Air horn helps deputy find missing hunter

Posted on March 9, 2010 at 4:54 PM

Updated Tuesday, Mar 9 at 11:33 PM

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IDAHO COUNTY – Idaho County authorities were able to locate a hunter who got lost in a snow storm Monday night thanks to the help of a Good Samaritan and an air horn.

Sheriff’s deputies received a call for help at 6:30 p.m. on a broken cell phone call that came from the Crane Creek area near Kooskia.

Deputy Mike Badgley was dispatched to the area where the call came from. Directions were vague and it was snowing heavily. Badgley followed tracks in the snow to the residence of Phillip Smith.

Smith offered to help the deputy and the two men set to locate the lost man. They located and found fresh tracks that led them to 26-year-old Eric Lycan of Kooskia who had called dispatch. Lycan and 27-year-old Scott Rollins had been out horn hunting and got separated by the storm. It had been three hours since Lycan had contact with Rollins who was not dressed for the weather.

Rollins managed to send a text message to another person with Lycan telling them he wanted them to fire up the chain saw. Badgley sounded his siren and air horn for about 40 minutes before Rollins emerged from the forest. He was wet and cold, but otherwise in good health.