WASILLA -- The search for a 49-year-old Butte man missing from a Petersville moose camp since Saturday continued Tuesday amid bad weather and trying trail conditions.
Searchers also continued looking for a 23-year-old Fairbanks man missing since Thursday from a hunting camp near the Dalton Highway.
Charles "Charlie" Hull traveled Friday into the rough Petersville terrain on his first hunt in the area since moving to Alaska from Florida about five years ago, according to Stacy Hardon, a longtime friend.
Hull's four-man party left on four-wheelers equipped with winches for a long and sometimes technical ride into the Little Peters Mountain area north of Talkeetna, Hardon said. The spot is a favorite camp of Hull's boss at Kodiak Masonry in Wasilla.
Hull, an early riser, woke around 7 a.m. Saturday and told a companion he planned to set up a scope and look for moose behind camp, she said. He wore no pack but did have a firearm and pulled on neon-green rain gear.
"He said 'I'll be back in about 30 minutes' and never returned," Hardon said.
Alaska State Troopers say searchers planned to work in shifts all day Tuesday and -- if Hull isn't found -- spend the night and resume searching Wednesday. The Alaska National Guard is sending four people to join ground search efforts, and the troopers will try to fly a helicopter over the area if weather allows, troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said in an email.
Hardon said Hull's boss, Conrad Belgarde, is also leading a small, experienced group of volunteer searchers with Hardon's husband, Mike.
Troopers involved in the search are saying there is no need for additional volunteer help at this point because the trails are exceptionally muddy and the weather is poor, Peters said.
"It would do more harm than good at this point because additional people and ATVs will only make trail conditions worse," she wrote.
Similarly poor conditions -- plus snow -- hampered the ongoing search for 23-year-old Dalton Hanson, reported missing Thursday after he walked away from a camp near Mile 8 of the Dalton Highway, Peters said. He reportedly wore a camouflage jacket, black pants and boots, without proper gear for the conditions.
Hull headed into an area thick with alder and dense, tough-going brush like devil's club, Hardon said. The hunting party "really got to worrying" when he didn't return from his moose-spotting trip after about four hours, she said. They fired off a few rounds to see if he'd fire in response. Silence. They alerted troopers Saturday evening, and the search began.
So far, Hardon said at midday Tuesday, there's been no sign of the friend who spent every holiday with her family like an adopted relative.
Hull moved to Alaska in 2010 from Florida for a better life, she said. He moved in with the Hardons in Butte, then moved to an apartment next door. They continued a close relationship even after the Hardons moved to Wasilla.
Hull and the couple went camping Labor Day weekend -- even though it was their anniversary.
"Charlie is a man, I kid you not, you could call at 3 a.m. if you had a flat tire," Hardon said. "Always a helper and a very get-up-and-go doer. It didn't surprise me when they said he was the first one walking out of camp."
Note: This story has been edited to reflect that Charlie Hull had previously hunted in Alaska, but not in the Petersville area.