A hiker whose remains were found on the Appalachian Trail a month after she went missing kept a journal of her final days, an official report has revealed.
Geraldine Largay, 66, hiked to higher ground in an attempt to get signal for her mobile phone after she became lost when she went off the trail to go to the toilet.
Text messages from her phone to her husband asking him to get help went undelivered but Mrs Largay, from Brentwood, Tennessee, survived for at least 26 days before dying from starvation and exposure.
In a page torn from her journal, she wrote: "When you find my body, please call my husband George ... and my daughter Kerry.
"It will be the greatest kindness for them to know that I am dead where you found me - no matter how many years from now.
"Please find it in your heart to mail the contents of this bag to one of them."
Mrs Largay, who went by the nickname Inchworm, got lost on 22 July, 2013, and set up camp the next day, according to wardens.
Her texts to her husband were never delivered, but were retrieved from her phone after her body was found.
On 22 July, 2013, she texted: "In somm trouble. Got off trail to go to br. now lost. can you call AMC to c if a trail maintainer can help me. somewhere north of woods road."
The following day, she wrote: "lost since yesterday. off trail 3 or 4 miles. call police for what to do pls."
Her husband George Largay reported her missing on 24 July after she missed a rendezvous with him in Wyman Township, Maine.
A massive search operation was conducted by the Maine Warden Service (MWS) over the next two years.
The MWS released more than 1,500 pages of documents related to the search on Wednesday after a Freedom of Access Act request by several media organisations.
Mr Largay told wardens that the Appalachian Trail journey from Georgia to Maine was on his wife's bucket list.
She had started out with a travelling companion, Jane Lee, but she had to leave the trail because of a family emergency.
Mrs Largay's remains were found in October last year by a contractor conducting a forestry survey on land owned by the US Navy in Redington Township. The land is part of a Navy survival skills training facility.
She was found inside her sleeping bag inside her tent, which had collapsed.
Among items found with her were toothpaste, baby powder, a first aid kit, cord, twine and a paper trail map.
The MWS report indicated she had a poor sense of direction and would become flustered if she made a mistake.
Ms Lee told wardens she often had to backtrack on the trail to find her companion after she had become lost or fallen behind, the Portland Press Herald reported.
The newspaper reported that the MWS had not previously disclosed that a journal had been recovered.
