4 snowmobilers rescued in blizzardlike conditions

GREENVILLE – Four men who became lost early Wednesday morning while snowmobiling in blizzardlike conditions in the Moosehead Lake region were rescued six hours later through a volunteer effort.

One of the men called police at 12:30 a.m. on his cellular telephone and reported that his party of snowmobilers were on Wilson Pond and they could not find the trail and needed assistance, according to Warden Adam Gormely of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Paul Johnson, 48, of Elliot, Michael Michaud, 48, of Winslow, William Meader, 33, of Portsmouth, N.H., and Stephen Johnson, 53, of Rockland, who all had been staying at Moosehead Lake Cottage Resorts, a time-share vacation resort in Greenville, left Tuesday morning to snowmobile to Brownville and back, Gormely said Wednesday.

On their return to Greenville, the men took the Blue Ridge Trail which eventually crosses Wilson Pond, but they found themselves in trouble when they could not see the trail because of the snowstorm, he said.

“These men were very lucky,” Gormely said. “If they didn’t have the cell phone, no one would have been looking for them.”

He also said the foursome, who were “mildly hypothermic,” were extremely lucky that the cellular phone service worked considering the area is surrounded by hills and mountains.

“Had we not responded, it would have been very bad [for the men],” Gormely said. He said it was unlikely that another snowmobiler would have crossed that track in the blizzard.

“We really appreciated their help,” Stephen Johnson said Wednesday. He said his party had been anticipating only 5 to 7 inches of snow and not a blizzard when they left early Tuesday morning for Brownville. He said that “unfortunately,” the resort where they vacation provides only satellite coverage, which does not give local weather conditions.

Johnson said the snowmobilers traveled through Monson to Milo and Katahdin Iron Works on Route 110 which connects to Interstate Trail System 85, but because the trail “was not marked very well,” the snowmobile party ended up on an alternate route on their return to Greenville. He said his party crossed Wilson Pond twice trying to find the trail but returned to the other side each time with help from a global positioning satellite device they carried. They also tried to find the trail north of the pond without success, he said.

It was then that Johnson called police on his cellular telephone to ask for a warden to escort them across the pond to the trail.

Gormely responded to the call but had trouble getting his snowmobile to move in the deep, blowing snow, he said. After spending more than an hour trying to get his vehicle free of the deep snow, Gormely summoned the help of David Vaughn, coordinator of the Greenville snowmobile trail program.

Vaughn caught up with Gormely at the Moosehead Riders Snowmobile Clubhouse, and the pair headed out in the town’s snowmobile trail groomer for the west side of upper Wilson Pond where the Blue Ridge Trail comes off the lake.

The two men made cellular telephone contact with the snowmobilers who said they could not see the groomer, Gormely said. The snowmobilers were advised to stay where they were while Vaughn and Gormely traveled around the pond. Vaughn and Gormely found the snowmobilers at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Although the four men were very cold, they were able to follow behind the groomer on their snowmobiles until they reached the snowmobile clubhouse at 8 a.m. Warden Jared Herrick and Greenville Town Manager John Simko had traveled to the clubhouse and had it opened for the men when they arrived.

Because of the time spent trying to find the trail to return to Greenville, one of the snowmobiles ran out of gasoline, according to Gormely. He said Vaughn took the operator of the snowmobile and some gasoline back out on the trail to retrieve the disabled vehicle.

Gormely said people should use their common sense. “They had no business being out in conditions like this,” he said.