Two Year Old Mystery Solved,

L

leghog

Joined
Aug 10, 2013
Messages
8,038
If you don't know what you are doing, don't go into the backcountry by yourself. "POOR SENSE OF DIRECTION", "IN OVER HER HEAD". Left trail to piss or crap. Got lost. Died less than a mile from what is probably the best marked trail on the planet. How in the heck do you even get that far off the trail to use the bathroom?

"She was afraid of being alone and prone to anxiety, a diminutive 66-year-old woman with a poor sense of direction, hiking the Appalachian Trail by herself, ....."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/u...n-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=2
 
Still a mystery to me. Even if you get lost, how far can you be away from the trail if you just go for a pee? Why didn,t she just just walk 10min in one dirction, and in case of not getting back on the trail, return to the starting point and try for another direction? Golden rule , when lost stop and think first. Tragic.
 
Sad story.
I am sure many AT hikers have limited skills. She was being supported by her husband and his SUV meeting her along the trail. Before that she had a companion.
Seems she really never committed herself to the fact she was in the wilderness. She began texting as soon as she was lost, as if she would have help coming like calling 911.
Even along the AT, Maine has some rugged wilderness. Many other parts of the AT are quite "urban" crossing roads and entering towns along the way.
She should have quit when her hiking companion bailed or at least hooked up with other Thru-Hikers.
BLOW THAT WHISTLE if you are in trouble. The searchers were within a 100 yards several times.
 
I think the well marked "safety of the trails" misleads many people into thinking they are NOT in any danger and that there is no risk. Even at the closest park to me, Petit Jean- which is not big by any standards, maybe 12 miles in diameter with trails all through it- you can still wind up a mile or two off trail and risk not being found or at least spending the night before you can get your bearings. Yet I see people walking with no backpack, no first aid, MAYBE 1 water bottle. All it takes is one broken ankle a half mile down a trail and you could be stuck until somebody looks for you, I don't get it. I get strange looks when I have a backpack full of water and first aid, like I'm doing something weird.
 
Ml100, in close country, even with a bearing, that sort of star-pattern zigg-zagg probably got her into that situation. Its a tragedy that seems very preventable. I can imagine its a hard pill for the search teams, who will now be reviewing what happened and trying to figure out how to avoid it happening again. I can understand how she got lost. What I can't understand is how she stayed lost.
 
People who realize they are lost and panic begin to think and act with no reason or logic !! This is a major reason for the "buddy system " !!
 
i have pulled people back on trail that were lost or lost the trail and wandered off a on to a game trail,
panic is what did her in
 
AdamFuzzyballs said:
I think the well marked "safety of the trails" misleads many people into thinking they are NOT in any danger and that there is no risk. Even at the closest park to me, Petit Jean- which is not big by any standards, maybe 12 miles in diameter with trails all through it- you can still wind up a mile or two off trail and risk not being found or at least spending the night before you can get your bearings. Yet I see people walking with no backpack, no first aid, MAYBE 1 water bottle. All it takes is one broken ankle a half mile down a trail and you could be stuck until somebody looks for you, I don't get it. I get strange looks when I have a backpack full of water and first aid, like I'm doing something weird.
Click to expand...

I used to visit Petit Jean in Arkansas all the time for weekend camp outs. Love that little park.

I think the back pack thing on short trails is something that has developed as a half way standard in the last 20 years. I am usually loaded down with camera gear and frequently did not carry anything other than camera stuff with me for years. But it is a relative thing... on distance. Now, if I hike a 5 mile trail, I have water, first aid, a gun, knife, compass and if their is any possible rain, a poncho + the camera gear.

I suspect there is something wrong with this woman mentally if she got lost this easily and for weeks to boot. They called her "inchworm" for a reason. Who would want to hike with her other than her friend? If you are not paying attention, you can cross a trail and not realize it especially if you are a bit scared.
 
I was working a seismic site with a pretty tight resolution, I can't quite remember but I think it was 10m shots on 20m lines, with crossing lines every 100m, something like that. An older gent, who had grown up in the woods tried to cross from one line to the next, so not far, but when he got to the line, his crew were not where he thought they should be. The lines were mulcher cut, so pretty clear visibility along them. He was in radio contact with them, tried to cross back to his starting point, and then close in on his crew by the sound of their chainsaws. At this point no one has seen the guy for 45 minutes and we are about to send the helo for a search pass, he turns up on a line that has been tagged, so he can use that to pinpoint his location (the drilled holes are tagged and numbered) he was a line back behind his start point, and quite a distance from the crossing line where his crew was. But he was sure he hadn't crossed more than one line. 20 meters was all it took to get off course, and somehow either he hit a narrow spot in the cleared line, or the fresh show hid the mulch, not sure, but he was way off course. Navigating by the sun, and on a cut grid. he should have not been able to leave that wooded block, but somehow he ended up far off course.
 
Article also mentioned she suffered from anxiety and panic attacks, and took medication to treat it. Betting that just added to some poor decision making.
 
