Found a “missing” backpacker last weekend…

Wow!! Amazing… and wonderful!!

> a very intelligent young man.

We were all once very intelligent young men. Who did stupid things sometimes.

Close calls, reflection, and the fuller development of our frontal lobes in our late 20's enable those that survive to act more carefully in the future.

I have those kinds of discussions with my kids in the hopes that the consicous application of their intelligence might get them through their teens and early 20s with relative few and relative minor trips to the ER.

That and practice, practice, and practice. They don't think about putting on their seat belt – they just do it. They shouldn't consider whether to treat water or wash their hands – they should just do it out of habit.

And I always Cary one of these, works great. Fishing 100+ miles offshore has taught me to always have one on your person (EPIRB for the boat)
http://www.acrelectronics.com/products/catalog/personal-locator-beacons/resqlink-406-gps/

Wow. Great stories. I'm always proud to be a hiker and be a part of the "outdoors community." I'll be careful to pack extra medicine in my next first-aid kit on a long trip.

I was out backpacking in Fall Creek Falls State Park here in Tennessee last weekend. When I was nearing the end of my hike and was back to the crowded parts of the park I passed a group of overweight teens trying to use the self timer to take a picture of their group on a rock (wasn't working well). I stopped and asked them if they'd like me to take their picture.

It was a very simple thing to take a person's picture, but the response I got I think pretty much sums it up:

"Thanks! People in the woods are always the nicest people."

I told them I completely agreed with them, took their picture, smiled and went on my way.

The symptoms he had could have been caused by many different things other than an infection. The vomiting could have been caused by dehydration, electrolight imbalance, dowl obstruction, Cardio vascular problems and many other issues. Also when you are dehydrated and suddenly have water available most people want to take several big swallows of water, which will cause you to vamit it all up. Instead you should take only take very small drinks (1/4 cup or so) and wait several minutes before the next drink. This will allow you to keep it down and absorb it.

Canyonlands is a desert environment. Given the lack of water sources he could have easily gotten slightly dehydrated hiking between water sources. Being slightly dehydrated for days could have slowly lead to an electrolyte imbalance and or bowl problems. If that was the case one bad day of very little to no water intake could have made his slight chronic dehydration much worse. Once that occurred he started to vomit when drinking or eating which would have made the dehydration worse. At that point he is loosing much of the water he is carrying simply because he isn't keeping it down. Once he reached this point the only solution is to stop at a good water source and stay there until your fully rehydrated. He didn't do that.

We don't know what the doctors found. Simply saying he had bad water and got an infection is is an easy answer which could easily be wrong.

There may be a particularly long lasting and contagious form of Gastro-E going around this year.

Check this current thread: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=61870&skip_to_post=528884#528884

Which is admittedly in Virginia as opposed to Utah,; but something has been making the rounds on the OBX and infecting people who don't "normally" get G.E. and it also seems to last longer than the usual 48-72 hours.

These things seem to pass coast to coast a lot faster these days.

I'm curious where this guy was hiking off trail if he was found on the trail between the parking area off Devils Lane south of Chesler Park and the beginning of the Joint, which is what fits the description. Had he been hiking west towards the river in the Grabens/Red Lake area? or maybe south along Butler wash towards Beef Basin or Bobby's Hole? You can't really hike off trail to the east or north of that location except a short ways into Virginia Park. Also there's water north and east….. lots of water in Elephant Canyon a couple miles east

Just curious.