CA CA - Monica Reza, 60, hiker, Mount Waterman, Los Angeles National Forest, 22 Jun 2025

[SideQuestHiker]

There is a section in that article that refers to 2 or 3 trails not by name.
Can anyone confirm what the names of these trails are? Probably obvious for those of you who have hiked these, but could you help an armchair hiker out?

I have 3 questions -
1 - I think the trail that "includes two primary access points" must be "Mt Waterman via Upper West Ridge". Is that right?
2 - Which trail, instead, would be the "more hazardous southern route"?
3 - Which trail would be the "another trail" accessible only via offtrail/brush/wilderness trekking?

Bolding by me.

"the trail includes two primary access points: a northern entrance near a parking lot and highway, where Reza began her hike, and one by the Mt. Waterman Ski-Lifts, which has a road that “off-road vehicles” can drive on. Reza’s beanie, however, was found in the direction of a more hazardous southern route (which was not an entrance or access point), and one would have to go off the trail, through brush and the wilderness, in order to land back on another trail. Based on her familiarity with the area and Reza’s personality, the family member said it is unlikely she would have chosen the more dangerous southern path on purpose."

With regards to the various trails - what LAHiker said.

The article's wording is weird. The paragraph starts out talking about trails, but then switches to talking about bushwhacking down the south slope and Monica not willingly choosing that route. Anyone not familiar with the area could easily wonder if the paragraph was saying the southern trail (i.e. the Three Points Trail) was the hazardous southern route. I think the "more hazardous southern route" is just referring to the bushwhacking path down the southern slope towards the Three Points Trail.

 

[ItalyReader]

Thanks, @LAhiker and @SideQuestHiker, your responses help a lot. I did think the southern route was the Three Point trail but probably just means heading south.
Do we know Monica's familiarity with this trail - had she ever hiked it before?

 

[moonglow123]

Thanks for filming those videos @SideQuestHiker, I started to watch and plan to watch the rest later. It’s helpful to be able to see where she was hiking and visualize it.

Feel bad for her children and loved ones, this continues to be very baffling I’m just baffled by the sequence of events and how she could simply vanish into thin air. Not blaming (and I know hiking companions can get separated) but I do wish her colleague had stayed closer to her, if he’d heard anything we’d at least have a better idea of what may have happened…

 

[moonglow123]

Just feels like there were so many cascading and coincidental things that had to go wrong here.

A very experienced hiker, experienced with the Angeles forest even if not this particular trail, carrying enough water, happens to get separated from her companion, gets disoriented or lost, her companions can't hear anything because one went ahead of her and one stayed lower on the trail, no one can find her despite many search parties, there's no heat signature, no trace of her except her beanie located in an odd place...

I know people get lost while hiking but it never gets less sad and devastating that there's no way to find them. I'm glad people tried so hard though She seemed like such a wonderful and talented lady.

 

[planet]

Thanks for filming those videos @SideQuestHiker, I started to watch and plan to watch the rest later. It’s helpful to be able to see where she was hiking and visualize it.

Feel bad for her children and loved ones, this continues to be very baffling I’m just baffled by the sequence of events and how she could simply vanish into thin air. Not blaming (and I know hiking companions can get separated) but I do wish her colleague had stayed closer to her, if he’d heard anything we’d at least have a better idea of what may have happened…

I think we do empirical evidence a disservice if we continue to say that she vanished into thin air. It perpetuates this mystery that there is some kind of abduction or a mystical event. People disappear off trail very quickly.

If you dig into the features if mountain terrain, you'll discover that there are so many features that make it easy for somebody to fall or stay hidden.

I asked Claude (AI) to describe these features:

<start quote>

Cliffs and drop-offs
Called technical terrain or exposed faces. From above, especially in vegetation, you often can't see the vertical face until you're at the edge. The slope looks continuous and then simply ends.

Chutes and gullies
Narrow channels that funnel you downward. They feel like a path — clear, directed, easier going — but they steepen, narrow, and often end at a drop or become too steep to reverse. Gravity and the channel walls commit you.

Talus and scree fields
Loose rock that shifts underfoot. Manageable going down slowly, increasingly dangerous at any pace. A twisted ankle or fall here at speed is serious. Also exhausting to climb back up, which discourages reversal.

Brush and chaparral
Dense vegetation that you push through going downhill with momentum but that becomes nearly impassable going back up. It closes behind you. In the San Gabriel or San Jacinto range this is a serious hazard on south-facing slopes particularly.

False benches
A slope that levels out briefly, feels like stable ground, invites you to continue — then drops again more steeply. Each level section feels like progress and encourages continued descent.

Canyon entrapment
Eventually descending ridges feed into canyon systems. Once in a canyon the walls remove options entirely. You're committed to the drainage direction with no lateral escape.

