Latest / The Knife: A True Crime Podcast / Off Record: Lost in the Woods (with Gaby)

Transcript

Off Record: Lost in the Woods (with Gaby) · The Knife: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, it's Patia from The Knife. Our show is up
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for a Signal Award in the documentary category, which is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: so exciting. The link to vote is in the show notes,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: or you can go to vote.signalaward.com, navigate to categories, and
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: select genre, then documentary to find The Knife and cast
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your vote. You do have to sign up to vote,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: but it's quick and painless, and your vote would mean
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: so much to us. Voting is open until October 15th.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much, and we hope you enjoy this next episode.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: The claims and opinions in this podcast are those of
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the speaker and do not necessarily represent The Knife or
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Exactly Right Media. The Knife Welcome to The Knife Off Record.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I'm Patia Eaton. As most of you know, Hannah is
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: currently on leave after having a baby. She's doing well.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: We actually had a chance to catch up yesterday, which
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: was so nice, and she will be back soon. I'm
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: sure you miss her just like I do. But today
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I have the distinct pleasure of speaking with one of
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Hannah's longtime friends, Gabi. Gabi has an amazing story to
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: share with us that Hannah and I both think you
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: will love. It's funny and terrifying. And, you know, we
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: tend to cover a lot of really difficult topics and
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: stories on this show. So this episode is a little
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: bit of a breather from that. Let's get into it.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Hi, Gabi. Hi.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: It's so nice to have you in the studio.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I'm so happy to be here.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: So you are a friend of Hannah's. That's right. And
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited to hear the story today. Hannah gave
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: me just like the littlest bit of information. I was like,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: stop right there. I want the full scoop from her
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: in person. And we thought it'd be perfect to record
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: this while Hannah's on her leave anyway. And I'm so
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: excited you're here. So we always love to start off
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: with just a little introduction.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Okay. I'm Gabi. I live in Los Angeles, California. I
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: lived here for about almost 15 years.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Me too. Wow.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Doesn't time go by? It really does. I am currently
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: in school to become a nurse. Oh, that's exciting. A
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: bit of a career change.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. From what?
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Very exciting. I have been doing personal assistant work, but
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I was in the entertainment industry for a while.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Okay. I am a former personal assistant.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know. I know the grind. It's really intense.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Shout out Patty Stinger, millionaire matchmaker, among others. It's a
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: great way to see the city, but it's also so taxing.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really taxing. Yeah, long hours. Long hours, which
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: I'm about to go into, arguably. The most stressful, taxing career. Right,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: you're not going to be relaxing as a nurse. No,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: it's going to be worse, but different.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Different. Well, that's awesome. I love a pivot, you know?
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Hey, we love a pivot.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, why not? So today, just to preface everything with
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: a story, this story is about you and your now ex-boyfriend.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: And we're not going to use his real name because
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: he's not here. And it wouldn't be right. So we're
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: going to call him Ryan. Ryan.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: That's right. We are going to call him Ryan. That's
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: what we've decided on. We've decided.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: We've agreed.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Great.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: So I want to start off with a little bit
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: about when you first met Ryan. Actually.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Actually. Ryan and I met because I cast him in
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: a short film that I made. Never came to fruition,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: but he was great in it. He's an actor. He's
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: a comedian. Was very drawn to the way he was
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: in the world and his sense of humor. Very, very
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: funny person. People were very drawn to him. It was
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: a bit of a, it was a bit of one
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: of those relays. It was like a rebound, not a rebound,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: but you know how like your next relationship.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: But maybe you weren't in the perfect place.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Maybe I wasn't in the perfect place.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: But so far, this is a perfect LA meet-cute. You know,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: you're casting him in a short film.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Very LA.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: You're drawn to his energy.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: That's right. Okay. So I think our relationship started well,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: but pretty soon after we started dating, COVID began.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Nobody did well in COVID.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Hey, people either did really well in COVID and got
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: married or they broke up. I did not do well.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I spiraled. Yeah. No one told me if they were
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: doing well because they knew I would spiral further.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: I feel we all individually spiraled.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: But as far as couples go, that was like make
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: it or break it. And this was definitely a break it. Okay.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Immediate break it.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: How long had you been dating when COVID happened?
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: I was just thinking about that. And I don't think
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: that long. I think maybe six months. That could be wrong.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: I think this happened in July. And I think we
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: started dating in like December. Maybe it was like seven,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: eight months.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: And COVID is an interesting time because it's like, then
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: you kind of decide, okay, well, now we're in each
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: other's bubble.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: And now we're spending a lot of time together because
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: we've already established that. We're already here. We're already doing this.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. What was really interesting about that, which I'm sure
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: maybe other people can relate to, is everything that was
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: kind of propelling us along in our relationship ceased to exist.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Like he ceased to be able to perform and we
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: ceased being able to see people out in public. So
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: it was really just us.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: So the whole dynamic of the relationship changed.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I'm thinking back to
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: that time and it's like, Not that much change for
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: me because I'm such a homebody, but I did think
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: it was really scary. Of course.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, and that was another thing. My anxiety was
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: like already have like medical anxiety. And so COVID was
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: just like through.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: The roof, sister. There was a neighbor of mine who
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: would walk around with a full gas mask on. And
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: I was like, maybe I'm the idiot, you know, like. Yeah.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: How could you blame him?
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, we were wiping down our groceries.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, of course.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Of course we were.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: So you guys were, were you living together?
