Missing 70-year-old hiker rescued after week-long search on remote Michigan island

Craig Berg was supposed to be home by September 5th. The 70-year-old hiker had planned a nine-day solo backpacking trip across Isle Royale, the remote national park island in Lake Superior, and his family expected him to take the ferry back to Michigan's Upper Peninsula that Friday. When he didn't arrive, they reported him missing. By Saturday, September 13th—a full week later—a Coast Guard helicopter was lifting him off the island, hypothermic and injured but conscious, and flying him 140 miles to Marquette Regional Airport.

The search that found him was a sprawling, ground-based operation across terrain that allows no roads, no vehicles, nothing but human feet and determination. Isle Royale spans 200 square miles of solid land, dense boreal forest, and rocky ridges. When Berg failed to return as planned, rescue crews began their work on September 6th, starting at Rock Harbor, where he had intended to finish his hike. They expanded methodically into other areas, including the Greenstone Ridge trail, where a trail camera had captured an image of Berg on August 30th—evidence he had been on the island and moving, at least then.

The operation drew together backpackers already on the island, Michigan state police troopers, and local officials. These searchers moved on foot through the dense landscape, covering ground that would exhaust most people in ideal conditions. Berg, at 70, had been out there for seven days when they found him. He was hypothermic—his body temperature dangerously low—and he was injured. But he was alive. He was alert. When the rescuers reached him, he asked for food and water.

Once located, the next challenge was extraction. A MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from US Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City arrived and hoisted Berg from the island. The flight to Marquette took him away from the remote wilderness and into a regional medical facility where he could receive proper care. His son, Evan, spoke to reporters afterward, his relief audible in every sentence. "He was in rough shape, but he's okay," Evan said. "He's able to speak. He asked for food and water. We're just so grateful, and we couldn't be more happy and relieved, and we appreciate all the support we've had on social media, and we are just so grateful."

The rescue marked the end of an intensive week-long effort by multiple agencies coordinating across an island where the terrain itself is the primary obstacle. Isle Royale's status as a roadless national park—no wheeled vehicles permitted, no infrastructure beyond what hikers carry—meant that every search team member had to move the same way Berg had: on foot, through forest and over ridge, with only what they could carry. The National Park Service acknowledged the employees and partners who made the rescue possible, a recognition of the scale of effort required to find one person in 200 square miles of wilderness. Berg's emergence from that landscape, alive and asking for sustenance, was the outcome everyone had been working toward since his family first raised the alarm.