Jul 10, 2017 at 9:18 PM
Subject: D Cracker
contributed by Larry Smith
October 29 1988 A hiker along the Pacific Crest Trail discovers the body of Douglas Cracker, one half mile north of Hwy 62. Cracker had died of a single shot to the head. In tracing Cracker’s movements, rangers discover that the young man had left his home in California on August 22 and later stayed in a Klamath Falls motel on the nights of October 7 & 8. On October 9, the motel managers drove him to Fish Lake so that he could hike the PCT, north. When no further word was received from him by October 19, the managers reported Cracker missing. Cracker was seen in the Rim Cafeteria on October 20. That afternoon he began hiking south on the Dutton Creek Trail. He set up camp on the PCT and stayed there one or two days before committing suicide. A note was found in his wallet. Between October 20 and 29 a black bear found the body and dragged it down slope. Rangers McGuinness and Van Horn were the first rangers to respond to the hiker’s report, but they had to call for assistance when they determined that the bear was present nearby. The retrieval operation pretty much killed the Park’s Halloween party that Saturday night.
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