Story of missing hiker in Joshua Tree NP

[RichardK]

On his own web page (http://www.adammarsland.com/ewasko2.html), Adam Marsland theorizes about Bill's fate. I think his conclusion quoted here is the truth of the case:

3. Bill went completely off his rocker from heat exhaustion, and went into an area that makes absolutely no logical sense (e.g. into the canyons west of Upper Covington, or eschewing an obvious exit route like a road or a path).

4. Bill is in an area that has already been searched, but is obscured for some reason. (This includes the possibility that he did nearly make it out, but expired near a road or some other area no one would bother to search)

As I go through all the possibilities on this page, I'm unhappy to report that I think (3) and (4) above are the most likely answers to the question "Where is Bill?" Particularly unhappy in the sense that it means that you might as well throw a dart at the map, because he's just about as likely to be anywhere as anywhere else.

[Myth]

Having visited the area and done some searching myself, including Smith Water Canyon and also this very ridge Adam Marsland investigated, my personal opinion is Nr 4. I went up this ridge thinking that it lies nicely on the 10.6 mile radius and could pick up a brief patch of Serin Drive coverage. The thing is, when you are actually there, the picnic area is right below you! You can't miss it. I can certainly believe that Bill might have reached the area, waited for someone to show up and been disappointed ( it being June and all ) - but I just find it hard to believe that he would then have wandered back into the wilderness, unless it was towards his car, and the Riding trail is a nice clear path to take towards that goal. Heat exhaustion definitely befuddles the mind, but it seems as if trudging up the dirt road would have seem more attractive: easier walking, the odd Joshua Tree overhanging it for a patch of shade to rest in ... maybe someone would come along!

Perhaps it will be worthwhile to walk the road and the area immediately paralleling it on the chance he did this and walked a few dozen feet off the road to rest in shade and never got up, but it seems like the searching already done in the location would have found him.

Back to Nr 4., the terrain in NE Smith Water is extremely ... craggy. There are so many places where a misstep can dump you into a crevice or where you could hole up for shade in a boulder pile and only be visible if someone actually crawls under the boulder. you chose My guess is still that this is what happened, and that every little cranny in that vicinity needs looking at. This would be a really time-consuming endeavor and require some high-resolution mapping of search paths and notes of what was looked at along the way - or else a lucky shot.

If I didn't have a pesky mortgage requiring my butt in a chair 40 hours a week, I would tackle such a mission. I have a bit of tolerance for repetitive, detail-oriented endeavors --- or I wouldn't have hobbies like poking around in the backcountry looking for needles in haystacks, or more precisely a few square inches of pigment or pecked lines in miles and miles of boulder fields ... or for that matter, gardening, patiently pulling weeds from between seedlings. Because my day job requires creativity and problem solving and many context shifts during the day I find such finely honed activities with almost mindless, singular concentration to be very invigorating.

Unfortunately, I'm a rare bird in terms of my attraction to the hopeless, the mundane, the repetitive. I can seldom convince my spouse to head out into the boulders with me.

[Ric Capucho]

Ok, a couple more trip reports of recent searches by Tom and Adam have been posted. No Bill, of course...

http://www.otherhand.org

Ric

[RichardK]

Adam Marsland has posted additional analysis on his website.

http://www.adammarsland.com/ewasko3.html

There are interesting new developments. Bill may have hiked Lost Horse Mine before arriving at Juniper Flats. The cell ping distance is more accurate than thought. Some areas are eliminated. The case is more mysterious than ever.

There is disagreement about whether the Upper Covington ping spot is from the Serin Drive tower. My android phone has two apps (Signal Finder and OpenSignal) that will tell you which tower you are on. I don't know if such apps are available for iphones which the searchers seem to have.

[Ric Capucho]

There's a "secret" factory test for the iPhone that'll tell you which tower you're connecting to. A bit technical and tricky, but it works. Lemme know if anyone's interested.

Ric

[halhiker]

Adam Marsland has posted additional analysis on his website.

http://www.adammarsland.com/ewasko3.html

There are interesting new developments. Bill may have hiked Lost Horse Mine before arriving at Juniper Flats. The cell ping distance is more accurate than thought. Some areas are eliminated. The case is more mysterious than ever.

There is disagreement about whether the Upper Covington ping spot is from the Serin Drive tower. My android phone has two apps (Signal Finder and OpenSignal) that will tell you which tower you are on. I don't know if such apps are available for iPhones which the searchers seem to have.

Both apps are available on iPhone as well.

[Ric Capucho]

Adam Marsland has posted additional analysis on his website.

http://www.adammarsland.com/ewasko3.html

There are interesting new developments. Bill may have hiked Lost Horse Mine before arriving at Juniper Flats. The cell ping distance is more accurate than thought. Some areas are eliminated. The case is more mysterious than ever.

There is disagreement about whether the Upper Covington ping spot is from the Serin Drive tower. My android phone has two apps (Signal Finder and OpenSignal) that will tell you which tower you are on. I don't know if such apps are available for iPhones which the searchers seem to have.

Both apps are available on iPhone as well.

I've just downloaded them onto my own iPhone, and neither seem to tell me anything about which tower I'm connected to. Maybe a different offering for iOS versus Android? Shame if so...

Ric

[MidwestArmchair]

This Midwest stranger, with the deepest respect and admiration for those still involved with this mystery, had a crazy/depressing thought the other day.

What if Ewasko accidentally left his phone in the car? The last mention [I could find] of the car was made at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday morning (see Incident Report). That's right around the time of the ping. Do we know when the car was removed from the park, or when Ewasko's personal possessions were removed to get scents for the search dogs? Of course, what I'm thinking is the phone's battery was on its last leg on Sunday morning, and it pinged, received an influx of texts/voicemails, and then died as it was transported through the park. This would fit with Verizon (?) saying the phone was transitory when it pinged. I think it'd be crazy that an official or a ranger had Ewasko's phone and didn't put 2 and 2 together, but, then, there is that whole "well, we drove by a few times and didn't see his car..." thing. So. For whatever it's worth.

My less crazy thought, which I'm sure has already been considered, is that Ewasko was using older maps of the park from his previous hikes. Perhaps there was something on older map that was long gone and forgotten by 2010--say a wet spring, trail, or road. So, he went down a route that made perfect sense to him but is considered illogical and has understandably been ruled out by everyone else. I tried google-finding old JTNP maps without luck.

Again, deepest respect. I've been aware of Ewasko's disappearance for a paltry six months, and I can't get it out of my head. I can't imagine the frustration of five years of searching, as well as being close enough to JTNP to be out there looking.

[Hikin_Jim]

Thanks for some thoughtful input.

With regard to the ping, that is a possibility. I wonder by what route was his car removed from Joshua Tree? And was it removed on Sunday?

HJ

[zippetydude]

Every time I see this thread bumped up I wonder if there's been a breakthrough...not yet it seems. There was another thread not long ago about a guy doing the PCT who disappeared near someone's cabin, leaving his possessions by the trail untouched. I don't want to hijack this thread, but does anyone remember that thread so I can look it up and follow up on that one? I'm just wondering if he was ever found. It was such a strange circumstance that I was hoping (against all odds, I know) that he might somehow turn up alive and well.

***Nevermind, I found it. No news there either.

z