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OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK -- Bob Boardman of Port Angeles, a devoted hiker, diabetes nurse and musician, was killed by a mountain goat on Klahhane Ridge on Saturday afternoon.   Boardman, 63, his wife, Susan Chadd, and their friend, Pat Willits, had gone for a day hike on the Switchback Trail to Klahhane Ridge, which is near Hurricane Ridge about 17 miles south of Port Angeles.   The three had stopped for lunch at an overlook when a goat appeared and moved toward them, said Jessica Baccus, who arrived on the scene at about 1:20 p.m.   Baccus, also out for...

In her farewell season premiere today, Oprah gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and prizes to a mostly white woman audience that probably could easily do without. She also gave the audience of 300 a trip to Australia in a plane piloted by John Travolta. Maybe on the way she can stop in Iran to pick up its latest hostage. From ABC News: Price of Freedom for American Hiker in Iran: $500K Bail in CashI wonder if any of the screaming audience members would ever say, "Hey, Oprah. I'd like to donate my portion of the money...

WENATCHEE, Wash. (AP) -- A hiker on Blewett Pass shot himself in the butt when he put a handgun in his back pocket.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials euthanized a 60-pound female black bear Thursday afternoon that attacked a hiker and ended up becoming an Internet cause celebre. Wildlife biologists determined the young bear that park rangers captured May 13 bit the foot of an unidentified man who got too close with a camera as he was hiking along the popular Laurel Falls Trail the day before. Park spokeswoman Nancy Gray said park policy dictates that all animals who attack humans must be euthanized. The bear was put down "in a humane manner," according to a National Park Service news release Thursday.

(April 26) -- On a remote wooded path in North Carolina on Friday, a 65-year-old woman took a solitary hike. Little did she know she'd meet President Barack Obama and the first lady along the way. The chance encounter happened when Westerville, Ohio, resident Karen Russell was hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, Asheville's Citizen-Times newspaper reported. "It was just a little nondescript trail that I was on," Russell told the Citizen-Times, "and I didn't expect to find anybody there really, let alone the president." The Obamas had landed in Asheville that same day to catch...

BELLEVUE, Wash.- A hiker rescued following a Washington state avalanche said he was able to phone for help from beneath the snow. Ian Rogers said he spent about four hours trapped beneath snow Saturday after an avalanche near Snoqualmie Pass on Granite Mountain and he was able to help rescuers determine his location by calling 911, KIRO-TV, Seattle, reported Monday. "I was extremely lucky," Rogers told CBS's "The Early Show" in an interview from his room at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue, Wash. "My legs were completely cramped, but I had a little ... space. It was about a foot wide,...

Mike Hanson plans to hike the 2,174-mile Appalachian Trail end to end, without ever seeing the ground under his feet. On Monday in Georgia, the St. Louis Park man -- who lost his sight at birth -- will start his seven-month trek to Maine, navigating by GPS. He has mastered its use by cell phone and trusts global positioning technology to steer his every step. "It gives me everything I would need to know about the trail but the view," Hanson said. "I will be able to hear and smell what is going on." If he makes it, he'll be...

(edit)Knight, a production editor for Backpacking Light magazine, set a brush fire to attract the attention of firefighters, said Ryan Jordan, the magazine's chief executive officer who had helped in the search.(edit) Because of his visual impairment, Knight often hiked alone and would meet up with friends at scheduled stops to camp.The National Park Service's small search for Knight expanded greatly on Friday to include more than 100 people combing a 385-square-mile area throughout the night.That area was whittled down to 20 square miles that were the focus of Saturday's search by about 130 emergency workers, hikers, trackers, canine and...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Authorities cut open a slain bear and found a shoe lost by a Florida man while fighting off a bear that attacked his 8-year-old son in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The footwear was discovered in the black bear's stomach during a necropsy at the University of Tennessee Veterinary Medical Center, Smokies spokeswoman Nancy Gray said Monday. < snip > John Pala, a 43-year-old health insurance salesman from Boca Raton with no backwoods experience, literally ran out of his shoes racing to the aid of his young son Evan when the bear pounced on the boy...

Buford hiker Meredith Emerson was bludgeoned to death and then decapitated, an autopsy released Tuesday revealed. Dr. Kris Sperry, chief medical examiner for the state of Georgia, said Emerson died from "blunt force trauma to the head," after which she was decapitated, according to a statement released by the GBI. Emerson's body was found at about 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Dawson forest. She'd been missing since New Year's Day. Gary Michael Hilton, 61, remains in custody after being charged with kidnapping and bodily injury, both felonies. Also Tuesday: • Emerson's family plans to address the media at 3:30 p.m.,...

