A 15-year-old boy from New York became lost while taking a late-night bathroom break in the Maine woods.
Nathan Beckman of Scarsdale, New York, was on a backpacking trip with Overland Summers on the remote, 38-mile Grafton Loop Trail in western Maine, according to Mark Latti, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Overland Summers is a Massachusetts-based organization that hosts youth outdoor adventures.
While at the Bull Run campsite, Beckman left his tent to go to the bathroom about 3:15 a.m. Saturday. The trip leaders had heard Beckman leave his tent, and then later heard the lost boy yelling in the distance, Latti said Sunday morning.
Trip leaders began searching for Beckman, but were unable to find him or get him back to the campsite.
When they could no longer hear him, trip leaders called 911 about 5 a.m.
Game wardens and dozens of other rescuers began searching the rugged terrain on the southern slopes of Old Speck and Slide mountains on foot with dogs as well as from above with airplanes, helicopters and drones.
Game Warden Preston Pomerleau and his canine partner Gordon located a jacket and hiking boot believed to belong to Beckman, and as they continued to search the area, they heard distant yelling about 3:10 p.m.
Nearly half a mile away from the Bull Run campsite, Pomerleau and Gordon found Beckman, who was still moving through the woods on the steep mountainside, including over already-searched areas, in an attempt to get back to his tent, eluding rescuers, according to Latti.
Beckman was uninjured during his ordeal in the woods, and he didn’t need any medical attention. He hiked out of the woods with rescuers, and Beckman was reunited with his group in Bethel about 6:30 p.m.