OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Volunteers turned out in high numbers to search for a missing hiker in a five-day effort that included more than 25 people and search dogs in Olympic National Park.
Port Angeles resident James Thomas Griffin, 60, was last seen by hikers at about 4 p.m. Dec. 22 at the Olympic Hot Springs but disappeared on his way back to the trailhead, according to park officials.
Community search and rescue team members assisted in the effort in rain and cold weather in the wilderness area.
“We had a lot of volunteers,” said U.S. Park Ranger Sanny Lustig, who led the search for Griffin.
The high number of volunteers meant fewer park staff members had to be called in for the search, reducing the cost of the search, Lustig said.
The actual cost of the search was not yet known and would be established once the number of staff hours spent on the search is known, she said.
Friends and family members were part of the search, she said, and were in close contact with the park when the decision was made to suspend the search Sunday evening.
No search activities were conducted Monday, but Jacilee Wray, acting park spokeswoman, said the park will continue fielding tips in hopes of finding Griffin.
Anyone who may have seen Griffin at the hot springs or on the trail Dec. 22 is asked to phone the park at 360-565-3115.
Several items belonging to Griffin were found during the extensive search of the 2.5-mile area between the Olympic Hot Springs and the trailhead, but searchers failed to find evidence of what happened to the experienced hiker Dec. 22.
“This one is really a puzzler,” she said.
Friends who were supposed to meet Griffin for a Christmas Eve dinner reported him missing Dec. 24 when he didn’t arrive and could not be located at his home.
Park officials were told that Griffin often hiked the 2.5 mile trail to the hot springs and knew the trail well but made slow progress due to an earlier leg injury.
The search for Griffin began Dec. 24 and continued each day through Sunday.
The effort included more than 20 trained search and rescue team members, search dogs and a group of Griffin’s friends.
Wray said the park could not accept individual volunteers who want to help.
Search volunteers need to be registered with an organized group that has insurance or be established volunteers at the park, she said.
Searchers found Griffin’s backpack and other belongings Thursday, about 50 feet from the trail, a half-mile from the trailhead where Griffin’s blue Subaru Forester was parked.
Over Saturday and Sunday, searchers set up a 700-foot radius search around the site of the backpack and climbed down toward Cougar Creek and Boulder Creek, two steep drainages nearby.
The slope near Boulder Creek ends in a cliff dropping into the creek itself, which park officials said cannot be searched because the terrain is too dangerous and the water is too high.
According to information provided to the park, Griffin had no medical issues except for the previously injured leg and was in good spirits.
In the past week, temperatures in the area have fallen into the low 30s or mid 20s at night with nearly an inch of rainfall.
Griffin was not prepared for an overnight stay, but was well-provisioned for his day hike, park officials have said.
Given that hikers last saw Griffin at the hot springs at 4 p.m., park officials determined he would have been walking back down the trail after dark.
Sunset was at 4:23 p.m. on Dec. 22.
Items from Griffin’s backpack were found set up around two logs.
A towel was draped over the backpack near one log, and a few feet away, a can of soda, a coffee cup and a rehydrated bag of freeze-dried food were set up on another log, she said.
________
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.