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This-trail-is-a-death-trap · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today's story is about a hidden message found on the
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Speaker 1: side of a mountain and how its contents change the
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Speaker 1: lives of three people forever. But before we get into
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Speaker 1: today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark
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Speaker 1: and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to
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Speaker 1: our weekly uploads. All right, let's get into today's story.
0:44
Speaker 1: Twenty four year old Gina Allen and her brand new
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Speaker 1: boyfriend twenty eight year old Brandon Day could not believe
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Speaker 1: their luck. For the past forty eight hours, they had
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Speaker 1: been stranded in the rugged wilderness of the San Jacino
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Speaker 1: Mountain Range in California. When they look down into this
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Speaker 1: room and they saw a campsite. There was a tarp
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Speaker 1: that had been strung up between two trees, and so
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Speaker 1: they ran over to it, hoping that the owner of
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Speaker 1: this campsite would be in there, and they could help
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Speaker 1: them get out of these mountains. But when they got
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Speaker 1: to the campsite, there wasn't anyone there, but from the
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Speaker 1: looks of it, it looked like someone had been living
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Speaker 1: in this site fairly recently. Underneath this makeshift roof from
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Speaker 1: this tarp was a sleeping pad, There was a warm sweater,
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Speaker 1: there was shoes, there was a disposable razor, some kitchen utensils,
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Speaker 1: and there was a yellow backpack. Without any hesitation, Brandon
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Speaker 1: and Gina, who were totally famished and they're exhausted and
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Speaker 1: they're desperate, they just start rifling through the different things
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Speaker 1: in camp, hoping to find some things that will help
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Speaker 1: save their life, like a cell phone or a radio,
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Speaker 1: or even just a lighter or some matches or some food.
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Speaker 1: And so Brandon focused on all the items that are
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Speaker 1: just kind of laying out under the tarp, and Gina
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Speaker 1: focused on the contents of the yellow backpack. And so
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Speaker 1: Gina she opens up this backpack and she starts pulling
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Speaker 1: out all these maps that are inside, and she notices
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Speaker 1: on the margins of these maps, in the white space,
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Speaker 1: there is handwriting and it's done in pen, and it
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Speaker 1: looks like it's been written fairly recently. Now. At first,
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Speaker 1: she didn't read any of the notes that were on
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Speaker 1: these margins. She was just kind of pulling them out
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Speaker 1: and stacking them on the ground next to her and
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Speaker 1: continuing to rummage through this bag. But at some point,
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Speaker 1: out of the corner of her eye, she noticed on
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Speaker 1: the top map that was sitting on the ground next
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Speaker 1: to her, there was a particular note at the top
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Speaker 1: of the page that as soon as she saw it,
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Speaker 1: she stopped what she was doing. She turned and looked
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Speaker 1: at it. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, and
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Speaker 1: in fact, she didn't want to get her hopes up,
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Speaker 1: but she slowly reached over. She picked the map up,
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Speaker 1: and she put it right in front of her face,
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Speaker 1: and as soon as she was reading it, she started laughing.
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Speaker 1: She was so happy, she was so relieved. She yelled
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Speaker 1: to Brandon to come over and look at this, And
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Speaker 1: so Brandon stopped what he was doing. He turned around,
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Speaker 1: and he bent down and he looked exactly where she
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Speaker 1: was looking, and when he read what she had read,
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Speaker 1: he started laughing too. They were saved. There at the
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Speaker 1: top of this map there was a note that was
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Speaker 1: dated the same date as the day they were there
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Speaker 1: May eighth, and so they knew whoever had written this
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Speaker 1: had written it at least in the last couple of hours,
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Speaker 1: because it was May eighth, and so they had to
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Speaker 1: be around here somewhere. And so Gina and Brandon they
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Speaker 1: stand up and they start yelling out for the owner
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Speaker 1: of this camp to please come out and help them.
3:22
Speaker 1: But in their excitement, Brandon and Gina had overlooked a
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Speaker 1: critical detail in this note, and it would turn out
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Speaker 1: that critical detail would change their lives and the life
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Speaker 1: of the man who owned this camp forever. Before Brandon
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Speaker 1: and Gina ever began their doomed hike into the San
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Speaker 1: Jacinto Mountain Range, another man, one which neither of them knew,
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Speaker 1: was gearing up for a hike of his own that
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Speaker 1: would take him through the San Jacinto Mountain Range. His
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Speaker 1: name was John Donovan, and on April nineteenth, two thousand
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Speaker 1: and five, which was the day he would begin this journey,
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Speaker 1: he was fifty nine years old. John had absolutely no family.
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Speaker 1: He was born and only child, and by the time
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Speaker 1: he was ten years old he had been orphaned and
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Speaker 1: basically had to raise himself from that point onward. By
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Speaker 1: the time John was in his twenties, he had moved
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Speaker 1: to Virginia, where he had taken a job as a
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Speaker 1: social worker, and despite making a fairly decent salary, he
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Speaker 1: refused to spend any more money than he absolutely had to.
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Speaker 1: It was a habit he had developed as an orphan
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Speaker 1: child trying to make ends meet with virtually no money whatsoever,
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Speaker 1: and as an adult that habit just never left him.
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Speaker 1: So as a result, for his entire life, all the
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Speaker 1: way up until he left for that hike in two
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Speaker 1: thousand and five, he never had anything nice. He basically
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Speaker 1: wore the exact same outfit virtually every single day. He
4:39
Speaker 1: never owned a car, he never owned a phone, he
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Speaker 1: never owned a computer, And when it came to where
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Speaker 1: he chose to live, he would always live in the
4:47
Speaker 1: most absurdly cheap dwellings possible, which included at one point
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Speaker 1: living in a partially burned down, abandoned savings bank with
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Speaker 1: no heat. John was a proud Irish Catholic. He drank
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Speaker 1: lots of whiskey, he swore like a sailor, and he
5:01
Speaker 1: had no problem speaking his mind no matter who he
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Speaker 1: was talking to. While he was a lovely person once
5:07
Speaker 1: you got to meet him, his unorthodox lifestyle and his
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Speaker 1: at times gruff exterior made it pretty difficult for him
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Speaker 1: to make friends for most of his life. But when
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Speaker 1: he was in his forties, he wanted to lose some weight,
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Speaker 1: and so he decided to join a hiking club. And
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Speaker 1: to his surprise, the other members of this hiking club
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Speaker 1: adored him. They thought he was hysterical, and he made
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Speaker 1: being out on the trails so much more fun and enjoyable.
