TOWNSHIP 6 NORTH OF WELD — Two women and five children from Gray learned the value of a flashlight late Tuesday night while hiking Tumbledown mountain in Franklin County.

Maine Warden Brock Clukey said he didn’t have names of the women and children, ages 11 and under, with him, but none were injured.

He also said they weren’t overdue or lost.

Instead, Clukey said he believes they simply underestimated the time it would take to start hiking the 2.2-mile Parker Ridge Trail to Tumbledown Pond at about 2 p.m. and return to the trail head parking area.

“They went up and they just didn’t bring any flashlights or anything like that, and they just lost daylight,” Clukey said.

The sun sets at about 7:30 p.m.

“They stayed on the trail, but they just couldn’t see where they were going,” he said.

The group arrived at the pond, turned around and started back down the trail.

Although the adults didn’t confirm it, Clukey said he believes they may have become disoriented at first when descending the steep trail.

“They’d been up there before, but I don’t think they’d ever been on that trail,” he said.

“They probably took a little bit more time at Tumbledown Pond, probably more than they should have, and they came down and just lost daylight.”

Clukey said he didn’t think the group was inexperienced at hiking Maine terrain.

“They had backpacks and they had stuff, they just forgot to bring the essential things to have if you’re going to climb in the evening.”

Many night hikers wear headlamps to keep their hands free to better maneuver along trails.

Unable to see the trail and worried about falling temperatures, they called 911 to alert Maine State Police in Gray.

“When they called in, they had a concern about the cooler temperatures that are coming down at night,” Clukey said.

Temperatures dropped into the 50s in Rumford and Mexico on Tuesday evening but on Tumbledown, which is more than 3,000 feet high, they would have been colder.

“They were all wearing shorts and stuff, so that would have been a cool night for them, no doubt about it,” he said.

“I believe they had food and stuff like that, just no flashlights,” he said.

After the adults called for help, a dispatcher contacted Clukey and told him a group of mountain bikers were lost on Tumbledown.

“We were looking at that on the way up last night and we were a little surprised,” Clukey said of he and Warden Scott Stevens from the Eustis area.

He said Parker Ridge Trail isn’t suitable for mountain bikes.

The wardens arrived at the Parker Ridge Trail head at 10:39 p.m. and started in, riding a four-wheeler.

“We had cellphone coverage with them early and we actually advised them to stay put and not to go anywhere,” Clukey said.

Clukey and Stevens found the hikers — not bikers — at 11 p.m. in about half a mile to three-quarters of a mile.

“They were right on the trail,” he said. “They were up there quite a ways. Had they had the flashlights, they would have been all set.”

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