Associated Press

ENCAMPMENT, Wyo. — A Colorado woman and her daughter missing for five days in the Rocky Mountains along the Colorado-Wyoming border were found Saturday hungry but in otherwise good condition.

Norma Super, 45, and her daughter Danielle, 11, of Lakewood had been missing since Monday after failing to return from a two-day, 15-mile hike along the Encampment River in south-central Wyoming's Sierra Madre.

The two were found four miles south of the Colorado-Wyoming border. Authorities said they had become lost and headed south into Colorado's Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area instead of north to a campground in Wyoming where their vehicle was parked.

Dozens of people were involved in the search which also included dogs, horses, helicopters, planes and even a kayak.

The two were found Saturday afternoon by a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer and a volunteer who were searching on horseback.

The pair had not eaten since Tuesday but were carrying water filters, enabling them to drink water found along the trail, Carbon County, Wyo., Sheriff Jerry Colson said.

The mother and daughter had apparently started their trek walking north as intended but became turned around on the Encampment River Trail and wound up southbound, he said.

They encountered waist-deep snow and left the trail, eventually climbing to the top of Black Mountain in the wilderness area.

The two were headed back north when they were found, Colson said.

Although they were in good condition, an ambulance and doctor were sent to the scene as a precaution.

Colson said the pair began their hike about 11:30 a.m. May 25 after they were dropped off at the Encampment River trailhead just east of the Continental Divide and north of the Colorado-Wyoming border.

They had planned to proceed 15 miles north to rendezvous with their vehicle, which was at a campground just south of Encampment.

The search began Tuesday, the day authorities were notified.

Colson said that late in the week two men from Denver called to tell him they had encountered the missing pair about 1:30 p.m. May 25 walking south along the trail, about two miles north of the trailhead.

The men said the woman seemed unhappy that there were so many people on the trail and asked where she could find some good fishing. One of the men told her that if she kept walking south she might find a good place to fish and camp.

It is not known if the pair was lost at that point.

June 2, 2002

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