Crews rushing to help injured mountain biker find ‘impassable’ NC trail, rescuers say
Crews were rushing to save an injured mountain biker when they encountered an “impassable section of trail” in Western North Carolina, officials said.
Transylvania County Rescue Squad said another group of rescuers found the biker about 3 miles from their command center. Crews walked back through steep terrain before sending the cyclist to a trauma center in critical condition.
The harrowing rescue was reported at about 1 p.m on Saturday, Jan. 21. The biker was seriously injured along the Bennett Gap trail, near Looking Glass Falls and other attractions in Pisgah National Forest.
Bennett Gap is a 2.9-mile path that has an elevation change of about 1,000 feet. “The terrain and vegetation varies quite a bit” on the trail, which takes bike riders near streams, over a mountain and through gaps, according to the U.S. Forest Service website.
Crews responding to the area brought ATVs and divided into three separate groups. But two of the groups couldn’t pass through the trails, leading some rescuers to travel on foot, officials wrote in a Facebook post.
Members of the third group made contact with the injured biker about 40 minutes after leaving the command center. Fellow cyclists helped rescuers clear a path as they carried the injured cyclist to a helicopter, photos shared on social media show.
Officials said the biker was flown to a medical center during a busy 24-hour period.
On Jan. 20, the Transylvania County Rescue Squad said it “spent several hours hiking in the dark searching for three lost persons” near the Cat Gap trail. Crews were cleaning their station the following afternoon when they received the call about the injured biker.
“Squad members had been gathered at the station cleaning and organizing our back bays when the call went out enabling us to quickly respond with 4 apparatus and over a dozen members,” officials wrote in their Facebook post.
Bennett Gap is roughly 35 miles southwest of Asheville.
This story was originally published January 23, 2023 at 12:49 PM with the headline "Crews rushing to help injured mountain biker find ‘impassable’ NC trail, rescuers say."