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Speaker 1: And before long, all these members of this club became
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Speaker 1: John's family that he never had, and so John would
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Speaker 1: go on every single trip this hiking club went on
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Speaker 1: no matter what. That was the most important thing to
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Speaker 1: him in his life. When it came to hiking, though,
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Speaker 1: John was a bit of an anomaly. Even though he
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Speaker 1: would hike sometimes over four thousand miles in any given year,
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Speaker 1: he would still routinely get lost on trails he had
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Speaker 1: been on dozens and dozens of times. But despite being
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Speaker 1: totally self aware of this fatal flaw in his hiking abilities,
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Speaker 1: John rarely did anything to compensate for it. For example,
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Speaker 1: he didn't bring with him on most hikes a compass,
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Speaker 1: which would be the first thing you would think to
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Speaker 1: bring with you to stay oriented. Also because he refused
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Speaker 1: to buy a phone, he didn't have that to aid
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Speaker 1: him either if he ever got lost. In fact, John
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Speaker 1: rarely brought much of anything on any hike he went
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Speaker 1: on because John is what you would call a ultra
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Speaker 1: light backpacker, which basically meant you would only pack the
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Speaker 1: absolute bear essentials, and in John's case, sometimes less than
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Speaker 1: the absolute bear essentials. And despite his friends trying repeatedly
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Speaker 1: to get him to pack more equipment so he was
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Speaker 1: more prepared, he would always say, no, he knows what
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Speaker 1: he's doing and everything is good. And the truth is
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Speaker 1: John always did manage to get from point A to
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Speaker 1: point B on all of his hikes, some of which
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Speaker 1: included extremely difficult hikes, like the time he hiked the
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Speaker 1: five hundred mile long Colorado Trail or the time he
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Speaker 1: hiked the two one hundred and seventy five mile long
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Speaker 1: Appalachian Trail. Now, John would tell you that was all skill,
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Speaker 1: but his friends would say John was extremely lucky. He
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Speaker 1: would get lost and then at the last second he
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Speaker 1: would find the trail again, or he would lose some
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Speaker 1: piece of critical equipment, and then just someone on the
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Speaker 1: trail would happen to walk by that had an extra
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Speaker 1: set of whatever it was that John needed. And then
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Speaker 1: one time, when John was in Poland on a hike,
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Speaker 1: he slipped on this icy embankment where earlier that day
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Speaker 1: two other hikers had slipped and fallen to their deaths.
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Speaker 1: And John has now slipped on this same embankment. He's
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Speaker 1: careening down the sides, he's flailing, he can't stop himself,
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Speaker 1: and then the drawstring on his pants gets caught up
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Speaker 1: in a tree and that arrests his fall and it
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Speaker 1: saves his life. And so from that point on, John
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Speaker 1: would only wear those pants when he went hiking, and
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Speaker 1: he called them his lucky pants. In the spring of
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Speaker 1: two thousand and five, John and one of his very
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Speaker 1: close hiking friends named Ken Baker, who was roughly his age,
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Speaker 1: decided they were going to hike the two thousand, six
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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty mile long Pacific Crest Trail. This trail
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Speaker 1: spanned the entire west coast of the United States. It
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Speaker 1: starts in southern California, right on the border of Mexico,
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Speaker 1: and it goes all the way up to the very
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Speaker 1: northern end of Washington State, right on the border of Canada.
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Speaker 1: It takes the average hiker if they're going to do
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Speaker 1: this entire trail in one go, about five months, unless
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Speaker 1: there's bad weather conditions that impede them along the way.
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Speaker 1: John had been excitedly planning this epically long hike for
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Speaker 1: the better part of the last year. He had actually
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Speaker 1: typed out six pages on his typewriter of this itinerary
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Speaker 1: that planned out every single detail of this hike, down
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Speaker 1: to how many ounces of coffee he would need at
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Speaker 1: every stop along the way. John was especially excited about
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Speaker 1: this particular hike because it was going to be the
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Speaker 1: very first hike he would be doing after his retirement
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Speaker 1: from being a social worker, and apparently, John had huge
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Speaker 1: plans for his retirement. He wanted to travel all over
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Speaker 1: the United States. He wanted to go to Australia, China,
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Speaker 1: to Russia. He basically wanted to hike at least six
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Speaker 1: months a year, every single year until he was too
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Speaker 1: old or too weak to continue to do so. But
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Speaker 1: just a couple of days before John and Ken were
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Speaker 1: supposed to fly out to California to begin the Pacific
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Speaker 1: Crest Trail, Ken told John that he thought they should
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Speaker 1: actually postpone the start of this trip by about three weeks.
9:20
Speaker 1: He said, Southern California had experienced their snowiest winter in decades,
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Speaker 1: and so it would make sense to wait a little
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Speaker 1: bit of extra time to make sure all the snow
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Speaker 1: had melted and that they didn't get caught in any
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Speaker 1: sort of late snowstorm. Now, John was totally not having this.
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Speaker 1: He had spent so much time thinking about this trip.
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Speaker 1: He was so excited about it that he just couldn't
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Speaker 1: wait any longer. And so he told Ken, I'm sorry,
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Speaker 1: I'm going on the current timeline, whether I go alone
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Speaker 1: or not. And so on April nineteenth, two thousand and five,
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Speaker 1: John made his way to his office where he was
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Speaker 1: a social worker. His coworkers threw him a very small
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Speaker 1: retirement party, and he literally left the office, went straight
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Speaker 1: to the airport, and he flew to Southern California all alone.
10:04
Speaker 1: When he got there, he took a chance and reached
10:06
Speaker 1: out to one of his other hiking friends, a forty
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Speaker 1: eight year old tool salesman named Lynn Paget, and asked him,
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Speaker 1: you know, hey, I know you live in the area.
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Speaker 1: Would you be interested in coming on at least part
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Speaker 1: of the Pacific Crest Trail with me? I'm going to
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Speaker 1: start here in the next couple of days, and John
10:21
Speaker 1: was extremely excited when Lid said, you know what, sure,
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Speaker 1: I'd love to come along with you. And the two
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Speaker 1: of them made their way over to Campo, California, which
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Speaker 1: is right on the border of Mexico, and they began
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Speaker 1: their hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, but after going
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Speaker 1: only about one hundred miles, Lynd's feet started swelling so
10:38
Speaker 1: badly that he could not go any farther, and so
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Speaker 1: from that point onward, John would be alone. The San
10:43
Speaker 1: Jacinto Mountain Range is the first major mountain range that
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Speaker 1: the northbound Pacific Crest Trail hikers will encounter, and statistically,
10:51
Speaker 1: it's actually the most dangerous portion of the Pacific Crest Trail,
10:55
Speaker 1: as fifteen percent of all the fatalities that occur along
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Speaker 1: this huge trail occur in the San Jacinto Mountain Range.
