Lost on the Trail

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back. Oh, it's a catheter.

We're doing that together. We're doing that together. Oh, we never do that. We have sort of milled at a detail.

We have my hair is probably starting to turn red as we speak. I don't think so. We're both there. We are.

Hey, this one. Hey, this one. Hey, the woods. You know, on a weird note, it is August the 10th today.

Are you not working? No. I don't know. Next week, we start next Monday for teacher workdays.

So, forcing you to go back. Yeah, because I have been working. So we start teacher workdays on August 14th. Okay, so we did.

Yeah, so I'm soaking it in. I'm excited to go back. I've missed the kids. We never thought I'd say that.

They missed them. They are little terrors, but they're my little terrors. I love them, but it's going to be weird because I think there's been a lot of like, which isn't every system. Like there's been a lot of changes over the summer.

Yeah. Like a lot of staffing changes. Like, no, there's so people who've left just for different reasons. You're getting out of education or moving or retiring or, you know, just changing schools or positions within the school.

So it's every time I see somebody from work, like out in the wild, like I get a new piece of information. That work would be the wild. Yeah. Like I ran into somebody the other day.

He's like, oh yeah, I'm taking this guy's position and they're going to go work like be a gym coach, like be the gym teacher. And I'm like, really? Didn't know that. So it's just a lot of you telling me that you're now super in attendance.

I am now super in attendance. Wow. That's really impressive. You know, I'm just thrilled to have a job currently.

Did you vacate the summer? You did. I did. I was in Washington DC for a few days working with a partner church that we have up there.

We did a little block party event with them in the community, and it was really, really fun. It was really hot, but got to meet them. They have a new pastor, and she's amazing. And so it's kind of right after the big announcement from the Southern Baptist Convention that they were not allowing women in leadership positions anymore.

That's cool. And would be like dismembering, not dismembering like this. Like, you know what I mean? Dispersing.

Dispersing. Yeah. Yeah. Disbanding.

Yeah. It's not the word I want to know. Disinct women. They're doing it.

So it was very exciting to be there and like around another group that was excited to have women in leadership. So that was really cool. Does this mean that you're not allowed to be a Deacon? We're not part of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Okay. So I'm still a Deacon. I think I have a year left and then a new Deacon gets voted on in my place. So I love serving my time.

My name is Hallelujah New Deacon. I get out. But we went to the Alopoms for like a family vacay, which was very fun. Anybody die because usually when you go on vacation.

No. I got very intoxicated on the beach. We'll say that. I did get a drug text.

I did text you and it was bad times for me. But I recovered and it was fine. Were you alone? No, no.

I think I asked you that. No, I was with people. I did not go into the ocean intoxicated. I was responsible.

Good. dug a hole and puked in the hole. Covered it. Like a dog.

Like a dog. Like a cat. That was bad. It was so bad.

But I held it together really well until right there at the end. That's usually how it goes. But the coolest thing about this trip was I saw a shark. I was walking along.

Were you drunk when you saw a shark? No, no. I was walking looking for seashells because I love shelling at the beach and I was walking along and it was kind of in a little area. It's a tide pole type area where there's several sand bars out there and it gets a little deeper right at the shoreline for some reason.

So I was about half deep in there walking around and there's all kinds of fish and whatever that swim through. And a couple of days later my brother and I saw some stingrays which was really neat. But I looked at him like, Ting, that's a big fish. And so I was staying in there in the water and I'm like, man, that is a lot of fish.

That is a large fish. And it came right up to me. And I looked at it. It was maybe 18 inches.

So it was a baby shark. But baby shark doo doo doo doo doo doo. Can still hurt you, you, you. So I'm looking at it and it's going along the edge.

And so I'm just following it, like walking behind it. Geez. I love sharks and they're so pretty. There's a baby shark.

There's a mountain shark. Usually not. But I was looking at it and I was like, man, this is so cool. And I was like, watch see, it had like a black tip on the fin.

And it just was really neat watching it. All of a sudden this thing turns and slams into my ankle. So I got booped by the shark. I think it was trying to bite me, but it was too small.

I mean, even if it had bit me, it would have been like a scratch on my ankle. But it did. It turned around and hit me so fast. She didn't mean to be stalking it.

I kicked it. Like I fully kicked my foot and that thing slew out of the water and landed back in the water and swimming away. And then my brother and my mom stopped the next day. This is the same area.