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: We were not. Okay.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: No.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: But we were really only seeing each other, I think.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: You think.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, you know, we were doing like Zoom karaoke.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Okay. Great.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Social distancing.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Other people. But we were really each other's orbit.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: So this story takes place in the great outdoors.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: How did that transpire? Because COVID was like lockdown.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Okay. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: beginning of that year or maybe during that year, were
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: there like crazy fires? Yeah.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Gosh i don't remember i feel like i don't remember.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: When the crazy fires were either there was something going
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: on where i was losing my mind and i was
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: like we have to get out of here we have
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: to get out of our dingy apartments like we need
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: to go i'm suffocating here.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Because this is post-covid this story happened oh this story
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: is in the middle of covid in the middle of
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: it this is.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Like july 2020 i think okay yeah All right.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: So you're just like, the world is burning. There's a
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: global pandemic. So this is your idea.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: This is my idea. This is my idea. The background
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: is that he had some chronic pain issues. There were
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: definite limitations to his exercise ability and was not tuned
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: in to the idea of hiking or backpacking, camping. Like
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: I was really in charge of that situation. You were
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: spearheading this excursion. I was spearheading the excursion. We thought, okay,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: you know, we'll be safe. Road trip to Oregon. We're
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: staying in the car. We're staying in tents. We're not
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: seeing anybody. We are maintaining social distance. It is just
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: him and I in the car. That was like the
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: one vacation idea that we thought was like responsible and doable.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: So funny because it's like I was brainwashed to believe
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: that car camping was vacation when I was a child.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Like that is what we did. And then I grew
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: up to experience real vacation. And now I know. I
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: can picture exactly what you're saying because I'm from the Northwest.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Grew up, did a lot of car camping. But did
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: you have a lot of like outdoors experience or you
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: just enjoy being outdoors?
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: I did have enough outdoors experience. Certainly, I had done many,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: many hikes in the greater Los Angeles area. I had
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: done some backpacking trips. Generally, I don't like to car camp.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: I prefer to backpack. So I had done some backpacking trips.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: I felt equipped enough. I felt like I knew enough.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: You're like, I can lead us.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: I can lead us.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: And so you're going from LA up the coast. Are
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: you taking like the PCH?
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: No, I think we stopped at my parents' house and
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: they live up in Northern California, maybe to drop off
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: my dog. And then we continued on who knows what
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: highway we took up. But our first stop was Cave Junction, Oregon.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Okay. Where is Cave Junction?
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Southern Oregon. That's all I got for you.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: It's in Southern Oregon. But I think I found like
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: this really cool Airbnb or maybe it was like a
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: hip camp situation and it was on a river and
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: I love swimming in a river. Any natural body of water,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: I'm in.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, any natural body of water, I'm out.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: You're out?
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Terrified. A lake? A natural body of water. You don't
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: know what's in there. You don't know which way the
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: water is going to go and pull you.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: It's rocks. Pasha, generally a river is going one way.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: That's true.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: That's true.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I just read about, I went over a waterfall. Yeah. Okay.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: So is he like, is Ryan on board? Is he
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: excited about it?
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He's excited. Okay. I think he was kind of like,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: you're in charge because I don't know what I'm doing.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: So like you're in charge of packing, you're in charge
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: of the packing list, all drive, but you are the organizer.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: And I think the camping of it all, he was like, yes.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Swimming in the river of it all, yes.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: But then came our ill-fated day.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah. And you are the self-proclaimed bad guy of
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: this ill-fated day. So you make it all the way
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: up to Cave Junction, Oregon, which we know is somewhere
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: in Southern Oregon. Yeah.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: You've dropped off your dog. People are saying bad things
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: about Cave Junction, Oregon, by the way.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Oh, like what?
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: They're just saying it's not safe.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's not safe. Well, I guess you lived to
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: tell the tale, but I don't know by how much. Yeah. OK, yeah.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: So the dog luckily is safe and not a part
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: of the scarier part of the story.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: And so when you arrive in Cave Junction, are you
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: going to a campsite?
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Like set the scene for me. OK, we are at
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: this very hippy dippy campsite. It's got like several campsites around.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: You drive your car to it. It's on someone's land,
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: but they have a ton of land.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, because it's a hip camp.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: It's a hip camp.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: So they have some cabins, like these really cool A-frame
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: cabins that people can rent. And you just have these
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: like camping spots. And then they had compost toilets and
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: a shared kitchen and a river. And it was awesome
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: for the night that we were there.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: It was awesome. You're like, this is great. I could
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: live this way.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: I wish we stayed there.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Right. Yeah.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: But you didn't. No. You said onward.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: We said, hey, today, let's do a day hike to
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: this place called Babyfoot Lakes.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Babyfoot Lakes.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: It sounds gentle and easy. Right. For a day hike,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: that's like you're going to some destination, Babyfoot Lakes, and
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: then you're turning around and you're coming back before the
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: sun goes down.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: What's the weather on this day?
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Hot as hell.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: And are you packing... food? Are you packing emergency supplies?
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Like what does one bring on the hike like this?
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Okay, here's what I can remember. I think I had
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: like a bag of chips. I think I had a
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: bag of chips. I feel that we had some sort
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: of jerky, which maybe we had eaten. The initial hike
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: was like maybe like a mile to the lake. So
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: we walked in a mile to this lake, had a
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: lovely day at this lake. And I think we ate
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: our snack. We were drinking our water at this lake.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: And so I think we ate the majority of our
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: food at the lake. But to answer your question... We had, like, snacks,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: probably a water bottle each.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Because did you anticipate it would be a mile in,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: a mile back?
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: I posited the question to Ryan. I said, Ryan, we
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: could do a mile in, mile back. Or on all trails,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: the app, I'm seeing that there's a five-mile loop we
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: could do.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: A loop.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: A loop. A loop seems safe enough.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Five miles, that feels very front country. We're used to that.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Had you had like a big breakfast? Because a bag
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: of chips is not going to hold me over.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Of course. I think we ate breakfast and we ate
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: a sufficient lunch. And we had some like trail snacks.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: So you're leaving for this hike after lunch?
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: No.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Oh. You think the trail snacks was a sufficient lunch?
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Okay. Are you okay? We're backing up. We've had breakfast
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: at the campsite. Who knows what we had? Something great.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: We leave all of our stuff at the campsite, our tent,
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: et cetera. Get in the car around, I don't know, 10.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Drive to the trailhead, which I think was like an
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: hour and a half, maybe like an hour because it
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: was up like a dusty road. Get to the trailhead
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: around 11. Walk to this one mile or whatever to
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: this lake. Beautiful day at the lake, lunch at the lake,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: hanging out at the lake, having fun at the lake.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Then I say, should we do the five mile loop
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: or turn around?
