I grew up fairly close to this area (and still live fairly close). I also think it's kind of a bizarre story. At worst, he should have just had a miserable four days without a shower.

I will say that Friday was rather hot: 95 or 96 and just so humid you dripped (a month from now, we'll be longing for the "nice" days like that). My first thoughts were that he was from somewhere where he just wasn't used to the heat. However, he's done a tour in Iraq (VERY hot, BUT dry) and is from Georgia.

The water thing is also bizarre. We've had one of the wettest springs I can ever remember here. Water, even in the fractured limestone of the hill country, is rather easy to find right now. I seriously doubt he drank "bad" water and succumbed so quickly. First, as I've already alluded to, there's very little stagnant water with all the rain we've had. Second, stomach bugs take a few days to really kick in.

About the cell phone. He likely just didn't have any signal. There's a lot of dead spots around this area (especially with Nextel, uggghh). That part doesn't really stand out.

The last thing that makes it odd is that he was found in very thick brush. Apparantly, thick enough that you almost have to crawl in. That's why they had such a tough time finding him. Crawling off into the thick brush, when you know searchers will soon be looking, is antithetical to everything that's taught about survival.

Not trying to dump on the guy, but the facts right now show that he made the wrong decision at EVERY juncture of his short adventure.