Local News

ELY, Minn. (WCCO) ― Two hikers who have been missing since Monday were found alive in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Thursday afternoon, the Cook County Sheriff's Office said.

"They did everything right," said Cook County Sheriff Mark Falk, who coordinated the search. "This is a good ending."

A Minnesota State Patrol helicopter found two women, Maria Jacenko, 42, and Grace Knezevich, 23, around 3:15 p.m. on the north side of Glee Lake, according to the Cook County sheriff's office.

At 3:40 p.m. the women were verified as the missing hikers, and both are healthy. They were being flown by helicopter out of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to Ely.

The helicopter landed around 5 p.m. and they were checked out by EMTs at a nearby lodge. They were also given phones to call their families back in Duluth.

The pair were found north of the Kekekabic Trail near Bingshick Lake, only 4 miles from the Gunflint Trail, their original destination.

The women told Falk they had lost the trail, which is barely visible in spots, on Monday between Howard and Bingshick Lakes and had been trying to find their way out since then. To make themselves more visible to aircraft, the women had worn bright clothing and had sought high ground.

Falk said the women told him they had started fires but kept them small so they wouldn't cause a wildfire. He said they also positioned themselves to be more visible to search aircraft.

"They did everything right," Falk said. "We just didn't spot them right away."

The women left for the hike on the Kekakabic Trail on Friday. They were supposed to be picked up Monday night at the Gunflint Trail, but they didn't show up.

The Cook and Lake County sheriff's offices and the U.S. Forest Service conducted extensive air and ground searches. Crews had a fixed-wing plane and two helicopters with heat sensors doing an aerial search. Another five people were on foot and canoes did a search on the ground.

"It's rough terrain," Cook County Sheriff Mark Falk said. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most difficult, "it's 7.5 overall and 10 in spots. It's very hilly and steep in spots."

Jacenko and Knezevich are co-workers at the Benedictine Health Center in Duluth, Minn., which is a Catholic-based long-term care facility. Jacenko is a physical therapist and has been with the center for seven years. Knezevich is the assistant nurse manager of the post-accute unit and has worked there for four years.

John Siebenand, who has lived with Jacenko for the past 12 years, said he got a phone call from her on Sunday saying how beautiful the woods were and that she thought they'd be late to the pickup site.

Siebenand said both women are "very capable" and he had "no doubt" they would be found.

On Tuesday morning, a worker at the Gunflint Lodge called the sheriff after a man came in saying his friends were missing on the trail.

"He was supposed to pick them up at 5 p.m. at the trail head to the Kekekabic and when they weren't there he just waited there from Monday night to Tuesday, he just waited, and when they weren't there again on Tuesday is when he came in," said Gunflint Trail Lodge Guest Services worker Annie Cuzzi.

The trail, which stretches through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, attracts only about 50 groups of hikers throughout the year. One of the women reported missing has a "significant" amount of hiking skills, said Jon Benson, wilderness manager for Superior National Forest's Gunflint and Tofte stations.

The trail is one of the most rugged in northern Minnesota and became even more difficult to hike after the 1999 BWCAW blowdown and a fire in 2005. The trail was closed after the blowdown, reopening in 2000 after crews cleared the trail, Benson said.

"But it's still a mess in there," he said.

As founder of the Kekekabic Trail Club, Martin Kubik is familiar with recent difficulties hiking it.

"Many people have actually either turned back or they did not really have a pleasant wilderness experience," said Kubik.

According to him, two years of forest fires burned large portions of the 40-mile trail.

"Some places the forest is burned down to just ash. You completely lose the path. It's indiscernible from its surroundings," Kubik said.

The hikers were equipped with a tent, sleeping bags and food for their four-day trip.

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