Bill Ewasko found?

[jdclifford]

I think I'm done with Joshua Tree myself now that Bill has been found. Beautiful place, but that national park designation will always draw in so many people. Too many beautiful, off beaten places without the crowds. If you look at the stats on Joshua Tree visits per year since Bill went on that hike, it really is astounding. From just 2013 to 2017 it more than doubled from less than 1.4 million to over 2.8 million. And the Instagrammers...yuck! Whatever happened to just enjoying the beautiful outdoors for solitude and moments of self-reflection?

I think the most tragic thing about Bill is that he probably would have been saved if that park ranger had just done his job correctly.

[OtherHand]

From the SW not the SE?

HJ

Approach was from the S to the SW. Not SE. Based on the topography, I'd say he made the right turn out of Quail Wash and headed easterly up that large wash area northerly of the hills north of Samuelson. If you hold that course or veer right, you top out on to the flats and it's a easy run to Park Road. He veered left for reasons unknown and got into the hills of the Panorama Loop trail.

[Hikin_Jim]

Well, shoot. Now I really don't know what he was up to. Maybe he really did come down Smith Water Canyon. But why go up Quail Wash to the north and then try to cut east? Why not just take the Quail Springs Road east which would be dead simple to navigate?

I had him (in my mind) deliberately using the Bigfoot Trail as his emergency exit route. From the mouth of Smith Water Canyon, the Bigfoot Trail (combined with the Creosote Trail) is the shortest route to Park Blvd. If he were lucid, the Bigfoot Trail would actually make sense as an exit route; it's half a mile shorter than going to Quail Spgs Picnic Area.

It really would be interesting to know his route. I hope his SD card made it through intact. How else to make sense of it all?

HJ

Edit: Actually, going via the wash south of where he was found, the one that passes by Pt. 3976' is a slightly shorter exit route than going by the length of the Bigfoot Trail by about 0.4 miles. If he goes via Pt. 3976', the Bigfoot Trail, and the Creosote Trail, he knocks nearly a mile off what it would take to get to Park Blvd. as compared to going to Quail Spgs Picnic area if I'm doing my math right. Incidentally, the National Geo Trails Illustrated map shows a trail through here, and Caltopo provides a track as though it were an established route.

[OtherHand]

This is speculation on my part, so take it for what it's worth. His ping on Sunday morning was more likely passing through the fringe coverage at 10.6 rather than where he ended up (where there was no coverage). Since the ping was early, perhaps this suggests he was moving at night? Combine that with being stressed and dehydrated and poor directional sense could easily be explained.

I kinda think at some point he passed through the Smithwater/Quail Wash intersection, but I have no revelations as to how he got there. I will say I've always had a little nag in the back of my mind about the empty bottle I found high above that junction. It probably wasn't relevant, but I could never rule it out.

[Hikin_Jim]

Interesting about the bottle. I updated my map: https://caltopo.com/m/1VLTC, but as you say it appears unrelated. The position is very approximate.

I also figured he'd have been moving at night in order to have lasted as long as he did. The moon certainly was amenable. The 26th was a full moon. Thursday night, the moon rose at 6:50 PM, and the sun set and 8:00 PM. By the end of civil twilight, around 8:30 PM, the moon would have been up an hour and 40 minutes and would continue rising reaching meridian around midnight. That should have been pretty good illumination.

Comparative Mileages:

• Via point 3976' - 3.6 mi to Park Blvd.
• Via entire Bigfoot Trail - 3.9 mi to Park Blvd.
• First Houses via Quail Wash - 4.1 mi to town of Joshua Tree
• Via Quail Spgs Rd - 4.4 mi to Park Blvd.

HJ

[Hikin_Jim]

He veered left for reasons unknown and got into the hills of the Panorama Loop trail.

If one stays in that wash, about 900 to 1000 feet before BM 3976', the wash takes a hard left. Say you're on your last legs and pretty sketchy. You miss the turn to the right where the main wash goes east again. You continue north up the wrong wash, and you wind up... somewhere on the ridge leading down from Pt. 4282' to Pt. 3976'. If he were truly on his last legs, as it appears he indeed was, I can see him "head down" and just focused on getting up that little draw "knowing" that the terrain would flatten out before him at the top and he'd be home free. With supreme effort, he makes it to the top of the draw, discovers all that effort was for nothing, and... and, well, the end.

