The Gresham, Oregon, mountain biker who was lost on Mount Hood for six days in mid-July managed to survive by foraging for berries and sleeping under moss, according to Clackamas County reports obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive through a public records request.
Ralph Sawyer, 52, went missing on July 11 during a planned bike ride near Trillium Lake in the Mount Hood National Forest, sparking a six-day search-and-rescue operation that used ATVs, drones, K-9s and ground teams to scour the mountain.
On July 17, Sawyer reappeared in civilization — he told police he found his own way back to his parked car and drove himself home, where a neighbor called 911 at his family’s request.
“He’s tired, he’s cold, he’s dirty, he’s worn out, he seems to be thirsty,” Sawyer’s neighbor Hadley Thomas told the dispatcher in 911 records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. “Just complete exhaustion.”
Paramedics took Sawyer to a nearby hospital, where he recounted his ordeal to Clackamas County Sheriff’s deputies.
Sawyer, who did not respond to messages from The Oregonian/OregonLive, told investigators that he was familiar with the route he planned to take, a 10-to12-mile ride from Still Creek Road in Rhododendron to Trillium Lake, records show.
Geared with a 72-oz camel-back water bladder, gloves, flashlight, toilet paper and granola bars — but no watch or phone — he started biking up the trail around 11 a.m. on July 11, records show.
But partway through his trip he decided to abandon his planned journey in favor of new views, and so he went up the Cool Creek trail and stashed his bike before proceeding on foot, records say.
The detour went well at first, he told investigators days later. He checked out an old fire-spotting tower near Devil’s Peak Lookout and explored the heavily wooded surrounding area before he saw a blue object off the trail, according to police reports.
Intrigued, he ventured off the path to check it out, and found that it was a balloon, records say.
But the area was steep and he lost his footing — and then he was sliding down the elevated slope, up to 10 feet at a time.
It was then that he realized that he was “in a situation,” he told investigators days later.
Unable to climb back up, he descended for about a mile until he reached Cool Creek, which runs through the bottom of a gully, records say.
Tired and thirsty from his descent, he rested at the creek and drank from the water as he prepared to follow the stream back to his car, he said.
But his rest stop didn’t go as planned.
Less than two hours later, Sawyer vomited, and he began to suffer from vertigo, nausea and diarrhea, apparently from a pathogen in the water. His illness sapped his strength and left him unable to cover ground quickly, records say.
As night fell, the temperature dropped, and, without overnight gear, he had to resort to covering himself with moss to stay warm, he told investigators.
Over the following three or four days, he remained violently ill. He supplemented the meager rations he’d brought with him by scavenging berries.
He sometimes heard the sounds of search-and-rescue aircraft passing overhead, but he said he knew the forest was too thick for them to spot him.
Eventually he felt well enough to pick up his pace, and he followed the creek back to the trailhead where he’d stashed his bike, records show.
When he rode to his car, he saw that it appeared to have been broken into. Unbeknownst to him, a Clackamas County sheriff’s deputy had picked the lock on the car days earlier in hopes of gleaning evidence about his whereabouts.
But Sawyer still had his keys, and despite his exhausted state he managed to drive himself to a Thriftway store in Welches to buy a sandwich before he returned to his home in Gresham, records state.
“We knew if anyone could make it out, it would be him,” Diane Brown, a friend of Sawyer’s family, said shortly after his reappearance. “I think it’s fair to say that as the week went on, you start to be a little discouraged and confused on why you can’t find him, but when we got the call today, that he had driven home, I think there was shock as well as, ‘Of course he did.’”
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