Trail Grows Faint in Search for Boy Scout : Wilderness: Efforts to find the 12-year-old will continue into next week, deputies say. Water and resources in area are considered adequate for survival.

Tracks have grown faint in treacherous rock chutes and footprints have led nowhere.

It has been more than a week since 12-year-old Jared Negrete disappeared in the San Bernardino Mountains. But hopes, though growing dimmer, are still alive among the searchers picking through the rocky wilderness in search of the El Monte Boy Scout.

The effort pressed ahead Friday, with 150 volunteers moving slowly through a 45-square-mile target area around the 11,500-foot San Gorgonio Mountain.

“There’s plenty of water up there,” said San Bernardino County firefighter Bill Garcia, who has spent 14 to 18 hours a day on the search since Monday. “There are even fish in some of the creeks. With a little ingenuity, there are enough resources to live off of. If he keeps his wits, he should be able to get by.”

San Bernardino Sheriff’s Deputy Debra Dorrough said that the search effort will be carried on through the weekend and into next week.

But some involved in the rescue effort conceded privately that the odds of finding the youth grow worse with each passing day.

Jared’s mother, Linda Negrete, awaiting word at her El Monte home, expressed faith that the boy was still alive.

“There are times when I ask God, ‘Should we still be hoping?’ ” she said Friday. “I have thought of all the things that might have happened, but I have faith in God and in Jared. I know he is alive.”

Friends at the Negrete home said that he had once read a book about two teen-agers lost in the mountains. He and classmates talked about how they might themselves survive in similar circumstances, said Angelique Molloy, 12, a classmate.

But other family members, upset about the circumstances of Jared’s disappearance, fretted about the physical capabilities of Jared, who is described as 5-foot-2, 150 pounds.

“Jared’s idea of a good workout,” said Jared’s 20-year-old cousin, Anthony Negrete, “was to shoot 10 lay-ups at the basket in the back yard, then to go inside for some Doritos and punch.”

Jared and five other Boy Scouts were taken by their Scoutmaster, Dennis Knight, on an overnight hike, beginning on July 18. Knight told authorities that the group spent that night at Dry Lake, north of the San Gorgonio Summit, then headed up the mountain the next morning.

They left their packs at a new base camp, about a mile from the lake, and hiked about five miles along the Sky High Trail, most of it at 10,000 feet or higher. Sometime before they reached the summit, Jared, who had been dawdling, lost contact with the group.

Jared’s uncle, Ramon Negrete, said one hiker’s parent told him Jared was left behind in a race. “Somebody said, ‘Let’s race to the top,’ ” said Ramon Negrete, awaiting word at the rescue operations center about 22 miles northwest of Redlands. “He didn’t wander off; they left him behind.”

Boy Scouts of America officials concede that safety procedures may have been violated on the overnight hiking excursion.

A spokesman at the Scouts’ national headquarters in Irving, Tex., said Knight, Scoutmaster of El Monte’s Troop 538, apparently had failed to observe the “two-deep leadership” rule, requiring him to bring another adult to help supervise the hike.

Knight also failed to file a description of the planned hike with the local Boy Scout Council and to observe a standard outdoorsman’s rule that “the slowest hiker sets the pace,” said Scout spokesman Blake Lewis.

Knight could not be reached for comment. Jared’s parents, who belong to the same Mormon church as Knight, continued to express support for him.

“Maybe (Jared) stopped to tie a shoelace or something happened, and he was just separated,” said Linda Negrete. “We aren’t pointing any fingers at this point. We just want for him to be back.”

Searchers described the terrain where Jared disappeared as one of loose rocks, slippery slopes and, along the ravines and lower slopes, thick vegetation.

“If you stay on the trail, there’s no problem,” said tracker Francis Lorson, a member of the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Mounted Posse. “But the minute you get off, you can get swept down in a rockslide.”

Tracks initially indicated that Jared had been moving down the side of the mountain, possibly in a panic reaction. “Things can get pretty spooky up there,” said Garcia.

Friday, however, searchers said they had lost the boy’s trail.

The number of searchers, more than 90% of them volunteers, has continued to increase through the week, said Senior Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Lenew.

Searchers kept their spirits up by recalling earlier searches that had ended successfully. For example, a 10-year-old mentally retarded boy survived unharmed in a nearby area for five days.

“Any time you find any kind of a little clue, your hope gets rejuvenated,” Garcia said. He added that there had been no “indicators” of Jared’s death

Search-and-rescue team leaders say that there are no rules as to when to give up a search. “You just keep going until you’ve searched all the areas where he could be,” said Arnold Gaffrey of the Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team. “As long as it doesn’t involve a great risk to the searchers, you continue.”

Lenew said that the leaders of the search effort had compiled a psychological profile of Jared, leading them to be optimistic. “He’s no quitter, and he’s got a good heart,” Lenew said. “He’s got spirit.”

Times staff writer Anna Cearley contributed to this story.