According to a Facebook post by Haywood County Search and Rescue, teams were dispatched around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 8, after receiving a report of a lost fisherman in the Middle Prong Wilderness. Their mission was to locate him before temperatures dropped sharply the following evening, on Sunday, Nov. 9.
By around 3:30 a.m. the next morning, search teams briefly withdrew from the area to rest and reorganize before joining forces with additional agencies for a larger operation.
During a briefing later that morning, officials reported that “the lost fisherman emerged from the forest” and was found along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
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Authorities said the man was “in good health and spirits,” though he was “a little cold and hungry” after spending a night outdoors. He was discovered just hours before temperatures across the mountains fell below freezing due to what the National Weather Service described as an “unseasonably cold airmass.”
“Thank you to all the supporting agencies for showing up to help when Haywood County called!” the rescue team wrote in their statement. They also reminded outdoor enthusiasts: “If you are farther from your home or vehicle than you can crawl, always be prepared with the essentials needed to spend a night outside.”
The Middle Prong Wilderness spans roughly 7,900 acres of steep, high-elevation terrain, with ridges rising from 3,200 to over 6,400 feet, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
