Here’s something that’s actually cheery: Los Angeles downtown property broker Ed Rosenthal was found alive and in relatively good shape after six days lost in the western canyons of Joshua Tree National Park. He went missing after taking a day hike in celebration of closing the sale of LA’s cheesy old Clifton’s Cafeteria.

It’s a weird place on this side of the desert; climb one of the many mid-sized mountains and you can see the lights of the desert towns along Highway 62, which are only a few miles away. You can get a cell phone signal, too.

But drop down into the narrow canyons and it feels wild as hell — and it is wilderness. I’ve come around a sharp bend out there and met a big bushy coyote face to face, and seen rare & shy snakes I’ve never come across in three decades of wandering the southwest deserts.

Anyway, all week long the Sheriff’s helicopter has been looping around the campground and the 5-mile loop trail he was originally thought to have been walking. The helicopter quit rumbling back and forth over my house around 10 this morning and I said to my wife, “They either found him alive or found him dead or gave up the search.” The searchers on the ground got a break yesterday when they saw his boot tracks headed south on a big sandy wash. The chopper found him about eight miles down that canyon, flashing a piece of metal something or other at the pilot.

An experienced hiker and a poet, he spent his time waiting for help scribbling notes on his hat. Always carry a pocket notebook, friends, always carry a notebook — Writing notes helped missing hiker survive, Search For Joshua Tree Hiker Has a Happy Ending