"...in Portland. The plan the next day was to go to Gold Beach..."

Given that information, and assuming that their plan was to continue south on I-5 from Portland, I feel that once they passed State Hwy 42 to the west at Green, Oregon, and then failed to take State Hwy 199 SW from Grants Pass, they were pretty much doomed. From Microsoft Streets and Trips, and my admittedly limited knowledge of that area (I have been from Grants Pass to Gold Beach, via Agness, once), there is nothing but USFS and BML roads between I-5 and Hwy 101 in that area, and those type roads are rarely, if ever, paved or kept open in the winter. Add to that the fact that they had called the motel that was their intended destination at 5:45 p.m. from Salem, "more than 200 miles to the north," means that they started out on those snowcovered dirt roads in the dark. Not good.

I find it interesting that while Streets and Trips shows all of the roads between I-5 and 101 in that area as USFS and BLM roads, my Rand McNally '07 Travel Guide shows several of those east-west roads, including what looks to be Bear Camp Road, as being an "other road," as opposed to their lowest category, "unpaved road." I do not know how they classify roads, and what an "other" road would be, but the implication is that it would be something better than an "unpaved" road. Even if you have a map and use it, you can receive bumb info.

I also find it intersting, and disturbing, that the USFS states that the lock had been cut off by vandals in Nov. If they knew that, why did they not replace the lock? A $10 lock (or probably a little more for a high quality, keyed alike, lock) could have prevented this entire incident, and saved a life...