MADRID – Nearly 40 area paramedics, firefighters and police officers worked into the night Tuesday to rescue a dehydrated Appalachian Trail hiker stranded near Saddleback Mountain.
NorthStar Emergency Medical Service Supervisor Mike Senecal said the man was stranded somewhere between Saddleback Junior and Poplar Ridge – a three-and-a-half-hour hike from the nearest roads in Rangeley, Madrid or Redington Township.
A caller told the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday that there was a weak and dehydrated man near Saddleback, Senecal said. NorthStar and the Rangeley Fire Department immediately set up a staging point at Saddleback and prepared for a large-scale rescue.
About 40 people were called in. Members of the Farmington, Carrabassett Valley, Eustis, Phillips and Strong fire departments and North Franklin Rescue responded, Senecal said.
Saddleback Mountain employees drove the rescuers up the mountain on ATVs, from which point they had to hike for nearly 4 miles on extremely rough terrain to where the man was resting.
A “hasty team” of two fast NorthStar hikers went up ahead of the main team to assess the situation. It took them 4 hours to reach the hiker.
They gave him medical attention when they arrived, Senecal said, and soon the man was feeling well enough to hike, with assistance, down the mountain.
Senecal surmised the hiker must have been pretty badly dehydrated to need rescue. “Most people, if they can, would hike themselves out. Most people on the AT are fairly fit.”
At 9 p.m., some of the rescuers were still on their way down the mountain. Fog, rain and sporadic thunderstorms slowed the pace of the rescue.
“It’s been a rough day,” Senecal said.
But, bad weather notwithstanding, “It’s just really good to see all the county agencies pulling together to assist,” he added. “It does take a tremendous amount of resources and personnel to pull a rescue off like that.”
He spoke minutes after being notified that some of the rescuers assisting the hiker had just arrived on the Madrid side.
“He is out of the woods now,” Senecal said.
Comments are no longer available on this story