× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

The shaky handwriting in the margins of the hiking map was that of a desperate man, lost in the wilderness 2,600 miles from his Virginia home, out of energy and out of hope.

He was down to his last three crackers, he scribbled. He knew that nobody was looking for him. And he expected that here, alone in this treacherous gorge in California's San Jacinto Mountains, he was about to die.

His last entry was May 8, 2005. He packed his maps into his new orange and yellow backpack, along with his navy blue fleece and the Ziploc bag containing the Virginia driver's license that identified him as John Donovan, 60, of Petersburg. And then he vanished.

On Monday, exactly one year later, Brandon Day, 28, and his girlfriend, Gina Allen, 24, also lost, hungry and desperate, blundered into the same rugged gorge and, through John Donovan's apparent demise, found their survival.

The Dallas couple had wandered away on a nature outing and had been stumbling with no food, little sleep and flagging spirits for almost three days. They began following a stream, just as Donovan probably had the year before, and as they rounded a bend, they spotted a campsite in the distance.