It had been a while since Michael Altmaier last climbed Upper Center Hill in Mount Blue State Park when he went up there Monday, July 9, to photograph some scrapes caused by glaciers on the hill’s ledges, he said.

On his way down, the 75-year-old tried taking an alternative path that was a little easier, he said. Instead of it being easier, he slid off a mossy rock, down the hill and hit his head on a tree — resulting in a bleeding gash.

“I got to a point where there was a mossy rock and it had quite a — what I thought was a pretty good drop-off down to what I thought was a trail and it was almost like a couch, where I sat on it,” he said. “And as I sat on it, I slipped right off it and before I had time to think about it and went downhill very quickly.”

The unofficial Camp Kawanhee historian and volunteer was preparing a presentation to be given the next day about the Weld camp and its history for camp officials and the campers — a camp he attended as a child, he said. He wanted new photos for the presentation and thought the glacial scrapes would be an interesting addition to it.

After falling, he knew he was not far from the trail but he became disoriented and could not find his way back, he said. He tied his shirt on his head to stop the bleeding; doctors later told him it was likely a concussion. He tried calling down to Camp Kawanhee but had no service on his Straight Talk phone.

After that, he kept looking for the trail, he said. Stumbling around, he fell again and hit his nose. When darkness descended he knew he would have to stay there for the night, during which the bugs “had a feast on him.”

For the next roughly four days he walked around the woods trying to find his way back to the trail and yelled for help from people who might be nearby, he said. Much of his memory of the events during that time are hazy.

He had no water to drink, but he thinks he collected some rainwater at one point and also splashed his face with water from a lake, hoping that would help keep him hydrated, he said.

By the second night he experienced his first hallucinations, in which he thought he heard cars and people coming to rescue him, he said. They were the first of other hallucinations he recalls having at times while he was lost.

“I saw the people in my mind, I saw them clear brush for an ambulance, I saw them talk about an ambulance, but everyone I talked to said ‘it didn’t happen, Mike,’” he said. “And I remember getting very tired and waiting and waiting and waiting and several cars went by, I thought.”

A few days into this situation he ended up at the head of Lake Webb, where the bugs were worse, he said.

Though he never actually encountered any animals, by Wednesday he was fearful that he might come across a bear, he said. By then he was beginning to lose faith that he would survive being lost in the woods, but he continued searching for the trail.

Altmaier’s brother, Robert “B.A.” Altmaier, said he knew something was wrong by Tuesday when Altmaier did not show up to give his presentation. For the next couple of days he did not know exactly what happened to his brother, nobody was aware that he had gone up to the state park to take photos. He spent a lot of time around family because he did not know what to do exactly.

On Wednesday, a friend told B.A. that law enforcement got a ping from Altmaier’s phone near Woodstock and then he got word that another cellphone ping came from a tower near Newry, he said. So, he and a friend drove all around western Maine for about 10 hours after learning that information.

First thing Friday morning, he got word from wardens that they located Altmaier’s car in the parking area near Upper Center Hill. That evidence initiated a search operation, in which search teams were called in Friday, B.A. said.

“But when they found his car on Center Hill, that’s when the whole thing, the search, really got crazy because they had found his car, so they knew,” he said.

Since 1943 in Maine, the Game Warden Service is statutorily tasked with organizing search and rescues when someone is lost, missing, stranded or drowned on inland waters or in the woods, according to Joshua Bubier, Warden Service lieutenant and statewide search and rescue coordinator for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

People often think search and rescues are synonymous but they are two separate operations — though sometimes a rescue is necessary when a person has been located after a search, he said. Sometimes wardens know where a person is located but that person cannot leave the area they’re in on their own, most of the time due to an injury, which requires a rescue operation.

“There’s quite a difference between the two of them,” he said. “Obviously, with the search being someone that we don’t know where they’re at — we’re trying to find them. And other times they’re rescues.”

When someone does go missing, often wardens will push a Silver Alert to the public, asking people to report if they have seen the missing person, which was the case for Altmaier. So far this year, 18 Silver Alerts have been issued, mostly for older adults.

In 2021, state legislation changed, expanding who a Silver Alert can be issued for, which is basically anyone over 18 now, Bubier said.

It may seem like more people are going missing based on an increase in the number of Silver Alerts issued, but it is likely only because of the expanded legislation, he said.

In Altmaier’s case, he was lost in the woods where people do not frequent, so the Silver Alert was less effective than someone who is walking along a road or out driving around.

It was a long day of searching Friday and B.A. began to think the worst — that his brother was not going to be found alive, he said. He had friends telling him that the search might not end well.

By Friday morning, Altmaier realized he was pretty far away from the trail and started to give up by late afternoon, he said. He too started to think more seriously that he was going to die in the woods.

He thought to himself, “You know it’s going to be my fifth night and I haven’t seen another human being and I’m beginning to think that I’m probably going to die out here — I thought of that possibility,” he said.

He figured those close to him would know something was wrong when he did not show up for his presentation Tuesday, but it was frustrating not knowing if anyone was looking for him, he said.

When Altmaier finally heard a real human voice he thought it was God at first, he said. But he realized he was being rescued when he heard them say, “We’re going to get you out of here.” He was found by a Warden Service K-9 and its handler. (See related story on the Maine Warden Service’s K-9 team.)

When B.A. finally got word from a friend that his brother was found alive, he was shocked and had a delayed emotional reaction, he said.

One helicopter ride later and Altmaier was out of the woods. He spent the next four days at Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington and then stayed at a rehabilitation center for another nine days to recover, he said.

