Saw this case on r/MissingPersons on reddit and looked it up over here, as I recently spent about 10 days hiking up and down Blood Mountain and the trails and hills nearby. Had to get off the trail for a couple days, when storms were coming in, as they had not had rain down there in months and the lack of rain = dried out trees. Combine dry trees with the insanely high winds and the rain the storms brought in (same storms that lit up Gatlinburg to the North) and it's dangerous to be hiking underneath the trees in those conditions.
Anyhow, the road she was on is incredibly scenic in the Fall, with the Fall colors, but notoriously dangerous:
Deadliest Curve on Blood Mountain, Georgia
https://youtu.be/AG5OkVQ8Xts
Deals Gap Trip Blood Mountain:
https://youtu.be/AG5OkVQ8Xts
several other videos of 129 around Blood Mountain on youtube as well. Saw many white crosses with flowers and some with names on em at various points along 129 and other mountain roads.
I think 129 has more issues with accidents than the equally windy and hilly Richard Russell Scenic Biway because GPS/WAZE systems and most local folks appear to use 129 as the major thoroughfare there. While folks driving Richard Russell, from what I could tell, were mostly out for a "sunday drive" and not in as much of a hurry to get anywhere.
These gps systems default to the "shortest" geographic and presumably shortest time route. When I left the Blood Mountain area on the last day of my trip, I expected the WAZE lady to send me on 74 back to Cleveland (TN) and meet up with 75 there--a mildly hilly but consistently 55 mph drive that I followed coming into the Blairsville/Blood Mountain area.
Instead, the WAZE lady took me up 19 to 294 to 68. I'd driven into the Blood Mountain area via 74, and so was familiar with it. But I trusted the WAZE lady and took the 19-294-68 route through Coker Creek to meet up with I-75 south of Knoxville.
Big mistake. It was later in the day on Friday when I started. And so pitch black by the time I got too far along to turn around and retreat to the more familiar, easier 74 route. A lot of hairpin, 15 mph turns, up and down and around guard-rail-less mountain roads in pitch black conditions (no rain or fog tho, thankfully); and very few vehicles on the road. The few vehicles I encountered, until I got to Telico (out of the mtns, basically), seemed to be locals in jacked-up trucks who'd ride my arse til either they turned off or I found a spot to pull over and get out of their way.
If TH crashed at night and made it to a road to flag down a passing vehicle, odds are it'd have been someone at least somewhat local to the area. But that could be someone from Gainseville and/or other nearby towns as well I suppose.
Also possible TH's accident--car lights noisily cascading down the side of a ravine--was witnessed by someone nearby and they made the effort to go down to her vehicle and bring her back out of the ravine.
