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James Kim's Tragic Map Lesson

Where: Bear Camp Road [map], Grants Pass, OR, United States, 97526
December 7, 2006 at 8:51 AM | by | Comments (6)


James Kim's heart wrenching lost-in-the-Oregon-wilderness story came to a tragic end yesterday.

The recovery of Kim's body ended an 11-day ordeal for his young family, who through amazing resourcefulness managed to survive for over a week after getting lost Nov. 25 on a mountain pass on their way home to San Francisco after spending Thanksgiving in Seattle.

The Grants Pass Swift Water Rescue Team who followed Kim's trail and discovered his body, also had an incredibly tough time searching the treacherous Oregon terrain.

So how did a the Kim family end up here?

The family's ordeal began when they missed a Highway 42 exit from Interstate 5. They had eaten dinner in Roseburg, Ore., and were trying to make it over the mountains to the coastal town of Gold Beach where they planned to stay the night, Kati Kim told authorities after her rescue. Looking at an Oregon map, they decided to take Bear Camp Road out of Grants Pass instead. The road is primarily used in the summer by rafters on the Rogue River. The route isn't plowed in the winter.

While this sounds impossible, go ahead and check out MapQuest's directions from Grants Pass to Gold Beach. Yup, they include Bear Camp Road. Furthermore, take a look at Bear Camp Road on Google Maps (the road connects Grants Pass to Gold Beach)--it looks completely ordinary. Furthermore, drill down on the Google map satellite view, you can see how thick and vast the Cascade forest is directly off of Bear Camp Road.

When traveling, especially in winter storm areas, always make sure to check with locals, consult maps, and constantly check the weather reports. Needless to say, hindsight is always 20/20.

Heartfelt sympathies are with James' family, friends, and coworkers.

Related Stories:
· James Kim's body found after massive search [Mercury News]
· Grants Pass Info [Official Site]

Comments (6)

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Confused

I'm confused even looking at the fancy google map...

What the heck is that yellow "line" with the "NF-23" "BLM24-8-36" tags ???? road ? waterway ?

What exactly is the name of this yellow "line" ???

matelot on December 7, 2006 at 10:40 AM #Permalink

What would have helped

First, NF-23 standed for "National Forest" and is the road number. The NF designation is generally synomous with "likely to be closed in winter." Having said that, seasonally closed roads should be gated (and many are).

I am wondering whether the Kims didn't make a wrong turn off 23 someplace. Maybe 23 is open but their wrong turn was a gravel/dirt surface.

If the Kim family had a ham radio license and a $100 walkie-talkie, they'd almost certainly have been rescued next day. Especially if they had a $100 GPS with them as well. (You can now get a no-code ham license in a single day).

It will be interesting to reconstruct, to the extent possible, Mr. Kim's cross-country trek. It doesn't take 20/20 hindsight to suggest that lost/stuck people should remain with their vehicle and take steps to make themselves easier to find -- as Mrs. Kim did.

At the same time, the search for the family started a little late, since they weren't known to be missing until Tuesday and then the search began with the obvious places first.

AskMrCynic on December 7, 2006 at 12:22 PM #Permalink

Re: Confused

"BLM" roads are managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.  "NF" roads are managed by the U.S. Forest Service.  Most of them are unpaved, with small, cryptic signage that's easy to miss, especially at night and during inclement weather.  They're generally OK to use during good weather, but one shouldn't venture onto them unless one has BLM and Forest Service maps in one's possession, and preferably U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) topographic maps as well.

The yellow line on the Google map is the road, overlaid on the satellite image, if you're viewing the map in "hybrid view".

Anonymous User on December 7, 2006 at 12:30 PM #Permalink
Parent

Re: What would have helped

A ham license probably wouldn't have helped.  An FRS/GMRS radio wouldn't have helped.  As you may from news reports, the Kim family's cellular mobile phone didn't help much, except to give a general region in which to start the search.  Even OnStar with embedded GPS probably wouldn't have helped.  MrCynic, you write as if you're unfamiliar with the kind of country in which the Kims found themselves.  In forested, mountainous terrain, you'd be lucky to get a radio signal to go a mile, not much good when you're 20 miles from habitation, and possibly hundreds of miles from someone who just might be listening to your transmission.  To summon help, about the only thing that would have helped would have been an aircraft band portable radio, or a 406 MHz Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) or Personal Locator Beacon (PLB), used by aviators and boaters.  These beacons are monitored by the COSPAS/SARSAT satellite network and could have summoned help in less than 24 hours, averting a tragedy had the Kims been carrying one.  
Anonymous User on December 7, 2006 at 1:03 PM #Permalink
Parent

He did...

take a wrong turn of 23, onto some logging road.  They only made it a little ways down the logging road before getting stuck.

If you zoom in and out on the Google map you can see how dense the forest is in that area--thus the struggle rescue workers had in locating the family.

markj on December 7, 2006 at 2:09 PM #Permalink
Parent

Yeah, took a wrong turn...


This story:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/07/PILOT.TMP

sez that they took a wrong fork off from Band Camp Road , ended up on a logging road that was actually much wider than the correct fork (hence the confusion).  The logging road dead ends 15 miles in and that's where they got stuck.   Sez also that there is a gate over the logging  road, but it wasn't closed.

jasonzzz on December 7, 2006 at 6:30 PM #Permalink
Parent

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