Graham County Rescue Squad members – including the Snowbird and Meadow Branch units, and Graham County Emergency Management – were involved in a difficult and exhausting rescue of a Monroe County, Tenn., man on May 25.
Lois Miller had dropped off 70-year-old Stanley Boling at the Unicoi Crest overlook on the Cherohala Skyway around noon May 25, for a trip into the woods to look for ramps. Plans were for Miller to pick him up near the intersection of Cold Branch Road and Big Santeetlah Road later that afternoon. Boling did not show up as planned and Miller reported him as missing to the Graham County 911 Center around 8:25 p.m.
A command center – staffed by Jeff Millsaps, Brian Stevens and other squad members – was established near where Boling had entered the woods. Tory Lynnes and Dalton Capps began searching nearby areas. They located Boling around 9:45 p.m. on the headwaters of John’s Creek, where he was lying on the ground in dense underbrush; which was so thick that Capps would have stepped on Boling had he not cried out.
Boling told the rescuers that at some point he had fallen and thought that he was unconscious for a period of time. When he recovered somewhat from the fall, he said he was disoriented and had difficulty standing or walking.
Lynnes said that they were having difficulty getting Boling out of the area due to the dense undergrowth and numerous fallen trees. More squad members – including Larry Crisp, Joseph Orr and Shailynn Postell – came to assist in the rescue. At one point during the rescue, Boling was unable to walk any farther and Ethan Pannell, David Grant, Trey Gladden and Terry Sellers met the group with a wheeled-basket stretcher.
The rescuers reached the Cherohala Skyway with Boling around 12:30 a.m. May 26.
Memorial Day rescue
There was another search and rescue mission on Monday.
A 17-year-old female from Caldwell County fell and injured her knee on the Joyce Kilmer Forest Memorial Trail around 4:45 p.m. Some friends were hiking with her and alerted Heath Emmons of the U.S. Forest Service, who was in the area at the time.
Graham County Rescue Squad members and Graham County EMS reached the hiker around 5:40 p.m., and transported her to the parking lot on the wheeled-basket stretcher, arriving around 6:20 p.m. Snowbird, Meadow Branch and Stecoah Fire Department members – as well as U.S. Forest Service personnel – were also involved in the carryout of the hiker.