The search for an overdue hiker in Squamish, B.C., is focusing on an area near where it is believed he had lunch before heading into the mountains, police said Thursday.
A search for Tyler Wright began yesterday, two days after his family was expecting him to return from a solo five-day hike winding through the Coquitlam and Indian Arm area.
Squamish RCMP say the 35-year-old is not an experienced mountain hiker and did not take a sleeping bag, tent or compass with him into the woods. He was wearing running shoes when he was dropped off at the Boise Creek Trail near Squamish on Aug. 10.
Mounties and the B.C. Search & Rescue Association were brought in to comb the area near the creek, where he was last seen, late Wednesday until sundown.
Two helicopters transported searchers and a sniffer dog into the area at first light, although low hanging clouds hampered the effort several times.
Police say searchers believe they have found Wright's foot tracks near Boise Creek and are attempting to follow them.
Cpl. Dave Ritchie told ctvbc.ca Wright learned about the hike in a magazine.
"It's a mountain hike but I don't think it's established all the way through. It shows it's connected to both ends of a trail, but we're not sure if it really is," Ritchie said.
"I don't know if he got into something more than he thought he was going into."
Overdue and lost hikers are a common occurrence in B.C.'s Sea-to-Sky region, where terrain and weather can change quickly.
North Shore Rescue helped pluck a stranded 68-year-old hiker from a creek bed early Thursday above Lions Bay, north of Horseshoe Bay.
The man had been stuck in a gully overnight.
The rescue came only hours after local search crews were called to pull a critically injured hang glider from the side of Mount Maxwell in B.C.'s Gulf Islands.
Ritchie said all it takes is one wrong turn on a trail for a hiker to get into trouble.
"We tell people to keep hydrated and be prepared, not just jump out of your car and think you can go into the mountains and just come out."
