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........

The trail generally runs from SW to NE. But there are lots of twists and turns and it will often run due East or West for miles depending on the terrain.

I've hiked on several sections here in GA and TN. It is a well worn path here that can't be missed. But from what I've read farther north, especially in Maine it is often difficult to locate the trail even with a map and compass. I've read 4-5 books written by thru hikers. All of them have had a few moments, even hours or days where they were off the trail and turned around.

Rule 1:

Don't go out in the big bad woods alone.

Rule 2:

See rule 1.

Perhaps she intended to commit suicide and thought that doing it so it looked as if she were "hopelessly lost," she and her surviving family could avoid the stigma of suicide.

They could claim, "She did not commit suicide: she just had a terrible accident."

L.W.

I saw that too. Said thing is she owned a "SPOT" but had left it behind at some point. They found it shortly after her husband had reported her missing and they started investigating the situation.
She lived nearly a month once she became lost, but never found a trail, or a way out. Hard to believe.

If the penalty for ever doin' somethin' stupid was death, then we'd likely be a bucha dead mofo's here...!

as is often the case, the first reply is the best.


How can you get lost on the Appalachian trail? Follow the water downhill and it will eventually lead you to a mall....

You'd be surprised at the amount of people who don't understand this

You'd also be surprised at the amount of people who think it would be cool to ride a bicycle from maine to Florida because it's all down hill on the map

Before I would starve to death, I'd at least start a forest fire. Authorities would find that.

The terrain can be more treacherous than you might think. Remember, until the Cumberland Gap was found, the Appalachian chain was a major barrier to westward expansion. Maine can be remote, but I must agree that I could follow a stream and find a road in less than 26 days.

I've been badly turned around in the woods before, and heavily wooded terrain without a decent slope would make me carry a compass. But for crying out loud, every smart phone these days has a compass in it!.

Water runs down hill, roads forks point towards town, worms and grubs are edible, and the sun rises and sets. Pick a direction, and walk, and you'll hit a decent size road within 25 miles of just about any place in the continental US.

Exactly. Something doesn't smell quite right and her remains aren't the stench.

I wonder if she planned to disappear but then did it unintentionally.

Or if someone just helped her disappear, intentionally.

I guess she had a flip phone. My phone has a compass.

As someone who's hiked the trail by where she died, it isn't easy to get lost there. It isn't easy at all.

I would go so far as to say it would almost require effort and planning to get lost going to the bathroom there and be unable to find the trail again and die, not from injury, but just from being lost.

WALK DOWN HILL. It'll get you out. Got me out of the Cascades in an afternoon, bout 40 years ago. Downhill always leads to roads, bridges, etc. It never lets you walk in a circle.

They found her in her tent. An autopsy figured she died from exposure and starvation.

When I became hungry, thirsty, and grouchy, I'd put some effort into saving myself. Especially in an instance were I was pretty sure technology was not getting out.

I've never been one to count on batteries and staying in touch as a sure fire means of survival anyway. Almost sounds like a death wish unless the stored messages offer a better explanation. Can't really visualize a place east of the Mississippi that an uninjured person could not walk out of in a week or so.

I never go in the woods without a compass. I actually carry at least two on a regular basis. Better safe than sorry.

I'm still trying to figure out why she would activate her SPOT and then leave the area without it.

I thought she just left it behind? I missed where she actived it....

From all ive seen here, it just looks like she was pure stupid.

She had to go potty.

Surprisingly enough people that think the world is a dangerous miserable place where it pays to minimise risk and that they are responsible for their own safety and security...are a minority.


That said, it is a miserable end and I wish the remaining family well.

I got the idea that they'd found it because it was activated. Maybe I got it wrong. But, that would lead to an even bigger question - if she had it but didn't activate it, why not? Her situation is exactly what it's for.

... assuming you have a GPS receiver. Many do not feel the need nor want the cost of a receiver. I was involved with the development and implementation of GPS land navigation in the 1980's and do not own a receiver. I've just never felt the need; a compass (used as a USFS Smokejumper 53 years ago) suffices for my needs.

She paid a horrific price to go potty!

The sky was not cloudy for 26 days. If you went out without basic orienteering skills and a compass and map you lack common sense.

That goes for people who rely on GPS too, look, chit breaks and batteries die. A compass will last for several life times.

For whatever unfathomable reason, she wanted to die, and picked her way to go.

It sounds to me like she was in way over her head as far as having any survival skills. So she did what she had been told--which is when you're lost just stay put until someone finds you. Not a bad plan really.

I just don't see how someone starves to death in 26 days. Even without food, it would be rare to starve out in that time. Also, a desperately hungry person usually starts finding something to eat in the woods, even it were only crickets and worms and such.