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Speaker 1: It's a very steep mountain with a rapid rise in
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Speaker 1: elevation from the desert floor all the way up to
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Speaker 1: over ten thousand feet, which means in the summer, even
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Speaker 1: when it's extremely hot down around the base of this mountain,
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Speaker 1: it will probably be windy and snowing. At the top.
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Speaker 1: John reached the base of the San Jacinto Mountain Range
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Speaker 1: on May second, and as he began his slow climb up,
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Speaker 1: all of the hikers he was encountering were all talking
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Speaker 1: about the same thing. There was apparently some big snowstorm
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Speaker 1: that was due to hit the San Jacinto Mountain Range
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Speaker 1: in the next couple of days, and so all of
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Speaker 1: these hikers were actually evacuating the mountain to go to
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Speaker 1: this little town to wade out the storm. Everyone's fear
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Speaker 1: was they would get caught on Fuller Ridge when the
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Speaker 1: storm hit. Fuller Ridge is towards the top of the
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Speaker 1: San Jacinto Mountain Range, and it's probably the most dangerous
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Speaker 1: part of the entire mountain range. It's basically this totally exposed,
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Speaker 1: very steep section where if you lose your footing, there's
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Speaker 1: nothing to stop you from tumbling down to your death.
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Speaker 1: But when John heard this, he wasn't phased at all.
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Speaker 1: He was not about to evacuate because of some storm.
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Speaker 1: He was just going to continue up this mountain, go
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Speaker 1: over Fuller's Ridge, and carry on along the Pacific Crest Trail.
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Speaker 1: And so for the rest of the day he just
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Speaker 1: continued up the mountain, and eventually made camp about halfway up.
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Speaker 1: He actually stopped near two other hikers that were also
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Speaker 1: going to push through despite this storm. It was a
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Speaker 1: forty six year old nurse from Canada named Connie Davis
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Speaker 1: and her son, twenty year old Alex and they were
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Speaker 1: both very experienced high altitude climbers, and they had all
12:32
Speaker 1: the right gear and they were very well prepared. And
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Speaker 1: so that night, after both parties had set up their camp,
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Speaker 1: they struck up a friendly conversation during which John made
12:41
Speaker 1: some dismissive comments about Connie's parenting style that really agitated her,
12:45
Speaker 1: although it didn't seem like John really noticed he had
12:48
Speaker 1: upset her, and so, needless to say, the next morning,
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Speaker 1: Connie and her son had packed up and were long
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Speaker 1: gone by the time John was waking up. So John
12:56
Speaker 1: just got up. He looked at the sky was still clear,
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Speaker 1: although he did see some clouds rolling in, so he
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Speaker 1: could sense that, yes, a storm really is on the way.
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Speaker 1: But he decided he was still just going to continue
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Speaker 1: on towards Fuller Ridge, so he put his backpack on
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Speaker 1: and he began walking up the trail, and a little
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Speaker 1: while later, when he was nearing Fuller Ridge, but was
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Speaker 1: still several miles away. Three very well equipped hikers that
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Speaker 1: he had not seen before came charging down the path
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Speaker 1: towards him, and John stopped them and he said, hey,
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Speaker 1: you know, how is it up there? What's the weather like,
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Speaker 1: what's full of Ridge like? And they kind of looked
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Speaker 1: at John and sized him up, looking up and down,
13:29
Speaker 1: and they saw that, you know, he's got light clothes on,
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Speaker 1: he's got sneakers on, he doesn't have trekking poles. He
13:35
Speaker 1: just looks totally ill prepared for what he's walking into.
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Speaker 1: And they said to him, you know, I don't think
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Speaker 1: it's a good idea for you to continue on here.
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Speaker 1: This storm is going to hit any time now, and
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Speaker 1: we're not going to Fuller Ridge. We're actually turning around
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Speaker 1: and leaving because of the storm, and we have all
13:51
Speaker 1: the right gear. I mean, you should really consider turning
13:54
Speaker 1: around and leaving. But these three hikers would say, there
13:57
Speaker 1: was just no way they were going to change John's mind.
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Speaker 1: He was totally dead set on carrying on to Fuller Ridge,
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Speaker 1: and so the three men that had told him not
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Speaker 1: to go eventually just said, okay, you know, good luck,
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Speaker 1: and they carried on down the trail. And John continued up.
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Speaker 1: But despite John's earlier confidence in his plan to go
14:15
Speaker 1: to full of Ridge and continue through San Jacinto Mountains,
14:18
Speaker 1: when the snow actually started to fall sometime in the
14:21
Speaker 1: mid afternoon, John started to have doubts about his plans.
14:24
Speaker 1: There was already a lot of snow on the ground
14:27
Speaker 1: where he was from previous snowstorms, and that was making
14:30
Speaker 1: it hard to see the trail as it was, and
14:33
Speaker 1: now with all this additional snow starting to dump down,
14:36
Speaker 1: he was worried it was going to totally cover up
14:38
Speaker 1: the trail and he would lose it. And since he
14:40
Speaker 1: knew he kind of had a pension for getting lost
14:43
Speaker 1: on trails, this was a real concern. But he was
14:46
Speaker 1: still very stubborn, and so despite these second thoughts, he
14:49
Speaker 1: just continued on along. And so after a while he
14:51
Speaker 1: got to within maybe one or two miles of Fuller
14:54
Speaker 1: Ridge when he spotted up ahead of him two other
14:57
Speaker 1: hikers that seemed to be going in that direction. So
15:00
Speaker 1: he ran up to them and he yelled for them
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Speaker 1: to stop. And at this point, the snow is really
15:03
Speaker 1: starting to come down and the trail is completely wiped
15:06
Speaker 1: out and he can barely see in front of him
15:08
Speaker 1: and these two hikers they stop, and so he runs
15:10
Speaker 1: up to them, and when he gets up close, he
15:12
Speaker 1: can see it's actually Connie Davis and her son Alex
15:15
Speaker 1: from the night before, and so Connie is obviously not
15:18
Speaker 1: thrilled to see John again. But when he explained that
15:21
Speaker 1: he was having a really hard time staying on the
15:22
Speaker 1: trail and you know, could he just tag along with them?
