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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

@arizonadreaming
Did you have a GPS?
Route?
Waypoint for the area?

@arizonadreaming Looking at the GPS routes, it looks like two miles in Steve (nonot) left the Mazatzal Divide Trail to the left, but the route goes up in elevation here, not down. Could you perhaps pick out on the map about where your dogs alerted? (Or was it to the right instead?)

@arizonadreaming

perhaps about 1.8mi from the trailhead on the north face of Peeley?
http://hikearizona.com/location_g.php?QX=135

I am interested in the Wilderness/Medical class. I'll be watching for an opportunity to sign up.

Everyone who is able to be out there this weekend be safe. Hoping azizonadreaming dogs interest is on to something.

Just contacted weather sevrice in the area. They had no reported rain or snow last night. Since two people drove this yestedray, we held back this morning since weather conditions havent changed. If you need us for anything this weekend, dont hesitate to ask.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Good luck to all those that will be searching. And... thank you.

cjensen116 wrote: If you need us for anything this weekend, dont hesitate to ask.

Thank you!

thesuperstitions wrote:by thesuperstitions » Nov 22 2010 6:58 pm
I'm kinda new to posting on HAZ so please forgive my pitiful first attempt at posting this map.

Attachments

SheepMountainPossibleApproaches.JPG
Possible areas to search...

I keep going back to your posted map attachment, for some reason on this map, your posted route for Joe's 11/5/10 exploratory hike (ie, the purple line track that leaves the yellow line track is different than the one I had for reference. I don't know why, maybe I just pulled the wrong track file for posting on HAZ, but I would much appreciate you forwarding me this purple track file in .gpx or .gdb format for my additional analysis. I will now send you a PM with my personal email address. Thank you!

arizonadreaming wrote:I drove to the Mt Peeley TH today. The road is rugged but was fine with no problems, but I have a large SUV. Temp at 1pm was a brisk 38 degrees and partly cloudy. Had my 2 German Shepherds with me, they alerted several times to something on the left portion of the trail about 2 miles in. Have no idea what it was, they tried repeatedly to go down thru the thick vegetation but came back. They were able to get about 25 feet down. Deep ravine area. They were clearly on to something. Just an fyi.

Thank you for the feedback. Did you mark the area where your dogs alerted you with cairns? SAR has asked that anything out of the ordinary to please contact them, if you have GPS pls take the coord and then contact the Sheriff's Office. If no GPS please mark area with cairns etc. so the search team can go back and intensify their search in that particular area.

Thanks again for the heads up.

Gabriele

joe bartels wrote:@arizonadreaming

perhaps about 1.8mi from the trailhead on the north face of Peeley?
http://hikearizona.com/location_g.php?QX=135

I didn't have the GPS with me, so sorry. I based the distance on 30 mins of hiking in. ( could have been slightly under 2 miles) It was definetely on the left and extremely steep there. On the trail, I let them loose. My dogs did the usual dog actions they do, but in this particular spot, they were determined to investigate further this area but could not. Hiking with my dogs for years, I have learned they will find something ( discarded clothing, food, an animal carcass, etc) or roust out bedding animals in thick brush.

arizonadreaming wrote:

joe bartels wrote:@arizonadreaming

perhaps about 1.8mi from the trailhead on the north face of Peeley?
http://hikearizona.com/location_g.php?QX=135

I didn't have the GPS with me, so sorry. I based the distance on 30 mins of hiking in. ( could have been slightly under 2 miles) It was definetely on the left and extremely steep there. On the trail, I let them loose. My dogs did the usual dog actions they do, but in this particular spot, they were determined to investigate further this area but could not. Hiking with my dogs for years, I have learned they will find something ( discarded clothing, food, an animal carcass, etc) or roust out bedding animals in thick brush.

Oh wow, I see how steep the drop off is here. Thanks for indicating it on the map. Definitely needs to be checked out.

Gabriele

Trishness wrote:I'd be very interested in a wilderness/medical class! Sign me up~~~~

The SOLO Wilderness First Aid class that I just took cost $155 and was 16 hours - 8 hours on Saturday and Sunday. For full disclosure, it was taught by David Bremson, James Corbin and Mike "Gandalf" Englund sponsored by MCSOSR/CAMRA. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it. We would learn and study for about an hour and a half and then go outside to apply what we had learned. We were in teams of 3. One person played the victim and two team members solved the problem. We learned the basics and we learned to IMPROVISE and ADAPT.

arizonadreaming--sent you a private message. thank you for your time and efforts in searching for Joe.

arizonadreaming wrote:I drove to the Mt Peeley TH today. The road is rugged but was fine with no problems, but I have a large SUV. Temp at 1pm was a brisk 38 degrees and partly cloudy. Had my 2 German Shepherds with me, they alerted several times to something on the left portion of the trail about 2 miles in. Have no idea what it was, they tried repeatedly to go down thru the thick vegetation but came back. They were able to get about 25 feet down. Deep ravine area. They were clearly on to something. Just an fyi.

