An Oregon trucker missing since Tuesday emerged from the wilderness on Saturday after having walked over a dozen miles back to civilization after his truck got stuck.
Twenty-two year old truck driver Jacob Cartwright arrived close to his hometown of La Grande, Oregon, on foot on Saturday after a hike of at least 14 miles. Cartwright was taken to the hospital but luckily suffered no major injuries or illnesses from his ordeal, according to KTVB.
Cartwright, who is an employee of Little Trees Transportation, was hauling a load of potato chips from Portland to Nyssa, Oregon, when he went missing on Tuesday, April 24. After stopping at a truck stop in Troutdale, Cartwright was expected to stop for fuel in La Grande on Tuesday night, but he never arrived.
Cartwright’s boss at Little Trees, Roy Henry, said that Cartwright put the wrong address into his GPS device at the beginning of his trip. After his GPS had him turn off of I-84, Cartwright realized his mistake and tried putting in the correct address. That’s when his GPS device led him onto a U.S. Forest Service road, where his truck became stuck in an area with limited cellphone coverage and no way to call for help.
Cartwright left the truck around midnight on Wednesday without food or water — even though he had a truckload full of salty snacks at hand. His cellphone battery soon ran out. After trudging through snow for what the Oregon State Police estimated to be “in excess of 14 miles”, Cartwright was able to reach I-84, where he got a ride home from a motorist.
When asked by Henry why he didn’t take any chips, Cartwright said, “that’s the load I was hauling, and I didn’t want to damage the property.”
Henry has assured Cartwright, who is a father of two with another child on the way, that he will not lose his job.