Bill Ewasko found?

Southern California and far-away places. Hiking, wildlife, cycling etc.

Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby jdclifford » Thu Feb 17, 2022 7:00 pm

Bretpct, do you plan to continue doing searches like this?

I told myself if and when Bill was found that I would never get involved in another search so far away again. I planned to do a search while out there for vacation the first time looking for Bill in January 2020. I got hooked and just couldn't let this case go. I'm definitely going to continue doing searches like this, but will draw the line at 3 hours from my home from here on out.
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby bretpct » Fri Feb 18, 2022 12:16 am

I'm considering putting in some searches for David O'Sullivan. He went missing some where between Idyllwild and probably Snow Creek, possibly around the Fuller Ridge area. I will have to make a visit there to see if I feel I can handle the topography, which is extremely vertical. I've only hiked through on the PCT previously. If it's too intense maybe I'll just hike somewhere else for pleasure!
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby Hikin_Jim » Fri Feb 18, 2022 9:35 am

I put in one search for David O'Sullivan when I was going to be out that way. https://caltopo.com/m/NJAA Unfortunately, it was fruitless. :( They too (those searching for David) have started searching in places where it would make little sense for him to be, but as we know...

My search was over in the Tahquitz Creek drainage which is a natural terrain trap for anyone lost to fall into. It's pretty mellow through Tahquitz Valley, and then it drops off and gets super vertical as you head east. This is where John Donavon was found by accident (by lost hikers!) a year or so after any official searching had been abandoned.

I still think David is somewhere on the N side of Fuller Ridge, but who knows? The terrain is SO steep over there that searching where he might have slid to would be quite difficult -- if indeed that's what happened. We have far fewer clues with David.

There's no
  • List of points of interest
  • Rental car parked at a specific location
  • Cell phone ping
  • Sales receipts
  • List of contents from a car trunk
  • Phone call the morning of

We've just got that he was headed north on the PCT and that he was last seen in Idyllwild.

HJ

P.S. At some point, they did some kind of aerial search. I charted some points based on that searching... I think. My memory is vague on this point. But I do have this map of the area where I plotted some points of interest: https://caltopo.com/m/0P5E I don't recall where all the data on the heights of waterfalls etc. came from.

I myself would first suspect some areas along the north side of Fuller Ridge. If one misses a turn in the trail, altogether easy over there in snow, then one could easily get into some sketchy stuff from which it would be difficult to recover even if one did not slip and fall. If one slipped and fell... whoosh. You'd be in for a fast ride with a (very) abrupt stop.
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby jdclifford » Fri Feb 18, 2022 9:53 am

Very cool, I heard about that case somewhere. Now that Bill is found, I'm looking forward to going on vacations for pleasure hikes again and doing local searches as a weekend warrior. I'm about to head to the Chiricahuas in an hour or so for camping and pleasure hiking, but there some notable disappearances there. I might go back there as a summer season search possibility. I'm not wanting to hijack Bill's thread, so I'll just post some of the cases I'm looking at for people who are interested in this kind of stuff:

https://locationsunknown.org/lawrence-kosden ...man who went hiking with his cat in Rustler Park area of Chiricahuas and was never seen again
https://charleyproject.org/case/david-ristovski ...schizophrenic man trying to elude search and rescue (predictable patterns of behavior are out the window) in remote Peloncillo Wilderness area
https://charleyproject.org/case/jon-evans-ottesen ...oldest case I'm looking into (1999); Black Range of Gila, another warmer season option
https://charleyproject.org/case/stephen-edward-carey ...conspiracy-riddled, but offers a reasonable search area if he is in the Organ Mountains
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby Ed » Fri Feb 18, 2022 10:15 am

Some years ago I ran into two volunteer rangers on the Willow Creek trail. I think it was about a year after O'Sullivan disappeared. I was heading for Tahquitz Lookout from the tram station, they were moving in the opposite direction. They had overnight packs, and said they were searching for O'Sullivan, who they identified as 'the missing Irish hiker', rather than by name. We were so far from what I understood was his probable location that I wondered if this was more of an excuse than a reason for their trip. When I brought up his probable location to make conversation, they admitted that it was far away, but said that area had been thoroughly searched, and it was time to check out other areas. I remember recalling that people have been found around Caramba Outlook who had no rational reason for being around there, they simply took wrong turns at trail junctions and kept on going. There is no way two people could thoroughly search the territory along the trail from Saddle Junction to the tram station, but perhaps they had some line of reasoning to localize their search.

