0:02

[Music]

0:10

thank you

0:18

[Music]

0:35

foreign

0:43

s of people have mysteriously vanished in America's Wilderness join us as we

0:49

dive into the deep end of the unexplainable and try to piece together what happened you are listening to

0:55

locations unknown [Music]

1:06

thank you [Music]

1:15

foreign [Music]

1:29

what's up everybody and welcome back to another episode of locations unknown I'm

1:34

your co-host Joe erato and with me as always is a guy who always keeps Will Smith's wife name out of his freaking

1:40

mouth Mike Van de Bogard uh thank you Joe and thank you once again to all of our loyal listeners for tuning in uh

1:48

just a couple of quick announcements here before we get going and I apologize if my voice sounds a little weird I recovering from a cold yeah we were

1:55

gonna record Monday and we postponed I'm a little congested but I'm feeling fine so my voice is a little off today so uh

2:02

thank you to these new patrons her Patron supporters Sue and Eddie Spencer Tyler St Claire Catherine

2:09

DeLoach Janelle Heath Brett Barr Sarah pejenin and Emily Putnam pajanan

2:18

but I put them Putnam so thank you so much for supporting the show uh we say

2:24

this been saying this for like a year and a half eventually we are going to have a studio so we're close we're close we're starting to look for spaces yeah

2:31

we've got some other cool things cooking that we can't talk about yet but um we will announce that stuff when we

2:37

can uh this episode's suggestion comes to our friends from uh strange Outdoors

2:42

uh premium so if you don't know what that is it's a website that kind of

2:48

dedicates Articles to kind of what we talk about strange disappearances and they have a premium section with premium

2:55

content and is it strange things in the outdoors so uh thank you to strange outdoors and

3:03

head over to their website at strangeoutdoors.com and give them a give them a look so as always if you want to

3:10

call the show we've been racking up some voicemails that we'll have to go through here oh yeah or a couple we're getting

3:15

excited about this one yeah so call 208-391-6913 and leave a voicemail any

3:21

topic you want to talk about is fair game just remember we may play it on air so

3:27

if you're in an Uber home from the bar one night call the number let us know how your night went yeah so don't say

3:33

anything you might be ashamed to hear on the air and finally you can help support the show by either going over to patreon

3:40

and becoming a patreon member we have lots of additional content we also have we're recording a really fun episode

3:46

after this for patreon we have a bunch of a bunch of our patreon supporters

3:51

have sent in ideas and we're going to enter them live on the air into this AI

3:57

art generator called Dali you've probably heard of it it's on Instagram and it comes up with some really wild

4:03

artwork and we're gonna we're just it's a fun episode it has nothing to do with missing people yep it's gonna be a lot

4:09

of fun though yeah so you can head over there and join patreon you can also join YouTube memberships to get access to our

4:15

free or Our member content and finally you can join uh premium

4:20

subscriptions on Apple which is similar to patreon and YouTube so and you can buy stuff from our store on Facebook or

4:27

our website always a support all right everybody let's gear up and get out to explore

4:32

locations unknown [Music]

4:51

May 6 2006 a couple hiking in Mount San

4:56

Jacinto State Park we're navigating off Trail when they realized they had become lost

5:02

after following voices they thought they'd heard down the trail they realized that they were in trouble

5:07

luckily they had found a campsite of a man who went missing a year earlier join us this week as we follow the amazing

5:13

Rescue of Brandon day and Gina Allen

5:22

[Music]

5:41

so we are going to oh you want to say one more I wanted uh just yep jump in yeah

5:46

just this for our listeners who have been listening for a long time there will be kind of a the location profile

5:52

and character profile they're a little condensed just because the timelines were recovering some very long timelines

6:00

a lot of information so we didn't want this to go like three hours so just a little little asterisks plus it's a

6:08

little bit of a different one because they have found the people which is unique because you're going to hear kind

6:13

of what happens when people go missing we're gonna get a little glimpse into what's going on in their heads and and

6:18

stuff like that so it's going to be an exciting one and uh not to give too much away but the people that were found a lot of

6:26

things they did to get lost are things we talk about all the time what you shouldn't do which is

6:31

kind of this will be a good kind of real life example of what can happen so of why you should always listen to Mike and

6:37

Joe yes so we are in Mount San Jacinto I can't say that or like it's a tongue

6:43

twister even though it's not uh Mount San Jacinto in Mount San Jacinto State Park Jacinto Jacinto Jacinto

6:51

potato potato nuclear nuclear caller our number yeah

6:56

if you don't like that uh I'm gonna start saying 91691 just santos I'm just

7:02

gonna start saying it wrong to get the calls uh it's a 14 000 acre national uh

7:07

our 14 000 acre Park so it's about a thousand acres smaller than Indiana Dunes National Park if we're a national

7:13

park it'd be one of the smallest but it's a California state park yeah it was established in 1927 uh and it's the

7:21

highest in both ranges so the mountain is the highest in both ranges and in the county and serves as the southern border of the San Georgian georgino pass I'm

