Last weekend proved to be a busy time for local fire and rescue personnel.
Graham County Rescue Squad members responded to the Appalachian Trail in Graham County on Saturday, to help locate a hiker around 1:15 p.m. Saturday. John McGee and Brandon Gilmore – both from Haywood County – had started hiking the Appalachian Trail at Fontana on Friday, en route to the Nantahala Outdoor Center in the Nantahala Gorge.
Saturday afternoon, the two lost contact with each other when Gilmore stepped off the trail to get water. Gilmore backtracked on the trail looking for McGee and after making several back and forth searches on the trail with no success in locating him, he called 911 for help.
Squad members Tory Lynnes and Brent Eller searched stretches of the trail while other members stood by at places where the trail crossed a road. McGee was located later that afternoon near the Watia section of Swain County.
Just as this search was ending, squad members
were paged out again to search for a man who had left Beech Gap on the Cherohala Skyway to hike to Stratton Bald and had not returned. The man later returned safe and in good condition.
Sunday afternoon, N.C. Forest Service and Snowbird Volunteer Fire Department members responded to a brush fire started by a downed power line on Little Snowbird. The fire was contained after burning a small area. Just after the fire, a woman suffered cuts to her wrist and leg after she wrecked her bicycle on the Tsali bike trail.