I heard "feet" as well.
you left to walk the appalachian trail
you can feel your heart as smooth as a snail
the mountains your darlings
but better to love than have something to scale
-Girlyman, "Hold It All At Bay"
Yes I consider and have been trained to consider hypothermia as an illness or medical event. I should have qualified that statement to encompass "medical event". She would have just rockhopper Orbeton Stream that Monday. It was a dry day and by all accounts of hikers that Monday it was a rock hop. (As it was my thru hike). Hypothermia in July (I live here - Maine is the Arctic people like to make it, summers are hot) with access to fleece, sleeping bag and food & water (the last two just as important to stave off hypothermia) would be unlikely. But of course were she impaired as it appears she must have been due to other circumstances by Tuesday when it DID start to rain....this becomes much more of a possibility. Not using the whistle also suggests severe impairment. All we know is a whistle wasn't heard by anyone in the day and days after she disappeared. She may have tried it. How far can that be heard in thick terrain?Originally Posted by rickb
I doubt we'll get more answers to this and at least now we know where she ended up. This has been a big topic for two years here in Maine and it can partially be put to rest.
AT02, LT 03-04, BMT05, NPT06, Haute Route07, Abol Ridgerunner 07/08, EBC Nepal trek 10
A lot of ppl have a very poor sense of distance and spatial relations. If you're blessed to be strong in that area, patience comes in handy. I count myself fortunate in this regard - very pleased to be able to help others orient themselves when I come across them out on trail and they're a bit puzzled. It's a nice gift to be able to pass along.This does happen a lot and it's happened here, not sure who made the mistake yet, but I find it irritating how people seem to use feet/yards/meters interchangeably -- yes, even when people use yards and meters interchangeably bugs the hell out of me
Here, as I've said, if you drop a perpendicular from the A.T. corridor near the RR corridor crossing to the place where the remains were found, it comes out at about 1.3 miles. That's about 2333 yards or 7000 feet - quite a bit closer to 9000 feet/3000 yards than to 1000 yards/3000 feet. The spokesman seems to have said 3000 feet in the press conf - I only saw a three minute except of it on Youtube and missed that part, but Bluebearee doubtless is correct. Lots of room for human error in such endeavors.
The more miles, the merrier!
NH4K: 21/48; N.E.4K: 25/67; NEHH: 28/100; Northeast 4K: 27/115; AT: 124/2191
Yes, that remains unexplained.
Everything is in Walking Distance
Hypothermia can be a considerable problem, July in and of itself is no protection from it or its effects anywhere in the Northeastern mountains. Temperatures common to those mountains range from the 70s to mid 40s. The effects of hypothermia have caused more than a few people to not think or react well to various circumstances.
This could have been the result of perhaps a simple and perhaps most common trail error most all of us have made, walking off the trail. Perhaps the best example are what I call "monkey tails", when the trail takes a sharp turn or jog and animals or water have made it appear the trail goes the same direction you have been walking. On uphills, head down and in the "zone", its not hard to miss a blaze or the see turn of the trail, your eye will be looking forward and if the treadway is similar, you can easily keep going. Some of these monkey tails can look more like the trail than the actual trail does, go quite a ways off the trail, and leave you well into the forest without a real good idea of how to return because you don't know where you left the trail. Having experienced this a few times in the Maine wilderness, it can be exceptionally frightening and exhausting.
It does not take a long time for the effects of stress from being lost compounded by the effects of adrenaline and/or hypothermia to start conspiring. Even carrying the right gear, if you get to it late or are unable to get a fire going or generate internal warmth enough to stop the erosion of conscienceless the process can continue to its conclusion.
I am not saying this is what happened, only that its well within the realm of possibility given what we now know. More facts are likely forthcoming that will paint a more accurate picture of what occurred that day. Much like pilots and how aviation delves into incidents and accidents, hikers are rather similar. Our body of knowledge is populated with the experiences of others both good and bad.
I'm not betting against your estimation; I still see it as a very real possibility. What you were looking at was definitely better than what I've looked at -- I'm not even going to hazard a guess based on what I've seen.
Anyone with Google Earth on a laptop can draw a line like I describe. It's one of the options in the toolbar across the top. Having clicked on the "draw a path" icon, you then draw whatever path you want, straight or curliqued or what-have-you. I did this, draw a line from point A to point B as described and got the result I shared. Try it - it's fun. Can be a fun way, for instance, to estimate the steepness of a certain slope, such as Beaver Brook Trail on Moosilauke or Hunt Trail on Katahdin. (1500 foot rise in about a mile is about a 30% grade, for example.)
The more miles, the merrier!
NH4K: 21/48; N.E.4K: 25/67; NEHH: 28/100; Northeast 4K: 27/115; AT: 124/2191
I have seen and heard two different measurements from two different points between the press conference yesterday and printed statements. Due to the difficulty in hearing the questions from the live press conference, I have no idea which is what.
What I have read/heard is:
3000 feet was used both times the number was referenced. The conference said 3,000 feet from the trail, the published statement said 3,000 feet from the eastern shore of Redington Pond.
100 yards was used, I heard both measurements used to describe the distance from the eastern pond shore and distance from the AT.
