Situation Desk

Injured hiker, overnight ordeal prompts Sunday boat rescue from Lake Monroe peninsula

Three teenagers stranded overnight in the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area were rescued Sunday by Monroe Fire Protection District and DNR crews after one hiker injured an ankle. The group had run out of water and phone batteries were fading before a rescue boat reached them on Lake Monroe.

**Left:** Map by The B Square. **Right:** This view is to the south from the Fairfax SRA boat ramp. The boat is headed east from the ramp, then northeast. (Dave Askins, June 7, 2026)

Around 1:15 p.m. on Sunday (June 7) a Monroe Fire Protection District vehicle with lights and siren hauled a rescue boat trailer to the Fairfax SRA boat ramp, and from there launched the craft into Lake Monroe. The boat then sped east across the lake with full throttle.

According to MFPD chief Dustin Dillard, the boat met up with DNR officers to rescue three stranded teenage hikers from a peninsula in the Charles C. Deam Wilderness Area, where the trio had been stranded since Saturday. Dillard said the teenagers were trapped because one of the hikers had suffered a possible broken or sprained ankle after stepping in a hole. The situation had grown critical because the group had run out of water, was carrying limited provisions, and their phone batteries were dying.

A boat rescue was launched because the location was not accessible by land, according to Dillard. Rescuers found the stranded hikers around 1:35 p.m. Sunday. The injured person’s condition was stable, was having manageable pain, but could not walk.

All three hikers were safely brought aboard the rescue boat and taken across the water to the Cutright SRA boat ramp, arriving at 1:52 p.m. First responders stayed on the scene with the teenagers until family members arrived to pick them up, Dillard said.