This rekindles thoughts of Dave Paulides' book, Missing 411, which documents people who mysteriously disappear, and despite intensive S&R, are usually never seen again. Many are hikers, both alone, or in large groups, in or near the 'woods'. One of his 'clusters' stretches from the Kancamagus to Ktaadn.
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?45499-Missing-hikers-tonite-on-C2C&highlight=paulides
Your post, rup, reminds me, grimly, of the stretch of A.T. between Route 9 in Vermont and Stratton-Arlington Road, where there are legends of numerous people over the decades who have disappeared in that forest near Glastenbury Mountain. One hopes against hope that inchworm is found, still and yet alive, but at this point Dan's wish for closure is probably all that's left. Makes the heart heavy to ponder it.
There are those, like John Muir, who venture all manner of hazard in the wildest of the wild over a lifetime, never to perish, and others less fortunate who take far less risk only to meet their demise - fortunately they are few. My own self, on my first visit to the A.T. with a friend, we got caught on top of CT's Bear Mountain in a fierce, though brief, thunder and hailstorm. We ran far enough south, fast enough, and the storm stayed far enough north, and luck held, and I wasn't struck dead, nor was Jared, who was fleeter of foot. But nothing said it had to be that way. I think of that day every time I pass the pitch pine I crouched under at the height of the storm, right on trail - almost below the tree/scrub line but not quite. The upshot of that day is I have a great memory and got a nice cooling shower on a warm, late summer afternoon and, thankfully, nothing more. Better to be lucky than good.