SUN_HIKER wrote:by SUN_HIKER » Nov 25 2010 10:36 am

arizonadreaming wrote:

joe bartels wrote:@arizonadreaming

perhaps about 1.8mi from the trailhead on the north face of Peeley?
http://hikearizona.com/location_g.php?QX=135

I didn't have the GPS with me, so sorry. I based the distance on 30 mins of hiking in. ( could have been slightly under 2 miles) It was definetely on the left and extremely steep there. On the trail, I let them loose. My dogs did the usual dog actions they do, but in this particular spot, they were determined to investigate further this area but could not. Hiking with my dogs for years, I have learned they will find something ( discarded clothing, food, an animal carcass, etc) or roust out bedding animals in thick brush.

Oh wow, I see how steep the drop off is here. Thanks for indicating it on the map. Definitely needs to be checked out.

Gabriele
SUN HIKER

This is our first possible clue post to date (thanks for posting-arizonadreaming) and I do believe that when David Bremson- Mountain Rescue has his next opportunity to review our forum thread posts updates, that he will offer some guidance as to how to best proceed. Sounds like too steep a drop-off area up the Mazatzal Divide TR23 that would not be safe for the average day hiker to further try to investigate.

Also, I am starting to think (and we also need David's input on), that we are reaching a point now with all the momentum of members from HAZ, AZH, other possible outdoor organizations, and personal interests who are now planning active outings- day hikes and/or backpacks ongoing in search of more clues in the disappearance of our GPSjoe. This now being the situation, I am thinking that with more clues hopefully to continue to evolve and be made visible on this HAZ forum thread for further consideration, that it might be an appropriate time for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Dept- Mountain Rescue Department to provide us with their contact telephone number(s) and hopefully the responsible individual(s) who would be our primary contacts for reporting purposes?
Myself (Grasshopper) and Gabriele (SUN_HIKER) can work out the reporting logistics from this site to the Maricopa County Sheriff Deptartment or however David Bremson would suggest is most appropriate.

Clues:

You can email me your clues and I can pass them to the appropriate contact. Please consider the reliability of each clue before sending it though. Often we will receive reports of items that are clearly not associated with the missing subject, i.e., a pair of glasses that have clearly been in the field for years, old food cans, shoes, whatever.
The email address is info@mountainrescue.org
Grasshopper and Sun Hiker, please email me your contact information.
David Bremson
Central Arizona Mountain Rescue Association

MtnResq30 wrote:Clues:
You can email me your clues and I can pass them to the appropriate contact. Please consider the reliability of each clue before sending it though.

MtnResq30 wrote:Grasshopper and Sun Hiker, please email me your contact information.
David Bremson
Central Arizona Mountain Rescue Association

Contact info sent and also sending on separate personal email, HAZ- arizonadreaming's recently posted first hopefully "reliable clue" for your office consideration and action as you deem appropriate. Thank you!

arizonadreaming--do you have plans to re-visit and gps/mark this ravine?

I'm sure many on here are also interested and would be more than happy to assist.

has anyone received any further updates on this as I pm'd him my offering assistance?

arizonadreaming wrote:I drove to the Mt Peeley TH today. The road is rugged but was fine with no problems, but I have a large SUV. Temp at 1pm was a brisk 38 degrees and partly cloudy. Had my 2 German Shepherds with me, they alerted several times to something on the left portion of the trail about 2 miles in. Have no idea what it was, they tried repeatedly to go down thru the thick vegetation but came back. They were able to get about 25 feet down. Deep ravine area. They were clearly on to something. Just an fyi.

Just got back from Suzaz's house where I dropped off binoculars, 2 way radio and two large topo maps (one of North Peak quadrant and one of Sheep Mountain quandrant). I hope this helps in some small way tomorrow.


Trish

Sad to hear that resolution has not been reached. If the search is still ongoing over Christmas Break, I might be able to make the drive down. I would also be interested in the WFR/WFA class depending on date and cost.

Leaving in about 30 minutes but curious to know if Joe's 11/5 slightly lower route shaved any time for him? I probably missed that in the discussion.