Isle Royale park officials share more details on rescue of missing hiker
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The National Park Service said two paddlers on Isle Royale found a hiker who’d been lost in the wilderness for more than a week.
Craig Berg, 70, of Royal Oak, Mich., was found on the remote Lake Superior island on Saturday and airlifted by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter to get medical treatment.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said Berg was found in good condition and was “walking in the hospital before the last searchers returned from searching.”
His son, Evan Berg, told Detroit TV station WDIV on Saturday that his father was well enough to speak with family members and share some details of what happened.
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“He got lost, and then he fell into a marsh, and he lost his cell phone and his wallet in the marsh,” Evan Berg told WDIV while driving north to Marquette on Saturday. “He’s been slowly trying to make his way to find somebody. Kayakers ended up finding him.”
The Park Service said Monday that Berg was found at Intermediate Lake — more than a mile from established hiking trails on the island.
Those kayakers relayed Berg’s location to park officials, who coordinated with the Coast Guard to evacuate Berg.
A MH-60 Jayhawk crew from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City hoisted Berg to their helicopter and transported him to the Marquette airport. He was then taken to a hospital.
Berg had been on a more-than-weeklong solo hike on Isle Royale. He was scheduled to take the Ranger III ferry back to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on Sept. 5, but family members reported the next day that he did not arrive home. That prompted park officials to launch a large-scale search.
After Berg was found, his son said, he told family members he had gotten lost several days before he was reported missing, and had been looking for help for 11 days.
The search for Berg included teams on the ground — including search dogs — as well as boats, drones and aircraft. The effort included aircraft from the Minnesota State Patrol.
Isle Royale National Park officials said in a news release that the search covered “dense forests, rocky shorelines, wetlands and inland lakes, where limited cellular coverage can also make communication challenging.”
“The successful outcome reflects the combined efforts of search teams, partner agencies and members of the public who assisted throughout the operation,” park officials said.
Isle Royale, located off the northeast tip of Minnesota, is about 45 miles long and 9 miles wide. Aside from two hubs of visitor services at either end of Isle Royale, there are no roads or motor vehicles across the wilderness island.
The park has a network of rugged trails, including the Greenstone Ridge Trail that spans nearly the entire length of the island. It also has several canoe routes that traverse inland lakes, including the lake where Berg was found.