Okay. Drunk on the beach, drunk texting me, chasing sharks. The love of my mom. That's how I make it.

And you're worried about going back to work? Geez. And I just want to clarify on July 14th at 6 11 p.m. I got this text that says I'm drunk on the beach.

I'm struggling. My reply, are you alone? She says, nah, with ma'am and a friend. I'm not going to say the name.

And I said, well, that's good. What are you struggling with? And you said, trying to not appear to be drunk. And I said, drink tons of water, choose some gum and be quiet.

And you said, for sure, it's a bad time, but also good. What do you say to that? I just said, well, good. Glad to hear it.

That was our conversation. That was weird. Yeah. So during all of this point, at one point, I knew I was drunk and it happens so fast.

And I walked back because I can't pee in the ocean. Like a normal person. I can't do it. So I walked back to our house that were saying at Peed, turned around, walked back.

And that's not a short walk. No, walked back to the beach. Don't know how I did either of them. Got out there in the mistake I made, I laid down.

And then when I went to sit up, I was like, oh, no, no, no, no. At that point, only my brother and my friend knew I was drunk. Guess your mom found out. She did.

And she was mad. She wasn't mad. She was just like, oh my God. And she's like, I'm leaving you here.

Like, she left me with my brother. She's like, do you have her? He's like, I got her. I'm ready to go back to work.

Back to work. Drink responsibly. I was not driving. I was in walking distance from where I was going.

I had many people around me. Drunk on the beach sounds like a country song. It does. It does.

I had responsible people around me that were not drinking. That could help me. Ambulate. Yes.

So just drink responsibly. Don't drink underage. Don't drink and drive. Drink around your family.

Don't drink around your mom. I mean, if you want to, fine. And she wasn't thrilled. But like, you know, we kind of just laughed it off.

And she was like, well, now you have to pack because it was our last night there. So now you get to pack drunk. That's on you. And if you feel bad tomorrow, that's also all.

That's also on you. Have fun. Yeah. That's a mom thing for sure.

All right. Okay. Tell me about your story. Okay.

So we're kind of digging up our roots here. And we're headed back to the Appalachian Trail. What? It's been a while.

Well, I love these stories, but I feel like I can never find like a new and good one. So I had seen this one before. I've actually seen a photo and I was like, I don't, at different times, I just wasn't really ready to tackle it. I hadn't actually read much about it.

But then I actually started reading it and I was like, oh, my gosh, this is a great story. So you ready? I'm so ready. Here we go.

It's April 23rd, 2013, in Harper's Berry, West Virginia. Okay. 66 year old Geraldine Largay, known as Jerry to all of her friends and family, was planning a thousand mile hike along the Appalachian Trail with her good friend, Jane Lee. See, this sounds familiar.

I don't think we've done this one. No, we haven't. We haven't. I searched our archives.

We have not. You and I wouldn't commit 10 miles. Maybe one. Maybe.

Maybe. I got to wear the good shoes. So I walk my dog on this like public greenway situation, like a lot of towns have them. And it's maybe a mile.

Maybe. And by the time I get done with that, I'm like, I need to rent. Man, that was a, I feel like I've accomplished something today. Exactly.

That was a journey. Exactly. But you all have to know that in the area in which we live, it's not like it's a flat. Oh, no, there's two major hills.

Yes. Yes. My neighborhood is like, yeah, up, down, up, down, down. So, you know, it's not like, like I live on a ridge.

It is straight up literally both ways. Yeah. Yeah. Just to clarify.

So you guys know it's not like, you know, we're bad out of shape. Like, you know, it's just flat for miles. No, it is literally a very like, we live a places where they have to have the grade of the road when it starts going up. Here's what I think we'll commit to, I don't know, a tent put a mile together.

I think I could probably push a half. Crazy. All right. Well, Jane and Jerry, a thousand miles.

They were ready. Jane was a little bit more of an experienced hiker than Jerry, but you know, She's 66. She's 66. Yeah.

So Jerry was a retired military nurse from Tennessee. Oh, badass. Yeah. She's seeking adventure and wanted to push herself, you know, see what she was made of, you know, just because she's in her 60s doesn't mean she can't do this.