15:25
Speaker 1: Connie said, you know what, that's just fine. We're happy
15:27
Speaker 1: to have you. But she explained to him she was
15:30
Speaker 1: not going up to Fuller Ridge. Instead, she was taking
15:33
Speaker 1: a more circuitous route that would bypass the ridge. It
15:36
Speaker 1: would take a lot longer, but it would be safer
15:39
Speaker 1: given the weather conditions. John assured her that that was
15:42
Speaker 1: totally fine. He would just trail along with them, and
15:44
Speaker 1: then at some point he would break off on his
15:46
Speaker 1: own and he would go up to Fuller Ridge and
15:49
Speaker 1: they could go their separate way. And so Connie, her son,
15:51
Speaker 1: and John begin walking along together. Now, Connie and Alex,
15:55
Speaker 1: they had crampons on their shoes, which are basically like
15:58
Speaker 1: metal cleats and allow you to very easily grip the
16:00
Speaker 1: snow and ice. They had trekking poles, they had all
16:03
Speaker 1: the right warm gear, and so they're easily moving along
16:06
Speaker 1: through these weather conditions. Meanwhile, John didn't have trucking poles
16:10
Speaker 1: or any high speed equipment. He did have crampons that
16:13
Speaker 1: he tried to put onto his shoes, but because he
16:16
Speaker 1: had sneakers that were not lined up to this type
16:18
Speaker 1: of crampon, they didn't really fit right, and so it
16:21
Speaker 1: caused him to constantly stumble and fall on the ground.
16:24
Speaker 1: And so that's how it went for a while until
16:26
Speaker 1: Connie and Alex reached this critical point. It was at
16:29
Speaker 1: this creek where they needed to go down and around,
16:33
Speaker 1: which would take them away from Fuller Ridge. And if
16:36
Speaker 1: John was going to continue like he said he would
16:38
Speaker 1: up to full a Ridge, that would be the point
16:40
Speaker 1: where he would break off from them and go up
16:42
Speaker 1: the mountain towards this ridge. And so Connie and Alex
16:45
Speaker 1: wait at the stream. They're turned around and they're looking
16:48
Speaker 1: back down the trail at John, who's fallen way behind
16:51
Speaker 1: at this point. And as they're looking at him, they're thinking,
16:54
Speaker 1: this is going to take a long time for him
16:56
Speaker 1: to finally catch up to us. And so Connie, who
16:59
Speaker 1: really was all that keen and hanging around John, that
17:02
Speaker 1: much longer. Anyways, she figured, you know what, John has
17:05
Speaker 1: made his intentions completely clear. He said, he is going
17:08
Speaker 1: up to Fuller Ridge. He is an adult, he is healthy,
17:11
Speaker 1: he can do whatever he wants. And so she yelled
17:14
Speaker 1: and waved to John and signaled that she and her
17:16
Speaker 1: son were going to go down this creek and this
17:19
Speaker 1: way to Fuller Ridge. So best of luck to you,
17:22
Speaker 1: and then Connie and Alex disappeared around the corner. Once
17:24
Speaker 1: John's hiking partners had gone, John got up to that
17:27
Speaker 1: creek and he was going to try to go up
17:29
Speaker 1: to full a Ridge, but by that point the snow
17:31
Speaker 1: was practically blinding. And so at this point John decided,
17:34
Speaker 1: you know what, I do need to turn around and
17:37
Speaker 1: go back down the mountain and evacuate to that town
17:39
Speaker 1: where everybody else had gone to to avoid the storm.
17:42
Speaker 1: And so John turns around and starts trying to backtrack
17:45
Speaker 1: along this trail back down the mountain. But the trail
17:49
Speaker 1: is gone, the snow has completely whited it out, and
17:51
Speaker 1: there's no other hikers anywhere nearby, and even if there were,
17:55
Speaker 1: he wouldn't be able to see them. And so for
17:57
Speaker 1: several hours, while it was still light out John did
18:00
Speaker 1: his best to navigate down the mountain, and then when
18:03
Speaker 1: the sun went down, he really had no idea where
18:05
Speaker 1: he was, and so instead of trying to stay on
18:08
Speaker 1: this trail that at this point he really didn't think
18:10
Speaker 1: he was on, he looked out away from the mountain
18:13
Speaker 1: and way down below he saw this big, bright cluster
18:17
Speaker 1: of lights. Even through the falling snow, he could clearly
18:19
Speaker 1: see those were lights of a city. And so he
18:22
Speaker 1: decided he would use that as kind of like his
18:24
Speaker 1: north star, and he would just continuously walk downhill towards
18:28
Speaker 1: those lights. And so for several hours he just began
18:31
Speaker 1: walking towards these lights, narrowly avoiding huge drop offs and
18:35
Speaker 1: climbing over boulders and avoiding trees and animals, And finally
18:38
Speaker 1: he got to this very critical point in his journey
18:41
Speaker 1: down to these lights. He reached this area called Long Valley,
18:45
Speaker 1: where he had a decision to make. He could either
18:47
Speaker 1: continue down the mountain, which would require jumping down into
18:51
Speaker 1: this ravine that once he did, he would not be
18:55
Speaker 1: able to climb back out again it was too steep,
18:58
Speaker 1: or he could turn around and hike way back up
19:01
Speaker 1: the mountain and goes some other direction. But at this
19:04
Speaker 1: point he had really no idea what direction was the
19:07
Speaker 1: best direction. All he knew is he needed to go
19:10
Speaker 1: down the mountain because his situation was getting worse and
19:13
Speaker 1: worse by the second. If he didn't find shelter soon,
19:15
Speaker 1: he might get hypothermia and just die out here. And
19:18
Speaker 1: so he decided he would jump down into this ravine,
19:21
Speaker 1: and so he laid on his stomach, he lowered himself
19:23
Speaker 1: down over the edge, and he dropped down into the
19:25
Speaker 1: valley below. Once he stood up, he just continued walking
19:28
Speaker 1: down the mountain, and at some point he spotted a
19:30
Speaker 1: stream that he began to follow along. And as he
19:33
Speaker 1: followed this ravine, which was taking him straight down the mountain,
19:36
Speaker 1: he noticed the ravine walls, these huge walls on either
19:39
Speaker 1: side of him, seemed to get closer and closer to him,
19:42
Speaker 1: like this ravine was kind of coming to a point.
19:45
Speaker 1: And then after a while he noticed up ahead the
19:47
Speaker 1: stream just kind of disappeared, and so he walked a
19:49
Speaker 1: little bit farther, and then he came to an abrupt stop.
19:52
Speaker 1: The water had disappeared because it had flown off a
19:55
Speaker 1: one hundred foot cliff that he was now standing in
19:58
Speaker 1: front of. He had come to the edge edge of
20:00
Speaker 1: this huge waterfall, and there was absolutely no way to
20:04
Speaker 1: lower himself down over it. It was an absolute fall
20:07
Speaker 1: to the death if he attempted to go down this waterfall.
