Upon finishing the hike at 1:37 pm, I stop the tracks for my Garmin GPS and Garmin Earthmate app on my iPhone. Although, I discovered my phone was not in my cargo pants pocket. I reluctantly drove away since I needed to get back to coach Rock Hound for the Science Olympiad at my son's school. The dirt road begins about about five miles south of the Hoover Dam and 2.5 miles up the dirt road to the trailhead.

While driving back I was brainstorming how to find the phone. Since my friend, John Holmes, also had a iPhone, I asked him to activate the Find iPhone app. He couldn't find it so we switched so he could drive and I could look at his phone. I thankfully brought the phone charger cable and charged my phone on the way to the hike so it was fully charged, but the charge will deplete in the near future particularly since I had the Earthmate app active. While using John's phone, I plugged it in so it has a full charge. I found the Find iPhone app having trouble entering my password. I had to call my wife using John's phone who was at home to look in a password file on my computer to determine the password. I then realized that perhaps the Earthmate app showed the location for which I told her how to use the website on my computer. The last recorded location was on a ridge before we descended the wash. I doubted the phone was there because it would have put it in my pocket and would have noticed it falling down if I missed the pocket which was not possible since I let go of the phone when my hand is inside the pocket. I thus learned the Earthmate app will upload to the cloud the existing track each time I access the app. The phone is thus somewhere from that ridge to the SUV down a drainage/wash I'm sure no one travels. Although, we did find many drill holes in rocks for geology research. I was later able to login to Fine iPhone, but then it showed my iPhone was not registered. I was amazed since I know I had selected the feature. I thus researched how to possibly turn it on remotely, but no luck. I considered contacting a couple friends of mine with iPhone knowledge for help, but their numbers are on my phone.

Upon reaching Henderson, John and I decided to go back to look for it using my Garmin GPS track to retrace our route. The plan was for me to hike up the drainage since I still had energy and since John was quite tired. I gave the keys to John, but now John did not have a phone if something happened to me. I quickly sucked down some food and water for energy and then went up the drainage at about 3 pm. I would look at my GPS often to retrace my steps while looking around at the same time. I would intermittently use John's phone to call my phone and listen for ringing. I had hiked about .55 miles gaining 500 feet in 20 minutes when John's phone rang showing me calling him. I over thought the call thinking that perhaps Apple had coded the phone to call back someone who is trying to call so many times within a short period of time expecting Siri to talk to me. Lo and behold it was John calling me. He found the phone. I then headed back down. Otherwise, I would have continued up to the ridgeline frustrated I didn't find the phone and then head back down again retracing my steps. It turns out I probably walked right by the phone which was sitting on a rock in clear view about 1000 feet from the SUV. I fully expected the phone slipped into a bush or under a rock making it hard to find. John decided to walk up the wash to look around finding my phone sitting on a rock at 3:29. I looked at my phone realizing the last waypoint stored was at 1:32. I remember slipping at this point and must have positioned in such a way that my phone slide out of the cargo pocket. From now on, I'm going to button the pocket. I also noticed there was no record that the phone was called so my calls using John's phone didn't go through. I noticed I had three bars but the area right of the bars was spinning. Apparently, the phone could make a call, but not receive for some reason. We went back to the SUV arriving at 3:47. The phone then indicating 10% charge and asked if I wanted to be placed into low power mode. Luckily we found the phone before the power was drained. I plugged in the phone to the charger and texted my wife indicating the phone was found and that we were going home. I was able to send and receive texts. I later tested the phone when in a better service area learning that it can receive a phone call.

I noticed the Find My iPhone feature was off. I was very sure I activated it a while ago, but perhaps an IOS update reset the setting. It is now active.