Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire There are some holes in this lost woman's story

This article is about the woman in ME who left the Appalachian Trail and got lost in '13. She survived 26 days according to her journal. Her body was found last year.

Reading this, it appears to me that she didn't have any method of navigation other than a map, which can be useless if you can't determine the directions. She she left the trail to take a bathroom break and got lost (just how far off the trail do you need to get, anyway?). The trail generally runs north/south so she had to go either east or west to leave it. A simple compass would point her in the right general direction to find it. Her body was found within 1/2 mile of it.

It points out the necessity of always carrying a compass at the bare minimum along with a GPS and maybe a SPOT. Any of the 3 would likely have saved her.


AUGUSTA, Maine – An Appalachian Trail hiker whose remains were discovered last year survived at least 26 days after getting lost, kept a journal of her ordeal and ultimately resigned herself to the idea she was going to die and it could be years before her remains were located, according to investigative documents.

Geraldine Largay, who was from Brentwood, Tenn., hiked to higher ground in a failed attempt to get a cellphone signal, and text messages sent to her husband went undelivered, the documents show.

"When you find my body, please call my husband George ... and my daughter Kerry," Largay, who was 66 years old, wrote in a page that was torn out of her journal. "It will be the greatest kindness for them to know that I am dead where you found me — no matter how many years from now."

The Maine Warden Service on Wednesday released more than 1,500 pages of documents related to the search for Largay in response to Freedom of Access Act requests by several media organizations.

Largay, who went by the nickname Inchworm, got lost after leaving the trail on July 22, 2013, to relieve herself and set up her final camp the next day, wardens said. Her texts to her husband warning that she'd become lost were never delivered but were retrieved from her phone after her body was found.

"in somm trouble," she texted on July 22, 2013, the day she left the trail. "Got off trail to go to br. now lost. can you call AMC to c if a trail maintainer can help me. somewhere north of woods road."

A day later, she again pleaded for help: "lost since yesterday. off trail 3 or 4 miles. call police for what to do pls."

After she missed a rendezvous with her husband, he reported her missing on July 24, 2013, setting off a massive search by the Maine Warden Service and other agencies. Documents indicate they interviewed dozens of witnesses and conducted several searches over two years.

The last entry in Largay's journal was on Aug. 18, 2013.

Her husband, George Largay, told wardens that the Appalachian Trail journey from Georgia to Maine's Mount Katahdin was a bucket list item for her. She had started with a traveling companion, but the other hiker left the trail because of a family emergency.

It wasn't until more than two years after she disappeared, in October 2015, that her remains were found about half a mile from the trail by a contractor conducting a forestry survey on property owned by the U.S. Navy in Redington Township.

The property where Largay's body was recovered is part of a Navy survival skills training facility. The Navy uses the area for its Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape program.

Largay's tent was collapsed, and her body was inside. The medical examiner determined she died of starvation and exposure.

The items found with her included trail staples such as toothpaste, baby powder, a first aid kit, cord twine, a pencil and pen and a paper trail map. The battery on her cellphone was dead, but investigators were able to retrieve the data.

Sounds like she neither basic outdoor skills or common sense. Most of us could have survived that situation when we were 10.

with todays GPS's there is very little reason for this to happen.

Could possibly be classified as a Darwin recipient. If nothing else I think would I shoot for a scorched earth rescue rather then just set there to die.

Saw her story on the show Northwoods Law.. always wondered what happened to her..
Sad and so preventable!

I've never been in ME but I gather that it's as thick and nasty as Oregon/Washington's Cascade range. You could get lost really easy in most of it. I wouldn't even think about going out without a compass and GPS.

Really poor survival skills ! Like was posted above , most of us could have handled that at ten years old.

Fuggin sun rises in the east, sets I the west. Trailer runs north to south adjust from there

There comes a point at which,"If you find your self lost, sit down and wait for rescue." Needs to be abandoned. Clearly she didn't recognize that point had come and gone. How could anyone just sit there and die if they could still move?

The news report obviously leaves out a lot of important details.

I've been out when the sun doesn't shine. A compass is really necessary to figure out which hand is which. I live in high desert. Out in the sagebrush flat land, it's surprisingly easy to get turned around on a thick day even when you can see for 10 miles.

I've never not been able to tell atleast what direction the sun was rising from, whether it "shines or not"....


The main point I take away from this story is that, yes in fact, you can fix stupid

Long enough to starve to death? miles

I was bumming around the back 80 on the family farm in southern Maryland one day. Those woods are a nasty jungle of what we called "mountain laurel", some sort of rhododendron. My uncle kept the property lines pretty well cleared on the south side, the north side is a stream and the west is a field, the east a powerline cut. I was cutting across from south to north. When I got to the stream, the darn thing was flowing in the wrong direction! I just knew it should be heading to the left, but it was going to the right? I started to go with what I knew, but changed my mind and went with the stream. After I took a few steps down stream, my internal compass realigned and I knew I was headed in the direction I wanted to go. It was an eye opening experience to say the least.

I have. If you don't keep your head on straight, it would be very easy to get lost.

I grew up running around the woods in Oregon coast range. Never carried a compass or map, just a knife, some matches, and a rifle. I was never lost, just a little confused about my exact position a time or two . She was only 1000 yards from the trail when she died. I'll bet she could have walked a few miles in any direction and found a trail or road. Even if she would have built a big fire, they probably would have found her.

I don't know how thick it is where she got lost but in eastern Maine you can't see more than 10-20 feet, if that, because it's so thick. If you drive the road up towards Machias it's pretty unbelievable, at least for a westerner.

how stupid can you be? I was doing 3 man deer drives when i was 12 years old, in BIG WOODS east of merrillan wisconsin, me, and my older 2nd cousins, they'd put me on an edge. We were back in at least 3miles working 5 yr old clear cuts, I got turned around a few times, but i knew how to navigate the land.....at 12.... and this adult let herself starve to death over a period of 27 days ?

I read this story in the news this morning.
Yes, at age 10 I was a Boy Scout and would not have gotten lost there.
She is dead.
She was stupid.

Interesting friend of the family, hunting partner for years of my youth. Trained pilots for the Army Air Corp, had his own runway near Garrison Minnesota. To qualify his advice.

Said to carry a deck of playing cards, long before gps was available. He said to start playing a game of Solatary and it won't take 3 minutes before someone is looking over your shoulder telling you how "the black 3 goes on the red 4!" .
Never had to try this, never being lost myself.
Sounds like it would work.

I never go in the woods without a compass, WTF is wrong with people.


I thought "Inchworm" was Rob Jordons nickname........