Hiker Rescued on Difficult Trail

BE PREPARED! We helped a very lost and scared solo hiker on this trail. This hike is rated hard in All Trails and no matter the rating I always read the description and comments telling me why it has the rating it has. This particular trail is rated hard because following the trail is pretty difficult. There are trees and branches covering a good 1/4-1/2 mile of the trail from an avalanche that had happened in the last few years and a chunk of the trail is boulders to scramble over with no real markers. On our way back to the trailhead, amidst the fallen trees, we heard a woman scream “HEY CAN YOU WAIT FOR ME IDK WHERE THE TRAIL IS!” I couldn’t see her through the few trees that were standing but I could hear that she was crying. Our friend went back and helped her up to where we were on the trail and she was a wreck. She had been lost wandering the woods for almost two hours! Her phone had died with her map on it and she had lost the trail going over the boulders. Thankfully she had seen us and we were able to help her navigate through the tough portions of the trail. There are so many more details to this story that imo give light to this woman coming prepared for this hike, but I don’t have the much room to tell you them all. However, the moral is to ALWAYS be prepared in the outdoors, no matter the ranking or familiarity of a hike or terrain, or experience in the outdoors. There are a million little things that can go wrong and a million little things that can go right when you’re prepared! Have you ever been lost outdoors?