7:30

having a really tough time tonight I had a long day uh naturalist John Muir wrote of San Jacinto Peak the view from San

7:37

Jacinto is the most Sublime spectacle to be found anywhere on this Earth he has a

7:42

lot of those quotes from a lot of places yeah I the first time I heard it I was like wow now either he was like just all

7:49

over the West I think he's all over the last just loving life so everything he saw was just the best thing he saw which

7:56

that's awesome I'm jealous yes it's jealous rage uh San Jacinto Peak is one

8:01

of the most topographically prominent peaks in the United States and is ranked the sixth most prominent peak in the 48

8:07

contiguous states so that's probably what he's referring to if it's a very aggressive Peak you know like when you go to the Rockies

8:13

yeah you can sometimes be on tall mountains that slowly Cascade and or you

8:19

can go to ones where you're at the base and it just looks massive pictures up of it when uh we get into the timeline

8:25

because it is yeah it's different than a lot of you know some of the Alpine hikes we've talked about okay so it is in

8:31

California near the Greater Los Angeles and San Diego Metro areas so some a

8:36

little habitation history the area the peak is known at to the Chihuly chihula Native Americans as a Kitsch or ayakich

8:45

meaning smooth Cliffs it is regarded as the home of dakush the meteor and

8:52

legendary founder of chahulia chihula I I know I'm screwing that up call the

8:58

number I'm gonna cut I'm going to put that into our super advanced kahulia

9:04

I gotta turn the volume up yep I'm gonna get a lot of wait we're

9:11

gonna get like one star ratings for pronouncing it wrong and all the bad things so the climate around the San

9:17

Jacinto mountains like the neighboring San Bernardino Mountains Are humid Island above the surrounding desert in

9:24

semi-desert annual precipitation ranges from about 15 inches at the Western base and only six inches on the Eastern

9:31

desert base to as much as 32 inches above 5 500 feet uh the mountain town of

9:37

Idlewild averages 27 inches per year the coastal which is the western side of

9:43

the range reaches more precipitation than the Eastern desert side got that rain shadow yep most of the

9:49

precipitation Falls between November and March with a secondary maximum associated with thunderstorms during the

9:54

Summer monsoon season between July and September the precipitation totals are highly variable from year to year snow

10:01

usually Falls above 4000 feet in elevation in the winter and above 8 000 feet snow sometimes persists until June

10:08

near the crest there are often a few patches of snow that may persist all year in Shady spots

10:14

so a little bit about the terrain uh to the east of San Jacinto the 10 834 foot

10:20

Peak Towers over the city of Palm Springs to the West it borders the Mountain community of Idlewild I've

10:27

actually seen this mountain from Palm Springs have you I have not uh the peak is also frequently called Mount San

10:33

Jacinto the Steep escarpment of its North Face above Snow Creek climbs over

10:38

ten thousand feet in seven miles this is one of the largest gains in elevation over such a small horizontal distance in

10:46

the contiguous United States tough hike very aggressive yes so what are some of the animals we'll

10:52

see there coyotes mule deer Bobcats rarely we'll see mountain lions and a handful of black bears but that is

10:58

extremely rare they are definitely not Grizzlies or brown bears yeah and they're very rare you probably won't see

11:05

one yes uh it is hot at lower elevations in summer upwards of 90 degrees near

11:10

Idlewild but it can also get extremely cold in the winter months uh very dry in the hot summer months water is usually

11:16

plentiful in the spring due to the snow melt but as the months get hot water can be hard to come by altitude sickness is

11:24

always a concern when you're at those high altitudes and blizzard-like conditions uh do persist in the winter

11:29

and can be bad enough most years that authorities warn PCT hikers to wait it out yeah that's a thing that will come

11:36

up in one of the timelines is the the weather in the winter can get so bad that

11:42

um people hiking the PCT need to just either go around or what was the term

11:47

they call it for people that skip sections saw section hiking section hiking through hiking and section hikers

11:54

so it's the word you use to ask the question So based on that information from the

12:01

California Department of Parks and Recreation most of the trails in the park range from moderate to extremely

12:07

strenuous hikes with only two short Trails totaling less than two miles listed as easy so most of the hiking

12:14

this park is not for the faint of heart and I think uh you know what I got from it is you need

12:20

to be in very good physical condition to do a lot of these hikes and I think you

12:26

gotta really plan ahead um especially if you're going in the winter um there's a lot of special winner gear

12:33

that you're going to need your you know crampons ice ax things like that especially if you're going to the summit

12:40

um so you got to know what you're doing yeah so why don't you tell us about Mr day and Ms Allen

12:45

yes so um it's Brandon day Gina Allen Brandon was 28 Gina was 24. uh they

12:52

obviously were found alive gender male and female um don't have a lot of information on

12:58

them Gina was an All-American cheerleader as a teen and as an adult became a traveling cheerleader

