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A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

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Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#341

Post by fred_is_fred »

fernly wrote: post #255

Probably not helpful, but "Mostly Harmless" is also the title of Rob Rhinehart's personal blog[1]. Rhinehart's 2013 posts about his nutrition experiments under the "Mostly Harmless" title, led to the founding of Soylent.com and the modern meal replacement industry. So just possibly MH was a fan of Soylent, or of DIY Soylent. [1] https://www.robrhinehart.com/ Edit: on this notebook page[2] are the words Algae Pool and…

Remember that he didn't name himself. Mostly Harmless is a trail name - which other through hikers gave him - so I don't think this is related.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#342

Post by almog »

brudgers wrote: post #276
almog wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "was only able to hike 10 miles a day" Where is this quote from? It's not from the linked article. > "10 mi / day is absolutely abysmal for a normal thru hiker." To the best of my understanding, unless he flip-flopped, he was not a thruhiker as he started in NY. It is not clear either if he made his way south in a continuous footpath. Moreover, even for a thru-hiker, the 10 by 10 gold standard of hiking does not ap…

One of the photos shows him holding paper in a plastic bag. The headline mentions the Pinhoti Trail. It seeks to link the Florida Trail to the AT. It is far enough along to be a working route though there is still a lot of walking on paved roads. http://www.pinhotitrailalliance.org/

Very interesting! The ECT (Eastern Continental Trail) links Pinhoti Trail with Florida Trail (through some road walking in Alabama) and further north part of Benton MacKaye Trail in Georgia until Mt. Springer where it takes on the AT.

Given that he made it to Georgia on December 1st, and that the A.T runs through 76 miles of Georgia, if he made it to where he was found dead by foot along the ECT, the mileage breakdown from where he was last seen would be: 76 (Georgia A.T) + ~300 (port of BMT) + 335 (PNRT) + 220 (road walking in Alabama) ~1000 (FT until Big Cypress NP) = 1931 miles from December 1st 2017 until the day he died (in July 2018 I assume).

In total, we have at most 8 months (minus the days that have passed since his death), which are ~240 days. Most hikers will take a day off ("zero" as in zero miles) once a week or so, so that could make it 205 total hiking days. His average mileage in that case would be 1931/205 = 9.4 miles a day, which is very close to what his max mileage was reported to be!

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#343

Post by brudgers »

almog wrote: post #342
brudgers wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the photos shows him holding paper in a plastic bag. The headline mentions the Pinhoti Trail. It seeks to link the Florida Trail to the AT. It is far enough along to be a working route though there is still a lot of walking on paved roads. http://www.pinhotitrailalliance.org/

Very interesting! The ECT (Eastern Continental Trail) links Pinhoti Trail with Florida Trail (through some road walking in Alabama) and further north part of Benton MacKaye Trail in Georgia until Mt. Springer where it takes on the AT. Given that he made it to Georgia on December 1st, and that the A.T runs through 76 miles of Georgia, if he made it to where he was found dead by foot along the ECT, the mileage breakdow…

Finding places to sleep would have a massive effect on how far he traveled in a given day. Unlike the west, pitching a tent beside the road is less an option. Partly the weather, partly the density of undergrowth and surface water, and largely the cultural unacceptability. A lot of time each day would go to finding places that looked good enough to work and avoid interference.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#344

Post by geoelectric »

fred_is_fred wrote: post #341
fernly wrote: post #255

Probably not helpful, but "Mostly Harmless" is also the title of Rob Rhinehart's personal blog[1]. Rhinehart's 2013 posts about his nutrition experiments under the "Mostly Harmless" title, led to the founding of Soylent.com and the modern meal replacement industry. So just possibly MH was a fan of Soylent, or of DIY Soylent. [1] https://www.robrhinehart.com/ Edit: on this notebook page[2] are the words Algae Pool and…

Remember that he didn't name himself. Mostly Harmless is a trail name - which other through hikers gave him - so I don't think this is related.

Read an account somewhere that he got invited over to a fire if he didn't bite, or something like that, and replied that he was mostly harmless. It stuck from there.

My guess is his choice of phrasing was influenced by Adams, given he was reportedly an sf/f enthusiast, but it's a pretty standard sort of geeky small talk reply.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#345

Post by almog »

brudgers wrote: post #343
almog wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very interesting! The ECT (Eastern Continental Trail) links Pinhoti Trail with Florida Trail (through some road walking in Alabama) and further north part of Benton MacKaye Trail in Georgia until Mt. Springer where it takes on the AT. Given that he made it to Georgia on December 1st, and that the A.T runs through 76 miles of Georgia, if he made it to where he was found dead by foot along the ECT, the mileage breakdow…

Finding places to sleep would have a massive effect on how far he traveled in a given day. Unlike the west, pitching a tent beside the road is less an option. Partly the weather, partly the density of undergrowth and surface water, and largely the cultural unacceptability. A lot of time each day would go to finding places that looked good enough to work and avoid interference.

