It’s been two years since Gilbert Gilman and Stephen “Mike” Mason took walks in the woods and disappeared without a trace.
Gilman, deputy director of the state Department of Retirement Systems, was last seen on June 24, 2006, at the Staircase Ranger Station at the southeastern edge of the Olympic National Park.
Mason, a handyman at VFW Post No. 4760 in Sequim, was dropped off June 20, 2006 by his wife, Berwyn, at Dungeness/Forks Campground near Sequim in the Olympic National Forest.
A 10-day search in which volunteers and park employees looked for signs of the 47-year-old Gilman by land, air and in the rivers turned up no sign of him.
They clocked more than 5,000 hours looking for him without success.
The search for Mason, who was 52 when he disappeared, was suspended the day it began, after he was reported missing on June 29.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team and Coast Guard helicopters combed a rugged two-mile stretch of terrain on the upper Dungeness River.
Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles helicopters flew along the river from the mouth at Dungeness Bay to the headwaters of the Gray Wolf River.
The search was called off when rescuers became convinced that Mason was not in the area, the sheriff’s department said.
Neither man has been seen by family or friends since.
But they have not been forgotten.
