UNION COUNTY — Search and rescue teams from Baker and Union counties on Sunday, Dec. 27, reunited a pair of cougar hunters with their family.

The Baker County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team reported it received a request in the early hours of Dec. 27 to assist with the search for overdue hunters in Union County in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

Friends of the hunters had been searching throughout the night and located their snowmobile on the 860 Road just north of the 77 Road. The Baker County SAR Team responded to the Taylor Green area off the Forest Service 77 Road, and Union County Search and Rescue established an emergency operations center.

Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash and Lt. Ryan Downing set off in a tracked all-terrain vehicle to find the missing hunters, but neither that machine nor the snowmobile could go further due to the terrain and dense trees. The sheriff and lieutenant then continued on foot, following the missing pair’s tracks in the deep snow.

Union County launched another team, and friends of the family joined the effort using snowmobiles.

Ash located the pair a little after 9 a.m. on Dec. 27 in a deep canyon. They were cold and tired but uninjured, according to reports from the sheriff’s offices. The emergency operations center crew used mapping technology to help the Union County team maneuver to the group. The tracked ATV transported Ash, Downing and the hunters to the staging area, where they were reunited with relieved family members.