Current conditions unavailable
A Gresham mountain biker who went missing July 11 during a planned trip to Mt. Hood was found alive Thursday in a seemingly remarkable yet so far unexplained survival tale.
Ralph Sawyer, 52, found his car on East Still Creek Road and drove it back to his home in Gresham, officials said. Sawyer showed up at a neighbor’s house “tired, cold, dirty and worn out.”
Gresham Police confirmed it was him and he was transported to a local hospital.
A search and rescue mission to locate Sawyer has been underway since late Friday night after he failed to return from a mountain biking outing. His family reported him missing that night.
Search efforts included teams from Clackamas County Search and Rescue, Portland Mountain Rescue, Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue, Hood River Crag Rats, Mountain Wave Emergency Communications and the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office Air Unit.
Search efforts had continued Thursday morning before Sawyer was located.
Several Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue personnel declined to talk about the case when reached by phone Thursday. A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office declined to provide additional information.
A Portland Mountain Rescue team leader who helped with the search Sunday said it’s “a bit of a mystery” what happened to Sawyer and how, exactly, he survived. Six days and five nights is a long time for someone to spend in the woods, Scott Norton said, adding that he could not recall any instance in the 22 years he has been with Portland Mountain Rescue when a person who was lost that long in the wilderness walked out alive.
Sawyer had several factors in his favor, Norton said, including the relatively warm temperatures and the abundance of water.
The challenge in looking for him involved the massive amount of terrain Sawyer could have covered on a bike. Rescuers were told Sawyer biked as much as 20 to 30 miles in a day, which meant that the area that had to be searched was massive, Norton said.
“I’m very interested to know what actually happened,” Norton said.
©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
