On the evening of Saturday, May 27th, rangers conducted a successful search for a 60-year-old woman who had notified a friend by cell phone that she was lost in the park. The woman, a fit and strong hiker, had planned a day hike cross-country from the town of Gustavus to Cooper's Notch in the park. There are no maintained trails in this area, which enters a narrowing strip of open muskeg bounded by thick spruce forest. While attempting to avoid a bear, the woman left the open country, which would eventually lead to Cooper's Notch, and instead entered the dense forested area. She became disoriented, and finally realized she had totally lost her sense of direction. NPS search managers were able to speak directly to her by telephone, and through subsequent telephone conversations ascertained that she was rapidly losing her composure and becoming increasingly apprehensive about her situation. As nightfall approached, accompanied by a steady rainfall that had been forecast for that night, rangers flew over the area in an attempt to locate the woman. Utilizing her visual observations of the search aircraft as she relayed them through cell phone conversations, the searchers were able to use the position of the plane to guide her out of the forest into a clearing where they obtained a visual on her. A message was dropped to her to advise her to stay put. In the meantime, a ground search team was guided to her location to walk her to safety. Resource management rangers with GIS and GPS expertise and high resolution aerial photographs of the area were used to help direct the ground team to the woman's location and to help walk them out of the area which had by then become engulfed in nearly complete darkness and heavy rainfall. The woman was able to walk out in relatively good condition with no injuries.
