North Shore Hikers Rescued After Getting Lost In Wisconsin Forest

FOND DU LAC, WI — Search teams rescued four Chicago-area hikers lost for several hours Sunday in a Wisconsin state forest, authorities said.

The four hikers included a 63-year-old Highland Park man, a 59-year-old Chicago man, and a 65-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman from Evanston, according to the Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office.

One of the hikers called the 911 at 3:38 p.m. to report he and the three other hikers had become lost southwest of Mauthe Lake in the Kettle Moraine State Forest, Lt. Eric Halbach said in a statement.

The caller said the group started hiking around 11 a.m. from the Ice Age trail near Highway 28 in Washington County before becoming lost north of Youth Camp Road in Fond Du Lac County.

Dispatchers used GPS coordinates to help pinpoint the hikers' location, and search teams from the sheriff's office, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Mauthe Lake Rangers and the Kewaskum Fire Department launched a search.

Around 5 p.m., the hikers were located by a Wisconsin DNR warden and a Mauthe Lake ranger. They were cold and wet, but not injured, Halbach said.

The missing hikers, the warden and the ranger were brought back to the Mauthe Lake boat landing by the Campbellsport Fire Department dive team shortly after 6:30 p.m.

They were evaluated by paramedics from the Kewaskum and Campbellsport fire departments and released. Halbach said there were no injuries reported to any firefighters or members of the search teams.