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More Than 500 Miles Searched For Missing Hiker At Great Smoky Mountains National Park

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By NPT Staff - October 1st, 2018
Morning briefing for Clements SAR/NPS

Morning briefing before searchers head into the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park/NPS

More than 500 miles of trails have been searched in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in an effort to find an Ohio woman who went missing early last week while out for a hike with her daughter.

Another 10 square miles, roughly, of off-trail landscape have been searched in the effort to find Mitzie Sue “Susan” Clements, 53, park staff said Monday. Searchers, canine teams, helicopters, and drones are continuing to work in steep, rugged terrain of the mountainous area that straddles the North Carolina – Tennessee border. 

Off-trail conditions at Great Smoky feature a tangle of vegetation. Depending on your elevation in the park, you could encounter hardwoods, hemlocks, pines, firs, and spruce. There are ferns, vines, rhododendrons and mountain laurel and hundreds of other plants and mosses and fungi. There are rock shelves and outcrops with cracks that can both shelter and hide hikers seeking shelter.

Off-trail search for Susan Clements at Great Smoky Mountains National Park/NPS

Off-trail search for Susan Clements at Great Smoky Mountains National Park/NPS

Clements was last seen on the Forney Ridge Trail approximately a quarter-mile from Andrews Bald on Tuesday, September 25, at 5 p.m. where she was hiking with her daughter before the two separated with a plan to meet back at the Clingmans Dome parking lot. She is a white female with light brown hair and blue eyes, is 5’6” tall, and weighs 125 pounds. She was wearing a green zip-up sweater, black workout pants over black leggings, a clear rain poncho, and gray Nike running shoes with light green soles. 

The seven-mile Clingmans Dome Road remained closed Monday to accommodate the infrastructure needed to manage this large-scale search. There are no trail closures in effect at this time.

Grid map of area searched for Susan Clements in Great Smoky Mountains National Park/NPS

Map of area searched for Susan Clements in Great Smoky Mountains National Park/NPS

Comments

Submitted by wild places on October 2, 2018 - 3:38pm.

While there have been plenty of articles written on the subject, perhaps a refresher on what to do before you set out on a hike, what to bring and what to do if you do become lost would be something NPT could remind or help educate people on. Not saying this woman didn't do these things but there are always new hikers who don't know any better. Hoping for a happy outcome for her and her family.


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