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Escaped murderer Barrington Stephens was captured Friday at the Lake Placid Rod and Gun Club on River Road, ending a two-and-a-half day search that involved 50 state troopers, 10 Federal Correctional Institution personnel and the most tracking dogs ever assembled for a manhunt in New York state.

Stephens, who escaped the federal medium-security prison at Ray Brook on Tuesday night, surrendered without resistance to state troopers at 10 a.m. Friday when they spotted him coming out from behind a skeet shooting building at the club.

Police said that Stephens was free from FCI Ray Brook for 63 hours. He climbed two 12-foot-high prison fences topped with coils of barbed wire at around 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday.

Although an alarm sounded on the inner pressure-sensitive fence, prison guards found nothing amiss when they responded. Officials, however, discovered Stephens was missing at a 10 p.m. prisoner count.

Trooper Bruce Nichols, using one of the Troop B bloodhounds, discovered Stephens’s tracks Tuesday night leading from the fence at the point of the alarm to the Remsen-Lake Placid railroad line.

Wednesday morning, Trooper Leo J. Brown, the Troop B handler, took up the scent with bloodhound Barney.

He brought the dog and a plastic bag containing one of Stephens’s bed sheets to the area where Trooper Nichols had left off.

Brown followed the dog along the four miles of railroad tracks from Ray Brook to Old Military Road in Lake Placid.

The bloodhound then followed the trail to the back of the train station on Averyville Road.

The trail led to the Handlebar Restaurant and continued south on Route 73.

“Barney followed the scent onto the steps of a church and then back to the sidewalk,” Brown said. “He was trying to get into the church.”

Barney, however, lost the scent when Stephens crossed Route 73 near the Steak and Stinger Restaurant.

The search was continued on Thursday when a man resembling Stephens was spotted near the bridge crossing Route 73 at the base of the ski jumps. Police blocked off the River Road to traffic.

The dogs seemed to be following the correct scent until footprints were discovered near the AuSable River.

The prints were made by boots rather than the sneakers Stephens was wearing when he escaped.

After his capture, Stephens admitted to police that he stole clothes, including hunting boots, from an abandoned car on Wednesday night.

The hunt began again Friday morning when the area was completely surrounded by state police.

A little before 10 a.m., Stephens was spotted by three state troopers at the Rod and Gun Club — one with a shotgun and two dog handlers with drawn pistols and their German shepherds.

“We told him to put his hands over his head,” said Sgt. Tim O’Connor. “He complied and we handcuffed him.”