The woman left her home around 10 a.m., bound for Toms Creek Falls. She told her mother that she wanted to see where the road to the falls ended, according to Capt. Ricky Crisp of the McDowell County Sheriff's Office.
"She does have medical problems and she was not dressed for cold weather," the captain stated.
At approximately 6:30 p.m. on Sunday authorities were notified that the woman failed to emerge from the woods. Search and rescue teams quickly converged on the area to begin searching for the lost hiker by 7 p.m. Ground crews were aided by the Highway Patrol helicopter and a K-9 from the Forest Service.
They searched well into the early morning hours yesterday in what some emergency personnel called "grueling" conditions. They had to contend with not only the bitter cold and wind, but also terrain made treacherous by the recent snow storms.
They had to carry chainsaws in order to cut a path to the victim and pull her out of the woods. Emergency workers located the woman around 2:25 a.m. on Monday in the area of Buck Creek Gap and carried her 2 miles out of the woods to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The rescue operation was completed at approximately 5:30 a.m.
She was taken to The McDowell Hospital where she was treated for hypothermia, according to EMS Director William Kehler. He called her condition "non-life threatening."
Toms Creek Falls is a 60-foot waterfalls which can be reached by a normally easy 0.8-mile hike from a parking area on Huskins Branch Road, roughly 8 miles from Marion, NC.
Jeff
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