Again you miss the point so far that it ceases to be worth discussion, but here goes one more time.
They were not seeing a play. The cell phone had been pinned down to a certain area. A local found tire tracks.
That is the point at which everything went downhill. Not before then. Before that point, it was total guesswork.
At that point, there were real clues.
There were people there that are professional trackers who could have followed tire tracks to the end of the world, as they followed Kin's tracks later on.
But had those same people been told about the tire tracks when they were first found, the trackers would have got to him before he set out on foot.
Surfer, if I have the sequence of events out of order here, would you please correct me. I am going to go ride my horse.
I bow to your superior debating skills, your critical thinking, your ultra crisp reasoning, your ability to apportion fault/blame, your knowledge of SAR, and your ability to see thru the "fog of uncertainty" with 20/20 hindsight.