Hello everyone! I'm new to Websleuths; joined with regard to interest in another case that has happened near to me, and decided to see if there was anything on this case while I was on this site.
I too live near Devil's Den. My husband and I hike there infrequently. I've never completed the entirety of the Butterfield Trail, but I have hiked both ends of it, and other trails in the park. In August it is pretty dry in these parts, but there is usually water in Lee Creek. If they'd camped in the campground the night before, as is said that they did...and if they had even the most normal degree of awareness of the lay of the land...and if they were paying attention at all to their surroundings...and if they knew anything at all about hiking in the back country...Rodney would have known that there is water in Lee Creek.
That said...about 10 days or so after his disappearance, my husband and I went to the park and hiked this trail. Where it crosses Hwy. 170, we went to the south, which takes you deeper into the forest. Going to the north at that point takes you back down into the park and around another popular trail system where the caves are; more people in that area, usually.
I will say that the trail signage was crappy. We went in from the road about 50 yards or so, I'm guessing, and the Butterfield Trial goes off to the left...but the signage was missing. And the maps that they give you at the Visitor Center are laughable; not very well done, pretty crude, and certainly without any topo features to go by. SO, we missed the left turn onto the trail at first. I figured out we were on the wrong trail when another one forked to the left, at a place where one was not supposed to be, if we were on the Butterfield Trail (BFT.) So we backtracked and found the right trail. To make this point more solidly....when we hiked out, we took that trail that went to the left, to have a loop back. And we met another couple coming down at the intersection, who were making the same mistake we had made! They thought they were on the BFT, and the male in the couple kinda argued with me when we tried to help them. I finally said, "Well, it doesn't really matter. You have backpacks and Lee Creek is down there if you run out of water. But you might not end up where you think you're going to end up for the night." With that, he decided to walk back with us to the correct fork. He sure was sheepish, but he sure was thankful!
Once we got onto the BF Trail, we began to see yellow tape markers where the search crews had marked things...for what reasons, we don't know. But somewhat less than a mile into it, we could see to the right a nice camping area, big flat spot without much underbrush, and a fire ring. Looks like the area is used frequently for campers. And it was marked off with yellow tape, and numerous places marked with smaller pieces. We figured that this is the area were Rodney supposedly waited for his friend to return with the meds; maybe where the phone was found.
We hiked on. Went to an overlook area which was on the left, and saw where more things were marked, such as piece of tissue dropped on the ground. There were cliffs here, but it was heavily wooded. Would be easy for someone to tumble down and not be found. You'd think though, that in the amount of time they searched the area with dogs, someone would have found his body, if he'd died out there. Further down the trail were more cliffs and more camping areas. Pretty views all around.
We chatted with the rangers and the staff at the Visitor Center about his disappearance, and the search, when we got back, and we told them about the crappy signage and map. We also talked with them several more times when we went back for other hikes. They were pretty careful about what they'd say. But we clearly got the impression from them that they thought Rodney had left the park with the intention to not be found. I don't know the details of why they thought this...don't know if any of the dogs tracking (and they did bring in several dogs) led the the road and stopped, or what. But that camp area that I described, with the yellow tape, was not all that far into the trail. Perhaps a mile. If someone had intended to fake a disappearance, it would be an easy walk back out to the highway. The only thing is, in the daylight, he'd have a chance of being encountered by other hikers who would later remember him. So while this is possible, of course, it was a risk he took. Would he leave his phone so he couldn't be tracked? Knew he wasn't going to need *that* phone anymore? I can understand why it looks that way to some, especially if he had a reason to disappear, and a history of doing this.
OTOH, Devil's Den has some history of other disappearances. There's a book by a man named Terry Lovelace who tells of a very terrifying encounter that he and a friend had there, years ago, while camping in this park. It's a classic UFO abduction tale. Terry claims that when he was writing his book, he met with a Native American who relayed a story of an entire hunting party who went missing in that area, several hundreds of years ago. As the story goes, the tribe avoided this area after that.
I'm not advocating for either scenario, one way or the other. But I wanted to share what I know so others can put it into their cookpot while hashing this case. The worst thing that could happen, I think, is that people write him off as an intentional disappearance and give up on him when this is not what happened. But you have to make a judgement, I guess, when you're talking about the use of SAR resources, when the subject has a history of disappearing, and perhaps a motive to do so again. I hope my bit of input is helpful, or if not helpful, at least not harmful.
