BYRON – More than 30 Maine game wardens and volunteer search-and-rescue-team members resumed searching on Wednesday morning for a Vermont deer hunter missing since Monday near Tumbledown Mountain in Weld.

They’re looking for Steven Wright, 53, of Woodford, Vt., who is 5-feet-7-inches tall, weighs 160 pounds, has gray hair and blue eyes. He was last seen at 9 a.m. on Monday, wearing a fluorescent orange knit hat and jacket, wet-weather camouflage pants and carrying a muzzleloader, according to Warden Lt. Adam Gormely at the warden service staging area inside the Byron town office beside Route 17 at Coos Canyon.

“Anyone who was hunting in the area at that time is asked to call us with any information at 592-1872,” Gormely said of the Maine State Police command post on scene. “He was traveling very light, but he had a GPS unit and compass with him….According to his friends, he didn’t bring his pack, which had a radio and flashlight in it.”

He said that Wright and two hunting buddies rented a cabin in Byron and drove out on Monday morning to hunt south of No. 6 Road about four miles east of Coos Canyon and Route 17.

Wright, an experienced hunter who has hunted nationwide, took off following a deer track during Monday’s snowstorm armed with a muzzleloader and two to three rounds. The other two hunters got into deer stands – platforms attached to trees – and waited for deer to come along, Gormely said.

Later that day, when Wright failed to return, the two hunters began searching for him. At 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday, they sought help from wardens. Initially, three wardens and a supervisor began searching on snowmobiles and on foot within a 1-mile radius of the hunters’ truck.

Later on Tuesday when the weather cleared, a fixed-wing warden service airplane joined the search, accompanied near the end of the day by a Maine Forest Service helicopter.

A Maine Army National Guard helicopter equipped with an infrared camera developed mechanical problems and didn’t aid in the search as expected on Tuesday, Gormely said.

“We stopped the search sometime after dark

On Wednesday, two fixed-wing planes – one from the warden service, the other from Civil Air Patrol in Portland – the forest service helicopter and National Guard helicopter out of Bangor will assist ground teams. They are also using three warden service dogs trained in search and rescue.

Some searchers were concentrating efforts Wednesday toward the West Brook drainage.

Wright “is very wood-wise, but, unfortunately, one of the mistakes he made, was, he left his pack and gear in the truck,” Warden Lt. Pat Dorian said inside the Byron town office on Wednesday morning. “He is an aggressive hunter, so, we’re told that it’s not uncommon for him to spend a day and night following a track. Obviously, we’re very concerned and doing everything we can to find him,” Dorian said.

Searchers fired guns into the air on Tuesday night, attempting to get Wright to fire back in response so they could hone in on him. But, because Wright was hunting with a muzzleloader, he wouldn’t be carrying many rounds.

“He might be carrying two to three rounds. Having a muzzleloader out there is a real handicap. They’ve been hunting here for several years and he had a GPS and compass with him, which raises our level of concern, because with that, he would have found his way back by now,” Dorian said.

Hunters like to search for deer in snowstorms, because it’s a good time to catch a deer laying down.

But “Monday was a typical nasty day, intense as it was, so, we’re handicapped unless we can see a track if he was out late in the day. Hunters, in general, if they’re following a deer they may have wounded, typically the deer will funnel into a drainage and that’s where we’re concentrating. We’re doing all drainages north and south of No. 6 Road and putting people out on high ground” on Jackson Mountain in case Wright heads there, Dorian said.

They were following a manmade track on Tuesday, but it wasn’t known if Wright made it or another hunter or winter hiker.

They’re still hoping that Wright will find a space and show his face.

“We know he has an orange knit hat and orange vest on, so we’re hoping one of the aircraft will get an eye on him,” Dorian added.

More details will be posted here as they become available.

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