Searchers look for Mount Rainier hiker
Tacoma man, 64, last seen Saturday
MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. – A Mount Rainier National Park spokeswoman said searchers are looking for a 64-year-old Tacoma man who failed to meet up with his son during a weekend hike.
Park spokeswoman Fawn Bauer said the search for Edwin Birch is expected to resume this morning.
Nearly two dozen people joined the ground search Monday, including a dog team. Aircraft from Northwest Helicopters also helped.
The News Tribune reported that Birch was last seen, by his son, on Saturday afternoon along a stretch of the 93-mile Wonderland Trail.
Bauer said the two had planned to hike a 19-mile stretch of the Wonderland Trail on Saturday, between Box Canyon and White River. She said Birch dropped his son off at one trailhead, then he set out from another.
Their plan was to hike the same trail from opposite directions.
Bauer said the son reported his father seemed fine, though a bit tired, when they met each other halfway at about 3:30 p.m. After the son finished his hike about midnight Saturday, he picked up their car and drove to pick up his father at White River. He asked rangers for help early Sunday.