Fire Puck:
1400 degrees F. You'd better want fire, because that's what you will get.
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 ...
I don’t understand this. She had a compass, waterproof matches, plenty of dry wood, a nearby stream w/water, a pocketknife, string, a whistle, and on and on and on. I suppose she got so wrapped up in getting a cell signal ...
But still... She pitched a tent after being lost for one day and then didn’t move from under those trees. I just don’t get it. Even w/o a compass, just look at the sun and head south back to the trail!
May she RIP and God bless her family and friends. I just wish there was more we could learn from this. (And there’s a pdf file at the link that has photos of the scene, for anyone who missed it. Very sad to read that report.)
You remind me (see my previous reply), she also had a map, extra batteries, a first aid kit, and more (besides the whistle and compass i already mentioned.)
I have been lost in the woods and lived to tell the tale. Clearly the woman was only experienced in walking on well marked trails for brief periods of time. She did not consider this a “wilderness” experience or she would have been more prepared. Much of the Appy trail is well traveled and friendly. Some is not, at all, particularly off trail.
Fire Puck:
1400 degrees F. You'd better want fire, because that's what you will get.
I once got lost on a land navigation course at Fort Knox, and I did go down - and has able to use a shallow creek as a very high speed route through some thick woods, and back to a place where I was oriented...so I’ve used the ‘go down’ theory with some success.
But I still think going up to high ground has some merit. Where I am now (Kansas), it is not heavily wooded, and I am convinced that finding high ground would get me on track faster.
Now, when I hiked the AT, in North Carolina, from just about every peak you could see a fire tower (its paper pulp country and they used to have people stationed in towers on the mountain tops watching for fire). So, I figure I could always get to a tower, and climb it and see for miles and miles.
Another aspect of those mountains is that they have all been successfully surveyed. The benchmarks on the maps always fascinated me. Having done a lot of surveying with modern equipment, I can appreciate the amazing ‘mountain to mountain’ shots the survey parties took, and I loved to find the brass markers in the ground. Anyway, wherever you see a bench mark on the map, it likely represents a bald outcrop on the mountain, where you can indeed see a great distance. Nineteenth century surveyors were able to find enough of these spots to map the entire mountain range, and I’d like to think that I could find a few myself, and take a look around.
And finally, this being the AT, I know that it goes where the views are...as in the peaks. I’d say that the odds of stumbling back onto the trail are more likely if you go to the high ground.
I’ve never hiked in Maine, and don’t claim to know exactly why this woman couldn’t find her way. But I’d say that you have to adjust your strategy to your surroundings. If I were lost in Maine, I’d have to make an assessment of which direction is the best, based on the situation.
She had waterproof matches AND 2 disposable lighters.
Solo hiking doesn’t have to be dangerous. I have done it on the AT, as well as in the Alps. But I was careful not to over-estimate my competence, especially in bad weather. This poor woman was just incompetent. “Taking classes” is not what gives you outdoor skills. Maps and compasses can be baffling to a beginner, but come on. This death was totally unnecessary.
I see people hiking in central Utah’s red rock desert frequently. Usually in just shorts and a tshirt and a bottle of water in their hand. Sometimes no bottle of water. I’m surprised more don’t die out there. You need a couple of gallons per day in summer. The Rangers tell me that Europeans want the “real” desert experience. They have to rescue a lot of them. Myself I wouldn’t dream of doing the desert in Summer. But then I’m just a stupid clinger to guns and Bibles.
She had a compass.
I think so.I was *fascinated* by it when I first got it.So fascinated that I decided to take it on a trip I took to Hong Kong and Dubai.While in Dubai I went on a "dune bashing" safari which took us about 75 miles into the Arabian desert...*truly the middle of nowhere*.Long story short...I stored a "reading" from when we passed what I think was a prison and then,entering the coordinates into google maps it came up exactly at the structure in the middle of nowhere.
Go to take a leak and and become hopelessly lost? Ok, whatever, but if worse comes to worse light the damn woods on fire...
and evidently had no idea how to use it
I resemble that remark.
I really do get lost often but I seem to have some kind of homing beacon if I just calm down.
I wouldn’t do it alone.
. Weirdly, I had an idea it was her exotic version of suicide.
Well, then that makes two of us. She didn’t seem to be trying.
You know, the amazing thing is that an experienced hiker would want the useless weight of a cell phone. They lose their charge in a few days, and getting through the hundred mile wilderness in Maine might take a week.
According to the WaPo article, she did have a whistle. She had hiked 1,000 miles already. How can you come that far and be so incompetent? It’s a mystery.
She has a lighter
She has matches
She has a compass
She has a trail map
She has food
She has water
She has a tent
She has a solar blanket
She has weather gear
She has a whistle
She's NEAR a body of water
And STILL, with all these advantages she couldn't find help, attract attention or find her want to someone or somewhere?
This is truly bizarre
I'll grant that she's in the center seat on this one not me, but she can't light a fire even with both matches and lighter and keep it going in the middle of a forest where the problem in general is NOT to keept it all going up in flames?
She can't follow the river/creek/lake to civilization?
How much brains or energy does it take to keep that whistle planted in your mouth and permanently blowing?
Must be me. don't make no sense at all
“I had an idea it was her exotic version of suicide”
I had the same idea as I read the article and I believe that’s what it was.
We camp in a very rainy place so everything is always wet. My husband uses gas it is fastest but we have taught the kids and grandkids how to start fires. Steel wool, newspaper or dryer lint dipped in wax make great fire starters and are very light.
The refusal to light a fire puzzles me too. Maybe she was a greenie and was afraid she would start a forest fire.
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