CA - Jonathan Gerrish, Ellen Chung, daughter, 1 & dog, suspicious death hiking area, Aug 2021 #5

[Curious_in_NC]

They were living in Darren at that time, did not buy house in Jerseydale until late July 2021.). Shows they had familiarity with Jerseydale area prior to buying house. rsbm

I think they were already quite familiar with the area. JG's AllTrails account shows he was there at the trailhead area at least 4 years earlier. This is a screen shot. Details of AllTrails hikes that old can't be reviewed but the map picture shows that he hiked part of Hites Cove Rd. and the Hites Cove OHV trail, but labeled his hike (incorrectly) as "Hites Cove Trail". This would have been before the fire. The "[CLOSED]" label reflects the trail's current status.

Totally MOO but my hunch is he might have been back to explore this area several times, even if he didn't record it at AllTrails. They clearly found the area desirable enough to buy a house nearby.

Note -in AllTrails lingo an "added" hike is one you recorded and named, a "saved" trail is one you downloaded, and a "completed" trail is one you checked off as completed. I'm not sure there's any verification process. The circles probably are where pictures were taken.

 

[Curious_in_NC]

I think the Gobi and BM are relevant in the sense that they show JG/EC to not be strongly avoidant of heat situations.

But neither of those experiences IMO require constant exertion like a several mile hike with no nearby shade does.

ITA. The exertion of climbing 2000+ feet in heat with no shade is unlike either of those experiences. What we really don't know is were they acclimatized to exertion outdoors in the heat? This really is something that depends on what they were doing in the preceding several weeks, not something they did years earlier. I have not seen information to help with that question anywhere, only a vague statement that they had hiked on weekends.

ETA Unfortunately they didn't hike the full 2000+ feet, probably only half that elevation. To put that in perspective, the Empire State Building is 1250 feet tall.

 

[SophieRose]

Found this. Guess he went to Mongolia to DJ. I wonder if EC was Count+Dragon. Gobi was likely a side excursion.

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Hailing from the UK and immersed in the mid nineties club scene it wasn't until Jonathan experienced Burning Man that he was inspired to DJ. Now based in San Francisco he's an up and coming DJ with a monthly residency at Wish and a regular at the Sunrise parties at the legendary Endup Club. As one half of due Count+Dragon he throws intimate underground parties from San francisco to Burning man

 

[minazoe]

San Fran is super hilly, they probably weren't too intimidated by the hill aspect..and perhaps they forgot that the heat in SoCal is much different than SF weather which cools down quite a bit in the afternoon and is breezy and green.

 

[Lex Parsimoniae]

San Fran is super hilly, they probably weren't too intimidated by the hill aspect..and perhaps they forgot that the heat in SoCal is much different than SF weather which cools down quite a bit in the afternoon and is breezy and green.

Yes, and as Mark Twain famously quipped, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." And he's from England. I've been there a couple of times... or was it Britain or the UK? Or all three? I dunno. Anyway, AFAIK, they don't have sunshine there, let alone extreme heat. MOO

 

[Newsjunkiejen]

Hey all,

Just catching up on this thread as I've somehow missed the past few updates.

I see that lightning has been ruled out. That was my one of two options that I was considering: either lightning or heatstroke IMO.

I'm surprised that there haven't been many further updates - it just seems to have gone quiet. Was there still no statement made regarding toxicology results (sorry if I missed it)?

Such a sad CASE, and I feel for their families who are likely desperately waiting for answers to try and make some sense of this tragedy.

MOO

 

[Newsjunkiejen]

Yes, and as Mark Twain famously quipped, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." And he's from England. I've been there a couple of times... or was it Britain or the UK? Or all three? I dunno. Anyway, AFAIK, they don't have sunshine there, let alone extreme heat. MOO

I'm in England, and English (or is it British?).. I lose track these days haha but yes, I can vouch that the sun here is as rare as hen's teeth!

Jonathan is from the county next to me (he's from Lancashire and I'm in Yorkshire) and I believe he had been in America for a while so I'm guessing he would've acclimatised to the different temperatures there. Then again, over here the weather AND the temperatures can be extremely localised and I read a previous post in this thread that said weather could be very localised in the area where the Chung-Gerrish's were hiking, so I guess there's always that opportunity to be caught out by it.

MOO

 

[rahod1]

I think the Gobi and BM are relevant in the sense that they show JG/EC to not be strongly avoidant of heat situations.

