Finding a body while solo hiking

[vibramhead]

Here's a thoughtful article on one hiker's experience when he finds a body while hiking alone.

[aiwetir]

Interesting read. Also interesting in that I was just thinking about what I would do if I found a body when I opened OH.

[retired jerry]

Occasionally I run across some abandoned camping gear and wonder if there's a body nearby.

Or someone will suddenly appear and tell me to leave his stuff alone, threateningly.

[-Q-]

I came across a person who had died while hiking. He was lying right in the middle of the trail. I had also run into him a few hours earlier while he was hiking up trail and we exchanged hello's. It was a difficult time for sure. I have not hiked the siouxon creek trail since that day. I don't think I ever will again either. RIP Richard Bopkin.

[Chip Down]

Grabbed my attention right from the start:

I’ve made peace with the idea that if something happens to me while I’m solo bushwhacking, I’m going to be an instant good example of a bad example. People will shake their heads, call me foolhardy, put me up for a Darwin Award. The Internet will buzz about me for a couple of days and then I’ll be relegated to the occasional “Remember that guy?”

If I died out there, I wonder if anybody would say "hey, what ever happened to that Chip Something guy...I wonder if it was him that fell off that cliff a couple months ago".

Anyway, no bodies, but I've seen quite a few wilderness memorials in weird out-of-the-way places that made me wonder if the location was selected because somebody's remains were found there.

[Charley]

I came across a person who had died while hiking. He was lying right in the middle of the trail. I had also run into him a few hours earlier while he was hiking up trail and we exchanged hello's. It was a difficult time for sure. I have not hiked the siouxon creek trail since that day. I don't think I ever will again either. RIP Richard Bopkin.

Wow. Hiking is something that brings so much solace and happiness to our lives. To have that normal experience upended surely would have been difficult.

[Rancid9999]

If I am lucky, no one will ever find mine! I would like it to happen so far back in the wild that the coyotes need GPS to recycle me!

[Lurch]

If I am lucky, no one will ever find mine! I would like it to happen so far back in the wild that the coyotes need GPS to recycle me!

I'm going to assume that was intended as humor?

[squidvicious]

Apologies for what I realize is a morbid question, but it's one I'd genuinely like to understand. If one were to die hiking the trails in the gorge--where even the more remote trails see somewhat regular use, at least the day-use-accessible ones--how likely is it that your body actually would be found? Assuming that you don't drop dead in the middle of a heavily trafficked trail, and you aren't a suicide specifically looking for a place where you're unlikely to be found.

If you're out there as long as overnight without being found, would the expectation be that animals would drag you off? And that there wouldn't be a clear trace of that for searchers to find? Not sure if I'm suffering from an overly disneyfied view (the woods aren't that big, you're not that far from civilization, there's lot of people around, you should expect to be found if there's a problem) or an overly gruesome paranoid one (BEARS! COUGAR! go down and they're on you!).

Of the three people I know of still missing there over the last year, news reports hinted that Thomas Branch McAdams might have been something other than just an accident. But Alissa McCrann and Annie Schmidt were apparently just on a short afternoon hike/run, and all left from/left their cars at major trailheads. Though it was a few days before anyone knew to look for them. That feels like a lot of people to go missing there without search teams finding any trace, especially with dogs. But I honestly don't know what one should expect in this particular area of the cycle of life.

[kepPNW]

If you're out there as long as overnight without being found, would the expectation be that animals would drag you off? And that there wouldn't be a clear trace of that for searchers to find?

For calibration... A deer died in our backyard a few years ago. The body was 100' away, down a ravine, two days later. A week later, all I could find were a handful of bones another 50' away. I suspect coyotes did most of the heavy lifting, though there are reports of cougars roaming our valley. (I also suspect that clothes would've left more longer-lasting clues.)