TALKEETNA — Alaska State Troopers say they rescued a lost, mentally challenged, 14-year-old boy from the wilderness north of Talkeetna on Thursday.

According to borough officials and a trooper press statement, the boy’s mother called at 4:14 p.m. saying the boy had run from the house without shoes, socks or a coat.

“He was attempting to walk to Talkeetna to get a job,” trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said. Family had been looking for him for an hour and a half without success. Efforts by the Frontiersman to reach the family failed.

“He had run into the woods near where the Talkeetna River and the Sheep River meet,” Peters said. “They live in a very remote area where there’s no road going to the place.”

Peters said troopers launched their helicopter from Anchorage at about 5 p.m. and arrived on scene around 6:30 p.m. She said it didn’t take troopers in the helo long to spot the teen.

“It looks like we saw him from the air at about 6:48 p.m.,” Peters said.

But that didn’t mean the boy was out of danger.

“When we tried to contact him he tried to run away from us,” and ended up in a swamp, Peters said.

Soon after, though, troopers and family members managed to catch him and he was safe.

“We were off scene at 7:16,” Peters said. “Having the aerial asset really does help. People on the ground looking for him couldn’t find him.”

She said the boy was flown to Willow where he met up with borough medics for a trip to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center for evaluation and possible treatment of frostbite.

Clint Vardeman, the borough’s deputy director of emergency services, said Houston Ambulance met the helicopter at the Willow airport and took the boy to the hospital.

Asked if it appeared from the report he was reading if the boy had an injuries needing immediate attention, Vardeman said, “There’s nothing in here that would indicate that. It just looks like a checkout for probably hypothermia.”

All told, from the call for help to the drop-off at the hospital, the incident lasted about four and a half hours. Vardeman, who said the boy was at the hospital at 8:51 p.m., seemed impressed by how quickly the whole situation was resolved. Peters did, too.

“I think they did a great job on this one,” Peters said.

Especially, she said, considering how badly things could have turned out for the boy who was walking in the woods alone without shoes.

“We are very fortunate to have a very talented, talented helicopter pilot. We have two of them and both of them do a very good job for us.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.