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I can hear like foreboding music playing under this moment.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Is Ryan immediately like, whatever you think is best?
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: I remember me asking the question and being happy when
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: he was like, let's do the five mile loop.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Because I was like, okay, great. He really wasn't a hiker.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: This might have been his like longest hike he's ever
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: done or something.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Do you guys have hiking boots on?
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: We do.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: I believe he bought hiking boots for this occasion. I
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: don't even remember if we packed sunscreen. We must have
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: packed sunscreen. I don't think I had a hat or
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: anything like that though.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Wow. Okay. So you're going to do the five mile loop.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: We're going to do the five mile loop.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: And it's no big deal. Five miles, I'll loop de loop.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: That's right. At this point, we can imagine it's like
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: 2 p.m.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Maybe 1.30.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: And in the summertime in the Northwest, it stays light
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: out for a long time. Like I can remember many
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: nights of sun being out at like 9.45.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Okay. So then that makes sense that it was like
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: around 2.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: So.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Backtracking a little bit because what else was in my
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: backpack was inexplicably like this multi-use survival tool that was
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: like fire starter, compass, whistle.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Had you packed it for this trip or you just
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: had it?
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: I just sort of like instinctually bring it with me.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: And here's the thing, I don't really know how to
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: use a compass at all. And I couldn't probably use
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: that fire starter either.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: You're like, even if I know which way is which,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know where the car is.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: I didn't It's just like for the whistle, which wasn't helpful.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: So we embark on this five mile hike and.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Spirits are high?
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Spirits are high. Spirits are high. To keep in mind,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: I do believe that we both, I screenshotted the name
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: of the hike, sent it to my mom.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Smart.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: I think he sent it to his friends. And I
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: remember looking at like the details on all trails, though
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: I didn't download the map. Because again, I'm used to
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: California front country trail signage, which is great.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. How does it differ from like what you were
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: looking at in Oregon? Okay. Okay.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: So like generally, unless you're doing like some crazy backcountry trail,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: but even then it's very well labeled. Okay. Anytime there's
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: a junction, there will be signage pointing you what direction
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: you're supposed to go to. Anything that's like, you know,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: I've done like 17 mile hikes in like over Mount
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Baldy area. It's very well labeled and the trails are
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: generally pretty clear.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: So you're like, I don't need this map. Right.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: I was like, for five miles for a loop, all
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: the reviews are like, easy peasy, fun. I'm like, I
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: don't need to download the map. Like, we've told people
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: where we are. This won't be a problem. It's five miles.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: You're thinking it'll take, what, an hour and a half?
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Two hours? How long does it take? I don't know.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: I would say it's probably going to take, like, with
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: the up and down, three and a half.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Three and a half hours. Okay. Yeah. I'm, like, picturing
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: myself as, like, an ultra marathon runner.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: You're going to do a seven-mile run. For sure. Until
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: you have an hour?
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Gotcha.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: So you're thinking three and a half hours, four hours,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: and you'll be back.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Well before sunset because summertime in the Northwest.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: So we embark pretty immediately. It was like rocky trail,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: kind of like cliff, sort of scrambling on these, like
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: on the side of this mountain. And we're like, okay.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Rocky start.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Rocky start.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Nice.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: But you are still at this point, like, this is
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: the trail.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: This is the trail. This has to be the trail.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: And I think there were moments, even in the beginning,
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: where we were like, oh, where is it? Where's the trail?
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: And then we'd find it and be like, okay, certainly
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: this is it. So we're going to keep going. We
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: keep going. We're walking. And we were kind of losing
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: and finding the trail multiple times. And we were going
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: for a while and it was like really hot. And
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: we noticed like the area that we were in did
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: have burn scar. So there was a pretty recent forest fire.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: So all the vegetation burned, trees burned. So we just
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: keep walking because we're on a trail. And I think
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: it was like perfectly well-timed from nature where we were
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: kind of like, Okay, we're walking for a while. But
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: then we saw a sign that said Kalamiopsis Rim Trail,
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: which is the trail we were supposed to be on.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: So you're like, we're doing great.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: We're on the trail.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: And you must have thought you were by this point,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: like what, halfway done?
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I kept looking at like Apple map or
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: like the Apple health.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: So you had some service.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: No service. Oh, sorry. Apple, like the health, like the steps.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. Got it.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Calculator.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: To see how far you've gone. Exactly.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Which to me, that thing is dramatic. Like sometimes you're like,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: certainly I didn't go seven miles. And I think it
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: was telling us like we had already gone three and
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: a half, four miles or something. It doesn't feel like
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: we've gone that long. So we just keep going.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Is anyone hungry?
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Certainly we're hungry.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: And we are eating our snacks periodically and we are
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: drinking our water periodically.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: And he is, Ryan is still, he's like, you're leading
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the way here. I trust you.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: And you're like, good, you should.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Get up this rocky scramble, Ryan. Yeah, exactly.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: He's like, you got it, boss. Yeah, all is well.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Spirits are high, but we are hungry. going down into
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: ravines and then we're going up onto like the chop
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: the plateaus right going back down again we're like in
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: the forest then we're back into the sun.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: And how often is someone asking the other one is
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: this a trail are we on a trail.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: I privately was being like maybe something is wrong maybe
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: something is wrong. I was in charge and I didn't
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: want to scare him. And we had been walking so long.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: It was like, it says we're on the trail. We
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: have to be on this trail. Right. So we're on
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: the trail and this is the trail we're supposed to
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: be on to leave.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: And you had seen that sign.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: We had seen that sign.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: And it's a loop.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: So it's a loop.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: You're like, we must be reaching the end. Yeah.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: What other trail could there be if not the trail
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: that we are on?
