Missing hiker Mitzie Sue “Susan” Clements was found in Great Smoky Mountains National Park after a week of massive searching in terrain so rugged and thick with vegetation a helicopter was needed to extract her.

While the official cause of death is still under investigation, park spokeswoman Julena Campbell said, foul play is not suspected. This highlights the many natural hazards that exist in the sprawling, half-million-acre park in the North Carolina-Tennessee mountains, for experienced as well as inexperienced hikers.

Clements, 53, a city of Cincinnati auditor, had been hiking with her 20-year-old daughter near Clingmans Dome. They were returning from Andrews Bald on the 1.8-mile Forney Ridge Trail, considered moderate, with an elevation change of about 400 feet from the parking lot to where it descends to the bald at 5,860 feet elevation.

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When they were about a quarter-mile from the bald, the daughter went on ahead to climb the Clingmans Dome Tower, with plans to meet her mother back at the parking lot, Campbell said, but Clements never appeared. She was last seen at about 5 p.m. Sept. 25.

Clements was considered an experienced “on trail” hiker, Campbell said. The mother and daughter had spent a couple of days hiking in the Smokies, including on trails longer and more strenuous than Forney Ridge, including the Chimney Tops Trail, which has an elevation change of 1,300 feet over 2 miles.

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“The way they hiked together, the daughter wanted to do a little more miles, so they would often hike together for part of the trip and meet back at the parking lot. That was fairly typical,” Campbell said.

The search for Clements lasted a week and involved 175 trained personnel from five states and some 50 organizations, helicopters, drones and K-9 units. It ended when her body was found the night of Oct. 2 in “incredibly thick” vegetation, down the steep Huggins Creek Drainage in Swain County, 2 miles west of the Clingmans Dome parking lot, and three-quarters of a mile south of the Appalachian Trail.

Campbell said people are asking how it’s possible to get lost in such a busy place as Clingmans Dome, which is popular for its tower – the highest point in the park at 6,643 feet – reached on a paved path from the parking lot. It is also the jumping off point for many trails, including the Appalachian Trail.

“Most of us picture the park via trail, but most of us do not get off-trail and realize what the landscape really is like,” she said. “If you haven’t been off-trail, and disoriented and lost in that thick vegetation and steep, rocky hillside, it’s hard to imagine what that must be like.”

She said it is actually common for people to get lost or turned around on top of Clingmans Dome, where there are many trail intersections.

About a tenth of a mile from the parking lot, Forney Ridge Trail connects to the Clingmans Dome Bypass Trail, which then intersects with the Appalachian Trail.

“It would have been fairly easy, particularly given the conditions she was hiking in — it was very foggy, raining and probably dark or getting dark — that someone could miss an intersection or the parking lot and get off on the wrong trail,” Campbell said.

She said a commonality in typical “lost person behavior” is that often people who are lost or disoriented will head downhill or head toward water.

“Once we cleared all the trails (using a grid search) then we moved to off-trail, focusing on downhills, particularly downhill drainages. That’s where she was found,” Campbell said. “It’s incredibly thick and very rocky. Trying to find someone or any clues in that kind of landscape is very difficult.”

11th death in the Smokies

Clements’ is the 11th fatality so far this year in the Smokies, Campbell said.

It is up from the seven deaths in 2017, but not as many as the 16 deaths tallied in 2016. The most common cause of death in the Smokies tends to be from motor vehicle accidents, Campbell said, which is the most popular activity in the park.

The Smokies is the most visited national park in the country. It had 11.3 million visitors in 2017.

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So far this year, there were five deaths from motor vehicle accidents, one from a motorcycle accident, one in which a woman fell off her bicycle and hit her head, one suicide, a man who was found in September near Cades Cove with evidence of being scavenged by wildlife, and partial human remains found, which have not yet been identified.

Anyone hiking in the Smokies should take it seriously, even out for a day hike, and take safety precautions including planning ahead and preparing by knowing the trail and if you’re in good physical condition to tackle that trail.

Campbell said everyone should carry a backpack with essentials including a map, a cellphone, water, high energy snacks, rain gear, flashlight and an extra layer of insulating clothing made of synthetic, not cotton, material.

“What do you do if you get lost or disoriented or hurt yourself? The best thing is to stay put and stay on a trail,” Campbell said. “When we start a search in the park, the very first place we will go is the point last seen. If you stay put, you increase the likelihood that someone will find you more quickly.

Smokies hiking safety tips