TEEN SAFE AFTER NIGHT IN WOODS

WOLF LAKE, Ill. -- Sixteen-year-old Brad Dodd went squirrel hunting Wednesday afternoon in a thick woods called Pine Hills. Family members, friends, the Union County Rescue Squad and bloodhounds would spend the rest of the rain-drenched night hunting for him.

The Anna youth became separated from his two hunting partners and lost sight of the road they were using to keep their bearings. He spent the night next to a log, afraid to fall asleep because of rattlesnakes.

Rescuers were unable to find him, though they heard him fire his shotgun. At dawn, Dodd located some railroad tracks and followed them for two hours, finally walking into the Ensign Bickford dynamite plant in Wolf Lake unharmed.

Dodd and friends Michael Roach, 17, and Zack Falberg, 16, were hunting in Pine Hills for the first time Wednesday.

"We all tried to stay alongside the road. Somehow I got away from it miles away from where I started," Dodd said.

His friends made their way to Dodd's truck at the agreed-on time, but he had the keys. When they realized he wasn't coming, they ran down the road to a house for help.

The Union County Rescue Squad and bloodhounds from Williamson County were called out. They searched through the night along with the boy's father, Byron Dodd.

The Anna-Jonesboro High School sophomore said he knew not to move once it became dark. Heavy rains fell through the night. At 1 a.m. he heard a siren and fired his last shotgun shell "to let everybody know I was still alive."

He found out later that rescuers did hear the retort, but the dog had lost his trail.

"I only heard one of the dogs bark once," he said. "I never saw any of them."

Dodd stayed wide awake the whole time because he was scared of rattlesnakes. When dawn finally arrived, he saw one only 20 yards from the spot where he spent the night.

"It moved a little at me, and I hit it with my shotgun while I jumped back about 10 feet," he said.

Dodd said he had just one thought during the entire ordeal: "I was just trying to stay calm."

He immediately went to bed for eight hours when he was returned home to his mother, Rita, and 11-year-old brother, Ryan.

"I want to thank everybody that helped to try to find me for their prayers," he said.

The experience taught him something, he said. "Carry a compass around from now on."