A Portland man who was three days overdue on a hiking trip in the Three Sisters Wilderness Area was found in “reasonably good shape” by searchers late Sunday morning, Deschutes County sheriff’s officials reported.

More than 50 people were taking part in a search for Brian David Van Wye, 27, following an appeal from family members in Mechanicsburg, Pa., and Atlanta, Ga. Van Wye, a former Peace Corps worker who moved to Portland two years ago, was described as an experienced hiker and climber who scaled the summit of Mount Hood as recently as two weeks ago, said sheriff’s spokesman Rick Meyers.

The missing man was located by ground searchers on the Pacific Crest Trail around 11 a.m. Sunday, Meyers said, “slightly bruised” but apparently okay. It was expected to take until about 3 p.m. for rescuers to bring him out to safety from the west side of the 42-mile loop he was traveling. “He hadn’t finished a very large part of the circuit,” Meyers said. “He bit off more than he could chew, apparently.”

Van Wye had secured permits to enter the wilderness and notified family and friends of his plans to hike the loop in four days. Deputies found his van parked at the Lava Camp Lake trailhead, located near state Highway 242 atop McKenzie Pass. He reportedly was carrying a full pack with food and water, a compass and enough supplies to sustain him. He last was seen a week ago by another hiker and later by a Forest Service team he spoke with briefly. He told the forest rangers he expected to reach Mesa Creek as his first camp, but they told him of the extreme difficulty of that stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail, obscured at some points by extended snow fields.

Members of the mounted sheriff’s posse were being dispatched to search the tree line on the east side of the Cascades while skilled climbing teams departed from several trailheads to the high trail, said sheriff’s Cpl. Neil Mackey, the incident commander. Lane County search and rescue also joined the search, covering areas to the west and south.

Searchers had speculated that Van Wye might have underestimated the degree of difficulty of the Three Sisters loop or might have changed his planned itinerary. Meyers said the search was gearing up to be a big one because of all the potential side routes that would have needed to be searched.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 9th, 2000 at 11:36 am and is filed under Top Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.