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Right. That everyone said was easy peasy.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: Right. Okay. And we just keep going. And at some
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: point I am starting to sing. Like I'm trying to
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: keep morale up so much. And I think we're both
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: getting scared because we're like, damn, we've been going for
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: a really long time.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: See, now if I'm on a trail with someone and
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: we're both questioning if this is indeed the trail and
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: they start to sing, I'm pissed.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: You're out. You're turning around.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You know what? I feel he did appreciate it.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: He appreciated the singing. It was either singing or like,
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: maybe I'm panicking.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: And I didn't want to do that.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: You definitely don't want someone panicking. So I guess if
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: you have to sing to not panic, then, you know.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: And I think more than anything, we were getting really tired.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: And his body was really hurting.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: It's hot out.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: It's so hot. He was really hurting. Also, the fun
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: deviousness of nature was that we would like go down
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: and then we would be climbing up to the top
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: of something. And it seemed so familiar to the point
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: where multiple times we would be like, Oh, when we
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: reach the top of this, this is going to be
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: where the car is. This will be where the car
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: is because. Yeah, it looks like where the car is.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: It looks exactly like where the car would be. So
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: then I think there reached a point like sunk cost
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: fallacy where we were kind of like, we've been going
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: so long and it is so hot and we are
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: so tired. And that was hard. That was hard, by
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: the way. Like we've been, we were going up and down.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: I don't want to turn around. Because I don't know
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: if we could do it.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: You're like, I'm not doing that again.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know if we could do it.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: And at some point you would then have to worry
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: about it getting dark.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: Exactly. So basically we like round a corner and his
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: body is like really hurting at this point. It's so hot.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: We round a corner and we were basically like, this
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: for sure is it. This for sure is it. We
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: like go down and we come up and we are
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: just like in the middle of nowhere. It is like
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: all you can see are trees.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: So you're not even like on a random logging road.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: You're in the forest.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: We are in the forest. We are on a trail
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: that's like this big, which by that point we had
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: really been losing, finding, losing, finding, like kind of just
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: being like, oh, that looks like something.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: And for reference, for those who are listening, this big,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: you're saying is about like three feet, three feet, three feet.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Small, two feet maybe.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Hope is beginning to dwindle.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Hope is, it's over.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, the hope is gone.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: The hope is gone. He's gone down. Now, I was
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: recalling this this morning in anticipation for telling this story.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: By some grace from above, we had one bar of
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: cell phone service. My phone was dead. Oh, no. And
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: his had 10%, 15% or something.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: You don't want to see that.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: But we had that one bar of service because we
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: were up on a freaking like top of a mountain. Yeah,
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: we were at some peak, which we have been like
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: ascending and descending in the forest.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Which is confusing. You're like, are we going down? Are
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: we going up?
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: I have no idea where we are, obviously.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: And have you gotten your little compass out at this point?
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Absolutely not. I didn't pull that thing out once. What
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: was I going to do? That was just going to
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: waste time.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: You're like, oh, okay.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Perfect. Northeast.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: That was just to add a little weight to your back. Yeah.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: That was for exercise purposes.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: So he goes down and he's so tired and like
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: so hurting that he can't even make it back up
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: to that cliff. And by that point, we had sort
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: of turned to each other and we were like, hey,
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: we're in a bad situation.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: We are not on the trail and we haven't been
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: on the trail for.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: Quite a while. Tensions were high. Tensions were high. Okay.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Is he pointing the finger or like what's the tensions
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: are high elaborate?
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: No, I don't think he's pointing the finger because I
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: think that we were in agreement. Certainly, if one of
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: us had said, hey, we got to turn around. Seriously,
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: we got to turn around.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: I think we would have turned around. So I think
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: we were sort of in agreement for how we were
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: continuing to go. But tensions got high when I was like, okay,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: we have one bar of service up on this mountain.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: Let me just check the map. I'm just going to
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: check the map and see where we are.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: You wanted to use the service to check the map?
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I'm like... I want to call my mom.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And you're correct. I was wrong. This is why
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: I'm bad boy. Because he was like, you need to
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: call 911. Oh, okay. You need to call 911.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: So by this point, Ryan knows. He's like, we're not
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: getting ourselves out of here.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: And honestly, he was right. Because I kind of was like,
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: certainly we are so close to the exit of this
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: forest that if I just simply check the map, I
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: can guide us out of here with my compass.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Just like I guided us around the loop.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: So I start checking the map, and he's screaming at me.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: That's when tensions start playing. He's screaming at me, yelling
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: at me, and he's like, call fucking 911. And I
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: was like, stop screaming at me.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, the phone's like, I now have 9%. Exactly.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Exactly. So I kind of frantically am looking at the map,
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: and then he was just like, seriously, call 911. And so.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: I can't remember. I must have called 911 first. Or
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: maybe we called, maybe he called his friend. Maybe he
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: called his friend and was like, I think we were
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: kind of like, we need to tell someone that we're lost.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's smart. Immediately. Because if you get cut off
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: from 911, at least someone else can, you know.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Yes. So I recall him calling a friend, basically being like, hey, man,
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: we are lost. Like, maybe we sent our location and
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: we're like, we're super lost. This is what's going on.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Maybe I called my mom, but I don't know
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: if we could get two calls in. And so then
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: we did call 911.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Did you get through?
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: We got through. One bar of service in the middle
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: of nowhere. It was truly a miracle.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: So I called 911.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: And you tell them what, like, we were supposed to
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: be on this one trail, but we're clearly not on it.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: And I don't know how to tell you where we are,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: because if I knew, we would have gotten back to
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: our car by now.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think I say something like, we are lost.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: in the woods. I'm assuming from every crime show I know,
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: you can trace this phone call. We are lost.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Do your little ping.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Do your ping. Ping the towers.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: And get here.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: And I was like, and by the way, the phone
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: is dying. The phone is dying. So please.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: So get here in a hurry.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: They were like, okay, so turn the phone off. And
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: then they were like 15 minutes before sunset, turn it
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: back on. It was pretty close to sunset at this point.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: So turn the phone off and 15 minutes before sunset,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: turn it back on.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: They gave us some arbitrary time before sunset to turn
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: the phone back on, which I was like, how will
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: we turn the phone back on?
