HikeArizona.COM

Hike Arizona urges anyone interested in searching to post or join an event.

If you go out, please track your hike on a GPS and post it for the benefit of future searches. Simply post it upon return. (if you need help ask the webmaster) Hike Arizona will see that it gets linked to a master map. If you have multiple variations in your group, please post all tracks. As more info is posted the map will evolve and the overlaps will be removed.

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

Vaporman wrote:Maybe it's about time to make a grid of the sides of Mt Peely and we can take turns slowly searching them.

Good idea, who knows how to do this? Also, I know all that are trying to help out and search do not understand and/or have access to GPS units to run a "track file" for posting on HAZ of their search, but if anyone in your group does, please do so as it is the best way for us to understand and control which grid areas have been hiked/searched. Thank you all!

I'm tied up this weekend but the 18/19 I'm available if anyone else wants to start combing this area in sections. It sounds like this is something that needs to be organized and broken up before we go out there to keep things efficient. Its looking like rain later in the week, though, so I guess we'll see.

I would love to join efforts on the 18/19. Do you want to set up/coordinate another group sign-up for that weekend?

suzaz wrote:I would love to join efforts on the 18/19. Do you want to set up/coordinate another group sign-up for that weekend?

Count me in!

I'll be available again next weekend also! Looking at the locations of where people saw the smells, looks like we should start by griding out that ravine #10. Or as a group hike up to the top switchback and slowly work over to the top of the ravine, spread out and slowly thrash our way down to the trail below.

I was just having an off-line conversation with a HAZ member who stated the following:
"I CAN NOT figure out for the LIFE of me what would drive joe to cut off the trail.......it was such an easy trail." (Referring to Mazzie Divide TR23..)

I guess I was just kind-of thinking out loud in my reply to the above, but maybe sometimes it helps to do this for others who may read and have a different take on it?.. anyway, my reply was:
"It will be a tragic puzzle finally put together when we do find him. He really did not mind going off trail which just gave him more opportunity to use his gps skills. Joe was always looking for that quicker off trail route to get his 68 year old slower self to that Sheep Mtn Summit faster and back faster. We know he tried the over Mt. Peeley Summit route going and coming back twice-11/16 and 11/23/09 and then started in on the ridge route off trail from the MDT23 at least two times 12/4/09 and 4/27/10 and maybe again on his last Mon-11/8/10?.. For some reason these past four hike dates/routes still were not the solution he wanted, so then he tried his last know 11/5/10 attempt further up the MDT23 then off trail around that NW side to reach Sheep Mtn Summit.. So, what did he learn between 11/5-11/8 (only 3 days later) that made it so important for him to go for it again on his last Mon-11/8? and what was his planned route this time going in/out? and what went so terribly wrong going in and/or coming out that last try? now a continuing mystery to solve until we find him.. or let’s hope he did not decided to do some totally different destination on Mon-11/8 and we are now looking in the wrong area.. but we have already discussed this possibility and nothing adds up that we have learned or found so far that would support this totally different destination out of the Peeley TH.."

@Grasshopper
Yea, looking at Joe's tracks and how he didn't seem to mind going off trail even when logic would say sticking to the trail longer would have been quicker, I think it's possible on his way back maybe tired and low on daylight he may have summited Peely again and was slowly working his way down to the top of the switchbacks when something went terribly wrong... Here's the best photo I could find of the south side of Peely to show what were up against in searching this area. ;)

Sorry to butt in, but is AZH totally down today?

@dround
Thanks for the offer....If I don't find it on my next trip....which hopefully will be tommorow...then I'll replace it with a new gps with an unsmashed display from Costco.

Will be out there again tomorrow morning. The original plan was to head from the Peely TH out to Sheep, but with all the developments in the switchback area, that might change.

Either way, will be monitoring channel 15 as usual.

Will anyone be going out searching earlier in the week... as in before the forecast rain comes in?

If so, I'd be willing to lend a hand in the search for at least a day, maybe two. Monday 12/13 and/or Tuesday 12/14 work best, Wednesday may be possible. I have no radio and my cell is a T-Mobile so that won't be of any help out there, but I do have a Garmin GPSMap76CSX.

Scott, Tanya, and I were out there today doing a new section that hadn't been covered near #5 before coming across the route Brian took earlier. Didn't find any traces. Scott will post the GPS route we took as soon as he can.

suzaz wrote:Do you want to set up/coordinate another group sign-up for that weekend?

I'll set up an event right now...

Vaporman wrote: Looking at the locations of where people saw the smells, looks like we should start by griding out that ravine #10. Or as a group hike up to the top switchback and slowly work over to the top of the ravine, spread out and slowly thrash our way down to the trail below.

If someone else is interested in working on a grid, that would be great. I have no clue how to set one up in any usable format. Though, from my experience, I think it's going to be hard to stick to a grid in that kind of environment. I might opt for this second idea.

Good luck all. Wish I could be with you this weekend but in Va. I can search the 18/19th. Thoughts and prayers with everyone searching.

Hope you can join us to search on 12/18 or 12/19
viewtopic.php?t=5716

Just let me know what the plans are for 12/18 and 12/19 and I will be there. I have a Jeep if some needs a ride from 87 back to the trailhead.

As Ken said, we were searching most of yesterday (12/11) in Ravine 5 and on the ridgeline immediately NE of that. Nothing, just a few footprints a few hundred yards from a previous GPS track. Took a waypoint, but I don't think it'll be anything helpful.

I posted a GPS track, triplog, and photos. No luck for us, but good luck to those going out next weekend

This is a great group of people.

I spent some time out there early today searching in the area between the smells but still came up with no sign of Joe.

I had planned to do 2 or 3 vertical sweeps in that area, but due to a problem loading new maps into my GPS I had a blank screen. All I could see was the thin black dotted track of where I had already hiked.

In general, I doubt Joe would have come through this area, but then if for some reason in the dark he ended up there I guess it doesn't hurt to cover all the ground it's feasible to do.

Also, nobody in their right mind would have chosen to go down into the ravine that I dropped down into, (ok, so I'm not in my right mind either) but I saw a small torn piece of cloth so went in to look closer. It turned out to be a VERY old piece of cloth. But once in, even though I knew SAR2 had been farther down the ravine I figured I'd stay in it until I got just below the ridge and then would cut back north again.

Now back home I pasted my track alongside the ones of Bob and Liz the other day as well as the SAR tracks down that way, and I see although I covered some of the same ground, I believe I did cover some new ground.

I don't have time right this moment but will post my GPS track, triplog and hopefully some photos of the area covered yet this evening.

While I'd never sought out terrain like that just to hike before, by being dressed well for the expected conditions I didn't come back any worse for the wear. Even my feet fared very well and my new Teva's performed admirably, much better grip than the round-nub soles of my earlier pair.

If the weather doesn't make the road to the TH impassible on Saturday I might be able to spend the day out there.