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WBUR's Ted O'Brien, center, waves as he is escorted out of the New Hampshire woods by state Fish and Game officers. (AP photo)
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Broadcaster Ted O'Brien hopes others learn from his mistakes
By David Tirrell-Wysocki, Associated Press, 09/04/01
BARTLETT, N.H. -- Barely out of the mountains after being lost for two nights, longtime Boston newscaster Ted O'Brien was on the air Tuesday, reporting on his misadventure in hopes that others will avoid his mistakes.
"I have learned from them (searchers) and from my experience that I've got to be a lot better prepared," O'Brien said as he was interviewed on his station, WBUR, about 1.5 hours after walking out of the White Mountain National Forest with a search team.
"Next time, I won't go alone, I'll take along extra water, I'll take along a cell phone.
"I was very lucky," he said.
O'Brien, 60, in apparent good health, saluted several dozen reporters, photographers and station colleagues as he emerged from the woods Tuesday morning, two days after starting what he thought would be a six-hour hike.
His first mistake, he told reporters at the trail head, was not planning and not taking along enough food and water.
"It turned out that what I thought was just a walk in the park was one of the toughest trails in these mountains," O'Brien said. "I should have known that."
His second mistake, he said, was not staying put when he realized he was off the trail Sunday. If he had, he said, he probably would have been found Monday.
He had wandered so far, that dog teams that searched until after midnight Monday night found no trace of him.
Searchers and O'Brien ran into each other about one mile up the Moat Mountain Trail at 9:33 a.m., about 90 minutes after the search resumed.
"I said, 'You wouldn't be looking for Ted O'Brien, would you,"' he said.
He walked out of the woods with them about an hour later.
"I want to say how deeply grateful I am to the hundreds of people who gave up their Labor Day to come out and look for somebody who should have taken more steps before he left," O'Brien said. "He'd have taken a lot fewer steps afterward."
Fish and Game Lt. Rick Estes said having O'Brien preaching hiker safety and preparation is a bonus after a tough search.
"He is a very articulate guy and he has an ability to reach some people that we can't reach on a consistent basis," Estes said.
O'Brien began spreading the word throughout New England as soon as he reached the microphones set up at the trailhead. He spoke to reporters whose radio and television stations, newspapers and wire services cover the region.
"You've got to take greater care than I did and if it hadn't been for a lot of really good people, I don't know, the story might have ended differently."
O'Brien set out on a 10-mile trail near Cathedral Ledge that was hard to follow in places because of ice damage last winter. It was rarely used and often poorly marked.
He had intended to hike from Diana's Bath, outside North Conway, over the peak of Big Attitash Mountain, then to Bear Notch Road and to Bartlett village, where he would call his wife to pick him up, he said. O'Brien had hoped to cover the 9.5 miles of trail and 2.7 miles to Bartlett in six hours, but Fish and Game said the hike normally takes twice as long.
O'Brien was not equipped for an overnight hike. He was dressed in a gray sweat shirt and blue jeans and wore hiking sandals with socks.
He carried a tote bag with two peanut butter sandwiches, 4 cheese sticks and water, but did not have a compass or matches. He had a half sandwich and one cheese stick left Tuesday.
"That was for tomorrow," he said.
Fish and Game officer Wayne Saunders, who was with the three-person search team that found O'Brien, credited the newsman with taking some important steps after getting lost.
"He kept his head and that's very important in survival," Saunders said. "He rationed his food, that was good and he followed the brook drainage down. That was good."
O'Brien said he reached a section of poorly marked trail Sunday and instead of camping there decided to backtrack, getting lost in the dark. After a night's rest, he went looking for water Monday, followed a stream downhill, but couldn't regain the trail.
He resumed walking after dawn Tuesday and came across the trail.
Monday night, he said sounds in the dark kept him on edge.
"I was visited by what they tell me were field mice or chipmunks," he said. "But they sounded like elephants."
He said he lay on his back, flailing at the unseen intruders with a walking stick.
A broadcaster in Boston for most of the last 27 years, O'Brien is WBUR's weekday news anchor.
He was an anchorman on Channel 7 from 1974 to 1982. After a television stint in New York and at WRKO radio in Boston, he joined WABU-TV (Channel 68) as news director in 1993.
In 1996, he coordinated coverage of "The People's Voice," an effort to make voters more prominent in news coverage of the New Hampshire presidential primary and the U.S. Senate race between William Weld and John Kerry. It was a joint effort of WBUR, Channel 68 and The Boston Globe.
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