With Kati Kim and Children safe at a Grants Pass hospital the search has intensified for James Kim who is likely located in the Windy Creek Drainage south of the Rogue River in Southern Oregon. He left the Kim Family car on Saturday – some reports say he was wearing snowshoes – at 7:45am seeking help and was to return that day, but did not return. It’s reported that he was warmly dressed and had a lighter. Trackers followed his steps two miles from the car where he headed into the Windy Creek Drainage, a large area south of the Rogue River’s “Horseshoe Bend”. These areas up around the Rogue generally make for slow hiking so we can hope that James will be able to be tracked more easily.
The temperatures up there have been about 20s at night and 40’s in the daytime I think, though the news reported last night that the temps vary with elevation and actually it would be warmer up on the ridges in that area than in the valleys.
Tracking dogs and a National Guard heat seeking helicopter should be on the scene by now.
From the family website this morning:
12/5/06 – 7:30am – We’re up and hoping for good news, anxiously awaiting the success of the search and rescue team. I was able to speak with Kati briefly last night and she is in good spirits, worried and waiting, but joking with me in only the way that Kati can. The girls are in great shape. The Kim and Fleming’s primary concern now is to reunite the family. Kati’s mother, father and brother should be travelling to Oregon today to be with the family. I spoke off camera with one of the interviewers yesterday and we talked about how easy it is sometimes to be cynical in life, but how something like this really shows the true heart of people everywhere. There were so many times these few days where emails from people out there have had us crying and tearing up because of the sheer amount of love expressed – in many cases for a family they don’t even know. It has really kept us going and *IS* keeping us going. Thank you again for all of the support and to all of the people up in Oregon finding James right now.
12/4/06 – 11:30pm – Photos from our volunteer Becky Worley earlier today. Search Helicopter – Search and Rescue preparing for night searching.
Joe Duck 
The following San Francisco Chronicle article has more details than other reports I’ve see so far:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/05/BAGDOMPNDO7.DTL
I hope they find Jim today.
Sorry, I meant to type James.
Any word on the latest (10 AM 12/5/06) news conference? I meant to watch it streaming but caught the tail end, and it’s not archived yet.
the corrordinates given that I have found are 42.6307°N, 123.7899°W where the vehicle was found. How far is that spot from black bar falls? There is a revine on the other side of where the car was found that when I follow it by satelite I end up at the falls area. They said he’d probably follow water.
Are they still following tracks?
Here is a link to google maps with the route & location from Roseburg to the location tara posted:
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.
Click Hybrid view
if you zoom in on the coordinates on google map above, it matches the spot marked on the below image, shown yesterday at the press conf, on sfgate.com:
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.
This seems like the likely location where they went off track, the road to the right is actually wider and straighter at this point and most likely they thought they were still on the main road, but it led them into the twisty maze of logging roads where they became stranded.
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
Update: Searchers find James Kim’s pants, but do not find the missing father
http://www.katu.com/news/4834331.html
sfgate.com is now reporting that james kim’s pants have been found – they were the pants that he was wearing when he left on his hike. hopefully, he had an extra pair and ditched these because they were wet.
Tara – yes, Big Windy Creek Drainage is near Black Bar falls on the River. There’s a lodge there called Black Bar falls lodge but if he missed that and headed downriver it’s something like 20 miles to the next lodge on the south bank, which is Half Moon Bar. They told me about an hour ago that there are caretakers up there now.
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.
My first post in reponse to this episode.
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