New Mexico hiker rescues man who was stranded for weeks

John Utsey was hiking in New Mexico with his two kids when he heard an unexpected voice from deep within the forest.

He was walking along the Windsor Trail in the Santa Fe National Forest on Saturday with his 10-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter.

The girl had sprinted ahead and out of sight, he said, so the ex-Marine used his "big command voice" to shout out for her.

"She yelled back. She was on the right trail. But a couple of seconds later, I heard somebody else answer back from way, way, way off the trail," Utsey told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann.

"And I yelled back, you know, 'Are you OK?'"

Utsey followed the voice through the rocky terrain for nearly a half hour before he finally found a gaunt and dishevelled-looking man lying on the forest floor in a makeshift camp.

"His face was so gaunt. Like, his cheeks were hollow. His lips were all chapped and kind of bloody and kind of sunburned. He looked like he had severe exposure and had not eaten in a long time," Utsey said.

"I asked him, you know, 'What's wrong?' And he said, 'My legs don't work.' And I said, you know, 'What happened?' And he said, 'I think I fell.'"

The man appeared to be in his 60s, and told Utsey he believed he'd been stranded there for at as long as 20 days. He'd kept himself alive by filling his water bottle in a nearby stream. 

The area was off the main trail and down a steep slope. Utsey didn't think he and his children could carry the man out on their own.

So he says they checked their GPS co-ordinates, gave the man some food and water, then climbed back onto the trail and called 911.

But the story doesn't end there.

Firefighters scoured the area for eight hours in search of the stranded hiker — to no avail, The Santa Fe Fire Department told As It Happens.

Utsey says he was baffled. He couldn't imagine a scenario in which the man climbed to safety on his own before the first responders arrived. 

"I thought it was strange. Like, I figured if they were standing there and he wasn't, then something must have happened," he said. "It was so surreal."

That night, Utsey couldn't stop thinking about it.  So the next morning — sore and exhausted from hiking the previous day — he resolved to go back again.

"I got up and ate a bunch of ibuprofen and grabbed my pack and went back up there," he said. 

"I half didn't expect to find him. I got back there and, you know, walked right up — and he was exactly in the same spot."

Utsey says the hiker didn't remember hearing the firefighters calling out for him, but he may have lost consciousness. 

Once again, Utsey gave the injured man some food and water, climbed back onto the trail, and called for help. But he vowed not to make the same mistake twice. This time, he met the the first responders on the trail and guided them to the man's location.

The whole process took nine hours, firefighters said.

"They built a fire to bring up the [man's] body temp which was dangerously low, fed him and gave him water. The man suffered from chronic back pain and again injured his back while hiking and could not stand or walk. His gear was stolen at which point he got lost and disoriented," the fire department said on Facebook. 

"Special thanks to John Utsey the hiker that found him disoriented and provided food and water for him."

Utsey hasn't been in touch with the man since he was taken to hospital to recover, and authorities haven't released his name.

He says he's just grateful he decided to go back for him. While the trail is popular, he says it's possible no other hiker would have noticed him.

"I heard one of the firefighters describe as a needle in a haystack. And it really, really is. I mean, it's really rough country," Utsey said.

Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by Katie Geleff.