PORT ANGELES — Three city officials who became lost in Olympic National Park’s backcountry last week hiked out on a dusty trail Friday afternoon in positive spirits, two days after they had planned to finish their week-long trek.
“It was quite the adventure,” Fire Chief Dan McKeen said as he walked the trail’s last quarter-mile to Whiskey Bend, near the Elwha River and southwest of Port Angeles.
“It was a great trip, other than the fact that we had to get escorted out by rangers,” City Attorney Craig Knutson said as he stood at the Whiskey Bend trailhead.
Three park rangers located McKeen, Knutson and City Manager Mike Quinn Thursday afternoon in the vicinity of Dodger Point, where the men said they became disoriented on an unmaintained trail in difficult terrain Tuesday and were unsure of which way to go.
McKeen also became sick, prompting the trio to call the park on a satellite phone and request assistance Wednesday morning.
“We all kept our cool,” Quinn said Friday. “Everybody pulled together, and we pulled through.”
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The rest of the story appears in the Sunday Peninsula Daily News.
