OtherHand wrote:Keep in mind that if he did traverse Smithwater Canyon he would have come upon the short Smithwater segment that has water year round and we wouldn't be having this discussion. It ain't purdy, but it's drinkable. That doesn't rule out a nasty descent into middle Smithwater from the Quail Mt. region. It's possible to miss the water and hike to the mouth skunked.
When I did my 2012 trip looking for Bill, I studied that map
hard. Presumably Bill would have too. I really think the route I picked was the best route down into the canyon (which was why I picked it and was hoping that Bill would have done the same). Map link:
https://caltopo.com/m/7Q7H. That route
does drop in above the spring which I've marked with a blue dot. But it's hard for me to imagine someone choosing that route deliberately just for hiking purposes. I was on it only because I was looking for Bill.
The spring is roughly 2/3rds of the way up the canyon. If he dropped in any lower than where I did, my hat's off to him as a hiker, but he'd have missed the water. Maybe, just maybe, he was banking on that water as part of his plan. I sure wouldn't ever do that, but who knows? Mr. Ewasko's route and reasoning are hard to figure out. It's too bad he didn't work for the CIA. He could have obscured covert ops such that America could spy unhindered anywhere in the world.
OtherHand wrote:We know his phone didn't ping until Sunday morning. So either his phone was off in the interim or he traversed a route without any cell coverage. I think the only two options are either he went via Lang Canyon with no cell coverage or he went over Quail to Smithwater and didn't realize he was in a serious situation until getting to the canyon bottom and not finding the water and then having no cell coverage. A minor variant to either theory would have him instead heading for Quail Springs as a water source and finding it dry.
And the location of that ping, presumably on or near Pt. 4282', is out and out baffling. If he went down Smith Water, he can turn right, and it's about 4 mi to Park Blvd or he can turn left and it's also about 4 mi to the town of Joshua Tree. Neither of those scenarios put him atop Pt 4282'. If he goes left, the point at which he encounters the Panorama Trail heading east, is only 1.3 maybe 1.4 mile from town. Why the heck would he turn right and head roughly 2.5 miles east to Pt. 4282'? Perhaps he was truly lost and off the edge(s) of the map(s) that he brought. Perhaps he was delirious and aimless, but I still think he had to have
something in mind. Going east from Quail Wash on the Panorama Trail makes no sense whatsoever.
My money's on Lang Canyon, but that's still doesn't put him at Pt. 4282'. If he chose Lang Canyon as his route, he had to know that Park Blvd was only 2 miles east. Maybe he was out of his mind re water and headed for that lovely spigot at the West Entrance Station, but why does he then turn left on the Panorama Trail? I guess if he had a good map he could have seen that it was pretty easy to get up to Pt 4282' from the east and maybe he wanted to get a call out. If he were heading for the West Entrance Station and then saw choppers looking for him, maybe he would then decide to get to a high spot in order to be seen. Either of those two scenarios (get a call out or be more easily seen) seem like a stretch.
OtherHand wrote:I have no explanation why someone who could get themselves to this point deep into JTNP wouldn't think to just continue walking the 2 miles across the flat, open desert to Park Road and flag down a car.
Yeah, if he was
planning to descend Johnny Lang Canyon, then he had to know about Park Blvd. Why the heck does he go NW and
then turn left on the Panorama Trail and head to Pt 4282?
I don't know. Maybe we're doing it all wrong. Maybe he was truly delirious and there just wasn't any rhyme or reason to what he did once he got down into Quail Wash. Maybe we're looking for logic that just doesn't exist.
His maps are probably dust after 12 years, but it sure would be interesting to know if he were carrying 1:24,000 detailed USGS topo maps, the National Geo 1:80,000 map, or something like Tom Harrison's 1:126,120 map. Particularly if the maps were marked up but even if not the maps themselves might tell us something just seeing what he carried. I sure wouldn't try for Smith Water from Quail Mtn with anything less than a 1:24,000.
HJ