N. Carolina Hiker Bumps Into Barack and Michelle Obama

(April 26) -- On a remote wooded path in North Carolina on Friday, a 65-year-old woman took a solitary hike. Little did she know she'd meet President Barack Obama and the first lady along the way.

The chance encounter happened when Westerville, Ohio, resident Karen Russell was hiking the Mountains-to-Sea Trail just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, Asheville's Citizen-Times newspaper reported.

Jonathan Walczak, Citizen-Times

Karen Russell, of Westerville, Ohio, had a chance encounter with the president and first lady while hiking just off the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina on Friday.

"It was just a little nondescript trail that I was on," Russell told the Citizen-Times, "and I didn't expect to find anybody there really, let alone the president."

The Obamas had landed in Asheville that same day to catch a weekend vacation. The presidential motorcade had driven the Blue Ridge Parkway for about 15 minutes when the first couple decided to get out and take an hourlong hike.

Russell, who had also come to North Carolina on vacation, had already been on her trail for an hour when she noticed the cars on the parkway below. Then, in the middle of the forest, two Secret Service agents approached her.

After asking Russell if she minded being checked with a metal detector, the agents made sure her camera was real and not a concealed weapon. Once cleared, Russell could scarcely believe who she saw next.

"And then I probably went 10 feet and I couldn't believe it," she told the Citizen-Times. "I just looked up and I said something really stupid, like, 'Are you who I think you are? You are!' "

The Obamas shook her hand, and stopped to chat for a moment before wishing her well and continuing on their way.

"Talk about a strange meeting of time and space," said Russell, who told the president she had voted and campaigned for him in Ohio. "I was ecstatic, I really was."