text: Appalachian Trail hiker Geraldine Largay survived for nearly a month after getting lost along the trail in Franklin County in July 2013, and documented her final days in a journal that was among the personal effects found by the Maine Warden Service when it recovered her remains more than two years later. 
   
   The journal entries, as well as text messages she tried to send her husband on a cellphone that also was recovered, were among documents released Wednesday by the warden service that paint a picture of a slight misadventure that turned tragic when a massive search-and-rescue effort scoured the vast area in vain. 
   
   Excerpts from warden service report 
   
   “When you find my body, please call my husband George and my daughter Kerry,” Largay wrote in a journal entry dated Aug. 6. “It will be the greatest kindness for them to know that I am dead and where you found me – no matter how many years from now. Please find it in your heart to mail the contents of this bag to one of them.” 
   
   Problems began for Largay, a 66-year-old hiker from Brentwood, Tennessee, when she got lost after leaving the trail for a bathroom break while heading north en route to the Spaulding lean-to on July 22, 2013. At 11 a.m., she used her blue Samsung phone to text her husband: “In somm trouble. 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.” 
   
   But the message wouldn’t transmit because there was no cell coverage in the area. She tried sending the text 10 more times over the next hour and a half. 
   
   The next day, walking west through the dense and vast woods of northern Franklin County, seeking a higher elevation in the hopes of getting a cellphone signal, she tried texting her husband again at 4:18 p.m.: “Lost since yesterday. Off trail 3 or 4 miles. Call police for what to do pls. Xox.” 
   
   She tried sending it again 20 minutes later. Still nothing. 
   
   At that point, Largay decided her best chance of survival would be staying put. She set up a tent on a bed of pine needles and sticks, and wrote in a journal every day for at least the next 18 days. A final entry was dated Aug. 18 – 26 days after she set up camp. 
   
   The warden service found Largay’s remains and her campsite more than two years later, detailing the search-and-recovery effort in a report on Nov. 12, 2015, that was part of a 1,579-page case file obtained Wednesday by the Morning Sentinel. The warden service’s case file, which was first reported by the Boston Globe, contains hundreds of pages of evidence photographs, witness interviews and tips. 
   
   Largay kept the journal and her cellphone in a bag that was recovered by the warden service after a forester came across her tent and skeletal remains and led wardens to the site on Oct. 15, 2015. The warden service had not previously disclosed that a journal had been found there. 
   
   Warden service spokesman Cpl. John MacDonald declined to comment Wednesday when asked about the report and its contents. 
   
   David Fox, a friend of the Largay family who has previously acted as a spokesman, did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday. 
   
   A SINGLE CLUE TO GO ON 
   
   Largay, a through-hiker nicknamed “Inchworm,” started on the 2,184-mile Appalachian Trail in West Virginia in April with a friend, Jane Lee. 
   
   Largay’s husband of 42 years, George Largay, told police that the trail, which starts at Springer Mountain in Georgia and ends at Mount Katahdin in Maine, was on his wife’s “bucket list” and that he had supported the women along the way, meeting them at different locations and taking them to motels to sleep, do their laundry and shower. 
   
   Lee had to leave the trail because of a family emergency, and Largay decided to continue on alone. Her husband reported her missing on July 24, 2013, after she failed to show up at a prearranged meeting point on state Route 27 in Wyman Township. That was two days after she was last seen by other hikers early on July 22, at the Poplar Ridge lean-to. 
   
   Largay died in her sleeping bag inside a zipped tent, according to a report from the chief medical examiner released in January. She died from a lack of food and water and environmental exposure, the report said. 
   
   She was about 2 miles from the Appalachian Trail, on land belonging to the U.S. Navy. The warden service, volunteer groups, police and others looked for Largay over 26 months, and the search is considered one of the most lengthy and expensive in state history. 
   
   “Investigation would take time to work through several false leads, false identifications, and locating and finding hikers who had valuable information and continued to hike the trail,” Lt. Kevin Adam of the warden service wrote in his report filed Nov. 12, 2015. 
   
   After seven days of intense searching, the effort was suspended on July 30, 2013, though periodic efforts would continue over the coming months. 
   
   A photo of Largay taken at the Poplar Ridge lean-to by another hiker was the single clue that investigators had to go on. 
   
