The area is a cove...one way in and one way out surrounded on three sides by relatively high mountains. The campsite site approx 1.2-1.5 miles from the main road and you get there by a fire road. The fire road extends from the bottom of the park up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.
All the streams in the cove flow to one main creek on which the boys were camping.
I am having a hard time understanding the "lost" thing because the cove is not that wide and the road bisects it. One would be hard pressed to miss one of these features if you trying to be found.
I will be real interested to hear the story unfold. There is a weirdness about it.
But I am glad he was found alive.
I'm wondering if this 12 year old Boy Scout is mildly autistic ... ADD, which is way over used in order to explain away perfectly normal boyhood behavior isn't in play here, at least in my estimation. This kid was avoiding his rescuers ... no question.
Most people don't make it far from where they get lost. I've seen grown men hunting who had trouble in areas finding their way back to their car and this was in far more accessible areas. The tendency when lost for some reason is to wander aimlessly in a limited general area within a few miles like he did. Maybe due to the uncertainty the person walks one direction a while then another?
the story will be interesting.
Is it just possible that with all the attention the Shawn Hornebeck kid and the other boy got, that myabe this boy wanted to be on TV also and get attention.
So far from the reports he sure seemed, calm and not too messed up or terrified for being out there that long alone.
I agree with you. Serious weirdness. I heard his dad on the radio saying something about his having hitchhiked before, and having to talk to him about it.