An 83-year-old hunter from New Jersey got lost in the woods near Wawarsing while tracking a bear he had wounded the day before, and New York State Police and a forest ranger found him safe at 8:25 p.m. on October 13. The search began shortly before 7 p.m., when troopers requested backup along Irish Cape Road.
According to Q105.7, the hunter had wounded the bear during an earlier outing and returned the next day to find it, a detail the outlet attributes to a press release on the incident. He got lost while tracking the bear. New York State Police asked for forest ranger assistance after the man turned up missing along Irish Cape Road in Wawarsing, New York, the station reports.
Per a separate account from dec.ny.gov, the man was tracking an injured bear from the previous day’s hunt when he got lost. That same account states that at 7 p.m., Ranger Franceschina made phone contact with the hunter and told him to call 911 so rangers could obtain his phone coordinates — a step that proved key to narrowing down his location in the dark.
Pinpointing a Lost Hunter After Dark
Armed with those coordinates, New York State Police and Ranger Horn located the hunter at 8:25 p.m. that same night, per the station's report, and escorted him out of the woods. The hunter was in good health when he was found, the same account notes, bringing a stressful evening in Ulster County to a safe close.
The episode unfolded during bear season, when the state Department of Environmental Conservation permits bow, crossbow, handgun, shotgun, or rifle as legal implements for hunters in Ulster County. The early bow hunting season in the county runs October 1 through November 20.
A Busy Season for Bear Hunters Statewide
This was not an isolated close call in the region. A similar incident unfolded on October 29, 2025, when a 67-year-old hunter from Ancram got lost in the dark while tracking a deer he had shot, according to a separate dec.ny.gov report, with a forest ranger working alongside state police and Lewis County officials to locate him.
The search also comes against the backdrop of New York's bear harvest. NYSDEC announced 2025 bear harvest estimates earlier this year; the statewide harvest was second only to 2003.
Hunters looking to brush up on the rules before heading out can consult the state's 2026-27 Hunting and Trapping Regulations Guide, which NYSDEC makes available in both print and an interactive digital format.
