According to The Sacramento Bee,

Two brothers went hiking in California and took different routes back to the car. One never returned, police said. The brothers were hiking Saturday, February 5, 2022, to the Sierra Buttes Lookout, a challenging, 4.8-mile out-and-back trail that takes nearly three hours to complete. They left early in the morning and became separated when returning to the car, according to the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office. The two brothers took different routes.

Once one of the men reached the car, his brother, 36-year-old Samuel Jones from Truckee, wasn’t there, police said. He went back up the trail to find his brother, but Jones was nowhere to be found. The man called the police to report Jones missing. The U.S. Forest Service and Sierra City Fire Department searched the area on snowmobiles, and a California Highway Patrol helicopter looked for the missing hiker until about 8 p.m., the sheriff’s office said.

The search continued into Sunday, Feb. 6., when rescuers found the hiker dead. “Early this afternoon, yesterday’s missing hiker was located and recovered from a ridge above Young America Lake by search and rescue members and a California Highway Patrol helicopter,” the sheriff’s office said on Facebook. Jones likely fell from the ridge-line and died from his injuries. The Sierra Buttes Lookout is in Sierra City, California, about 120 miles northeast of Sacramento.