Gabriel Vaughn was reported missing on Feb. 16 after he set off for a rafting trip along the Illinois River
Josephine County Sheriff's Office
NEED TO KNOW
- A 25-year-old man, who vanished during a rafting trip in Oregon, spent five days alone in the wilderness before a Coast Guard helicopter helped bring him to safety
- Gabriel Vaughn was reported missing on Feb. 16 after he set off for a rafting trip along the Illinois River
- Rescuers eventually found him on Feb. 20, two miles away from where he first disappeared
A 25-year-old man, who vanished during a rafting trip in Oregon, spent five days alone in the wilderness before a Coast Guard helicopter helped bring him to safety.
The Josephine County Sheriff's Office first shared that Gabriel Vaughn went missing on Monday, Feb. 16, after he set off for a rafting trip along the Illinois River.
He was traveling with a group near the Greenwall Rapids when he split off by himself at around 4:15 p.m. local time. His parents told Outside that he had a disagreement with the team, leading him to jump off his raft and swim to shore.
It's believed that Vaughn then planned to hike out toward the Chetco drainage, a remote, mountainous forest that overlaps Oregon's Kalmiopsis Wilderness.
“From there, we don’t know exactly how things progressed,” his dad, Henry, told the outlet.
Josephine County Sheriff's Office
The sheriff's office said that a multiday search operation was launched after Vaughn did not make it back.
The sheriff's office search and rescue team and the U.S. Coast Guard both got involved in the operation, and authorities issued a missing person announcement to get the public's help.
According to Vaughn's parents, the situation was odd in part due to the fact that their son is an experienced boater who has dropped over waterfalls, whitewater rafted and given guided tours around the country.
Outside reported that the Illinois River has more than a dozen Class V rapids — meaning it is one of the hardest and most hazardous rapids to travel — and the area just outside of the Greenwall Rapids is one of them.
Vaughn's father told the outlet that his son left "a trail of breadcrumbs" for search and rescue teams that helped them locate him amid Oregon's poor weather over the past week. Authorities found his paddle, helmet and other gear at three separate locations.
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“If he is out in the wilderness, he knows his chance of getting rescued increases if he leaves signs of where he’s been and the direction he’s going," his father said.
On Friday, Feb. 20, the sheriff's office announced that Vaughn had been found "approximately 2 miles downstream from where he was last seen" — but authorities still had to figure out how to get him out of the wilderness.
The Coast Guard devised a plan to use a helicopter and hoist Vaughn to safety, as he couldn't be evacuated on foot due to injuries on his hands and feet.
Rescuers decided to fly in an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Air Station North Bend, and video footage of the operation shared by the Coast Guard showed Vaughn being hoisted to safety with a rescue swimmer by rope. He was then taken to the hospital.
After the rescue operation, Vaughn's parents confirmed on social media — as well as on a GoFundMe page set up to help pay for his recovery and the rescue efforts — that he was undergoing "extensive medical evaluation and treatment" for his injuries.
"Henry and Jennifer Vaughn, Gabriel’s parents, immediately traveled from Tennessee to Oregon to assist with search coordination," the statement read in part.
"While they are overjoyed that their son is alive, they recognize that his resilience and wilderness training helped sustain him, and that the tireless work of the search teams ultimately saved his life," the statement added. "Although the search phase has concluded, Gabriel’s long road to medical recovery is just beginning."
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