“I can get to high ground”
Go down not up. Following water will get you somewhere.
You might not be able to see beyond the trees. You’d have to not only be “up” but be in a bald spot or above the tree line AND be able to see into a direction where there’s something. You might just wind up looking over at the next ridge on the wilderness side.
If conditions are right (and you can see as above), you can spot distant streams/rivers by a ribbon of cloud above them. Warmer water in a cool morning will show itself in the sky.
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.