Missing Hunters Found Uninjured Trio Had Built Shelter, Fire While Lost

Three hunters reported missing over the weekend were found early Tuesday, unharmed in the mountains northeast of here.

Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies said Robert M. Curtis, 26, of Athol, Idaho, and Coeur d’Alene residents Kevin L. Folk, 23, and Brandee L. Willette, 19, were hungry but otherwise unharmed.

Searchers on snowmobiles found the three friends huddled in the Snowbird Meadows area of Independence Creek in Shoshone County. They had built a makeshift shelter and a fire during the three days since they became stranded Saturday night, said Kootenai sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Soumas.

All three were taken by snowmobile to Fernan Saddle, where they were reunited with family members Tuesday morning. None were injured.

“I was hungry, I was cold and I was ready to come home,” said Willette, who was dressed in sweat pants and a corduroy shirt.

Sheriff’s deputies from three counties spent Monday unsuccessfully searching for the trio in the Crooked Ridge area near Hamilton Mountain. Relatives reported them missing Sunday night when they did not return from a hunting trip. They had been hunting for mountain lions and bobcats.

Searchers from Kootenai, Bonner and Shoshone counties were called because authorities were not sure where the group planned to hunt. The Crooked Ridge area straddles all three counties.

A blown tire on the pickup the hunters were riding in forced them to set up the makeshift camp about 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The spare was already being used on the truck.

They spent the nights bundled under a sleeping bag in the pickup’s cab, starting the truck only in the morning and at night to get warm. Thick ice caked to the pickup’s windows greeted them when they awoke Sunday morning and the reality of the situation set in.

Desperate for food, the group hunted squirrels and gathered nuts. They built a “sweat shack” for the dogs they had brought with them and started a fire using the pitch from trees as fuel.

Curtis and Folk used a wood file to clean the squirrels because they did not have a knife.

“The things we did were unreal,” Willette said.

The trio considered trying to walk out of the woods Monday morning when heavy snow fell, but decided the odds were against them surviving the trek.

“There’s not a doubt in my mind if we would have tried to walk out of there we wouldn’t have made it out,” Willette said.

Deputies finally stumbled across footprints Curtis and Folk left in the snow while gathering wood and followed them to the group.

“We just survived basically,” Willette said. “We were really lucky.”

, DataTimes