ANDOVER WEST SURPLUS – A New Hampshire man, who fell Sunday night on the Appalachian Trail and broke his leg, was carried out by about 40 rescuers on Monday morning.
Warden Brock Clukey said Tuesday night that Michael Saal, 42, of Portsmouth, N.H., suffered a broken leg. He was picked up by Med-Care Ambulance at 7:30 a.m. Monday on East B Hill Road and taken to a hospital.
Clukey said Saal was hiking with his father-in-law, whose name he didn’t have. The duo had parked cars at either end of the Appalachian Trail on Route 26 in Grafton Notch State Park and East B Hill Road.
Starting from Route 26, they intended to do a day hike over Baldpate and Little Baldpate mountains and through Dunn Notch. But, when they reached Little Baldpate in the rain and darkness at about 6 p.m., Clukey said Saal slipped on a wet rock and fell.
The accident happened near the intersection of The Cataracts Trail, which used to be the old Appalachian Trail.
The father-in-law went for help, taking three hours to follow the Appalachian Trail to their car, then drive it to Bull Moose Campground in Cambridge, N.H.
Clukey said the man did not know the area, or that he was only a few miles from Andover, where Andover Rescue is located.
Clukey said he was notified to start a rescue at 9:15 p.m. Needing manpower, he called in firefighters from Andover, Newry, Med-Care, Bethel and Rumford. They were also joined by firefighters from Peru, Roxbury, Mexico and Dixfield, and other wardens.
“The first thing in a rescue operation is to find the easiest way in. But no matter where anyone is on that trail, it’s going to be difficult,” Clukey said.
At some point, two overnight hikers came across the injured man and got him into a sleeping bag to keep him warm and set up a two-man tent to keep him dry.
They were roughly 2.3 miles up the trail.
Down below, Clukey sent groups of eight people, spaced an hour apart, up The Cataracts Trail, also known as Frye Brook Trail, which passes through a gorge, then climbs steeply up Little Baldpate to join the Appalachian Trail.
“The last part of the hike, it’s very steep, and that took a toll on our rescue people,” Clukey said.
Some of them had been swimming in cold water for eight hours earlier that day during a swift-water rescue training, Andover Fire Chief Ken Dixon said Tuesday afternoon.
“It was midnight before they got to him. They used ropes in places, because the brook was so high. It was very difficult to litter-carry the guy down,” Dixon said.
All-terrain vehicles from Bethel and Newry, and the Bethel Fire Department’s rescue toboggan, were also used in the rescue, but they could only be driven about a mile and a half up the trail.
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