Going hiking in Yosemite? Keep on your toes.

The Modesto Bee: “Hikers on Yosemite National Park’s Mist Trail are typically a joyful group, awed by the postcard image of the plunging, 320-foot Vernal Fall.
Two weekends ago, however, people on the winding trail turned somber after a man slipped into the water directly above the fall and disappeared over the precipice.

“It was weird, everyone was kind of solemn,” said Steven Green, 23, a Modesto construction worker who was visiting the park with his fiancé. “There was no way that guy could have lived.”

As of Sunday, park workers had not found Chintan Chokshi’s body. They presume the 24-year-old San Francisco man is dead and that his body is lodged in the rocks under the water. When the Merced River’s flow diminishes this summer or in the fall, divers will search for the body, park ranger Adrienne Freeman said.

Meanwhile, with the park expecting large crowds for several more weeks, rangers are renewing advice to the public to be safe. “Because of the winter we had, we’re hitting the height of the backpacking season now,” Freeman said.

An average of 10 people die in park accidents every year, most from drowning or while hiking, park spokesman Scott Gediman said. This year, accidents have claimed two lives, and Chokshi and another man remain missing.”

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