Reporting from Joshua Tree — Lost in a hot, dry, rugged canyon in Joshua Tree National Park, with no water and no food, Ed Rosenthal, a prominent real estate broker and experienced hiker from Culver City, took out a pen and started to write on his hiking hat.
Rosenthal, a poet, never went anywhere without a pen. But he didn't write a poem. He wrote to his wife and his daughter to say he loved them. He wrote advice to business partners. He wrote instructions on where to donate money in his memory. And he wrote an account of what he believed was his last trek in a lifetime filled with hikes.
On Thursday, his wife, Nicole Kaplan, gripped the worn hat fiercely as she recounted her 64-year-old husband's ordeal and his rescue after six days in the wilderness.
"It's really very miraculous," she said, composed but still tense. "I didn't think that he'd be around."
Rosenthal was alert and able to talk and walk when he arrived at Hi-Desert Medical Center, but was dehydrated and given fluids. He is in fair condition in the intensive care unit and will remain at the hospital for several days as his condition is monitored.
Kaplan said her husband was a little confused, weak and shaky. "It looks like he lost a lot of weight," she said. Rosenthal, who is 5 feet 5 inches, weighed about 155 pounds.
But hospital officials who visited him and the emergency medical physician who treated him marveled at his condition.
"He's remarkably fit and retains a sense of humor," said Lionel Chadwick, the hospital's chief executive.
Rosenthal set out Friday from Black Rock campground on a day hike. He had driven to Desert Hot Springs the day before to celebrate his role in the successful sale of Clifton's Brookdale cafeteria, a downtown Los Angeles landmark dating to the Great Depression that is known for its kitschy forest decor.
He told his wife and rescuers that he lost the trail and made a wrong turn. He ended up in East Wide Canyon, which descends to the park's southern border. He was found Thursday morning, about seven or eight miles from where he left the trail, in a ravine near the canyon. He was spotted by a helicopter from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office when he waved a shiny, Mylar-like material.
Looking at a map that showed Rosenthal's odyssey, Kaplan, his wife of 21 years, sighed, "That's where he was found. Oh, my gosh." She said she was hopeful for several days, noting that Rosenthal hikes every weekend and some weekdays.