I can't do it in my case. I can't do it in my almost 40s. So, her husband of 42 years, George, planned to drive ahead of the ladies and would meet them at each like pre designated stop where he would provide them with more supplies along with food, water, and then he would also take them to a motel to like get showered, have a good night's rest and do it with George. I would be George.

Period. Yeah. I would be like, yeah, 100%. Like, I will drive ahead of you.

I will meet you with these stops. Yeah, I'll do some exploring in the towns. Exactly. That would be really fun.

Yeah. Maybe some gym money. How can we do get, don't wonder if there's like groups of hikers that need somebody to do for them. But we've got to trust them because again, we went together.

Yeah, like two. And we got women. Only picked up women. Yes.

Full bag of hotel rooms. Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, we could totally do that for sure. Okay.

We'll get on that. All right. We have a plan. All right.

So by June 30th, two months in, the duo had made it to New Hampshire where Jane was notified, unfortunately, of a family emergency. So at that point, Jane decided to just cut the hike short in order to travel home and be with her family. Okay. Jerry, however, felt invigorated by how far they had come and she just wanted to keep going.

So where did they start? They started in Harbor's Berry, West Virginia and went up and went up. So now they're in New Hampshire. So they're going all the way to where the trail ends in Maine.

That's the goal. Jerry was like, no, you know, I'm going to keep going. And this was a decision that would alter the course of her own. Jerry continued to hike the trail, her trail name.

And as we always talk about in these episodes that everybody gets a trail name on, she named herself the inchworm due to how slow she hiked versus some of those who were younger than her. But I thought it was really sweet. Jerry was very outgoing and gregarious and made lots of friends along the trail. Little however, did her family know that she was pretty directionally challenged and often would get off the trail.

So according to her friend Jane, who, you know, had traveled with her up until this point, when Jerry would get off the trail, she would get a little flustered and nervous, sometimes even combative. So just like really angry because Jerry was very meticulous. She was a perfectionist. She didn't like to make mistakes.

So this kind of got her flustered. But Jane was able to like get her back on the path. Like it's okay, calm down. We got this.

Jane also stated that she was scared of the dark and didn't like being alone. Why would you continue this journey? Why would you continue? I guess because on this, there were a lot of people in the trail, like you would pass a lot of people on the trail.

So maybe she thought like I'll set up camp with them or you know, so I won't really be alone. And then I'll be meeting up with George every so often. So she also had a cell phone on her, you know, so Jerry was very determined and wanted to prove to herself and possibly others that she could make it alone. So no matter what, she was going to do this.

She was slow but steady. And by July 21st, she had made it to Poplar Ridge on the western side of Maine. So she made it to Maine. Yeah, she's about 200 miles from the end of the Appalachian Trail.

So this means that she had covered 800 miles in three months. Wow. It's pretty good for the end of the year. Yeah, that's crazy.

That's too shabby. That's more than I could do it. Yeah, six years. Same.

So Jerry decided to set up camp for the night and as the morning sun rose on the 22nd of July, Jerry was ready to get going. She had befriended a lady named Dottie on the trail, Dottie Rust actually was ready. And Dottie captured a photograph of Jerry post happily with a big smile. Her socks pulled up high wearing her large backpack.

And this will be the post that you see for this episode. Yep, I'm remembering this now. Yep. It was 6.30 morning when Jerry waved goodbye to her new friend Dottie and began her hike northward.

By 11 a.m., Jerry had reached a rugged and difficult terrain that had her moving very slowly and carefully. At one point, Jerry moved off the trail, maybe to relieve herself. No one really knows. And the thick and a fir tree and thick underbrush made it very, very difficult to determine where she was.

Yeah. She gathered her pack but struggled to find her way back to the trail just because she couldn't exactly see where it started. So it was that point that Jerry got lost. And according to Douglas Dolan, who was a volunteer along the trail, he said, and I quote, you step off the trail 20 or 50 feet, you turn around.

It's very difficult to see where the trail was. He says, if you don't know which way the trail was, you could easily walk in circle for hours. So we knew she was directionally challenged. And this seemed to be what happened.

So me too. Oh my gosh. The fear direction. And then the panic that sets in because of that, you know.

That's why they say when your loss, especially in the woods, like just sit down. Just stay where you are. Like if you are like not in danger, just stay where you're at. Because more than likely you haven't gone that far off when you're not showing up, you know, somewhat you're more likely to be found.

