“I have a friend whose son went hiking alone there after graduating high school. ... He never found his body.”
Me, too. In the early ‘70s, in Waimea Canyon. Never found his body, either. Most likely stumbled on to pakalolo cash crop.
I hiked alone in Yosemite once. I briefly left the trail to relieve myself and suddenly I was looking down a sheer cliff face. One more step and would have been gone. I never hiked alone again and I always made sure I knew I was near a cliff.
Ever been to Waimea Canyon? Not really anyplace to grow pot.. Boars and brimble so thick you could get stuck just a few feet in and never get out. Or you could just fall off one of the hundreds of shear cliffs.