HOOSIER NATIONAL FOREST – Tom Kramer and Vicky St. Myers were rescued after spending two nights in the Hoosier National Forest.
It was a rainy Thursday with temperatures in the mid-60s when the two friends set off hiking Browning Mountain trailhead near Elkinsville in Brown County.
Kramer, 76, and St. Myers, 75, took off on the 1.6-mile hike near Norman with one bottle of water. Generally considered a moderately challenging route, it takes an average of 50 minutes to complete.
When they reached the top of the hill they enjoyed the view of Browning Mountain Stonehenge and then took off hiking back down the trail. However, they became lost walking deeper into the forest.
Family members became concerned when they didn’t hear from Kramer by Friday and he wasn’t answering his phone. A family member filed a missing person report with the Edinburgh Police Department in Minnesota saying Kramer could be hiking in Brown, Monroe, or Jackson County. Police contacted the Indiana Department of Natural Resources on Saturday.
According to weather reports temperatures ranged in the 40s on Friday and Saturday. The two would hike during the day and together periodically yell for help. At night the two tried to stay warm.
Conservation officers began searching and soon found Kramer’s vehicle. An Indiana State Police helicopter, dozens of Brown County firefighters on all-terrain vehicles, and sheriff’s deputies joined the search, along with volunteers on foot and a group of mountain bikers who had been riding in the area. They spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning combing the forest for the two missing hikers.
Around 1 p.m. on Sunday, the couple heard a response to their cries for help. Two mountain bikers spotted them on the side of Salt Creek’s south fork near Tower Ridge Road, a rough, gravel road. The hikers were near Robertson Cemetery, about two and a half miles from where they had started their hike. Robertson Cemetery is located in the Hoosier National Forest, Charles Deem Wilderness Area in Salt Creek Township, Jackson County
The hikers were dehydrated, weak, and suffering from hypothermia. They were transported by an IU LifeLine ambulance to Bedford IU Health for treatment.
