Herman's Cave & Upper LaBarge Box tomorrow, any takers?

[azdesertfather]

I've just decided to take a day off of work tomorrow, need to recoup and get in the Supes one more time before the weather gets too hot. Forecast calls for a high of only 81.

Planning on heading to Herman's Cave & the Upper LaBarge Box, from Peralta in the morning.

Anyone interested? Send me a quick PM

dave

[SuperstitionGuy]

Dave,

If you could add a little time and go around to the east entrance of Trap Canyon and examine it for the missing Jesse Capen we would appreciate that very much! There is an overhang on the north side of the entrance that he may have taken shelter in if he got caught in a bad storm. Also there is the Trap further in on the south side which is a drop into a large room like structure that has no entrance or exit from the bottom.

If there are other hikers available to go with you this will cut down on the necessary time to complete the search of this area.

If you are able to accomplish this please report back on the results.

Thank you very very much!

:thanx:

[azdesertfather]

Might even be willing to do the Dripping Springs Super Loop...thinking about it

[joebartels]

I'm down with whatever. It'll be nice to take advantage of the likely last cool day until November. All the way to Trap would be cool. Yet I know you're not into the super early morning stuff so whatever suits you I'm game

[SuperstitionGuy]

I just sent Joe B. a PM regarding this trip and search. I will monitor this post for another hour if any of you going on this trip have any questions.

Owen...

[azdesertfather]

We're going to give it a shot. We'll see how it goes. How far into Trap Canyon do you think we need to go from the eastern side?

[joebartels]

I got all the info and told him to go to sleep, see ya soon!

[SuperstitionGuy]

From where the maze of boulders start I would say less than an hundred yards. Just guessing you know as I never counted time or distance when I bushwacked. Joe has my description in the PM. When you enter the maze from the west you will pass through a cave like area under some of those large boulders the route being slightly to the right and up over the trap entrance. Take along a couple of strong flashlights to look down into the trap to see the room below.

[azdesertfather]

Owen, we explored that area pretty well today. We went beyond the cavelike formations of boulders and maybe another tenth of a mile or so beyond that, no real luck. Saw a blue foam bedmat that was in pieces and scattered along the creek bed, also a bandana (all before the boulder cave formations). Also so a small piece of a backbone, but I'm pretty sure it's of some animal. I'm sure pictures will be posted soon.

[SuperstitionGuy]

Thank you very very much for your efforts today. Did you find the overhang on the north side of the entrance and do you believe that you found the trap itself?

I haven't heard back from Joe or Bruce yet but I assume they are still on the way home.

[The_Eagle]

@SuperstitionGuy
I'm going through the pictures now. Hopefully I'll get them up tonight. I did think it was interesting to find the blue foam bed pad broken up in that creek bed as well as the Red Velcro support of some sort and the back bone. These were found in the creek bed that does not show up on the map at N33 26.847 W111 17.792.

[SuperstitionGuy]

I will question a source I know to see if there was found in Jesse's tent any kind of sleeping pad. If not then it may be necessary for the County or SSAR or who ever to search for a campsite upstream of where this pad currently is. I will also ask SSAR to evualate the backbone that you took the picture of but it does look a little older than I would suspect if it were from Jesse.

Thanks again for you efforts to clear this area.

[SuperstitionGuy]

Thanks Joe, Dave and Bruce for doing this long day hike and searching for Jesse!

I asked some questions on the photographs of the velcro and blue pad that you found to help us evualate if this might be related to Jesse. Also after this trip was started Monday I was informed that SSAR had been searching the day before (Sunday) north of this location and discovered some additonal potential clues regarding Jesse in the form of some type of clothing. I do not know the details or locations regarding these items but obviously more searching is necessary to help solve this mystery.

For those of you hiking and backpacking where law enforcement is looking for missing persons please remember to report items such as this but do not remove or handle them. Instead record the gps locations and maybe take a picture of them to share with law enforcement or SAR organizations that are involved in the search.

Now the bad news. This is the third time that I know of that HAZ members have explored Trap Canyon and unfortunately nobody has yet to find the actual trap. It is very difficult to locate hiking east to west and it used to be relatively easy while hiking from west to east but I am now suspecting that the floor of the stream bed may have changed due to flooding and the enclosed room that makes up the trap now is open at either one end or both ends.

I did not expect to find jesse in the trap, as passing over the trap is obviously dangerous and most people would be very careful in doing so. But I did believe that he might have taken shelter in the cave/overhang or maybe have fallen while attempting to pass through the boulders that make up the difficult part of entering the canyon from the east.

Again thanks to all that have hiked this region of the supers and looking for clues as to where Jesse may be.
:thanx: