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Firefighters, ranch hand rescue lost hiker on Maui

Maui firefighters and an Ulupalakua Ranch employee came to the aid of a 19-year-old Idaho visitor Monday night who was lost without food or water in the Makena area of South Maui.

The hiker from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, who is staying with friends in Kihei, started his hike at around 1 p.m. from the Wailea area, and headed south towards Makena. He called 911 dispatchers for help after darkness set in and he was unable to find his way back.

Dispatchers were able to get his GPS position from his mobile phone, which was pinged somewhere near the shoreline in the Kanaio area, four miles east of La Perouse Bay, in Makena.

Firefighters contacted Ulupalakua Ranch for assistance in gaining access to the remote area in Kanaio, makai of Piilani Highway. Before firefighters could reach the area with all-terrain vehicles, a ranch employee used an ATV to drive the two-mile lava rock trail and found the hiker on the “King’s Trail” near the ocean, just west of the Auwahi Windmills.

The hiker was brought up to firefighters waiting on Piilani Highway at around 9:30 p.m., where he was given fluids. A fire battalion chief drove the man back to Kihei.

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