hiker found dead

[Ron Haven]

Yesterday I was hiking south to Deep Gap and I meet a good friend and senior whiteblaze member from Georgia at Beech Gap.She was hiking north with a group and said they had encountered a northbound hiker dead in the trail just north of Dicks Gap east of Hiawassee Saturday morning.They called 911 and had believed he was dead from a heart attact.They estamated he had been dead oppx.1 hour and he was in his 60s.None of the hikers in the group knew him.

I tried to get info by the local newspaper website but I couldn't find a website.I also e-mailed Cloud9 to see if Fran & Laura has heard but I haven't heard back.Memorial weekend they possibly are out of town.

Has anyone else heard who it is?Info such as this is so sad.

[Wonder]

No, I haven't....... this is the type of news that I hate to hear.....he'll be in my prayers, and I hope that his family had been notified

[Rain Man]

I hate to read about this death on the trail, but I have to admit part of me wonders if that's not how many folks would rather go. I've seen family and friends die lingering deaths in beds and can't help thinking they would rather go in full stride somewhere else.

Still, condolences to the family and friends.

Rain Man

.

[Just a Hiker]

Hello All! The death of a hiker saddens me very much. My prayers go out to the hiker and his family. I just pray he died doing what he loved. Take care and Happy Memorial Day!


Just Jim

[Skidsteer]

Yesterday I was hiking south to Deep Gap and I meet a good friend and senior whiteblaze member from Georgia at Beech Gap.She was hiking north with a group and said they had encountered a northbound hiker dead in the trail just north of Dicks Gap east of Hiawassee Saturday morning.They called 911 and had believed he was dead from a heart attact.They estamated he had been dead oppx.1 hour and he was in his 60s.None of the hikers in the group knew him.

I tried to get info by the local newspaper website but I couldn't find a website.I also e-mailed Cloud9 to see if Fran & Laura has heard but I haven't heard back.Memorial weekend they possibly are out of town.

Has anyone else heard who it is?Info such as this is so sad.

MN posted about this a couple weeks ago. Very sad indeed.

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=363481&highlight=dick%27s#post363481

[TOW]

MN posted about this a couple weeks ago. Very sad indeed.

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=363481&highlight=dick%27s#post363481
that's got to be the same guy i would think.................

[Overpass]

...they had encountered a northbound hiker dead in the trail

How did they know he was NOBO? :-?

[spittinpigeon]

that's got to be the same guy i would think.................


That's what I thought too, but... Last Saturday?

[FanaticFringer]

If your gonna die, die with your boots on.......Iron Maiden song.......
Hope he's blazing some trails in heaven...........

[Wonder]

I wanna go asleep in my tent after a 20 mile day.......and a good pot of mac and cheese.

[Lyle]

Best of all ways I could think of to go. Probably too young, but it would definatly be my choice of ways to check out.

Condolences to the family and friends, probably a shock to them.

[dust never sleeps]

Trail deaths will happen, especially in the heat of summer. Last summer on the PCT, I passed some guy sprawled along side the trail about 7 miles short of Golden Oak spring on the 8th of July. It was supposed to get to 109 that day, and he looked pretty messed up. At first I thought he passed out because of the heat, but he looked up when I approached and responded to my hello, so I went on. I was surprised he never showed up at the spring as from his tracks he was NOBO.

[Ron Haven]

MN posted about this a couple weeks ago. Very sad indeed.

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=363481&highlight=dick%27s#post363481 Skid this is one of the friends we both know.She is still on the trail now and I am sure she will post about this when she gets to the computer.This supposed to have happened 5/26/07.I would rather not post her name.As of another posted"how do they know he was northbound"? Maybe by the way he was positioned.I'm not sure.

[Mother Nature]

Greetings all,

I ran into the Ronnie as he said around Deep Gap. We were sharing recent news in our lives.. Ronnie showed me his fabulous bear pictures from near Unicoi Gap and I mentioned the recent tragedy on the AT which occurred on May 15. We passed along news rather quickly so I may have left Ronnie with the wrong date. You know how life in the woods goes.. dates are pretty irrelevant. LOL

The unfortunate gentleman was wearing a light day pack and was hiking northbound. One of our group saw him leave Dicks Creek Gap around 7:30. We discovered his body around 9 am.

His death reaffirmed to me that life is fleeting. We must enjoy each day to its fullest. He certainly enjoyed the wilderness to have started out so early on a beautiful day for what he hoped would be a great adventure.

Ronnie, one of my friends backpacking with me this weekend was a 70 year old thruhiker from the class of '92 named Mailman. He recently suffered a severe injury to his head requiring brain surgery. He has struggled with memory and physical disability. After months of therapy of all kinds he felt ready to test his wings in the wilderness. This was his first backpacking trip in several years. The joy of watching him climb Standing Indian can't be measured in words. He told me on the way home that this trip was so important to him.

