Sad that you can not read all of his sister's post without having a FB account.
Here ya go.
Hi there. This is Dawne. We’ve been back from Joshua Tree National Park for a week now and are still trying to process everything. We felt drained both physically and emotionally by the end of our time there but were glad we went. Joshua Tree struck us with its raw beauty. Huge rock outcroppings scattered randomly throughout the landscape are surrounded by high ridges and deep canyons. The land is rugged and much more vertical than Google Earth indicates. The air feels clean there and the quiet is absolute, peaceful in fact. Paul must have loved it. It reminds us in some ways of the Arctic. The tundra however, doesn’t have cactus plants, tarantulas and rattle snakes. It also doesn’t have a nasty bush referred to as ‘Cat’s Claw’ or ‘Wait a Minute’. We got very scratched up courtesy of this one. We are fascinated by the ingenious methods plants and animals have evolved there to survive in the desert. Joshua Tree is indeed a hard place.
Dave and I were on the trail each morning by 8 a.m.. Katie Ashe, the ranger in charge of search and rescue, arranged for one or two search and rescue volunteers (JOSAR) to be with us each day. They took our lead as to where we wanted to search. They are amazing people and really seem to care about finding Paul. We owe much thanks to Jim, Bill, Alice, Chris, Karyl and Shaelan. We are especially grateful to a wonderful man named Tomas. He was with us each day and worked tirelessly. We consider him to be a friend now. We met with David Smith, the park superintendent several times. He made sure we had the resources we needed to conduct our search and confirmed that the Canadian Consulate has been calling regularly.
The first day, we walked the trail trying to see it through Paul’s eyes. Although the trail is obvious, it disappears quickly once you venture off of it. We saw numerous spots just off the trail where he might have gone to get a better viewpoint for a photo. Over the days that followed, we searched below them. There are canyons and washes (areas that water flows down during flash floods) that he might have followed if he was chasing after a big horn sheep. We checked them out as best we could, clamouring over rock piles and climbing up canyon walls looking in cracks and crevices for clues. Helmets came in handy. I found that I was pretty good at climbing up but getting back down was a much slower process. Dave and Tomas are mountain goats though and covered a lot of territory. There are so many crevices there! We would spend hours just on one rock mound. We found a wooden cross and trail cam that the park was unaware of. They figure the camera was put there by biologists studying the sheep. They will check it out but suspect its camera stopped filming long ago. We also found lots of sheep bones, a bob cat skull and very old bits of clothing. By the end of our stay, Tomas felt that we had actually covered a lot of territory that couldn’t be searched thoroughly in July when the heat was so restrictive. He told us that search crews couldn’t stay out for longer than 2 hours at a time because of this. I got mildly dehydrated the first day and recognized the signs from a previous incident in the Grand Canyon years ago. I can attest to the fact that dehydration and heat exhaustion can lead to disorientation. Perhaps that is what happened to Paul. Tomas also mentioned that most of the volunteers were not comfortable with climbing so that was left to the few who could handle it. After seeing the terrain, I can understand that. Tomas was actually impressed with us for climbing slopes most volunteers couldn’t. Let’s just say that Dave and I were motivated. One evening, we went to a GPS training meeting of JOSAR volunteers and got a good look at the GPS tracks of volunteers in July. Ours’ will be added. For now, it is being left to volunteers to go out on their own time. A few are certainly doing that but I’d like to see more planning going into where they are searching.
I’d like to say that going to the park brought us some closure but the reality is that we are more confused than ever. What could have gone wrong? Paul was missing for 3 hours by the time the search began and I felt we searched further afield from where he could have wandered in that time frame. We have not ruled out foul play despite the lack of evidence. We visited the sheriff’s office only to find that they really have nothing in their file. They too think that Paul is in the park somewhere and that it is not their jurisdiction as a result. We left the information about Paul’s camera with them and checked out what pawn shops are in the area since they have not done that. One interesting point - we took out bags and bags of broken bottles and cans often found in locations that were difficult to get to. Why would people hike in so far just to drink? Maybe one of them had other motives. Maybe I’m grasping at straws. On the positive side, Paul’s posters are highly visible at all visitor centres and trailheads. We took down a stack of the newly updated posters and they were up in no time. A reporter and photographer from the Desert Sun in Palm Springs interviewed us and hopefully that raised the profile again. Thank you for that Sherry. Unfortunately the fires in California are the main headlines now. The link for the interview is
Ainsley Otten.
So, where do we go from here? Both David Smith and Katie Ashe told us that there are more people visiting the park now and the hope is that someone will see something. I don’t hold out much hope for that. We searched pretty thoroughly off trail and came up with nothing. We need to keep up pressure on the park leadership in the hope that they will conduct more frequent organized searches now that the temperatures are cooler. I mentioned to David Smith that an organization known as the Jon Francis Foundation can provide drone pilots if the park can get permission to fly them. It would make the search so much easier especially in areas that are not easily accessible. I think we need to push this. We also need to contact the Consulate to make sure they don’t forget about Paul. I don’t think we’ll get any help from the Sheriff’s Department, unfortunately. The deputy involved in the case was away on holiday while we were there and although he said he would call me this week, I have yet to hear from him.
It’s strange but we felt very close to Paul while down in Joshua Tree. I often talked to him while searching, hoping that perhaps he would yield a clue in his game of hide and seek. One day, I noticed a cactus on the horizon line of a ridge. It looked like the profile of Paul’s wolf tattoo and I fancied that he was telling us to look there. On the final day, I told him quite angrily that it was his last chance to come out before we left. My little brother has always been a brat though so not surprisingly, he ignored me. Dave and I have decided that we will return at some point to continue the search. Leaving Joshua Tree without Paul was the hardest thing we’ve ever had to do.
