On Meredith Emerson's Disappearance

Carey Kish has an outdoors news blog at MaineToday.com and his 4 January 2008 entry is titled simply "On Blood Mountain." Kish expresses the fear and countering wish of all of us:

"But I fear the worst.

"The A.T. down south has had much too much of its share of sad tales like this, mostly involving women hikers, who innocently walk into the woods and end up dead, often at the hands of a fellow (male) hiker.

"Yes, statistically I suppose, the incidents are few and far between, but each becomes such a high profile affair that it seems more frequent than it really is.

"Nonetheless, it happens, and it scares the hell out of me. And probably you too.

"You live, you hike, you take your chances. You trust in others. Most times that's OK.

"Let's hope to dear God that this story has a good ending and Meredith Emerson walks out of the north Georgia woods alive real soon."