{"id":3188,"date":"2026-07-12T10:34:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=3188"},"modified":"2026-07-12T10:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:34:20","slug":"fishing-16-year-old-gets-lost-in-forest-walks-11-miles-for-help-nc-searchers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=3188","title":{"rendered":"Fishing 16-year-old gets lost in forest, walks 11 miles for help, NC searchers say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lost <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/emergencyem.22\/posts\/pfbid02enZ6YTqcRuecLwM1Jwvezm5Z1vzVvDRDT1DxiKcFYNq7up8pZXw5rwR741gtDuzNl\" rel=\"Follow\" target=\"_blank\">16-year-old boy<\/a> doggedly walked 11 miles in six hours to try and find his way out of Nantahala National Forest, according to rescuers in western North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=3186\">If LaMelo Ball trade goes bad, could Hornets GM lose his job? Oh, absolutely<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It happened Friday in the Hiwassee Dam area of Cherokee County, and a search team found the boy \u201cshaken and tired,\u201d but unharmed, Cherokee County Emergency Management reported in an email to The Charlotte Observer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt approximately (7:10 p.m.), a call was received reporting a missing 16\u2011year\u2011old male. Family members on scene estimated he had been missing since around (3:30 p.m.),\u201d Cherokee County Emergency Management Coordinator Sam Davis said in an email.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe juvenile had been fishing with his father and left the area to take a short hike. He apparently made a wrong turn. &#8230; The subject was last seen at the Cherokee Lake Recreation Area in the Nantahala National Forest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That wrong turn led to a gravel U.S. Forest Service road, and the boy walked the 10-mile length of it until he came to pavement on State Road 1303, Davis said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe then continued roughly one additional mile on SR 1303. At (9:01 p.m.), the subject was located on SR 1303 (Panther Top Road) by a Station 18, Ranger Volunteer Fire Department UTV team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=3184\">What stood out most in Hornets\u2019 NBA Summer League loss to New Orleans<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The boy was seen sitting beside the road when the team rolled past, officials said. \u201cThe juvenile was shaken and tired but otherwise in good condition. He required no medical transport,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n<p>The boy was released to his family by the Cherokee County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Davis said. His identity was not released.<\/p>\n<p>The two-hour search included the Cherokee County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Hiwassee Dam Fire Department, Ranger Fire Department, Cherokee County Search and Rescue, Cherokee County E-911 and Cherokee County Emergency Management.<\/p>\n<p>Nantahala National Forest encompasses<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fs.usda.gov\/r08\/northcarolina\/recreation\/nantahala-national-forest\" rel=\"Follow\" target=\"_blank\"> 531,148 acres<\/a> in Cherokee and Jackson counties and is the largest of N.C.\u2019s four national forests.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=3182\">AC\/DC concert review: Angus isn\u2019t as Young as he used to be. But does it matter?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Hiwassee Dam community is about a 250-mile drive west from uptown Charlotte.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lost 16-year-old boy doggedly walked 11 miles in 6 hours to find his way out of Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina, Cherokee County searchers say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fishing 16-year-old gets lost in forest, walks 11 miles for help, NC searchers say - \u0421harlotte Relocation Guide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=3188\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fishing 16-year-old gets lost in forest, walks 11 miles for help, NC searchers say - 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