Severely hypothermic hikers rescued from Maine bog

Game Warden Lucas Bellanceau starts a fire in order to warm up the hyporthermic hikers who brcame lost. (MDWIF photo),

STEEP FALLS, Maine - A Game Warden K9 team located two missing Mainers on Sunday after they were forced to spend Saturday night in the woods after they became lost while on a hike.

K9 team Breezy and Game Warden Lucas Bellanceau found 48-year-old Joseph Caroto of Limington and 55-year-old Stacey Gain of Baldwin both hypothermic. The pair had gone on a hike with another friend on Saturday afternoon off of Mills Street in Steep Falls when they got turned around and could not find their way back.

The trio spent the night in the woods, and on Sunday morning the friend was able to hike out and wandered to a house, shoeless and cold, and told the homeowner that his friends were still lost in the woods and weren't doing well.

K9 units from the Maine Warden Service and Cumberland County Sheriff's office convened in the area and began searching the large bog in the area.

At around 3 p.m. Warden K9 Breezy struck on a scent, and led Warden Bellanceau to the missing pair who were lost in the middle of a bog. Both Caroto and Gain were severely hypothermic, and unable to walk. Game Wardens started a fire, and gave the subjects some food and warm drinks to warm them up.

With the pair unable to walk, Maine Game Wardens, along with emergency response personnel from the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office and fire departments from Standish, Sebago, Baldwin, Buxton, Limington and Hollis were able to carry the the pair out through the bog on a litter, at times carrying them through waist deep water in order to get them out of the woods. Once out, they were transported by ambulance to the hospital, where they are expected to make a full recovery.