On Feb 14, Jerry McDonald noted: "Heavy snow. Snowed in." The last entry in the calendar written on a piece of brown cardboard was dated April 15.
His body was found on Thursday by a forest service survey crew in a sleeping-bag inside his vehicle on a dirt road in the foothills of the Cascade mountains, 70 miles east of Salem, Oregon.
Mr McDonald had warm clothing, water and $5,000 in cash with him but had run out of food and did not have a mobile phone. He died of starvation and hypothermia, according to an autopsy.
Most poignant were the brief notes he jotted down in a daily diary for more than 60 days. On March 15, a month into his ordeal, he noted simply: "Snowed 1 foot night".
The next day, he noted "No Fo 1" – thought to be the day he ran out of food. On March 17, he wrote "No Fo 2" and on March 18, "No Fo 3" And on April 12, he was still aware enough to record that his vehicle registration had expired that day. "Rain" read his last entry on April 15.
"The road Mr. McDonald was on is in a mountainous area of east Linn County and the way in or out would have been impassable once it snowed," said Sheriff Tim Mueller. "There were no indications that he had attempted to walk out of the area." Mr McDonald had not been reported missing and was estranged from his family.
His body was discovered a week after two hunters found a Canadian woman who had been stranded in her van in an equally remote part of northern Nevada for seven weeks.
There is no trace of Rita Chretien's husband, Albert, who had set off on foot in search of help three days after they became stuck.
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