But neither of those experiences IMO require constant exertion like a several mile hike with no nearby shade does.

I mean, certainly people can seriously exert themselves at BM because transportation is mostly via bicycle, and if someone wants to spend all day riding around I'm sure they can. But -- that is not the point or focus of that experience, so to me it equates more to an experience of camping in a hot location, or perhaps attending a festival in a hot environment. But in both of those situations a person can decide, if they aren't feeling up to it, to be sedentary instead, and being sedentary at BM does not leave a person out cooking in the elements -- there are tents, RVs, ice available, and most importantly, a staffed medical tent with the ability to treat someone onsite or take them out to hospital if necessary.

I don't know the details of their Gobi experience but if it was a guided trip as some have mentioned then the above is probably true also -- a person in trouble could get help from the infrastructure of the event. That's the key element missing from their fatal hike when trying to compare it to these other experiences.

Bottom line: people can and do take all sorts of risks, and (made up statistic to make a point) 99% of the time they return home safely where there is always the opportunity for the bullet dodged to be minimized or not recognized, or forgotten over time.

Then when something does happen where the risk turns out badly, it seems incomprehensible because all earlier risks turned out okay. I'm sure we can all see the fallacy in that logic, and yet we've all probably experienced that as well.

All MOO

Excellent points. In essence they were>>> TRAPPED<<<< in the heat this time compared to other hikes. They were ISOLATED with no recourse to seek help and the clock started ticking as soon as they reached a point that was beyond the safety envelope where they could safely return to the truck. Tragic. All this MOO.

 

[minazoe]

Excellent points. In essence they were>>> TRAPPED<<<< in the heat this time compared to other hikes. They were ISOLATED with no recourse to seek help and the clock started ticking as soon as they reached a point that was beyond the safety envelope where they could safely return to the truck. Tragic. All this MOO.

such a nightmare..just devastating , god speed, they just wanted to walk. mOO

 

[RedHaus]

Found this. Guess he went to Mongolia to DJ. I wonder if EC was Count+Dragon. Gobi was likely a side excursion. Log into Facebook | Facebook
Hailing from the UK and immersed in the mid nineties club scene it wasn't until Jonathan experienced Burning Man that he was inspired to DJ. Now based in San Francisco he's an up and coming DJ with a monthly residency at Wish and a regular at the Sunrise parties at the legendary Endup Club. As one half of due Count+Dragon he throws intimate underground parties from San francisco to Burning man

Yes, @SophieRose, back in Thread #2, I had discovered JG's recordings on SoundCloud - see link to his recordings. He "DJ'd" in the sphere of wave music - producing synthesized music at Burning Man, Mongolia, Mexico, Bali and even at Elon's 50th Birthday Party. That being the Elon Musk's birthday I presume? jongerrish

But it does not appear JG posted new music on SoundCloud for 2-3 years and I wonder why. Could he have left that part of his life behind when they moved?

 

[Yvettea]

@rahod1 @Lex Parsimoniae How long is the segment of the Hites Cove trail that was walked that morning, assuming they turned off immediately toward the river.

I’ve found nothing about anyone hiking along there. Instead it seems to be five miles of maintained fire road.

 

[MrsEmmaPeel]

@rahod1 @Lex Parsimoniae I’ve found nothing about anyone hiking along there. [HCT] Instead it seems to be five miles of maintained fire road.

It's an extension of Hites Cove Rd. MariposaTrails.org labels it an "Access Road." I imagine for fire and water management. Several different agencies tend the Merced River and its 20 mi river trail.

 

[rahod1]

@rahod1 @Lex Parsimoniae How long is the segment of the Hites Cove trail that was walked that morning, assuming they turned off immediately toward the river.

I’ve found nothing about anyone hiking along there. Instead it seems to be five miles of maintained fire road.

The trail they walked down HC...past Marble Point...to the river is about 2 miles.

 

[Lex Parsimoniae]

@rahod1 @Lex Parsimoniae How long is the segment of the Hites Cove trail that was walked that morning, assuming they turned off immediately toward the river.

I’ve found nothing about anyone hiking along there. Instead it seems to be five miles of maintained fire road.

I get 2.1 miles from their truck on the Hites Cove OHV trail to the Southfork Trail, which goes to the Savage Lundy trail. Keep in mind that intersection is ~300' above the river, you still have to go some distance on the Southfork Trail to get the rest of the way down to the river. The river is about 150' higher at the SLT, since it flows downstream to Hites Cove OHV trail.

