Vandalized gate factor in death.

Byline: From Register-Guard and news service reports

A locked gate might have saved James Kim's life.

The final remote road that the Kim family turned down on their fateful trip to the Oregon Coast last month was Bureau of Land Management Road 34-8-36, a gated road locked each winter after deer hunting season ends, said Patty Burel, spokeswoman for the BLM and the Siskiyou National Forest.

"This gate was locked on Nov. 1," Burel said on Thursday.

During the search for the Kim family, rescuers discovered that the lock had been vandalized and the gate thrown open, she said.

"It apparently contributed to this tragic incident," Burel said.

The Kim family had driven from San Francisco to Seattle for Thanksgiving, and were on their way home, planning to spend the night of Nov. 25 at a luxury lodge outside Gold Beach on the coast. They never made it.

After more than a week with little food and nothing but a car for shelter, Kati Kim and her daughters, Penelope, 4, and Sabine, 7 months, were spotted Monday by a search helicopter. They were rescued in good condition.

James Kim, 35, was found dead Wednesday, five days after setting out on foot. Results of an autopsy released on Thursday attributed his death to hypothermia. There were no signs of injury. He was lying on his back in about a foot of water, his backpack still on. He was fully clothed. The medical examiner could not determine when he died. But state police Lt. Gregg Hastings said Kim had walked five miles up a road, then five more miles down rugged Big Windy Creek before he died.

Though Kim had gone nearly without food for about a week, his body was found just a mile or so from a fishing lodge, closed for the winter, where he could have found shelter, warmth and enough canned food and dry goods to last for months.

``I wish Mr. Kim would have found the place,'' said John James, who runs Black Bar Lodge with his family. ``It would have been a Cinderella Story. It would have been a beautiful ending to sad story.'

In the aftermath of the tragedy, local law enforcement agencies are investigating the vandalism that broke open the gate, but such acts are common on public lands, Burel said.

"We shut that gate and lock it right after general deer hunting season is over," she said. "If we close the gate during hunting season, (hunters) wrench it out of the ground."

BLM workers check the locked gates every few weeks and respond to calls from the public about vandalism, but staying on top of the damage is a challenge. "The BLM and Forest Service have high incidences of vandalism on gates, signs and other things," she said.

In the Medford area alone there are 4,700 miles of BLM roads and 106 lockable gates.

Forest Service Road 23, also known as Bear Camp Road, which connects Grants Pass with Gold Beach, is gated on the west side of the pass but not the east because the Bear Camp area is a popular destination for winter recreation and Christmas trees, Burel said.

On the Coast side, two gates occasionally are used to block traffic because the western portion of the road is more prone to landslides and washouts during wet winter months, Burel said.

The Kims chose the road after missing the more common route to the coast, Highway 42, just south of Roseburg. After consulting a road map, they turned off at the community of Merlin just north of Grants Pass, following a thin gray line on the map through the Siskiyou National Forest.

They passed four signs warning that Bear Camp Road might be blocked by snow, but kept going. At times James had to stick his head out the window to see through the falling snow, said Oregon State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings.

A dozen miles up the one-lane paved road, they came to a fork and turned right leaving the road to Agness and descending into a confusing warren of logging roads. By the time they turned around they were 15 miles off Bear Camp Road and stopped in a place they hoped to be spotted from the air, fearing that they were running out of gas, searchers said.

Kati Kim told investigators that they stopped at 2 a.m. Nov. 26, and tried calling for help on a cell phone, but could not get service. They stayed in the car as it snowed and rained for three days. The only food was some baby food, jelly and bottled water, Hastings said. When the water ran out, they melted snow. When the food ran out, Kati Kim nursed her children.

On their eighth day stranded, James Kim decided to walk out. His wife told investigators he thought he was just four miles down the Rogue River from Galice. It was closer to 15. But he felt he could follow the river to help.

``James Kim did nothing wrong,'' Hastings said. ``He was trying to save his family.''

Lane County Search and Rescue Coordinator John Miller, who sent local teams to help with the search, said the tragedy would provide a learning opportunity for others.

"We can't condone any action that leads to a fatality," Miller said. "People need to take educational steps to at least ensure that other people don't make the same mistakes."

In the coming days, Burel said, the federal agencies with land in the area will consult with local and state agencies in an effort to balance public access and public safety.

Register-Guard reporter Susan Palmer and Associated Press reporter Jeff Barnard contributed to this report