Yeah. Like in that situation, just stay there. Exactly. Don't even move.

So at this point, Jerry needed your advice. But Jerry pulls out herself and wrote the following text message to your husband, George, she wrote and I quote, in some trouble, got off the trail, go to BR, not sure that means now lost. She asked him to call the Appalachian Mountain Club to quote, see if a trail mountaineer can help me somewhere north of Woods Road, X O X, end quote. If you go to bathroom, BR maybe got off the trail to go to bathroom.

Yeah. Yeah. So this message was not able to send due to her location. You know, again, we talked about the rush, lots of trees wasn't able to get a signal.

I mean, in most parts of Appalachia, like there, when I drive from my home to work, there's a section where I don't have cell service. Yeah. In my 15 minute commute, I do not have cell phone service for probably a good three four minutes. Well, and sometimes it depends on who you have.

Like if you have a rise, then do you have 18? I mean, I have found with different carriers, I get better service or lack their own. And sometimes it depends on the day. Like, sometimes I can drive through that section and I have service.

Sometimes I drive through and it drops and like, I'll, because I usually call my mom on my way home from work just to check in and see how things are. And I'll be driving and I'm like, Oh, I'm about to go through this dead spot. I'll call you when I get back in the town and then I'm gone. Yeah.

Yeah. So you've done that with me. Well, it's about that spot. So at this point, Jerry made the pivotal decision to move to higher ground, hoping that she would be able to get a cell signal.

Probably not. Yeah. She sent multiple texts to her husband that never went through, including one that read quote, lost since yesterday off the trail for three or four miles, call police for what to do. Where you are.

Yeah, because they're gonna do a grid search. Yes. Where you, where you last were. Yes.

Yes. But she's not listening to you, Haley. Say there. Well, finally, by the night of the 23rd, one day after she got off the trail, she set up camp, laying her tent atop sticks and pine needles, which was canobied by hemlocks that would obscure her view from any passerby's, including those in the air, because it was so heavily covered.

You wouldn't be able to see her. No, I mean, this is not, these are not your typical woods. No, these are like, there's something sketch about the Appalachian wilderness. So Jerry tied a sush, sorry.

Pick it up again. Jerry tied a shiny silver blanket that looked like 10 foil between emergency blankets. Yeah. She tied it between two trees in order to attract attention.

She also attempted to set a tree on fire. Turned for a sparkly smokey the bear is up. Exactly. Don't start forest fires.

You can do it. But she wasn't able to actually set it on time. So the mighty, Oh, the mighty fair was like, no, no, I don't want to bear anything. Yeah.

Now, ironically, July 23rd was actually the day that Jerry was supposed to meet her husband on route 27 in Wyman Township. But she never showed up. So after a day or so of waiting because George, uh, you know, she's in charge. Yeah.

Yeah. That's all right. He figured something was wrong. So we actually reported her missing.

Yeah. He told investigators that he feared and quote Jerry got in over her head. Jerry's doctor was actually fearful that going days and weeks without her anxiety medication could cause her to have a panic attack. Therefore, you know, making it even harder.

Multiple agencies and volunteers joined the hunt with searchers on foot on horseback in helicopters. She was less than a mile from the trail close enough that searchers would probably have like passed her by and not even realized it. Yeah. Yeah.

Investigators questioned hikers who may have crossed paths with her and they even tested DNA on like discarded band-aids and things that they thought, you know, potentially so she didn't move very far. Oh, she didn't. So she kind of did say, but for the most part, yes and no. Yeah.

So did she go a mile off and then start going up? Yes. Yes. So she was a mile away and then yes, and then some continued.

Yeah. So she left that blanket. Yeah. So many calls and tips came in regarding sightings of Jerry, but most were like fakes or hoaxes, which is horrible.

So many were making claims that she had been murdered. Not a far stretch. Well, that's right up our alley, right? Or that she may have been stuck in the treetops or that she had been fallen that she fell in a river, maybe she drowned.

One person even claimed that Jerry had been spotted staying at a woman shelter in Tennessee. Okay. I mean, that's a pretty far lead from Maine, but okay. Yeah.

Well, and I get, I mean, we talked about this before with other trail stories. These are not your typical woods. I mean, this is you can be searching for someone and they could be 10 feet in the distance and you wouldn't see them. Exactly.