 

[Curious_in_NC]

Yes, @SophieRose, back in Thread #2, I had discovered JG's recordings on SoundCloud - see link to his recordings. He "DJ'd" in the sphere of wave music - producing synthesized music at Burning Man, Mongolia, Mexico, Bali and even at Elon's 50th Birthday Party. That being the Elon Musk's birthday I presume? jongerrish

Elon Musk only turned 50 in June this year, so I think it was for someone else as the music link was posted 4 years ago. Also it was spelled "Ellon".

 

[Yvettea]

What if they encountered some trouble on hites cove since it’s labeled OHV but they were hiking? Maybe they would seek an alternate trail.

ETA: Maybe they never intended to walk the two miles down but somebody on OHV started bothering them and they didn’t feel safe turning back.

 

[LifeIsAMystery]

Been lurking and following along for a bit, venturing into a first post. Appreciate all of the thoughtful ideas and information. Such a terribly sad situation.

MOO, it does seem like their hike was planned (at least the first part) and, MOO, HS/accidental seems like the most plausible COD/MOD.

Like others, it's really hard to wrap my head around how they decided to hike in that heat with their dog and baby at all. I have small kids, one close in age to their baby. We play often outside, but on hot days (90s+) we keep our time outside with the baby short and move inside to the AC. It's really hard to imagine thinking of taking a baby out for any extended time in that kind of heat. Maybe like others have said about underestimating the heat/risk and overestimating their ability, there's also inexperience being first time parents and they got tragically unlucky with their judgment call. Just speculating. Those baby backpacks are also warm (for both parent and baby) and heavy.

Regarding the idea that they might have survived had they stayed at the river overnight and hiked out at dawn and how hiking back up SL when they did wasn't logical: staying at the river does seem like the safest thing in retrospect, moo. Seems their thinking could certainly been altered by impending HS and even alarm if a sense of vulnerability with heat/return hike was setting in. However, I also can totally imagine their concern, panic even, about the baby. An overnight would be one thing with the adults or adults/dog, but I can totally see if they didn't have a lot of water and didn't feel safe drinking the river water due to algae (or even if they did) and weren't prepared with warm clothes, diapers, or food for an overnight them feeling the urge to just get Out and back to their truck. I could especially see this if they were perceiving distress in the baby (either crying or lethargy) that would make them want to MOVE.

I read lots of ideas and questions about why they chose to go along the river toward SL (bc it's steeper and adds more mileage) versus retracing their steps up HC and have wondered, could they have been looking for other people, maybe hoping someone could help or go for help, and when they didn't find anyone took SL out so as not to burn more miles back to HC?

Finally, I read the link above about what it's like to die from HS. The convulsions/seizures/vomiting all makes me think of JG found deceased in a seated position. Would this position make sense with how HS affects the body?

There have been other cases of people who died from heatstroke sitting down as they overheat. MOO. Another factor - per the LE update they did not have a water filter with them. Not that it would remove the algae toxins, but it would have removed a lot of other things. That likely made drinking water even less thinkable for the adults.

 

[Yvettea]

It’s probably already been said but the south fork hike had little elevation gain. That was just a two mile hike. The hike up SLT was less steep than HCT so may have seemed less strenuous.

ETA: Also, it seems unlikely they encountered issues with toxic algae unless they went off trail and we haven’t been given information that they did. The river was 150 feet to 300 feet below the trail as OP said.

 

[RickshawFan]

Because from those and other hot weather desert travels we know they enjoyed those types of conditions.

Those were guided expeditions, though, is my understanding. There's no basis for comparing with a family day hike.

 

[RickshawFan]

It’s probably already been said but the south fork hike had little elevation gain. That was just a two mile hike. The hike up SLT was less steep than HCT so may have seemed less strenuous.

ETA: Also, it seems unlikely they encountered issues with toxic algae unless they went off trail and we haven’t been given information that they did. The river was 150 feet to 300 feet below the trail as OP said.

I'm beginning to think we need to distinguish between what WE know from looking things up and are using as fact and what the COUPLE knew. We have all manner of resources to acquire knowledge about that area. They don't seem to have, and they had no way to acquire more because there was no cell service. There may even have been no GPS.
If they didn't have any information except the AllTrails version of the HC trail, they had exactly ZERO information the moment they got down to the river. IMO wherever they went past that was based on surmise and incorrect assumptions. IMO they were winging it.