A smartphone app helped find an Oregon hiker who got lost on a trail at night, rescuers said.
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A smartphone app helped find an Oregon hiker who got lost on a trail at night, rescuers said.
The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office got a call about it “overdue tourist” just before 9pm on Monday 10th OctoberDeschutes County Search and Rescue said in a Facebook post Tuesday, Oct. 11.
Using a find my phone app, a person who called to report a missing hiker discovered that a 55-year-old Bend man had parked his car in Tumalo Falls Trailhead in Deschutes National Forestthe sheriff’s office said.
“Deputies responded to the area and checked some of the trails around Tumala Falls,” the report said.
During the search for the missing hiker “all night and into the next day,” rescuers walked nearby trails, showing other hikers a photo of the man and asking if they had seen him, the report said.
A hiker called around 11:10 a.m. Tuesday to say they found a man “walking down the trail in the direction (of) the Tumalo Falls parking lot,” rescuers said.
Officers spoke with a hiker who said he “lost his way when it got dark, so he hid in the area for the night and started going out the next morning,” according to the report.
The man was taken back to the parking lot, the sheriff’s office said.
The Deschutes National Forest is about 130 miles east of Eugene.