Snowbird – The Graham County Rescue Squad was involved in a search for two hikers Sunday, after the pair became lost.
Joshua Pannell, 37 and 43-year-old Melissa Garcia – both from Jacksonville, Fla. – had left the junction on Big Snowbird Creek on Friday morning for a hike all the way up Sassafras Creek. A developed trail continues a short distance past Sassafras Falls and then turns sharply up the hill, leaving the old railroad grade that the pair was traveling on.
The trail the duo continued on has not been maintained in several years. Pannell and Garcia soon encountered rhododendron and laurel so dense that they had to crawl on their hands and knees. Saturday night, they endured a thunderstorm with lightning and high winds. Around 9:30 a.m., the pair reached a high-enough elevation
to find cell phone signal, calling 911 and reporting that they were lost, out of food and water, and exhausted.
The pair was located shortly after 1 p.m. Sunday by Tory Lynnes and Harold Sellers, near Cold Springs Gap on Little Snowbird.