Appalachian Trail hiker sends distress signal — then saves herself, officials say

A bleeding 67-year-old hiker on the Appalachian Trail sent an emergency signal after falling, then she took matters into her own hands.

The British woman was 100 miles into the Appalachian Trail this year after hiking 1,700 miles of it last year, according to the New Hampshire Fish and Game Law Enforcement Division and Operation Game Thief.

At around 2:30 p.m. on June 25, rescuers said they got a distress signal from a Garmin GPS device on Rattle River Trail only a few miles from the border of Maine.

Without cell service, the woman sent a message that she was “all alone, had fallen and was bleeding,” according to rescuers. She was about 4.5 miles into the woods near Middle Moriah Mountain.

A team of volunteers and conservation officers set out to her location, but about 90 minutes after the woman sent the distress beacon, the rescuers ran into her only half a mile from the main road, according to the wildlife department.

Authorities called it a self-rescue.

The London woman was bleeding from a “significant laceration,” and the team helped get her to a waiting ambulance at the road and then onward to a hospital, according to rescuers.

“Her physical fitness and ‘Can-do’ attitude got her to treatment quickly and helped save rescuers from an arduous extraction out of the woods,” the team wrote.