Hiker Lost For 9 Days Walks Out Of Forest

Searchers were surprised to see a hiker missing for nine days walk into their camp Sunday, looking weak and claiming the sound of bagpipes and flutes led him there.

Christopher Wearstler, 21, had lost 25 pounds and was dehydrated. He appeared to have suffered no serious injury.

“He’ll live to hike again,” said Curt Sauer, chief ranger of Olympic National Park.

“According to him he was attracted to Elkhorn Ranger Station by the sound of bagpipes and flutes,” Sauer said. “We don’t have any up there, so he was apparently beginning to hallucinate.”

Wearstler was scheduled to return June 6 from a four-day backpacking trip, his first such solo adventure. He told rangers he got disoriented on the third or fourth day, set up camp to await rescue and then got lost looking for water. He had no food for five days.

Fifty park staffers, 10 dog teams and more than 50 volunteers searched for Wearstler after he was reported missing June 7.

“I didn’t realize it would be this big of a deal,” Wearstler told KING-TV in Seattle. “I didn’t even know if people were actually looking for me or not.”

“If he had filled out a backcountry permit and we had some itinerary it probably would have made the search easier,” Sauer said.