13:04

instructor uh she earned her degree in Family Resource Management from Iowa State University eventually moving to Dallas

13:11

to live with her sister which is where she met Brandon Brandon lived in Dallas and was a financial advisor for a

13:17

company called Martin Financial Group um from what I could tell they had no medical issues

13:23

um they had absolutely and this was from my research no experience in the wilderness

13:30

they had never camped out or done any hiking so um as green as you can come when it

13:36

comes to hiking so an experience in that location absolutely none so

13:42

um not a ton of information on them but uh you'll kind of I think we want to

13:48

stress their experience in the wilderness because that's going to come up in the timeline so uh as pulling up that is a beautiful

13:55

mountain yeah it it looks it looks like a great place to hike yeah not something

14:00

I would do if you're a green green horn yeah absolutely not um but I'm sure a

14:06

lot of inexperienced people like it and do just fine but um so

14:12

all right Joe we have a sponsor for this episode I wasn't paying attention sorry when Mike

14:19

and I aren't listening to our own show we love to chime in to some of our favorite hosts in the True Crime unexplained genre that's right we're

14:26

talking about the chime in podcast Graham Sarah and Michaela explore topics including the Unexplained True Crime

14:33

missing persons and much much more their show has included distinguished guests such as U.S Marshals dear and sharper of

14:41

the Cooper Vortex and Chris Williamson of vanished and chasing Earhart but wait there's more to make it more

14:49

fun each episode has trivia questions to include and engage the audience Mike and I have been enjoying the chiman

14:55

podcast since 2018 and now we want to share it with you you can download and subscribe to the chime in podcast

15:01

wherever you listen to your podcasts find them on Twitter at chimanpodcast

15:07

Instagram at chimin.pod and Facebook as chime in podcast that's

15:16

c-h-i-m-e-i-n podcast they're big supporters of locations unknown and we

15:21

hope that our friends enjoy their show as much as we do so I'm going to jump into the timeline

15:27

for a gentleman named John Joseph Donovan first before we talk about Brandon and Gina but Mike why would we

15:33

do that well Mr Donovan ties into the timeline of Brandon and Gina in a very important

15:40

way I'm not going to spoil it just yet but um it's really actually quite amazing I

15:47

I can't remember another case or something like this happened I'm sure it has happened but what are the odds kind

15:53

of that's okay so I think that's a good enough reason let's do it uh so who was

15:59

John John Donovan was an eccentric man uh he was described as generous and kind

16:04

he had been a social worker in Petersburg Virginia uh never married he

16:10

didn't really have any family other than his fellow hikers in the Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club he was uh he had

16:16

a really tough life I I gathered from his history that life was not easy

16:22

for him in the early early years so he was born in Pittsburgh to working class parents

16:27

but his father left home when he was an infant and his mother died before he turned 10. and he spent most of his

16:34

years in Catholic orphanages and eventually moved in with an unmarried

16:40

Aunt who took him along to a hotel restaurant where she waited tables

16:46

his friend Chris hook said he did grow uh he did grow up uh he did grown up

16:53

things when he was young he kind of just raised himself like Oliver Twist so

16:59

um John had no siblings uh not even a cousin he was close to and there isn't a single person who could recount his

17:06

entire life which is really sad um I feel bad for the guy that you know he had

17:12

you know none of that connection with other family or you know not even one person that could recount things that happened in his life so

17:20

um questions about how he spent his 15 years in the Navy for instance when I got this picture of him next to mount

17:26

can you can you name it this is one of the ones we got in trouble

17:35

call the number yeah um so yeah he uh he was in the Navy for 15

17:42

years but no one really knows any of that history his legal next of kin was a

17:48

stranger uh this is a quote I can't remember if I actually ever met him says cousin Chris Davenport of Monrovia

17:55

California but he kept in touch Christmas cards and so on so rough upbringing his dad ditched him his mom

18:02

died when he was young and really had no family so he became a hiking fanatic spending

18:08

at least a third of the year on hiking trails he'd taken up hiking in his 40s to lose weight he was called el burro

18:15

for that was his Trail name yeah for the way he plowed through icy creeks and

18:20

wind storms and meandered off course for two days and still finished his Trek he walks slowly sometimes trudging into

18:26

Camp two or three hours behind his hiking companions though uh Donovan never really made

18:32

hiking look easy he bagged the 500 Mile Colorado Trail and the 20 or 2175 mile

18:39

Appalachian Trail which he section hiked over the course of a decade

18:45

um and it goes on to say you know though he walked 4 000 miles a year a lot of people still considered him an

18:51

amateur he got lost often once on Vermont's Long Trail he detoured to take

18:57

in a Vista and then returning to the path he hiked three males three miles back the way he had come in not stopping

19:03

until he hit a road and saw a car that looked Vaguely Familiar so very experienced hiker in the sense that

19:11

he did a lot of hiking but it sounds like he wasn't he never like kind of learned from the

