While the rest of us were finishing up heading to the polls in Tuesday's Presidential election, likely the last thing on longtime Stevensville businessman Dave Boelcke's mind was who might be ahead in the chase for the White House. He was just trying desperately to find his way back to his hunting camp in the White River National Forest in the mountains of Colorado after being lost since Saturday morning.
The Rio Blanco County Sheriff's Department headed up a search team that spent part of four days scouring the Pagoda Lake area some thirty miles northeast of Meeker, Colorado in search of the 61-year old Boelcke who owns and operates Boelcke Heating on John Beers Road in Stevensville.
Rio Blanco Sheriff's Deputies were joined in the high-country search by Rio Blanco County Search & Rescue, Meeker Fire & Rescue, the U.S. Forest Service White River Field Office, the Routt County Search & Rescue team, Grand County Search and Rescue, the Bureau of Land Management and a scent dog from Search & Rescue Dogs of the United States.
Boelcke had been hunting with a partner near Pagoda Lake and the two were supposed to hook up for lunch when Dave failed to turn up and was determined to be missing. He was last seen at 8am Saturday morning and was finally rescued by searchers when he flagged a couple of them down from a distance by waving his arms on Tuesday morning, election day.
Rio Blanco Sheriff's authorities say that Boelcke was "somewhat confused and dehydrated." They also report that he was not injured, but was checked by paramedics who advised he be taken by ambulance from the Dead Horse Loop trail-head to Pioneers Medical Center in Meeker for treatment by a physician for exposure and his dehydrated condition.
Boelcke family members had been in the trail head area since Monday, and greeted him when he was brought back to safety.
Rio Blanco Sheriff's Deputies thanked the entire search and rescue team as well as the Colorado Search & Rescue Board the the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center for the air and logistic support provided for the rescue mission according to Undersheriff Brice Glasscock.
If nothing else, Dave will certainly have some good stories to tell family, friends, customers and his buddy Chicago radio legend Fred Winston for years to come.
