BERLIN, N. H. — A Massachusetts man
who suffered a head injury Wednesday afternoon during a day hike
along a section of the Appalachian Trail in western Maine, remains in the
intensive care unit at Androscoggin Valley Hospital.

A nursing supervisor said that William
Tarkulich, 53, of Lexington, was in stable condition late Thursday
afternoon and “doing well.”

According to Maine and New Hampshire
wardens, Tarkulich, an experienced hiker, slipped, fell backwards and
struck his head on a rock while hiking along the Appalachian Trail
through Mahoosuc Notch with a friend and the friend’s son.

The mile-long Notch is a steep-walled,
glacial valley between Fulling Mill and Mahoosuc mountains that is full of house-sized boulders.

Thirty rescuers from Maine and New
Hampshire hand-carried Tarkulich in a litter for three miles down the
rugged Notch Trail to its trail-head, where he was placed in a Berlin
EMS Inc. ambulance and taken to Androscoggin Valley Hospital.

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