20:10
Speaker 1: And so he looked to his left, and he looked
20:12
Speaker 1: to his right, and these huge canyon walls that had
20:14
Speaker 1: followed him all the way to this edge from when
20:18
Speaker 1: he dropped down. They were sheer cliffs. There was no
20:20
Speaker 1: way to climb those, and his initial drop into this
20:24
Speaker 1: ravine was unclimbable. He knew that going in, and so
20:28
Speaker 1: he was boxed in. He was trapped, and he likely
20:31
Speaker 1: knew that it would be at least a week or
20:33
Speaker 1: more before anybody figured out that he was even missing.
20:37
Speaker 1: And so totally disheartened, John left the edge of this cliff,
20:41
Speaker 1: this waterfall and walked back up to a relatively flat
20:44
Speaker 1: area farther up the ravine, and he began to set
20:47
Speaker 1: up camp. He pulled out his green tarp, he put
20:49
Speaker 1: some line between two trees, He made a makeshift roof,
20:53
Speaker 1: He laid out his bed mat underneath, and then he
20:55
Speaker 1: climbed underneath the tarp and he settled in for a
20:58
Speaker 1: long night. The next morning, when the sun came up,
21:00
Speaker 1: John attempted to make a fire, but none of the
21:04
Speaker 1: wood he was finding was dry enough, so all of
21:06
Speaker 1: his fires just kind of smoldered but didn't really catch.
21:09
Speaker 1: He had a mirror, a signal mirror, and he was
21:11
Speaker 1: prepared to flag down any aircraft that flew overhead, but
21:16
Speaker 1: no aircraft did, so he didn't flag anyone down, and
21:19
Speaker 1: so by the end of that night he was back
21:21
Speaker 1: under his tarp, having made no progress, settling in for
21:24
Speaker 1: another freezing, cold, sleepless night. The next morning, when the
21:28
Speaker 1: sun finally came up again, John was totally disheartened, and
21:31
Speaker 1: he decided to start jotting notes down on the margins
21:35
Speaker 1: of his map, which was the only place he had
21:37
Speaker 1: spaced to write. He figured he would keep a sort
21:39
Speaker 1: of diary that way, if he didn't get out of here,
21:42
Speaker 1: someone would figure out what happened to him. And so
21:44
Speaker 1: his first entry was that day, May fifth, and he
21:47
Speaker 1: wrote that his friend Ken was right. He should have
21:50
Speaker 1: postponed the strip by three weeks and avoided the bad weather.
21:53
Speaker 1: Ken was the smart one, and also in this May
21:56
Speaker 1: fifth entry, he took an inventory of his food supply.
21:59
Speaker 1: He said he only had twelve cheese crackers left, and
22:02
Speaker 1: then on May eighth, John wrote a note that said,
22:05
Speaker 1: took a fall two week to climb out of canyon.
22:09
Speaker 1: Down is a gorge, no way out. This was the
22:12
Speaker 1: message that Gina and Brandon discovered when they stumbled on
22:16
Speaker 1: this campsite. But the significance of this note was not
22:19
Speaker 1: literally what he wrote, but rather when he wrote it.
22:23
Speaker 1: On May sixth, Brandon Day and his girlfriend Gene Allen
22:27
Speaker 1: were in Palm Springs for a business convention. Brandon was
22:31
Speaker 1: a financial advisor and so he was out here for
22:33
Speaker 1: business and Gina was his guest, so she was really
22:36
Speaker 1: just vacationing. And so towards the end of the convention,
22:38
Speaker 1: when Brandon had some free time, he and Gina decided
22:41
Speaker 1: to leave the hotel and go on hike somewhere, and
22:44
Speaker 1: so they actually linked up with a tour group that
22:46
Speaker 1: was leaving the hotel that was heading over to this
22:49
Speaker 1: tram station where they were going to take a tramcar
22:51
Speaker 1: all the way up to the top of the San
22:53
Speaker 1: Jacincto Mountain range. A tramcar is basically like a ski lift,
22:57
Speaker 1: except once you ride it to the top of the mountain,
22:59
Speaker 1: you don't do any skiing. You just do sightseeing. And
23:02
Speaker 1: so Brandon and Gina they get to this tramcar, they
23:04
Speaker 1: hop inside, they get to the top and it's totally amazing,
23:07
Speaker 1: beautiful view. There's snow at the top, and they're told
23:10
Speaker 1: they have about twenty or thirty minutes before their group
23:12
Speaker 1: is going to take the tram car back down again,
23:15
Speaker 1: and so Brandon and Gina decide to kind of venture
23:17
Speaker 1: off away from the main group and have some alone
23:20
Speaker 1: time before they leave again. And as they kind of
23:22
Speaker 1: venture off, they start to hear what sounds like a waterfall,
23:26
Speaker 1: and so the two of them are kind of looking around,
23:28
Speaker 1: asking if they can see it or if they know
23:29
Speaker 1: where it is, and they don't, and so they say, hey,
23:32
Speaker 1: do you want to just leave the trail and walk
23:33
Speaker 1: towards this waterfall? It can't be far. It sounds like
23:36
Speaker 1: it's only maybe a couple of minutes away. We'll take
23:38
Speaker 1: some pictures, we'll come back, and then we'll catch the
23:40
Speaker 1: tram back down again. And so they decide this is
23:42
Speaker 1: a great idea. They leave the path and they start
23:45
Speaker 1: walking towards the sound of this waterfall. But after walking
23:48
Speaker 1: for a pretty significant distance, they realize this sound of
23:52
Speaker 1: this waterfall is not getting any closer. It seems to
23:55
Speaker 1: actually just be getting farther and farther away. And what
23:58
Speaker 1: they didn't know was happening was the sound of the
24:00
Speaker 1: waterfall was actually echoing off the walls of this mountain.
