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Public radio DJ found in Olympic National Park

Monday, September 18, 2000

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF

  NOTE: This article has been updated since it was originally published in the newspaper.
After searchers yesterday found footprints, a 2-day-old campsite and an SOS message written in a snowfield, Paul Nelson, a 38-year-old Auburn man missing since Friday, was spotted by a search helicopter Monday, and appeared to be in good condition.

Olympic National Park spokeswoman Barb Maynes Park said Nelson was found near a 300-foot waterfall on Schoeffel Creek. The area was too rugged for the helicopter to land or for ground rescuers to reach, so a helicopter equipped with a hoist was being sent back to pick him up, she said. Yesterday at 6:15 p.m., searchers found footprints at the 2,400-foot-level in the Cat Creek drainage, but were uncertain whether the tracks were Nelson's. Later, the helicopter crew spotted the SOS and a cross on the ridge just north of Cat Creek.

Nelson, a KPLU disc jockey, was last seen Tuesday at Cat Basin, where he talked with another hiker about trying to find an unmaintained trail to the pass. He then planned to return the Boulder Creek Trail head in the Elwha Valley, where his car is parked.

Maynes said this is the first extensive search in the Olympic National Park this summer. Last year, under similar circumstances, an 18-year-old lost his way and was later found within a half-mile of a road.

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