Updated: 8/27/2008 11:58:25 PM
Neighbors say, as each day passes with no sign of their missing friend, they're increasingly concerned.
Mike Hearon, 51, was last seen riding his ATV in the Happy Valley area on Saturday.
Family members reported him missing Monday night.
Since then, search crews have scoured about 350 acres around his home, much of it in rugged mountain terrain.
They've found his ATV, but there is no sign of Hearon.
"Well, I'm really worried because we're not finding no sign of no nothing, just, we've been all over the mountains and all we've found is the four-wheeler, no sign of nothing else, nothing, so it's time to be worried, I think," said longtime neighbor Ernie Proffitt.
Proffitt calls Hearon a "mountain man" who would never get lost in the mountains around his home.
He also says Hearon worked for the park service for a decade, often spending a week at a time camping in the wilderness alone.
"It's been tough on everyone, everybody's really concerned because everybody knew Mike since he was a little boy in this valley, you know, he was born and raised here," Hearon said. "It's been tough on everybody."
Crews planned to return to the area Thursday morning to search, once again, on foot and on horse. Canines may help in the effort, too.
"No missing persons case is average, but we're treating it as, I mean, if he's hurt up there, we're still looking for a person who is alive up there," said Marian O'Briant with the Blount County Sheriff's Office.
While Proffitt says his hopes for finding his friend alive are dwindling, he plans to be part of the search crew too.
"If the shoe was on the other foot, Mike would be out there looking for me, you know, I know that, I don't have to think that, I know that Mike would be out there looking for me," he said.