And no sign of a fire? Why wouldn't even the most ignorant person light up a fire and try to smoke in some help?

When I read this story this morning, I smelled a rat. I think this gal wanted to die.
She didn't want it to look like suicide so she set it up to look like she was just lost in the woods and died by the cruelties of nature.

I think she committed suicide. Probably took a dozen Vicodin and two glasses of red wine, and laid down and never woke up. As far back in the woods as she was, she knew they could never do forensic testing to find the dope or booze.
I feel sorry for the guys who found her rotten skeleton, that is one image they will never get out of their minds.

This is interesting to me. Maybe it's because I'm old, I don't know. To find a rotten skeleton would not bother me at all, except my concern for the family who lost a loved one.

Some folks just shouldnt be in the woods. Shes one of em. Hell, hunters get lost every year here in northern PA. Ill never understand it. Walk the ridges and eventually youll get your bearings. Get in the hollows or follow a stream youll end up 10 miles away or walk in circles.

I don't think it was a suicide. She was supposed to be with another person and they ducked out at the last minute. Plus she tried to send failed text messages asking for help.

I think it was just a simple case of a city person being in the woods. I think it would surprise most outdoorsman how naive city people can be when it comes to the woods.

And quite frankly, being a woman might have had something to do with it. Their brains just don't work in a way that would be useful in such a situation. Some of the questions my girlfriend has asked me over the years make me wonder if she'd make it out or not in a similar situation.

Shut the fugg up Larry. Woods are plenty safe if you know what you're doing.

Maybe YOU shouldn't go out in the woods alone, but the rest of us adults can.

THIS !!!
There is nowhere in the Pecos Wilderness (~ 222K acres) I could not walk out of in 3 days, max - going slowly enough to not hurt myself (sprain, broken leg, etc.)

A pretty good story here.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/us/missing-hiker-geraldine-largay-appalachian-trail-maine.html

...And this guy hiked this section of the trail, here's his blog complete with photos and map....

http://sectionhiker.com/section-hike-stratton-to-rangeley-on-the-maine-appalachian-trail/

The lady was on anti-anxiety meds and had no sense of direction. Most likely couldn't read a contour map either like any one of us could have to navigate even without a compass.

One gets the sense that, without a clear trail to follow, this lady was absolutely clueless in the woods. In hindsight this was a train wreck bound to happen once the trail got vague and the woods thick.

Still, this particular example of stupidity shouldn't have been a capital offense. All she endangered was herself.

I do feel sadness for her husband of 44 years, no mention of any kids. He had been her chase vehicle the whole way. I'll bet he was as clueless as she was.

Birdwatcher

I have hiked parts of the AT in NJ,NY & PA and have hunted the big woods of ME's Aroostook County. I know haw vague the trail can become in certain areas and have had a hunting partner get disoriented in the ME woods. So I can understand the situation, the surprising part to me is that the Warden Service's search failed to find her when she was only 1K yards off the trail. I would have thought the search would've extended that far to either side of the trail in the vicinity of her last known location. How her tent escaped detection by searchers in the air and on the ground is pretty puzzling too. There's more to the story especially since evidence seems to show she made little or no effort to extricate herself from her predicament. The BR story sounds really suspicious, I've never lost sight of the trail when I've had to answer nature's call.

That was one expensive [bleep].

Talk to anyone that has done the AT and they all say that New England in general and New Hampshire and Maine in particular aren't for the faint of heart.

No idea if it's possible to tell postmortem, especially given the reported condition of her remains, but at her age maybe she suffered from some level of dementia.

Six decades ago (in boy Scouts), I was told that one could generally survive 3 days without water and 30 days without food.

The moral of the story...

Does a bear schit in the woods?

Why yes. Yes, it does....ON THE TRAIL!


(Hint)

If she was stupid, so was everyone involved with her Search & Rescue. She was in a tent a half mile from the trail and none of the highly trained and experienced searchers ever found her. Maybe any of us would have made it out under the circumstances, maybe not. But we'll never know because none of us were there.

If it had been so easy for her to walk out, why didn't anyone walk in and save her? From the comments in this thread, I suspect few have ever experienced being well and truly lost

I think it would be hard to pass judgement without knowing all the facts like previous health history, possible injuries on the hike, ect. A couple of wrong turns, wet matches, a sprained ankle or broken limb and you can be toast in no time. We'd all like to think that we could make it out alive if in a similar situation but we might be surprised at how few of us would if faced with some setbacks.

