Missing hiker's body found in 'rugged, heavy wooded' spot south of Appalachian Trail

[HooKooDooKu]

There's one feeling that is hard to get across to someone until they've experienced it themselves, and that is the feeling you get when you have lost the trail and the woods look the same in every direction. Until you've been in that situation, it's hard to really appreciate the tremendous value of a map & compass (and the knowledge of how to use them).

Also don't underestimate how quickly panic can set in when you find yourself alone in the dark with no source of light.

I know one time that I was staying at LeConte Lodge and went to Cliff Tops for sunset. Because I had a flashlight, I stayed at Cliff Tops to watch the stars come out. My flashlight was small, and could only light the path for 10' or 15' head... and it turned out that wasn't enough to find my way back to the Lodge. On the top of LeConte, the trail is a pile of rock. But so is every drainage and water bar. My light was not strong enough to show me which was the path and which were just random rock drainage's. I started to panic because I wasn't sure how I was going to get back to the lodge. Fortunately, when I turned my flashlight off, the moon light was strong enough I could see it's reflection off the rocks. With that light, I could determine which set of rocks continued into the distance so that I could determine which way the trail went.

Now I can only speculate WHY Susan went off the trail above Huggins Creek drainage. But I could easily appreciate how she could start to panic, and when panic sets in, you don't always make good decisions.
Did she think the parking lot was somewhere below her and thought it was a short cut?
Did she first try to shelter in place and there was a wind that was chilling her so she tried to get off the ridge to get out of the wind?
Did she step off trail for any number of reasons (potty break) and get turned around and couldn't find the trail in the dark/twilight?

No way to tell. The only thing we do know is she stepped off the trail that evening or else the SARs that searched the trails into the night would have found her.

[Dogwood]

The vast majority of those 11 mill GSMNP visitors never leave sight of their vehicles in parking lots, perhaps the greatest number of tethered to their vehicles NP visitors than any other NP visitation stats. GSMNP visitor stats include those who never open a car door to get out of their vehicles too. GSMNP isn't designed for easily accumulated NP visitors stats with entrance gates and TH's all visitors enter through.

[TNhiker]

From what it sounds like her body was off-trail in between Double Springs Gap Shelter and CS#68

Sounds like she either ....
- didn't take the path to the parking lot and kept walking on the by-pass trail and AT. But she would have more than likely ran into someone.
- Or turned down Forney Creek Trail.

yup....

or turned down forney creek and found the manway out to the boiler and kept walking that way...


one thing that hasn't been confirmed is how long she was dead before she was found....

She was missing a week.......for all we know, she could have been hiking back in that area for 4 days or so before perishing.......

[TNhiker]

The vast majority of those 11 mill GSMNP visitors never leave sight of their vehicles in parking lots, perhaps the greatest number of tethered to their vehicles NP visitors than any other NP visitation stats. GSMNP visitor stats include those who never open a car door to get out of their vehicles too. GSMNP isn't designed for easily accumulated NP visitors stats with entrance gates and TH's all visitors enter through.

That is true....

when I first moved down here, I heard a statistic of ten million people come to the Park every year and outta that, something like 80% never get outta their vehicle...

and thr one that get outta their vehicle--- never go more than a mile from it....

its easy to see this---especially at trails like alum cave where a majority of people just do the relatively flat stretch to arch rock and turn around.........

look down at their feet----sneakers and flip flops...

[TNhiker]

It's not credible to believe she turned down Forney Creek trail and then hiked for 2 miles along steep mountain sides or 2 miles up Huggins Creek.

at this point----her exact route has not been publically released........

theres only one person who knows how she got to where she go and she's not talking.....

being lost for a week and not knowing day of death---anything is possible....

[sadlowskiadam]

It appears she was an novice hiker who made a very poor decision to leave the trail for whatever reason, only her and God know. If any good can come from her death, I hope it will be as an educational tool to future hikers. Similar to Inchwork who went missing in Maine in 2013. No reason to criticize her or preach about her decision making. We all make made bad decisions (on the trail or in life) and have lived to learn from those mistakes. Unfortunately, she will not.

[IrishDan]

Kind of reminds me of Geraldine Largay who got lost only feet from the AT in Maine back in the summer of 2013. Her body was finally discovered about 2 years later. Largay was hiking alone, after her companion had to pull out of the hike; and, despite some hiking experience, she was neither experienced at being on her own (always hiking with husband or companion) nor comfortable with being on her own. It is surmised she went off trail for a bathroom break and got disoriented in the thick Maine forest. Largay had some of the 10 so-called essentials. She had a compass but she didn't know how to use it, had no map, and no whistle.

My thoughts are: Even in a group, everyone has their own set of safety/survival essentials; everyone has map and can read it; everyone has a compass and can use it; and, everyone has a whistle or signalling device. And everyone knows S.T.O.P. - Stop where you are (and take a deep breath), Think about what you are/were doing, Observe your surroundings, Plan on your next steps (map, compass, whistle, etc.). Repeat as necessary.

Sorry for the family's loss.