19:17

hiking he did that was my impression of Mr Donovan okay so John's Adventure that

19:25

led to his disappearance uh starts on April 22nd of 2005. so he want he was

19:31

planning to through hike the PCT uh so in 2005 John had recently retired

19:37

at the age of 60 and began hiking the 2650 mile long Pacific Crest Trail from

19:42

Southern California to the Canadian border John planned to start in Mexico and hike

19:48

to the or hike to Oregon and began hiking the trail and began hiking the trail in northern

19:53

Mexico so he did do a lot of planning for this trip he spent over a year planning

19:59

on a manual typewriter he typed out a six-page itinerary and organized everything including how much coffee

20:05

he'd need per day he encouraged friends to send gifts but nothing that has to be carried past the post office he said I'm

20:12

just too old and lighter is better so you know even though people described him as an amateur he still seemed to put

20:19

a lot of preparation into this PCT hike so John had originally planned to hike

20:25

the PCT with Ken Baker a 60 year old who was a good friend from the Old Dominion

20:31

hiking Club Baker was a retired mechanical engineer who lived outside of

20:36

Richmond like John Ken spent three to four months a year backpacking and was known for his easy looping stride these

20:43

guys are kind of like living living the dream life yeah spending four months a

20:48

year hiking I mean can you imagine uh yeah I can and I want to do that so we have children and responsibilities

20:55

however yeah someday so Baker had spent around 100 hiking trips with Donovan since they met

21:01

through the ATC Club in the late 1990s Ken regarded his friend with a fun

21:07

dismay John was a kind was kind of clumsy and wasn't mechanically inclined

21:12

of course an engineer would say that yeah so in the spring of 2005 Ken Baker told

21:18

John he wanted to postpone the start of their PC trip PCT trip by three weeks

21:23

Ken said I look I looked at the weather data in Southern California and had just

21:30

had its snowiest winter in 30 or 40 years but Donovan couldn't be dissuaded from the original plan I asked what if

21:37

you get lost Baker recalled he just said the crowds up ahead will Blaze a trail through the snow it'll be all right so

21:44

kind of Reckless I would postpone if they just if California just had its

21:50

most snowiest winter in 40 years yeah and they're recommending postponing yeah so

21:56

um we're fascinating out to the start of the through hike so at the start of us through hike Donovan uh wasn't alone he

22:03

headed north from the Mexican border with his friend Lynn Padgett uh 48.

22:08

through the very hot Mojave Desert that surrounds the pct's first 100 miles we've gone into the PCT in great detail

22:16

in one of our previous episodes a month or two ago um if you want to learn more about the

22:22

PCT Trail in great detail go check that episode out which one it was no it was

22:29

the Irish guy who went missing I'll look it up you keep talking okay so

22:34

Lynn was a tool salesman David O'Sullivan David O'Sullivan episode 67.

22:40

learn about the PCT and David O'Sullivan on episode 67.

22:45

so like I said Lynn was a tool salesman with a bushy red beard he had through hiked the AT-AT in 1997

22:53

but in the years since he had kind of left the hiking club's Inner Circle and put on some weights

23:00

uh in the Mojave Donovan accidentally left his lucky pants at a motel and he

23:06

had become assessed obsessed with the loss of his pants one windy night in Camp I set up my tent and got in Paget

23:13

says John was still out there struggling to set up that little tarp of his so I yelled to him hey comrade how's that

23:19

tarp treating you John replied the damn winds blowing it all over the place and I don't even have my lucky pants so uh

23:27

two days later in the Town of Warner Springs Lynn's feet were now so swollen that he

23:33

had to give up his dream to complete the through hike but John was distracted and happy

23:38

um he goes guess what comrade the guy at the motel sent me my pants and he paid the postage from then on John would hike

23:45

alone as Lynn had to pull out that was cool the dude in the motel yeah so uh fast forward now to May 2nd of

23:52

2005. so by the time Donovan began climbing Mount San Jacinto on May 2nd

23:59

the signs of danger were very apparent snow was three feet deep

24:05

um the meat and the meteorologists were predicting a heavy storm so most through hikers had decided to wait out the

24:12

weather in the town of Idlewild um which is accessible by a very easy 2.4 Mile Trail

24:19

so around noon on May 3rd when three well-equipped hikers met Donovan they

24:25

warned him that they'd seen clouds Sweeping in um but here's a quote but we weren't going to change his mind says Brian

24:31

Barnhart a Pittsburgh based metallurgist he was uh emphatic about going up Fuller

24:39

Ridge you're checking out how I say Barnhart no oh I've seen

24:44

before we have any I'm just gonna keep searching for images of people gotcha okay so around 1pm on May 3rd Donovan

24:52

uh started to have doubts about going forward he climbed uh into little

24:57

uh tuskwitz Valley there's a word you can try looking up

25:03

packwoods um here we go little to Keith's Valley

25:11

gosh so bad with words it's okay um so he climbed into Little tahit's

25:17

Valley just south of Saddle Junction and found that the trail partly visible until then was now completely covered by

