THE diary of a hiker who died after going missing on the Appalachian Trail details her desperate last days waiting a month for help that never came.
Geraldine Largay was found almost a year ago, but the 66-year-old from Tennessee died in 2013 after going missing while hiking on a ‘bucket list’ trip.
She continued her trip alone after her hiking partner had to leave because of a family emergency, and lost the trail.
She was last seen alive on July 21, 2013, but the release of a diary found with her body reveals her fruitless attempts to contact her family with SOS messages and details 26 days spent lost before succumbing to starvation.
The day after her disappearance she texted her husband: “In some trouble ... Got off trail to go to br [bathroom]. Now lost. Can you call AMC”, but the message never arrived, according to a report by The Portland Press Herald.
Nor did the 10 messages she sent in the next 90 minutes.
The journal reveals her attempts to hike to higher ground to get phone signal.
One of her final messages read: “When you find my body, please call my husband George ... and my daughter Kerry”.
The farewell message continued: “It will be the greatest kindness for them to know that I am dead where you found me — no matter how many years from now.”
Hargay’s husband reported her missing in late July 2013, after she missed a rendezvous with him.
Her body was not found for more than two years, until in October, 2015, when someone in charge of the forest stumbled across a tent with remains inside.
The final entry in her log was penned on 18 August 2013.
Items found near her body included her mobile phone with a dead battery, a first aid kit and the journal she kept through her final days. The journal was labelled: “George Please Read XOXO.”
The Appalachian Trail stretches 3500 kilometres miles through the eastern United States.
Largay had been travelling with a companion before her disappearance, but the other hiker had left the trail due to a family emergency.
News of the journal emerged after the Maine Game Warden Service released a 1500-page report on her disappearance.
The journal was released by the Maine warden service in response to a Freedom of Access Act request by several media organisations.
ncG1vNJzZmimlazAb6%2FOpmWarV%2Bhtqex0q2wpZ1fp7KiuIyloJ%2BdX6OyuL%2BMpaCfnV%2BZtqK%2B2Gamn2WRYrGmrdOhZKaho6i2r7OMoaCknaKoerG7yKClmqakYrmiv9NmrqiqlKh6tbuMoZyrZZaWuqq42Gilnq%2BjYsC1u9GyZmqcYpiEeX%2BQn2qfnWlmhXqtwW%2BbnXBolrOmsMGabG2d