Authorities say a couple vacationing in Colorado helped guide a local family lost in the wilderness to safety.
The La Plata County Sheriff's Office says Mike and Laura Hampshire, of Flagstaff, Arizona, came across 33-year-old Dustin Beaver and his three children in the Weminuche Wilderness on Monday and hiked out with them to a trailhead.
The Durango Herald reports that Beaver and his 8-year-old twins and 6-year-old son set out for a day hike to Dollar Lake Saturday but got off track and got some bad directions. They spent two nights in the wilderness. Luckily, they had a tent, food and extra water and Beaver was able to start a fire each night. Their only complaint when they emerged was the many bug bites they suffered.
Sheriff's spokesman Dan Bender says other hikers have been lost in the area before and searchers looking for the family had trouble keeping their bearings in the dense vegetation and steep terrain there. The wilderness area, the largest in the state, is three-quarters the size of Rhode Island.
