Missing hikers trigger pair of searches near Cumberland Falls

You wouldn’t ordinarily think of a rescue squad member and a Boy Scout leader as people likely to get lost in the woods. However, local rescue officials say they had to launch search operations twice last week near Cumberland Falls in an effort to find six people.
Whitley County Disaster and Emergency Services Director Steve Schwartz said both groups ended up spending the night in the woods. A Louisville Boy Scout leader and his wife found their way out of the woods early Sunday morning, and a Burnside rescue squad member and three members of his family found their way out early Thursday morning.
“Just don’t take nature for granted. It will swallow you up. I don’t care who you are,” Schwartz said.
Steve Houpt, 51, and his wife, Debbie Houpt, of Louisville, went down to Cumberland Falls Saturday about 2:30 p.m., with the intention of hiking to Noes Dock, and then over to Holly Bay Marina.
Schwartz said the hike is about 14 miles, and the couple thought they could hike it in about five and a half hours. He said the distance can be hiked in about seven hours if people are in good shape and really hustling to get there.
“This guy said he was doing really good, then all of the sudden the trail got rough, and kind of disappeared, and was grown up,” Schwartz said.
When it got too dark, the couple camped for the night.
Schwartz said emergency crews were notified about 8 p.m. Saturday about the missing couple, and set up command posts near Holly Bay and Cumberland Falls with Whitley and Laurel County officials conducting a joint operation.
About 9 p.m., search crews were in the woods looking for the couple.
A search team went into the woods off the Falls Highway below the Spillway, and hiked up to Cumberland Falls without spotting the couple.
Schwartz said a helicopter from Marymount Medical Center in London was dispatched to the area, and flew up and down from the falls to Holly Bay for 20 minutes but without success.
Officials ceased search operations about 3:30 a.m., and planned to pick up the search again at 10 a.m., but it didn’t prove necessary.
Schwartz said about 9:30 a.m., he was notified that the couple had found their way out of the woods.
“They found themselves, and came walking out,” Schwartz said. “They came out by the church near highway 1193 near the spillway.”
The prior search occurred early Thursday morning.
Schwartz said Phillip McCarty, 40, who works with the ambulance service and a rescue squad in Pulaski County, his wife, Vivian McCarty, 40, and two of their children, Brianna, 11, and Rebecca, 4, drove down to Cumberland Falls Wednesday from their home in Burnside to go hiking down to Dogslaughter Falls, about 2.8 miles from Cumberland Falls.
The family left Somerset about noon, and began hiking toward Dogslaughter about 3:30 p.m.
“They got turned around on the way back out, and couldn’t see the sign,” Schwartz said. “The big four by eight sign, somehow coming back out they missed that. They got turned around, and were going south when they should have been coming back toward the east.”
When it got too dark to keep walking, Schwartz said the family decided to camp for the night, and start a fire.
Schwartz said family members became concerned when the family didn’t return, and contacted local officials.
An area Search and Rescue (SAR) team, which is made up of volunteers from area rescue squads and fire departments, was activated about 2:30 a.m.
Schwartz said local officials brought in a search dog, which was allowed to go through the family’s vehicle to pick up their scent. The dog led rescuers straight to the family.
The family was discovered near the road shortly before 8 a.m. Thursday about 60 yards from the road.
He said if the family had walked another 10 to 15 minutes then they would have been out of the woods.
Despite this, Schwartz said the family members made the correct decision in camping for the night when the conditions got too dark.
“What they need to do is build a big fire. What we will do a lot of times is sound the air horns on the cruisers with the sirens. Sometimes people will hear that, and find their way to the road,” Schwartz said. “These people heard it, but didn’t think anybody was hunting for them. We do that so when we sound a siren, people will know that we are close to the road.”
Schwartz said part of the problem both parties ran into is that the farther out you get from Cumberland Falls the less maintained the trails are, and with the brush and leaves it can be hard to find the marked trails.
Schwartz said that he plans contact park officials about hopefully making the signs a little bit clearer.
He said more caution needs to be exercised when people go hiking in the woods, and if the trail gets bad or doesn’t appear to have been used or if you’re not passing a lot of people on the trails then go back.
“The mountains will eat you up. Every now and then you can’t see, and it gets darker in the woods than it does in open territory,” Schwartz cautioned. “When hiking be prepared. Take something drink with you. Hikers go every day, and take water, supplies, and snacks. Take matches you never know. One guy did have a cell phone, but it doesn’t work very well down there.”