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: And then it's like, I'm thinking to myself, I'm in
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: this situation, I'd be like, I have so many questions
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: about this instruction, but my phone is dying.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Or Ryan's phone is dying. Mine has died.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Mine has died.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: So you're just like, oh, okay.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So we were like, okay, sounds good. Hang up
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: the phone. And then we were like, no, this isn't...
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: This is.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: When things start to crumble between you.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: This is when things start to crumble. We're sitting on
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: like one of our beach towels, like eating the last
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: crumbs of our like kettle chips or whatever. And I'm
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: pissed at him because he was screaming at me. And
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: he's pissed at me because I was being stupid.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: You got you guys lost.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Okay, pay shot. Did I get us lost? Sounds like it.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, okay, you can decide later. I got us
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: lost or it was nature's problem. But yeah, we're just
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: like sitting there and we're like really not happy with
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: each other. And like, we're obviously both scared. It's very tense.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: We didn't have a lot of water and we're kind
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: of just like sitting there. So now it's like this
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: thing where we're like, okay, we think we're going to
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: get rescued.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Because does 911 tell you stay where you are? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: That's another instruction that I understand, but I wouldn't want.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't want to lose my autonomy here,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: even though I don't deserve it.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: I need free reign.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: I need to be able to roam.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: What if I get a good feeling about going down
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: that hill?
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, don't do that. Yeah. So you stay put on
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: the beach towel. We're staying put on the beach towel.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: We're kind of just like mad at each other. Eating crumbs.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Talking about like, what would we do if we had
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: to spend the night here?
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Because that was also a thing where it was like,
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: no other cars. Just absolutely no vehicles. Just bear poop. Like,
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: just bear poop. Oh, bears.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: You hadn't even gotten there yet.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sister.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Bears. No. Okay, I don't want to spend the night.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: No. I was thinking, of course, thank God I have
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: my multi-tool with my fire starter. Thank God. Thank God.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: So we're just sitting there, and I think to myself...
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: you know what? We're so close to the entrance. They're
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: going to like send a ranger. They're just going to
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: send a ranger on foot and he's going to come
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: get us.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Like you silly geese.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Uh-oh. Your car's over here.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: It's right here. Yeah, exactly.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: So I was just kind of waiting for someone to
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: meander down the hill.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Meander.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: I kind of also knew that that wasn't going to happen.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: So it was time to turn the phone back on.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: I turned the phone back on.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: Number.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: So right when they call, we then hear the helicopter.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: He's like, hey, we're in the helicopter. We're coming around
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: to get you. And then we hear the helicopter coming around.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: And I will admit to you, I was being extremely
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: not helpful. My head was in my hands and I
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: was just so embarrassed. I was so embarrassed. Meanwhile, Ryan
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: sort of took the beach towel and was waving it around.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: He's like, we're over here, boys.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: He was like, come over here, we're over here, which
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: is like what you should do. I was not being helpful.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: I think he then yelled at me to like be helpful. Yeah.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: I was like, hey guys, I'm here. Like pretty sheepishly.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: So when you realized they were going to have to
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: send a helicopter to reach you, like what were you
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: processing then about how far you had gone off the trail?
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Were you surprised?
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Were you like a helicopter? Yeah, I was like a helicopter.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: And I think in my head, I still was like,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: this is an overreaction. This is an overreaction. Like, they
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: have to do this because it's a rescue. But like,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: you guys, come on. Like, maybe because a car can't
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: get in here. They have to send the helicopter. But
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: I kind of still wasn't really processing. I thought we
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: were so close.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Because you were in charge.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: I was in charge and I had taken a screenshot
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: of the map. Right.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: So the helicopter is like looking for you.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: The helicopter is looking for us. But I think I
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: get another call and they're like, hey, we can't find you.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Oh, the towel's not working.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: We continue to wave more and they do finally spot us.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: How long do you remember that taking between like, Turn
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: it on 15 minutes before sunset. Get the call.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: I think it was like five minutes.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: But it probably felt like a long time. Yeah.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, they kept circling. I think at one point
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: they left and they came back around again because they
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: knew where we were. The cell phone pinging.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, right.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: So we're waving the towel. They finally find us. They're
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: circling around and we're like, why aren't they landing? Why
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: aren't they landing the helicopter? Time to land the helicopter.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Just go ahead and land the helicopter.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Right. Like, we're over it.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: Right. Just like, let's load up. But then they like
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: send this man down.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: From the helicopter?
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: From the helicopter. And the helicopter's like, I don't know,
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: 25 feet.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Up in the air. This is getting scary for me
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: because I'm like, do you think I'm going back up
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: with you? Oh, no.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: He rappels down fully like Indiana Jones style. Yeah. And
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: I have to tell you, as someone who's like in
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: the fight with Ryan and just being like, we hate
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: each other right now to like watch this like buff
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Coast Guard man rappel down off this helicopter.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: You're like, you better be nice to me.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: I'm going with him. Yeah. So he comes down and
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: he like marches over to us like Top Gun style,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: takes off his helmet. And he was like, Guys, it's
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: too rocky to land the helicopter here. We're going to
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: have to send down the basket.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: The basket?
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the basket.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Like the thing they dump water in?
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: It's like a shopping cart style basket, but like half
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: the depth.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, I would think you'd want quite a lot of depth.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: No, you don't get a lot of depth.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, no.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: You don't. And so they said, we're sending down the basket.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: And I was like, okay. I guess I'll go first.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: So they send down the basket and I get in
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: the basket and the helicopter is so high up. And
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: I do have to say, I'm very afraid of heights.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: This was probably the scariest part of the whole thing.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: You know, and like I know that they can stay
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: more stationary than a plane, but like I imagine they
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: still have to move around a little bit up there.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the propeller is going, it just feels very precarious.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Are you like harnessed in? No.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Oh. No, and by the way, oh, I did have
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: a hat. I did have a hat because I remember
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: in my head being like, oh my God, my hat
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: is going to fly off my head. It's going to
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: get into the propeller blades of the helicopter. And then
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: we all die. It's going to take the helicopter down.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: So I remember just holding onto my hat and going
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: like as evil.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: As I can. You're like, once again, I have to
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: be the hero.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Are you watching me? I'm just like hyperventilating, eyes closed,
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: being like... I get up into the helicopter. I scurry
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: to the back of the helicopter. And they're all kind
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: of looking at me like, you good? And it's so
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: loud in there. And I just was like, yeah, I'm good.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: And I like go back. Right.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Do you guys all take the same basket or now
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Ryan needs to take the basket?