[cneill13]

She was missing a week.......for all we know, she could have been hiking back in that area for 4 days or so before perishing.......[/QUOTE

Please tell me you are kidding with this quote. ??!!

Have you ever camped on Clingsman? For 4 days without anything else?!!? I am incredulous.

[CalebJ]

Please tell me you are kidding with this quote. ??!!

Have you ever camped on Clingsman? For 4 days without anything else?!!? I am incredulous.

What are you trying to say?

[LittleTim]

There's one feeling that is hard to get across to someone until they've experienced it themselves, and that is the feeling you get when you have lost the trail and the woods look the same in every direction. Until you've been in that situation, it's hard to really appreciate the tremendous value of a map & compass (and the knowledge of how to use them).

Second'ing this post as well.
And I'll even add that I depend on the terrain and topo lines to orient myself before I ever start digging into my memory of how to begin to use the compass. That solves the problem 99% of the time. That other 1% usually involves flat land and a very limited distance of sight, and it feels like sheer panic wants to overtake me, and that's the biggest struggle to logical thinking in the moment.

[HooKooDooKu]

...or turned down forney creek and found the manway out to the boiler and kept walking that way...

Over the course of these two threads... you've seemed to have been pushing for the possibility that she turned down Forney Creek.
Is there something you know that hasn't been publicly reported?

Because for every good reason I can think for why she would make the mistake of heading down Forney Creek, I can make a better one for simply missing the intersection to the parking lot.
1. Based on personal experience, it's easier to miss a turn than to mistakenly take a turn thru an intersection you most recently went strait thru.
2. Forney Creek quickly starts taking you down hill when you should be travelling a relatively level path waiting to begin the climb back up hill. So it seems likely if you mistakenly turn down Forney Creek, the down hill should quickly clue you in that you've gone the wrong way. But miss the turn to the parking lot? You just keep climbing up hill like you've been doing for the last mile. Nothing to really tell you you are going the wrong way until you get to the AT.
3. If she turns down Forney Creek, she reaches the boiler about 6:00pm. With over an hour til sunset, why would you go off trail at this point. Day hikers are not generally known for taking potty breaks (they just hold it til the parking lot unless it's an emergency). And as previously stated... hikers lost off trail are most likely to travel down hill. Getting off the trail at the boiler requires she hike 2 miles on steep mountain sides in the rain without descending more than 500 feet.
4. If she turns down Forney Creek and hikes all the way to campsite #69, she doesn't get there until dark, and she has to have forded two deep creek crossings... at least one if not both in the dark (either no light, or what ever light her cell phone could provide if she had one). Day hikers are generally not keen on fording creeks... much less in the dark.

By contrast, the timing works out very neatly for her to hike up the Bypass, turn down the AT, and then go off trail at the top of the Huggins Creek drainage about the time it's getting dark. Of course to do this, she has to go the wrong way at the AT intersection when there's a big sign that is so much in your face it is difficult to miss at the AT intersection. But remember, she wasn't looking to go to Clingman's Dome. She wants the parking lot. So it would be easy to understand that she gets to an intersection, sees a sign pointing the way to Clingman's Dome, and then she goes the opposite direction.

So while anything is POSSIBLE... it seems like getting to the Huggins Creek drainage from Forney Creek requires difficult and perhaps some contorted logic. But simple logic can easily explain her hiking the trails to the top of Huggins Creek and then leaving the trail for one of a number of reasons at or near sunset.

[TNhiker]

Over the course of these two threads... you've seemed to have been pushing for the possibility that she turned down Forney Creek.
Is there something you know that hasn't been publicly reported?

no....I don't......in fact, very little is known about this incident........

all we (media and this forum and likely other social media as well) know is where she was last seen, and where she as found, and how many days in between.............

what happened in between that time is just pure speculation.....


yeah.......one can make guesses, but we will never know her exact route............

she could have wound up where she was found on the first day, or she could have wound up there ten minutes before the searchers found her.......


there's only one person who knows the route and that's the victim.................guessing the Park won't even be able to narrow it down...........and even if they did, not sure if they would release that info publicly...........

[Dogwood]

I wouldn't be surprised if she did, as HKDK said she could have done, "thinking she was taking a short cut through the woods to get to the parking lot or perhaps she thought CD Rd. She was supposed to meet at the car? I've done this exact thing when I was rushed in the dark in a downpour and cold with limited sight distance with mist setting in but with gear and a headlamp in increasing fog conditions to get down to the road and walk it instead of the AT after a CD visit. I'm not sure if anyone would choose to spend a night on that steep terrain in that situation. So what people do is they keep going sometimes becoming more disoriented and getting into deeper trouble. It would be disorienting and tiring if she thought it was so close hastily going down that steep grade with no head lamp knowing she wasn't prepared to spend the night with no gear in the woods. She was also a novice but this scenario could happen to those who aren't.

Mist and fog are not that unusual around CD.

