New Hampshire officials said the hiker was experienced and had appropriate gear.
New Hampshire conservation officers helped rescue a hiker who became lost in the Pemigewasset Wilderness on Wednesday.
According to New Hampshire Fish and Game officials, officers received a report of an emergency SOS being activated via satellite device at 4:44 p.m. on June 25.
The location received placed the user in the Pemigewasset Wilderness of the White Mountain National Forest on the Wilderness Trail — nearly to the Stillwater Junction, 7.7 miles from the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center. The activation provided a location but little additional information.
A conservation officer who was responding to a carryout rescue mission on the Liberty Springs Trail was redirected to Lincoln Woods to investigate.
The offficer and Good Samaritan hiker met up with the hiker, Deborah VanPatten, 69, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at 7:53 p.m. She was on the Wilderness Trail nearly eight miles from the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center.
VanPatten was uninjured but had activated the emergency setting on her GPS unit because she had felt lost, not intending to travel as far as she did into a remote location and not wanting to make the situation worse by traveling into isolated, unfamiliar areas. Communication was difficult as there is no phone service that far from the town of Lincoln and line-of-sight ground-based radios were unreliable because of the rugged terrain.
VanPatten hiked with guidance from her rescuers back to an ATV, and then was transported by ATV on the old East Side Road to the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center, arriving safely there at 11:40 pm.
Officials said VanPatten had gear and a background hiking, but was unfamiliar with the area and ultimately required rescue.
