Jacob Cartwright, Missing 22-Year-Old Trucker, Walked For Days Before Being Found

A missing 22-year-old truck driver walked out of the Oregon wilderness safely and was found Saturday morning, police said. Jacob Cartwright got lost after his GPS sent him the wrong way.

Cartwright went missing Wednesday when he was on his way to make a delivery in Nyssa, Oregon. The young man from La Grande walked 36 miles with no food or water through a remote, heavily wooded region of the state.

According to Cartwright’s boss Roy Henry, his truck was reportedly full of potato chips when it got stuck in an area with limited cell phone coverage. The status of the potato chips are unknown.

Cartwright, an employee of Little Trees Transportation, reportedly started walking in the cold and snow just after midnight Wednesday. The journey to safety was 36 miles, which Cartwright covered without stopping at any point.

Troopers also said that early reports indicated Cartwright slid off the road and walked out.

The incident was "a simple matter of human error," Henry said, according to local reports, adding that Cartwright will be keeping his job with the company.

After being found, Cartwright was taken to a hospital for evaluation.

"He was disoriented and confused (Saturday) morning," public information officer Sgt. Kaipo Raiser of the Oregon State Police told local media KTVZ.

His wife said she was told Cartwright was “hurting real bad” and was “real cold.”

A nursing supervisor at Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande said: “He looks to be pretty good. He’s a big boy. He kept moving and stayed warm enough. So it doesn’t look like he’s going to have too many injuries.”