By Layla Kalinen
Eagle Times Staff
BALTIMORE, VT — Two individuals who had intended to go for a quick hunt in the Hawk Mountain Harris Road-area on Saturday, Oct. 7, ended up being the subjects of a search and rescue that led into the early hours of Sunday, Oct. 8.
Tyler Wakefield and Alexis Newsome, both of Springfield, VT, started their journey at the base of Hawk Mountain an hour before sundown. The two were deer hunting with Wakefield at the base and Newsome traveling up wind to drive deer down the side of the mountain in Wakefield’s direction.
Their original safety plan was if they lost contact for more than 45-minutes, they would meet back at their car.
Wakefield, upon returning to the vehicle, did not see Newsome. He then searched for her for about 20-minutes and then called the Vermont State Police.
According to Lieutenant Steven Coote, it was a long search, but the outcome was successful.
“We got the call just before 7 p.m.,” Coote said. “Part of the process for activating any special team requires me, as the duty commander on that weekend, to work through the process with our special teams commander who would assemble the search and rescue team based on the information. What we did is send troopers to the scene to gather information and fill out a lost person questionnaire so it has all pertinent information, including everything from medications, physical fitness, description and age.”
Lt. Coote said the mission became challenging once the team found out that there was no way to track Newsome through GPS because she had left her cell phone in the car.
“The troopers went to the scene, they spoke with the complainant, went into the woods to the point where he was with her last time and got some basic GPS coordinates,” Lt. Coote said. “We activated the southern most members of the team, but as with anything, you know when you activate a special team it takes time to get rolling.”
For close to five rainy hours, a six-person search and rescue team made up of two game wardens and four troopers in groups of two and four took on the internal forest search while outlying cruisers on Harris Road toured back and forth pulling the yip switch in hopes Newsome would hear them.
The yip switch worked and Newsome was located.
“I don’t think we deployed our teams into the actual woods until closer to 10 or 10:30 p.m. that night and then search teams ended up locating her just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning.”
Coote said hikers and hunters should always be aware of weather conditions well into a proposed trip. They should be prepared for conditions, well dressed for the weather, and have a fully charged cell phone, water and food supplies. In this case, none of those precautions were taken.
“It’s a common practice to push deer, they hear it and then you end up pushing them towards where the hunter is,” Lt. Coote said. “That was her original plan. Unfortunately, she kind of got crossed up as darkness started to fall and she lost her bearings, couldn’t find her way back to where he was and ultimately their plan was if they did got separated for an extended period of time beyond 45-minutes was what brought us into the situation.”
Lt. Coote added that if they weren’t able to locate her, as soon as the sky cleared, they would have used a thermal imaging drone.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.