Scout leader dies on Father's Day hike with troop, 2 sons

LANCASTER, N.H. (AP) -- New Hampshire's Fish and Game Department says a Boy Scout leader from Maryland has died of an apparent heart attack while on a Father's Day hike with his troop, which included his two sons.

The department's Lt. Wayne Saunders says 51-year-old Vernon "Rick" Rippeon of Westminster, Maryland, was one of four adults leading the troop on the first day of a planned five-day presidential mountain hike Sunday.

Saunders said officers received a call regarding a medical emergency on the Crawford Path trail on Sunday morning and that Rippeon suffered a heart attack 1 1/2 miles up. CPR was started almost immediately, but efforts to revive him were not successful.

Saunders said the group was planning on staying at Appalachian Mountain Club huts.