SCHOOLCRAFT COUNTY, MI-- The search for a missing hiker in Schoolcraft County ended sadly for Department of Natural Resources conservation officers early Monday morning.
Sunday around 8:20 p.m. Negaunee Regional Dispatch received a call about an overdue hiker who had been camping in the Big Island Wilderness Area. The 29-year-old Clarkston man hadn’t returned home at the expected time.
Three DNR officers responded and found the hiker’s vehicle at the Big Island Lake trailhead. They paddled through and portaged between several lakes before they found the man at a campsite on McInnes Lake.
It appears the man had an accident in which his leg was badly cut. He had applied a tourniquet using his own belt, but his efforts were unsuccessful. Officers say he was deceased when they arrived.
The man’s body was taken out of the area by canoe to an ambulance on a Forest Service road. His name has not yet been released.
