AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine Warden Service says a 69-year-old man who died while hiking the Appalachian Trail had started in Springer Mountain, Ga., in March and had planned to finish this weekend.

Wardens received a call Thursday afternoon that a New Jersey thru-hiker was suffering from “debilitating medical symptoms” on a rugged portion known as 100-Mile Wilderness.

The hiker had to be carried out because bad weather made a helicopter rescue impossible. He died later at Millinocket Hospital, and was identified Friday as Robert Yerike of Brick, N.J.

The 100-Mile Wilderness represents some of the most remote sections of the Appalachian Trail, connecting Monson to Abol Bridge in Baxter State Park, home of Mount Katahdin, the trail’s northern terminus.