SLADE, Ky. — Search and Rescue teams in eastern Kentucky have received more calls to help hikers this year than ever before. 

President of Hunter Hounds Search and Recovery David Conrad said it has to do with more activity since COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.

"Sometimes we do them during the week. We always usually do it on weekends because it's easier for everyone where everyone works. But sometimes at midnight. We've trained until, like, four o'clock," said Alyssa Carmichael, a trainee who's hiding in the woods.

Several yards away from the trail, at the meeting location, one of the hounds is offered her scent to locate Alyssa.

Her cousin Skylar Rogers performs a check of the perimeter, crucial steps for a search process.

Eventually, one of the three hounds locates Alyssa.

"We train every day. It rains, snow, it don't matter," said Conrad. He oversees the search and recovery dog team from Estill County that helps Powell County Search and Rescue and Red Star Wilderness EMS.

Conrad said this year, the calls for rescues have almost doubled.

"I think last year — I think Powell County Search And Rescue had 20-something calls, and we're already at 40-something right now," Conrad said.

Conrad’s team is on standby should a call come in. In the meantime, they train. 

"I like to train in every scenario, I like to train when it's raining, the wind's blowing. I like to do it in the snow," Conrad said. "We even train at night. Sometimes I'll call my group at one o'clock in the morning and say 'hey, training starts in an hour' and we meet and train because you never know when that call is going to come out. And if I don't train in it, it's going to be hard to lead your team through a search if it's, you know, thundering or if it's pouring down rain, if we don't train enough scenarios."

The reason behind the spike in rescues, Conrad said, is due to the pandemic. 

"People was having to be at home so much, and stuff that, once this pandemic lifted a little so everybody could get out," Conrad said. "Some people that's out here right now has never went hiking or nothing. It's just, they had to have something to do, they couldn't go out and shop at the malls and things, so they had to pick up a hobby, and this is what they chose to do is go hiking. So we got a lot of new people in the woods this year." 

Several miles from the Natural Bridge State Park, the emergency team is getting ready to unveil a new first-aid station of its kind. Spokesperson Lisa Johnson said this project has been years in the making.

Hounds take turns following scents of people during searches. (Spectrum News 1/Khyati Patel)

"I went to the governor [Bevin] two years ago and asked if we could have a building here because we have so many rescues up here. We’re a first aid where we can give them a Band-Aid and help them out, or if the sky lift calls, we're here on the spot, we can go up, and if an ambulance needs to be called, then we call an ambulance," Johnson said.

Conrad said he could train 365 days a year, but it takes one rescue to reconnect a family and that makes it all worthwhile.

"I have seven kids in my home and I couldn't imagine my kids, one of them go missing, and there's nothing that I can do to try to find it," Conrad said. 

The first-aid station is located at the Natural Bridge. It’s named after Don Fig, a man who helped conduct 1,500 search and rescues, and a formal ribbon cutting will take place sometime in August.