A group of mountain bikers accidentally discovered and rescued a half-naked and bleeding woman who was lost in the Idaho wilderness.
Heather Wayment, 46, was declared missing by her family early in the morning on September 17, after she didn’t come back from a hiking trip in the Prairie Creek area of Blaine County, Idaho, as stated by the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office.
Her family last communicated with her on September 16. Cameras recognized her vehicle moving north on Highway 75 through Blaine County at approximately 3:20 pm that day.
Police began a search and discovered her abandoned vehicle at a trailhead, sparking an intense, organized response to look for Wayment.
The search operation was spearheaded by the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office, with support from Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue, Snake River Search and Rescue, along with canines, drones, and teams traveling on foot, horseback, and bikes.
However, the official search teams were not the ones who found her. Instead, she was located by a group of mountain bikers during their yearly biking and camping excursion.
Brothers Tommy and Vinton Gwinn, along with Shelton Robinson, discovered Wayment around 3:24 pm on September 18. They found her wandering in her undergarments with injured feet, about 17 miles from her car and her last known position, in the mountains of Camas County.
She had removed her shorts to bandage her raw, bleeding feet and had left her phone in her car.
Heather Wayment, 46, was declared missing by her family on September 17 after she didn’t return from a hike in the Prairie Creek area of Blaine County, Idaho.
Wayment had been lost for two days and was severely disoriented. She appeared malnourished and dehydrated.
‘We stopped as she was obviously in bad shape,’ Gwinn told East Idaho News.
‘She didn’t want help at first. She was scared and very guarded. It took about a half hour before she would talk.’
‘We got her some filtered water from the creek and gave her a jacket,’ said Robinson.
‘She let her guard down a bit and told us her name and that she was lost.’
As the group was helping Wayment, another group of three mountain bikers, Andrew Mortensen, Randy Ivy, and an unnamed third rider, found them and recognized Wayment as the woman who was missing and being searched for.
Gwinn said they hadn’t realized she was the missing hiker because they had been camping for a couple days already and had not seen the news.
The now six-strong group of hikers aided Wayment by giving her food and water. Gwinn and Robinson tried to pinpoint their location and find a way to call for help without cell service.
Gwinn was ultimately able to send messages with all the necessary information for authorities to find them to his wife in Pocatello. He had to use GPS coordinates, the onX off-road map app and satellite texting.
Wayment was accidentally discovered by a group of mountain bikers in the mountains of Camas County, about 17 miles from her vehicle and last known location (stock image)
‘At 3:45 p.m. and about 50 messages later we finally got word that a rescue helicopter was on the way,’ said Gwinn.
‘Technology worked very well in this situation.’
Because of the rugged terrain, the only safe place for a rescue helicopter to land was in a meadow about half a mile from where the group was.
One of the riders loaded Wayment onto his bike and took her down to the rescue crew.
A public statement from the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office read: ‘We especially want to thank our Blaine County Sheriff’s Office deputies for their incredible efforts over the past two days, and the mountain bikers who were able to contact law enforcement, guide the Life Flight crew to Heather, and remain by Heather’s side offering aid until medical assistance could arrive.’
After Wayment was airlifted to safety, the heroic group marveled at the fact she had survived for so long without proper food, water or equipment in the wilderness.
‘This is really rugged country. She was not on a bike path and had to go over numerous mountains to get where she was.’ said Gwinn.
‘It was so cold at night. It’s remarkable she’s still alive.’
‘We’re super grateful we found her,’ Robinson added.
‘It’s always in the back of your mind that something could happen and you need to be rescued. It was cool to see how an actual rescue works. I was very impressed.’
The pair of riders also took a moment to issue warnings they gleaned from the rescue.
‘We all like to recreate in the beautiful outdoors, but make sure to take food, water, appropriate clothing, supplies, reliable navigation and, if possible, satellite communication,’ said Gwinn.