Is this exactly what happened? Well, maybe not, but it's easy for me to see him choosing the wrong draw to ascend, putting him somewhere in the (very) general vicinity of Pt 4282'.

https://caltopo.com/m/1VLTC

HJ

[Ed]

You guys are amazing. OtherHand mentions Bill traveling at night. I think 'What about moonlight?' The next post by HJ tells us everything we want to know about moonlight.

I am sure the subject of temperature has been beaten to death somewhere, but I don't recall it. I did a quick check of the Palm Springs temperature around then and made a mental adjustment for elevation. It does not seem to have been that hot, by summer desert standards, particularly at night. I know OtherHand was there, with RMRU. How hot was it?

[Ric Capucho]

With regards to that JT42 PET bottle, I recalled an email chat I had years ago with Tom, and found the emails and these pictures from 2016. Nothing new here except a recap of my conjectures.

A PET drinks bottle, possible apple juice.

Though the label is missing, the bottle is otherwise in good shape. Leads me to think it’s repurposed for water, and someone ripped the label off to celebrate its new function.

Dropping such a bottle once empty is either woefully irresponsible, or terribly desperate.

Ric

[jdclifford]

Everything is conjecture at this point, but I'm of the belief that Bill might have stayed put for quite some time under the assumption that Mary would call in the cavalry when he didn't call her as expected after his hike. Even though his car wasn't found where expected, it's reasonable to believe they would be on the lookout for his vehicle. Of course, you don't expect a park ranger to not do his job and then report that Bill's car wasn't at the Juniper Flats trailhead when it was. Then on Saturday night he realizes he should probably attempt self-rescue. What I think we can all agree on is that he was well into heat stroke at this point, accounting for the illogical place he ended up in (along with hiking at night, even with a nearly full moon). I believe I got within probably .3 miles on my last hike in JT, but I thought I was wasting my time climbing up into there. I'm not surprised no searchers found him because the endpoint seems so illogical, but I'm a bit surprised it took almost 12 years for recreational hikers to find him because of the proximity to the road and a popular trail. Where Bill ended up will definitely inform me on future searches where the hiker had been in blazing temps.

[Hikin_Jim]

the illogical place

Well, maybe it's illogical, but maybe it can be made sense of (but only in retrospect).

First, what puts him in the wash below where he was found, the wash through which the Mary Trail runs?
Well, we now believe Bill was in the area of the mouth of Smith Water Canyon. If he's headed down canyon, it would make sense for him to take a right on the connector trail that leads to the Quail Spgs Rd. He doesn't. Why? Well, can you spot the connector trail there in this satellite photo? It's really faint. It'd be easy to miss in low light conditions. The ping goes out at 0630. It had to be much earlier when he was near the trail that ends in Smith Water. He missed the connector trail.

He continues following the Smith Water wash. At some point, perhaps when Quail Wash joins in, he realizes that he's gone too far north. Does he want to back track? Heck no. He pulls out his map, spots the Mary Trail, sees that it leads to trails leading to Park Blvd, and he sets out. This would place him in the wash below where he was found. Even if he didn't miss the connector trail, the fact that the combination of the Mary, Bigfoot, and Creosote Trails are the shortest way to Park Blvd. from the mouth of Smith Water could have brought him here. Either way, though neither scenario is absolutely compelling, I can see how he got into the wash below where he was found.

But why does he climb up the side wall to where he was found? Well either he makes a navigational error or he realizes just how desperate the situation is and makes a "Hail Mary" climb up in an effort to get cell signal, an effort, which, in a way, actually works. A ping gets out to the Serin Dr. cell tower. Unfortunately for Bill, it's not enough, and, exhausted, he succumbs.

Now, admittedly, it's still a bit of a stretch to imagine a man, even one as desperate as Bill must have been, climbing up the wall of the wash to the north. Perhaps the term "illogical" really does apply here, but I can at least conceive of why he'd be in the wash.

HJ