Members of the Baker County Sheriff’s Office’s search and rescue team drove two tracked side-by-sides about 6 miles up a snow-covered road Saturday afternoon, Jan. 20, to rescue a man who had sustained an ankle injury and built a fire to keep warm.

The search and rescue crews loaded Alexander James Myers, 35, onto a litter and brought him to a U.S. Forest Service vehicle, which then took him to an ambulance waiting along Highway 7 at the Denny Creek Road junction about 12 miles south of Baker City.

The incident started about 3 p.m. when the dispatch center received a report of a man walking on Denny Creek Road with a possible ankle injury.

Because snow blocked the road for several miles to conventional vehicles, the search and rescue team deployed the tracked side-by-sides, according to the press release.

The Denny Creek Road leads into the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest and connects to the Skyline Road, Forest Road 11.

The man appeared to be in good condition, according to the press release.

Ashley McClay, public information officer for the sheriff’s office, said Myers lives on Cougar Hollow Road, which is in the Black Mountain area a couple miles west of Denny Creek.

She didn’t have any details about how Myers was injured.

McClay said Forest Service law enforcement officer Stephen Betts drove his pickup as far up the road as possible. She said the Denny Creek Road was plowed for about 4 miles from the Highway 7 intersection, but was impassable to wheeled vehicles beyond that point.