Injured Hiker Rescued from D.A.R. State Forest in Goshen

GOSHEN, MA – At 0958 hours this morning Goshen firefighters, working with a crew from Highland Ambulance and DAR State Forest Superintendent Bob Kabat and Asst. Superintendent Janice Martin, responded to a call for a hiker on the Black Bear trail at the DAR.

Amy Huxley of Williamsburg and her friend Susan Barrett of Chesterfield began their hike near the Goshen Transfer Station on Wing Hill Road.  After Susan fell and injured her shoulder, Amy dialed 911 and asked for help when even the slightest movement caused her pain.

Responding units initially staged at the base of Wing Hill Road. Incident Command was established and contact was made with Amy by cell phone. When we were told that they were near Balancing Rock, our command post was relocated to the DCR Headquarters on East Street for quicker access. From there, we made our way approximately one mile into the woods on an road / trail used only by snowmobiles this time of year.

Once located, she was warmed by one of our new GFD winter jackets and packaged for the ride back to the DCR Headquarters in one of their RTV’s. From there, she was moved to Highland’s ambulance and transported to CDH.

Permission was asked by Amy and Susan to use their names and post this story on our FB page. As a matter of fact, Susan asked that we mention how grateful she was that her friend Amy had ‘saved her life, again’. We didn’t ask for more details about the ‘again’ part but our sense is that this pair has been on more than their fair share of adventures. We are just happy that this one had a somewhat happy ending.

Our thanks go out to the Williamsburg Fire Department for their offer of the department’s 6-wheel RTV, the folks at the Spruce Corner Restaurant who offered a snowmobile or two and Drew Morse for texting us a map of the D.A.R. trails just in case we needed it.

We are fortunate to have a region filled with people who just want to help.

Rescue, Injured Hiker Rescued from the D.A.R.
(From L to R) Luke McCraw, Mitch Cichy, Dan Daley, Mark George and Bob Labrie

“DID YOU GO ON THAT CALL?”  That was the text message we received from Chief Sue Labrie earlier today when she received the tone for the injured hiker but couldn’t respond because she was attending a training session in the eastern part of the state. We responded with this picture and a follow-up question asking “What call?” Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words… We’ll take it from here Chief.

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