Hiker Finds Searchers’ Camp After Seven Days

A hiker missing for more than a week in Olympic National Park walked into a searchers’ camp near a ranger station early Sunday, weak, confused and claiming to hear bagpipes and flutes.

The searchers, just awakening, were surprised to see Christopher Wearstler after hunting him for seven days, park Chief Ranger Curt Sauer said. Wearstler had lost 25 pounds and was dehydrated, he said.

The 20-member search team was camped just above the ranger station, about 12 miles up the trail from the Whiskey Bend trail head in the Elwha River Valley near Port Angeles.

Wearstler was taken to Olympic Memorial Hospital in Port Angeles, where medical staff checked him, gave him a meal and sent him home.

“He’ll live to hike again,” Sauer said.

Wearstler said the music he heard drew him to the ranger’s station.

“I didn’t realize it would be this big of a deal,” Wearstler told KING-TV in Seattle. “I didn’t even know if people were actually looking for me or not.”

The 21-year-old Port Angeles man was due to return June 6 from a four-day backpacking trip, his first-ever solo overnight hike. He told rangers he got disoriented on the third or fourth day and set up camp to wait for rescue.

On Friday, he went looking for water and could not find his camp again, so he traveled cross-country for two days. He had no food for five days.