http://www.pe.com/localnews/hemet/st...28.2a202b.html
Search continues for missing hiker
LOST: John Donovan was walking the Pacific Crest Trail near Idyllwild when he disappeared.
11:05 PM PDT on Friday, May 27, 2005
By KENNY KLEIN / The Press-Enterprise
Rescuers plan to return to the San Jacinto wilderness today to search for a lost hiker they believe may be somewhere along the Pacific Crest Trail.
Fellow hikers last saw John Donovan, 60, of Virginia, near Saddle Junction, east of Idyllwild on May 3, said Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Terry Meadows.
The search effort will focus on the same area near Idyllwild even though rescuers searched some of the trails last week butfound no sign of Donovan.
"We are learning more day-by-day as hikers pass along information to us," Gwenda Yates, spokeswoman for the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit, said Friday.
Yates said about 30 rescue unit volunteers will be joined by other rescuers from San Diego, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties today.
The base camp at Humber Park will operate through Sunday, Yates said.
Donovan began hiking the Pacific Crest Trail on April 22 with hundreds of other hikers on the California-Mexican border north of Baja, Mexico, Meadows said.
Donovan had hiked about 178 miles on the trail with a plan to hike 1,800 miles and finish in Oregon, Meadows said. He also planned to meet cousins in Wrightwood, Meadows said.
Donovan was expected to pick up supply packages at the Cabazon Post Office several days after he was last seen, but never arrived.
Donovan did pick up supplies at the Anza Post Office on May 2, Meadows said.
Hikers use the post offices to pick up supplies they have pre-mailed, and others sent by family and friends, Meadows said.
The Pacific Crest Trail spans 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada and through three western states: California, Oregon and Washington.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Hemet Sheriff's Station at (951) 791-3400.