Largay Search Description by Jim Logan
At 5:30 am on Tuesday June 17, five members of FSAR met at Avon
Airport for a MASAR search for Gerry
Largay. The five were Melissa, Jim A, Steve M, Josh, and Jim L. The team was
assigned an area of wilderness north of the AT that included some steep cliff bands. We were in hopes that after nearly
eleven months there would be a better chance of clues as animals would
likely have gone through any packs or clothing seeking what they could
use. This would probably distribute traces through a broader area.
The day was dry and never got especially hot and leaves kept us shaded
so we had good weather for our work. After probably three miles of AT hiking,
we entered the woods at about 9:30 and quickly came to old slide areas
covered with lots of vegetation and hiding cleverly disguised holes for our
legs to find. Everyone went in to the hip at least once, and Old Jim got his
foot quite entangled once (he was rescued by Young Jim). It also became
very steep and there were cliffs to be negotiated. There were blowdowns,
too. However, we never did encounter the dense stands of small spruce
that so plagued us on last years’ searches. Still, the overall effect was at
least equally miserable.
The usual challenges with the DeLorme GPS surfaced, but with three
competent GPS users and personal devices we managed to sort things
out and the team worked well together covering the area with out-and-back
progressions. We found no indications of any kind that Largay or any other
human had been there. The covered area was quite inhospitable for travel
by humans or other animals and it seemed unlikely that Largay would have
gone far into it. However, there were many caves and other places where
she could be very well hidden if she had made it into this zone and we did
our best to locate any kind of evidence.
The group worked well as a unit and felt we had put forth a solid effort. Also
involved that day were eight members of Mahoosic SAR working their own
area closer to the Poplar Ridge Lean-To. Very surprisingly, we all emerged
from the woods at the same time and Mahoosic had the same frustrations
we did.
All the SAR participants returned to their cars after ten hours on the search.
We were back at the airport twelve hours after we had assembled there in
the morning.
We did a post-operation critique and felt good about our work. We decided
we had a good sized group and that too many more might have been
unwieldy unless we had enough for two units. Among things to remember
for future searches were considerations of available water: there was none
after crossing the Orbeton Stream at the very beginning and fortunately we
planned for this. Also, we decided orange clothing was superior to bright
yellow. Additionally, at the lunch break we thrashed out what more we
could accomplish and how long it would take to exit the woods and get to
the car and get out. This made our afternoon work goals more reasonable
than they might have been if we had just dived in with no plan for what
we could prudently get done. (It was interesting that this was an important
question on what was nearly the longest day of the year; gauging the
capacity of team energy is important too. An expectations and exit plan
is worth considering at every search lunch time break.) Additionally, we
communicated effectively with CP through texting as well as radio, and this
was very good to know. And, as ever with searches, we stressed the need
to keep the group together at all times.
It was another FSAR job well done.
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