Right, you might have to pitch early or late to find a decent camping ground, but that would only apply the Alabama road walking part (which is 220 mile long and part of it goes through forests so it's even less). I still think that wouldn't change my rough calculation that could align with him continuing along the ECT.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#346

Post by brudgers »

almog wrote: post #345
brudgers wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finding places to sleep would have a massive effect on how far he traveled in a given day. Unlike the west, pitching a tent beside the road is less an option. Partly the weather, partly the density of undergrowth and surface water, and largely the cultural unacceptability. A lot of time each day would go to finding places that looked good enough to work and avoid interference.

Right, you might have to pitch early or late to find a decent camping ground, but that would only apply the Alabama road walking part (which is 220 mile long and part of it goes through forests so it's even less). I still think that wouldn't change my rough calculation that could align with him continuing along the ECT.

Walking along the road with a backpack is more than enough to stop a deputy sheriff pretty much every where in the south. Areas in proximity to the AT are exceptional not typical.

I am not disagreeing with your theory. Just thinking about what walking is like in the south and how it differs from other parts of the US based on nearly a lifetime living there and meaningfully traveling the west in recent years.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#347

Post by SaberTail »

breck wrote: post #146
nxthompson2 wrote: post #3

I'm the author of the piece. I think the best clues are that the mystery hiker told people he was from Louisiana, and that he worked in the tech industry in NY. I suspect someone here might recognize him. I'm reachable at nxthompson at protonmail.

$5,000 and 5 months? Why in the world is the DNA matching going so slow? My cousin mailed fifty bucks and some spit in an envelope on Monday and Wednesday I get an email from 23andMe saying "Hey! We think this is your cousin's spit!". And neither of us is missing!

A few things off the top of my head:

1. collecting a DNA sample from a corpse is more difficult than having someone spit in a tube and drop it in the mail. It takes tools and a specialist

2. they want to compare with lots of different databases. Most GEDMatch data comes from genotyping arrays, that look at ~500k variants on the genome. However, different companies use different sets of single-nucleotide variants. Meanwhile, law enforcement databases look at microsatellites, which can't be assayed easily with an array. Sequencing someone to be able to use all the different databases would be on the order of a thousand dollars

3. The genetic testing companies do things in bulk. Your cousin's spit was run though the various steps (like PCR) with 100s of other samples. Doing it for a single sample is going to be more expensive

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#348

Post by almog »

brudgers wrote: post #346
almog wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, you might have to pitch early or late to find a decent camping ground, but that would only apply the Alabama road walking part (which is 220 mile long and part of it goes through forests so it's even less). I still think that wouldn't change my rough calculation that could align with him continuing along the ECT.

Walking along the road with a backpack is more than enough to stop a deputy sheriff pretty much every where in the south. Areas in proximity to the AT are exceptional not typical. I am not disagreeing with your theory. Just thinking about what walking is like in the south and how it differs from other parts of the US based on nearly a lifetime living there and meaningfully traveling the west in recent years.

Got it now. I wonder if it's likely that a deputy sheriff would keep a record of such encounter, during which I assume, they might ask a hiker to provide identifying details.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#349

Post by brudgers »

almog wrote: post #348
brudgers wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walking along the road with a backpack is more than enough to stop a deputy sheriff pretty much every where in the south. Areas in proximity to the AT are exceptional not typical. I am not disagreeing with your theory. Just thinking about what walking is like in the south and how it differs from other parts of the US based on nearly a lifetime living there and meaningfully traveling the west in recent years.

Got it now. I wonder if it's likely that a deputy sheriff would keep a record of such encounter, during which I assume, they might ask a hiker to provide identifying details.

A hiker from Baton Rouge is less likely to be caught at unawares and more likely to talk through an encounter. Anyway the odds of someone making paperwork for themselves is pretty low in a chance encounter.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#350

Post by ravendawn »

withinboredom wrote: post #228
thomasqbrady wrote: post #5

The Screeps detail seems like something that could be fairly easily pursued... there can't have been that many players of that game to begin with, let alone those that would care so much about it that they would journal their thoughts about it. A quick check of the GitHub repo doesn't show he contributed code, but might he have opened an issue, contributed to docs? Might there be someone who was active in the communi…

I wish we had better images of the notebook. I noticed a few constants `*_ENERGY_TARGET` which might be searchable if I could make out the first part. It seems that if any code exists for this stuff, it might be those constants come from real code.

Links :Transcripts of his complete notebook- https://imgur.com/a/eTphrRF

Here’s a link to the transcript of the notes typed out

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