Finder of Sister teen’s lost GoPro takes it on travels before return

A Sisters teen was reunited with his lost GoPro on Christmas Day after a stranger found the camera and traveled with it for over a year.

In the summer of 2016, Ethan Tolle, 16, and his friends were out exploring the Oregon outdoors. His friends lost his GoPro in the water at Tamolitch Blue Pool.

Ethan never expected he would ever get back his GoPro — that is, until he received a special package from a complete stranger on Christmas.

It was a letter written by Louie Wray, who gave Ethan clues as to what was inside the package.

“He started out reading a letter he got from Louie, who lives in the Florida Keys. Then he started watching videos, and Louie had shared some of his adventures,” Ethan’s mother Leah Tolle said Wednesday.

Tolle told NewsChannel 21 Wray shared his year-long adventures across the country, from exploring the Florida Keys underwater to slack-lining on the mountain tops of West Virginia.

The exploration was all captured on Ethan’s lost GoPro.

While looking at the video on the camera he found, he discovered a bike ride Ethan had taken with his uncle from Deschutes River Woods to Bend.

Wray used Google Maps, tracked down an address and got in contact with Ethan’s aunt and uncle, who live in DRW.

Tolle said Ethan’s uncle reached out to her to fill her in on the good news.

“At first when he called, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?” she said. “It was so crazy to think how deep that (pool) is, that somebody actually retrieved it — and it sounds like he retrieved it not too long (after) it was lost, probably within a couple of weeks.”

When the camera was returned, Wray also shared a special message with Ethan, who recently was diagnosed with a muscle disease:

“I’m recording this to send to you. I’m really stoked to get it back to you, and I hear that times are changing for ya.”

“Life is hard sometimes,” Tolle said, “and when a stranger takes an opportunity like that and try to make things a little better for you. it reminds you that there’s a lot of good people still in the world.”

And so, a GoPro traveling across the nation for more than a year ends up back in its surprised owner’s hands.

NewsChannel 21 tried to reach out to Louie Wray about his good deed, but we were told he’s on another adventure in Taiwan.