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Searched Routes

Southern Ravines Map

Forecast Mormon Grove & Peeley

Crews looking for missing hiker
By Alexis Bechman

November 16, 2010
Tonto Rim Search and Rescue volunteers and Gila County Sheriff officers are currently searching for an overdue hiker.

The man, whose name has not been released, was last heard from nine days ago and is believed to be hiking near the Mt. Peeley trail or Sheep Mountain, off Forest Road 201, southwest of Payson.

The Gila County Sheriff’s Office first received a call that the man was overdue Monday, Nov. 15 about 9 p.m.

“The hiker has not been heard from since Nov. 7 and frequents the Mazatzal Mountain Wilderness area,” according to a press release from the sheriff’s office.

The missing hiker’s vehicle was located at the Mt. Peeley trailhead.



Six TRSAR volunteers are currently searching the ground. Earlier Tuesday, a Department of Public Safety Ranger helicopter did an aerial search of the area, but found no signs of the man

Southeast Slope Search Area Option

Additional clarification between Joe's 11/16/2009 bail route and my alternate bail route scenario...

Also see my last forum post on page 14

Link to Eric's last forum post.

Excellent work on the drainage bail routes, Kyle.

Would just like to reinforce the importance of focusing on bailout routes near Peak 6910, as it didn't seem as though anyone had bushwhacked any sort of trail from that point on to Sheep Mtn. It's doubtful he went that far, but not impossible. Just makes more sense though from what we've seen, that he could be found in that area rather than somewhere beyond Sheep. It took us three hours to hike the 1.1 miles from below Peeley to Sheep, but only two hours to return via the same route. No real signs that anyone else had been in the section beyond 6910..

I think Letty's got some excellent tips as well for anyone planning on going out there.

Nice job on the Ravines Map, Joe! What will be the proper designation for the adjoining ridges? Not needed as labels on the map, but for communication... like 8e or 8w east or west sides? or 7/8 6/8 ?

Someone mentioned a cabin to me that was "in the area" (sheep seep/88?) but that it would take some pretty strong hikers to reach it and get back in a day. I can't seem to find it on the map. Joe did enjoy exploring cabins. Thoughts? Does anyone know which cabin it could be?

imike wrote:Nice job on the South Ravines Map, Joe!

I agree! If I read it correctly, Ravine#7 (in Yellow) is the ravine/route GPSjoe used on his 11/16/09 "bailout" hike and is the area recommended for our first concentrated off-trail search activity; Also see Eric's (ssk44) clarification map per his prior post dated » Nov 23 2010 2:41 pm
(Think I need to learn how to link here a different message like Liz does.. how does one learn how to do that webmaster?)

suzaz wrote:Does anyone know which cabin it could be?

There's a cabin west of there up the Sheep trail (I think) quite a ways-- I think its called Sheep Creek Cabin. Its on the National Geographic map of the Mazzies I have at home. I think its probably too far for anyone to plan a dayhike from Peeley. Its always peaked my interest on the map but it seems difficult to find much data on the trails of the western Mazzies.

suzaz wrote:Someone mentioned a cabin to me that was "in the area" (sheep seep/88?). Joe did enjoy exploring cabins. Thoughts? Does anyone know which cabin it could be?

I only recall old corrals, old fences, and the old foundation ruins of the Copper Camp cabin? back on any of those trails- Saddle Mtn TR, Sheep Crk TR, and Copper Camp TR.

I was on the Tonto Rim SAR team on Tuesday morning the 16th. We were the first ones to arrive and first to search on the mountain. Maybe some of the info I have will help some of you. When we got on the ridge between Peeley and Sheep Mtn., we saw evidence consisting of broken twigs and branches and disturbed surface. These were slightly aged but appeared to be much fresher than an April hike would have produced. In fact they appeared fresher than the last rainstorm. None of it was clearly identifiable as human versus animal (no partial boot or shoe prints) but it is very rare for animals to produce all of the disturbances we saw. We got as far as Joe's previous endpoint in April, I will call it point A (.35 mile from summit) and two of us continued on to within .23 mile of the summit, my waypoint 009 (33d 59m 20s, 111d 30m 22s). At my waypoint LAST, about 33d 59m 33s, 111d 30m 18s we saw the last of any physical disturbances. From there on, the brush was very thick but we saw no broken twigs, branches or ground disturbances, although we certainly created a lot of our own on our way in and out.