Did not realize until I checked HJ's map that this was the area he searched.
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby Hikin_Jim » Fri Feb 18, 2022 12:21 pm

This was the area I was asked to search too. At the time I went, the Willow Creek Trail was in OK shape, but the trail down to Laws and then the trail back to Saddle Junction were all but non-existent because of the fire. I didn't think David would make the error of heading east since he had come in from more or less the east on the PCT, but maybe. I'm not recalling the snow conditions at Saddle Junction at the time, but it's possible to get misoriented.

I once met two women at Laws Camp who had intended to go to Red Tahquitz. They had missed the turn and kept going straight. They knew they were on trail; their GPS said so (it just wasn't the right trail). I guess that's why I still carry paper maps. I want the big picture. That little postage stamp on a GPS unit just doesn't give me a wide enough view to put together an area in my mind.

On this search for David, I mistook Tahquitz Creek for a side creek at one point and crossed and continued on. The terrain very quickly disagreed with my map. Hmm. Not good. I looked around, and it seemed like I was in high ground south of Tahquitz Creek. A quick look at my GPS confirmed my suspicions; I adjusted and continued on. (I was off trail the entire time.) Would I have caught my mistake as quickly were I using GPS alone? I don't think I would. Maps are great at least for me for getting a general sense of the land. I knew the ground shouldn't be rising as fast as it was because of the contour lines, so I stopped and oriented myself before getting any further. I'm sure I'd eventually have caught my error. I was just glad to catch it relatively quickly with minimal unnecessary expenditure of energy.

I wonder if Bill, after ascending the ridge near Pt 4282' and realizing (I assume) that he had unnecessarily expended energy in his climb was downhearted and stopped moving at that point. Dang but he was close, so close.

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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby bretpct » Sat Feb 19, 2022 12:43 am

Link to reddit commenter who says he was in group who discovered remains. Not an Ewasko searcher, just backpacking. Says there was a backpack but they didn't look through it.



Also, if anyone knows of a map containing compiled O'Sullivan search tracks please shoot me a PM.

P.S. - HJ, Thanks for those maps and trail reports!
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby Ric Capucho » Sat Feb 19, 2022 2:40 am

I think the Reddit poster is genuine.

A little more information can be gleaned, I’ve paraphrased so as not to piss off anyone.

The group’s discovery was when they climbed up a ridge to watch the sunset. The spot was within sight of the road to the east, but even in California the sunset is to the west.

I’ll skip the macabre stuff.

Wallet contained various cards in Bill’s name.

There was a backpack, but the group didn’t open it. Good discipline, that.

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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby Ed » Sat Feb 19, 2022 10:36 am

Hikin_Jim wrote:I once met two women at Laws Camp who had intended to go to Red Tahquitz. They had missed the turn and kept going straight. They knew they were on trail; their GPS said so (it just wasn't the right trail). I guess that's why I still carry paper maps. I want the big picture. That little postage stamp on a GPS unit just doesn't give me a wide enough view to put together an area in my mind.


Especially when there is sun glare on that little screen, and you have aging eyes. I tend to view map-and-compass and GPS as complimentary rather than substitutes. If you know where you are, map and compass are better for planning your route and staying on it. If you are lost, and need to locate yourself, good luck with map and compass, you will probably need it. I suspect that most people in most situations can't locate themselves with map and compass when they are lost. Even if they know how to triangulate on two visible identifiable landmarks, because more often than not you do not have them.

Not that I am the last word on this subject, I am a mathematical person whose understanding of navigation vastly exceeds his ability to navigate in the field. I once went through a simple cross-country map and compass exercise in Joshua Tree under ideal conditions. It was a humbling experience.
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Re: Bill Ewasko found?

Postby sk43 » Sat Feb 19, 2022 7:08 pm

In case anyone is interested, here's a link to a podcast that I've been following for some time. This particular episode is about Paul Miller, but at the 26:18 mark, during an interview with George Land (JT Public Information Officer and Community Outreach Ranger), there is a discussion about the continuing search efforts for Bill Ewasko as of Dec 2018.

https://locationsunknown.org/episodes/ep-2-paul-miller-joshua-tree-national-park
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