PARIS — A well-known local photographer was rescued about 200 feet above Hall Pond late Tuesday afternoon after he fell an estimated 8 feet off a ledge while hiking.

Mark Brandhorst, 52, of 213 Halls Pond Road, was carried on a backboard from the bottom of a ledge shortly after 3 p.m., fire Chief Brad Frost said.

Rescue workers said he was talking to them and his wife, Sarah Shepley, as he was put in an ambulance and his injuries did not appear to be serious.

A nursing supervisor at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway said Brandhorst was still in the emergency room being evaluated as of 8:30 p.m.

Paris police Lt. Michael Dailey said Tuesday night that it was unclear whether Brandhorst’s wife was with her husband when he fell or she hiked into the woods to help him after receiving word of the accident. Several other local hikers were at the scene when rescue workers arrived, Dailey said.

“We had to cut a trail to get to him,” Frost said of the rescue effort that took about 90 minutes.

Maine Warden Norman Lewis of Bryant Pond brought his boat to the landing on the 50-acre pond and ferried a medical worker from PACE ambulance and supplies to the scene. At least a dozen rescuers hiked more than a mile through heavy brush and steep terrain to get to Brandhorst.

Firefighter Chuck Blaquiere said rescuers brought a backboard to carry Brandhorst to the boat. He said the man fell about 8 feet off a granite ledge, which stands about 200 feet above the pond.

Lewis took Brandhorst, his wife and others back to the boat ramp where an ambulance was waiting.

Halls Pond Road resident Jim Kennedy said there is no marked path up to the ledges, but Brandhorst was familiar with the terrain.

“Mark knows the land better than most of us,” said Kennedy, who described the area as very steep and full of ledge.

“Mark wouldn’t need a path,” he said.

Kennedy, who said he hikes the area at least five times a week, said it can be very slippery, “almost like ice,” particularly with wet leaves on the ground from Monday’s rain.

Firefighters from Paris, Norway and Oxford assisted in the rescue, said Frost, who set up a command post at the boat ramp.

The pond in the southeastern part of town has restricted recreational activities and is the source of drinking water for Paris and Hebron.

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