70-Year-Old Hiker Found Alive After Disappearing on a Remote Lake Superior Island for One Week
A 70-year-old solo hiker who vanished during a trip through one of Michigan’s most remote national parks has been found alive after a week-long search.
Craig Berg had been expected to leave Isle Royale National Park aboard the Ranger III on Sept. 5. When he did not make it home, his family reported him overdue the following day, and a search began across the Lake Superior island.
That search ended Saturday with the news Berg’s family had been waiting for: backpackers had helped locate him alive. He was alert, but the rescue was not over.
Berg was injured and hypothermic, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Getting him off the island required a helicopter hoist and another leg of the trip before he finally reached a hospital.
Found At Last
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The National Park Service announced Saturday that Berg had been found “alive and alert” after he had been missing since Sept. 5.
The Coast Guard later filled in what happened next. Michigan State Police troopers and K-9 units located Berg with help from backpackers, and an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City hoisted him from Isle Royale.
The helicopter carried Berg to Marquette Regional Airport in Gwinn, Michigan, where emergency medical personnel were waiting to take him to a hospital.
Search teams had been building toward that moment. A day earlier, a Coast Guard boat crew and helicopter crew transported Michigan State Police troopers and K-9 units to Isle Royale to join the operation.
The effort also involved the National Park Service, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Office, Wisconsin State Patrol, Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Isle Royale Seaplanes, and No One Left Behind K9 Search and Rescue.
A Long Week
Berg had been hiking alone when he became overdue.
Before he was found, the National Park Service confirmed to TV6 that Berg was scheduled to depart the island aboard the Ranger III on Sept. 5. His family reported the next day that he had not returned home as planned.
The park’s own current conditions show some of what hikers were navigating this season. Multiple tent camping areas and off-trail zones had been closed due to increased human-wildlife interactions and food storage concerns, while part of the Greenstone Ridge Trail was flooded by beaver activity and marked with a reroute.
The National Park Service announced on Aug. 28 that tent and group campsites at Three Mile, Daisy Farm, Moskey Basin, and Caribou Island were closing due to continued wolf activity. Shelters remained available at those campgrounds.
Those conditions do not establish what happened to Berg. The Coast Guard said further details about the circumstances of his disappearance were still unknown.
Food And Water
The first indication of Berg’s condition from his family came after he was safely located.
His son Evan told TV6 that his father was in rough shape but able to speak.
“He asked for food and water,” Evan said.
The family had spent days waiting while teams searched the island. Now Evan was able to describe a very different feeling.
“We’re just so grateful, and we couldn’t be more happy and relieved,” he told the station.
The Coast Guard said Berg was delivered to medical care after the helicopter evacuation. Officials had not released additional details about his condition or what happened during the days he was missing.
