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You are correct.

At this point, few could do much.

I was thinking that many could walk 2 to 3 miles per hour on the dirt road earlier on their disaster. He might have been able to follow his own tire tracks on the somewhat level road.

I am also trying to plant the seed for any lurkers on what to consider if they have a similar event.

Also, I was asking any local FReeper if the closest town was 15 miles away or much more. Apparently there was a cell phone tower remotely available somewhat. If so, he might have been lucky to get a signal.

Going uphill after waiting 9 days in the car short on food and water would be tough.

For any lurker, please consider staying on the road and avoid the temptation of taking a short cut...unless you are a skilled mountaineer. Even many mountaineers die in the back woods.

Agreed. Best-case scenario would have been walking on the road, hopefully on a downhill grade most of the time. Most people without wilderness experience simply don't appreciate just how difficult it is to move over wild terrain. Trying to make your way through a forest, over fallen trees, streams, ridges and cliffs, through dense thickets, etc., while trying to maintain your bearings and stay on course, is extremely difficult. To do so in a physically depleted (and I would imagine in Kim's case, at least a partially panicked) state, would be far worse.

His best bet would have been to backtrack by the route they followed in, assuming he could remember the turns that got them there. That would have kept him on roads, more likely to eventually encounter another vehicle, and ultimately, get him back to the main road. If he ventured into that creek/valley as the current reports suggest, and into an area with large cliffs, etc., I think the odds that he is still alive are extremely low. Given his attire (jeans and sneakers, no hat, as far as I have read, combined with cold and damp), hypothermia would have taken him down pretty quickly.

But miracles do happen, and maybe he has managed to survive somehow.