When Encampment Hunter James Johnson Got Lost, He Kept His Head & Built A Fire

James Johnson is an avid hunter and it's not like him to get lost. But when he did Wednesday, he kept his head and built a fire. Searchers spotted him from a helicopter the next day. 

The Encampment hunter who went missing Wednesday and was found by a helicopter one day later never lost his head in the wilderness south of town.

James Johnson, who turns 54 Sunday, went out in the Medicine Bow National Forest area Wednesday to get his elk, with just one more day of the hunt allowed in the region.

It was just before dark when he climbed the wrong ridge, Johnson told Cowboy State Daily on Saturday.

“The ridges all looked the same when I got there,” he said, describing numerous sharp vertical ridges in the foot-travel-only terrain.

He had two choices: he could keep wandering to try to find the way back to his truck, or he could use the fleeting sunlight to build a shelter and a fire.

The temperature was dropping, snow was due and a wind rose. Johnson chose shelter.

He arranged limbs into a makeshift shelter, and used a flint he had on him to ignite nylon game bags, which – he discovered on the fly – make a pretty good fire starter. They burned just long enough to dry out some damp wood he’d gathered, Johnson said.

At about 1 a.m., the first large flakes of a 2-3 inch snowfall started.  At 3:30 a.m., the wind raged.

Johnson stayed awake, stayed mobile, and fed his little fire all night. He knew the sun would rise about 7:30 and the terrain would allow fair sunshine pockets at about 8.

At 8 he put out his fire and hiked to a high ridge, planning to use it as a vantage point. He thought he’d see a logging road from there, but he didn’t. So he climbed up “some other ridge” in the sea of identical ridges, and eventually found a stream.

Having long since abandoned all thought of his truck, Johnson followed the water downstream, thinking at some point, it had to cross a road. He didn’t see any bear sign but noticed fresh mountain lion tracks – probably left a couple hours before he saw them. Johnson wasn’t worried about wildlife: he had both his rifle and his sidearm. But the only wildlife he saw was a grey squirrel, he said.

The stream never crossed a road. It led Johnson to the Encampment River, which did meet a river trail. Johnson followed the trail to Commissary Park, near the Colorado border.

That was when searchers in a Classic Air helicopter found him, waving his arms and in good health.

Figured They Were Searching

Johnson figured his wife had called search and rescue; figured people were searching for him.

Still, he was humbled and grateful to the 20-person response of Carbon County Sheriff’s and Search and Rescue personnel that deployed Wednesday night and Thursday morning when he did not come home.

“I want to thank our Search and Rescue and sheriff’s office – they’re underappreciated I believe,” he said. “They were definitely invested in trying to find me. That’s something I think people need to know.”

Johnson said he would like to encourage people to donate to their local search and rescue groups.

Not Normal

Friends and family have described Johnson as a solid person and knowledgeable hunter. That’s Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken’s understanding of him as well, Bakken told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.

The sheriff was surprised to hear Johnson hadn’t returned home as expected. A volunteer searcher himself, Bakken and others scoured wide swaths of the national forest Wednesday night, then called off the search around midnight as the snow moved in.

They set out again in the morning with Johnson’s 20-year-old son – who has hunted with Johnson frequently – to help them narrow down some likely courses.

Searchers found Johnson’s vehicle at the end of Jones Creek Road. They established a command post and sent three teams of three out on foot.

“There’s no way to get a four wheeler or side-by-side in that area,” said Bakken, adding that Classic Air has been a huge help to the search and rescue. The service agreed to send a helicopter over the area.

The helicopter crew spotted Johnson at about 3:15 p.m., said Bakken. Searchers converged and were able to guide Johnson out of the area just before dark.

Bakken said Johnson was maybe five miles from his truck as the crow flies, but he must have traveled much farther than that with the elevation gain, any pivots or turns, and the winding of the road he found.  Johnson estimated he journeyed about 20 miles altogether.

Bakken called Johnson “super lucky” that things were not worse. “If that search would have gone on another day, I don’t know what the outcome would have been.”

Johnson said he didn’t doubt he’d make it out. He couldn’t explain it and he said it wasn’t due to his own abilities, but he had faith that he’d find a road and make it home before dark of the second day, he said.  

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.