[pct-l] Missing Hiker piece in the Press-Enterprise

[dsaufley at sprynet.com (dsaufley@sprynet.com)]

I do agree that it is most likely that he was lost in wilderness, and caught unprepared in the storm, from all accounts I heard reported to the sheriffs.  He was in the thick of the pack starting from the KO, and had been seen by many, many hikers (dozens of them) at Pines to Palms and points south, but no one saw him after the point-last-seen below Saddle Junction.  Everyone noticed and remembered John for his boisterous enthusiasm, and he was a notable character that folks recalled vividly.  Those who saw him last said he was struggling with the snow.  But it's not a bad thing to consider all of the possibilities, and it could be marginally possible, though unlikely, that he got through unseen and hitched.  

No matter what happened, this has been troubling and the cause for great sadness.  He could have been any one of the hikers that we've come to know and love.  At the start of every season we look forward to meeting friends we've never met before, and John would have been one of them. Judging from the passion and concerns of his friends, he was very loved and is deeply missed.  

L-Rod

-----Original Message-----
From: Shutterbug steiner <shutterbugg313@yahoo.com>
Sent: Jun 22, 2005 5:00 PM
To: pct <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Missing Hiker piece in the Press-Enterprise

The reason why a "hitch gone bad" is IMO unlikely is that from POINT LAST seen there is 28 trail miles with 12 of those being snow filled.  From point last seen there was 45 hours until the storm would have hit.  In that 72 hour window - Point Last Seen through the storm there was at least a dozen hikers that made it through the snow (me being one), and judging from how packed the inns were in Idlywild, another 50+ that bypassed the snow and completed the last snow free 16 miles to Route 10..  Of these 60+ people it is very unlikely but NOT impossible for John not to have been seen, especially on the last 16 miles down to Cabazon..
 
Shutterbugg 

dsaufley@sprynet.com wrote:
It is definitely a possibility that can't be ignored. I've heard a few stories from hikers of hitches gone wrong that were damn scary (and also incredibly wonderful stories, too). I know that the sheriff's department detectives have been monitoring John's phone and credit card accounts to see if there is any activity, allowing that he could have been abducted and robbed (or that he chose to drop out for a while). Apparently, it's standard procedure for them to start looking in the area someone was last seen, so their search efforts were focused on him being lost. 

Along this line, this year there have been consistent reports of a guy giving male hikers rides and propositions to attend a lewd party somewhere around Big Bear (at least four hikers reported this at various intervals). He might have been more successful if he told them there was FOOD at the party . . . 

We don't know if there were any takers. No one has fessed up. 

L-Rod

-----Original Message-----
From: yogi 
Sent: Jun 21, 2005 4:29 PM
To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] Missing Hiker piece in the Press-Enterprise

yep, Cabazon is a hitch. It's about 4 miles off-trail, 
and can be hitched on busy Interstate 10 or the deserted 
frontage road next to the interstate.

I never even considered a hitch gone wrong until someone
posted that idea a week or so ago.

yogi
www.pcthandbook.com




dsaufley@sprynet.com wrote:
How close is the Cabazon post office to the trail? Does it require a hitch? If he made it through the San Jacintos, that would have been his next resupply pick-up point. He never made it there. Hikers both ahead and behind of Mr. Donovan on the trail did not see him after the point he was last seen south of Saddle Junction, and there were quite a few off them. Also, numerous hikers reported getting lost in that area this year, following footprints in the snow of people that had also been lost. The snow conditions in the southern mountains were unlike any year anyone can remember. 

We may never know what happened. Sgt. Meadows of the Riverside Sheriffs told me it's like finding a needle in a haystack in the San Jacinto area. He told me that the first day they began searching for John Donovan, they found the skull of a hiker who had been missing for a year and a half, who they'd done several major searches for. So, even though they looked and didn't find John, it doesn't mean he isn't out there.

He could have hitched and things gone wrong, but I believe the more likely scenario is that he got caught in the storm that came through at that time he was up there and things went terribly wrong in the mountains. His friends all attest that he was ill prepared for heavy weather. Shutterbug (a member of the search & rescue crew) said that when people get hypothermic, they do bizarre things and can head in any direction. I believe he's just somewhere the searchers haven't looked yet, and it's just too big and often steep an area to cover every inch of it. 

L-Rod


-----Original Message-----
From: yogi 
Sent: Jun 21, 2005 8:05 AM
To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] Missing Hiker piece in the Press-Enterprise

I was able to read it by clicking on the link, and 
I didn't register.

Someone posted a while ago that maybe Donovan did 
make it down to the interstate and perhaps got into 
trouble with a hitch. Since all the searches have 
seemed to turn up nothing up in the mountains, it 
seems that possibly this was a hitch gone wrong. 

yogi
www.pcthandbook.com





Bob Bankhead wrote:
You first have to "register" at pe.com before they'll let you access it. 
They want too much personal info for that.

Wandering Bob


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt Maxon" 
To: "pct list" 

Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 4:40 AM
Subject: [pct-l] Missing Hiker piece in the Press-Enterprise


http://www.pe.com/localnews/hemet/stories/PE_News_Local_D_search21.aff7c.html
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