Missing Hiker’s Family Hopes for a Miracle

Walter Reinhard walked into the Yosemite woods three weeks ago and hasn’t been seen since. Not a trace.

Park rangers found his car parked benignly at the White Wolf trail head west of Tuolumne Meadows. They searched long and hard, with helicopters and bloodhounds, boats and a big crew of park employees.

Not a sign has turned up of the 66-year-old retired Marine from Oro, Ariz.

Reinhard’s sons long ago joined the hunt, and haven’t given up. They know that with each passing day the possibility their father might be found alive slips further off the charts.

Even so, they’re pressing ahead, hoping that somehow he found shelter from the three storms that have poured rain, hail and snow on the park in recent weeks, that somehow he found food and water.

“We know it’s slight; we know we’re maybe grasping at straws, but we’re hoping,” said Kevin Reinhard, 32, who lives in Rochester, N.Y. “It’s not probable, but it’s possible that he is alive. It would be a miracle, but that’s what we’re hoping for.”

Park officials have no reason to suspect foul play, said Deb Schweizer, a park ranger. Instead, they figure Reinhard--a veteran hiker--decided to venture alone into the woods and something went wrong.

They hope some visitor might have run across Reinhard the day he became missing, believed to be around Sept. 19. Since then, there’s been no activity on his credit cards or any other sign of him.

Reinhard is described as 5 feet 8, 145 pounds, with blue eyes, graying brown hair and clean-shaven at the time of his departure. He is balding and has a fair complexion.

Kevin Reinhard, who came west nearly two weeks ago and has searched every day since along with his brother, 30-year-old Walter, said his father was in terrific physical shape.

He had no medical problems and didn’t take any medications. He worked out every day, took hikes of up to 24 miles twice a week. If he wasn’t hiking, he was in the gym three hours a day.

He was active in the hiking club at the retirement community where he lived near Tucson. But mostly Reinhard hiked alone. No one else could keep up with the old Marine, his son said.

In the Marine Corps, his father was a member of the elite Force Reconnaissance squad, and spent two combat tours in Vietnam.

Reinhard was last seen wearing a gray felt alpine hat with a narrow brim and leather hiking boots. He usually carries a large fanny pack when he hikes.

But his Swiss army knife was left in the car, Reinhard’s son said. Almost every night has been below freezing.

The son said Reinhard’s credit card was last used Sept. 19 to fill up at a gas station about 15 miles from the trail head where his car was found.

A park employee who was closing down a lodge in the White Wolf area is believed to be the last person to have seen him, about 9 a.m., Kevin Reinhard said. He remembered a fellow with a German alpine hat asking directions that morning to a lake a few miles up the trail.

The son suspects that his father, who was expected to depart the park that day, might have decided to stay longer once he hit the trail. He might have opted for a longer hike, perhaps to distant Smith Peak, which affords a stunning view of the Tuolumne River gorge.

The active search was called off last week. Park employees and volunteers searched all the trails within a 150-mile radius of the White Wolf trail head. They have calculated that there’s a 97% probability that he’s nowhere they’ve looked so far.

“It is a wilderness area, it’s extremely rugged, and there are some cliffs that couldn’t be searched for safety reasons,” Schweizer said. “We’re appealing to anyone who might have bumped into him to let us know. Where was he headed? What we’re needing right now are some leads.”

The sons and a large number of park employees--volunteering their time--have continued the hunt. Today, they’ll be joined by a team of at least 28 Marines from the Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, Calif., Kevin Reinhard said.

“We’ll stay here until they leave,” he said. “Hopefully, by then we’ll have some resolution to this.”

Anyone who may have information about Walter Reinhard, or anyone who was in the White Wolf area on Sept. 19, is asked to call the Yosemite National Park communications center at (209) 379-1992.