25:24

snow and if you listen to our other episode on the PCT this is one of the main issues people have

25:31

with trying to do the the hike in the winter is that a lot of the trails can become so snow covered you don't know

25:36

where they are so Donovan sought help from two other hikers a Canadian nurse called Connie

25:42

Davis who is 46 and her 20 year old son Alex both of them had extensive Mountain

25:49

hiking and high altitude experience Donovan had camped near Connie and Alex

25:54

the night before and they did not hit it off well with him at all Connie said he had no trouble

26:00

speaking his mind when we talked of how young men can find themselves on the trail he was dismissive he said you find

26:06

yourself living your life so whatever that means so John began following the

26:14

davises through the snow field and Connie told him we're not going to take the most direct route but

26:20

he decided to follow them anyways staying at 8 000 feet hugging the counter line they were equipped with

26:26

good crampons and hiking poles John wasn't another thing that you shouldn't

26:32

be doing that in the winter without need that if you're going through snow yeah just just for like the exhaustion of it

26:37

yeah it's Gonna Keep you your footing better you might stay on top of it rather than sinking in and that's just

26:43

it's just extra work you have to do yeah so Donovan stayed about 30 feet behind them he'd put on crampons but the spikes

26:50

didn't work well with his lightweight Trail Runners and he slipped and fell repeatedly Connie said he was having a

26:56

hard time but he seemed healthy and it seemed to me he was going to hike up Fuller Ridge if he wanted to I remember

27:02

thinking he's an adult I won't tell him what to do Donovan kept falling and cursing and frustration

27:08

uh So eventually Connie and Alex followed a small Creek uphill and turned

27:13

Northwest roughly half a mile south of Seattle Junction that's where we saw him

27:18

last they said it was about 8080 feet on the afternoon of May 3rd he was very

27:25

close to saddle Junction uh there was patchy snow at this point and you could see hints of the trails

27:30

okay so here's Mount San Jacinto they were here originally and this is where saddle junction junction is so he was

27:38

very close to that point okay um so no one knows exactly what John did

27:45

next as he was never seen again alive uh Dave because Cusco mecki

27:54

at age 61. I'm on it the Joe's on it we've got live

27:59

pronunciation here it's the Technologies in my in my house Studio

28:09

Mackie oh so that was the it was detected as Finnish well kosk and Maki so he's age 61 he is

28:18

an orienteering expert says the conditions on the ridge on May 6 were miserable the visibility was about a

28:24

hundred feet it was thought that Donovan saw the lights of Idlewild after the whiteout eased up then began to descend towards

28:31

the town so like I said he was last seen on May 3rd 2005 near a remote spot in the

28:38

forest called saddle Junction where the Northbound Pacific Crest Trail is crossed by the Devil's Slide Trail he

28:45

had covered 178 miles the area is about 50 miles Southeast of Los Angeles in

28:51

about 30 miles south of Palm Springs so when word reached Virginia in mid-may

28:58

that Donovan had not been heard from in a while a friend phoned several rural

29:03

post offices uh who you got up here super Dave that's Dave koskamaki okay wow you found a

29:09

picture of him yeah this is uh his PCT Trail Journal cool so

29:16

um a friend phoned several post offices along the trail where she knew he had mailed packages when she learned that he

29:22

had not picked them up she alerted the authorities uh Searchers searches were launched but no trace of Donovan was

29:28

ever found so we are going to end the timeline for

29:34

the time being for Donovan and we are going to start the timeline for Brandon Gina

29:39

so Brandon and Gina's story starts on

29:45

Saturday morning May 6th of 2006. so on the morning of Saturday May 6

29:51

Brandon changed out of his shorts and into uh wind pants and a T-shirt and

29:57

Gina put on a pair of yoga capris and a two layered tank top one of them bright orange

30:02

they both wore tennis sneakers and carried just a digital camera ChapStick and a one ounce tube of sunscreen as

30:09

this wasn't a Day hike they didn't pack food or water Brandon said we weren't planning to hike we were just there for

30:14

a one hour little nature walk so I'll pause um

30:20

not to critique people they were found they didn't die but critique away man we

30:26

always Joe and I always whenever we go hiking even if it's a short little hour-long hike I always pack enough

30:33

stuff in case I have to spend at least a night out there yeah you know like if I'm not gonna have a lot of water on me

30:39

I'm gonna have stuff to filter water or treat it yeah it's so easy to carry even just the tablets or like a life straw

30:46

yeah anything that and so you can at least get water because you can you can live without food yeah and I mean a

30:52

solar blanket and a life strawberry dehydrated food that you can just add

30:57

water to and some strike anywhere matches and you know wear a generator

31:04

generator you know where you know wear hiking boots um pack you know like a sweater or

31:11

something in your backpack in case you're out there in the cold I so um you know unprepared for potentially

31:18

becoming lost and um so there's a tram actually that goes

31:24

up uh the mountain and so they took the tram up and when the tram stopped at the

31:30

peak and the doors open the guide said be back here in two hours uh after the night of partying the couple thought a

