[at-l] Boy Scouts Rescue Woman on Katahdin

[janl2 at mindspring.com (Jan Leitschuh)]

Boy Scouts Rescue Woman on Katahdin After Fog Grounds Helicopter
Sept. 18.

A group of local Boy Scouts and their leaders played key parts in 
rescuing an 80-year-old Florida woman who got caught in a thunderstorm 
on her way down Maine's highest mountain in July.

The woman, Loretta Copeland, had been hiking the Appalachian Trail in 
sections for 12 years. She was less than 2 miles from the end when she 
ran into trouble on Mount Katahdin, the highest in Maine.
She and two women in their 60s, who were hiking with her, spent more 
than 24 straight hours hiking up, then part-way down the mountain, 
most of it during a thunderstorm.
At that point, dehydrated and bleeding, Copeland ran out of strength 
to continue.
"It was raining and storming, and it was just really bad," Copeland 
said in a telephone interview this week from her home in Ocala, Fla. 
"I kept falling, and my legs just gave out on me."
She and her friends had begun hiking at 6 a.m. July 18. They reached 
the summit at 4 p.m., then started down the mountain.
"I never dreamed it would take so long, and I never stopped for 24 
hours," she said. "But I was so tired and going slow."
At about 7 a.m. July 19, when the three elderly women hadn't returned 
to the base, Baxter State Park rangers launched a rescue operation.
Pressed into service
Five boys and two leaders of Ellington Boy Scout Troop 96 - along with 
two guides from the High Adventure Boy Scout Camp in Millinocket, 
Maine - were planning to hike to the peak that day. They were pressed 
into service as the main rescue team.
A helicopter rescue was ruled out because of bad weather and fog.
"We were pretty shocked when the rangers asked us to take part in the 
rescue," says scout Andrew Slicer, 14. "But we were like, hey, we're 
Boy Scouts, let's go."
For their efforts, the scouts gained more than a merit badge. In an 
upcoming ceremony, the local Volunteer Fire Department will present 
the five Boy Scouts and their leaders with awards for meritorious 
service, Fire Chief Michael Varney says. It is only the second time 
the department has given such an award in 20 years.
The five scouts to be honored are Eric Dinse, Keith Durao, Dan 
Hodgdon, Slicer, and Mike Stauffer. The leaders are Ted Kenyon and Tom 
Stauffer.
The rescue began in earnest after a hiker coming down the trail 
confirmed that Copeland needed help. Rangers called for an ambulance, 
and the Scouts headed up the trail, which Ranger Rodney Angotti 
describes as "long, steep, and grueling."
"She was pretty banged up and couldn't walk on her own," Kenyon said 
of Copeland. "But she was in good spirits, and she was an experienced 
hiker."
The Scout group carried Copeland to a relatively flat area of the 
trail and applied first aid to cuts on her legs, caused by multiple 
falls. They also gave her food and dry clothes.
Major players
Rangers then brought up a "basket stretcher," in which the patient is 
surrounded by a metal frame, and Copeland was strapped in.
"The Scouts were very enthusiastic to help," Tom Stauffer said. "They 
weren't kids pushed off to the side. They were a major part of the 
rescue."
The nine-person Scout group and five other people, including rangers 
and hikers, began carrying Copeland down to the base in the stretcher. 
The effort to descend the 5,300-foot mountain was complicated by the 
difficulty of the terrain and bad weather. It ended up taking seven hours.
"There were some points where it was really narrow and steep," Mike 
Stauffer said. "It was raining, so everything was slippery, and the 
trail was pretty rough."
During the rescue, rangers recruited more than 20 additional hikers to 
help in the effort. Seven-person teams took turns carrying Copeland's 
stretcher as far as they could before handing off to another team.
At times the trail turned into steps cut into nearly vertical granite, 
and the stretcher had to be passed hand-over-hand along a line of 
rescuers.
Hospitalized only briefly
When they finally got Copeland to the bottom, she was taken to a local 
hospital, treated overnight, and released.
The rescuers helped her two friends down the mountain, but they didn't 
need to be carried.
In a typical year 35 to 40 rescue operations are conducted in the 
park, Angotti said, adding that 39 people have died on the mountain 
since 1950. Only two weeks before Copeland was rescued, an 83-year-old 
man was carried off the mountain, and another hiker was crushed to 
death by a falling rock, the ranger said.
The park rangers were impressed with the Boy Scouts' efforts. They 
took them out to a celebratory dinner and wrote them a congratulatory 
letter.
Hodgdon said the experience gave him a new respect for older hikers - 
and an awareness of the importance of being prepared to deal with 
emergencies.
"It really changed a lot about me, and it gave me a lot more respect 
for older people," he said.

More:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12950900&BRD=985&PAG=461&dept_id=161556&rfi=6


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