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: Ryan needs to take the basket.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, you take the basket separately.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's no way that basket is fitting
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: two people.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: It's quite chivalrous that he sent you up first.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: I think it was more... I was testing it out. Oh, okay.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: He was seeing how it worked. I see.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: This is a trial run.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: There's no way, by the way, just to give you
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: an idea of how small that basket is, there's no
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: way two people are fitting in that basket.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I was picturing like a hot air balloon, if you will. No, no, no.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: I would say, again, think width and length of a
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: shopping cart, half the depth.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Scary stuff.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: That's not for me.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: No, it wasn't for me either.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Wow. Okay.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: He gets in to the helicopter and we sort of
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: just like, wordlessly look at each other like, oh my God,
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: what did we get into? And they're like, okay guys,
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: where's your car?
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: You're like, if we knew. Would you be here with
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: your helicopter?
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: We're like, look for the trailhead. Look for the baby
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: foot legs trailhead. Yeah. And they have Google Maps up
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: on a little iPad and they cannot find it.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: So now you're all lost. We're all lost.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: And we're like, really?
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Seriously?
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: Just like, again, just Google baby foot legs trailhead.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Go ahead.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: And they're like, wow, we can't find it. So like
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: they were having some trouble. It's almost sunset. And they
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: were kind of like, well, guys, we can't find where
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: your car is. So we're going to have to take
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: you back to the airport because we need to refuel.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: And we're like, okay, where?
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Where's the airport?
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He was like, well, by car, it's about two
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: and a half hours away in a town called Brookings, Oregon.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Never heard of it.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: Well, I have.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: So by helicopter, how far is that?
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: I don't remember how long we were in the helicopter.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: 30 minutes? 20 minutes?
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, still, just hearing that you're low on fuel,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: you're like, well, dang it.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And they were like, and it's getting dark out.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: I will say that they did give us a good,
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: they gave us a good, like, reassurance of hey it's
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: really good that you call this when you did because
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: a lot of people wait until it's dark out and
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: then it's really impossible to find people because we have
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: to use our heat seeking goggles.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Now if i'm ryan in this fight i'm looking at
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: you with dagger eyes as they're saying this like i
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: freaking told you i.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Know I know. And he was justified. He was justified.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: I'm the bad guy.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: So they take you back to this airport. But when
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: this happens, do they bring you food? Do they bring
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: you water? No.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: And remember, also it's COVID.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, right.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: So immediately we're in this helicopter, tiny little space with
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: these Coast Guard people who are so nice. Yeah. But
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: I'm like, we're contracting COVID right now from these strangers
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: because we also hadn't been around people. Right. This was
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: like the smallest space we had been in with someone.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: For a long time.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: And they're like, well, your risk factor in a helicopter
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: is already quite high, ma'am. You know?
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Exactly. So we land at this airport and it is
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: like in the middle of nowhere airport. And there's no
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: one there save for one man in a minivan who
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: Ryan tries to pay to drive us back to our car.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: And of course, it's COVID. Right.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: So he's like, hell no. So it's just us and
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: the Coast Guard. It's like kind of a really scary airport.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: There's like obviously one toilet and... It's not where you
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: want to be. No, we don't want to be there.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: And they were like, well, guys, we're not going to
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: get the orders to fly you back up to get
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: to the car in the dark. Like our captain's not
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: going to give us orders to fly you back. Right.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: So you have to stay there?
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: So we're like, well, what do we do? And they
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: call the sheriff of this town who was like going
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: to drive us... I don't know, somewhere. He certainly wasn't
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: going to drive us back. And so we're just like, well,
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: what do we do? Like, we can't call a taxi.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: We can't call a Lyft.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do they have phone chargers? Are your phones still dead?
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: Phones are, at this point, 10% and 0%. So then
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: I do remember being like, wait, Brookings, Oregon. I know
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: someone who lives in Brookings, Oregon.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: What?
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: I know. My dad's old co-worker slash friend Rory, shout
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: out Rory, lived in Brookings, Oregon. And in fact, Rory
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: was like, knew the cops.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: I was going to say in a small town, you
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: can probably be like, do you know Rory?
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: And he did. He did. Because Rory donated a lot
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: of money to the cops.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, well. Yeah. We're not out on Rory, but.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: You know what? Hey, everyone's got multifaceted.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: Yep. So these must be really good cops.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah. So I called my dad and I was like, dad,
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: so sorry. Hi, we've been helicopter rescued.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: My phone's at 10% and I really need you to
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: call Rory.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: I need you to call Rory and I need you
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: to ask Rory if we could come to his house
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: and he can help us because we're in Brookings, Oregon
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: and we have no one. Right, exactly. He is our
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: last and only hope. My dad calls Rory and Rory
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: says it's okay.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Wait, I have to know what your dad says or
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: is he just like, Okay, I'll call Rory.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: He was like, wait, what? Okay. I was like, I
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: probably was like, no time, no time, no time. Yeah. 10%.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: Call Rory. Call me back. We've been helicopter rescued.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: And so he was like, okay, yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: He calls me back and he's like, yeah, Rory says
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: it's fine. So Levi, the sheriff.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Levi.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: Uh-huh. Okay. He was actually really sweet. Yeah. And it
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: was kind of like, I've never been in the back
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: of a cop car. I sat in the back. Ryan
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: sat in the front, of course. Oh, perfect. And it's
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: kind of funny because he did stop at a gas
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: station to get us snacks.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's nice.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: But he left us in his cop car, like with
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: his shotgun in the... Oh, interesting. Kind of really trusted us.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: Which I guess why wouldn't he?
