CARRABASSETT VALLEY — The search for a missing Tennessee woman hiking the Appalachian Trail continued Friday morning with about 60 game wardens and searchers.

Geraldine Largay, 66, failed to meet her husband as planned in Wyman Township on Monday, Cpl. John MacDonald of the Maine Warden Service said.

The warden service is seeking information about another female hiker who called and told a Stratton Motel employee that she spent Tuesday night, July 23, with Largay at a lean-to on the trail.  

Along with wardens and searchers from the Maine Association of Search and Rescue, a Maine Forest Service helicopter was used Friday morning, MacDonald said. The wardens’ fixed-wing aircraft could not be used because of cloud cover.

A command post was set up at Sugarloaf Mountain Resort, he said.

Search efforts are concentrated on the trail north of the Spaulding lean-to in Mount Abram Township to the Route 27 crossing in Wyman Township, he said. The distance from the Spaulding shelter to Route 27 is about 7½ miles, as the crow flies, but the AT meanders slightly west and south before turning north again. Numerous roads and trails cross and overlap the AT between those points.

Largay, known as Gerry, is from Brentwood, Tenn. She is 5 feet, 5 inches tall, weighs 115 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes.

She was last seen wearing a black pullover shirt, tan pants, a blue hat and was carrying a black-and-green backpack.

On Thursday, wardens learned that an unidentified woman called the Stratton Motel on Wednesday. The caller said she was traveling south on the trail and Largay was working her way north when each stopped at the lean-to, according to the Warden Service.

Rain was apparently heavy on the trail Tuesday. Wardens suspect Largay may have waited the day out at the lean-to before restarting her hike north Wednesday morning.

Largay was last seen on Route 4 in Sandy River Plantation on Sunday. She intended to meet her husband Monday in Wyman Township. She texted him at 7:15 that morning but never arrived at their meeting place.

Largay started hiking the Appalachian Trail in Harpers Ferry, W.V., and intended to hike to Baxter State Park, wardens said Friday morning.

Her husband, George, was keeping track of her and making pre-determined stops to provide supplies for her.

Wardens say she departed from the Route 4 AT crossing in Sandy River Plantation near Rangeley on Sunday morning. Later that day, her husband received a text in which she told him she was on top of Saddleback Mountain. She planned to stay at the Poplar Ridge lean-to in Redington Township on Sunday night.

A text Monday morning indicated she was headed north on the trail and her next stop would be the Spaulding Mountain lean-to.

Largay is an experienced hiker who has supplies, MacDonald said.

Anyone with information about Largay or the unknown hiker is asked to call Augusta Public Safety Dispatch at 1-800-452-4664.

abryant@sunjournal.com

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