jdclifford wrote: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