CHESUNCOOK – A New Jersey woman who became separated from her son during a hike to a campsite along Caucomgomoc Dam Wednesday afternoon was found safe by the Maine Warden Service yesterday.

Judy Preston, 67, of Washington Township, N.J., and her son, Randy Preston of Vancouver, British Columbia, were pulling a canoe through the fast water of Caucomgomoc Stream at approximately 4 p.m. Wednesday. When Randy looked behind him to check on his mother, he found she wasn't there, according to Warden Tom McKenney.

Fearful that his mother may have fallen into the water, Preston searched the area without luck. He got into the canoe and began a route down the Caucomgomoc Stream through Black Pond to Chesuncook (near Greenville) to seek help. The pair had spent the night Tuesday on Gero Island, across from Chesuncook.

“Mr. Preston had forgotten that he and his mother had made a plan that if she became too tired pulling the canoe that she would go into the woods and continue walking to the campsite,” Warden McKenney said. “He had panicked and thought something had happened to her. It was a miscommunication on both of their parts.”

Preston reached a Chesuncook store at approximately 10 p.m., and the proprietors there tried to reach the Maine State Police through e-mail.

“They sent out an e-mail but it didn’t get to the state police,” McKenney said. “They later found out it accidentally was sent to a dentist’s office.”

After being contacted Thursday, the Maine Warden Service dispatched five watercraft, two aircraft, nine wardens and the MWS Dive Team. Warden officials found Judy Preston walking in Chesuncook Stream at approximately 8:45 a.m.

She had found a travel bag that her son had left alongside the stream. In it were gear, granola bars and other safety essentials, McKenney said.

“She’s fine and she’s calm,” McKenney said. “The only thing is that the bugs got to her.”

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The area where Judy Preston spent a night lost in the Maine woods.