Boy falls 200-feet from Norway’s Hedgehog Hill

NORWAY — More than 25 rescue personnel responded Wednesday afternoon to save a 12-year old Ohio boy who had tumbled down a dangerously steep incline on Hedgehog Hill in Norway, coming to rest against a tree. 

As they emerged from Hedgehog Way, a narrow trail that winds around the hill, down to cabins on North Pond, exhausted rescue workers seemed unable to explain how the boy had come to be where they found him, 200-feet above the path on a heavily wooded “70 to 75 degree” incline.

“It was almost impossible [to get to him],” said Lt. Shawn Cordwell, of Oxford Rescue.  “He clearly went way way up beyond the trail.  We had to really struggle and really work to get up to where he was by foot.”

Having fallen from an unknown distance even further up the hill, 12-year old Jake had come to rest against a tree, his only savior against an even greater descent, where he reportedly remained “very calm” while paramedics tended to him.

Given that a snowboard was found nearby, some firefighters theorized he had been “sliding on the crust.”  However, other deemed that unlikely given the dense forest growth.

According to the boy’s mother, Sherry Cumberledge, interviewed at the scene, Jake was doing fine once brought out to the head of the trail on Fire Lane 206, also known as Jackson Lane.  However, she did note EMTs said that Jake’s body temperature had dropped to 94-degrees. 

“What do expect,” she shrugged, flicking her palm in the air, “He’s been out there for three hours.” 

Still, other than that, Jake’s only real complaint was of some pain in his side.

“He might have broke a rib,” said Cumberledge.  “He, I think, slammed into a tree.”

Cumberledge said that she was a former owner of the Mole Hole Knoll in Oxford, having moved to Ohio when she got married.  The family still returns to the area twice each year, with the highlight of their winter visit being an ice fishing trip on North Pond with Sherry’s father.

The family had gone out onto the pond at 9 a.m., and “at around 11” Jake, along with his 15-year old brother Josh, had decided to “go sledding.”

Cumberledge believed the boys had aborted their sledding plans because it was “too slippery.”

“They hardly made it up and around [Hedgehog Hill] the easy way,” she said.  “They know, even in the summer time, you can’t go down that way [where] they were because it’s too steep.”

It was not just the trails that were slippery.  Norway Police had to call in a town sander to work the hill on Jackson Lane, a private road, so that rescue vehicles could safely access the area.

When the call came in around 2 p.m., Norway Fire and Rescue personnel responded, along with a unit from the PACE ambulance service and five Maine Forest Wardens, who have jurisdiction in any wooded location such as where Josh was found.

Oxford Rescue was called in to respond with a “stokes basket,” a lightweight, rigid, molded stretcher used for rescue operations in remote locations.

Lt. Cordwell credited a rescue sled donated “two or three years ago” by the Rock-o-Dundee Snowmobile Club as critical to the operation.  

“This is like the second or third time that we have used it, and today’s situation it worked extremely well,” he said.

Also of vital use was a Yamaha Rhino 4x4 all-terrain vehicle that the Oxford unit obtained “about a month ago.”

“We wouldn’t have been able to get in there any other way,” said Cordwell.

According to Cordwell, rescue workers had considered “coming around from the back side of this hill” and repelling down to Jake’s location.  However, they feared running out of daylight and elected to instead to tackle the treacherous but more direct climb straight up from the main trail.

“It was very difficult, strenuous work,” said Cordwell, noting that his unit had worked for “about an hour” to bring Jake out.

“Certainly kids have to realize that when they are on a very, very steep incline, if they fall, and they are in a very remote area, they are not going to get out very easily,” said Cordwell.

Still, Cumberledge noted that, having learned that lesson, Jake should be none the worse for wear.

“He’s just hungry, and kind of scared too,” she said.