Hikers have kept regional emergency personnel busy for most of 2020.
Officials with the Graham County Rescue Squad, U.S. Forest Service and the Monroe County, Tenn. Rescue Squad and EMS were dispatched to a pair of separate incidents last week, both of which began in Graham County.
Graham County Rescue Squad personnel were called out on a mission involving hikers needing rescued Wednesday, Sept. 16, around 6 p.m.
Three women from Macon, Ga. – Karen Hancock, 65; Sally Proffitt, 62 and Jane Slocumb, 59 – were hiking the Appalachian Trail, when Hancock fell in a rocky section of the trail between Cody Gap and Hogback Gap, receiving cuts to her face and head.
There was cell phone service in the area; however, their 911 call first went to Swain County and was transferred to Graham County. It was unsure exactly where on the trail the women were.
The rescue crew split up with Tory Lynnes, Jeff Millsaps and Dawson Williams searching the Cody Gap area, while Harold Sellers checked a section of the Appalachian Trail near Yellow Creek Gap. The women were located a short distance out the trail just before 7 p.m.
Hancock stated that she planned to seek medical treatment for her injuries, but didn’t want an ambulance if there was any other transportation. Squad member John Odom transported the three ladies to their vehicle at the Nantahala Outdoor Center shortly after 8 p.m.
Graham County Rescue Squad, Monroe County, Tenn. Rescue Squad and EMS, and U.S. Forest Service personnel then combined resources in a search and rescue mission Sunday.
Dispatchers received a call shortly before 10 a.m. from hikers stating that they were lost and a member of their group – Tucker Turner, 21 of Athens, Tenn. –
was dehydrated and that he was also a diabetic. The three hikers had left Beech Gap on the Cherohala Skyway on Friday afternoon, had gone across Stratton Bald, down into Slickrock and back up to Harrison Gap.
At some point, they had misread their map and became lost.
On Sunday morning, Turner became sick and became dehydrated as they were about out of water.
After several hours of searching, the hikers were located near Harrison Gap. Lynnes reached the group at 1:30 p.m., and was followed shortly by Brent Eller of the Graham County Rescue Squad and a paramedic from Monroe County.
Turner was brought out on-foot to Stratton Bald, and the trek continued to the Cherohala Skyway at Beech Gap, arriving there around 5:30 P.M.