Helicopter, flashlight lead to hunter’s rescue

By WAYNE QUESENBERRY/Staff

Like a scene from a Duracell battery commercial, a lost hunter used his flashlight Saturday night to signal a Virginia State Police helicopter.
The 22-year-old Bristol, Tenn., resident was rescued after being lost for several hours in the High Rise section of the Jefferson National Forest in Wythe County.
According to Sheriff Doug King, who declined to identify the hunter, officers from his department were dispatched to Powder Mill Road around 8 p.m. Saturday. They went to the site where the man and several others had been camping and hunting.
“The hunters told us they last had radio contact with the other hunter at 6 p.m.,” the sheriff reported.
In the meantime, some 18 members of the Ivanhoe Volunteer Fire Department, the Lead Mines Rescue Squad, the Virginia State Police and conservation officers from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries arrived at the campsite. The state police helicopter also was dispatched to the scene.
“We were getting ready for the search and waiting on the helicopter,” noted Robert Walk, chief of the Ivanhoe Volunteer Fire Department. “We had several four-wheelers and two six-wheelers. It’s a mountainous area back there and the underbrush is thick where there are clear cuts for quail fields.”
He described the area – known to many as High Rise – as being in the Piedmont section of the national forest. The site, Walk said, is near the Rakestown community of Ivanhoe, which borders Carroll County.
While crews were preparing for their venture into the dark mountain land, they were notified the hunter had been located by the helicopter.
“The hunter’s flashlight was still working,” Walk pointed out. “He used it to signal the helicopter, which circled around him with its spotlight until we got there.”
According to Walk, the hunter was some four miles away from the campsite. The fire department’s six-wheeler was used by the ground crew to reach the hunter.
“They couldn’t get the vehicle all the way back in there,” Walk said. “They walked some ways back in there and walked him back to the six-wheeler and then brought him out. It took them about an hour and a half to get to him.”
The hunter was checked by the rescue squad and determined to be all right. He was thirsty.
“The first thing he asked for was something to drink,” Walk reported.
Walk expressed relief that the incident ended well. He was aware of how bad it could have been.
“It was a good thing the helicopter was able to fly,” Walk commented. “It was good that the hunter had his flashlight. He was between fire trails in the thickest part of the mountain and it would have been hard to find him on foot. Being up in the mountains in the night, you can get turned around real easy.”
Wayne Quesenberry can be reached at 228-6611 or .