[at-l] Camper rescued after weeks in the wild

[David Addleton]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070115/ap_on_re_us/camper_rescued

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A camper who became stranded nearly five weeks ago in a
national forest because she could not cross a swollen river was rescued
Sunday, more than two weeks after the search for her was called off.

A New Mexico National Guard crew waded across the icy Gila River to rescue a
dehydrated and weak Carolyn Dorn of South Carolina, who entered the Gila
National Forest alone on Dec. 6 for a two-week camping trip.

She was found by two brothers, Albert and Peter Kottke, as they hiked an
area they had visited several times in the past two years without ever
seeing another human being. They realized Dorn was too weak to get out of
the wilderness with them and left her Tang, almonds, dried apples, hot soup
and cheese. They also filled her water bottles and left her a book — Michael
Connelly's "Chasing the Dime."

The brothers hiked 20 miles over the next day and a half, then hitchhiked
into Silver City, where they contacted the National Guard.

"We got her prepared to spend another couple of nights while we went
upstream to get help," Albert Kottke, 25, a doctoral student in civil
engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, said Sunday from his
parents' home in St. Paul, Minn.

Dorn told the brothers she was warm enough at night, but her eyes lit up
when they offered her the book, he said.

He felt comfortable leaving her after that because "you could tell she had a
positive outlook," he said.

Dorn was hospitalized in Silver City and should be fine, said search and
rescue coordinator Frankie Benoist of Silver City. Dorn's condition was
unavailable.

"We needed a large helicopter ... one with night vision and a hoist, and we
also needed a medic on board because of her condition," Benoist said.

Dorn, who travels often to Silver City, had planned to camp for two weeks.
But five days into her trip, it rained and snowed and the Gila River rose,
trapping her, Benoist said.

"The river got big, as she put it, so she did not want to cross it again,"
Benoist said. "It had become too dangerous and also she did not want to get
her clothes wet and get hypothermic. By the time the river went down, she
had run out of food and was starting to get weak."

Dorn had a tent, a sleeping bag and enough food and water for two weeks.
After she became stuck, she drank from the river, kept warm by building
fires and "used very little energy," Benoist said.

Temperatures have dropped into the low teens overnight in recent weeks,
according to the      National Weather
Service<http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=National+Weather+Service>
.

Dorn's car was spotted 2 1/2 weeks after she left and reported to
authorities. Benoist said her group conducted an intensive search, "but we
never considered that she traveled so far" into the forest.

The search began Dec. 24 and ended Dec. 26. On the third day, after a large
group of searchers with all-terrain vehicles, dogs and horses failed to find
any clues, the search was called off, Benoist said.

Dorn's brother-in-law, Stan Cornine — who traveled to Silver City from South
Carolina during last month's search — told the Las Cruces Sun-News at the
time that Dorn was an experienced camper who was at home in the outdoors.

Cornine, who described Dorn as "very much a free spirit," said he and his
wife sometimes would go for more than a year without hearing from her. But
he said she had called before she headed to Silver City to let her family
know.

The National Guard used coordinates provided by the hikers to fly to Dorn's
camp 20 miles northeast of Silver City, said Chief Warrant Officer Dave
Burrell.

The crew headed out Saturday night, but bad weather grounded the helicopter
for about five hours in Las Cruces, Burrell said. The crew reached the
forest about 5:30 a.m. Sunday and used night vision goggles to spot Dorn's
camp near the river in a steep ravine, Burrell said.

He could not land the helicopter on her side of the river, so the crew
lowered a medic, Staff Sgt. Greg Holmes, into her camp.

Burrell then found a place to land across the river.

Burrell, Holmes, Sgt. Ian Weigner and Maj. John Fishburn carried Dorn across
the knee-deep river while a second pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Race Baker,
waited. They then flew to Silver City with Dorn, who was dehydrated and
hypothermic, Burrell said.
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