24:03
Speaker 1: It was basically playing a trick on them. The acoustics
24:06
Speaker 1: made it seem like it was really close, but really
24:09
Speaker 1: it wasn't. It was pretty far away. And so by
24:11
Speaker 1: the time they finally did locate this waterfall, they knew
24:14
Speaker 1: they had ventured fairly far off the main trail and
24:17
Speaker 1: they really needed to hustle to get back up to
24:20
Speaker 1: the tram station to meet their group and catch that
24:22
Speaker 1: last car out. And so they took a couple of
24:24
Speaker 1: pictures of this waterfall and then quickly turned around and
24:27
Speaker 1: began booking it back towards the station. But on their
24:30
Speaker 1: return trip, which they believed they were going in the
24:33
Speaker 1: right direction, they started hearing the sound of voices coming
24:36
Speaker 1: from the tram station, but they were coming from a
24:39
Speaker 1: different direction, and so Ginea and Brandon stopped and they're thinking,
24:42
Speaker 1: you know, I think we got to go this way,
24:43
Speaker 1: but clearly that's the sound of the other people in
24:47
Speaker 1: our group coming from that direction. And so they decide
24:50
Speaker 1: to follow the sound of the voices. But just like
24:52
Speaker 1: the sound of the waterfall, the sound of the voices
24:55
Speaker 1: were not coming from that direction. That was just an
24:58
Speaker 1: echo bouncing off the wall. It was basically a trick
25:01
Speaker 1: the mountain was playing on Brandon and Gina. So they
25:04
Speaker 1: start walking in the wrong direction, and after walking for
25:08
Speaker 1: quite a while and not getting anywhere near the tram station,
25:11
Speaker 1: the voices just finally stop and they look at their
25:14
Speaker 1: watches and they realized they missed the cutoff. They missed
25:17
Speaker 1: the last tram. All those tourists they were with they've left.
25:21
Speaker 1: They are now alone somewhere out in the middle of
25:23
Speaker 1: the mountains. But they did not panic. They figured, you
25:26
Speaker 1: know what, we'll just make our way to the tram
25:28
Speaker 1: station and we'll either catch the next tram or you know,
25:31
Speaker 1: maybe there's a paythone or something up there we can use,
25:33
Speaker 1: and you know, we'll figure it out. Now, it's important
25:36
Speaker 1: to mention that Brandon and Gina did not expect to
25:39
Speaker 1: spend very much time out in the elements. They expected
25:43
Speaker 1: to get on a tram, stay at the top of
25:45
Speaker 1: this tram station with a bunch of other tourists, where
25:48
Speaker 1: there was a restaurant in a bar, and then they
25:50
Speaker 1: were going to ride that tram car back down and
25:52
Speaker 1: be back at their hotel before dinner time. As such,
25:55
Speaker 1: they didn't bring any supplies. They didn't even have their
25:58
Speaker 1: cell phones. They had left those in the hotel room
26:00
Speaker 1: because they wanted to make sure they were focused on
26:03
Speaker 1: each other, and so all they had were the clothes
26:05
Speaker 1: on their back, which were very light. They had tank
26:07
Speaker 1: tops and some sweatpants on. They each had a very
26:10
Speaker 1: light jacket as well, and they had a wallet and
26:13
Speaker 1: some chapstick. They had no water, they had no food,
26:16
Speaker 1: and so Brandon and Gina they begin walking around in
26:19
Speaker 1: search of this tram station, and for several hours, despite
26:22
Speaker 1: their best efforts, they don't find it. And then before
26:26
Speaker 1: long the sun is going down and the temperature is
26:28
Speaker 1: dropping rapidly, and so eventually, after it becomes too dark
26:32
Speaker 1: to continue to move around, the couple winds up going
26:35
Speaker 1: into a cave where they huddle up all night, barely
26:38
Speaker 1: avoiding becoming hypothermic. The next day, when the sun comes up,
26:42
Speaker 1: they haven't slept it all. They climb out of their
26:44
Speaker 1: cave and they continue walking around the mountain in hopes
26:47
Speaker 1: they find this tram station. But eventually they get to
26:50
Speaker 1: one of the higher points of the area they were in,
26:53
Speaker 1: and they have a pretty good vantage point around them,
26:55
Speaker 1: and when they start looking out, they don't see the
26:57
Speaker 1: tram station. They don't see anything but wilderness in all directions.
27:02
Speaker 1: So they decided their best bet was just to walk
27:05
Speaker 1: straight down the mountain and try to just walk off
27:08
Speaker 1: the mountain. And they figured as they began walking down
27:11
Speaker 1: the mountain that the tour guide had probably recognized they
27:14
Speaker 1: were short two people the day before, and so certainly
27:17
Speaker 1: a search had been launched and there were people looking
27:19
Speaker 1: for them, and probably they would be found long before
27:23
Speaker 1: they ever had to actually walk off this mountain. But
27:26
Speaker 1: little did they know their tour guide that had brought
27:28
Speaker 1: them onto the tram and then brought that group down
27:31
Speaker 1: they had recognized they were short two people, but they
27:34
Speaker 1: assumed those two people must have just taken an earlier tram,
27:37
Speaker 1: and so nothing was reported. Nobody was looking for them,
27:40
Speaker 1: and so all day Brandon and Gina made their way
27:43
Speaker 1: down this very steep mountain, falling half the time smashing
27:46
Speaker 1: into rocks and trees and getting cut up on men's
27:49
Speaker 1: anita bushes. It was just this awful experience, and by
27:52
Speaker 1: the time the sun was going down, they had no
27:54
Speaker 1: sense of how close they were to the bottom. They
27:56
Speaker 1: didn't have a good viewpoint. They were just kind of
27:58
Speaker 1: trapped inside of the wylderness. So once again they huddled
28:02
Speaker 1: up for the entire night. This time they didn't have
28:04
Speaker 1: a cave to protect them from the wind, and so
28:06
Speaker 1: it was just another absolutely miserable night. And so finally
28:10
Speaker 1: the sun comes up on the third day and Brandon
28:12
Speaker 1: and Gina they're up and they are moving straight down
28:15
Speaker 1: the sill. They want to get out of there as
28:16
Speaker 1: soon as they can, And after smashing into more boulders
28:19
Speaker 1: and more trees and get more banged up, they finally
28:22
Speaker 1: arrive at the same drop off down into a ravine
28:26
Speaker 1: in Long Valley that John had gotten to. And so
28:29
Speaker 1: they're standing over this ravine debating whether they should make
28:32
Speaker 1: the leap and jump down into this ravine, even though
28:35
Speaker 1: it means they can't climb out again, and so they're
28:38
Speaker 1: looking around. They're figuring, you know what, we don't really
28:40
Speaker 1: have a better choice. We don't really have the energy
28:42
Speaker 1: to climb all the way up and try to go
28:45
Speaker 1: a different way, and we don't even know if those
28:48
Speaker 1: ways are more advantageous, and so, just like John, they
28:51
Speaker 1: turn around onto their stomachs, they grip the top of
28:54
Speaker 1: this drop off and then slip down into the ravine.