31:35

walk would clear their heads as was a beautiful sunny day with the temperature around 60 degrees Fahrenheit

31:42

uh so at this point the terrain was easy and they saw a Lookout Point around 75

31:47

yards away off the trail they could see people there and other people coming up the trail who said The View was pretty

31:54

and they were casually dressed so they decided to head off in that direction

31:59

from somewhere in the distance came the sound of a waterfall maybe 75 yards further getting to it was a bit more

32:06

difficult but it was only 30 minutes since they gotten off the tram and they

32:11

were sure they'd be back to the tram in plenty of time so now is when they start to get lost so

32:19

somehow Brandon had miscalculated and made a wrong turn on the way back it was

32:26

easier when they came to the tree or Boulder or some other obstacle to turn right down the mountain rather than

32:31

climb up so they became lost a slight turn off course followed by another and then yet another the train suddenly

32:38

didn't look familiar so this is another one of those things we tell people is if you start to think you're lost

32:46

don't just keep wandering around although that this is going to bite Us

32:51

in the butt but normally normally don't keep wandering around yeah because you

32:56

can see how they kept making the wrong decision and where they thought they're going and it just got them more and more

33:02

lost so now they heard voices which they tried to follow but the sound was bouncing off Boulders and echoing off

33:08

Steep Canyon walls leading them even further from the trail then they were sliding on their

33:14

backsides over loose screen holding on to the brush for support at this point they started to sense they were in

33:20

trouble Gina was frightened and crying and she didn't have any experience in the wilderness Lane I'm not sure I can do

33:25

this Brandon responded I'll hold your hand and just follow me you can do this be careful watch your step don't get

33:31

hurt and we'll get out of this fine so like I said neither of them had ever camped or done any hiking making it

33:39

worse for Gina she could feel herself losing it and she was worried about getting back to the tram but she was

33:45

just as worried about how Brandon would handle it if she gave up and become hysterical so here's another thing that

33:51

we've talked about is if you get lost and you start feeling yourself you know succumbing to panic just stop

33:59

for a second and collect your thoughts cool off and come up with a plan of how what

34:07

you're going to do because you're people that are in a panicked frame of mind usually don't make good decisions yeah

34:14

so that's another tip when you get lost is you got to collect your thoughts and cool off and

34:19

you know make calm rational decisions so

34:24

um it would be easy for him to say you know what screw screw you then you sit here cry be a baby I'm getting out of

34:30

here after all he'd only known her uh a little over a month so Gina pulled herself together pressed on

34:37

um and that's kind of a crappy thing to think that your boyfriend would say that like like if I'm being a problem he's just

34:44

gonna leave me here in the wilderness while we're lost like doesn't you're not thinking very highly

34:49

of him so that was kind of strange well he was a new guy the new guy you don't

34:54

know he could be a creeper yeah so it is now uh excuse me

35:03

we're gonna get emails and messages I don't care I don't care those people um have sad lives and

35:09

that's why they I already complain about you being a human I apologize for being sick yeah exactly

35:16

um so it is now 3 30 p.m on May 6th Gina pointed herself in different directions

35:22

to make herself heard and shouted help is there anyone there we're lost Brandon

35:27

still wasn't ready to admit that he shouted is there anybody there they repeated this every 15 minutes and kept

35:32

thinking they're hikers all over this mountain and that someone eventually had to hear them the air was thin and the train just got

35:39

rockier and now the sun was starting to set over Mount uh San Jacinto it is now

35:45

7 30 pm on May 6th of 2006. the temperature now was falling fast they

35:51

were scrambling along a stream uh the Steep walls of the canyon on each side when they came to a 50-foot waterfall

35:57

Brandon found a big Flat Rock near the water out in the open to make it easier for Rescuers to spot them and they sat

36:05

there for the night running through reasons why people had to be searching Brandon felt responsible for the mess

36:11

they were in and started to apologize but Gina stopped him she went on to say we both walked off

36:17

the path together we're here together we'll get out of this together so there you go strong mental fortitude yeah good

36:23

for them so from the top of the mountain it looked to them like they could walk down to Palm Springs almost due east but

36:29

once they got into the veil into Long Valley the train got very rugged then Brandon made the decision uh he told

36:36

Gina We're Not Gonna Die on this mountain so a positive attitude so by

36:41

now the temperature had dipped below 40 and if all you have is t-shirts and tank tops that's cold that's and that's

36:48

that's a bad spot to be in for sure been sweating all day and yeah yeah not a

36:53

good spot so uh without the wind chill and with the wind picking up so the wind's picking up not good Brandon said

36:59

he'd seen a makeshift cave more like a crevasse uh created by three rocks there

37:05

was just enough room for them to sit hunched over Gina's legs wrapped around Brandon hugging each other to conserve heat so at least they found some kind of

37:11

shelter and they were staying close to you know use each other's body heat they didn't sleep that night as the waterfall

