This past weekend, rescue teams in Slade, Kentucky, successfully located 48-year-old hiker Scott A. Hern, who’d been missing for over two weeks in the Red River Gorge. He was discovered near a cliff line on Saturday afternoon after searchers heard someone calling for help. According to the Wolfe County Search and Rescue Team, Hern had been hiking in the area looking for waterfalls.
His family had last heard from him on July 4th and his car was found parked at the Gorge on July 13th, but is believed to have been there since the 6th. Once they had a rough idea of where to look, rescue crews initiated an extensive search using dogs and guided by information gleaned from Hern’s diary, which detailed the locations he intended to explore in the Gorge. Then on Saturday, search teams revisited a previously searched area, moving further north along a creek, where they found a shoe print and evidence of a walking stick on a less-traveled path.
Found dehydrated, but alert and able to talk, Hern was evacuated from the area with the help of a Kentucky State Police helicopter. The Wolfe County rescue team says that he required medical attention, but he was “in good shape” considering what he’d been through. The team was beginning to lose hope that Hern would be found alive and said it’s a miracle that he survived that long without food and water.
Source: SPECTRUM NEWS 1