A lot of people who are unfamiliar with the Eastern woods, the Applachians in particular, have no idea how thick the woods are. Pretty much everywhere is filled with rhododendron or mountain laurel, and foilage and vegetation otherwise so thick as to be unable to see more than 100 yards. The exception is during the winter when leaves are off the trees. Even then, there is more contour and relief in the geology than the Rocky Mtns. Long distance views are rare.
It is easy to get "turned around" if you venture off a trail. But a lot of the landscape is so think it is difficult to even travel unless there is a trail.

Having been out west, it is relatively easy to use a map and compass, do a small amount of triagulation and figure out where you are. Assuming that is, you have enough understanding to even use a map and compass. My way of thinking is rather than get lost, be constantly aware of where you ARE in the first place.

Having said that, it is bothersome that this person's death would be blamed on stupidity. Ignorance perhaps. Obviously she was woefully unprepared to be in the woods alone and certainly unprepared for an emergency.
Perhaps that is stupid.

Unlike out west, there is precious little landscape in the Applachians that is more than 10 miles from some type of road. Realistically you could shorten that distance to 5 miles. Walk in a relatively straight line and you're going to hit a trail or road in a few miles.

Sounds to me like she just was totally unprepared, ignorant and mentally, just shut down.

From an article:


I also read that her tent was black. It would have been almost impossible to spot it from the air in that stuff.

She suffered from anxiety attacks and her former hiking partner said she had a lousy sense of direction. If she didn't have a compass, it wouldn't be a bit hard for her to get just a little bit off the trail and freak out.

The brain can do some weird stuff when you're frightened. Years ago, one of my dad's co-workers got lost while hunting in so. Idaho. This is very open country compared to Maine. This guy was lost for about a week. He freaked out. He later said that at one point he stood on a ridge top and saw cars on a road below him but his brain was fried and he went the opposite direction.

Really? That is because you have never found a rotten skeleton.
When I was a paramedic, we had a guy go missing on the river. Found him 10 months later, he had been swept 8 miles downstream and snagged up on a log in the river. Still had the tennis shoe on but there was a skeleton foot inside. Blue jeans pretty much intact. A little dried muscle and gristle still on the skull, catfish had eaten his eyes.

That was 30 years ago and I am still trying to forget it.

Great article. Makes it obvious that she wasn't mentally up to the challenge. Weakness has it's consequences.

.......the brain can do weird stuff...

Guess we'll never know and there is much that makes no sense in this story.

It could be that the lady suffered a stroke of some sort. I have had a little experience with stroke affected people and they do odd things and they do not reason correctly. In one cases the person did not realize he had had a stroke. It was that everything "just got so confusing."

Maybe old folks need "minders."

TF

simonkenton7,

You are imputing to others your experience. I asked my daughter and son-in-law. My daughter got a little squeamish but my s-i-l said he felt about like me.

About forgetting it. I wouldn't try to forget it. It would be one of my unusual memories.

I've totally lost my sense of direction, twice, so I can see if she went off trail far enough not to be able to see trail, and wasn't paying attention, how she could get turned around quite easily. BUT still don't see how after that many days she wasn't able to walk into a trail or road some where.
And watching the northwoods show, there certainly was no lack of search effort put in to find her. Amazes me that with as much effort as they put in that they didn't find her. Almost makes me think she didn't want to be found.

TRnCO: Yes, it makes me think she didn't want to be found. Hell, she had a tent, she didn't have matches. Couldn't light a fire and burn it all night?

Very fishy story.

Article said there was evidence that she at least tried to start fires. Charred trees, etc, but not real specific on the details.

If they didn't know which section of the trail she was on, it would be more difficult to search thoroughly

The links birdwatcher provided give some very interesting insights. It would be interesting to see a topo map of the exact location her tent and body was found in relation to not only the a-trail, but as well as any roads located with in the water shed she was in.

I've been in places so thick a person could be within 20 feet and not be visible. Hell I've had trouble finding deer that I KNEW were just yards from me in the thick stuff.

If her tent hadn't of coincidently been directly in the site line of the surveyor she would still be out there....

Trail runs north South, Sun goes East to West (generally speaking) Should take no more than a sunrise to find your way.

Here's a map of the trail through ME. She was about 200 miles from it's end but that doesn't locate it very close. There's a lot of twisting and turning in there and on a larger scale map we'd see a lot more. She was last seen about 5 hrs before she left the trail at a shelter where some people took pics of her. She moved pretty slow so she was probably within 10 or 15 miles of the shelter when she got lost. Maybe someone on here can pinpoint the shelter for us.

I went to the Appalachian Trail conservancy web site and looked up the position of the shelter she stayed at the night before she got lost. From there I went to google earth and found the trail but that's all and just an approximation. From the ATC map with contours and the photo from google earth, It looks to me as though if she had pointed her toes down hill and walked, crawled, dragged herself about two miles DOWN HILL she'd have found a road. Period. I don't know what her problem was, and I'm sorry for the families grief.

