I knew right away Thursday night that searchers weren’t likely to find the two missing hikers on Old Speck Mountain that evening.

But the last thing I expected I’d be doing while chasing the story Friday was directing a warden to their location that afternoon. That, and giving the pair, Michael Hawkins and Ryan Weeks, both 21 and of Augusta, a ride back to their car. I expected them to need medical attention.

Old Speck and I are old friends. I’ve hiked it several times, fallen short distances down it a few, and stayed up there atop the fire tower in all kinds of weather, just because of the great beauty and 360-degree view. It’s one of my favorite places to backpack up and stay atop, usually at the remote tarn, Speck Pond, just down from the summit.

I consider myself a very experienced backpacker/hiker, having traipsed over hill and dale in just about every state, and in Mexico and western Canada. I’ve hiked through the inside of a glacier, up and down dormant volcanoes, and multiple times in the Grand Canyon and up and down 5,000-plus footers in Arizona and the Colorado Rockies. I’ve maintained sections of the Appalachian Trail for years.

Mountains, like Old Speck in the Mahoosuc Range, are some of the prettiest and toughest places in Maine. That’s why you have to respect them and plan accordingly.

Speck and the Mahoosuc are not at all forgiving if you’re unprepared, no matter what time of the year it is. I know. I’ve been lost on Speck, along with my best friend, Randy Wick of Pittston, while ascending the poorly marked Firewarden’s Trail in October.

We got all cut up traveling through the puckerbrush for about a mile or more before finding the trail. We didn’t start down until midnight, by flashlight, on the trail. But we had winter gear and plenty of food. That’s essentially how you have to hike in the Mahoosucs, and most of Maine’s 3,500-plus-footers. High mountains make their own weather.

Realizing they were lost, Hawkins called 911, saying they were on a blue-marked trail at the base of two mountains before the call was dropped. That’s all wardens and rescuers had to go on.

I got to the A.T. parking lot Friday morning. Warden Sgt. Rick Mills said they still had no idea where the hikers were. They had searched nearly every trail in the area. Mills was expecting the worst. So was I.

But knowing that the western side of the Grafton Loop Trail is blue-marked and not yet open – easy to get lost on, therefore – I wondered aloud to Mills if the hikers had descended Speck on it. He said they’d searched that already to the base of Speck and Slide Mountain.

As it turns out, the searchers didn’t go far enough out, but it’s a difficult hike. I can’t imagine doing it at night like Weeks and Hawkins did, as scantily prepared as they were, with only a mini-MagLite flashlight to find a way down in heavy rain and under constant threat of hypothermia and nasty falls.

At 12:30 p.m., Warden Mills was calling it quits in deteriorating weather. Then, a state police dispatcher radioed they’d located the pair, giving latitude and longitude. And, we were off – the three Maine TV station teams and me – following Mills to Riley Township. We got to the spot where Mills thought they were and didn’t see them. So the warden headed back down the road, while the rest of us media people started to turn our vehicles around. Then, a TV cameraman spotted two guys walking down a gravel driveway. The TV reporters rushed toward the bewildered men.

“Are you the lost hikers?”

I patiently waited, wondering if the TV people were going to call the warden back, but they were all over Weeks and Hawkins, apparently eager to get the story and rush back to offices miles away. So I quickly phoned Mills, telling him to head back here.

Once the tired duo were sitting in Mills’ truck, I interviewed them, then listened to them talk with the warden.

I had to chuckle when they asked Mills why they kept hearing motors starting up in the woods. That was partridge drumming their wings, the warden said.

But, people shouldn’t be too hard on Weeks and Hawkins. Just be thankful they’re alive. It’s very easy not to be while wandering through the Mahoosucs, especially lost and at night.