On a 07 SOBO LT thru atop the south side of Mt Mansfield the fog and mist came in real quick after a drizzle soaked with periods of heavier rain and cloudy sunny skies day. The visibility and darkness was such that I couldn't see my outstretched hand. The LT was tight single track with dense evergreen on each side for the most part which made it easier to stay on trail. I was looking for a spigot on the side of the Nature Center Building and getting off Mt mansfield. I was out of water. The only way I knew I had reached the stone gravel road that led to the 25 ft high building was by the sounds under my feet. I was literally blind. I gave up finding the building. Becoming disoriented and attempting to find the TH entrance on the south side of the gravel road I heard some animal and backed up. It sounded like a small lumbering foraging black bear coming up the trail. It wasn't human. I backed up and to my total surprise my backpack pushed unmovingly up against the white and green 25 ft building unexpectingly which was right in front and behind me along. I actually turned around thinking it was a tree. I had to touch it to know it was a wall of a building. I was almost standing right in front of the entrance. I sat down on the step as finally the fog and mist started to open up. Sure enough not more than 30 ft in front of me the bear lumbered across the stone access rd and continued NOBO on the LT. It never knew I was there. It can be easy to get disoriented and issues compound simultaneously. The spigot had no water. The stone access rd was only about 40 ft wide with signed LT posts on each side of the Rd I never saw until after the fog opened up a bit.

Tipi is right in that sometimes single track can be less than 50 ft away yet it be missed.

[Shooting Star]

There's one feeling that is hard to get across to someone until they've experienced it themselves, and that is the feeling you get when you have lost the trail and the woods look the same in every direction. Until you've been in that situation, it's hard to really appreciate the tremendous value of a map & compass (and the knowledge of how to use them).

A good read is a book named "Deep Survival" by Laurence Gonzales. One of the chapters is about people getting lost in the woods and how
they react. Folks that lose their composure and thrash about trying to find their way out often come to bad outcomes. Folks that settle down,
come up with a plan and work it do a lot better. Experienced backpackers usually do ok and know how to work their way back to a known place.
Dayhikers, with their smartphone, water bottle, no map or compass can get into amazing amounts of trouble.

The interesting thing about the book is that it talks a lot about the mental models we all construct for the things we do - driving to work,
doing a backpack trip, canoeing - whatever. So as we drift into a bad situation, we're slow to realize it - we just "norm" anomalies until
we're lost, or we've flown our airplane into worse weather than we can handle. The difference between being fully safe and having things
under control and ending up in a scary situation is stunningly small for a lot of activities.

My heart goes out to this poor woman and condolences to her family. I hope they don't beat themselves up over
what happened. These things are tragic when they happen.

[Tipi Walter]

I took the Gonzales book out with me on a backpacking trip a couple years ago and read it from cover to cover (and of course burned it during the course of the trip).

One of my favorite quotes is about some guys on a mountain side getting colder and colder---

"They were locked in a game of speed chess with Mother Nature. And She unleashed a series of stunning moves."

[Tipi Walter]

After reading the book I wrote a short summary of Gonzales's tips in my trail journal---(with some of my comments)---

"THE CONCLUSION TO THE “DEEP SURVIVAL” BOOK by Laurence Gonzales

Here’s a brief synopsis and summary checklist-outline I compiled after reading the book:

** Avoid impulsive behavior, don’t hurry. Remember my Go Slow policy?
** Know your stuff and know the system you’re entering.
** Commune with the dead: “Read the accident reports in your chosen field of recreation.” “The mistakes other people have made.” GONZALES (This is sort of what we're doing on this thread).

** Be humble: “Those who gain experience while retaining firm hold on a beginner’s state of mind become long-term survivors.” GONZALES
** When in doubt, bail out.


Finally the book ends with this sobering quote: “we can live a life of bored caution and die of cancer.” GONZALES."

[blue indian]

I wonder if she had a cell phone with her? Cant you track her movements from that?

[Traveler]

Cell towers can sometimes get close to a fixed position when there are several cell towers to triangulate the signal, but that technology is a bit over glorified. Likely cell service was limited in that area if any available where she was, presuming she had a phone, it was on, and she tried to use it from time to time.

[TNhiker]

At the parking lot with Verizon---I get spotty cover...

at dome---I get no coverage....

guessing in the woods near bald no coverage....

no towers in park so closest are cherokee and gatlinburg.....

so---she might have been running a tracking app but doubt it....

[HooKooDooKu]

I hiked Forney Ridge out to Andrews Bald today, and I can better understand how someone could miss the sign for the parking lot.

As you approach the intersection, there is a slight turn in the trail, and there is a big tree on the inside corner. This tree mostly blocks your view of the signs until you're about 20 feet from them. I know that often when hiking tired, my eyes focus on the ground right in front of me, looking up from time to time. So concevably, you could easily look up and then refocus on the ground as you pass this tree and totally miss the 1st sign. The second sign (on the Bypass side of the intersection) is close enough to the trail that you should see that out of the corner of your eye. But I could see where it too could be missed if it is an overcast day... The sign is well weathered to have a fairly natural color... Only it's shape stands out.