Nova Scotia·NewRescuers used a boat and hiked two kilometres to retrieve a woman who broke and dislocated her ankle.Rescuers used a boat and hiked 2 km to reach woman after she broke and dislocated her ankle in a fallAnna Rak · CBC News · Posted: Sep 02, 2025 3:43 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoLaurie Didyk is released from Cape Breton Regional Hospital on Sept. 2. (Submitted by Laurie Didyk)An avid hiker who was rescued after a fall in Cape Breton Highlands National Park over the weekend plans to finish what she started.Laurie Didyk, 57, suffered a broken and dislocated ankle on Saturday while she and a friend were hiking on Fishing Cove Trail in the national park.Discharged from Cape Breton Regional Hospital on Tuesday, Didyk said she’ll return and complete the trek after she’s fully recovered.”It’s facing your fears and moving forward. I love hiking. That’s one of the reasons I’m out here,” she said.Didyk’s ordeal began late Saturday afternoon after she and her friend decided to hike the six-kilometre trail into Fishing Cove, which opens to the Atlantic Ocean.The river next to the Fishing Cove Trail. (Submitted by Laurie Didyk)About two kilometres from the cove, she fell when she slipped on a rock, and her foot struck another rock.”There was a big snap,” said Didyk. “I knew it was a break right away from the sound and the feeling. It was pretty horrible.”When attempts to contact emergency services failed due to a lack of cellphone service, Didyk and her friend feared they might be stranded on the trail overnight. But her friend met another pair of hikers when she set out to find help and they were able to contact 911 roughly two hours after her fall.Cheticamp volunteer firefighters, Parks Canada staff and paramedics responded to the call. Because the two hikers were closer to the coastal end of the trail, a rescue team used a boat to reach the cove and then hiked inland two kilometres to provide first aid, arriving in about an hour.”I’ve never felt so grateful in my life to have this crew come in,” said Didyk. “I was kind of like ‘how on earth are they going to do this?'”Didyk is taken by ambulance to the hospital. (Submitted by Laurie Didyk)Matthew Bourgeois, a paramedic who was part of the rescue team, said after they tried unsuccessfully to make calls to arrange for Didyk to be airlifted by helicopter from the beach, they were able to contact a local fishing vessel to land in the cove.The team placed Didyk on a stretcher and carried her back to the fishing boat, which transported her to Cheticamp harbour. From there, she was taken to hospital, arriving about six hours after her fall.”In our line of work, we see a lot of misfortunes and a lot of missions that are unsuccessful, unlike this one,” Bourgeois said Tuesday. “It feels good to go home and feel like you’ve done good for a great outcome.”ABOUT THE AUTHORAnna Rak is a reporter for CBC Cape Breton.
Injured hiker rescued from Fishing Cove Trail in Cape Breton Highlands
