Wednesday marked George Hurlbut's fourth night lost somewhere near Denny Creek, west of Snoqualmie Pass.

There is some hope Hurlbut, 55, might have made the same mistake other hikers have made and that he may be wandering miles away - alive and well - somewhere in the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River.

"We don't know that for sure, but we're definitely checking it out. From past searches we know that's where the drainage pushes them," said Deputy Ed Christian.

Deputy Christian's theory is based on a lot of searches and a lot of lost hikers.

Hurlbut's SUV was found parked at the Denny Creek trailhead near Snoqualmie Pass. A lot of people come to this spot to take a day hike to Melakwa Lake. Hikers who have gotten lost here before missed the trail on the return trip and can go in entirely the wrong direction.

"They think they are heading down towards Interstate 90 and they are actually getting shoved down into the flat river drainage," said Christian.

"That is actually about 40 miles from North Bend," said searcher Mark Chapman. "It pretty much puts you in the middle of nowhere."

If Hurlbut is in the middle of nowhere, he certainly isn't the first person to get lost there.

Back in January, snowboarder Dan Witkowski went out of bounds at Alpental. He was lost in the snow for five days, near Melakwa Lake. The extreme winter conditions led to frostbite and cost him his lower legs.

"The conditions were 1,000 times worse. When we were searching for Witkowski it took us days, when now the same thing takes us hours," said Christian.

The summer weather is in this missing hiker's favor.

Hurlbut has been lost since Sunday. He didn't tell anyone exactly where he was going. If he left a main trail he could very well be in the middle of nowhere, and just as difficult to find.

"We're going to search all night Wednesday and all day Thursday, then we'll decide how much longer the search will continue," said Chapman.

About 70 searchers were on the ground Wednesday, 50 more will join them Thursday.

Hurlbut's brother was also at the search and rescue command post Wednesday. He's holding out hope he'll get to both hug his brother and hit him for hiking alone.