Busy SAR 2019 Season Continues

[Salty]

Indeed, great to hear. A (very) few more details: https://www.wmur.com/article/70-year...alive/28227179

Which raises some questions that I doubt we'll ever get the answers to. Pemi SAR says he was at the junction of the Bondcliff and Wilderness (sure they meant Linc. Woods) trails. Four days earlier he called his wife saying he was about 3/4 done, which is about that area. He was dehydrated with Black Brook only feet away. I suppose one presumption was he ended up off trail coming off Bondcliff and only found his way back to the trail very recently. I see on TrailsNH there was a hiker on that route (LW to the Cliffs) on Wednesday.

[JustJoe]

Indeed, great to hear. A (very) few more details: https://www.wmur.com/article/70-year...alive/28227179

Which raises some questions that I doubt we'll ever get the answers to. Pemi SAR says he was at the junction of the Bondcliff and Wilderness (sure they meant Linc. Woods) trails. Four days earlier he called his wife saying he was about 3/4 done, which is about that area. He was dehydrated with Black Brook only feet away. I suppose one presumption was he ended up off trail coming off Bondcliff and only found his way back to the trail very recently. I see on TrailsNH there was a hiker on that route (LW to the Cliffs) on Wednesday.

They probably, as I, still think of that section from the wilderness boundary to the Bondcliff Tr. as it's former name. But after the pemi bridge was removed, it was renamed Bondcliff Tr. Did it get renamed again to LW? But not to mention Black Brook, the Pemi very is close to that junction too.

[sierra]

One of my friends were in the group that found him sitting on a log. He looked tired and out of it according to them. He says he got dehydrated on the first day of his trip. That could have been the catalyst for his decision making from that point on.

[srhigham]

How do you get dehydrated in the pemi during a relatively wet spring? Arent there streams everywhere?

[TCD]

Good to hear he's OK.

How do you get dehydrated in the pemi during a relatively wet spring? Arent there streams everywhere?

Right away when I saw this I thought of media induced irrational fear of giardisis, causing one not to drink water that's available, and go down with dehydration, when the giardisis would not have kicked in until 8-10 days later.

My bet is classic media hysteria induced self injury. We'll see when and if the facts come out.

[sleepy_mike]

Why didn't SAR find him earlier if he was just sitting there on a log?

[JustJoe]

Why didn't SAR find him earlier if he was just sitting there on a log?

As all of these stories go, we never end up finding out the whole story and all we can do is speculate. For instance, where he was found is the site of old camp 16. There is a few stealth sites near that junction. Maybe he knew that and was in there spending the night or longer. But yeah, coming down Bondcliff Trail and all those crossing of Black Brook? As TCD speculated, possibly the fear of getting ill. I'm not saying this is a good practice, but I've drank untreated water in the Whites dozens of times. Only a few of those times did I actually need to. I just love the way it tastes. If water can have a taste.

[Nessmuk]

We have a brief segment on survival techniques during the NY Homeland Security Land Navigation course I teach. A couple of my fellow instructors are recently retired Army Rangers with advice to offer from their training and actual experiences. When the discussion of becoming dehydration comes up, our land nav students usually say that one can survive for only about 3 days without water. But guess what is constantly on the mind of a lost person after about a day and a half without water? Nothing becomes more important, to the point of making irrational and poor self preservation decisions. The guidance is to drink whatever water is available, clean, purified, or not. Without water for a prolonged time you will certainly die soon, either from dehydration and organ shutdown or from bad decision making. Giardia will not manifest for a week to ten days. Even in the Afghanistan desert, rescue will most likely happen within that time if ever. If sickness does occur, keep drinking whatever water you have, even if it keeps flushing out the other end. It could save your life until rescue.

[TJsName]

Why didn't SAR find him earlier if he was just sitting there on a log?

It seems unlikely that he sat on a trail for 4 days. My guess is he just got there.

[ChrisB]

Good to hear he's OK.

Right away when I saw this I thought of media induced irrational fear of giardisis, causing one not to drink water that's available, and go down with dehydration, when the giardisis would not have kicked in until 8-10 days later.

In the era of the $15 Life Straw, how do you not drink from any old water trickle? Don't leave home without one.

[peakbagger]

Hard to guess with so little details. We dont even know what direction he went. My guess is if he was parked at Lincoln Woods he ended up in the Pemi via the Upper Franconia Brook Trail or Twin Brook. My guess is clockwise and bailed via Franconia Brook as if he was CCW he would have had to walk by Galehead Hut where presumably someone may have realized he was in trouble. Once he dropped down into the Pemi there are places to get lost and possibly outside of the initial search radius. Eventually he would end up at the Franconia Brook trail junction with the new Bondcliff trail (formerly Lincoln Woods trail).

BTW, I agree with the concept of drinking water straight from the source in wooded wilderness areas. On the other hand, in areas with potential livestock contamination, cryptosystem can kick in earlier than Giardia.

[TEO]

Christopher Staff (the Pemi loop trail hiker, missing since Monday) has been found by two hikers around 7:30 this evening. He was sitting on a log, dehydrated but otherwise OK.

Source: 11pm TV news report.

Doug

So much for finishing in a day. I guess he'll have to give it another go.

(I'm relieved to hear he's found OK.)

[SherpaWill]

A little more info here.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/201...uTM/story.html

[Becca M]

I'm not surprised he lost the trails in there given the lack of blazes and typical wilderness-area trail maintenance plus the usual herd paths around obstructions. I think S&R stated that they didn't think he had a Hikesafe card on file. It seems a bit much that he might actually be charged given the typical trail conditions in there.

[Raven]

People get dehydrated all the time when surrounded by water.