Rangers talk to parents and try to find if there's been some sort of discord between brothers and sisters, moms and the missing child. Darkness makes them much more willing to be found. Searchers can go by them all day long and they won't answer. But the moment darkness falls, the first searcher they heard, they were calling for help. They tend to go a long distance on trails.
Rangers know a lost hiker usually means a long-distance search.
They tend to wander off trails, tracking animals. They are people who get out into the woods and they're more focused on what they're collecting or doing than the trail. They'll go into an area to pick, say, wild blueberries. In the fall, there will be people doing church projects or whatever gathering pine cones and boughs. Often times they'll head off in the wrong direction, and we'll have to go look for them.