traveling by boats. They lost one boat, so they left 2 of the party on the shore of the river with a satellite phone. Now it seems that they are the subjects of a search...

So I guess that folks can get lost/ stranded out in the boonies in any state of the union.

http://www.adn.com/2011/09/22/208325...o-missing.html

Missing hunters check in by satellite phone, await rescuers

By CASEY GROVE
Anchorage Daily News

Published: September 22nd, 2011 07:07 PM
Last Modified: September 23rd, 2011 01:01 AM

Update: The missing hunters contacted family via satellite phone on Thursday and are OK, according to Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters. They were advised to stay put so rescuers could find them, she said.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/09/22/208325...#ixzz1Yp2pYOEu

Two hunters are missing and believed to be stranded in northeast Alaska after an unknown problem with the boat in which they were traveling, according to the Alaska Air National Guard, which searched for the men Thursday.

Both men are from Wasilla, said Tina Boren, the wife of Chris Boren, one of the two missing hunters. They'd been in a group of four hunting for caribou on a river trip that started on the Yukon River in Circle on Sept. 9 and took them up the Porcupine River, she said.

Boren said her husband called every two days by satellite phone. "He was having the time of his life," she said. On Sept. 15, he told her everyone had shot their limit and they were heading home, she said. Four days later, she still hadn't heard from him, Boren said.

"I just got that wife feeling-- something is wrong," she said.

The four hunters were traveling in two boats when one of the boats was damaged, sunk or somehow became otherwise inoperable, said Guard spokesman Maj. Guy Hayes. The problem occurred Saturday on the Sheenjek River, said Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters.

The Sheenjek flows into the Porcupine, a tributary of the Yukon, about 15 miles northeast of Fort Yukon.

After noting their location with a GPS device -- about 80 miles northeast of Fort Yukon -- two of the men took the remaining boat to Fort Yukon while their hunting companions stayed behind, Hayes said.

The two men reached Fort Yukon and called home Wednesday, Peters said. Their family members contacted Alaska State Troopers later the same day while U.S. Fish and Wildlife personnel searched by air and water for the two hunters still in the field, Peters said. That search turned up no sign of the missing men, but troopers think they might be farther upriver than initial reports indicated, Peters said.

Troopers asked for help Thursday from the Guard's Rescue Coordination Center, Hayes said. The Guard sent an HH-60 Pavehawk helicopter from Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks and an HC-130 King fixed-wing plane from Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson in Anchorage to look for the missing men, Hayes said.

"Our guys went up there to specific coordinates where we thought they were going to be, and they weren't in that location," Hayes said. "The Guardsmen are doing a search of the area to see if we can locate them."

The search will continue by boat and by plane Friday, Hayes and Peters said. "We suspect the two hunters in the field are running out of supplies, which is why we are going up after them," she said.

Boren, the missing man's wife, said she heard they had minimal supplies. "They left my husband with a sleeping bag, a gun and a piece of meat on the side of the river," she said.