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Woman injured while hiking walks trail to meet rescuers

Posted Sept. 04, 2010, at 5:47 p.m.
Last modified Jan. 29, 2011, at 11:37 a.m.

DAYS ACADEMY GRANT TOWNSHIP, Maine — A Sudbury, Mass., woman, who slipped and injured her arm while hiking Little Kineo Mountain on Saturday, managed to walk to a trail head just as a rescue party was ready to ascend the mountain.

Marianne Hatton, 56, had been hiking with a small group of hikers in the late afternoon when she slipped on a rock near the mountaintop in the Moosehead Lake region and injured her left arm, according to Sgt. Bill Chandler of the Maine Warden Service.

A cell phone call for help was made by a member of Hatton’s hiking party to police, who notified the warden service. Representatives of the Maine Warden Service, Greenville Fire Department, Charles A. Dean Ambulance personnel and the Maine Forest Service responded to the call and were preparing to hike the mountain when Hatton and her party arrived at the trail head at about 5:30 p.m., Chandler said. A forestry helicopter was on standby in the event an airlift was needed.

“It would have been challenging carrying her off the mountaintop, so it worked out well,” Chandler said Saturday.

A cardiologist in the hiking party had given Hatton pain medication so that she was able to walk down the mountain with the assistance of the other hikers, according to Chandler.

Hatton’s injury was evaluated at the scene and she chose to go to the Charles A. Dean Memorial Hospital in Greenville by private vehicle.