Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them

This reminded me of this real life story of trying to find a German family that got lost in Death Valley. It&#x27;s a tragic story but I found very interesting how this person tries to piece together what happened. It&#x27;s a long but worthwhile read.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.otherhand.org&#x2F;home-page&#x2F;search-and-rescue&#x2F;the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.otherhand.org&#x2F;home-page&#x2F;search-and-rescue&#x2F;the-hu...</a>

Among other reasons, this is why i have a contingency email draft that I have ready to go whenever I go out on a serious-ish hike, along these lines:<p>“here’s who is going, this is our license plate, this is our gear, this is how much food we have, here’s a very rough itinerary; if i don’t update this email by such and such a time, contact the following SAR groups...”

I went backpacking up arroyo seco with 2 friends on the same weekend. On our way into the campgrounds the rangers told us this story, we almost didn&#x27;t believe them the story was so ridiculous on its face. Crazy to see this article in the news now.<p>Beautiful place to hike and camp, and if that&#x27;s not your thing then check out the Tassajara zen center.<p>I wrote a trip recap here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;roymurdock.com&#x2F;blogs&#x2F;2019&#x2F;0722ventana.php" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;roymurdock.com&#x2F;blogs&#x2F;2019&#x2F;0722ventana.php</a>

the news article left me wanting to know more about the hike, and i discovered this ropewiki article[0] which seems to be related, and link to a more detailed trip report[1]. i&#x27;m more of a peakbagger myself, but the photos of the canyons are fascinating (many examples in google images).<p>i&#x27;m guessing satellite locator beacons (such as resqlink, spot or in-reach) don&#x27;t work very well in canyons. you&#x27;d need a much more monster antenna and transmitter.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ropewiki.com&#x2F;Arroyo_Seco_Gorge_(Los_Padres)" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ropewiki.com&#x2F;Arroyo_Seco_Gorge_(Los_Padres)</a> [1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.teamsk.org&#x2F;arroyo&#x2F;seco.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.teamsk.org&#x2F;arroyo&#x2F;seco.html</a>

I grew up in Southern Utah, just a few miles from the Zion Narrows, and have read of many tragic situations that didn&#x27;t end nearly as well as this group&#x27;s story. (Including my own brother on an overnight scouting event). God bless the two hikers who &quot;left before the rescue without giving their names!&quot; I hope the family can find them so they can give them personal thanks.

I don&#x27;t mean to be rude but: why is this here? It would be a neat project to map out the changes in the types of stories and comments on HN over time. Over the years, HN has grown more and more in the direction of reddit front page and become less and less like an irc channel where people talk about technology.

Why could they not turn around and go back the way they came? I am not a hiker.

Unrelated to the article but damn, that autoplay of the video and that woman&#x27;s voice scared me.

It surprises me that people can’t bring a PLB along when going to a non-trivial hike.<p>It’s only $300 and it can transmit SOS both to low orbit satellites and to rescue copters, and it has shelf life of five years (no need to charge).

That autoplay video almost gave me a heart attack.

I always bring ham radio equipment when I hike like this. Most people don&#x27;t realize mobile coverage is very limited.

Nothing really poignant to say about this, other than thanks OP for posting something positive to read today.

I really enjoyed this story. However I did struggle on one part:<p>&gt; <i>Whitson, his 13-year-old son and girlfriend, Krystal Ramirez, had decided to spend Father&#x27;s Day weekend backpacking the Arroyo Seco River.</i><p>It took me longer to parse this sentence than I should perhaps admit to. The first couple of reads lead me to believe his son and girlfriend were the same person.

I love stories like this. But, what if the hikers would just rather not be found?