I’m 40 years old, married with a toddler and have family in Merlin while my little family and I live on the central coast of California. Historically when ever I have come up to visit I have enjoyed finding some new scenic route like this so I can definitely empathize with James.

On one occasion a few years back during the summer of the Biscuit Fire I decided to take this same route over to Gold Beach as our new token scenic route for the trip home. I’ll never forget it. It was early afternoon as we began making the assent up the very same ridge as the Kims. It was summer, it was warm, and it was daytime. But all of those logging roads were very confusing indeed! There were NO signs on any of the forks in those roads, many of which were often just as wide and graded as the main road which was ultimately one of the strong factors that led to my decision to turn back while we still had enough gas.

I had already been stuck on Usal road (http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=lt&page_id=33651&v=2f) once but at least on that earlier occasion I knew the road and that it was only about 13 miles from the middle to reach help if it came to that. But on this other occasion out there on top of those ridges half way to Agnes, with shear cliffs, no guard rails, no signs to keep you from getting lost and running out of gas, I decided it wasn’t worth the risk and we turned our little selves around and went back the way we came while we still could.

What grieves me so much is about these dear loved ones is that I’m %100 percent certain they had never traveled that road before, and had there been daylight they would have also seen how treacherous those cliffs were and that it would have never been worth the risk in that snow or mud. Sometimes having a map showing that a road is there can also make you believe that you can travel it when you absolutely should not be.

My heart aches for these loving people and I sincerely pray for James safe return…

Steven Boothe
San Luis Obispo, CA

My current thinking is that he left the pants as a marker he was heading along the Rogue River.
He probably headed downriver knowing that would have to lead him to Highways 101 eventually.
He probably did not make it to Half Moon Bar yet because it would be hard to pass it by on that South Bank.

Unfortunately it’s hard to get to Half Moon Bar right now. Need to hire a private jetboat out of Gold Beach. I’m emailing some contacts about how this might work.

I had a post on the site a short time ago from a guy familiar with the area who thought this scenario made some sense so I’m hoping this search route is covered tomorrow.

http://www.katu.com/news/4834331.html

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=42.574763%C2%B0N,+123.750376%C2%B0W&ie=UTF8&z=17&ll=42.574763,-123.750343&spn=0.004954,0.011061&t=h&om=1

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?o=11&f=/c/a/2006/12/05/BAGDOMPNDO7.DTL

you can trace the curving roads and wind up at the same horseshoe curve on both maps.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=Roseburg,+OR+97470&daddr=42.6307%C2%B0N,+123.7899%C2%B0W+(Bear+Camp+Viewpoint+Recreation+Site)&sll=42.629191,-123.821025&sspn=0.021061,0.031328&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=14&ll=42.616086,-123.78562&spn=0.04213,0.062656&t=h

Seems to match this part of what the SF Chronicle says:

“They soon realized they weren’t going to make it over the mountain and decided to turn around, Lee said. Around a spot called Bear Camp Viewpoint, where it was raining, the Kims sidetracked onto a spur road and drove about 2 miles, parked and left the motor running so they could use the heater.”

But not this part of what the SF Chronicle says:

“Rescuers tracked his footprints about two miles along Bear Camp Road. Kim then apparently turned into a creek drainage that eventually leads down to the Rogue River, and his tracks became harder to detect.”

If we follow the first part,

Looks like they went up to the Bear Camp Ridge near Bear Camp Viewpoint, turned around and then took the first spur road till they reached the creek. Then looks like James backtracked down the road up to another creek drainage, where the tracks get difficult to find.