She was 66 and hiking alone. Not a real good idea to begin with.
yes but age wasnt a factor I dont believe. Had she just started a fire for a couple days with smoke Im sure she would have been found, she wasnt all that far from where they were looking...
She was hiking with her husband: She had set out in the morning about an hour before him, and he never saw her again. The area she was lost in is called the 100 mile woods because the trail runs without any paved roads or civilization for 100 miles.
Hikers need to carry at least 10 days worth of food for that stretch of trail, since no resupply is possible...
It is postulated that she went off trail to relieve herself, and never found her way back to the trail. Perhaps she was a bit too reliant on trail markers and cell phone technology (which was non functioning) and didn’t maintain an adequate awareness of her surroundings.
But we all make mistakes.
May she rest in peace.