Like those kind of searches, if you're not like experienced or literally stepping on someone, you may never find them. Exactly. I mean, just the kudzu alone is insane. Yeah.

Like, yeah, there's no way. I mean, people often are like, well, how could somebody just step off the trail and be gone? And it's like, until you have been in the Appalachian wilderness. Exactly.

You do not understand, but yes, you step like two feet off of a trail gone. Exactly. And that's exactly what happened in her case. So, you know, as much as you know, all these false witnesses came forward and oh, I saw her, and I saw this or that.

Guess who else came forward? Dottie? No, psychics. Oh, of course.

Yeah. Psychics called the police claiming to have had visions of her. One psychic in particular stated that Jerry was alive but had a broken achol and was unable to walk. Which sounds plausible.

Yeah. I mean, good guess. Yeah. Close.

So when police talked to fellow hikers, many of them stated that they had probably seen her on the trail, but none of them could, you know, be sure. I mean, you pass so many people. Exactly. And some hikers reported seeing a questionable man with a person who looked like Jerry and feared that, you know, harm may have come to her.

Yeah. I'll be honest. The latter does seem plausible since, you know, you and I are always skeptical about the woods anyway. Like, you know, that would probably something that we would lean towards.

Police searched on the ground and in the air for Jerry, but by August 4th, search efforts were scaled back in order to focus on other crimes. Yeah. You know, at that point, it had been about two weeks. They hadn't been able to find her.

So I thought you're probably looking at a recovery. Right. Like, not a rescue. Yeah.

Yeah. Jerry's husband, children and friends were beside themselves with grief and worry. They knew that Jerry wasn't an experienced tiker and they hoped and prayed that she would be found alive. Jerry was alive.

She had moved up high in the mountains and in the terrain in order to find cell service. She was in this remote area and it was actually an area where only the military would go. Yeah. There's a lot of like logging and stuff and pretty much where the military would go and train.

Yeah. We have a lot of bases, not really bases, but like where I live, we're over a military flight path. Like we have very large military planes that fly over our neighborhood and literally it's sometimes they're so low, they'll shake the house. They just want to let you out there.

Yeah. But they fly across. It's pretty cool. That is cool.

To stand out and watch them. But yeah, they do a lot of training because the terrain is so weird out here. So it's a good like, we have low mountains, but the visibility is wonky here. So they do a lot of aerial training and other sort of trains.

That's neat. I know that. That's very cool. Well, Jerry had continued to unsuccessfully syntax messages.

She also began writing in her Black Cover Journal. She wrote letters to her family and her daily observations and her writings began on the 23rd of July and went through August 10th. Wow. She noted her lack of food and penned heartfelt messages to her husband and family.

On the cover of her journal, she had written George, please read, XO, XO. She even drew out a calendar in order to keep track of the days that passed. Smart. Yeah.

With a dwindling food supply and the cold moving in, Jerry's final note read, quote, when you find my body, please call my husband George and my daughter, Carrie. It'll be the greatest kindness for them to know that I am dead and where you found me, no matter how many years from now. This last century was dated August 18th. Oh my God.

Yeah. Oh, doesn't that like I hate that hurt you in so many ways. And like, I knew how the story ends, but I was like, oh, still. Yeah, like, no, she's coming.

Jerry's husband and family did everything they could to find her, even hiking the trail themselves and searching for her after police had scaled back their investigation. They were never, never able to find her and constantly wondered what happened to her. Two years later, in October of 2015, a logging surveyor who had worked for the US Navy had property that poured her trail. Remember, I told you how this was the area where the military used the forest or stumbled upon a camp, including a sleeping bag.

The bones. He quickly reported it to Lieutenant Kevin Adam, who questioned if the bones were animal, were the human, having known of Jerry's disappearance off the trail. He also wondered if it was Jerry. When Lieutenant Adam arrived at the site, his heart sank.

He says, I quote, I saw a flattened tent with a green backpack outside of it and a human skull with what I believe to be in a sleeping bag around it. I was 99% certain that this was Jerry Largaze. At the campsite officials found a well-kept area with ample gear all around. They also discovered a blue and white bandana, birthday candles, lighters, a rosary, sewing kit, dental floss, and two water bottles, one of which still had water in it.

