CONTACT:
Sgt. Heidi Murphy
603-271-3361
July 2,2024

Piermont, NH – At 7:12 p.m. on Monday, July 1, 2024, the NH Fish and Game Department was notified of an overdue hiker who had left his residence in Piermont and not returned as expected. The 81-year-old male hiker, identified as Stephen Rounds, had left his residence at 12:30 p.m. that afternoon to clear some trails along his property. Fortunately Rounds was wearing a Zoleo Global Satellite Communicator that allowed him to send his wife the GPS coordinates of his location. The last location Rounds sent was at 4:43 p.m. When he hadn’t returned to his residence by 5:00 p.m., his wife and two other neighbors went to search for him. By 6:30 p.m. they had not been able to locate Rounds and hadn’t received an updated location from his Zoleo device. Rounds’s wife decided to call for assistance at that time.

NH Fish and Game Conservation Officers, the New Hampshire State Police, and the Piermont Police Department responded to assist in the search for Rounds. He had been able to alert his wife two additional times of his location just as rescuers were arriving. Conservation Officers were able to utilize an ATV on a portion of an old logging road and hiked the remaining 0.7 of a mile to Rounds’s location, reaching him at 9:15 p.m.

Though Rounds was uninjured he was exhausted from the day’s activities. A headlamp was provided to Rounds, and an ATV was brought to a different logging road to try and shorten the length of hi hike out and to avoid a swampy area. He was safely brought to the ATV at 11:05 p.m. and was at his residence at 11:20 p.m.

Rounds and his wife do possess the HikeSafe card. Even if you aren’t planning on being out in the dark, prepare yourself for emergencies by bringing a headlamp, compass, and proper layers for the changes in temperatures and precipitation. For more information about preparing for your hike, please see www.HikeSafe.com.