JACKSON COUNTY - For the second time this year, the Jackson County Rope Rescue Team lifted an injured person from the same gully at Little Grand Canyon near Gorham.

Participating agencies received a call at about 3 p.m. Sunday that a female had suffered non-life-threatening injuries near the bottom of the canyon, said rescue team leader Eric Ulner. The female had lower limb injuries "to the point she was unable to walk."

Down the north side of the path leading from the top parking lot to the bottom of the canyon, a cascading creek with a rock bed flows downward with about an 80-foot drop in elevation, Ulner said.

"This is normally how people have been carried out of there in the past, but there are 5-foot and 10-foot drops," he said. "It's dangerous."

Rather than following the creek, the team decided to lift the female out using a pulley system, Ulner said. Team members lifted her past 80 feet of high-angle vertical wall followed by 40 feet of steep-angle slope to a pathway where she was then carried to the parking lot by an all-terrain vehicle.

A similar tactic was used to remove another person from the same spot in the canyon earlier this year, Ulner said.

"That gully's a very unique feature of the canyon so it attracts a lot of people," he said. "And it's a very dangerous location."

Becky Banker, spokeswoman for the Shawnee National Forest, which manages Little Grand Canyon, said hikers should always exercise caution before and during their hikes.

"Any time that anybody goes out hiking they need to be aware of what the conditions are," she said. "That's just good sound advice regardless of whether there's been an incident or not."

Proper attire, especially footwear, is important when partaking in outdoor activities, Banker said. Hikers should also give their surroundings their full attention when on their venture, she added.

Representatives from the Jackson County Ambulance Service, Jackson County Sheriff's Department, Murphysboro-Pomona-Somerset Fire Department and Gorham Fire Department assisted in the rescue.

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