37:18

was loud it was windy and every 30 minutes Brandon made them stand up and jog in place to prevent hypothermia it's

37:24

not a bad move yeah so keep the body and blood moving yeah so it is now the next

37:30

day Sunday morning May 7th of 2006 so when the Sun finally rose on Sunday

37:37

morning they figured incorrectly that the worst was behind them and they consoled themselves that they'd always

37:44

have the crazy story to tell about that time they had to spend the night in Mount San Jacinto they were convinced

37:50

that all they had to do was wait for Rescuers to find them and probably if they would have stayed in the original

37:57

spot where they first realized their loss yeah probably would have been found quicker I'm just saying yeah so we can

38:05

laugh at it because we know they're okay yes uh though Brandon it's like he went

38:11

to the Future and listened to our podcast Brandon remembered the people who are lost in the wilderness will wander farther away from the search area

38:17

making themselves harder to find so they agreed to stay put since they thought the search party was probably getting

38:23

started that morning at Daybreak we should reach out and find out where he heard that from and if he's not sure

38:28

convince him that he heard it from our podcast even though uh 2006 I was in college

38:34

so um they sat on a Flat Rock above the waterfall for three hours they were

38:40

thirsty but didn't drink any water because they're worried about getting sick if it was contaminated another good move good move but at some point they're

38:48

gonna have to drink the water yeah to survive yeah but now it was a good move to not do it until you absolutely need to yeah so

38:54

they uh you know they go on to say what was the point of getting sick if they expected to hear a helicopter or someone calling their names at any minute so but

39:02

the problem with that is you don't always know when you're becoming dehydrated until it's too late yeah so

39:09

but if there's water close by they could they could drink it yeah it's not like they're going away from it so they're

39:14

gonna wait there it's right there at their fingertips if they need to make that emergency call and I would just say

39:20

that you can do three days roughly without it even if you didn't have anything to purify the water if you just

39:25

hit matches in like a cup you could boil it you can uh you can leave small amounts sitting out in the sun too use

39:32

natural UV to kill stuff so if you have a clean area you can put water in there let it sit for a minute in the sunlight

39:38

and that will potentially make it better it's not a full proof but there's like there's different things you can do you

39:43

might not get as sick as fast yeah um so they thought what if uh they aren't

39:50

searching and actually in reality no one was searching the tour guide had assumed the couple found another way back to the

39:56

hotel after they didn't make the roll call on the bus and they realized they were uh two guests guests short I kind

40:04

of that's fault of that I kind of call in a question the tour guide I think if I was yeah that's a strong Assumption of

40:11

I had people I don't have people we're in the wilderness I would probably call the Park Service the state park like hey

40:19

two people that were on our guide didn't show up they probably are fine but yeah

40:24

just so they raise the flag yeah um so unless it happens so often that

40:31

they don't do it like every day people just figure their own way down yeah still yeah yeah it seems like a pretty

40:38

big liability yeah so concluding that no one was looking for them Gene and Brandon came up with a new plan they had

40:44

taken a picture of the waterfall that led them off path so they decided to find it once they find that fall they

40:50

would know that they would be close to the trail besides up was the only Direction they could go because the

40:56

waterfall below was a dead end so I mean in that scenario where they can't go

41:01

anywhere else but up but you're wasting precious energy now going back up yeah

41:08

um so they made a big X on the ground with the rocks and left one of Gina's bright orange tank tops by it and they

41:15

headed up climbing up proved much more difficult than climbing down and the slope was so steep the couple had to

41:21

crawl on their stomachs that's scary yeah one wrong slip you can fall and die Gina recognized a single dead pine tree

41:28

that she thought resembled an old man the previous day from the Scenic Overlook that tree had been above them and now it was below them off in the

41:35

distance they could once again see Palm Springs uh with what seemed like a hundred waterfalls in the mountain they

41:41

all began to look the same so it had taken them that long to climb up to the top of the ridge so how long

41:48

could it possibly take the hike all the way down to Palm Springs a long way well if there's no Trail in your bushwhacking

41:55

yeah it's it's a long way the tram ride had only taken 10 minutes so now they were at a higher elevation than the

42:01

night before and Gene and Brandon began to worry that they could die from exposure with the winds increasing yep

42:07

very true serious concern uh they climbed up a boulder and found a

42:12

parallel Valley that appeared to offer an alternate route around the 50-foot

42:17

fall that trapped them the night before us so they decided it was their best option so at this point they you know

42:24

they just keep moving and moving and moving um you almost want to pick a spot that you

42:31

think you could survive the longest and just stay seated but um Brandon came up to a 10 foot vertical

42:38

drop and he was perched on the edge holding some roots for balance genus Gina was about 20 yards above him uh he

42:45

heard her scream and looked over his shoulder to see a rock slide-headed right at him yeah that that they're in

42:51

like the worst positions ever yeah so Brandon grabbed the root with both hands and swung off the edge of the Cliff

