[sangnoir]

> I wonder how the government officials were able to track him for decades?

I can think of 2 major differences between locating him vs hikers:

1. Less time pressure as the government could wait weeks/months between locating him. Finding him once in a 3 month window is a success, finding hikers after 3 months would likely be for the purposes of recovering remains.

2. Hikers usually don't construct multiple semi-permanent structures that can be identified from the air (holes, animal traps, shelter)