Helicopter plucks injured teen from Barren Mountain

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

A 14-year-old Appalachian Trail hiker from Virginia, who potentially broke his leg, was rescued off of Barren Mountain by the Maine Warden Service and Maine Army National Guard on Aug. 24.

According to a Maine Warden Service news release, game wardens received a report that morning of a youth hiker with a possible broken leg. The Mclean, Va. teen and the other dozen members of the party were hiking the 100-Mile Wilderness toward Mt. Katahdin. The group was at the Cloud Pond lean-to on Barren Mountain, southeast of Greenville.

Game wardens hiked 4.5 miles to the location where they located the victim and coordinated with a Maine Army National Guard Blackhawk helicopter. The helicopter crew was able to lower a litter and hoist the teen into the aircraft. He was flown to C.A. Dean Memorial Hospital in Greenville for treatment.

The rescue team consisted of Maine Army National Guard soldiers: Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jon Campbell, the pilot in command of the mission; Chief Warrant Officer 4 Kevin Daniel, co-pilot; Sgt. 1st Class Mark Urquhart flight medic; and crew chief Sgt. Brandon Dugay. The patient’s location on the heavily wooded trail made landing an aircraft there impossible, so he was lifted out of the forest using the medevac hoist system, and evaluated by Sgt. 1st Class Urquhart onboard. Sgt. 1st Class Urquhart kept the patient in a stable condition until they arrived at the hospital where he was admitted for further treatment.

“We are very pleased when the end result of our training benefits the citizens of Maine,” said Brig. Gen. Douglas A. Farnham, the adjutant general for the Maine National Guard, in a statement. “We are always on stand-by to work with the Maine Wardens Service. It is a fundamental mission to partner with local agencies and provide assistance however we can.”