More than a month after a Tennessee woman was injured on a solo hike in the Cold Mountain area of a Haywood County, NC, she visited the sheriff’s office yesterday to thank the rescue crews who spent days searching for her.
Julie Hays and her husband Craig personally thanked Sheriff Greg Christopher and others yesterday.
More than 200 people from more than 60 local, state and federal agencies helped search for Julie after she didn’t return from a day hike in late September.
The search continued for two days until she was found injured about 100 yards off a trail in the Lenoir Creek area on Sept. 21, 2015.
“These guys put their lives on hold, they stopped everything that they were doing to save Julie,” Craig Hays said. “It really has changed us because without them, she wouldn’t be here today; she wouldn’t be alive today.”
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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I still wonder why people choose to hike alone when they have no means of communication if something goes wrong, and they hike in areas that are remote and infrequently used. I’m glad that Julie was found, but I hope others learn from her experience. Vann