Halfneck said:
Article also mentioned she suffered from anxiety and panic attacks, and took medication to treat it. Betting that just added to some poor decision making.
Click to expand...

She also seems rather un-independent. Hiking with a partner most of the way... Having her husband meet her every couple of days... Needing other hikers to point out which way to go...
Maybe it was her personality, age, unpreparedness and inexperience... or maybe a total mis-characterization on my part?
But that would explain why she chose to sit for a month and starve to death rather than get herself out of there.

Some news articles say her gear was found a mile or two miles from the trail. She herself though she was 3 or 4 miles from the trail. But published maps like these show it was only a quarter-mile or less.

map2-horiz[1].jpg


locationmap_600.jpg


largay_topo_map.jpg


Had she walked north or uphill, she'd of been on top some large peaks where her cell phone might have worked.
Had she walked south or east, she would have rejoined with the trail.
Had she walked west or downhill, she'd of hit a major drainage with a creek and mapped road.
Had she followed the often-repeated advice, "Walk downstream until you come to something", she'd of hit the trail. Missing that somehow, there's a road bridge a few miles down. And for easy hiking, there's a gravel road running parallel to the stream.

Any of those would have been logical choices. But to sit and wait indefinitely for someone to come to the rescue? Forget that. If I can help myself, I'm gonna do it.

In fact she was surrounded in every direction by paved highways, within 5-10 miles in most directions.

Makes me wonder how detailed her hiking maps were.
 
Last edited:
FYI, the locations on the map marked "Redington" and "Redington Pond" are a military SERE training facility. You can bet they have someone on security 24/7. A caretaker at least.
It wouldn't be my first choice for a place to ask for casual hiking directions. But after a week of sitting, freezing, and starving... I'm going.
 
Its like what John Wiseman wrote in his survival guide, if getting rescued means burning down a power pole, at the very least someone will be coming to find you. Even if there isn't much security, tripping a camera or sensor would be a priority. hell I'd be making sure it could see my face, then making sure it went off-line so someone comes to yell at me.

If she had no compass, and no training in direction finding, who knows how many times she tried to walk out and came back to the same clearing? Did she have detailed maps, or just "trail" maps?

Here is always less scary than there. I've had so many kids freaked out at height who won't let go because where they are is still better than moving forward, even if forward is getting to the ground. As sad as it is, she found her adventure and it got the better of her in a big way. hopefully along the way she found what she was looking for out there.

I can't imagine how badly the SAR guys are tearing themselves apart over this. Calling the search a with a week left, gotta be really hurting someone right now. I just don't understand with such a small search area how they didn't have the resources to cover it? what would it have taken to get a larger crew out there? I get the national guard can't be on every search, but after a couple weeks, you'd think someone could OK a bigger crew?
 
Tragic... It is really common for the elderly to get lost. When I was in High school we would do a lot of dirtbike camping. At the trail head there was a subdivision/golf course that was marketed toward the elderly. It was common for us to get flagged down by pensioners who got lost and couldn't find their way back home.

One weekend we were doing a winter camp up near the watershed. Between Port Moody and Squamish... Extremely unforgiving in winter. It was kilometers off the trail and it was not easy trekking. Frozen ice on the branches masked the trails, very low light and dangerous. It must have been around 3am and we heard all this noise in the dead silent night. We shot a few rounds into the air as we thought is was a Grizzly not hibernating. that's when the calls for help came.

Turned out to be an enderly Europen couple that were lost. They went for a short day hike and were not prepared at all. They were hypothermic and near colapse. We called in the SAR team to meet us along the trail. Carrying them to the trail marker to meet the rescue guys took hours.
 
It is tragic. The pictures of her and her husband make her look like a really nice person. I feel for her husband especially. I believe I would really like to read her journal to better understand what was going on in her head.

When you look at the map (Bob W's), getting lost and dying on a mountain side without being seriously injured seems a bit ridiculous outside of winter. There were a number of easy choices even if she had no idea after getting totally lost at this point which direction was which and totally panicked. You aren't likely to stay in a disabling panic for a couple days. At some point, you would settle down. This didn't need to happen and that makes it more tragic.
 
I have been walking in the Lake District where there can be some foul weather
There are folk walking the Coast to Coast and wondering off having to be warned not to go

I live in an centuries old mountain town in the Galilean Hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee
Lots of old trails and springs around here
All my four Girls know how to hike a trail
When they were little they knew well what to do if lost
If you get lost sit down in the shade and wait
Then whistle three at a time and wait
They all have a flashlight, whistle and Classic SAK on their keychain
 
neeman said:
I live in an centuries old mountain town in the Galilean Hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee
Lots of old trails and springs around here
Click to expand...
My son spend a couple of months the last two summers in Israel and will depart for there in a couple of weeks for another six weeks. He loves getting on the trails there when he can.
 
leghog said:
My son spend a couple of months the last two summers in Israel and will depart for there in a couple of weeks for another six weeks. He loves getting on the trails there when he can.
Click to expand...

I am in Safat above Wadi Amud on the Israel Train
Be in contact
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top