Going in the wrong directionBy Denny Boyles / The Fresno Bee
09/27/07
It's called the "cascade effect" -- a catchy name for the way one
mistake leads to another, and a quick explanation for how a hiker who
takes one step off an established trail is one step closer to trouble.
Park
rangers and search and rescue experts say that hundreds of hikers take
that one wrong step each year. The key, they say, is where their next
step takes them -- back toward the trail or further down a perilous
path.
Ron Hoggard of Corcoran became lost two weeks ago after
leaving the trail for only a few minutes. When he tried to find the
path again, he went the wrong way and spent the next three nights with
no food and little water, trying to find help.
Hoggard, 58, had never heard of the cascade effect, but said after he was found that he believes it can happen to anyone.
He also believes he was lucky.
In
the case of Ottorrina "Terrina" Bonaventura, the cascade effect led a
hiker with decades of experience down a wrong trail, and what should
have been a short walk with friends turned deadly.
Bonaventura,
80, was on a day hike July 30 when she apparently headed the wrong way
down a trail. Another hiker spoke to her later in the day, several
miles from her destination, but she did not say she was lost or ask for
help.
Her body was found two weeks later, miles from her campsite.
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