Quote:
He looked through the van’s windows and determined that it belonged to a solo hiker who would want to be back before dark. When she did not return by dark, the park launched a search.


I wish we had details on exactly what he saw that caused him to reach that conclusion. Clearly he knew what he was doing. I'm wondering if the "back before dark" part might have been something like a jacket that was left casually tossed somewhere near the driver's seat, indicating that the hiker had decided against preparing for cooler temperatures? Just a guess...