A 79-year old passenger from Princess Cruises’ ship Coral Princess was on a hike Juneau last Wednesday, and ended up taking a wrong turn. It happened on the Nugget Creek Trail.
As night fell that evening, she became disoriented as to where she was, and decided to just spend the night on the trail, completely unprepared. Juneau police organized a large search party who looked for her until midnight, but no one found her.
In the morning around 9:30 am, she hiked to Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, tired and wet but in good shape. “She didn’t have camping gear, but she wore layers and a rain coat. I’m sure she was still cold, but it was a happy ending when she came in this morning,” said Nikki Hinds, assistant director at the visitor center.
Police officers picked her up from there, and drove her to the airport so she could fly to rejoin her ship in Ketchikan.
Kirby Day, port manager for Princess, said “She is a strong lady, and she knew what she was doing. She did all the right things except for making one wrong turn. This was one of those ones that turned out good. We’ve had a couple over the years that didn’t.”
Information: Juneau Empire
