Above: The beginning of the Escarpment Trail. According to a post on the Catskill Mountaineer Forum, the hiker's body was found on this trial on Monday. Photo from Catskill Mountaineer.
10/16/11 Update: A man died while hiking on the Escarpment Trail in the town of Hunter over the weekend died. The state police reported late yesterday that the hiker was 51-year-old Paul Dodway of Clifton Park, whose body was found on the Escarpment Trail in the North-South State Park trail system on Monday. Dodway was reported missing by his family after he failed to return from hiking over the weekend. His body was found by a fellow hiker. An autopsy conducted yesterday at Albany Medical Center concluded that Dodway died of natural causes.
The full press release from the State Police is below. Below that is our previous coverage.
SP Catskill - Missing Hiker Found Deceased
The New York State Police, at Catskill along with the Greene County Sheriff Department were contacted by the Saratoga County Sheriff Department regarding an attempt to locate an overdue hiker, that was reported to have been hiking somewhere in the Catskill Mountain area in the Town of Hunter, Greene County, NY. The New York State Police along with members of the Greene Co Sheriff Department began to check the various trail parking areas in an effort to locate the vehicle of the overdue hiker. The vehicle was located at the parking area on Scutt Road in the Town of Hunter. The New York State Forest Rangers and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation were contacted and responded to assist with the search of the surrounding trail systems in the North-South Lake State Park. Greene County 911 dispatch was then contacted by a hiker who reported locating a deceased male subject on the Escarpment Trail. Responding patrols located PAUL DODWAY 51 yoa, from Clifton Park, NY laying on the trail. Greene County Coroner HASAN BASAGIC responded and removed the deceased to Albany Medical Center where an autopsy was performed on today’s date by DR. BERNARD NG, where the cause of death was determined to have been due to natural causes.
Original 10/25/11 story:
WTEN News 10 and the Daily Mail are reporting this morning that the body of a male hiker was found on on Monday, October 24, off a trail in Haines Falls in Greene County.
The Daily Mail reports that the body was found "near Kaaterskill Falls and the North/South Lake Campground:"
The body was found by a group of hikers, police said.
There is little information available about the man's death this morning, aside from the fact that the police do not see any evidence of foul play in his death, according to WTEN:
According to police, a fellow hiker made the discovery around 7 a.m. along a "common hiking area" near Scutt Road in Haines Falls.
3:30pm update: The Catskill Mountaineer forum has updated information about the hiker:
Update (10/25 12PM): The NYS Police still have not released the name of the hiker. But, they have told us that he was a 51 years old and was from Saratoga region. An autopsy is scheduled for today, but from reports it is believed that he died from natural causes. He left his home on Sunday to go hiking in the North-South Lake region. His family called the police who then started the search for him. He was then found by a hiker early Monday Morning. It is reported that he was found on the Escarpment Trail.
