by cmitchelli » Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:33 pm
Hi -
I've here via the Hunt for the DV Germans, Otherhand.org, etc.
In May 2018, a new member of this forum posted a theory I also happened to thinking about - a lost phone scenario.
That conversation didn't go far, the poster focused solely on an area (where the phone was hypothetically lost)
that for multiple reasons, didn't hold up - Big Morongo Valley, far outside the park.
I'd like to revisit that scenario where it appears to me quite viable - on or near Park Road in the vicinity of Maze Loop.
Here's the scenario:
Bill's first destination was the North View - Maze trail loop. Trail descriptions suggest an easy to moderate hike, seven miles, about three-hours duration.
Bill lost his phone at the Maze Loop parking area (9.8 miles from Serin) or one of the nearby Park Road pull-offs (at 10.0 and 10.3 miles among others).
Alternatively, Bill lost his phone on the actual trail near 10.6 miles, i.e., on the North View segment.
North View - Maze Loop was on Bill's presumed route, is clearly a more reasonable hike around 9.00AM vs. hiking to Quail Mountain sometime after 10.30AM, and would account for the "missing" time between the phone call to his fiancée and his arrival at the Juniper Flats Parking lot.
The ping date and time - 6.50AM on Sunday, doesn't appear inconsistent - it seems to me... rather right... for when some hiker might discover a phone lost the previous Thursday at any of the areas mentioned above.
The most natural thing to do upon discovering a cell phone lying in the dirt... is to pick it up and turn it on.
If the phone battery died, preventing a call from the would-be owner (i.e. from a companion's phone) the next obvious move would be to put it in a back pack with the intention of turning in at the gate upon exiting the park.
But finding (or losing) an old-style phone is by definition a less significant event compared to an IPhone or Android for obvious reasons- the former involves far less cost, loss of private data, etc.
It's conceivable, even reasonable, perhaps likely, that turning in such a phone found lying in the dirt... wouldn't weigh heavily on a would-be-finders mind, particularly after a three-hour hike.
In any case, a lost phone scenario wouldn't require the finder to have forgotten to turn it in - patk employees wouldn't have had reason to connect a phone found near Maze Loop with a person missing at Juniper Flats/Quail.
If the lost phone scenario is true, it would likely mean another (presumably) lost item
has been a red herring - the red bandana.
I know the bandana has always been an unknown, but it's distracted me Big-Time from thinking much about other areas besides SWC/Quail.
Anyway, I'm curious what people think about this in general, and ping viability - in 2010 - at or near the Maze Loop parking area or on the North View Trail.