Missing Montana Motorcyclist Found Alive In Idaho Surviving On Creek Water

An intense five-day search effort for a lost Montana motorcyclist ended Friday when the motorcyclist was found alive not far from where he vanished.

The Idaho County Sheriff’s dispatch received a call at 1:42 Friday afternoon from the International Emergency Response Coordination Center relating an SOS call from a Garmin inReach device, according to a statement by the sheriff’s office.

The second of the Garmin’s two messages said Zachary DeMoss, 24, had been found, but was in bad shape. When emergency responders found him, they learned DeMoss had been surviving on creek water.

DeMoss went missing Sunday after telling friends Devlin Zarn and Aly Phan, with whom he’d gone on a multistate Western bike trip last week, to get a head start on him as the trio left Kooskia, Idaho.

DeMoss is the more experienced rider in the group and rides quickly, “like a bat out of hell,” Phan told Cowboy State Daily.

Friday’s SOS message sent coordinates at the Lost Creek Campground off of milepost 136 on Idaho’s Highway 12, says the sheriff’s statement. The mile marker is in about the same area where DeMoss’s bike was last seen, parked without him on it.

Dispatch sent ambulances, Life Flight, a deputy and state police to the scene.

Responders found DeMoss alert and conscious, kept alive by water from a nearby creek. Life Flight took him to St. Patrick’s Hospital in Missoula, says the statement.

“Sheriff (Doug) Ulmer wants to thank everyone who helped in the search for Zachary, and we wish him the best on his recovery,” says the statement.

The news of DeMoss being found came just hours after authorities announced they would be scaling back the search for him.

‘Really … Good’

Both Zarn and Phan were elated at the news.

“We’re doing really f***ng good,” said Phan on Friday with a tearful laugh.

She said she was getting into her truck in Kalispell, Montana, grabbing the dog she shares with Zarn and getting ready to go to the Missoula hospital.

Phan didn’t have many details, but had heard that DeMoss was found sitting by the river, “a little beaten up.”

Zarn didn’t know all the details either, such as whether DeMoss had wrecked his motorcycle or suffered some other mishap.

But he was thrilled that his high school buddy and friend of 10 years was alive. He said he hadn’t allowed himself to think that DeMoss was dead during the search.

“I can’t stop crying,” said Zarn with a tearful laugh.

In their separate interviews, Zarn and Phan both voiced profound gratitude toward everyone who helped search for DeMoss.

At This Saloon

Phan, Zarn and DeMoss stopped at Doreen’s Southfork Saloon in Kooskia, Idaho, on Sunday afternoon to stretch their legs while heading back to Montana from Oregon, Phan said. They had “maybe two beers” and hung out with the locals.

It was the last time anyone had seen DeMoss or that his credit or debit card was used, according to Phan’s Sunday Facebook post pleading for help locating him.   

DeMoss lingered at the saloon and told his friends to get a head start on Idaho’s Highway 12 since he’s the more experienced rider.

Phan’s said the bar owner has since told her that DeMoss did not linger very long after his companions left.

Out on the highway, “He passed us going pretty fast,” said Phan. “He rides pretty fast; he rides like a bat out of hell.”

Phan and Zarn saw DeMoss’ Vulcan pulled off the road on Eagle Mountain Trailhead at about 4:30 that afternoon. They stopped at the next pullout to wait for him, but after five minutes assumed DeMoss hadn’t seen them, and they turned back to the trailhead, Phan’s post says.

When they got there, DeMoss’ bike was gone, and there was no sight of him either.

They assumed he’d turned back to find them, but they were low on gas with their back tire starting to show threads, Phan wrote. They waited at Eagle Mountain Trailhead for two hours, left a large and noticeable note in the pullout’s gravel then continued on to Lolo, Montana, as the three had planned.

They waited at the Cenex gas station at Lolo for more than an hour, flagging down cars and bikers for any information on DeMoss.

A friend joined the pair and picked them up in his car so they could continue searching. They saw no sign of DeMoss or a bike accident, says Phan’s post.

They checked his home in Victor, Montana, tried his phone and searched for him throughout the week.