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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Heat stroke only makes sense to me if I think of it as a domino effect, rather than everyone coincidentally going at the same time.

Dog runs happily down the trail to start the day, but becomes overheated and worn out playing alongside the river.  When they start back up the trail, dog is moving more slowly than normal, so the hike stretches more into the heat of the day than planned.  This wears on all of them.  Dog eventually needs assistance getting up the hill.  Mom and Dad are trying to share the heavy lifting (baby and/or dog).  When one parent gets too worn out, the other takes a turn.  Now the hike is taking even longer, and it's getting hotter.  One of the adults starts to show signs of heat stress, so they stop to rest.  Both parents are completely spent by now.  Dog collapses during the rest period.  Parents decide it's time to split up.  Dad will stay with the dog, mom will go for help.  She knows she won't be able to carry the baby the rest of the way up, so they decide baby will stay with Dad until she can come back with help.  Unfortunately, she never does - she only makes it a little way up the trail before she collapses in the heat.  Were they close enough for Dad to see her collapse?  If it was around a switchback, he may not have realized it, so he sat there for a while waiting for her to send help - not knowing that she hadn't made it.  He may have died shortly after, or an hour or more later.  Even if a few hours passed, and he started to accept that help wasn't coming, the extra time sitting in direct sun meant he just couldn't get up at that point, especially carrying the baby.  Baby would not have survived long with both parents passed out or dead.

The only thing about this scenario that doesn't make any sense at all: they apparently still had water.  Maybe they were trying to save it for the baby?  And neither of them realized just how bad of shape they were in until it was too late .... if they were still together, when one person started to collapse the other would likely push water on them, but if they had already split up at that point...

I don't know.  Family annihilation could make sense too, but it's an odd way to do it.  Not sure I buy the toxic algae theory.[/quote]

I just find it so hard to believe that they could be this clueless. [b]Heat stroke is cumulative[/b]. They hiked frequently in deserts. They would have known what to look for.

I think it was family annihilation but they wanted it to seem like an accident.[/quote]

Right, that's the point.  Remember that this hike started with a steep downhill, and then they had to hike back up the switchbacks - I think someone said 2000' of elevation gain??  Once it started, it snowballed quickly - even if they realized what was happening, it's not like they had other options than continuing to hike up a steep hill, in the heat and direct sun, with the dog and baby in tow.  Once they started to get off their original plan (dog slowed down in my theory posted above, could also be that someone sprained an ankle or something), the cumulative effect went exponential, and they were stuck.[/quote]

Per the alltrails reviews, it's 3 miles back with significant elevation gain and no shade.  It would have been brutal.[/quote]

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