Lost mushroom picker 'emerged from the bush' 5 days after going missing
55-year-old B.C. man Darrel Russell became separated from his group on Saturday
A B.C. man who got lost while picking mushrooms near Watson Lake, Yukon last weekend has "emerged from the bush," RCMP say.
Darrel Russell of Kitwanga B.C., 55, had last been seen Saturday in the Barney Lake fire burn area. He was with a group at the time, and among hundreds of people currently in the area picking morels.
RCMP say Russell became separated from his group on Saturday and spent the next several days trying to find his way back to camp. He told police he lit fires each night, and could hear search helicopters overhead, but couldn't see them.
Police have not said what condition Russell was in when he was found, but that "information on his medical condition is pending." They said family members will be accompanying Russell to Watson Lake Community Hospital to be medically assessed.
RCMP say the search also turned up a couple of other lost mushroom pickers, though neither had yet been reported missing.
One man had been lost three days, and the other for 24 hours.
Watson Lake RCMP were assisted in the search by RCMP Police Dog Services; Yukon Search and Rescue; search and rescue crews from Prince George, Fort St. John and Nechako Valley; Environment Yukon Conservation Officers; Yukon Energy, Mines and Resources Officers; the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, and five Yukon Wildland Fire Management crews.