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Thread: Deadly hike----Haz-Mat the cause?

  1. #41
    Land-Scapegrace Heroique's Avatar
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    Re: Deadly hike----Haz-Mat the cause?

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    ^ Here's a rough map of their hike.

    No mileage scale, but I think Devil’s Gulch is about 1.5 miles from their car (?).

    Authorities found the man in a sitting position, with the baby and dog right next to him. His wife was several steps away, up a hill.

    On the day of their hike, Sunday, temperatures reached about 105-110 degrees F in the area, so it’s natural to suspect that heat may have contributed to their deaths. Of course, we don’t know what time they hiked, or when their deaths occurred – it might have been in the cool of the morning, even in the cool of the evening.

    Adding some doubt to the heat theory: authorities found plenty of water in their hydration packs, suggesting dehydration or overheating was not really a problem. I'm sure they're analyzing the quality of that water.

    A mystery without any good clues. Yet.

  2. #42
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Deadly hike----Haz-Mat the cause?

    All the trails and backroads in the immediate vicinity have been officially closed until they figure this out.

  3. #43

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    Re: Deadly hike----Haz-Mat the cause?


  4. #44
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Deadly hike----Haz-Mat the cause?

    Well, we now know that they still had ample water in their bottles when found, and to think they ate toxic algae or drank gucky water is pretty far fetched. No other death are known from that kind of thing locally. So if there were poisoned, some other source should be looked at, completely outside the trail scenario. I wonder if the plastic of the water bottles has itself been tested, or their home searched. It might take quite awhile to figure out.

    People unfamiliar with the area should also recognize that Mariposa County, although large in area (mostly mountainous), has a comparatively tiny county seat, with not a lot of police or forensic infrastructure. There might be only two gas stations in the entire city - with one being a mere convenience mart. A lot of tour buses headed to Yosemite pass through. But unless something has recently changed, there isn't a single stop light in the entire town. No shopping centers or big box stores; not even a grocery supermarket (and I hope it stays that way). Driving really slow, you can get through the entire city in about five minutes. In other words, much of the investigation will necessarily be farmed out elsewhere, and they'll have to wait for the results.

  5. #45

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    Re: Deadly hike----Haz-Mat the cause?

    Rotting algae is known to give off potentially hazardous levels of H2S - but it would need quite an extraordinary set of coincidences for a sufficient concentration to have gathered in a confined area to deliver the sort of knock-down effect described (800-1000ppm I recall) and then dissipate fairly quickly thereafter.

  6. #46

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    Re: Deadly hike----Haz-Mat the cause?

    I think it will be found they drank bad water with blue-green algae toxins. It was 103-109 deg that day, no shade, southern facing slope. While exposure to that could have hurt or killed a person, it wouldn't have killed all 3 persons and their dog, all within a few feet of each other (so at about the same time). I bet they had a water filter, filtered some water out of a contaminated algae bloom source, and started drinking it on the hike and gave the dog some. Water filters won't remove the toxins.

  7. #47
    Lachlan 717
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    Re: Deadly hike----Haz-Mat the cause?

    Maybe they didn’t listen and took the brown acid?
    Lachlan.

    You miss 100% of the shots you never take. -- Wayne Gretzky

  8. #48
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Deadly hike----Haz-Mat the cause?

    Oh c'mon, Garrett. Were they really that dumb? They turn out to have been locals who used that same trail frequently, so knew how to plan for the outing, and still had plenty of water left in their containers when found, and apparently not a filter along. It's not that long a hike, and not particularly strenuous except for the heat issue.

    But since you brought algae up... Blue sky came out today, and the smoke cleared out just long enough to give me an afternoon camera walk around the lake uphill. In front of every single trail is a big prominent signboard warning about toxic algae, and not to let you dog swim in the lake, and if fishing, be sure to carefully remove toxic guts and rinse off the fillet before cooking it. Well, apparently the otters don't bother to read, cause they pop their heads in all out of that shoreline algae every couple of minutes or so, chomping down little trout guts n' all. Yet they're conspicuously vigorous and healthy. And if you read further down the sign it states, If you feel sick in a few days or a week, call a doctor; if your dog seems ill, call a vet. Hardly a James Bond movie kind of toxin, where people instantly keel over.

    And so far there's no evidence that ANYONE in the actual incident area has gotten seriously sick from algae toxin, just rumors that it is what MIGHT have caused a few people in the area to feel ill. Giardia or E. coli - well, that would be a risk drinking stream water in such a popular area, but wouldn't kick in that fast either.

  9. #49
    Foamer
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    Re: Deadly hike----Haz-Mat the cause?

    My guess is it was a gas of some sort. It dropped 3 people and an animal in their tracks simultaneously with no visible signs. Few things can do that. Gases like CO and CO2 have been known to suddenly and silently kill before. The question in my mind is what the source was. There was a case in Africa where a large release of CO2 killed dozens in a village a decade or so ago.


    Kent in SD
    In contento ed allegria
    Notte e di vogliam passar!

  10. #50

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    Re: Deadly hike----Haz-Mat the cause?

    Smug incredulity aside, a problem with human nature is we don't believe some risks are real, or apply to us. Especially when young, or semi-experienced.

    I still think it will be cyanobacteria from blue-green algae. Unless the area is volcanic, when there could have been a gas release.

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