2015, North Carolina
“Shortly after laying down for the night during a backpacking trip in the Nantahala Wilderness, we heard a howl that lasted 10-15 seconds, with a change of tone for the last few seconds. This howl could not have been mistaken for any other animal and sounded very similar to recordings of other howls. In the next 2 hours we both heard random whoops also. The next day while hiking we came across several very interesting signs along the trail. The first was spotting what looked like a game trail that crossed the hiking trail.
Upon closer inspection, the tracks in the well traveled trail clearly were not made by bear or any other four legged animal. The footprints on the trail had left deep impressions where the heel contacted the ground and footprints much larger than my foot were also seen. The distance between the tracks was approximately 5 feet on average and the depth of the tracks where the heel had sunk down was 3 plus inches.
The ferns and weeds in the trail that had been pressed down were still green and flat which made me think the tracks had been made within the past couple of days. I followed the trail in both directions for approximately 150 yards and the footprints remained consistent in both directions. After traveling the hiking trail further down the ridgeline for close to mile I spotted another trail that crossed the hiking trail. The footprints here were identical to what we saw at the first trail. I took pictures to gauge the depth and length of the prints. I found a stick on this trail that had blood on it.
I regret not keeping it for evidence to see what type of blood it was. The location of both trails had some similarities: both were located in gaps along the ridgeline and there was an unusually high amount of limbs and trees wedged in tree forks at both sites. One other strange observation made along the trail was finding 3 large white mushrooms placed upside down near the trails. One of these was on a rock and another was found on the trail while following the footprints. The area where we found these signs was the direction where we had heard the howl the night before.”
JOHN E
wow nice hike and way to go on finding prints …….#1
Karen C
Great experience, thanks for sharing…
PATRICK
Enjoyed the recounting. Thx.
Kenneth M
I hope he got GPS on the trail – seems like a good place to put a hidden camera or pressure sensitive activated camera. (sans the IR.)
If he or she like that path a worthwhile shot at getting some evidence too (hair. etc.)
David D
I see that this was either, posted, or written, on Feb. 2nd, 2015. Do we know if this was the actual date of these occurrence’s? If so, then how warm was it over there? I live in Wisconsin, and I can only say that mushrooms, don’t grow in winter. Our “shrooms”, stop growing by early fall, and that’s only in protected areas away from in-climate weather. I wonder what type of mushrooms were found. Death-caps, morel’s, puff-balls, or any one of the hundreds’ of other kinds? I prefer the morels’ to all others; delicious! But, they could have been the death-caps’, (angel of death), and maybe the old Boogers were just trying to get these folks to pick them up, or maybe even try one for lunch; then it would be “lights out”!! After that, these guys would be easier-pickins’ for the big smellies’! Speaking of that Appalachian trail, I don’t believe they ever found the lady named Gerry. Saw the episode on North-woods-Law. Gone-disappeared! Be careful out there! And some people wonder why the rest of us would shoot first, and eat our shrooms’, later.
Dave P
Foul play not suspected in death of missing Appalachian Trail hiker.
By Kathryn Miles GLOBE CORRESPONDENT OCTOBER 16, 2015
AUGUSTA, Maine — Bringing a somber close to a baffling case, Maine authorities said Friday that the remains had been found of Geraldine Largay, the hiker who vanished from the Appalachian Trail in western Maine in July 2013.
Largay was found in Redington Township, approximately 3,000 feet off the trail in an area within the boundaries of a US Navy survival school.
Maine Warden Service Lieutenant Kevin Adam said at a news conference that he did not suspect foul play. However, he said, he could not say for certain until the medical examiner’s office released its report.
“We felt all along that she somewhere got off the trail and was in a remote wooded area. We just needed to get the right resource in there,” he said.
Largay’s disappearance from the trail in a wilderness so harsh it is used to train the military had baffled authorities and generated a massive public response. The warden service launched one of the most extensive searches in its history, but was unable to find her.
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How could a woman just vanish?
On July 22, 2013, 66-year-old hiker Geraldine Largay stepped into the Maine woods and disappeared without a trace.
Largay, 66, of Brentwood, Tenn., was an experienced hiker whose trail moniker was “Inchworm.” She had completed nearly 1,000 miles of the 2,100-mile trail and planned to finish it that year.
Largay and her long-time friend and hiking partner, Jane Lee, began hiking the trail in Harper’s Ferry, W. Va., in April 2013. A family emergency forced Lee to abandon her hike in New Hampshire. Largay determined to continue alone.
An old back injury prevented Largay from carrying a heavy backpack so her husband, George, usually met her each night at trailheads, either to replenish her supplies or to take her to a motel.
Because the section of the trail where Largay went missing is so isolated, she and her husband decided it would be best for her to hike it unassisted, with Largay spending nights in trail shelters.
She was last seen at the Poplar Ridge lean-to by fellow hikers on Monday, July, 22, 2013.
She was supposed to stay out another night and meet her husband the next day.
It appears that she wandered off the trail approximately 2½ miles north of the shelter in an area used by the Navy’s Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School.
Adam said the area was clearly marked as Navy property. Public access is prohibited.
Her body was found Wednesday, along with a number of Largay’s belongings, by an independent contractor conducting an environmental survey on the Navy property.
Because of the location of her remains, a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent is working in conjunction with the warden service on the investigation.
Authorities said the family did not want to comment about the case.
“You never want a search to end this way,” Adam said. “Everybody wanted to find Gerry. It was a great effort and we’ll learn a lot from this search