OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — A hiker who was missing for nearly four days in Olympic National Park reached safety Monday — 20 miles west of his intended destination.
Kelly Hall, a 64-year-old Bainbridge Island man who was the subject of a three-day search in the Olympic Mountains, reached the Elwha Ranger Station on Monday morning after being given a ride by a fellow hiker for the last few miles.
“He’s doing extremely well,” said U.S. Park Ranger Denison Rauw, one of two rangers who welcomed Hall to the station.
Hall, who failed to rendezvous with family Thursday at Slab Camp trailhead south of Sequim following a six-day hike in the park, showed up at the station at about 10 a.m., said Barb Maynes, spokeswoman for Olympic National Park.
He was being debriefed by park rangers at the station late Monday morning and declined to be interviewed by the media, Maynes said.
“Hiking in the wilderness, you need to accept it on its own terms. Mr. Hall was able to do that. It just took him a couple of extra days,” she said.
Rauw said Hall had been given food, a sports drink and a change of clothing while rangers talked to him about how he ended up in the Elwha Valley, more than 20 miles west of his intended destination. He was uninjured.
Hall had planned a 39-mile hike in the northeast corner of the park.
He departed from the Obstruction Point trailhead near Hurricane Ridge on Aug. 30, and when he did not show up as scheduled Thursday, his family reported that he was missing.
Hall’s planned itinerary was to hike through Grand Valley to Grand Pass, then continue over Cameron Pass, through Dose Meadows to Gray Wolf Pass and then follow the Gray Wolf Trail through Olympic National Forest’s Buckhorn Wilderness to the Slab Camp trailhead on Forest Road 2875.
On the first day of the hike, just after reaching Grand Valley, Hall lost the trail, Maynes said.
“It was cloudy and foggy where he was,” she said.
Maynes said Hall found the Lillian River, knew exactly where he was and made the decision to hike to the Lillian River Trail and then to the Elwha River Trail.
The new route was more strenuous than the planned route and took Hall longer than expected, she said.
Hall still had food when he arrived at the Elwha Ranger Station, Maynes said, and was able to stay warm and dry during his extended hike.
“He was extremely well prepared,” she said.
At the Elwha Ranger Station four miles south of U.S. Highway 101, two rangers, Rauw and Colby Mackley, answered the door of the station at about 10 a.m. and found Rodney Buck, a hiker from Waukesha, Wis., at the door.
“He said, ‘ I have Kelly Hall.’ Those were the sweetest words,” said Rauw.
Buck, who had been hiking with a group, encountered Hall on the trail just south of the Whiskey Bend trailhead in the Elwha Valley southwest of Port Angeles, Rauw said.
One of the hikers recognized Hall from the photos that had been published about the missing hiker, and Buck offered to drive Hall the 4 miles from the trailhead to the ranger’s station, she said.
The park had initiated a search for Hall on Friday.
A 10-member search team, who camped out in the wilderness Sunday night and were combing the trails near Slab Camp, were alerted by radio that Hall had been found.
The search team included National Park Service employees and volunteers, plus volunteers from Olympic Mountain Rescue, Clallam County Search and Rescue, and German Shepherd Search Dogs of Washington State.
Maynes did not have a cost estimate for the search as of Monday.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
