The Peru Gazette

Town of North Elba
Essex County
Wilderness Search: On June 21 at 10 a.m., Ray Brook Dispatch received a call about a nine-year-old and an 11-year-old separated from their hiking group on the Marcy Dam Truck trail. The children were last seen an hour earlier. Five Forest Rangers and one Assistant Forest Ranger responded. Rangers assigned to the Marcy Dam Outpost began searching trails. At 10:40 a.m., Rangers found the children and reunited them with their family at the trailhead.

Town of Keene
Essex County
Wilderness Search: On June 21 at 9:50 p.m., Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from a concerned family member reporting a 24-year-old hiker overdue in the Johns Brook Valley. Last cell phone coordinates place the subject on the Hopkins Trail junction at 7 p.m. The caller was concerned the subject did not have an adequate light source or proper layers. Rangers located the subject’s vehicle at the Garden parking lot. The hiker signed into the trail register as hiking Big Slide. At 11:05 p.m., Rangers located the hiker and assisted them back to the trailhead.

Be sure to properly prepare and plan before entering the backcountry. Visit DEC’s “Hike Smart NY,” “Adirondack Backcountry,” and “Catskill Backcountry Information” webpages for more information.

If a person needs a Forest Ranger, whether it’s for a search and rescue, to report a wildfire, or to report illegal activity on State lands and easements, they should call 833-NYS-RANGERS. If a person needs urgent assistance, they can call 911. To contact a Forest Ranger for information about a specific location, the DEC website has phone numbers for every Ranger listed by region.