A Lincoln County sheriff's deputy and his German shepherd partner found a lost Boothbay woman at Trout Brook Preserve in Alna August 15.

Brigit Britton, 60, who has diabetes, said her blood sugar had gotten low while walking the trail and she became lost. She usually brings candy with her on walks in case she needs it, but had forgotten it. It was her first time visiting the preserve located off Route 218.

Britton tried following the brook, then she heard traffic and tried to go in that direction. "Thank god I had my phone," she said later, standing beside her husband after she had been tended to by the Wiscasset Ambulance Service.

While lost, Britton called her husband Eric Traphagen at the couple's home in Boothbay. In his haste he took the house phone with him to Alna, as if it was a cell phone.

After Britton called 911 shortly before 6 p.m., the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office, Wiscasset Ambulance Service, the Alna Fire Department, and the Alna First Responders all converged on the scene. Deputy Scott Hayden's canine partner Koda started tracking Britton, and the dog quickly found her about a half-mile into the preserve. Britton appeared somewhat dehydrated, but "seemed happy to see us," Hayden said.

"It's kind of an adrenaline rush to follow him," Hayden said. Koda lives with him and has been his partner for about six years, including the last two in Lincoln County. "To find someone at the end (of the search) is a pretty good feeling."

Britton and Traphagen thanked everyone involved in the search and shook hands with many of them.

"I appreciate it so much," Britton said, smiling.

The search was the first ever needed for a lost person at any of the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association's seven preserves, Executive Director Maureen Hoffman said August 16.