New Hampshire Fish and Game officials say a hiker’s experience and fitness helped her self-rescue despite suffering a significant injury in a remote section on the Appalachian Trail Wednesday.
Conservation officers received a report that a hiker had activitated an emergency beacon at roughly 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25. At that same time, Fish and Game rescuers were responding to two separate incidents on Franconia Ridge.
The Garmin device was sending an emergency signal from the area of Middle Moriah Mountain along the Rattle River section of the Appalachian Trail.
There was no cell service in the area, but the subscriber to the device was able to send a text message saying that she was all alone, had fallen, and was bleeding.
Upon plotting the GPS coordinates for the device, authorities learned that it was approximately 4.5 miles into the woods from Route 2.
A team of volunteers from Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue Team (AVSAR) was quickly deployed to try and make contact with the hiker while conservation officers responded from various parts of Coos County.
Shortly after 4 p.m., AVSAR volunteers made contact with the hiker roughly a half mile from Route 2. The hiker was assessed and then brought out to the trailhead to a waiting ambulance from Gorham. She was then taken to Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin to treat a significant laceration.
The hiker was identified as Milglena Gaberova, 67, of London, England. Gaberova was hiking the Appalachian Trail, having done 1,700 miles of the trail last year and more than 100 miles this year.
Officials said her physical fitness and “can-do” attitude got her to treatment quickly and helped save rescuers from an arduous extraction out of the woods.
