Sorry about your gear, flyguy. I had a similar thing happen a few years ago. The old code doesn't seem to wash these days. I heard two stories in the last few years that just made me sick. One was a couple out backpacking in the back country. They set a base camp (a two days hike in) and hiked off to do some fishing and photo taking. When they got back to basecamp, their tent, sleeping bags and gear were gone. It was an uncomfortable two day hike out with nothing more than the clothes they had on at the time and water bottles. It still blows me away to think about that. They had high end gear (North Face etc)...I sold it to them. I think that's why it disappeared.
The other story was of a couple whe were canoeing in Algonquin Provincial Park ( A wilderness canoe park). They were two days in on a trip when she slipped and fell during a portage. She broke her leg. Bad enough. The really bad part was no one would stop to help them. She said they must have seen about 20 canoes go by them in a day and a half. Finally her husband had to leave her there and paddle back to get help. He couldn't take her because there were several long portages in the mix. I can understand if they were out in the middle of no where and they didn't see anyone but people saw them and they deliberately ignored them. Not sure why...if it's the insurance, law suit angle or just the fact that most there are from Toronto and don't want their weekend wrecked. It's just sick.