Dix Range as seen from Bald Peak.
Forest rangers in the Adirondacks helped save two groups of hikers on New Year’s Day.
On January 1 at 5:15 p.m., DEC Ray Brook Dispatch received a request for assistance from four hikers who were near the summit of Prospect Mountain and were unprepared for the conditions. Dispatch gave the hikers, a 55-year-old male, a 55-year-old female, a 25-year-old female and a 22-year-old female, all of Macungi, Pennsylvania, directions to Prospect Mountain Road. Two DEC Forest Rangers on snowmobiles traveling up the road, located the hikers at 6:47 p.m., and transported them down the mountain to the parking lot. They were evaluated and released at 7:17 p.m.
The same day at 7:15 p.m. the father of a 34-year-old female from Schenectady, New York notified a DEC Lieutenant Forest Ranger that his daughter and her hiking companion, a 54-year-old male also of Schenectady, had attempted to climb the Dix Range. He said the hikers called to tell him they had missed several turns and were not at their intended destination. An additional forest ranger and the lieutenant drove to the trailhead, hiked in two miles and located the pair on the trail. The rangers escorted the pair back to their vehicle.