Acadia hiker airlifted from Sargent Mountain

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK – A Mount Desert woman had to be flown by LifeFlight helicopter Sunday evening from the top of Sargent Mountain after she fell and hit her head, according to a park ranger.

It was one of several rescues Sunday that kept park rangers busy, Ranger Richard Rechholtz said Monday.

The incident on Sargent Mountain happened around 5 p.m. Sunday, according to Rechholtz. He said rangers received a call that Martha Wagner, 61, had fallen and hurt herself somewhere on the mountain, but that they were unsure at first which trail she was on. Sargent Mountain is surrounded by several smaller peaks and so has many trails leading to its summit, he said.

About 20 members of Mount Desert Island Search and Rescue, including park rangers, climbed the mountain and found Wagner close to the summit, Rechholtz said. She had facial injuries and a possible concussion. Because of her location and the hour of the day, rangers were concerned about getting her down the mountain safely.

“It was getting late by the time we got to her,” Rechholz said. “We knew we wouldn’t get down until well after dark” if she was carried out by the rescue team.

Rangers called for a LifeFlight helicopter, which flew from Lewiston to Acadia in about 40 minutes, he said. LifeFlight helicopters have wheels on them instead of horizontal bars for landing, he said, which made the prospects of landing on elevated, uneven terrain a bit challenging. But he said rangers found a place near the summit where it could land.

“We found a ledge that was pretty level,” Rechholtz said. “It’s the first time a LifeFlight helicopter has ever landed in the park on any of the mountains.”

Rechholtz said Wagner was flown from the park to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. A hospital spokeswoman said Monday that Wagner had been discharged but had no additional information.

In other incidents rangers had to carry a man off Sargent Mountain after he dislocated his knee around 10 a.m. Sunday, Rechholtz said. Josh Flower, 25, of Tarrytown, N.Y., hurt himself while hiking on the mountain’s East Cliffs Trail and had to be carried out by members of the search and rescue team. Rangers and rescue personnel had to lower Flower by ropes on three steep, wet sections of the Deer Brook Trail. After about three hours, they got him to an ambulance waiting at the base of the mountain, Rechholtz said. Flowers was taken to Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor.

Also on Sunday morning, park rangers went to West Street Extension near downtown Bar Harbor after a 30-year-old man fell while riding a bicycle. The man, whose name and hometown Rechholtz did not know, was not wearing a helmet and suffered multiple lacerations to his head when he lost control of his bike and fell.

“He would not have had his injuries if he had his helmet on,” Rechholtz said.

btrotter@bangordailynews.net

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