Deputies partnered with other first
responders to rescue a 38-year-old Georgia man Wednesday night after he got
separated from his family and lost while playing a scavenger hunt game in the Everglades.
Deputies were dispatched to Collier Seminole State Park, 20200 U.S. 41 E., at 6:40 p.m. in response to a missing tourist who became lost on Nature Trail #3, located one mile west of State Road 92 on U.S. 41 East.
Deputies were dispatched to Collier Seminole State Park, 20200 U.S. 41 E., at 6:40 p.m. in response to a missing tourist who became lost on Nature Trail #3, located one mile west of State Road 92 on U.S. 41 East.
Collier County Sheriff’s Office reports
gave this account:
The hiker and his family were
geocaching – an outdoor game where items hidden in containers, called geocaches
or caches, are hidden around the world and then located using a Global
Positioning System (GPS) or mobile device and other navigational techniques.
The hiker set out onto the trail while
his wife and three minor children remained in their vehicle. He walked
approximately 1.5 miles into the nature trail looking for the cache.
He called his wife on his cell phone
around 6 p.m. to say he was lost.
Deputies from CCSO’s East Naples and
Everglades districts responded to assist. The sheriff’s K-9 and Aviation units
also responded, along with a Collier County Emergency Medical Services
search-and-rescue unit and firefighters from the Greater Naples Fire Rescue
District. Florida Park Service rangers on all-terrain vehicles also
responded.
They searched the nature trail, but
were unable to locate the missing hiker.
He made contact with deputies on his
cell phone and told them he was lost along a trail. He also said he could not
stay on the line for very long because his cell phone battery was below 5
percent power.
Deputies advised him to find a clearing
so he could be spotted from the air.
Around 8:30 p.m. the CCSO air unit spotted
the missing hiker standing in a clearing about three miles into the nature
trail. Rescuers determined they could not reach him on their ATVs.
The clearing was large enough, so the
air unit landed their helicopter and picked up the hiker. He was flown to back
to the area where his vehicle was parked, where he was reunited with his
family.
He was treated by EMS at the scene and
released.
Click on the link to watch a video from the rescue: https://youtu.be/Aaaj6GCyz3M
