MILLINOCKET, Maine — The 78-year-old hiker rescued Sunday after spending three days lost in Baxter State Park is a retired U.S. Army sergeant major and U.S. Postal Service mail carrier “in excellent physical condition,” a hospital official said Monday.
John Lyon of Dumfries, Virginia, was recovering at Millinocket Regional Hospital on Monday “in good condition and is expected to be discharged within the next few days,” hospital CEO Bob Peterson said in a statement.
Park Director Jensen Bissell was impressed by the stamina of Lyon, who was dehydrated and has many scratches and bruises on his leg.
“He is a pretty healthy guy. Three nights outside and a few days wading through some very difficult spots weren’t much of a deterrent to him,” Bissell said Monday. “He was still going.”
A Maine Forest Service helicopter crew rescued Lyon from a rock slide near Annis Brook at Fort Mountain about 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Lyon last had been seen on Marston Trail near Mount Coe about 72 hours before. The search began Friday.
Crew members estimated that Lyon traveled 7 or 8 miles through rugged backwoods to get to the rock slide near Fort Mountain’s peak, but Bissell said he went more like 2 miles. Through intermediaries, Lyon declined to be interviewed by media. Efforts to contact his family were unsuccessful Monday.
The search for Lyon might have been the park’s longest in 40 years. Hiker Michael Hays, 41, of Ohio was last seen by fellow hikers on May 28, 2010, and found by a forest service helicopter crew on the afternoon of May 31, three days later. The search for him began on May 29, 2010, newspaper records show.
The two searches “were very close to the same length, as I remember it,” Bissell said.
They were different, however, in that searchers found clues to Hays’ whereabouts before discovering him, but found Lyon in the most likely place Lyon would have been without any clues confirming it, Bissell said.
Such rescues are rare. Only seven of 100,000 park visitors will need a litter, helicopter, or both to get to safety. Bissell credited Lyon for his diligence. Lyon ruefully admitted that he would never go hiking again without a map, Bissell said.
“We are going to look for you but it really helps when you try to rescue yourself. He did that,” Bissell said. “He knew the helicopters were there and he kept trying to find an open spot to get seen, and he eventually did.”
Lyon told hospital officials Monday that he missed the South Brother trail and became separated from his three fellow hikers.
Lyon was reported to be an experienced outdoorsman who has hiked extensively, including a nonstop journey of the entire 2,180-mile Appalachian Trail. He was a letter carrier for 18 years, hospital officials said.
Lyon, his daughter and son expressed gratitude to everyone who participated in the search.
About 50 park rangers, members of the Maine Warden Service and Civil Air Patrol, volunteer search and rescue workers, pilots and search dog teams from multiple organizations looked for Lyon on Sunday. Eighty searchers participated Saturday.