MN

[Ron Haven]

Greetings all,

I ran into the Ronnie as he said around Deep Gap. We were sharing recent news in our lives.. Ronnie showed me his fabulous bear pictures from near Unicoi Gap and I mentioned the recent tragedy on the AT which occurred on May 15. We passed along news rather quickly so I may have left Ronnie with the wrong date. You know how life in the woods goes.. dates are pretty irrelevant. LOL

The unfortunate gentleman was wearing a light day pack and was hiking northbound. One of our group saw him leave Dicks Creek Gap around 7:30. We discovered his body around 9 am.

His death reaffirmed to me that life is fleeting. We must enjoy each day to its fullest. He certainly enjoyed the wilderness to have started out so early on a beautiful day for what he hoped would be a great adventure.

Ronnie, one of my friends backpacking with me this weekend was a 70 year old thruhiker from the class of '92 named Mailman. He recently suffered a severe injury to his head requiring brain surgery. He has struggled with memory and physical disability. After months of therapy of all kinds he felt ready to test his wings in the wilderness. This was his first backpacking trip in several years. The joy of watching him climb Standing Indian can't be measured in words. He told me on the way home that this trip was so important to him.

MNSorry for the misunderstanding of dates and my apology to the WBs correct post.Was really glad to have met you out there Mother Nature.I met most hikers at trail heads with shuttles,but I really enjoy it when I get to sneak off hiking myself and even more when I run into friends out there I know.

[moxie]

In 2000 we lost a good friend, Crash, who died of a heart attack just north of Kent, Ct. Crash died with a candy bar in his hand sitting on a stump beside the trail and his eyes were open when Short Bus found him. I first met him in Georgia and shared a room with him once in Harpers Ferry. We hiked together for miles and drifted apart and back together much of the way. Crash was a retired Green Baret who had left the army with 20 years service because he had a"bad Heart" I was one day ahead of him when he died and I didn't hear about it until I was almost into Vermont. Another hiker, DMA did go to services held for him in Boston. It is a sad thing when we lose a hiker but I can tell you Crash was a friend and he died doing exactly what he wanted to do. Crash was either 39 or 40 years old when he passed away on the trail and while he died young he died doing exactly what he wanted to do and with a smile on his face.
The next year my wife and I were Southbound on the CDT in Montana and at over 9000 feet elevation and about 9 miles from the nearest trailhead. We had just stopped to talk to a northboung group and were telling them about a spectular glacier ahead and about some bighorn sheep we had just spotted. Suddenly an older hiker in the party just passed out. My wife and I are both EMT's so we determined he had no pulse or breathing. We sent the youngest and strongest hiker running down the trail for help and my wife started cpr. We had a cel phone but there was no coverage in the area. To make a long and difficult story short we did CPR until we were too tired to continue. We then covered the man's body, moved him a foot or so off the trail. We left him with a relative and then started down the mountain as there was nothing more we coud do and felt we might get to an area where we could use our cell phone. We met a ranger carrying 02 and an emergency kit up the trail about 2 miles from the trailhead and told him the hiker had expired. It was one of the worst experiences I have had in years of backpacking knowing we had done all we could do and failed. Due to forest fires in Montana that year it was impossible to get a chopper to the body and it was early the next morning before the rangers got his body to the nearest trailhead.
Unfortunately hikers do die of heart attacks on the trail and all I can say is if you run into the situation do all you can do but remember it is a situation you may not be able to cotrol so do the best you can within your ability. Many things in life happen we cannot control so try to be prepared for anything that may happen along the trail.

[Programbo]

Awww...This news greatly saddens and disturbs me...:( ... I am very sorry for this gentleman and his family...I can relate fully to this as I am one of the very small percentage of people (About 5%) who has survived a "massive heart attack" (Actually, Sudden Cardiac Arrest)...The saddest part is that the majority of people who suffer SCA could in fact be saved if someone got to them quick enough with an Automatic External Defibulator (AED)... It`s not really the "massive heart attack" that kills someone it is more that the heart isn`t restarted soon enough.. Unfortunately if help of this sort doesn`t arrive usually within 6-7 minutes it`s to late and as Moxie said you can`t just keep doing CPR forever..If it is any consolation I am sure this gentleman died doing what he loved and as many have said if they had to choose where and how to go it would be hiking the trail we all love... I encourage everyone to be prepared as you never know what life has in store...One thing I learned from my experience is that I did not leave instructions behind and if I had not survived my SCA I would have simply vanished to all my online friends and associates...So now I have written instructions on my PC so my family can post messages on all the boards I visit and send e-mails to all those I know so they may know what happened to me...Don`t let age influence you as one never knows..I hope everyone is well and if this news upsets or worries you please get the answers to the questions you may have about this topic...Once again my prayers and wishes go out to all this has touched

[Old Grouse]

To quote One Stab's last line in the movie "Legends of the Fall," describing Tristan's encounter with "his" bear, "It was a good death."

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

Prayers all around - for the gentleman's family for their loss and to MN and her companions for the trauma of having found him. If I could choose to go out any way, I believe I would choose to go out just as he did - suddenly and without prolonged suffering while doing something I love.