Certainly is some conflict there. According to the map, it would seem 100 yards from the trail and 3000 feet from the pond shore fits, but without a scale of measure accurate to their map, its only an impression.
perhaps worth noting is that railroad in the direction of the sere facility is not noted on the hiking maps, so the intersection you encounter there does not match what you are expecting, i can see how that might contribute to someone getting lost, wandering up railroad road thinking it was the AT and then stumble upon an informal path up mt redington.
as i said way back when i first heard about the existence of the sere facility, the way the maps handle that area like there just isnt even anything there is strange.
I didn't know Gerry, but everything I've read leads me to believe she liked routine. Not surprising since she was also a nurse. She might not have had much experience off-trail, but she struck me as someone who would probably have handled the matter with level-headed thinking. She didn't strike me as someone who would have needlessly kept wandering in the hopes of finding the trail. She was someone who liked routines and plans. She was someone who had a husband and kids and grandchildren to go home to.
For whatever reason, she ended up off trail - Easy enough to do in Maine with all the game trails leading here and there. It is also easy to get turned around once you are off-trail. Regardless she was off trail. IF she was injured, or encountering illness/ hypothermia (if she was in a sleeping bag & tent, she was not in mid or late stages of hypothermia because she would not be thinking clearly enough) then it actually makes sense to put herself on SERE property in the hopes someone would happen to come by and help her out of her predicament.
The scenario I see is that once she found herself off trail (and realized it), she did the best she could to put herself in a position to be found. If this is the case, it worked. Unfortunately, just not soon enough. If she was in a sleeping bag and tent, it is possible that she was getting out of the elements and attempting to get herself safe and warm until daylight when the situation could be reassessed. In the meantime, if someone happens by on patrol, then maybe she gets helped that much faster.
There is a well marked/obvious yellow blaze trail that heads off from railroad road to the north east directly to the spot where she was found (spot = 100 yard area) If she headed north on railroad road after getting to its intersection from the AT she could have possibly tried this trail to reconnect with the AT or some other mistaken strategy. Going north on railroad road is far more appealing than south as its more wide open and inviting and you don't see the AT there from a casual glance. She would have had to walk past a navy base sign but might have been looking at her cell at the time for a signal. Its a common area for cell phones to receive messages. As a side note and I think I mentioned it, the forest here is the exact opposite of dense. Its old growth as mention in the media articles. For those who know what old growth is, it isn't dense forest in this spot. Nearer Poplar Ridge it is. Just some thoughts.
I recall men's bodies being found inside their tents close to other trails through the years. They had succumbed to coronary problems. Inchworm would have recognized such problems if they began, and all might have thought that the best course would have been to lie down and rest until they had passed. (Not herself passed but the symptoms she might have been feeling.) Being a cautious woman, she might have walked to get out of sight because we are all aware that we must not be visible alone in the woods as single women of any age. That thought makes sense to me. What does not make sense to me is, if she was feeling unable to hike on that day, why did she not just sit down on the trail waiting for another hiker to come along and give her aid? We have read that she was in a very affable mood, laughing and talking at the shelter, before taking off that morning. She had every reason to believe as early as she reached the vicinity of the location at which she was found that other hikers would show up. And, indeed, they probably did walk past where she left trail. Forensic experts are probably having a lot of speculative conversations today about this one.
You never know just what you can do until you realize you absolutely have to do it.
--Salaun
also worth considering is how long it would take even a very slow hiker to hike from poplar ridge shelter to the spot she was found by going on the AT and turning off at the nearest point to her location. it would seem unlikely she walked directly there. she may have been lost for some time and ended up where she ended up, maybe that wasnt even until the next day, who knows.
i suspect the intersection with the railroad and/or the stream crossing to be where she lost the trail. i remember being confused there for a second myself. i also agree, my recollection of that area is that the forest around oberton stream is atypically un-dense.
I think this happened. She got lost and it really can be hard to find the trail again once you are lost. Everything looks the same. When you are hopelessly lost, you will do anything to be found. She sees the signs for private land and figures that's her best of rescue, that if the land is that well marked, there has a to be rescue, shelter, a road nearby. She sees the lake, even better odds of being spotted and rescued plus a water source. Then a medical event happened, could be traumatic that prevented her from moving, could be a heart attack.... Sad, but the family now has closure.
I hear you, but I want to see official clarification of this. They say the remains were found about 3,500 ft of the easterly shore of Redington Pond; however, they don't really specify how close to the AT this was. https://www.facebook.com/mainefishwi...53675512983609
From best I can tell (depending on what part of the pond you go east, blah, blah, blah... that doesn't put her remains 3,000 yards off trail. At least it doesn't when I use the interactive map on the ATC website, but when I use my AT map at home I can see her being much further off trail. I'm not sure if trusting google would be better or not, rather see official clarification.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine...TWM/story.html This section of the trail... Do any of you experienced thru hikers know.. is the trail is not well marked? Could she have got disoriented off the trail and got hurt without cell phone service?
I think that's a likely scenario. Lost, maybe injured or sick. I've taken a wrong turn before and I just pushed on until I came to some people who told me my current location, and it was a LONG way from the trail I had been on. If I were lost and maybe having a medical emergency, I might just go onto posted property hoping to be found.
"You're a nearsighted, bitter old fool."
Correction:
They say the remains were found about 3,500 ft EAST of the easterly shore of Redington Pond...
Zooming in on the picture provided and spotting that on the ATC map, the spot is just about exactly 3500 ft east of the pond as reported. This puts her about 2200 ft from the trail.
inchworm3.JPG
inchworm1.JPG
inchworm2.JPG
Yeah, that's about the point I was measuring from, very near the dam.
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