WOLFE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Call it a miracle or a guardian angel as we share with you the moments rescue workers found Scott Hern in the Red River Gorge after days of searching.
It was a sunny Saturday on July 6 when Ohio man, Scott Hern, decided he was going to hike at the Red River Gorge in Wolfe County, Kentucky. That same day a ranger saw Hern's truck at Tower Rock trail. When that deputy was back on duty on Saturday, July 13, Hern's truck was still there.
"When he ran his license plate that's what kind of triggered this whole event because there was a missing persons report filed in Ohio where he was actually missing from," Chief John May with the Wolfe County Search and Rescue explained.
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Hern's family contacted Wolfe County Search and Rescue on Tuesday, July 16 once they realized where Hern had gone.
"We searched until 12 o'clock that night and then resumed search operations that Wednesday and then Thursday. We took Friday off of this week to do a planning session to try to gather more information," May explained.
Some of that information came from a diary of Hern's that his family provided. Entries that listed two different pin points: one being where he'd park his car and the second being Bell Falls at Red River Gorge.
"He had recently purchased a new pair of boots, wet dry shirt and a GPS watch. We were in the process of trying to get a warrant to collect data from that watch to see if it might have a coordinate showing his last location," said May.
On the team's last day of searching, before they would be forced to scale back, they spotted tracks and marks of a walking stick at Bell Falls.
"And then they heard someone yell. They responded back and then the gentlemen said 'help, help' and they asked who it was and he said Scott," May said.
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May described that last glimmer of hope they had that led them right to Hern: alert and alive. "And we put him in basically like a skid and a bag that he goes in and they actually did a hoist of him from that location, so we didn't have to carry him out."
Multiple agencies came out to help with the search efforts, including Kentucky State Police who provided the helicopter to lift Hern up to safety.
"Where he was at, he probably would never have been found. If he was not able to yell when searchers were in the general area there's no way they would have found him where he was at," May expressed.
May said if you plan to hike make sure someone has your location, you've planned out your trail and you have the right tools. You can also use the SARTopo app while hiking which allows your location to be tracked, even offline, if you do happen to get lost or are in trouble.
