He had applied for and received a backcountry day use permit at the Ranger Station the previous afternoon.
Permit number 74-8-1122-D issued by Ranger First Class Gerald M. Ortega, whose careful block printing filled in the departure time, the route, and the expected return of no later than 6:00 in the evening on August 14th.
Daniel had noted the permit number at the top of his itinerary page, underlined it, and beneath it written the single reminder, “Back before dark, call mom tonight.”
He had called his mother, Caroline Voss, on the pay phone in the Roosevelt Lodge lobby the previous evening at precisely 7:14 in the evening.
The call lasted 4 minutes and 30 seconds. According to the lodge’s billing record, she was a practical woman, a high school librarian from Bingmpington who wore bifocals on a beaded chain and kept a world atlas permanently open on the kitchen table, its spine broken at the page, showing the western United States.
