A blind hiker and his guide dog were rescued by the Coast Guard after they were stranded on an Oregon trail for several days.
The 55-year-old man, who is legally blind, was hiking with his dog and a friend along Oregon’s Rogue River Trail, the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Northwest said on social media. The trail is 40 miles long and stretches between Grave Creek and Big Bend. It typically takes four or five days to hike the 40 miles, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The man and his friend, who were not identified by officials, began the hike on July 3 or 4, the Coast Guard said, but the man began to show symptoms of heat exhaustion on Saturday, July 6 while they were in a remote area. His friend left to call 911.
The Oregon Department of Emergency Management and the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office coordinated with the region’s Bureau of Land Management to develop a rescue plan.
A sheriff and a BLM ranger found the man by 9 a.m. Monday, July 8, but the man could not walk and the terrain was too steep for a stretcher. Authorities called in the Coast Guard crew.
The Coast Guard was able to deploy a rescue swimmer to reach the man and his dog and hoist them to a helicopter.
Video shows the rescue swimmer being rappelled down to the rocky riverside terrain. The dog was carried up to the helicopter first in a litter, and the man was then hoisted into the helicopter alongside the rescue swimmer.
The two were then “safely taken” to emergency medical services at Grants Pass Airport. The Coast Guard did not share any information about their condition.