Lieutenant Adam stated that the campsite was quote, difficult to see unless you were right next to it. He explained that the tent was under several large trees whose branches obstructed the sky. The site was in dense woods near the border of the navy and public properties, and Largaze had built a bedding area out of small trees, pine needles, and possibly some dirt in a tent to keep her tent out of any kind of water and eliminate moisture. Lieutenant Adams went on to say that Jerry had tied a space blanket between two branches to provide some cover.

That was one of the shiny blankets we were talking about. There was also evidence of lost opportunities for Jerry to escape. There had been an open canopy nearby where she could have been seen from the sky had she had the tent not been. Lieutenant Adams also found that trees that had been blackened by Jerry while attempting to set the fire.

He explained that it had created a fire within the brush. It would have been discovered, but because she did it more on the tree, nothing was found. In the camp, they found the basics for hiking, maps, a rain jacket, a space blanket, strings, the block bags, flashlight that still worked. All human reminders, a blue baseball cap, dental floss, homemade necklace, with white stone wrapped in a string.

They also found her notebook, Moss growing on it, that was titled George. Please read XOXO. Right? And then there were entries that went on to explain how she had spent her days wondering after a wrong turn across the stream and how she tried to find different ridges, how she tried to gain cell service, finally where she could find a place to find a sense of peace.

You know, speak. Jerry's husband, George, and other members of their family were alerted to the discovery after DNA testing had confirmed that it was in fact Jerry's body. Her family visited that area of wilderness two weeks later and left a white wooden cross decorated with messages etched in black marker, one of which had been written by a child that said, quote, I wish you were here. Right?

Like if that doesn't kill you enough, right? A medical examiner ruled that Jerry had died to exposure from the elements and possibly starvation. So here's an interesting tidbit for you. Okay.

Jerry's camp was less than two miles from the trail. If she had walked south, she would have been able to move past the dense brush and would have seen the trail clearly within 60 to 70 yards. Yeah. She if she had walked an additional 25 minutes, she would have been discovered, she would have discovered a clear logging road that led to like motel and civilization.

Had she walked, you know, south another 30 minutes, like essentially, she would have been found. That's insane. So it's kind of one of those things of like, this was like fate, like it was meant to be like this was how she was meant to go. You know, like had she meant to survive, she would have.

Yeah, there was a lot of opportunity. There were and so many times like had she stopped walking north and just walked south, she could have been discovered the whole time. Wow. So what little I know about survival in the woods, I don't plan to have to survive in the woods because I don't plan to be in the woods, is that, you know, stay where you are kind of thing, unless you're, you know, you're in danger or running from something.

It's just terrifying. You know, stay where you are. Or if you're like lost lost to find a like a like a river, like a water source, follow it and follow it because it will eventually lead to some sort of civilization. Yeah.

You know, most towns are built on water ways because that's how we get fresh water. And then you have access to fresh water. Yeah. And you are more likely to die of dehydration than starvation.

Being closer to water source, you can eat, you know, wild plants, white friends and fish. You're just more likely to survive. She had no issue with dehydration because she didn't have water. There was still water left.

Yeah, she was running out of food. And probably just not being experienced in the woods didn't know, you know, what to eat. Granted, I wouldn't know either. I just trying to take a guess and hope that I was poisoned.

Oh, she's dead. Yeah. I'd be like, well, either go out by poisonous plant or starvation. So, yeah, pick one.

You know, that'd be kind of where I was at. That's where I'd be. That's about right. But it sounds like she, you know, was at peace with, you know, like she accepted what was going to happen.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They said there was over 1500 pages that she'd written.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Wow. But I mean, you're all alone.

It's just you and you got time to write. And in a way, how many people who, you know, die are dying, have the opportunity to get to truly tell their loved ones how much they love them. And then like, it's in her writing, you can't get rid of it. It wasn't like a I remember when grandma told me it's, it's, you know, they're forever.

And so you can look at it. And that's a what a comfort to the family. I mean, like horrific and awful, but like at least, you know, they have this that they know that she was thinking about them and she took the time to write these messages. And you know, they know more than a lot of people do with situations like this.

But wow. Yeah. Do I think in the end would give you comfort? But, you know, it also just makes you think of so many, like at the point where Jane left, she could have said, you know what, I did, I did all these miles.

I'm good. Like let's let's call it a day or I'll go and we'll go when you can go again. Exactly. Like, we'll take a break and we'll take a break and we'll come back to this point and finish.

