It's a happy ending to a story that might have had a grim outcome.
The Pine-Strawberry fire chief who went missing after a extended hike has been found safe and sound. Chief Gary Morris, 73, was reported missing at about 9:30 Tuesday morning.
He had gone off on a four-day, 51-mile hike -- by himself.
According to the Pine-Strawberry Fire District, he was almost 12 hours past the time he was supposed to be picked up at that point in the Doll Baby area in the Mazatzal wilderness near Payson. So what went wrong? Morris tells us his new routing software took him down the wrong path, and he was out of cell phone range.