She was also a nurse.
I did not know her but I'm posting this as I know there are people here who use AT.
Take care in your travels wherever you may be.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/us/mising-hiker-geraldine-largay-appalachian-trail-maine.html?_r=0
Geraldine Largay’s Wrong Turn: Death on the Appalachian Trail
By JESS BIDGOODMAY 26, 2016
I did not know her but I'm posting this as I know there are people here who use AT.
Take care in your travels wherever you may be.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/us/mising-hiker-geraldine-largay-appalachian-trail-maine.html?_r=0
Geraldine Largay’s Wrong Turn: Death on the Appalachian Trail
By JESS BIDGOODMAY 26, 2016
- The Boston Globe, is a detailed accounting of one of the biggest search operations in this state’s history that offers a glimpse of Ms. Largay’s monthlong fight for survival, and her calm preparation for the end. Rescuers have said they believe they came maddeningly close to Ms. Largay — perhaps as near as 100 yards — but, in Maine’s impermeable forests, even that distance might as well be miles away.
Ms. Largay had started the Appalachian Trail at its midpoint, in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., with a companion, Jane Lee, earlier that year. It is common practice for thru-hikers to take on a name for the trail, and Ms. Largay chose “Inchworm.” She could not carry the heavy backpacks required for a long-term trek, so her husband followed the two women by car, meeting them with supplies or taking them to a motel to rest or shower.
Ms. Lee was called away from the hike when the two women were in New Hampshire, but Ms. Largay was determined to press on. On July 23, she was to meet Mr. Largay where the trail intersected with Route 27, a welcome respite after the rough terrain, studded with mountain peaks, of the previous two days. There would be fewer than 200 miles left before the end of the trail, at Mount Katahdin. But Ms. Largay never arrived; Mr. Largay reported her missing the next morning.
According to the case file, Ms. Largay knew she was lost the day before she was supposed to meet her husband. On July 22, she attempted to text him, but the message was never delivered, probably because of bad reception.
“In somm trouble,” read the message. “Got off trail to go to br. Now lost. Can u call AMC to c if a trail maintainer can help me. Somewhere north of woods road. Xox.”
The following day, she tried to text again.
“Lost since yesterday,” Ms. Largay wrote. “Off trail 3 or 4 miles. Call police for what to do pls. Xox.”
By July 26, the Maine Warden Service had established a command post at Sugarloaf Mountain, a nearby ski resort, and said 60 game wardens and trained searchers, plus a helicopter, were looking for Ms. Largay. The following day, the service called on hikers by their trail names, like “Marathon,” “Crunchmaster,” and “.com/Queen,” hoping to ask if they had seen her, and requested that the area’s bear baiters be vigilant. A statement said 130 people were looking for Ms. Largay that day.
On Aug. 4, with no sign of her, the search was scaled back.
Ms. Largay’s remains were found last October, about 3,000 yards away from the trail, in a private area the military uses for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training. An autopsy confirmed that she died of exposure and a lack of food, according to The Portland Press Herald.
“These findings are conclusive in that no foul play was involved,” said her family, in a statement at the time, “and that Gerry simply made a wrong turn.”