Police believe missing hiker Meredith Emerson is dead after finding her blood-soaked clothing Saturday in a dumpster.

BLAIRSVILLE, Georgia (CNN) -- The person of interest in the disappearance of a hiker in the north Georgia mountains is in custody and is being questioned by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, police announced Friday evening. Gary Michael Hilton, 61, was detained after a police officer spotted his van at a convenience store. Investigators also have another piece of the puzzle: Meredith Emerson's black Labrador retriever, Ella, who walked into a grocery store Friday. The animal was positively identified through an embedded microchip. The search for Emerson will continue Saturday. -snip-

UNION COUNTY, Ga. -- The search resumes Thursday morning in Union County for a missing hiker and her dog.Friends believe Meredith Emerson, 24, from Gwinnett County, spent Tuesday and Wednesday night outside in the cold north Georgia mountains. Temperatures reached into the teens both nights.Emerson's friends said she went hiking with her dog on Blood Mountain Trail Tuesday. Authorities said they have located Emerson's car and her dog's leash, but they have found no sign of Emerson or her black Lab. Emerson is 5'4", 120 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes."She's an experienced hiker and a blue belt in...

Deputies call off search for missing hiker, 56 From Times Staff Reports December 12, 2006 The search for a 56-year-old man missing for nearly a week has been called off, authorities said Monday. David Boone, a father of four and a golf club designer whose clients include pros Ernie Els and Fred Couples, is believed to have gone hiking in the foothills near his home, an area known for freezing nightly temperatures and a mountain lion population, said Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. ...

See for example this thread first. A near-tragedy by Mount Hood As a man took a leak in the wood He fell down the hill almost like Jack and Jill Now he's suing. (It's gonna be good!)

THESSALONIKI, Greece - A Greek hiker found a 6,500-year-old gold pendant in a field and handed it over to authorities, an archaeologist said Thursday. The flat, roughly ring-shaped prehistoric pendant probably had religious significance and would have been worn on a necklace by a prominent member of society. Only three such gold artifacts have been discovered during organized digs, archaeologist Georgia Karamitrou-Mendesidi, head of the Greek archaeological service in the northern region where the discovery was made, told The Associated Press. "It belongs to the Neolithic period, about which we know very little regarding the use of metals, particularly gold,"...

VANCOUVER (CP) -- The body of an American hiker was found Tuesday on Grouse Mountain, almost two weeks after he went missing at the popular tourist spot. Const. John MacAdam of North Vancouver RCMP said the body of David Koch was found in a gully on the mountain, which is about a 15-minute drive from downtown Vancouver. "I can confirm his body was found on the mountain," he said. "Definitely, it looks like an accident." George Zilahi of Vancouver's North Shore Search and Rescue said the steep area in which Koch was found was one frequented by expert hikers. Searchers...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - (KRT) - Kathleen Namphy was dazed and bleeding. Her frightened interpreter called for help, and a group of hikers promised to stay with the 69-year-old retired Stanford lecturer as he ran down the snow-covered Iranian mountain. But when rescuers reached the spot near the summit of Mt. Damavand more than four hours later, Namphy - and the hikers - had vanished. Now hundreds of searchers, aided by Iranian Army helicopters, are scouring the three-mile high mountain near Tehran for any sign of the Palo Alto, Calif., woman. Namphy, a veteran hiker who scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro last...

The caller told Lisa Namphy that he was from the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, Iran. A hiker had come down from snow-capped Mount Damavand on Sunday with news that Namphy's mother had died on the mountain trail. Then things got worse. "There are so many conflicting stories,'' Namphy, of Palo Alto, said. ``And we have so little information. What we do know is that my mother is missing on Mount Damavand.'' Kathleen Namphy's family wasn't used to worrying about her. The 69-year-old mother, cancer survivor, veteran world traveler, peace activist and honored Stanford lecturer had been adventuring around the planet...

Nude hiker covers the length of Britain Thu Jan 22, 4:40 PM ET LONDON (AFP) - A hiker completed his naked quest to walk the entire length of Britain wearing nothing but a pair of boots and a rucksack on his back, reaching John O'Groats on the northern tip of Scotland to a rapturous welcome from local residents. Over the course of his 1,450-kilometre (900-mile) journey from Lands End on England's south coast, Steve Gough, 44, has been arrested numerous times, has made several court appearances and has served two jail sentences. "My body is part of me and it's...