As searchers spread out over rural Burnett County, Wis., looking for missing Keith Kennedy, one of the untold stories was the role that volunteer mountain bike patrollers played in the extensive operation. Those members of the National Mountain Bike Patrol (NMBP) were coordinated by the Backcountry Trail Patrol Association, an NMBP unit based in Isanti County's Bradford Township.

Eleven volunteer mountain bike patrollers from the MORC (Minnesota Off-Road Cyclists) Mountain Bike Patrol (Mpls.-St.Paul), the Barmy Dogs Mountain Bike Patrol (Spooner, WI), and the Backcountry Trail Patrol dropped what they were doing, left work, left other cycling events and rode to the call to search for someone who simply was not able to help himself. Those efforts paid off when Keith Kennedy was found alive on Sunday evening. Although none of the patrollers made the actual find, their hard work help enabled authorities to eliminate areas where Kennedy was not. The patrol members put in over 135 man-hours and covered over 250 miles of roads, foot and ATV trails, forest lanes, hunter tracks and game paths; checked scores of buildings, houses, barns, hunting shacks, tool sheds, and even outhouses and doghouses, since being were called out on Wednesday.

The bike patrol search effort was coordinated by Backcountry Trail Patrol director Hans Erdman of rural Isanti. Erdman is a MN DOT certified Special-Needs Transportation driver-trainer and has worked extensively with autistic passengers. He is also a Minnesota DNR State Park Ranger, who has been involved in search and rescue operations as either a ranger and a volunteer since 1971.