OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Stymied by fog and clouds high in the Olympic Mountains last week, Kelly Hall lost his trail in the mile-high Grand Valley.
But the 64-year-old experienced hiker wasn’t lost for long.
Recognizing where he had wandered, he followed the more strenuous Lillian River Trail to the Elwha River.
It took days longer than he had planned, and that triggered a huge search that included aircraft, search dogs and numerous volunteers, all concentrated along his original path in the mountains south of Sequim.
Instead, Hill emerged in good shape about 20 miles west of that destination Monday morning.
Hall reached the Elwha Ranger Station after being given a ride by a fellow hiker for the final 4 miles.
“He’s doing extremely well,” said Denison Rauw, one of two park rangers who welcomed Hall to the Elwha Valley station.
Hall, who failed to rendezvous with family members Thursday at Slab Camp trailhead south of Sequim, showed up at the Elwha station at about 10 a.m., said Barb Maynes, spokeswoman for Olympic National Park.
He was debriefed by park rangers late Monday morning, and declined to be interviewed by the news 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 was given food, a sports drink and a change of clothing while rangers talked to him about how he ended up in the Elwha Valley instead of his intended destination closer to the Dungeness Valley.
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 last Thursday, his family reported him 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 instead 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 original route, and it took Hall longer than expected, she said.
Hall was never in danger or distress: He still had food when he arrived at the Elwha Ranger Station, Maynes said, and was able to stay warm and dry during the extended hike.
“He was extremely well-prepared,” she said.
At the Elwha Ranger Station about 4 miles upriver from U.S. Highway 101, two rangers, Rauw and Colby Mackley, answered the door of the picturesque 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,” Rauw said.
Buck, who had been hiking with a group, encountered Hall on the trail just south of the Whiskey Bend trailhead in the Elwha Valley, Rauw said.
One of the hikers recognized Hall from the photos that had been published about the missing hiker.
Buck offered to drive Hall the 4 miles from the trailhead to the ranger station, she said.
The park launched a search for Hall on Friday.
A 10-member search team, which camped out in the wilderness Sunday night and was still combing the trails near Slab Camp on Monday morning, were alerted by radio that Hall had been found.
Before dawn Monday morning, the park enlisted an aircraft equipped with heat-sensing infrared equipment in an attempt to find Hill.
A helicopter had been enlisted the day before.
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 Monday.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
