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Woman Dies While On Hike In Angeles National Forest
Remnants of the abandoned Mount Lowe railway on the Sam Merrill Trail (Photo by Mike Hume via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
A woman died Sunday on the Sam Merrill Trail near Altadena after she'd collapsed and stopped breathing, reports the L.A. Times.
The woman was identified as 69-year-old Margaret Cihocki of Huntington Beach. She was hiking with friends in the Angeles National Forest when she fell to the ground around 12:30 p.m., according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Cihocki and her friends were two miles into the trail. Other hikers on the trail performed CPR on her as they waited for emergency responders. It took nearly an hour before help arrived. Cihocki was pronounced dead at the scene.
Cihocki's body was airlifted to the L.A. County-USC Medical Center. Her cause of death is under investigation.
The Sam Merrill Trail, running along Echo Mountain, is a 5.8 mile round-trip hike, according to the blog SoCalHiker. The hike is regarded as being moderately difficult, according to multiple hiking resources we found online.
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