After chilly night in woods, hiker plucked to safety by helicopter crew.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

OAKRIDGE - An experienced hiker who took one chance too many was airlifted out by rescuers from dense forest south of Waldo Lake on Monday afternoon, after an attempted shortcut on a day hike led to a cold night outdoors.

"I shivered all night long," Tom Wood, 70, told rescuers. The Cottage Grove resident was tired and hungry and had scratches all over his legs, but otherwise was in good condition.

An Oregon Army National Guard helicopter spotted Wood shortly after 1 p.m. near a lake southeast of the Fuji Mountain area. A medic was lowered to take care of Wood while the helicopter refueled in Sunriver and then returned to hoist the pair out of the backcountry terrain.

"They plucked me right out of the middle of the forest," a relieved Wood said after being returned to his starting point, a trailhead at the end of a nine-mile forest road. "I had my eyes closed the whole way."

On a solo hike, Wood had become lost, then trekked several miles into untrailed country trying to find his way out. He was carrying a cell phone and had called for help late Sunday afternoon. However, because he couldn't pinpoint his own location, searchers spent almost 20 hours hiking through rugged country and driving roads in the area without being able to find him.

Still, searchers credited the cell phone for bringing the episode to a happy end.

"That cell phone gave us a 15-hour head start," said Lane County sheriff's Deputy Randy Fenley, who stayed out all night helping coordinate the search effort. Without the phone call, no one would have known Wood was missing until Monday morning, he said.

Wood's adventure began Sunday afternoon when he went for a day hike to the top of Mount Fuji, on the southern edge of the Waldo Lake Wilderness Area. It's a trip the longtime hiker has done several times before.

But this time he tried to take a shortcut back to the trailhead and became lost. He already had pushed his luck by going on the hike without telling anyone where he would be and without a map or other survival gear, and he compounded the error by continuing on in hopes of finding a way out on his own.

"I made three of the biggest foul-ups that any hiker should know not to do," he said.

Heading downhill he found himself in "steep, ungodly" country. He finally used his cell phone to call 911 shortly after 5 p.m., and the Lane County sheriff's office search and rescue team assembled and began the search.

Four teams spent the night trying to figure Wood's location. Fenley said they told Wood to stay put while the search took place, and they had him conserve his cell phone battery by turning it on only at the top of the hour, when searchers would check in with him.

Wood, who was dressed in a short-sleeve T-shirt, shorts and hiking boots, said he made a bed by laying branches on the ground to make a flat spot and then covering it with hemlock boughs. That and relatively mild weather kept Wood alive, but he said that by morning he was weak from all the shivering he had done.

Additional searchers joined the effort Monday morning but still were unable to find him. Then the National Guard sent a Blackhawk helicopter and crew to help and quickly spotted him.

"I would have been dead without them," Wood said. "I can't say enough about Lane County search and rescue and all the volunteers. They're just great."

CAPTION(S):

Backcountry enthusiast Tom Wood accepts a chair, food and drink after his rescue Monday afternoon from the wilderness near Waldo Lake. Brian Davies / The Register-Guard