TOWNSHIP 6 NORTH OF WELD – About 70 people helped rescue a New Hampshire man who hurt his knee on the summit of Tumbledown Mountain late Thursday afternoon, according to Sgt. Rick Mills of the Maine Warden Service.
Mark Davis, 49, of Portsmouth, was handed down a line of rescuers on the steep section of the Brook Trail in a litter after firefighters and others found him with his adult daughter near Tumbledown Pond on top of the mountain, which is in Franklin County.
Emergency workers in Franklin County were alerted to the rescue around 4:30 p.m. after an unidentified hiker called state police in Gray on a cell phone for help. It took about two hours to take the injured day hiker to the base of the mountain, where he refused medical attention at around 10:30 p.m. and drove away in his own vehicle, Mills said.
“Visibility was zero,” Mills said, and searchers had difficulty finding the trail in the dark and fog.
The hiker was ill-prepared and, in Mills’ opinion, probably should not have been hiking on rugged and remote Tumbledown Mountain.
“He probably shouldn’t have been hiking on something like that,” he said. The summit was fogged in all day, and daylight hours are getting shorter this time of year.
Firefighters from Farmington, Weld, Industry, Strong, East Dixfield, Phillips, Jay, New Sharon, Chesterville, Wilton and Carthage responded, as did Maine wardens, rangers from nearby Mt. Blue State Park, NorthStar ambulance and Franklin Search and Rescue personnel.
“It was a wicked good turnout,” Mills said Friday. “I hope we get that many people next time we need them.”
Comments are no longer available on this story