RANDOLPH, N.H. (AP) — An Indiana man who has been hiking the Appalachian Trail since April had to be carried off a New Hampshire mountain when knee pain prevented him from continuing.
New Hampshire Fish and Game Officer Adam Cheney said it took 16 rescuers about 5½ hours Thursday to carry 60-year-old Doug Johnson from a cabin on Mount Madison to U.S. Route 2 in Randolph.
Cheney says Johnson — of Carmel, Ind. — hiked the southernmost stretch of the Appalachian Trail last summer and resumed the trek in April in Virginia. Johnson had been resting at the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Madison Hut since Monday, but Cheney said he still could barely walk Thursday, necessitating the rescue. Fish and Game officers and Appalachian Mountain Club volunteers carried him the 3.2-miles on a litter.