Footprints Lift Hopes of Crews Seeking Scout : Rescue: Trackers searching for 12-year-old boy lost in the mountains since Friday say weather is on their side.

Search and rescue teams combing the San Bernardino Mountains for a missing El Monte Boy Scout were buoyed Wednesday by continued sightings of sneaker tracks near the Sky High Trail.

The tracks were about three miles from where Jared Negrete, 12, was last seen Friday.

Volunteers focused on an area of thick chaparral in the San Bernardino National Forest southeast of the 11,500-foot San Gorgonio Summit. “It’s very slow going up there,” said Bill Lenew, senior deputy of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

He said the lead tracker was following a trail through terrain so thick with vegetation that at times he was only able to cover as little as 150 feet per hour.

The tracks, which included some that matched sneakers the boy had been wearing, were the second set reported near a point on the trail known as “The Switchback.”

Trackers, including 27 Marines and two dogs from the El Toro Marine Base, were slowed by the thickness of the vegetation and the instability of the rocky terrain.

By late Wednesday, 130 volunteers were engaged in the search. Some were flown in by sheriff’s helicopters and others worked the edges of a 20-mile target area on horseback.

A group of 12 volunteers from the Orange County Search and Rescue Team was turned away, Lenew said, because “they lacked certification from the state Office of Emergency Services. Gary Stockdale, the team’s leader, said they were a qualified search and rescue team, but the Orange County Sheriff’s Department had blocked their certification.

“The men have given up their jobs today to pitch in,” Stockdale said. “Sure, their feelings are hurt.”

Despite the length of the search, leaders of the effort expressed optimism. “We feel positive,” Deputy Debra Dorrough said. “The weather’s been on our side. There’s plenty of water up there.”

Jared, who was originally reported to be 13, had been on his first overnight hike when he reportedly fell behind his fellow Scouts and was last seen struggling to keep up. Troop leader Dennis Knight, an experienced backpacker, told Boy Scout officials that he decided to pick up Jared on the way down from the summit rather than go back for him.

Mike Bassett, director of support services for 387 troops in the Boy Scouts’ San Gabriel Valley Council, said Jared was at least a Second Class Scout.

“He’s had basic map and compass training,” Bassett said, adding that he did not know if Jared had a map and compass with him. “He has basic skills.”

As searchers combed through the forest, Jared’s parents, Philip and Linda Negrete, awaited word in their El Monte home. Tris Morris, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which the Negretes attend, said the family felt no animosity toward Knight. “They feel nothing but love and respect for Dennis,” Morris said. “They’ve been over to his house. No one blames him.”