Not quite AT news but hiking and Appalachian related

[Programbo]

Man dies from fall

He and family were hiking at Stone Mountain
By Michael Hewlett
JOURNAL REPORTER
Sunday, March 23, 2008


ROARING GAP

Officials at Stone Mountain State Park are investigating the death of a
28-year-old man who fell to his death yesterday at the park's waterfall.
Authorities haven't released the name of the man, who witnesses say fell
more than 100 feet around 2:30 p.m. Park officials were trying to call other
relatives about the man's death.


The man was hiking with his family at the park. The waterfall is about 1½
miles from the parking lot for the Stone Mountain Trail. Wooden steps are on one side of the waterfall that goes all the way up to the top.


But the man went to the bottom of the waterfall, crossed to the other side, where there are no steps, and climbed up about 100 feet, said Edward Farr, the park's superintendent.

The man then fell, hitting at least two ledges before landing in the shallow
water. Farr said he didn't know how the man fell, but investigators have
determined that it was an accident.

Ashley Miller, a part-time obituary clerk at the Winston-Salem Journal who
was hiking at the park, said she saw the man fall. She helped get him out of the water and helped in giving him CPR. But she and another woman were
unable to revive him.

The victim's nephew indicated that the man was a soldier in the Army and was scheduled to be deployed to South Korea, said Miller, who did not know the victim.

The man died at the scene, and his body was taken to the medical examiner's office in Wilkes County, Farr said.

He said that the investigation into the man's death will continue through
next week.
Stone Mountain Park is on more than 14,100 acres in ­Wilkes and Alleghany
counties and features Stone Mountain, a 600-foot granite dome, according to its Web site. It is bounded by the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Thurmond
Chatham Game Lands. The park has more than 18 miles of trails.

[Blissful]

Someone died the other day too here in VA near the AT - at Crabtree Falls. Here is the news link.

[Phreak]

It's sad but they have the warning signs up for a reason.