Posted on 05/26/2016 1:18:25 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Geraldine Largay knew she was doomed.
It had been two weeks since she left the Appalachian Trail to go to the bathroom and lost her way; two weeks since she had wandered deeper and deeper into the woods of northwest Maine in search of a cellphone signal to message for help; two weeks since she had pitched her tent underneath a copse of hemlock trees atop a ridge; two weeks since she was supposed to meet her husband, waiting for her in his SUV on Route 27.
Largay’s food was running low. Her water, too.
So the 66-year-old retired nurse sat down and wrote a note to whoever might find her — after she was dead.
“When you find my body, please call my husband George and my daughter Kerry,”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Well, she’s a girl....
...
All that means is she would ask for directions, but there was nobody to ask.
Well I get pretty wobbly after a few drinks myself.....
I can’t imagine a woman approaching 70 doing this. I’m sure I’m wrong but that’s my feeling.
Yes, that’s what I remember from my research. I do go on hiking blogs (generally, sadly, to research the people who feed the hikers because I love food) on a regular basis.
I agree; she was not competent. She wasn’t well prepared and she didn’t make good decisions. She relied on that cell phone too much, which was the dumbest thing of all. There are no cell towers in the wilderness.
That area in the photos looks so wooded. Ten paces from the trail she could have had her privacy to do her thing and get back to the trail.
Next mistake: she decided to go to higher ground for cell reception rather than try to find the trail. She knew correctly she was north of the trail. Walk [bleeping] south! There was, if you look at the map, no way that if she walked south she would not cross that trail!
Third mistake I’m not knowledgable enough to comment on but why couldn’t she start a proper fire? Perhaps that was a preparation mistake. But she had lighters. Not getting that.
That is my question. Why did she go high instead of following a stream or valley to go low until she ran into something?
No bad puns please!
NH has some rugged sections too. The end of the trail, Katahdin (in Maine), is spectacular, and it is a strenuous hike.
Lacking even that, all you need to know is that you only hiked so far from the trail. Mark your current “I’m Lost!” location, and mark your new path. If you don’t cross the trail in twice the time it took you to get away from it originally, head back to your original “I’m Lost!” location, then head out 90-degrees from that direction, and do the same thing. Repeat as necessary.
See, now that is common sense and intelligence. This woman didn’t have either.
Must be beautiful. I vacation (without hiking) in Maine but only near the shore.
Fascinating to know we have knowledgeable hikers here!
Why didn’t she just drop her drawers? I don’t get it.
She did well for 26 days but you figure why didn’t she have survival gear when walking that trail? Signaling devices? When I hike the Olympics almost two-thirds of my gear is survival stuff and first aid. In that picture she had a pretty large backpack. I wonder if that’s the one she took. Also when I go out alone I let people know where I expect to be at certain times/days. Did she have a compass and green maps? Those green maps is what the forestry people sell.
Exactly. Everyone claims how experienced she was. Hardly. She got off the trail to pee and then headed farther away to get cell reception. She’s no smarter than a 14 year old with their nose in their phones. As if she couldn’t tie a string to a tree beside the trail to find her way back or not go more than 3 paces off the trail. Or better yet, end it when her partner left. She packed a phone but not a paper map and a simple compass. Sorry, no sympathy for her but sympathy for those who found her and had to haul her back. There is no excuse for her incompetence and selfishness.
Give me an Accurate Chart, a Compass and a Stop Watch and I will fly the Swiss Alps with the Windows Covered.
If you Cannot Navigate the Old Fashioned way, without Fancy Electronics, you Can Not Navigate At ALL!!
This is very sad. I’ve walked part of the AT, and the best piece of survival equipment I can suggest is a partner. No way I’d go alone - one twisted ankle could suddenly become a survival situation.
I did get lost in the woods once, as a kid - and I admit I got a little ‘panicky’. The terrain starts to all look familiar, and your mind convinces you that you’ll find a road or other landmark, ‘just over the next hill’, only to be repeatedly disappointed. Now that I’m older, I always suppose that if I can get to high ground, with the exception of the most rugged parts of our nation, there will always be something to see - either a road, powerline, or something like that...man made and it has to start somewhere and go somewhere.
Works underwater, where visibility can often me just a few feet. Does require a compass though, or being able to memorize objects you swam by.
Many places the brush is so thick it may as well be triple canopy rainforest!
Even with a compass, from where did you come?
Maps? A point of reference, or two can be handy, but hard to come by.
Many years on rock and ice, my main climbing partner, had a gift for bushwhacking. Not many like him.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
T R
Watch the History Channel survival series “Alone”. You will be surprised at how inept “survival experts” can be.
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