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By BETTY JESPERSEN
Staff writer 12/06/2007

Steven Wright, 53, of Woodford, Vt., described by authorities as an experienced hunter, was found by Donald Eisenhaur, 68, of Madrid.

Eisenhaur said Wednesday evening that he found Wright, nearly frozen, covered with ice, wet and barely conscious, kneeling on a trail that Eisenhaur had broken earlier in the day. Eisenhaur, who had been out breaking trails and looking for moose sheds, said he believed Wright had heard the machine and dragged himself up from a gully to where he found the tracks.

"I guess I was in the right place at the right time," Eisenhaur said. He said he did not know how Wright had stayed alive since Monday through the freezing temperatures and snow without a tent or provisions.

"I loaded him in front of me and sort of cradled him as we rode out. We were in the middle of nowhere and I kept talking to him, telling him I was going to get him out and to keep hanging in there."

Wright, who had been on a hunting trip with friends before his disappearance, had walked nearly 11 miles due north from where he was reported missing. He was found on the west side of Jackson Mountain, about 15 miles southwest of Route 4.

During the hour-long, 15-mile snowmobile trek back to Route 4, Wright slumped over several times, hitting his head on the snowmobile's "stop" button, causing it to shut down.

"I wanted to get him out because darkness sets pretty quick out here," Eisenhaur said. "From where he was and the condition he was in, he wasn't going to walk out of there on his own."

When Eisenhaur reached an area with cell phone reception, he called his wife, Kay, instructing her to get an ambulance to an old logging trail head on Route 4. When he had left the house earlier in the day, she had told him to watch out for the missing hunter.

"And he found him -- he was so thrilled to find him," she recalled Wednesday evening.

Wright was able to speak once he got into the ambulance and then was heard asking if they had any beer in there, according to a press release from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Wright answered a few questions from rescuers and confirmed his identity before being flown by LifeFlight to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, according to the press release. The hospital's nursing supervisor declined to provide information on Wright's condition Wednesday evening.

Before the rescue, search crews had tentatively planned to call off their search around 4:30 p.m. and were beginning to plot their course of action for Thursday morning, according to Deborah Turcotte, acting director of communications for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Wright's two hunting companions reported him missing at about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday. By 11 a.m., a full search was under way with nearly 50 search and rescue personnel and canines from several agencies, as well as Air National Guard helicopters and Maine Warden Service planes. A five-mile mountainous area, covered with 15 inches of snow, was searched around the Byron Road area south of Tumbledown and Little Jackson mountains.

Wright's wife, two sons and friends helped with the search.

Wright was wearing extreme wet weather-type camouflage pants and jacket, an upper torso orange vest and a hat.

Turcotte said Wright had prepared a survival kit that contained matches, a radio and other gear but he had forgotten it in his truck. He was carrying a compass and a Global Positioning System unit.

Wright, Michael Harrington and Barry Bishop, both of Bennington, Vt., arrived in Maine on Sunday.

Their destination was No. 6 Road and the Coos Canyon camp site in Byron, Turcotte said.

On Monday, they headed east on No. 6 Road and around 9 a.m., observed a deer track. They split up and circled around, and at about 11 a.m., Bishop said he heard a single gunshot and another a half hour later, Turcotte said.

By 4 p.m. Monday, Bishop and Harrington met back at the truck. When Wright failed to arrive, the two began searching the area and reported their friend missing the following morning.

Winter hunting in the snow is a common deer-hunting practice, according to Lt. Adam Gormely of the Warden Service. "It's quiet hunting. You can sneak up on them. Plus you get snow to track them."

Betty Jespersen -- 778-6991

bjespersen@centralmaine.com

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