Depending on how you interpret the info, the coordinates lead to a small section off a hiking path, or half-way up the face of a mountain.
Probably a hoax, but, again, worth checking. Whoever sent this would like us to believe this is where Maura's body is located. So, it's either someone with knowledge of her death or a person with a sick and twisted agenda.
In the future, if you have a tip like this, please provide a photograph for verification.
** Editor's Note: It is still, as the locals say, "Winter in the Whites". Lots of snow left on the mountains. Only experienced hikers should venture there.**
***UPDATED***
Here's a report from a reader who volunteered to check out the coordinates over the weekend:
** Editor's Note: It is still, as the locals say, "Winter in the Whites". Lots of snow left on the mountains. Only experienced hikers should venture there.**
***UPDATED***
Here's a report from a reader who volunteered to check out the coordinates over the weekend:
Sorry to take so long to get back to you, but the post hike beers won't drink themselves. Here's what I can tell you about the day.
I enlisted three friends of mine from the Boston area, all of whom are experienced technical climbers, and a close work associate with a decade experience in digital topography. The three grads headed directly for the Sawyer River Road, to make the 7+ mile accent to the top of Carrigain, while my colleague and I headed for the closed Bear Notch Pass, to make a far less technical one and a half mile snowshoe trek to the second possible waypoint.
The two of us were able to locate the Bear Notch Pass waypoint at about 10:40am and spent nearly two hours in the immediate area investigating any and all possible anomalies. The area is a logging area, and fairly open, but unfortunately we were hampered by the 24 to 36 inches of snow still remaining in the pass. We were able to locate nothing unusual. If there's something there, and it's not three or more feet in the air, it may take several weeks until we can find it with the current amount of snow on the ground.
The Carrigain team had similar luck. They reached their waypoint at just after 12:30pm, and spent over an hour in the area. They reported snow at that elevation of between 36 and 48 inches, with some drifts even higher. Like us, nothing was evidently visible, and the ground has 100% snow coverage.
Everyone returned to the southern end of Crawford Notch safely by 7pm.
We voted unanimously over dinner at the Truant Tavern in Woodstock, to come back in a few weeks, ideally with increased numbers, but until the snow melts I'm afraid there isn't much more we can do for you. It may be mid spring in the rest of the country, but the mountains have their own calendar.