28:56
Speaker 1: Once they stand back up, they start walking down this
28:59
Speaker 1: ravine and spot a river, and they run over to
29:02
Speaker 1: the river and they drink as much water as they
29:03
Speaker 1: possibly can, and it's a huge morale booster. And then
29:07
Speaker 1: they get back up again and they're continuing walking down
29:09
Speaker 1: the stream when off in the distance they notice a
29:12
Speaker 1: green tarp strung up between trees. It was John's campsite,
29:16
Speaker 1: and so Brandon and Gina they'd run over to this campsite,
29:19
Speaker 1: and they eventually come across John's notes on the margins
29:22
Speaker 1: of his maps. But after standing up and yelling out
29:25
Speaker 1: for this owner to please come out here and help us.
29:28
Speaker 1: We need your help. We're lost, and then no one
29:31
Speaker 1: came out of the woods. No one heard them, no
29:33
Speaker 1: one responded. Brandon went back to the note and he
29:36
Speaker 1: looked at it again, and that's when he noticed it.
29:39
Speaker 1: The note had been written on May eighth. However, it
29:43
Speaker 1: had been written on May eighth, two thousand and five,
29:46
Speaker 1: the year that Brandon and Gina were reading. It was
29:49
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, so this note was one year old.
29:53
Speaker 1: John had just happened to get lost and write a
29:56
Speaker 1: note on the exact same calendar day. Gina and Brandon
30:01
Speaker 1: arrived at his campsite and discovered the note. In their
30:04
Speaker 1: initial excitement and joy that they might get saved, they
30:07
Speaker 1: did not pick up on that year discrepancy. The couple
30:11
Speaker 1: began looking more closely at all of the gear underneath
30:13
Speaker 1: the tarp, and they noticed all of the metal objects
30:16
Speaker 1: like the forks and spoons, and the pots and the pans,
30:19
Speaker 1: they were all starting to rust, and some of the
30:22
Speaker 1: other objects, like the shoes, looked like they had been
30:24
Speaker 1: sitting in the same spot for a really long time.
30:27
Speaker 1: They both started to get a really bad feeling about
30:30
Speaker 1: this campsite, like something terrible had happened there. Gina emptied
30:34
Speaker 1: the yellow backpack's contents onto the ground, and that's when
30:37
Speaker 1: they found a wallet. They opened it up and they
30:39
Speaker 1: pulled out an ID card, and it was John Donovan's
30:42
Speaker 1: ID card, So now they knew who had written the
30:44
Speaker 1: note and who owned this camp. Afterwards, Gina and Brandon
30:48
Speaker 1: laid out all of the maps to see if there
30:50
Speaker 1: were other messages that they had not read yet, and
30:53
Speaker 1: there were there were two other additional messages after the
30:56
Speaker 1: May eighth message. On May eleventh, John said he was
30:59
Speaker 1: celebrated his sixtieth birthday and that unfortunately he was down
31:03
Speaker 1: to his last two cheese crackers. And then in his
31:06
Speaker 1: final message on May fourteenth, John wrote, headed down to
31:10
Speaker 1: creek for water, goodbye, love you all Devastated, the couple
31:14
Speaker 1: knew what they were reading were almost certainly John's last words,
31:18
Speaker 1: and his body was most likely somewhere around here. And
31:21
Speaker 1: then it dawned on the couple that if John, who
31:23
Speaker 1: seemed like an experienced hiker who had all this gear,
31:26
Speaker 1: if he had gotten trapped and died out here, then
31:30
Speaker 1: how did they stand any chance? With no experience and
31:33
Speaker 1: no equipment, and so, not knowing what else to do,
31:36
Speaker 1: Gina just rounded up all of John's things. She stuffed
31:39
Speaker 1: them into his yellow backpack, and then she shouldered the pack,
31:42
Speaker 1: and then she and Brandon just walked away from John's
31:45
Speaker 1: campsite and continued walking downhill, hoping that up ahead there
31:49
Speaker 1: was not going to be some gorge like John had
31:52
Speaker 1: mentioned in his May eighth note. But unfortunately, after walking
31:56
Speaker 1: for a little while they reached that cliff with the
31:58
Speaker 1: one hundred foot drop with the waterfall going off the
32:01
Speaker 1: side of it, and they realized that they were trapped,
32:04
Speaker 1: same as John. There was nothing they could do, and
32:07
Speaker 1: so totally speechless and shocked, they just both sat down.
32:10
Speaker 1: They didn't look at each other, and they just sat
32:13
Speaker 1: there wondering what was going to happen next, and they
32:15
Speaker 1: both were thinking, you know, this could be the place
32:18
Speaker 1: where I died. At some point, Gina kind of snapped
32:21
Speaker 1: out of her trance and she took John's backpack and
32:23
Speaker 1: she began rifling through it, pulling everything out all over again,
32:27
Speaker 1: and Brandon asked her, you know, what are you doing,
32:29
Speaker 1: and she said, well, you know, maybe there's something in
32:31
Speaker 1: here that we missed. Maybe there's a secret pocket or
32:34
Speaker 1: something in here that could help us. And so she
32:36
Speaker 1: rifles through this bag and sure enough, she finds inside
32:39
Speaker 1: of a small pocket in the bottom of the bag
32:42
Speaker 1: was another bag, a little plastic bag, and inside of
32:45
Speaker 1: it were matches and they were still dry, and so
32:49
Speaker 1: immediately the couple pulled them out and they start to
32:51
Speaker 1: round up logs to try to make a fire, and
32:53
Speaker 1: as soon as they light it, it doesn't catch because
32:56
Speaker 1: all the logs in the area that were on the
32:58
Speaker 1: ground were wet from previous storms and rainstorms, and so
33:02
Speaker 1: all night they tried lighting these fires, but they all
33:04
Speaker 1: just kind of smoldered out, and so eventually, after the
33:07
Speaker 1: sun went down, Gina and Brandon, who were totally disheartened,
33:10
Speaker 1: they went back up to John's campsite and they went
33:12
Speaker 1: under his tarp and they huddled together for another freezing
33:15
Speaker 1: cold night. The next morning, Brandon woke up because he
33:18
Speaker 1: actually did fall asleep, and Gina was still sleeping, and
33:22
Speaker 1: so Brandon decided to just leave the tarp and go
33:24
Speaker 1: out and get a breath of fresh air. He knew
33:27
Speaker 1: they were in a terrible position, but he just wanted
33:29
Speaker 1: to clear his head. So he stood up, and he
33:31
Speaker 1: could barely stand. He was so achy and tired, and
33:34
Speaker 1: he was so hungry, and he decided he would just
33:36
Speaker 1: walk down to the edge of this cliff and look
33:39
Speaker 1: out into the valley to see if maybe there was
33:42
Speaker 1: a way down. And so he walked along the river,
33:44
Speaker 1: stopping periodically to get a sip of water, until he
33:47
Speaker 1: got to the very edge. And when he got there,
33:50
Speaker 1: he looked down and he saw something that he had
33:52
Speaker 1: not seen the day before. There in a pool of water,
33:55
Speaker 1: all the way down, one hundred feet down, was a
33:58
Speaker 1: body lying face down in a pool of water, and
34:01
Speaker 1: that body belonged to John Donovan. Brandon was too far
34:04
Speaker 1: away to actually confirm if that really was John, but
34:08
Speaker 1: he instantly knew. But instead of being scared or saddened
34:11
Speaker 1: or depressed by the sight, it kind of invigorated Brandon
34:15
Speaker 1: and reminded him that if he doesn't act, he and
34:18
Speaker 1: Gina were going to die too. And so Brandon decided
34:22
Speaker 1: he wasn't going to set some small campfire to try
34:24
Speaker 1: to signal someone. He was going to try to light
34:27
Speaker 1: the entire forest on fire. And so he walked back
34:30
Speaker 1: up to the campsite and he got the matches out
34:32
Speaker 1: from the backpack, and then he walked into the forest
34:34
Speaker 1: aways that was right near the river and near their campsite,
34:37
Speaker 1: and he found this tree that was obviously dead, and
34:40
Speaker 1: he walked around gathering as much drywood as he could,
34:43
Speaker 1: and he propped it up against this dead tree, and
34:45
Speaker 1: then he put as much kindling as he possibly could
34:48
Speaker 1: into this hole in the trunk of this dead tree.