It just always shows me what's meant to happen would happen. Yeah. If you were meant to live, you would have lived if you know what I mean? I know.

I just, yeah. That's just, you know, I know we've talked a lot about like our beliefs are not like a lot, but you know, I am very much at the mindset that our lives and our what's going to happen to us is already set. Like, there is a higher power. And in my belief system, you know, God that knows like my whole life's a journey.

And it's gonna happen the way it's gonna happen. I want to just go ahead and apologize for this piece of me and your life's journey. Sorry. But God will this be so, so it's fine.

No, but like that is, and that is something for me personally that gives me a lot of comfort. Like when I go through really difficult things or, you know, bad things happen in my life, you know, it's this is all part of my journey and meant to be and I'm supposed to learn something from it or grow from it in some weird way that I sometimes dislike. But it is that is a comfort for me. I very much believe that I don't believe in fate.

I don't believe in coincidence. I think that the things that happen to us are meant to be. Yeah. It's and have to happen so that something else can happen, you know, like that, that's saying, like, you know, oh, a door closes, a window opens.

I do believe that's true in that, you know, you're maybe walking through a really hard path and through it. You're like, why? Why am I going through this path? And what you don't see in that moment is something that you've discovered later.

Yeah. I had to go through this so I could have that. Yeah. And I've heard many people say that in their lives like, yeah, it was the worst time in my life, but had I not gone through it.

This opportunity never would have happened for me. Yeah. And I think there's times when, like, we look at people, especially in the work that we do that are just like in the throws of either, you know, maybe addiction or just really awful things and then lose that battle as well, where I'm like, how is this just? How is this what their life was meant to be?

So that part of kind of struggle with sometimes of like, is that where our free will comes in? Is that, you know, I do think that's where God gives us choices. I mean, it does go to, you know, our paths in life that we make the choice. We make the choice that sort of solidifies what our end is or what happens or, you know, I mean, at any point, I have been watching that show again, I survived, I've got to stop because it's scary.

But so many times people have that, you know, that inner voice that says, oh, maybe don't do that or maybe don't. But they're like, no, no, it's fine. Yeah. You know, that got feeling is I think we do have that intuition.

We do have those choices. And sometimes we choose to ignore them. I mean, we do have the beauty of choice. And that's very nice.

But it does play part in the direction of our life. Yeah. So I think it sounds like that this was Jerry's journey, maybe your destiny. Yeah.

So she did give you an adventure part. That's what she did. And I got to say she traveled 800 miles in three months. That's wild.

That's huge. So she did accomplish way more than Haley on a little. Oh, yeah. She did the thing.

Yeah. She did it. And she did it well. So and she got to leave beautiful messages for her family.

Yeah. I mean, I hate that it ended the way it did. But it sounds like she maybe found some peace with it. And she won.

This is free. You did it. You did it. Well, sorry for the sad story.

Yeah, that's a bummer. It is. But I, it's one that we haven't told. We haven't.

And I, I've seen this one too before. And it is always one that I'm like, I can't even start reading it. No, no, no, no, why? And at this point, it just felt right.

As I read it, I was like, I didn't realize it was so devastating. You know, so anyway, if you want to let us know your trail stories, let us know anything really. Haley will be the run to respond. So it'll, it'll, it'll buy email via email.

That's right. I'm usually the social media responder. So please find us at mountainmysteries.apple.com. You can find us on Facebook at mountain mysteries, tales from Appalachia.

Find us on Instagram at mountainmysteries.apple. And patreon. patreon.com slash mountain mysteries. How are you doing with that?

Shout out. Well, I'm trying to find us a good one. They all kind of look like the ones we've said before. Go to the tippy tippy bottom and see.

Well, I can't pronounce them. That's not good. Um, let's do, um, street, Maryland. Well, like that.

Yeah. Street, Maryland. Thank you. Street, Maryland.

Yeah. It's all that your town's name. Street. And you say which street do you live on in?

Street, Maryland. Yeah. I don't know how to about that. It's unique.

Street, Maryland. Yeah. Feels repetitive. It does.

I like it. Yeah. I don't know. It's different.

Yeah. Good job, Maryland. Okay. Well, catch us next week when Kaylee talks about more things.

Yeah, we'll be here. Have a good one. Bye. Bye.