A 68-year-old hiker was found alive last Thursday night after spending three days lost in a remote stretch of Oregon’s Cascade Range, ending a large multi-agency search.
John Nelson and his hiking partner of more than 40 years set out from the Whitewater Trailhead on Monday, July 6th, and camped overnight at Russell Lake in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, located in the Cascade Mountains about 70 miles southeast of Salem, Oregon, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. At about 7:15am the next day, Nelson left camp alone. He was reported overdue around noon when he failed to return.
Search crews looked around Russell Lake each day, with the number of searchers growing from 31 on Tuesday to 42 on Wednesday and 55 on Thursday. Teams used ground units and air support, including a Black Hawk helicopter from the Oregon Army National Guard.
At approximately 8:42pm on July 9th, members of Benton County Search and Rescue, working under Marion County’s command, located Nelson alive in a deep drainage near the South Breitenbush Trail, about five miles by trail from Russell Lake. The trail has remained closed since Oregon’s devastating 2020 wildfires, and the surrounding forest is choked with downed trees and burned timber, making access extremely difficult for rescuers.
Earlier that day, the U.S. Forest Service helped clear sections of the trail, allowing crews to safely reach Nelson. Because of the terrain and his condition, he could not hike out on his own, so rescuers stayed with him through the night.
Around 11am the next morning, an Oregon Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopter flew Nelson to a nearby landing zone, where medics evaluated him before he was reunited with his family. Nelson is a retired medical doctor with decades of hiking experience, having summited nearby Mount Jefferson about 20 years ago. More than a dozen agencies and over 100 volunteers took part in the search.