[pct-l] Death on the PCT / John Joseph Donovan

[Erik The Black]

Thanks for sharing this story.

I remember hearing about John Donovan when I was hiking the PCT in '06.

Sometimes the Southern California mountains get under-estimated because
SoCal is known for it's beaches and deserts. But it's not all desert here...


At my house in Big Bear there is more than 5 feet of snow on the ground
right now after a huge storm that lasted all week. 

Not sure what this will mean for early-season thru-hikers this year. I guess
it will depend on what the rest of the winter holds...

But, my advice to this year's thru-hikers is: If you do decide to head into
the San Jacintos, San Bernardinos or San Gabriels early this spring (if
there is still a lot of snow then) just make sure to bring two things: 

1) An ice axe for self-rescue in case you slip off a ledge (especially
around Fuller Ridge and Mt. Baden-Powell)

2) Good maps and compass (and know how to use them) and *maybe* even a GPS

The chances of sliding down a hill aren't that great (if you are careful and
use hiking poles)... could still happen though. 

But the chances of making a wrong turn in deep snow are high if you try to
just "eyeball" the trail (especially if you are hiking at the front of the
pack and there is no clear set of footprints to follow).


Happy trails!
Erik the Black

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.


-----Original Message-----
From: Don Billings [mailto:dbillings803 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 9:26 PM
To: Pct-l at backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] Death on the PCT / John Joseph Donovan

I just caught an interesting TV show regarding two tourists from Texas who
wandered away from the Tram area on
San Juancinto Mountain and got lost in 2006. They weren't really hikers.
They were just walking a tourist trail and decided to go 
off trail but got confused.

They stumbled around for four days before being rescued. 

The interesting thing was that they stumbled across what appeared to be an
abandoned
camp site. The tarp, backpack, shoes, and such were present. But upon
evaluating what
they had found, they realized by the log book that they had found a man's
camp site who
went missing exactly one year to the day before they found his camp. 

The remains of the thru hiker on the PCT were found two weeks later after
they handed the
man's ID over to their own rescuers. The remains were only 150 feet or so
from his camp. He 
apparently had become disoriented in snowfall and was an ultralight hiker
w/o much gear. As 
a solo hiker, nobody knew he was missing for about 10 days. It was an irony
that the man had 
always said his biggest fear was to die alone. And, he did. 

His name was John Joseph Donovan. He turned age 60 just days before he died.
He wasn't an
inexperienced hiker but he did have a reputation for being a little sloppy
and stubborn. He was
supposed to partner up with a friend who had wisely decided to postpone two
weeks due to the snowfall
that year.

The story can be read at Backpacker Magazine: Oct 2006.

The young couple from Texas were the focus of the show I watched, but I
researched the
back story of the hiker. I knew from the description on the show that it was
a PCT event even 
though the TV show did not mention the PCT.

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