“Geraldine Larg was an avid hiker and loving grandmother. She loved nature and dreamed of hiking the 2,290-mile Appalachian Trail that went from Maine to Georgia. In 2013, she was able to make that lifelong goal happen. She’d already trekked roughly 900 miles through the trail, but then she disappeared into the dense forest. Her husband was actually waiting for her 20 miles away in a parking lot, but she never arrived. It took 2 years before her disappearance was solved and the truth of the trek finally emerged.
Geraldine, or Jerry as she was known, and her husband moved to Atlanta, and she was passionate about the environment. Ultimately, she spent many hours exploring the woods beside their home, which made what happened much more surprising. While Jerry was over 60, she was healthy and fit. In fact, she was empowered when walking for long periods and enjoyed being surrounded by nature.
She had a bucket list idea for the 2,290-mile Appalachian Trail hike, which took 5 to 7 months to finish, but she was prepared mentally and physically. Jerry’s husband wasn’t happy because she had a back injury and the trek might be too strenuous. Still, he could do nothing more than support her ambitions, and they came up with a plan to make things easier for her. George wasn’t participating, but he agreed to drive to various checkpoints to give her supplies.
Jerry and her friend Jane Lee set out for the adventure on April 23rd, 2013, calling herself ‘Inchworm’ because of her slow pace. She carried a journal. The two ladies started in the middle, making their way up North, and Jerry couldn’t have been happier. However, Jane ended up having a family emergency 2 months into the hike and had to quit, though she begged.
Jerry wanted to continue the trail and managed fine for 3 weeks. Jerry stayed at Popper Ridge Shelter the night of July 21st and made friends with Dorothy Bon Rust. The next morning, she woke up and realized she was 22 miles away from where she could see George again. That’s when Dorothy took a picture of her about 7:15 a.m. She texted her husband to tell him she was leaving.
Jerry had planned to spend one night at the Spalding Mountain Lean-to and hike to where the trail met Route 27. However, she had to urinate and walked into the forest to find a tree. When she finished, she realized she was way too deep in the forest and couldn’t remember how to get back to the trail.
By 11:00 a.m., she was lost in the woods. Jane had said that she’d taken wrong turns before and got combative and flustered. Now, though, Jerry was alone. She texted her husband at 11:01 to say she was lost. George never received the message because there was no signal.
Jerry continued walking deeper into the forest to find higher ground. However, the sun was starting to disappear, and dark clouds were rolling in. With no other choice, she pitched the tent and waited. The rain stopped, but Jerry wasn’t there.
Now George was concerned, so he organized a search party to search for her. Jerry actually wasn’t far from the trail, but the search party still missed her because of the sunny weather. Jerry kept going. She found a stream and was optimistic of her impending rescue. To stay calm, she reminded herself that she had 3 days’ worth of food and hung pieces of a silver blanket to catch a plane’s attention.
The search team found clues of Jerry, such as strands of hair, Band-Aids, and blood droplets. However, testing proved that they weren’t hers. Dorothy Rust heard about her missing friend and sent the police a photo. Various crazy theories surfaced about her disappearance. Some believed that suspicious men murdered her or that she was attacked by a bear. An unknown hiker claimed to spend the night with Jerry at the lean-to, so police focused the search on that particular area. But this was way off. Search teams didn’t have much luck and went to searching by plane.
Jerry heard them flying overhead and was relieved. This made noise. She realized that no one could see or hear her and was getting weak. Jerry finally ate the rest of her food and had little energy. She couldn’t bear the thought of George living without her and tried to hang on.
Two weeks after she disappeared, there was no progress. This was now a missing person case. On August 6th, Jerry was still alive and hadn’t eaten in 9 days. She tried sending one more text message, but there was no network. With little left in her, she lit a fire, writing in her journal. She gave up and knew she was about to die.
A Navy Forester finally found Jerry’s tent near the Appalachian Trail. She was inside her sleeping bag. The issue was she’d been missing for 2 years, 2 months, and 24 days. This poor man just solved a missing person’s case and reported it to appropriate authorities. They found Jerry’s journal with her body, and her last entry was dated August 18th.
However, authorities aren’t sure that this was correct. If so, that meant she’d been alive 26 days after the missing person’s report. In fact, her tent was about 2 miles north of the trail and just 30 minutes from lodging. Jerry’s tent was filled with heart-wrenching things. She wrote each of her loved ones a letter up until the end. She was thinking of everyone else. George is ultimately grateful for those who looked for Jerry. More than 130 certified people assisted.
Day Doofan, an American author of novels, was inspired by Jerry’s story and wrote a bestseller about her. While Jerry’s search was unsuccessful, Doan believes that rescuers couldn’t have done anything different. He hopes that his book helps others save themselves if they’re in the woods.”
