Missing hiker found dead in Olympic National Park after two weeks

The body of a hiker who was missing in Olympic National Park for nearly two weeks was found on Sunday, according to the park.

Neil Gehring, 26, left the Madison Falls Trailhead on Aug. 31 for an overnight backpacking trip, planning to make a cross-country traverse from Boulder Lake to Appleton Pass before returning the next day.

His body was found on the northwest slope of Mount Appleton on Sunday evening after searchers located him using additional cellphone location data, Olympic National Park said in a Facebook post Wednesday afternoon. His body was taken to the Clallam County coroner’s office, which has not yet given an official cause of death.

The National Park Service and Seattle Mountain Rescue both searched for Gehring, with mountain rescue even using a drone to scan difficult terrain.

For 10 days, aerial, ground, drone and dog teams had searched along Gehring’s expected route, Olympic National Park said in an update on Sept. 11.

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