I tend to believe no one had hiked that part of the ridge for a long time. Two days later another of our teams was taken by helicopter to the summit and hiked down to our furthest point and found two sets of footprints, most likely ours from two days before.

At my waypoint 006, 33d 59m 35s, 111d 30m 11s, I saw disturbances heading downhill to the east. Two of us hiked about 100 yards down but could not find evidence of any path toward the summit, which was our assignment to search toward. Now in retrospect and reading the other blogs, I think it is possible that my waypoint 006 could have been a bailout point for Joe. Where I was looking, was one or two ravines west of where SSK44 is suggesting to look. I don't mean to dissuade anyone from following SSK44's advice, but another possible bailout at my waypoint 006 might be worth looking at. Although unlikely, it is possible that Joe might have tried to go along the north flank toward Sheep summit from somewhere in the area of the LAST, but that area is very dangerous with major dropoffs and loose rock. I would discourage anyone other than well equipped rope climbers to venture in there.

@Twoseeking
Thanks for the updated info and for your services!!!!!

@Twoseeking

Thanks for your valuable info! Its great that some of the SAR folks are continuing to be of service.

Twoseeking wrote:None of it was clearly identifiable as human versus animal (no partial boot or shoe prints) but it is very rare for animals to produce all of the disturbances we saw.

Were there signs of bear activity that high on the ridge? Down on the Cornucopia, we saw some pretty large bear scat that would prove an animal too large to move anywhere gracefully.

Thank you! That's a huge chunk of information, very valuable. Twoseeking--Can you look at the Ravine map link
http://hikearizona.com/images/maps/gpsjoe/SR-F2.jpg and let us know if you are specifically referencing ravine #4?

It would be interesting/nice to hike the below ridge, 6600' elevation, laterally, cutting a clear trail connecting the top of all of the ravine drainages. I assume that would be just below most of the rocky cliff sections?

And, everyone should check out Joes Ravine map...

@Twoseeking Thank you very kindly for this valuable input! Some other HAZ members may have some additional questions for you.

Twoseeking wrote:At my waypoint 006, 33d 59m 35s, 111d 30m 11s, I saw disturbances heading downhill to the east.

Twoseeking wrote:Now in retrospect and reading the other blogs, I think it is possible that my waypoint 006 could have been a bailout point for Joe. Where I was looking, was one or two ravines west of where SSK44 is suggesting to look. I don't mean to dissuade anyone from following SSK44's advice, but another possible bailout at my waypoint 006 might be worth looking at.

Let's plug these coordinates into the active map and see exactly where they show up.

Twoseeking Waypoint 006 Location...

ssk44 wrote:Twoseeking Waypoint 006 Location...

006 Waypoint Location.jpg
Waypoint 006

IF it was human disturbance heading down to the east, this new waypoint location looks to me to just confirm Eric's recommended scenario of trying to exit down to the ridgeline on the opposite side of Peak6910 from where GPSjoe decided to exit on 11/16/09? (Maybe trying to head down from this waypoint to somewhere between Ravine 4, 5 and 7 on the Ravine ref map?)

@Twoseeking
Thank you for the information and for all your hard work!

@Tough_Boots
I saw at least one pile of bear scat on the ridgeline, early on I think. Looked old though. Saw more bear scat around Peeley as well.

@ssk44
Thanks for the visual. That pretty closely corresponds to what we saw as well.

Does joe's bailout route from Nov 2009 show what time he started it? I'm trying to get a feel for the timing.

@suzaz
The bailout portion(which started about 230pm) was 16hours (5 hrs sleeping in increments 2 times 2 hours and 1 One hour) and 11 hours of moving.

suzaz wrote:Does joe's bailout route from Nov 2009 show what time he started it? I'm trying to get a feel for the timing.

Yes, it does:
Start 11/16/09 hike: 7:18am
End 11/17/09 hike: 10:03am (he kept moving all night on 11/16 with short rest stops)

@Twoseeking Awesome, that'll make us push twice as hard to check those drainages & ridges below that point!

@Joe Bartels Sweet map of that southern slope!