Ebike...45 miles
maximum range. That was probably much much less in reality, due to steep hills and possibly having to plow through snow...based on my similar ebike. Sheesh, she's lucky to have survived.
Phones have GPS, and you can download maps first if you get out of cell service in remote areas.
Is it really bikepacking if you stay on roads with your ebike, as I assume she was doing? It also doesn't seem she sought much advice beforehand (milk crate, kids trailer, etc)
Some of the quotes in the news stories are a little...odd.
But her survival instincts and knowledge of nature were put to the test when she was lost in the mountains of Fresno, California
Yes, the great peaks of Fresno. They probably meant "near" Fresno.
At the start of her camping trip, she recounted to reporters how she had fallen off a cliff and became unconscious for two hours, injuring both of her legs in the process. Slaton, who is a trained horticulturist and "pre-Olympian" in archery, then proceeded to splint one of her legs and "pop another knee back into place," she said.
Due to a recent avalanche, she was unable to get back onto the main road and was unsuccessful in reaching 911 due to a lack of cell service.
Thus, she began her "long arduous journey" of attempting to get back to civilization, which included fighting off animals, surviving on leeks and boiled snow, hiking peaks up to 11,000 feet high and suffering through 13 heavy snow storms, she said.
I want to know how her gardening and archery skills came into play! Also what animals she had to fight for her leeks! "Boiled" snow shows she must have kept her stove. Maybe she brought a big bunch of leeks with her, as experienced bikepackers do?