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, why wouldn't he? You guys have great judgment displayed
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: so far.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: We've already, yeah, let's just let it rip. So he
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: knows where Rory lives, I think, and drives us to
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: Rory's house. And then we get to Rory's house. And
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: I had been there as a kid multiple times. So
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: I kind of was familiar with it. And Rory is
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: like a pretty funny person where he's like very curmudgeonly,
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: but is very sweet. We tell them the story. He's like, hey,
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: it's my wife's 60th birthday party tomorrow. Why don't you
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: guys stay? And we were like, we can't because we're
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: so sunburned. We have no clothes and all of our
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: stuff is back at that campsite.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: Oh, the campsite in Cave Junction.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: And that's who's talking shit about Cave Junction is Rory.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: He's saying it's really dangerous.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: We were like, well, arguably Babyfoot Lake is the real
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: danger here.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: It's worse. It's worse. So he really kept trying to
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: get us to stay and we're like, we can't, but
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: can you drive us back?
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: It's only two and a half hours.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: It's only two and a half hours, so that'll be
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: a five hour round trip for you.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: You'll love it. So how do you eventually get back
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: to Cave Junction? Sweet Rory drives us at five o'clock
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: in the morning. Oh my gosh. Wow. What a guy. Yeah.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: He tries one more time to get us to stay.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: We're like, we really can't.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, you can't blame him.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: We really can't. We've already messaged to the Cave Junction host.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: And we're like, hey, long story short, we got helicopter rescue.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: We're going to be late to get our stuff. Because
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: we were just at checkout, I think, that day. She
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: was cool about it. Yeah, he drove us back.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: Two and a half hours.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: And once you and Ryan were alone again for the
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: first time after that, was there like a sense of
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: understanding this was the end? Because you still had to
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: get back to LA.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: You know what? I think, no, that was the beginning
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: of our road trip.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: We had a whole rest of the road trip to go.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: And honestly, I think surviving that situation gave us a
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: high because we were like talking about it with people. Right.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: It gave us this great story. I think it gave
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: us like a little bit more juice, but things really
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: did fall apart.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: And so once you get back to the campsite, Or
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: I guess once you start having these conversations with people
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: like your mom, you know, behind the scenes, like what
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: was going on? When were people starting to worry or
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: did people not know to worry until after you'd already
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: called 911?
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: That's a great question. I think my mom is just
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: automatically worrying no matter what. I can't remember because I
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: think by the time we called someone, I can't remember
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: if I called her. Gosh, I wish I could remember
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: these details for you.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, it's okay. I mean, a mom automatically worrying
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: makes perfect sense.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. I think she was just like probably really
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: worried from the start.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: What was her reaction to finding out what happened?
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: She was like.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: Like, what were you thinking?
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, more than anything, she's like, thank God
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: you're okay. I was praying. Oh, my God.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: And so then did you ever find out where you were?
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we did. So we were 11 to 12 miles away.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: on an old mining road. And what happened was, someone
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: contacted my ex and I sent you the newspaper article.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: And it's really funny because the email is like, there
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: could have been bodies. Which, like, he's not wrong.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: Like your bodies.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, our bodies. Yeah. And I saw that actually people
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: get rescued from that wilderness quite often, Kalmiopsis Wilderness.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: Because it is so... It's wilderness.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Easy to get lost. Yeah.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: Easy to get lost. And on the forest website, it
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: kind of says, bring a GPS because you will get lost.
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: We didn't know we were, of course, venturing into that wilderness.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: Anyway, yeah, we were 11 to 12 miles in on
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: an old mining road leading to absolutely nowhere. Wow. And
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: so the fire had burned down the signage.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: That would have... pointed us where to go so there
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: was like a very counterintuitive almost like backtrack to continue
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: on with the loop i see what must have happened
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: was that because the fire down burned down the signage
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: we didn't veer left when we were supposed to veer
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: left into where we're supposed to go and we just
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: kept going straight on an unmarked trail thinking that that
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: was the.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Trail right 12 miles and you're supposed to go on
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: a five mile loop and you're 12 miles and helicopter
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: 12 miles on a helicopter. And a two and a
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: half hour drive.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: Back to the car.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Did you continue the road trip?
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: We did.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: We did. We were kind of like, we have to.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: The worst has happened. The worst literally has happened. Nothing
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: more can happen that is bad. And so we did
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: continue the road trip. But yeah, that was the end
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: for us.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: That was the end.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: I think we definitely, it was kind of like, hey,
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: we have a lot of differences.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Not the least of which, you wanted to download
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: a map when I wanted to call 911. Yeah.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: It was silly. It was stubbornness. I think my advice
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: to people is like, don't be stubborn and just know
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: when nature got you.
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, to be fair to you guys, like, yeah,
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: if the signage had burned down, then I would hope
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: that there would be a new sign at the beginning
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: of the trail being like, there is no signage. Don't continue.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: Because that's dangerous.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: Which ultimately I think is why, here's what I've learned,
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: because the helicopter ride didn't cost us any money. So- One,
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: it was the Coast Guard, so that's federal. I think
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: a certain amount of mileage in from the coast will
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: be a Coast Guard rescue. That's a federal rescue. So
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: they can decide if they're going to charge you or not.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: I don't even think I realized, but of course people
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: get charged for those, just like an ambulance, right? Yeah.
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like it's their discrepancy. And if someone's
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: doing something stupid, like if we were wasted and we
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: fell and we broke our legs.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Like you're paying for that.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: Exactly. You're paying for that because you guys were drunk
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: and that was stupid. But it was kind of like, well,
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: we can't fault them. The signage burned down. Okay.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: And so this was a federal rescue. This was the U.S.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Coast Guard because where you were was not that far
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: from the Oregon coast. All right. And so then you
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: continue the road trip, but the relationship continues. Didn't make
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: it back to LA.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: The relationship, it did make it back to LA, but
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: it really was, I mean, there was just like so
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: many fissures.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's a pretty big crack in the foundation
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: to go through that, but I get what you're saying
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: about the high after. You know, I met my husband,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: we've been together since early 2013, right? But we had
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: one of our like worst fights over a hip camp.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: And we have a lot of differences. So I'm saying something.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: This hip camp fight happens the Christmas before COVID. And
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: we're deciding between Paris and an RV trip. And, you know,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: to not know that on the horizon is like a lockdown.