   “There were many leads over the next 26 months, ranging from persons of interest for possible criminal activity related to Gerry’s disappearance, identity theft involving Gerry’s personal information, geographic information by psychics, sightings in different states, to information suggesting Bigfoot was responsible for her disappearance,” Adam wrote in his report. “All of these leads were investigated with our investigative partners.” 
   
   The forester, who was working on a contract for the U.S. Navy, came across Largay’s tent and remains on Oct. 11, 2015. 
   
   POOR SENSE OF DIRECTION 
   
   Though Largay’s family and friends described her as an experienced hiker, the wardens’ case file indicated she had a poor sense of direction, and when she made a mistake would become easily flustered. 
   
   Lee, who described herself as Largay’s best friend, told the wardens about multiple occasions when she had to backtrack on the trail to find her hiking companion. In those cases, Largay had either become lost or had fallen behind, Lee told investigators. Lee also said her friend was scared of the dark and of being alone, and never wanted to bring extra supplies because she had a sore back and wanted to avoid carrying a heavy pack. 
   
   Lee, who didn’t respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday, told the wardens that she was certain Largay’s husband wasn’t aware of her struggles, and he too told them that “Gerry was probably in over her head.” 
   
   On Oct. 18, 2015, Adam and other game wardens met with Largay’s husband and other family members to show them where Largay was found, arriving at the site after hiking through thick softwood trees along the Appalachian Trail, into more open terrain with hardwoods, past old logging roads, down and up steep ridges and over brooks. 
   
   “After everyone finished looking around the campsite, the family left a cross where the tent was located along with several family mementos,” Adam wrote. “After clearing the campsite, we headed south.” 
   
   Share 
   
   Want the news vital to Maine? Our daily headlines email is delivered each morning. Email * 
   
   Newsletter Choices * Daily Headlines and Evening Express Breaking News Business Headlines Maine Cannabis Report High School Sports Real Estate 
   
   * I understand the Terms of Service. 
   
   Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. 
   
   This iframe contains the logic required to handle Ajax powered Gravity Forms. ||||| The haunting note, dated Aug. 6, 2013, was written on a torn-out page from a journal. 
   
   “When you find my body, please call my husband George and my daughter Kerry. It will be the greatest kindness for them to know that I am dead and where you found me — no matter how many years from now. Please find it in your heart to mail the contents of this bag to one of them.” 
   
   The bag included a cellphone and the journal. 
   
   Advertisement 
   
   Geraldine Largay wrote the plaintive message to her family nearly two weeks after she went missing while hiking the Appalachian Trail in Western Maine, according to the official file on her disappearance released Wednesday by the Maine Warden Service. 
   
   Get Fast Forward in your inbox: Forget yesterday's news. Get what you need today in this early-morning email. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here 
   
   It appears that Largay, who was 66 and lived in Tennessee, survived for nearly four weeks after she was reported missing and three weeks after authorities had given up the search, which was one of the largest in Maine Warden Service history. 
   
   Rescuers at several times came within 100 yards of her, authorities said. But her body was not found until October 2015. 
   
   In the wardens’ file, which totals 1,579 pages, authorities said they believed that Largay went off the trail to use the bathroom and couldn’t find her way back. The site is densely wooded and in an area so remote it’s used by the Navy for survival and evasion training. 
   
   The file also says wardens found evidence that Largay attempted to text her husband after becoming lost, but the crucial texts were not delivered because of poor cell reception. 
   
   Advertisement 
   
   In a text sent at 11:01 a.m. on July 22, 2013, Largay said, “In somm trouble. 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.” 
   
   At 4:18 p.m. on July 23, 2013, after spending her first night lost in the forest, she texted George, “Lost since yesterday. Off trail 3 or 4 miles. Call police for what to do pls. XOX.” 
   
   She attempted additional texts. According to the wardens, the last activity on her phone was dated Aug. 6, 2013, the day she wrote the note to her family. 
   
   The last entry in her journal is dated Aug. 18, meaning she apparently survived at least 26 days after she disappeared. 
   
   The wardens concluded that Largay made her way to higher ground in an attempt to get better cell coverage. She established a campground on a knoll. 
   
   Advertisement 
   
   She set up her tent and made use of both her rain gear and an emergency Mylar blanket. 
   
