I hadn't really thought about this until all the discussion toward the end of the last thread about hitch-hiking, picking up scruffy individuals who may be disoriented, etc., but...
I have a person close to me who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (from the border of Mexico to just over the Canadian border). While some hike in groups, many hike alone, only meeting up with other hikers periodically as they cross paths and might keep a similar pace for awhile. Most leave sometime in mid-late April and try to finish by October, and most hike Mexico-->Canada as opposed to the reverse, and even fewer doubleback and hike it up and back the same season. A pretty quick thru-hiker, who doesn't stop much and does a lot of miles a day might finish in around four months, many it takes more like five or even six.
The person I know who hiked it started out alone, met up with some others who kept a similar pace, so joined them off and on, if they all kept similar tendencies to 'zero' hike or resupply at the same frequency, etc. But then ultimately spent almost the entire last month hiking alone, often going days without seeing anyone, let alone someone else actually hiking even just a portion of the trail. This person was one of the first to finish the thru-hike the year they began it, yet had done next to no training prior (though had lived at a higher altitude, which can be helpful), and had never undertaken even a very long hike, let alone 2600-ish miles! They were just very ambitious (or crazy!)
In the 'selfies' this person took to document the weight loss and physical toll that it took, to say that they were filthy and scruffy and less than fresh smelling was probably an understatement.
Carrying so few pounds in necessities - and then just with some food/water on top of that - it wasn't like there were changes of clothes or real means of washing up.
Yet all along the way there were 'trail angels' (that really is what thru-hikers call them) - some who just left some form of 'trail magic' - things like beers and chips in places along the route that hikers would typically be near around Cinco de Mayo, or those who would leave notes/signs along the trail with directions to their home and the offer of a shower, a bed, or a warm meal for any PCT hikers. In fact, that was where the individual I know came to meet the most other hikers - somewhere thanks to trail angels and their supplies or offers of them along the many month journey.
The last month, when the hiker I am close to struck out alone again, having a finishing goal that meant hiking a dozen plus more miles a day than most hikers do and not taking a single day off - even though most of that was through the areas where resupplying is the hardest and meant going a fair distance off the trail to get supplies...or just going without food.
Wandering into campsites, late at night, having hiked in the dark for hours, just trying to find somewhere to lay that would keep you (hopefully) away from becoming prey for critters, etc., this person looked like a 'hot mess.'
Not having had contact with another person in days but many time a week or more, so being very 'out of the loop' as to most things, and being dirty, smelly, in literally just threads of their shirt/shorts, and shoes all ripped up, and generally grungy, it was amazing to me that nearly every time this person ended up happening on someone in a campground or the times they needed to hitchhike in order to get supplies b/c one rather long segment of the trail doesn't really have supply spots on it - they not only got offers of help, but often coming from younger people or females.
The number of times, toward the end, when frankly this person was bordering on almost looking scary, totally without food and needing to hitch into town to get more supplies, there would be some young people camping or something and offering this person burgers and a drink, or a female driving on some mountain road alone at dusk would pick this person up and drop them in town and not only would it allow for supplies, but almost always someone would open up their home (others their garage or yard or just a same place for the little tent to go). Some were known 'trail angels' who are listed on sites online or where thru-hikers communicate, others who did it because they happened across someone undertaking such an ambitious challenge and just wanting to help or out of admiration of them, and others who do it just once or twice because someone helped one of their friends or loved ones by being a 'trail angel' or providing some 'trail magic' on their journey.
I say all that because Bryce is even younger than the person I know who undertook the PCT. And while Bryce clearly wasn't setting out with something like that in mind, the trail, at times, in several places, is at (or very near) the I-5. And lakes and national parks are places where those who seem to have a soft-spot for thru-hikers, especially, tended to be located.
Bryce is young, likely on foot, and even injured or pretty disoriented, could easily strike someone as a wayward hiker (PCT or otherwise), even without having much with him.
I think about all the kind-hearted 'angels' along the PCT, at least, who went so far out of their way, and, really, put themselves at risk opening up their homes or lives to the hikers the year my loved one hiked the trail, and think that had Bryce happened across the path of one of them - or one of the many who picked up my loved one when trying to hitch to get supplies - I could easily see him being picked up and helped without much in the way of questions.
If he were in the 'right' area and even just within a six week window of when locals know hikers tend to pass through, it probably wouldn't be given a second thought. Many hitch with little with them in terms of supplies if they've met up with a group.
Heck, by the time my loved one got to Canada, their debit card didn't work because they hadn't thought to tell the bank they were crossing the border, and the small purchases every week or so aroused their suspicion, so not only did my loved one leave most of what they had started out with in the final campground, signing the ledger with the trail name they used - as nearly all hikers do - never once going by their real name (something many within even close groups who hike together for months, some don't even share - most just 'adopting' their trail 'persona') and then not only having to try to hitch into a bigger town in Canada, but then beg for money to make a call to let us know they finished and to please book a plane ticket home.
I hardly recognized my loved one - and had been getting 'selfies' and scenery pictures periodically. Even knowing I was to pick them up at the airport, I almost had to triple take to know it was them...and I've known this person decades. And, to be honest, it was a good thing they called me by name, or I'm not sure I'd have unlocked the car door for them! (And that was after sort of 'cleaning up' at the airport in Canada...). Yet in some tiny remote towns not a single person thought otherwise of doing that same thing - for someone they'd never met and frankly didn't necessarily look like the most savory of characters!
The girl who talked about her Grandpa seeing someone who looked like Bryce coming out of the woods doesn't seem as far-fetched when I think back about the experience of my loved one.
Even though Bryce didn't set off to traverse thousands of miles and a great distance, he may well have - even if inadvertently.
I pray that some of the kind-hearted trail angels who helped my loved one out on their hike, or those like them, people that seem far more common in smaller communities or among those who love to live nearer the land, so to speak, are the same sorts that perhaps Bryce has come across.
And just as none of those who helped my loved one would probably have recognized a picture of them from weeks (nevermind months earlier) when they weren't showing the 'wear' of the journey, and weren't even going by their real name, I pray that somehow, Bryce will also return safely to his loved ones, even if it takes several possible sightings before someone realizes it's him (especially if something has happened to him and he's disoriented!).