Missing Hikers Found Safe and Sound

DAYTON – The search for two overdue hikers from Portland ended happily last week after search groups spent two days in the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness, near Panjab Trailhead south of Dayton, attempting to locate the men.

Chris Warden, 20, and Harrison Salton, 23, both students of Portland's Reed College, found their own way out of the woods late Wednesday morning, March 25; they left Portland on Saturday and had been expected home on Monday, March 23.

Warden and Salton, though experienced hikers, were on their first trip to the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness, according to the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. They had planned a 45-mile hike, making a loop from the Panjab south to the Wenaha Trail and back. They had packed a tent and down-filled sleeping bags, but they had not brought suitable clothes for the wind, rain and scattered snow that bore down on the Blue Mountains beginning Monday and lasting through most of the week.

The men were supposed to check in with a family member by phone on Monday but failed to call, according to Columbia County Emergency Manager Lisa Caldwell. The concerned family member contacted the Columbia County Sheriff's Office for assistance.

Deputies checked the Panjab area Monday evening and located the men's car. A deputy returned in the morning to make contact with the men and found the car still parked at the trailhead, with a parking pass paid through Monday, and an empty campsite.

Columbia County Search and Rescue began looking in earnest on the morning of Tuesday, March 24, for Warden and Salton at the Panjab Trailhead several miles south of Camp Wooten State Park on the Tucannon River. They were assisted by local deputies, U.S. Forest Service officers, Spokane County Sheriff's Office, Inland Northwest Search and Rescue, Columbia County Emergency Management, and Columbia County Fire District 3.

Inclement weather kept the searchers from venturing too far into the more than 250 square miles encompassed by the network of trails in the Umatilla National Forest in that area. The Spokane County Sheriff's Office sent a helicopter with forward-looking infrared technology on Tuesday afternoon that searched for several hours. The search was called off for the night at 9 p.m.

On Wednesday morning, Spokane's helicopter came down and fueled at the Walla Walla Airport but was unable to search due to weather. At approximately 11 a.m., a pickup carrying the two hikers arrived at the Panjab Trailhead. Fire District 3 emergency medical technicians assessed the hikers for possible injuries or illness from their trip. The hikers were cold and wet, but in good physical condition and good spirits.

The hikers reported that they had been stopped in their hike by snow and then got on a wrong trail during their return. Tuesday evening they heard the helicopter but were unable to signal it. Wednesday morning they saw a road from the ridge they were on and traveled down the slope, cross country, to intersect it. They came out of the woods at Ladybug Campground, where they found a group camping who would transport them back up the road to the Panjab Trailhead.