Here's another trip report (Summary: nothing new really...). I did a hike on Saturday, April 14, at Joshua Tree. I started around 10:15 a.m. and finished at 4:00 p.m. I had initially intended to go from Juniper Flats parking lot, via the C&H/Stubbe Springs Loop to Juniper Flats area, and up towards the west of Quail Mtn. to Smith Water Canyon and then back. My hike unfortunately did not go as planned haha and took a wrong turn I guess... After reaching just to the west of Quail Mtn., I descended and ultimately followed a dry river bed towards Samuelson's Rock/Quail Spring's area and then took a big loop back along Park Road, towards the Lost Horse Ranger Station, back to the parking lot. All in all, this took ~18 miles and I didn't get to do as much searching as I'd like, but I'm sure something along these lines may have happened to Bill...
The dry river bed/path that I followed after I had descended down from just west of Quail area had a lot of class 2 boulder hopping and dry water fall climbing. Ultimately, there was significant vegetation too at parts where I had to literally climb the side of the canyon at 2 parts for about half a mile since the coverage was so dense. Didn't feel too comfortable myself, since (1) there's always the mountain lions (2) any fall/slip could be rather nasty and lonely.
In terms of coverage, I did a pretty good job initially along the dry river bed, but where the heavier vegetation and coverage was it was harder to see. Ultimately, not sure if Bill would have taken this route, but I think he could have ended up in a similar situation to this, albeit in a different area.
Wish I had more news to report, but thought I'd post anyway. In terms of photos, I didn't take too many since I was more watching my back for any mountain lions, while scaling the canyon walls and then also trying to avoid taking a costly fall. The maps make some of these areas look a lot easier than they really are, which may have happened in Bill’s case.
Lastly, on a side note, for the future, I think it'd be cool, if a few of us could meet up one weekend at Joshua Tree to go along the 10.6 mile ping radius (+/- ~10%) from about the Lower Covington Flats area and go all the way through Smith Water Canyon and back. I know this area has been covered probably too many times, but I feel things may change over the years and it never hurts to have more searching. I think if we have 5 or 6+ people it might make it easier to cover a lot more ground and maybe pick something up... In terms of definitive evidence, I know that the bandana is not definite and I don't think any of Bill's belongings have been found, so all we really have to go by is the cell ping??? Obviously, the location could be way off, but from what Tom and others have said, it appears to be pretty accurate. This isn't too say either that Bill couldn't have moved another 10+ miles after having the phone pinged (although highly unlikely!!)
I had a few more photos, but may have lost them on my phone due to accidentally logging out of iCloud - will see what I can find...
Here's the overall track of the hike... Not as much searching as I had wanted to do, but luckily made it back safely.
Another view
Part 1 with the heavy/dense vegetation coverage and having to go to the side (satellite images)
Part 2 (satellite images)
Part where a group of us could possibly explore
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