   She appeared to have crafted a flag out of a branch and shirt and attempted to start a large fire, according to the newly released file, presumably to reveal her location. 
   
   Largay built a latrine area away from her tent and kept wrappers from her dwindling food supply — Clif bars, tuna fish packs, and Gatorade powder — tucked in a large Ziploc bag. 
   
   Wardens found a rosary among her possessions. She was just a 10-minute walk from a dirt trail that turns into a road. She died from a lack of food and environmental exposure.​ 
   
   Largay’s family requested privacy Wednesday while they took the time to read the file in depth. 
   
   John MacDonald, spokesman for the warden service, said Wednesday that the agency is drafting a statement regarding the release of the file that will be issued at a later date. 
   
   He also said no internal review of the warden’s search has been conducted or is planned at this time. 
   
   Deb Palman, who established the wardens’ K-9 search unit and currently heads up Maine’s only independent K-9 search firm, says conditions in the area made a successful search all but impossible. 
   
   “This is some of the worst country in Maine,” Palman said. “It’s hard to understand how logistically difficult this area was. On any given day, by the time a searcher would get close to where Largay was found, they’d have to turn around to make it back to their vehicles by nightfall.” 
   
   The release of the file is the latest chapter in the disappearance that has transfixed the region and the large community of hikers who traverse the Appalachian Trail. 
   
   Largay, an experienced hiker whose trail moniker was “Inchworm,” had started hiking the trail in April 2013 with her hiking partner, Jane Lee. 
   
   Their plan was to hike from Harpers Ferry, W. Va., to Maine’s Mount Katahdin, the northern terminus of the trail. 
   
   A family emergency forced Lee to leave the trail as the duo crossed into New Hampshire. Largay continued to hike solo. An old back injury prevented her from carrying a full backpack, so her husband would meet her along the way with fresh supplies. 
   
   George Largay last saw his wife on the morning of Sunday, July 21. 
   
   On that day, Geraldine Largay set out on what was to be a three-day hike beginning near Maine’s Saddleback Mountain and terminating just north of the Sugarloaf Ski Resort. 
   
   She was due to meet her husband at a parking lot off Route 27 there. 
   
   He arrived at the appointed time but was not able to locate Largay. Thinking that a severe rainstorm the day before might have waylaid her, he spent that night in their vehicle, hoping she would arrive. 
   
   The next morning, he hailed a State Police officer driving by and reported her missing. 
   
   According to the file, Largay established a campsite atop a knoll located on property owned by the Navy as part of their Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape school located there. She would stay there for the remaining days of her life. 
   
   The site, located near a stream, was thoughtful and orderly. 
   
   Largay built a platform of logs and pine boughs on which to pitch her tent. 
   
   While at the site, she also used a small black composition book as a daily journal. The cover of the journal includes what might have been Largay’s last written words: “George please read. Xoxo.”
target: – A lost hiker in Maine starved to death after waiting for rescue and then accepting her fate, heartbreaking journal entries have revealed. Geraldine Largay, a 66-year-old from Tennessee, disappeared while hiking the Appalachian Trail in Maine on July 22, 2013, and the newly disclosed journal shows that she survived for at least 26 days, the Portland Press Herald reports. "When you find my body, please call my husband George and my daughter Kerry," she wrote in an Aug. 6 journal entry. "It will be the greatest kindness for them to know that I am dead and where you found me—no matter how many years from now." The final entry was dated Aug. 18. Her skeletal remains were discovered in a tent 3,000 feet from the trail more than two years later. Largay, who was trying to complete a "bucket list" hike from West Virginia to the trail's end solo after a friend left for a family emergency, was reported missing by her husband after she failed to make it to a rendezvous point. A huge search and rescue effort followed, but it was suspended after a week. According to a 1,579-page Maine Warden Service report, Largay became lost after leaving the trail to go to the bathroom, the Boston Globe reports. She tried to text her husband at least a dozen times, but she was unable to get a signal even after moving to higher ground. She then set up a campsite on a knoll, where authorities found a handmade flag and evidence she had tried to start a signal fire. On Oct. 18, 2015, a week after a forester found her body, her husband of 42 years and other family members joined wardens in a hike to the site, where they left a cross and family mementos. (Two "lost" hikers in North Carolina were found in a town 30 miles away.)