The map kinda blows the trail running north and south deal.

Poplar ridge shelter. the trail seems to run east west on that section. Not far north and east of Saddleback ski area. The ATC site won't let me grap a pic.

I suspect most here have at one time or another been disoriented. I've had experiences in heavy snow/fog/darkness where I've inadvertently done a circle or not known my precise location. With knowledge of the terrain, however, I knew I'd eventually encounter fences, roads, streams, rims, drainages, ridge tops, railways, or even an ocean that would get me oriented.

I an area I've often frequented in dense fog, five bird hunters were once into their third day before being inadvertently found. If one does not consult a map in an unknown region, they likely have no knowledge of the features that can help them get oriented.

One would think most experienced hikers would equip themselves with such knowledge as well as the resources to endure or extricate themselves from such situations. Obviously this lady was short on knowledge and may not have had the will to survive either. Short of a journal, we will likely never know.

A lesser scale local situation from years ago: A traveling couple stopped on a winter's evening at one of our remote rest areas here in SE Oregon. The facility is nothing more than a fiberglass outhouse situated by a highway turnout accessing a huge sagebrush flat. One has to walk a path about 40 yards from the parking area to access the toilet. We were enduring a winter inversion with persistent fog and subzero temps. The lady exited the outhouse, missed the path in the fog and darkness, and wandered out into the elements to perish from hypothermia a couple miles out. Her mistake was she kept going as opposed to stopping to await a call or signal from her concerned spouse.

One does not leave the rig for a roadside toilet with a compass, map, GPS, sleeping bag, matches, and some shelter in hand. Still though, I can understand how even a trivial aside can have serious consequences in a remote area. Readings of some of the early Antarctic materials often mention near catastrophes for ventures involving only a few yards.

Back on subject though, it still seems amazing one could not reason there way out of the subject situation when they endured for so long.

Here's a map of the area. She spent the night at the Poplar Ridge lean-to. From the scale, she wasn't much over 2 miles from the shelter. It looks like she headed north on another ridge. She had crossed a road just before that.

Seen plenty of dead bodies in various states of decay, as wrll as skeletal remains...he'll even ordered take out over a few...they aren't a big deal

Floaters are the worst.

Mehh....kids were the worst


You just learned not to poke the floaters with sticks


Same as not rolling the ones that had been laying on the carpet for a week or so

Hind sight is always so much better.She should have done this and that.Bla,bla bla.

Rock Chuck:

Based on your images, I pulled up the PDF topo map and image (ME_Redington_20140930_TM_geo.pdf) from:

PDF map and image downloader site - USGS

Looks like a couple mile hike down and over to Redington Pond would have taken her to a road. South would have hit the Barnjam Rd. Images also suggest there's been a fair amount of human activity to the north and east.

Sad.

She could have gone in almost any direction and found something useful. Down would have been very good. This is one time when waiting for help was a poor choice. I think she just flipped out and couldn't reason it out.

Watch a few videos on youtube of AT thru-hikers documenting their journey and you'll get a better sense of how something like this could happen. Most try to go so light that they carry ZERO survival equipment. They carry a shelter and enough food to get them to the next town. That's it. I've seen posts on WhiteBlaze.net where they actually ridicule people for carrying a knife, compass, or fire-starter because it's "useless dead weight". Most thru-hikers carry less gear than I have in my pockets to go to work in an office.

I work with a guy that's thru-hiked the AT and he labels anyone who he sees on the trail with a belt knife as an idiot neophyte. Thru-hikers are no doubt a tough bunch, but they are definitely a different breed. They can lay down 20 miles a day, day after day, as long as it's on the trail. Throw most of them out in the woods with no marked trail and a lot of them would be just as lost as this lady was. They're not hunters who willing venture off into the unmarked wilderness like most responding to the thread. Of course, there are exceptions to every generalization.

I'm guessing her age and anxiety, along with the obvious lack of woodsmanship, played a large part in her demise.

She couldn't help it, she was born a woman. Most women= No common sense, No responsibility.

Ding, ding......winner.

Since everyone seems to have the bases covered pretty well on how she could easily have become legitimately lost, I'll throw out a few points on the conspiracy side of things by combining several of the already-put-forth possibilities.

First off, she died of starvation in only "26 days", but seemingly didn't expend any calories trying to help herself?

Secondly, how do we know it only took 26 days? I mean, is the only "evidence" the date in her journal? Could she not have post dated it?

Thirdly, although I'd never heard of a SPOT device, she had one, but apparently didn't activate it?

And, from Birdwatcher's NY Times link..



So we're dealing with an unstable woman on meds that could've run out or been intentionally overdosed on too.