Tapia, 28, had to negotiate rocks, skirt fallen trees, and wade through water, with the injured woman on his back. It was 83 degrees, and the second-year officer, an Iraq war veteran, was already carrying more than just his 205 pounds. He had on his wool uniform, a bulletproof vest and roughly 15 pounds of police gear.
“Yeah, I was sweating,” he said. “I just grabbed her, threw her on my back and just humped her out.”
(Props to Tapia for being the go-to guy here, of course. I’m sure he figured as long as nobody was shooting at him it was no big deal).
I grew up right near there, just a few miles away. It’s not as remote as say, oh, the Frank Church River Of No Return Wilderness… but for a couple hours of hiking, it’s a nice little spot in some very low elevation mountains that are so very close to Big Box Suburbia. The AT’s not far away, you’ve almost always got a chance to see a bear or two, and when you’re up there you’d never know New York City and some of the busiest highways in America are just miles away.