Tapoco – Graham County 911 received a call from a couple around 4:30 p.m. on March 29, stating that they had found an injured woman lying in a section of the Slickrock Trail from the trailhead below Tapoco Lodge.
The woman, who was hiking alone, told them she had been lying there about two hours and was returning from a hike to Lower Falls when she fell.
Members of the Graham County Rescue Squad and Graham County EMS were hampered in reaching the 78-year-old hiker from Knoxville – whose name has not been released – by several fallen trees across the trail.
After reaching her, it was determined that she had a fractured hip.
Rescuers reached the bridge on U.S. Highway 129 just past the lodge with the woman around 6:30 p.m., where a Life Force medical helicopter landed to transport her to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.