Soon after the search found Mr. Kim’s body, various media reported that the intersection between the logging road and Bear Camp Road was poorly marked, leading many travelers to take the logging road by mistake. Reports noted that a gate intended to bar passage during the winter had not been closed. A CNN television crew visited the spot, found a broken lock and declared that local residents had vandalized the gate.

However, further reports established that the gate had not been vandalized, but rather that the Bureau of Land Management, a federal agency, had failed to close it. Since then, local residents have said the BLM rarely, if ever, closed the gate. This had led some critics to assign at least partial blame for the tragedy to the BLM, for the gate’s having remained open, and the Forest Service, for poor markings at the intersection.

Some have criticized the ODOT map for showing Bear Camp Road as a solid black line. A few critics believe the map should omit the road altogether; others say it should be more clearly labeled as dangerous, arguing that the boxed warning is not prominent enough. There has also been criticism of the warning signs that the Kims passed; some believe that the wording that Bear Camp Road “may be blocked by snowdrifts” isn’t forceful enough.

Others dismiss such criticisms, noting that wilderness roads are typically in a marginal state of repair, and that the BLM’s failure to close the logging road should be seen not as a lapse but as a tacit recognition of local sentiment. While a risky area for outside travelers, they say, the Rogue Wilderness and its roads get considerable year-round use by locals familiar with their risks, and that in any case a closure of the logging road gate wouldn’t have lasted for long in the area, which like many wilderness areas is lightly patrolled and prone to vandalism.

Similarly, those who dismiss criticism of the ODOT map say that its legend and specific warning about Bear Camp Road are clear to all but a careless reader. Warnings about snowdrifts, this faction says, should have been heeded by the Kims given that they traversed the road as snow was falling. When the full range of the Kims' errors is considered, they say, the picture is one of individual, not official, negligence.

In an article published Jan. 6, 2007 by The Washington Post, Spencer Kim, father of James Kim, called for relaxation of privacy protections applying to credit card and telephone records. The elder Mr. Kim recommended the measures in reaction to a Portland hotel’s refusal to release his son’s records to Detective Michael Weinstein, a Portland police detective who later complained to the Portland Oregonian about the refusal.

Missing persons files released by the Portland police in mid-January showed that James Kim’s sister had given police access to the Kims’ banking and telephone records; that Det. Weinstein was aware that such access had been granted; and that the travel patterns intended to be revealed from searches of those records were known to police, including Det. Weinstein, before the search began.