PARIS – A 63-year-old Massachusetts woman was safely led out of the Cornwall Nature Preserve on Tuesday afternoon after losing her way.

Catriona Case said she was walking with her dog and found that the markers on the trail had stopped. She said she got turned around after trying to find her way back to the blazed trails.

Case said she and her husband have a cabin on Lake Penneseewassee, and she has been hiking at the preserve almost every day. She said she was walking on the “blue trail,” which she hadn’t tried before.

The trails at the Cornwall Nature Preserve are blazed with different colors. A black and white map at the entrance to the trail system offers descriptions of the trails, but does not highlight their locations.

Case said she called her husband on her cell phone, who advised her to follow the sun and walk west. When that proved unsuccessful, she called 911.

The call brought responders from the Paris Police Department, Paris Fire Department, PACE Ambulance, and the Maine Warden Service into the small parking area at the preserve.

Police communicated with Case, who stayed put, as they entered the preserve and eventually located her. Case said she was lost for about two and a half hours.

“Not very long,” she said, “but it seemed long enough in the hot sun.”

According to information at the trailhead, the preserve was donated to the town in 1982 by Alice Cornwall and covers 147 acres.

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