MULTIPLE TOOLS IN THE SEARCH TOOLKIT

Initially, the search for a missing person might not be something wardens are in charge of, though they often help other law enforcement agencies in missing persons cases, Bubier said. When more information filters in and there is an area that needs to be searched, then it often becomes the Warden Service’s responsibility.

“Until we start getting some tips and leads as to where to start looking, it may not necessarily be a Warden Service-related kind of incident,” he said. “As opposed to somebody that’s an overdue hiker.”

But when a search is necessary, different situations involve different search tactics, he said. Wardens first talk to the person or agency reporting a missing person. Sometimes that happens a day or two after someone is reported missing.

Then they look for clues that might lead to where the person was, such as a boat tied up somewhere or a car sitting near a trail, he said.

If someone is known to be lost in a wooded area, Wardens will first do a general search covering the most probable areas where someone might be, including walking up and down trails, roadsides and other quick access areas, he said.

Then they might bring in a dog capable of searching by scent, he said. These initial searches could last a few hours or a half a day. Many people are found this way without requiring further resources.

If a larger search is required then they will initiate a “full callout,” he said. This goes out to certified search and rescue volunteer agencies trained for such situations.

There are 12 different volunteer search and rescue teams that operate under the Maine Association for Search and Rescue, according to President Kylie Coons. Each team has specialty training in different types of searches and rescues, including K-9, horseback, technical rescue and grid search teams, among other specialties. People from each team make up the association’s board.

Each volunteer has a CPR/first aid certification and is trained on how to conduct a ground search, she said.

Some teams may be called in to conduct a grid search, which is a team of six to eight people who line up and search a “box” area, together making a grid, she said. While they search, a GPS unit is tracking the volunteers.

Horses can also track scent in the air, though not quite as well as dogs, and are used in searches, she said. Horses are beneficial because a person can cover more ground riding on a horse.

For most searches, it is standard protocol to use dogs for scent tracking, Bubier said. Dogs will search for any human scent, so there are a limited number of people allowed in a search area where dogs are being used. When a dog finds a human scent usually it takes off running and then alerts its handler if it reaches a person. The dogs are also equipped with GPS collars.

These tactics are helpful when someone is lost in the woods where it is unlikely that they will be easily seen by anyone else. But when wardens do not have a specific area to search or if a person may be lost on the road somewhere, other search means are beneficial.

SILVER ALERTS

Sometimes wardens do not have any known fixed location where someone was last seen or is believed to be, such is often the case for people with Alzheimer’s disease who take off — walking, driving and even biking. It is a situation in which Silver Alerts can be most useful.

Richard Marble was biking with his wife, who has Alzheimer’s, in Brownfield on June 4 when she took off ahead of him on her electric bicycle, went down a hill and was gone by the time he rounded a corner and tried to catch up to her, he said.

They had started traveling down a familiar bike path but decided to take a different route off of it, he said. With his wife being on an electric bike, he knew she could travel as much as 65 to 75 miles on one charge.

At first, he didn’t know what to do, so he headed back to his truck to see if she stayed on their planned route, but when he did not see her on his way back to the truck he decided to call for emergency help.

He tried to locate her using a GPS tracking device he had placed on her sneaker, but he did not realize it operates off a bluetooth connection and it was not set up properly, he said.

There was no telling where she went as the area they were biking in had many different paths, he said. Law enforcement decided to publish a Silver Alert notification and shared it with members of the media and on social media, as well as sending it through an alert to nearby cellphones.

Even in the summer it can get as low as the 50s in Maine at night and that is low enough for people to go into a hypothermic state — with elderly people being more susceptible to hypothermia, according to Bubier. Being wet and cold for a long time outside can also be life-threatening.

Game wardens, the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office and volunteers showed up to help find Marble’s wife, he said. As night came on and there was still no sign of his wife of 49 years, Marble said he became worried sick and was imagining worst-case scenarios.

Turns out that while Marble was sleeping restlessly in his truck that night, his wife had found refuge in someone’s camp located on a rural dirt road near the trails they had been biking, three-quarters of a mile from where his truck was parked that night, he said.

She slept on a couch — away from the bugs and the elements, he said. She was found with no injuries the next day walking beside a pond by someone who recognized her from the Silver Alert. No rescue required.

After that, the Warden Service gave him a device that looks like a wristwatch — a GPS device that will help locate her if something like this happens again.

His wife did not remember where she stayed after they found her, but he is grateful to the Sheriff’s Office and the Warden Service for the effort they put forth to find her.

It was the Silver Alert that ultimately led to her being found, he acknowledged.

DON’T GIVE UP

Most of the Silver Alerts that have been issued so far this year have resulted in the person being found alive within a day or two. Altmaier’s prolonged stay in the woods could have ended worse, but B.A. credits a higher power with keeping his brother alive.

For Coons, finding someone safe is always a relief. But finding them no matter what the outcome — even if someone has died — gives their family answers, she said.

“Giving that family closure is so good,” she said. “You cry with them, you laugh with them, it’s nice to get that closure whether good or bad.”

As for Altmaier, he advises that people take a bottle of water and a sweater with them, even if they are only planning on a short trip, he said. If people find themselves lost in the woods they should not give up. As he moves on with his life, he knows he will feel grateful for the days still ahead of him.

“I do feel like, that I probably should have died out there somehow,” he said. He went on to say, “I’m just going to try to make the best of every day I have left in this world.”

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