Each feature individually is manageable. Encountered sequentially while already disoriented and descending, they compound rapidly.
<end quote>

The evidence suggests she went offtrail in a southerly or southeasterly/ southwesterly direction. I am guessing the terrain became increasingly difficult. She may have fallen, multiple times. She probably injured herself. She likely experienced dehydration, disorientation, and/or heat exhaustion. She likely died from one or more of these challenges.

I think her belongings will be found at some point.

There are important lessons:
(1) Do not head offtrail unless there's somebody who is watching you.
(2) Wear a whistle (e.g. Fox 40) on a lanyard or clipped to your pack. Why doesn't everybody do this? I truly don't understand. They're cheap and light, and the sound carries better than voice.
(3) If you must head offtrail, mark your exit from the trail with flagging tape and mark your new path with flagging tape. Flagging tape is cheap and easy to carry.
(4) Carry some kind of communication device that isn't a cell phone.
(5) Assume you'll have an emergency and prepare for this.

Dehydration is a huge risk while hiking, but water and shade will not save you if you get lost offtrail or injure yourself.

 

[moonglow123]

Yeah, sorry... guess I meant it as more of an expression than her literally disappearing into thin air. I don't necessarily think a conspiracy is involved, just vexing and frustrating she could disappear so thoroughly. Alas, it's not entirely uncommon and we've seen other similar cases.

I know her going off trail, potentially, and falling and subsequently being hidden by brush/rocks she fell into is the most likely scenario... just sad and strange.

 

[SideQuestHiker]

Has this puzzled anyone else? What are your thoughts on why we haven't heard from Hiker C?

Like you said, she has probably been advised not to talk for legal reasons. But I sure wish she would! Maybe LA Magazine can get some quotes from her.

 

[planet]

Like you said, she has probably been advised not to talk for legal reasons. But I sure wish she would! Maybe LA Magazine can get some quotes from her.

Oh! My post was removed. I'm not sure why.

Let me try again with a generic framing. Why do we think that people who are involved in a missing persons case might not make a public comment, when they're in a position to add additional information or clarify vague or confusing narratives?

 

[SideQuestHiker]

Oh! My post was removed. I'm not sure why.

Let me try again with a generic framing. Why do we think that people who are involved in a missing persons case might not make a public comment, when they're in a position to add additional information or clarify vague or confusing narratives?

My post with links to reddit got deleted. I guess I broke a forum rule. Sorry about that! If you were quoting that post, then your post may also have been deleted as a side-effect.

 

[planet]

Okay. That makes sense.

So any thoughts on why Hiker C hasn't made a public statement?

Where I start to weirdly and uncomfortably align with the classified research conspiracy folks is noticing the remarkable silence from Hiker C and the absolute "prohibition" on naming A and C. (See? I'm leading towards some kind of deliberate and conspiratorial intent to keep them nameless. That is not how I roll).

I am not sure there's much that could keep me quiet if I was Hiker C. I would probably be coming to the press to offer my perspective into what happened, not waiting for them to beat a path to my door. Not doing so would eat me alive. I couldn't live with myself if I felt that even a small piece of information might make a difference.

What am I missing?

 

[SideQuestHiker]

Okay. That makes sense.

So any thoughts on why Hiker C hasn't made a public statement?

Where I start to weirdly and uncomfortably align with the classified research conspiracy folks is noticing the remarkable silence from Hiker C and the absolute "prohibition" on naming A and C. (See? I'm leading towards some kind of deliberate and conspiratorial intent to keep them nameless. That is not how I roll).

I am not sure there's much that could keep me quiet if I was Hiker C. I would probably be coming to the press to offer my perspective into what happened, not waiting for them to beat a path to my door. Not doing so would eat me alive. I couldn't live with myself if I felt that even a small piece of information might make a difference.

What am I missing?

Perhaps Hiker C is good friends with Hiker A and doesn't want to say anything in case it makes him look bad. <shrug>

 

[Pyrite]

Okay. That makes sense.

So any thoughts on why Hiker C hasn't made a public statement?

Where I start to weirdly and uncomfortably align with the classified research conspiracy folks is noticing the remarkable silence from Hiker C and the absolute "prohibition" on naming A and C. (See? I'm leading towards some kind of deliberate and conspiratorial intent to keep them nameless. That is not how I roll).

I am not sure there's much that could keep me quiet if I was Hiker C. I would probably be coming to the press to offer my perspective into what happened, not waiting for them to beat a path to my door. Not doing so would eat me alive. I couldn't live with myself if I felt that even a small piece of information might make a difference.

What am I missing?

Perhaps hiker c reads Reddit and other social media sites and knows her statements will be dissected by internet trolls who will then say she must have something to do with it.