Man found after week in bitter cold Injured in fall, Lakeville resident awaited help in unheated camper

LINCOLN – It was one of the coldest days in Maine history, and despite the 10 sleeping bags and half a dozen blankets he had piled on top of him, Charles Armstrong’s feet were turning black.

He had frostbite and probably a broken leg. He lay in his camper in Lakeville, the fire he built two days before long since gone out. He prayed for someone, anyone, to find him, but he was in the middle of nowhere – and he was freezing.

When the accident occurred last week, Armstrong, 55, was gathering firewood near his camper, about 25 miles east of Lincoln. The Pepperell, Mass., native knew it was about to get really cold, and he wanted to be prepared.

With wood in hand, Armstrong slipped on a patch of ice he hadn’t noticed. He landed awkwardly on his right leg and knew right away he was in trouble. He lay still for a while, wondering how he would get back inside. Before long, he left the wood and crawled back to his camper.

His 19-foot camper with its attached shed wasn’t that far away, but without the full use of his legs, he struggled to get there. A wood stove in the shed radiates enough heat into the camper, but without wood, it was but cold metal. When he reached the camper, Armstrong bundled up as best he could and waited for help to come along.

That was Monday, Jan. 12. The worst of the cold weather was yet to come, and five long days would pass before anyone would find him. Armstrong was without heat, except for a small, two-burner Coleman stove that he used to keep his hands from freezing.

In Lincoln last week, temperatures fell to around minus 20, according to the National Weather Service, while elsewhere in the state they plummeted as low as minus 31 with brutal wind chills down to minus 50.

Day after cold day, Armstrong lay immobilized with nothing but water, some coffee and the little bit of food he could reach to sustain him. The nearest phone was in town – 11/2 miles away – and the five houses nearest his on Vistaview Road were vacant for the winter.

“I was just praying that someone would come along and find me,” Armstrong said Sunday from Penobscot Valley Hospital, where he is being treated for frostbite and an injured leg.

“My feet are all black and frostbit,” he said. “I couldn’t keep my feet warm.”

Although he kept hoping he would be found, Armstrong admits he was worried.

“It wasn’t looking too good there for awhile,” he said. “My leg was killing me. My feet were terrible.”

Armstrong said determination got him through, as he waited every night for the next day.

“I never knew 24 hours could be so long,” he said.

Finally, on Saturday morning, Armstrong’s friend, David Richie of Lakeville, found him and called for help. The Lincoln Fire Department and the game warden arrived, and Armstrong was taken to Penobscot Valley Hospital.

“I had my wits about me [when they found me]. The game warden couldn’t believe it,” Armstrong said. “I just thought, I gotta stay alive until someone finds me here.”

A former employee for Dawes Drilling Co. in Pepperell, Armstrong was put on disability after undergoing two painful surgeries to treat skin cancer, a result, he says, of being around the constant drilling and blasting in stone quarries. He moved to Maine at the beginning of the year to find a place to live that would be cheaper than Massachusetts.

“I figured [Maine] would be a nice place to live,” he said. “It’s cheap and no one bothers you.”

But Armstrong didn’t count on being caught without heat during the coldest part of winter so far this season.

“I almost didn’t stay this year,” he said. “I didn’t like the idea of a camp with just a wood stove to keep warm. I was going to go down and stay with my sister in Florida.”

Now, after the accident, Armstrong prays that none of his toes will need to be amputated. He has regained some of the feeling in his feet, and his doctor says there’s a chance the toes can be saved.

“I hope he can save them. I’ve had them a long time,” Armstrong said.

Doctors at Penobscot Valley Hospital still aren’t sure what happened to his leg, but Armstrong said he can’t put any weight on it, and he feels pain near his hip bone. He will remain in Penobscot Valley Hospital for physical therapy until he is well enough to be released. He plans to return to Massachusetts and stay with a cousin until he is fully recovered.

Armstrong said he is grateful to the people who found him and brought him out of a tough experience.

“I’d never want anyone to go through this,” he said. “Never.”