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: If you knew that, you'd pick Paris. But we didn't
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: know that. And my dog at the time, Bunker, a
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: very bad boy. Hard to find a sitter for Bunker.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: With a name like Bunker.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: Right. And he's... He's unkind in moments. He's not good
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: with other dogs. Separation anxiety, I mean, the whole bit. Like,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: I'm very good at making dogs feel loved and respected.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: I'm not good at them respecting me.
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: Bunker's walking all over you.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's walking all over me. Nobody can watch this
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: dog other than me. We just have some sort of
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: a truce. And so I'm like, we got to do
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: an RV trip because we can't leave him.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: Because Bunker.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: So we get this RV. Okay. We get a hip
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: camp in Joshua Tree. That's the first night of the trip.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: And it's Christmas Eve.
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: You don't have your baby. It's just the two of you.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: No, just the two of us. And Bunker, of course. Yeah.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: This is 2019. And the hip camp instructions are like, okay,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: you're going to get to this four-way stop. But it's
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: a dirt road, right? On someone's property. Yeah. And then
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: you're going to continue straight on this four-way stop. Well,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: straight ahead of us, and my husband's driving the RV,
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: are these logs that look very intentionally placed blocking the road.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: And so we're like, well, surely then we must have
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: to go one of the other directions.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: Crazy that in the listing it wouldn't be like, never
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: mind the logs. Yeah.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: But we're trying to reason what's really happening here. We're
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: looking at the directions, looking at the logs, trying to
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: get service, but we can't, to message the hippocamp people.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: So I don't know what came over us, but we
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: get out and we move the logs out of our
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: way and we continue on. And so we're driving. Well,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: of course, this was the wrong move. And we drive
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: and drive. We get nowhere except, you know, if you've
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: ever been to Joshua Tree at nighttime, it's dark. So dark.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: Like the only minor light pollution you're getting is from
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: the stars. Like there's nothing there. And, you know, before
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: working in podcasting and true crime, I'm a true crime
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: content consumer. So being in the desert in the pitch
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: darkness lost.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: That's where people get buried.
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: And I know it for a fact. And so my husband,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: he's like, we're driving. He's like, this can't be right.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: We got to turn around. So we try to turn around. Well,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: now we're not on a road and we get stuck.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, my God. And he's like, well,
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: do you want to drive or do you want to
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: get out and tell me where to like navigate the
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: RV to. And I'm like, I'm not getting out and
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: I'm definitely not driving. And so he's like, we got
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: to do one or the other. And so we're like,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not going out there. And he's like,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: there's no serial killers. It's just the desert and it's
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: dark outside. It wasn't even like that late.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: I thought that you think you stepped foot outside of
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: the RV, a serial killer laying in wait.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, good. That's where these hip campers have arrived. And
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: so we had to call this guy's is Christmas Eve
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: and this is our miracle of our hip camp debacle
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: is that this tow truck driver one man show local
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: to Joshua Tree answers the phone on Christmas Eve and
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: he's like yeah I can come get you out of there.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: It'll be $ 600. And we're like, oh, that's Christmas Eve. Yeah.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: Merry Christmas. So he gets us out of there. And honestly, look, $ 600,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: that's a lot of money. Yeah. But we would have
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: had to like call that RV rental company and been like, look,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: we had to leave it in the desert. So all
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: in all, great.
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: That is really scary.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: It was so scary. So he comes and he gets us.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: He tows us out. We get back on this road.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: We give up on this hip camp. And we end
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: up spending Christmas Eve night in a Lowe's parking lot.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: And like in the morning we wake up and I
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: notice we're like actually parked next to the Christmas trees
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: where they had the Christmas trees.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: It's kind of sweet.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: Kind of sweet, kind of festive. And then just beyond
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: that was like a El Pollo Loco.
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: You have everything you need.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: And Bunker thought it was a great trip. He was like,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: I love this. We're all together. I can run around
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: this parking lot. It was a dream for him. And so... Anyway,
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: hip camp has not been a success for me and
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: I wasn't even attempting to really camp. I was in
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: a motorhome.
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, did you get a response from what the
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: logs were?
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't remember. I think at some point
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: they were like, yeah, we put the logs there so
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: that you wouldn't go down that road and you would know. Like,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: I remember the takeaway from whatever they said being like,
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: that's not enough. Right. If we're going to get there
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: after dark, you got to have like signs because we
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: told them we're going to get there when it's dark.
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: So. I blame us 50% because we shouldn't have moved
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: the logs.
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: It was confusing though.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: It was so confusing. So that was our Christmas Eve
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: tow truck to Lowe's. I mean, I feel like nature,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: it's supposed to be peaceful. It can really bring it
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: out of you. It will be very humbling.
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: Very humbling.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And to this day, my husband brings it up.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: He's like, I can't believe you wouldn't get out of
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: that RV. It's like, you can't keep listening to these podcasts.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it will be scary.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: So stay safe out there. Well, thank you so much, Gabi,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: for coming into the studio and sharing your story with me.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: And as you know, Hannah's on. leave and she'll be
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: back soon so thanks everybody for listening thank you if
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: you have a story for us we would love to
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: hear it our email is the knife at exactly right
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: media.com or you can follow us on instagram at the
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: knife podcast or blue sky at the knife podcast this.
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: Has been an exactly right production hosted and produced by
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: me hannah smith and me.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: Patia eaton our producers are tom breyfogle and alexa samorosi.
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: This episode was mixed by tom breyfogle Our.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: Associate producer is Christina Chamberlain.
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: Our theme music is by Birds in the Airport.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: Artwork by Vanessa Lilac.
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: Executive produced by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark, and Danielle Kramer.