iPod Glow Leads to Lost Mushroom Picker

An iPod screen glowing in the middle of the night from thick underbrush led rescuers to a mushroom picker lost in the woods.

The search leader said Pini Nou, 25, of Vancouver, Wash., was on his first outing and got separated from his mother, an experienced mushroom hunter. At nightfall, she called Benton County authorities for help.

Nou used his cell phone to describe the landscape to rescuers as best he could in the darkness, said Peggy Peirson, acting county emergency management coordinator. They finally located him after 1 a.m. Friday when a member of a search and rescue team saw the light from the iPod, she said.

Nou, lacking a flashlight, had been using the music device for light, Peirson said. She said the underbrush was so thick it took rescuers more than 20 minutes to reach Nou once they saw the glow.

Peirson said he was lightly dressed, and Nou said he was cold and tired and had aching feet.