University of Oregon mathematics professor Daming Xu failed to return after walking into the Willamette National Forest nine miles east of Dutton's departure point in November 2007. Xu, in his 50s, was on a day hike carrying a water bottle and guidebook. He wore lightweight clothing despite the lofty 4,500-feet elevation and lateness of the season.
Part of Xu's guidebook was found by another hiker in the French Pete Creek drainage 1 1/2-weeks after he was reported missing. Winter storms forced suspension of the search for him Nov. 18 that year, and nothing more has been seen or heard of him.
"There is a mystery here," says Dutton's mother, Cynthia Boucher, 66, of Vancouver, Wash. "Both Jake and the professor were experienced hikers on wilderness trails. Two grown men can't simply disappear from the mountains five years apart."
Unfortunately, they can.''
Surviving in the backcountry after straying off a trail often is a matter of knowing how to read a map, compass or GPS unit, and many who have those tools aren't proficient with them, said King, whose office in Benton County conducts about 20 searches a year. Many who fail to survive have poor fire-building skills, are unable to keep warm and dry and didn't bring extra food and water, she said.
Jude McHugh, spokeswoman for the Willamette National Forest, said dense, coastal type rain forest covers much of the terrain where she works, raising the odds that a hiker or backpacker might wander off an established trail. If that happens, the foliage can mask steep drop-offs and cause fatal falls, she said.
People disappear for a lot of reasons, says McHugh.
"Some probably go missing on purpose, some by accident," she said. "Some go to a beautiful spot to take their own lives."
