Three youngsters spent Thursday, June 10, night hunkered down off-trail on Camel’s Hump after a summer-camp orienteering exercise went awry, triggering a search and rescue effort involving multiple state and local agencies that ended soon after daybreak on Friday.
The children were unhurt after their roughly 12-hour ordeal, and they did not require any medical attention, according to Vermont State Police Search and Rescue Team Commander Lt. Anthony French.
Search and Rescue coordinator for the Vermont Department of Public Safety Drew Clymer said the young hikers did well under the circumstances. “They had gotten really wet, they dried by the time they walked out. They didn’t complain about the cold. They talked about the bugs,” he recounted. “They stayed calm. That’s big. We’re very grateful that we found them.”
French and Clymer explained how, just before 6 a.m., volunteers with the search made voice contact as they called out in the woods looking for two lost boys, ages 11 and 14, and a 12-year-old girl. Hearing the children respond, one search team communicated with leaders who relayed the information to other searchers who were using dogs in the vicinity.
“They vectored in and a team came over a ridge and made contact,” Clymer said.
The searchers navigated to the kids and escorted them down the mountain to where their parents were waiting at a command center set up at the Long Trail parking lot along Duxbury Road in Bolton.
The youngsters were three of nine children with three adult leaders in a summer camp group from Mad River Path Adventures, a nonprofit outdoor educational organization based in Waitsfield. This week’s July 6-11 overnight camp was focused on spending time on Camel’s Hump, on the Long Trail, and paddling on the Winooski River, according to the group’s website.
ORIENTEERING EXERCISE
On Thursday afternoon, the group had an orienteering exercise where they were to leave their campsite to navigate to a destination and then return. The aim was to be back in about 20-30 minutes. “They got off course,” French said.
Mad River Path executive director Misha Golfman was one of the last people packing up at the trailhead parking area Friday morning after the search teams had departed. “How they got separated, we don’t really know,” said of the campers.
Misha Golfman said they still needed to spend time with the youngsters to understand exactly what went wrong on Thursday. “We would like to understand how they strayed,” he said, explaining that the young hikers started off within sight of their leaders. Working in groups of two or three, they were to stay within hearing distance and return in about 20 minutes. “We really don’t know what happened to them. There was not a plan to be sending them out in the woods alone.”
DIDN’T RETURN
When the three campers didn’t return as expected, the camp group members first searched for about 90 minutes before calling for help around 6:20 p.m.
French said the operation involved more than three dozen responders, many of whom are volunteers from multiple organizations. Vermont State Police took the lead in coordinating the effort that brought in personnel from the state Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program, the Vermont Air National Guard, the Vermont Department of Public Safety Urban Search and Rescue Team.
Waterbury Backcountry Rescue Team – a division of Waterbury Ambulance Service – had 10 members involved, according to team leader Brian Lindner. Others joined in from Camels Hump Backcountry Rescue Team, New England K9 Search and Rescue, North Country Search Dogs, and the Upper Valley Wilderness Response Team.
SEARCH TEAMS
Teams spread out, entering the woods from multiple locations – from the Duxbury Road trailhead command post, the Camel’s Hump trailhead in Duxbury, and from along a VAST trail, Lindner explained. The various points established the boundaries of the search area. From there, French said a grid was drawn up of the area with teams assigned to fan out to look for the missing youngsters as nightfall approached.
Search team leaders were concerned about the weather and trail conditions, as rain earlier in the day had made the ground slippery and severe thunderstorm alerts were still in place as the search began. Fortunately, French said, little rain fell on the mountain for the rest of the night.
The young trio spent the night about a half mile from their group’s campsite, according to the search team. “They hunkered down. As it got dark, they knew they needed to find a safe spot,” French said, noting that continuing to hike in darkness would have been risky. “The terrain where they were was very challenging.”
The search leaders all credited the kids with staying calm and together. Clymer said the children told rescuers they were just waking up when they heard people calling out for them. “They were able to sleep,” he remarked. “They seemed to keep their heads about them.”
The morning scene as the children returned to the search and rescue base was hectic as they reunited with their parents, got some food and their belongings before leaving, Golfman said, explaining that the moment allowed for them to only get a few details from the kids.
For example, he noted that because they were not intending to be gone for long, the youngsters didn’t have food or water on their hike. “One of the things they learned at camp was how to find safe drinking water,” Golfman said. “They said they identified safe drinking water, and they all got hydrated. They were all very proud of that.”
The three campers were planning to return Friday afternoon to the camp’s Waitsfield office, where they along with the rest of the campers and their leaders would talk about the whole ordeal to debrief, sharing details, “so we can all process together,” Golfman said.
“There is a lot to learn. And we will continue learning as we get to talk to the kids as a group,” he added.
Neither search leaders nor the camp director identified the names of the lost campers. Misha Golfman said one was from New York state, another from Massachusetts, and one from Warren.
Golfman also shared high praise and gratitude for the search teams. “It was very well-organized. The communication was great. We can’t say enough good about how they handled themselves,” he said.
