By emily Masters
A group of five lost hikers were rescued this past week from Rensselear County’s border with Massachusetts and Vermont, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said.
The hikers called 911 at about 3 p.m. on Tuesday, June 19, to report that they were lost in the Petersburg Pass area of the Taconic Ridge.
One of the hikers — a 70-year-old man — was having severe leg cramps, possibly due to dehydration, and could no longer hike. The person who called 911 gave dispatchers the group’s coordinates, and forest rangers were sent to that location as local agencies assembled search teams.
Fire departments in Grafton and Petersburgh, as well as Williamstown, Mass., and Pownal, Vt., sent volunteers. The State Police sent troopers and a helicopter, which had limited visibility of the ground given a thick tree canopy.
At 5:35 p.m., a forest ranger and volunteer searcher found the lost hikers at a lean-to in the Hopkins Memorial Forest close to the tri-state border monument. The ranger and volunteer treated the dehydrated hiker and helped the group down the mountain to Krum Hill Road in Vermont.
After speaking with the hikers, rangers determined the group make a wrong turn while following incorrect information on Google Maps — taking a trail east from New York into Vermont and Massachusetts until they reached the lean-to back in New York.
At 8 p.m., all of the lost hikers and search members were driven back to their vehicles in Peters-burgh.
At 5:37 p.m. Friday, June 22, rangers were asked to find a 12-year-old boy and a 42-year-old man, both from Glenville, who had become separated from another hiker on Cliff and Redfield mountains in near North Elba, Essex County.
The three hikers had set off at 8 a.m. at the Upper Works trial. At some point, one hiked two miles ahead and, when the boy and man failed to catch up, that hiker called the DEC.
A forest ranger headed to the area and asked the Lake Colden caretaker to interview passing hikers as he headed in the direction of the Redfield and Cliff trail intersection.
After speaking with several people, the caretaker learned the 12-year-old and 42-year-old had been spotted hiking together toward the Upper Works trailhead. They were found at 8:10 p.m. and reunited with their hiking party at 8:30 p.m.
The next day at 2 p.m. an all-terrain vehicle crashed in Lincoln Mountain State Forest in Greenfield, Saratoga County. A forest ranger assisted emergency medical technicians treat the injured driver, who was conscious but confused.
The injured person was taken by ambulance to a local hospital for further treatment, and several others were issued citations by the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office, the DEC said.
Later on Saturday, local police in Windham, Greene County, told rangers that a group of people were planning a large graduation party in South Mountain State Forest. The rangers, troopers and deputies hiked to the site at midnight and found about 75 people partying in the woods. Officers ticketed several people for underage drinking and one person for unlawful possession of marijuana, the DEC said. Police ensured that drivers were not impaired before dispersing the crowd, the agency said.