New Hampshire’s Fish and Game Department says two hiker rescues in the White Mountains in recent days underscore the need for heightened awareness of safe hiking practices as people get out to enjoy the fall foliage.
Officials say trails are littered with leaves, making them harder to follow and very slippery. It’s getting darker earlier. And it’s colder in the higher elevations.
Yesterday, a 69-year old woman, Dorothy Blanchard of New Castle, Maine, was rescued off Mt. Huntington in the White Mountain National Forest. She had suffered an injury that had disabled her and her hiking companion went for help.
Last Saturday, rescuers escorted two hikers off the Liberty Springs Trail in Lincoln. They had failed to stay with their group and then were overcome by darkness while descending the Flume Slide and Liberty Springs trails in Franconia Notch State Park.
Thirty-year-old Nan Yang of Boxborough, Massachusetts, and 35-year-old Christine Hou, of Arlington, Massachusetts, called 911 from a cell phone.