Day 53 and my son goes dark - Part 1 of 2

It was late at night, I had gotten out of bed to post three blog entries I received via email from my Son.  Adam has been on the PCT trail for 53 days and, as we agreed, he would email me content for me to post on his blog.

Up until he got in to the Sierra Mountains, I would receive daily emails to be posted.  However, cell phone in the Sierra is not good and, as expected, there would be days when I would not receive any email update. But, he still spotted every evening, so I could assume he was safe and making progress - that I would get updates when he got to a WiFi cell phone coverage area.

So I posted his day 53 update late.  This post was unusual. He ended it with the suspense of a popular mystery writer. He wrote:

I went back to bed wondering about Kate.  I expected to get an update the next day and was on pins and needles all day.

Then he went dark.

The next day there was no email update. That is not unexpected since he was in the Sierra.

But, there was also no spot that night.  Based on past behavior, he didn't spot when he got into a town or resupply facility.  So, not getting a spot was not unexpected since he was only a day's hike from his next resupply.

But, normally in a resupply facility, he has WiFi or cell coverage  So, the combination of no spot, no email was unusual. 

That combined with a missing friend hiker was really worrisome.

I worry all day.

My mind made up all sort of possible scenarios, none of which were good.

The next day he was still dark. No word, no spot, no email. I worried all that day as well.  The scenarios got worst.

On the third day of not hearing anything from him, I called his wife to see if she got word from him.   She hadn't so we talked about what could be going on. To keep her from worrying too much, I made up a few good scenarios, but felt they were not too feasible.

I'm going to leave this now.... Got to get busy doing other things.  I'll finish this later.