The Missing

Okay, back again for hopefully what will be more normal updates.  So, recently two new books by David Paulides has caused quite a stir.  They are collectively titled "Missing 411" and detail unexplained disappearances in National Parks and Forests.  So, what is odd about this?  I asked myself the same question.  A lot can happen in the wilderness.  The books' website includes two examples of the cases included to which I'm going to try to go over the possibilities.  Here is the site itself with the example cases:

http://www.canammissing.com/case_spotlight.html

The first concerns a man who disappeared in Glacier Bay National Park.  His name was Robert O'Keefe and he was not a novice to the area, nor an inexperienced hiker.  His tent was pitched on Wolf Point fairly close to the water as rangers found the tide line close to the tent when they first started to investigate.  Most of Mr. O'Keefe's possessions were still present at the campsite, there were no signs of a struggle, nothing to give any indication that he would not be returning within the next few hours from a day hike.  Obviously, this was not the case.  Even as disturbing as this sounds, there were no tracks, animal or otherwise.  Dogs could not pick up a scent whatsoever.  What was perhaps the strangest thing of all, is that about 100 yards away from the campsite Mr. O'Keefe's boots were found, but nothing else.

So, let's step through this...  inclement weather was not the cause, nor an animal attack.  Remember, undisturbed campsite, no tracks.  He didn't intend to be gone long, as you'll see if you read the entire first case, he didn't pack anything for a long haul.  Drowning definitely does not seem likely as he was above the tide line and was not known to be suicidal.  By the same token, the body should have washed up.  Where would he have gone without boots?  As silly as it may sound to some, these would have been a necessity.  Finally, it's much harder to shake a dog with your scent than the movies would have you believe.  So, the fact that the dogs could not find anything, not even decomposition makes this even stranger.

The next case is similar, but occurs at Mt. Rainier, in Washington.  The man was Chet Hanson, 27 years old who was an avid hiker and photographer.  He was on his way to a lake he had been to before to take photographs and simply disappeared.  Some other hikers saw him, but didn't really speak to him.  He passed by where they were having lunch on a lookout, stayed for a bit, then walked back down the trail.  He was sweating a bit, but nothing really seemed odd.  So, obviously from this, he didn't get lost, and why would he?  This was an area he was very familiar with.  Even though he had exerted himself, (his camera setup weighed 35 pounds), he wasn't suffering from exhaustion, as he was not dropping items as he went.  Just like before, dogs could not find any scent at all.  Seems odd that a trained dog could find no trace of a man who was sweating heavily doesn't it?

From here, Paulides made a map of disappearances and noticed a pattern of sorts.

Most of the disappearances tend to center around certain areas.  The reason for this I can't fathom, and neither can he.  It has been noticed that many of these areas are the same ones in which bigfoot sightings typically occur, but, once again, no tracks, no scent.  Nothing that would signify a bigfoot had been around from what we have seen of previous sightings.  So, what's the explanation?  Maybe someone out there can tell all of us because frankly, I'm stumped.

For more informaton, here is the website for the books, which also includes links to purchase them.  I have not yet done so, but intend to as soon as I can.

http://www.canammissing.com/page/page/8396197.htm

Finally, here is a news video which also gives a bit more info:
8 News NOW

So, what are your opinions?