Update on hiker who died on AT Friday

The Roanoke Times is reporting that the 60-year-old Florida man who was found dead this past Friday at the Cornelius Creek Shelter along the Appalachian Trail in Botetourt County, Virginia, complained of shoulder and chest pains earlier in the day.

A Colorado woman hiking the Appalachian Trail posted a note on a Website for trail enthusiasts suggesting she might have been the last one to see the man alive. Christy Cleaver of Fort Collins said she and a fellow hiker saw the man at the Cornelius Creek Shelter during lunch Friday.

It "was his second day on trail," she wrote in the online forum at whiteblaze.net. "He sounded like he may have struggled up the incline that day but seemed fine when we spoke to him. He was talkative and in good spirits, happy to be on trail. Must have been natural causes. Our condolences to his loved ones."

Officials are still trying to find relatives of the man before releasing his name.

Here's a first hand account from the hiker who found the man at the shelter.

As the article mentions, the Florida hiker's death is the second on the Appalachian Trail in less than a month. On May 8, a 26-year-old hiker from Michigan was found dead at the Icewater Spring Shelter in the Great Smoky Mountains. Results from the autopsy and toxicology report still haven't been released.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com Detailed information on trails in the Smoky Mountains; includes trail descriptions, key features, pictures, video, maps, elevation profiles, news, and more.