Rounder showed interest at the Tower Junction trail head, pulled southeast along the trail for approximately 200 yd, and then circled twice and sat down, which Chester Pike described as the dog losing the scent with no discernable explanation.
Blue showed interest in a different direction entirely, north toward the road, which produced nothing after 300 yd of eager tracking.
On the afternoon of August 19th, 5 days into the search, a member of the Gallatin County team found an object approximately 1.2 miles south of Tower Junction in a small clearing between two lodgepole groupings where a flat outcrop of riolyte formed a natural rest stop shelf above the trail.Browse Reference
The object was a dried apricot, a single dried apricot sitting on the flat shelf of rock as if placed there deliberately rather than dropped accidentally.
Its dried skin wrinkled and its color faded from orange to a dull amber in the sun.
