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A self confessed 'idiot' hiker was lost for six days in one of the United State's most dense forests with no food and water.
Avid rambler, Madeline Connelly, just had her dog for company – after a short walk in the Great Bear Wilderness turned into a nightmare
Madeline from River Forest, Illinois, US, had gone on a hike with her dog, Mogi, in the heavily wooded area.
However, after being unable to re-locate her car, following a visit to a lake, Madeline found herself in a life and death situation for nearly a week, before she was rescued.
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Feared to have been eaten by bears, rescuers intensified the search until she was found deep in the wilderness – alive and uninjured.
In May 2017 the 23-year-old told rescuers she got lost after taking a wrong turn, and walked at least 10 miles a day trying to get out of the mountains in northern Montana.
Madeline was on her way to a new job In Alaska, managing a bakery, when she decided go on a hike and overnight camp-out with her dog.
She said she realised they didn't have water, so stopped to swim and hydrate at a lake.
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But when she went to go back to her trail, she took a wrong turn.
Madeline thought she was on the loop of a trail, and if she carried on walking she would get back to where she had started.
Speaking at the time she told KTMF-TV: "And then I ended up at a lake and I was like, 'Well, this is not right'."
"All I had was overalls, a sweater with a hood, a T-shirt, my dog's leash, my dog and my car keys.
"I feel like an idiot, honestly, because it was just a huge mistake that it ended up being seven days in kind of treacherous weather conditions."
After her family didn't hear from her, a full-scale search by air and land was launched by police.
When grizzly bear tracks were found in the area, the search intensified with rescue workers using horses to navigate the difficult terrain, as well as search dogs and infrared cameras.
But after six days Two Bear Air rescuers found Madeline and her dog in a heavily wooded area, just five miles away from where she had parked her car.
The pilots told KTMF-TV that she offered to hike out of the woods with them, but they insisted on giving her a ride in the helicopter.
Her rescuers estimated she hiked about 10 miles each day.
Following her experience Connelly wrote on Facebook that "nature was so good to us," and detailed how she slept on dirt at night under the shelter of trees, melted snow for water and ate glacier lilies as a "nutritious snack."
The Daily Star has reached out to Madeline to find out how she is faring years after her experience.
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- United States
- Missing Person
- Dogs
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