i have hiked this section.
you cross an old gravel road and then head up hill.
she stepped off the trail uphill from the gravel road.
the common assumption is she forgot in which direction she stepped off of the trail in.
but whether or not she stepped off the trail to the right of the trail or the left of the trail, to anyone with a clear head and the ability to think things through rationally, downhill was the way back to the gravel road. once back on the gravel road finding the AT would have been easy, or if at that point youve decided you didnt want to deal with hiking anymore and risk getting lost again, the funny thing about gravel roads is they have to lead to civilization.
but she went uphill to look for a cell signal.
and after 1 or 2 days, it never occurs to her to go back down to the gravel road.
in a round about kind of way one can read this as dependency on her cell phone to save her actually contributed to her death.