‘Woodsman at heart’ still lost after 10 days

Earl Funk has spent most of his life loving the outdoors. His family is holding out hope that the 50-year-old will survive his latest foray into the wilderness.

Funk, of Staunton, disappeared in the Cedar Mountain area of Shenandoah National Park on the afternoon of Sept. 29. An exhaustive search in rugged terrain reached day 10 on Thursday.

In a statement written by Funk’s cousin, Robyn Davis Sekula, the family thanked the many searchers for their dedication and hard work. They also described Funk’s love and respect for the outdoors.

“Earl is a woodsman at heart,” Sekula wrote. “He has a great passion and respect for the forest.”

The day he went missing, Funk and a friend had gone out to dig up ginseng roots. The friend later found the ATV Funk had been driving but not the man.

His friends looked for Funk that night and the next morning before contacting authorities, who then launched a search.

The terrain in the area is “steep, rugged,” said Hazel Mehne, who works for the National Park Service and has helped with the search. Her husband and son, also park employees, have helped with the search too.

Mehne and other searchers scour their “grid” areas on average for 11 to 12 hours a day.

They often find themselves crawling under felled trees or through briar patches or carefully working along steep drop-offs, she said.

This is her third search in the park in the past year, Mehne said. The other two missing people were found.

Mehne said she doesn’t know how someone can simply vanish, especially an experienced woodsman such as Funk.

“We wonder that,” Mehne said. “The account we were given, that’s what happened.”

Regardless of how someone becomes lost, searchers have to focus on how that person would act in the wilderness, using information gleaned from the family, she explained.

With someone like Funk, Mehne said, searchers have kept an eye out for some kind of shelter, which an experienced woodsman would seek.

They also rely on any clues they find.

So far, few signs of Funk have turned up. On Tuesday, searchers found a machete, a hat, keys, a pack of cigarettes, a tent stake and a boot.

Funk’s respect for the land has probably made the search more challenging, his cousin wrote in the statement.

In his searches for ginseng, Funk “did everything he could not to disturb the land, and that’s part of what has made the search so difficult.”

Still, Sekula noted that her cousin is “vastly familiar with this territory, and he went into the woods well-equipped, as he always did. If there is anyone who could survive in this territory, it would be Earl.”

On Thursday, 55 searchers concentrated on areas outside the park on private land, according to Karen Beck-Herzog of the park service.

As with the other searches this year, Mehne hopes for a happy ending.

So do Funk’s family and friends.

“No matter the outcome, we’ll always be grateful for the efforts and kindness of so many strangers who helped our family during this time,” Sekula wrote. “We will be grateful if he comes home to us to enjoy another holiday season — but will not blame anyone if he does not.”