By David Grant Long

Missing, ill and injured hunters kept the Dolores County Sheriff’s Department and myriad volunteer searchers busy through the weekend, Undersheriff Shane Schmalz said Monday, although everyone had been accounted for by yesterday afternoon.

An unidentified hunter camping by Navajo Lake near Dunton suffered severe back injuries Friday night when a tree to which he’d tied a line fell on top of him, Schmalz recounted, and had to be airlifted to Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez Saturday when he realized he was hurt more seriously than he first thought.

That rescue required the assistance of the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office, he explained, since his officers were involved in searching for a Arizona hunter who had contracted altitude sickness the evening before. A companion had used his cell phone to report that Gilbert Ross, 55, was having difficulty breathing Friday night, Schmalz explained, and an attempt to locate their camp on Stoner Mesa began immediately. The search continued through the night, he said, even though the two hunters had, unbeknownst to the searchers, moved to a lower camp on Taylor Mesa at first light and then worked their way back to civilization and notified authorities of their safe return Saturday afternoon.

Schmalz explained that the cell phone’s batteries had been drained by the earlier calls and Ross and his companion were unable to notify them of their whereabouts before then.

Yet another search was then sparked Sunday when Jack Randolph, the father of Jennifer Randolph, 22, reported her missing in the Taylor Mesa area after not seeing her since about 8 a.m. Saturday morning, Schmalz recounted.

"She and her dad became separated when she sat down to watch an area and he continued on around," he said. "and she was located about noon today.

"(Randolph) was in pretty good shape for being out that long" except for being sore and bruised, he said. "She was well prepared for the conditions.

"I don’t know that she was ever ‘lost,’" he added. "It’s just that the terrain is so rugged in there, she did what her dad had taught her all through the years -- when you get to a point where you’re not sure where you’re at, just go down hill till you find a road and come out.

"She’d hunted ever since she was old enough in that area and so she just followed the creek all the way out to the bottom."