Mushroom hunter lost and found near Waldport has advice: “Look up and see where you’re at …”

By FEDOR ZARKHIN/The Oregonian/OregonLive

Some of Cary Kerst’s happiest childhood memories are of picking mushrooms in rural Indiana with his father 60 years ago. Those happy memories transformed into a nightmare last week when he got lost in the woods just east of Waldport.

Since moving to Oregon in 1967, the 79-year-old retired entomologist, dragonfly expert and avid bird photographer wanted to go mushroom hunting again, hoping to relive the happy days he experienced with his family. But even with his experience with the outdoors, he hesitated to pick mushrooms on his own, worried that he didn’t know enough about the local mycological scene to pick mushrooms safely.

Then, about three years ago, Kerst discovered the Cascade Mycological Society. He went on regular field trips and got himself educated enough to start picking mushrooms solo.

On Oct. 25, he was on his way back to his home in Eugene from a trip to the coast to photograph shore birds, when he decided to pop into the woods for a few hours to look for chanterelle mushrooms. Chanterelles are the distinctive yellow mushrooms that grow abundantly in the Pacific Northwest and are particularly delicious fried with onions and potatoes and topped with sour cream.

Kerst said he walked along the Harris Ranch Trail, just east of Waldport, around 10 a.m., picked mushrooms and started heading back, when he saw a hill off the trail and decided to go look for some more mushrooms at the top.

Then, he said, he started wandering around.

“That was probably my first mistake,” Kerst said. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

Soon he found himself in a ravine, walking along an overgrown creek, climbing under and over brush, falling half a dozen times and not understanding whether he was actually making any progress back to the trail.

Around 2 p.m., scratched and bruised, exhausted and demoralized, Kerst realized he was probably not going to be able to get out of the woods before dark, and he called 911. When the call went through, Kerst told the dispatcher he was lost and that he had 10 percent battery left. The dispatcher told him to hang up and conserve battery power. Kerst collected dry ferns for insulation and sat down and waited.

Around 4:15 p.m. he heard someone yelling, and Kerst and the person yelled back and forth to each other until the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office sergeant reached Kerst and gave him a bottle of water.

A crew of rescuers then came with machetes to hack a way through the brush to get Kerst out of the ravine, up the hill and back to the trail.

Kerst was going to leave the mushrooms he’d gathered, but the rescuers wouldn’t hear of it.

“We’re taking them out,” one of them said, before putting the plastic bag of chanterelles into a backpack. “You worked too hard for these.”

Getting out was difficult. One rescuer put a strap under Kerst’s arms and pulled him while another held onto his belt to keep him upright. Then they put him in a harness connected to a rope that they tied to a tree to help him get up the hill, then put him in a rescue stretcher to carry him.

“I can’t say enough about those people, those search and rescue teams,” Kerst said. “They were amazingly well trained and coordinated.”

He was exhausted by the time they got to the trailhead. A friend was there to pick him up. Kerst said he gave some of the chanterelles to his friend and took the rest home and dehydrated them.

Kerst was initially hesitant to talk about his ordeal publicly because of the potential embarrassment of gaining notoriety for getting lost. But it would be worth it, he said, if speaking out meant one less person would do the same.

His key piece of advice: “Don’t look constantly at the ground. Look up and see where you’re at and which way you’re going.”

Kerst said he is going mushroom picking again soon, this time with his niece. He’s putting together a bag of supplies to take with him, on the off chance he has to spend a night in the woods, including an emergency blanket, extra food and water and a whistle.

“I intend to be prepared next time,” Kerst said.

  — Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and enterprise reporter at The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him by email at fzarkhin@oregonian.com.