Hunter wasn’t missing, just still hunting

Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies, U.S. Forest Service workers, search-and-rescue teams and pilots scrambled into action Wednesday morning at the report of an overdue hunter up the Little North Fork drainage northeast of Coeur d’Alene.

Two small planes were quickly lined up and search parties in both Kootenai and Shoshone counties were placed on alert. As the search teams gathered all-terrain vehicles, horses and dogs, Sgt. Andy Boyle of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department went out ahead to try to locate 29-year-old James Oswald, of Post Falls.

Oswald had been hunting Tuesday and was supposed to have returned home that night. When he didn’t, his wife called authorities Wednesday morning. After the alert went out, “we found him within 10 minutes,” Capt. Ben Wolfinger, information officer for the Sheriff’s Department, said. “He was still hunting.”

Boyle found Oswald’s truck, then found Oswald nearby.

“He said he was fine. He said he was going to be hunting for the rest of the day. He said he’d be home later,” Wolfinger said. “He hadn’t gotten anything yet.”