16-Year-Old Rescued Off Kittitas County Trail After 4 Hour Search

Sheriff’s Deputies and Kittitas County Search & Rescue report the safe recovery of a person who was separated from his family on an unpaved road north of the Umptanum Falls trailhead. on Thanksgiving Day.

Deputies say the 16-year-old son was riding an electric motorcycle ahead of the family car, and took a wrong turn when he was out of view, and disappeared.

The family called 911 at about 6:30pm after two hours of searching.

Deputies say they worked with search and rescue volunteers and used off road vehicles to finally locate the son almost hours later at 10:15pm.

They say they found him on a green dot road about 4 miles from their starting point. The boy was reunited with his family, unharmed.

Deputies noted the boy had been lost in unfamiliar terrain on a motorcycle with a dying charge, no food or water, no working phone, and no gear for the freezing night ahead.

The Kittitas County Sheriff's Office gave credit to all personnel who assisted with the rescue on social media.

"We're thankful dedicated people train and prepare to make routine operations out of life-threatening emergencies, on holidays like any other day: the Kittcom dispatchers who were there to take the family’s call, the deputies who were on duty to respond to their emergency, and the KSAR volunteers who left their warm homes and families to join in yet another lifesaving search and rescue!"