A 72-year-old mountain biker found dead in the north of the country

A 72-year-old Broome County man who went missing during a popular off-road event in the Tug Hill area was found dead on Sunday, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation .

Frederick Moat attended the annual meeting SNIRT race Saturday April 10. Last seen around 11 a.m. near the Montague Inn in the town of Montague, Moat was later reported missing at 9 p.m. Moat was suffering from dementia, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

Six rangers responded with the DEC Law Enforcement Division, Lewis County Sheriff’s Department, Lewis County Emergency Management Services, Martinsburg and Turin Fire Departments and several volunteers.

The search, which was made especially difficult due to the vast search area of ​​six cities, continued until the early hours of the morning with no sign of Moat.

At 1 p.m. Sunday, search crews found Moat’s ATV stuck near a seasonal access road in the town of Montague. All crews have been moved to this area to begin a ground search. Moat was found dead about an hour later. Rescue crews carried his body about half a mile through marshy areas to the road.

The following reports are taken from the DEC:

On April 8, DEC rangers and police responded to a report of an injured man on state property in the city of Bristol. Along with New York State Police and members of the Bristol Fire Department, rescuers stabilized the man’s injured leg and carried him on a litter to an ATV to transport him to a Canandaigua ambulance.

On April 9, rangers patrolling the Littlejohn Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in the town of Redfield, a day before the annual SNIRT Run off-road event, encountered approximately 30 ATVs and issued 21 tickets for use ATV illegal on WMA roads. Several ATV operators were also barred from entering the WMA.

On the night of April 10, Warren County 911 requested the assistance of rangers to rescue a group of hikers lost in the Cat and Thomas Mountains. An 18-year-old hiker from the Bronx broke away from the group and called for help. Rangers found him about half a mile from the Edgecomb Pond trailhead and helped him to the trailhead where he was taken by ambulance to hospital.

Be sure to prepare and plan well before entering the backcountry. To visit DEC NY Smart Hike, Adirondacks Backcountry Informationand Catskill Backcountry Information web pages for more information.

If anyone needs a ranger, whether for search and rescue, reporting a wildfire, or reporting illegal activity on state lands and easements, they should call 833- NYS-RANGERS. For urgent assistance, they should call 911. To contact a ranger for information about a specific location, the DEC website has phone numbers for each Ranger listed by region.

Steve Featherstone covers the exterior for The Post-Standard, www.syracuse.com and NYUP.com. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @featheroutdoors. You can also follow all of our outdoor content at newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/ or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/upstatenyoutdoors.