Bluebearee, thanks for the search map. If this map shows the searches completed by the Maine Warden Service, then it would seem to indicate that they did search on SERE property.
Someone needs to look into getting a refund on their search dogs.Originally Posted by MaineWriter
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobrogers/
Hopeful 2018 Thru-Hiker
http://appalachiantrials.com/author/bob-rogers/
The different colors represent the different search teams and who "owned" it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobrogers/
Hopeful 2018 Thru-Hiker
http://appalachiantrials.com/author/bob-rogers/
If I recall correctly, during the time she went missing there was some severe rain, which would make it more difficult for the dogs to pick up the scent. In hindsight, perhaps if she had had a Spot or similar device and activated it, she probably would have had a much better chance of being found sooner. We don't know cause of death yet, and may never, so the ultimate outcome may not have been any different. Not promoting Spot or PLB's here, just thinking out loud.
"That's the thing about possum innards - they's just as good the second day." - Jed Clampett
Occams razor
3000 ft is too far for someone that knows they're off the trail and expects to be missed and searched for rapidly
3000 ft is too close for someone that wanders for more than maybe 30 to 45 minutes
it had to be a disorienting medical condition or foul play
I dunno if I buy that. There are lots of people found miles from where they should be. For the first 30-45 minutes I personally am still trying to find my way back to whatever it was I lost. Somewhere after about an hour of presumably wandering in close to circles I may only be 1/2 a mile straight line from where I am supposed to be. Foolish maybe but thus far it's worked for me as I'm still kicking and breathing. Note: I've only been "seriously" lost once. Even then I knew I'd cross a major road by simply walking east which is exactly what I did.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobrogers/
Hopeful 2018 Thru-Hiker
http://appalachiantrials.com/author/bob-rogers/
"Simply walking east" may not be that simple in dense woods, particularly on a cloudy day.
Hey!!! Careful there. When I bought mine 20 years ago used I swore I am (and have) wearing that expensive bastard everywhere until I died then my wife's new boy friend could wear it! <laughing>
ROLEX
This seems right to me. The last time I was actually "lost" was on the AT in NY (I'm ashamed to admit), about five years ago. And I ended up walking a couple of miles in the wrong direction before I figured out where I was. Admittedly, not the same kind of terrain (by a long shot). But 3000 feet off trail is just a little over half a mile, very easy to do, especially in rainy conditions and when one is maybe not an experienced navigator.
All this speculation is normal, I guess, but disconcerting. (And here I am doing it, too.) It's sad that she died. I feel for her family and friends. That's about there is, at this point.
all...........
A I recall, from the book about Grandma Gatewood, she got off the trail a good ways and was lost for a few days. Search parties could not find her, but she ultimately found her way back to the trail on her own. That was also in Maine.
Didn't a female someone call Whitewolf inn and say she wasn't going to meet her husband when she was expected? Cell service there sucks, so I doubt it was Mrs Largo who called. I still suspect foul play.
Tundra,
A BIG THANK YOU for let us all know the updates. Very sad news but at least her family will find closure.
V/R
Keith
they do hold value....I sold a submariner for $1,000 more than I paid for it 10 years earlier!!!
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Occam's razor has never meant to be a way to come up with a conclusive answer, by its very logic it can not come up with a conclusive answer, it is only starting point speculative answer as a baseline.
Too many take Occam's razor as the defacto answer, while it is only a tool on the way to finding the answer.
That call always bothered me, but the Wardens Service did not think it suspicious.. I am sure they know more than me.
Boy, did you get your facts WRONG!!
> Didn't a female someone call Whitewolf inn and say she wasn't going to meet her husband when she was expected?
> Cell service there sucks, so I doubt it was Mrs Largo[sic] who called
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/15...e=2#TOPCONTENT
It wasn't the White Wolf Inn -- it was the Stratton Motel.
It clearly WASN'T Largay, and nobody has ever said it was.
The motel employee didn't get the name or location of the person who did call, and couldn't tell anything from the person's voice.
For all we know, the caller (if there was one) could have come off The Trail and phoned from a pay phone.
No hiker who even COULD have made the call has ever been identified.
The extent to which the original call, or the recollection of the original call, simply got the facts wrong, is unknown. For starters, Largay couldn't possibly have been at that lean-to on Tuesday.
No wonder she wasn't found until now.
This map shows she was found on the side of a steep hill, well off the trail and she would have had to cross two streams. The trail follows along one of the streams for a while at the middle of the decent coming off of Spaulding Mt.
With it raining and water coming down the trail as it always does when it rains, she might have made the first stream crossing by accident. Then for some unknown reason she kept heading in the wrong direction until falling into a boulder trap which did her in. Maybe what she thought was a trail was actually a moose path.
Follow slogoen on Instagram.
I was thinking a false path as well. She comes down the hill from the shelter, crosses the stream, heads up a very steep rise to the Railroad road, then, a bit winded, takes a wrong turn towards the SERE facility, or alternatively, intentionally tries to bail out in that direction. Remember, that at that point she is going to be "late" because of the difficult terrain shortening her first day out, so a bail out is not out of the question.
Eventually she takes a path up (if in doubt, the trail is up, right?), but it is Reddington Mountain, not the Appalachian Trail. Maybe there was a sign for the SERE facility, so the moose (or other) path looked attractive at the time. There, she climbs a few hundred feet up, and has an accident or a medical issue.
I'm not thinking foul play, as she was found quite a long way up from the Railroad road.
I'm glad she was found so that her family and friends can have closure. I just wish the search would have ended differently.
AT 2000 miler: 2011-2014 (via section hikes)
Camino de Santiago -- April/May 2016 (Camino Frances from Saint Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela)
CDT New Mexico sections next???
During the press conference I thought I overheard one of the reporters asking about a tent. They chose not to elaborate at this time (I suspect to give the family time to start their grief process), but the Brentwood Home Page reports that Gerry was found inside her tent. Perhaps she realized she was in trouble and tried to make camp? Regardless, I am relieved to know her friends and family can stop the wondering about where she is. It is probable that they will never have all the answers, but at least they now have a chance at closure and peace.
http://www.brentwoodhomepage.com/mis...4#.ViGqQSuNAnI
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