34:51
Speaker 1: And after doing all this prep work, he got his
34:53
Speaker 1: matches out and he lit smoke the kindling, and to
34:56
Speaker 1: his surprise, the tree caught on fire almost immediately. In fact,
35:01
Speaker 1: it burned so quickly and so big that Brandon had
35:04
Speaker 1: to run away so that he didn't catch on fire.
35:07
Speaker 1: And before long all these trees are catching on fire,
35:10
Speaker 1: and he had to run all the way back to
35:11
Speaker 1: the campsite and wake Gina up. So he grabs Gina
35:14
Speaker 1: that get up, and they run all the way over
35:16
Speaker 1: to the edge of the waterfall and they turn and
35:19
Speaker 1: they're just watching half an acre just completely erupt in flames,
35:23
Speaker 1: and all this black smoke is billowing up into the sky.
35:26
Speaker 1: And then about an hour later, after the fire had
35:29
Speaker 1: eventually just kind of died out on its own, Gina
35:32
Speaker 1: and Brandon heard the distant rumblings of a helicopter. They
35:35
Speaker 1: had seen the smoke and they were coming to rescue them.
35:37
Speaker 1: Gina and Brandon would be airlifted out of the ravine
35:40
Speaker 1: and would make full recoveries. John Donovan's body would be
35:43
Speaker 1: recovered three weeks later. His cause of death could not
35:46
Speaker 1: be determined. Some say that final note he left on
35:49
Speaker 1: May fourteenth, where he said he was going down to
35:51
Speaker 1: the creek to get water and then said goodbye, I
35:54
Speaker 1: love you all that that was sort of a suicide.
35:57
Speaker 1: Note that he actually threw himself off that cliff to
36:00
Speaker 1: end his suffering. Others say he just walked down to
36:02
Speaker 1: the edge of this waterfall and was trying to get
36:05
Speaker 1: a drink of water from the creek when he slipped
36:07
Speaker 1: and then fell over the edge to his death. But
36:10
Speaker 1: we'll never know for sure. What we do know for
36:12
Speaker 1: sure is that in two thousand and five, when John
36:15
Speaker 1: Donovan was still alive and missing, had he been rescued,
36:18
Speaker 1: he would have left the valley with all of his supplies,
36:21
Speaker 1: including those matches, which would have meant in two thousand
36:24
Speaker 1: and six, when Brandon and Gina found themselves in that ravine,
36:28
Speaker 1: there wouldn't have been a way to start that fire,
36:31
Speaker 1: and so they would have died. In fact, the helicopter
36:33
Speaker 1: pilot that did come up and rescue Brandon and Gina,
36:36
Speaker 1: he would say there was nobody planning to search that area.
36:40
Speaker 1: This was not an area they believed Brandon and Gina
36:43
Speaker 1: would be, and so it really was only because of
36:46
Speaker 1: that fire that those two lived. As such, the couple
36:49
Speaker 1: said they owe their lives entirely to John Donovan and
36:53
Speaker 1: his unbelievable sacrifice. On July eleventh, two thousand and six,
36:57
Speaker 1: a funeral was held for John in Virginia. Eighty people
37:00
Speaker 1: showed up for it, most of them were his hiking
37:03
Speaker 1: friends from his club. After the service was over, they
37:05
Speaker 1: all kind of poured out onto the cemetery lawn around
37:08
Speaker 1: John's grave site, and as the bagpipes played amazing grace.
37:12
Speaker 1: Lynn Paget, the man who had done the first one
37:15
Speaker 1: hundred miles of the Pacific Crest Trail with John before
37:19
Speaker 1: his feet swelled up and he had to leave. He
37:21
Speaker 1: walked around the crowd handing out red solo cups filled
37:24
Speaker 1: with a tiny bit of John's favorite whiskey, and then,
37:27
Speaker 1: after making sure all of the adults had their drinks,
37:30
Speaker 1: Lynn went to the head of his very good friend's
37:33
Speaker 1: grave and he delivered a beautiful eulogy. In it, he
37:36
Speaker 1: tells the crowd that he thinks of John all the time,
37:39
Speaker 1: he misses him terribly, and at night he has the
37:41
Speaker 1: same dream. He's walking down this trail next to a stream,
37:45
Speaker 1: and then the stream bends off to the side, and
37:47
Speaker 1: as soon as he walks around the bend, he sees
37:49
Speaker 1: this green tarp, and he knows it's going to be John,
37:53
Speaker 1: and so he yells, hey, comrade, Hey, comrade, And as
37:55
Speaker 1: he's walking over to the tarp, he realizes John isn't there.
37:59
Speaker 1: All it is is a pack and some shoes on
38:01
Speaker 1: a rock. As for Brandon and Gina, they did stay
38:04
Speaker 1: a couple after the ordeal, but they would ultimately break
38:07
Speaker 1: up two years later. So that's going to do it. Guys.
38:09
Speaker 1: If you found the secret in today's episode, let us
38:12
Speaker 1: know in the comment section what it is and where
38:14
Speaker 1: you found it. So give us the timestamp, and for
38:16
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38:18
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38:20
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38:23
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38:26
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