Wardens working to reduce false alarms

GREENVILLE – Frustration runs high among wardens who are called out at night to search for snowmobilers who are reported missing – only to learn later those snowmobilers are safe and sound in bed.

Every winter, wardens receive many calls reporting snowmobilers who fail to return home or to a lodging facility. In most cases, the snowmobilers either became lost on the trails and found themselves in an unexpected location, or they decided to venture onto another trail without informing anyone of their plans, according to Sgt. Dan Menard of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Not only do these calls tax the warden service’s resources, but such searches are expensive to Maine taxpayers, Menard said. He urges any snowmobiler to file an itinerary with friends, relatives or innkeepers. The itinerary should indicate what snowmobile route they plan to take and if they plan to return home that night, what time to expect them. Should they deviate from the itinerary, snowmobilers should notify someone at the earliest possible moment.

Menard said wardens were notified at about 1 a.m. Saturday that three men were long overdue from a snowmobile trip in the Moosehead Lake region. The three men apparently became separated from two other men in their group. The two men arrived at the Kokadjo cabin where they were staying overnight at about 6:30 p.m. and waited for their friends to arrive. When they had not returned by midnight, wardens were notified.

Since there were three snowmobilers involved and no one was sure which route the men had taken, and it was unlikely that all three snowmobiles had broken down, wardens did not initiate an immediate search. Had there been some extenuating circumstances with the snowmobilers, such as age and medical condition, Menard said a search would have begun immediately.

Instead, wardens made some telephone calls to friends of the party to obtain any additional information about their whereabouts. The friends were told to notify the wardens if the three men made contact with them or arrived back home.

When no word of the whereabouts of the three men was received early Saturday morning, Menard assembled a ground search party. As a warden pilot flew over Moosehead Lake in search of the three men, a call was made to the Kokadjo innkeeper. The innkeeper checked the cabin and learned that the trio had returned to the cabin at 4:30 a.m. and had not bothered to notify anyone.

With ice conditions so risky on Maine’s lakes, Menard said he could not in good conscience send wardens out at night on searches unless there are some unusual circumstances involved.