42:57

dangling in midair and this sounds like a movie scene a rock the size of a suitcase missed him by about a foot that

43:04

would have killed him oh it would like you think about if I threw a rock at your head right now even half that size yeah half that size I'd probably knock

43:11

you out yeah now imagine tumbling down a cliff probably doing 10 15 miles an hour in a suitcase-sized boulder is probably

43:18

50 100 pounds yeah that'll kill you instantly yeah so um they watch as The Rock flew down the

43:25

mountain breaking branches on its way down so Sunday uh thankfully was a warm warm day with a slight breeze and Gina

43:32

took off her second tank top and gave it to Brandon to tie around his head so his scalp wouldn't get sunburned they were

43:38

thinking that they were making good progress after the terrible day they had before yeah so it is now 5 p.m on May

43:47

7th and the valley they had followed merged with the valley of hair was stuck in the night before

43:53

coming across the street stream the couples decided they had to have a drink

43:58

of water due to the Raging thirst despite the risk of bacteria and parasites the area was very rugged and

44:05

thick with vegetation including Pine scrub Oak white fur Juniper and wild apricot if they're up towards the source

44:12

there's a much less chance of that being a case moving water close to the source they're probably a lot better than when

44:19

you go keep going downwards picking up particulate debris yeah potentially animals dying in it or or defecating in

44:27

it that's like where you get all that stuff so if they're up at the cold elevation there's probably much less risk of that happening so and I mean at

44:33

some point you have to have water yeah anyway yes it's yes it's risk the the sickness but you stay hydrated yeah so

44:40

in places the scrub was so thick they had to crawl and fight through it

44:45

cutting and scratching them in the process as the sun went down on them yet again

44:50

Brandon had fallen into the stream when a mod broke under his weight so they decided to stop for the day they found a

44:57

Flat Rock up against some Boulders that gave protection from the wind that was coming down from the mountain Brandon's

45:03

feet and shoes were wet so Gina gave her sacks to him okay so he didn't fall in with his whole body no oh well that's

45:09

very lucky yeah if his body got wet right as the sun was going down he would have not been able to dry off he's like

45:15

they're like the unluckiest people well and that's like you don't think of when

45:20

you're in this situation small little things like that can be the difference between survival or not if he got

45:26

completely soaked they didn't have any change of clothes Sun's down you are not gonna drought he would have been forced

45:32

to strip down uh probably completely naked yeah and then hope to God he didn't get hypothermia well and the

45:38

thing that really crazy thing about their story is this is probably played out on a lot of the other cases of

45:45

people that have gone missing that are never found oh absolutely this is that's all I've been thinking the whole time this is like the struggle you imagine

45:52

someone who's lost who eventually doesn't get found is going through before you know the final accident or

45:58

they you know it's it's rare that we get a glimpse into what happened absolutely

46:05

found shocker um well it just shows too um because

46:10

we've been on the trails and yeah when we know where we're going we go off Trail we've climbed up scree Fields it's

46:17

very dangerous yeah if you know what you're doing it's very dangerous so you

46:22

know they have these very movie-like scenes occurring to them but really that stuff happens I mean when we climb up a

46:28

street field what do we do we don't go right up behind each other because we know that rock falls are real so we spread out and we go on angles so that

46:35

if somebody kicks a rock loose no one's below yeah I don't know why your eye out above me the whole time absolutely and

46:42

so we go up at different times and spread out at Angles you know because we know how gravity works and because

46:48

simply we know how to do that stuff yeah so you have these people that have no business being out where they're at

46:54

trying to survive and they're they're making semi-decent decisions given the

46:59

fact they know nothing yeah and I mean we've we do go off Trail but we have gear on us that we could survive well we

47:07

go off Trail where we know we can yeah because we understand a well a there certainly is where you're allowed to we

47:12

don't do it where you're not allowed to because you just gotta stay in the path but there's areas where you can there's something on BLM land you can go

47:18

wherever you want yeah and there's some national parks that are much more open to just you get your back country permit

47:25

and you can literally Camp wherever you want in the park yes and there's other parks that are much more Street yeah they have the specific sites but even

47:31

then we'll talk to Rangers and they'll even say oh go you know if you climb up this past here it's kind of like a

47:36

little secret there's a little Lake up there here's where we we think is the best route but there's been storms there might be down trees you can try these

47:43

areas yeah so we don't just randomly go off path yeah it's with intention and

47:48

even if we're gonna go hey let's go check that out we've been places where we'll come up to obstacles we say this isn't worth it

47:54

yeah and we'll turn around because we understand that one wrong move we're 40

47:59

miles away from civilization and help yeah if someone breaks a leg Yeah uh you

48:06

know we're usually four more people someone's gonna have to stay with that person the other two are gonna have to hike out I think part of the wisdom you

48:13

gain from doing a lot of backcountry hiking over many years is learning

48:19

what you should and shouldn't do in situations where like some things probably that you know if I

48:27

went hiking Now versus 10 years ago I wouldn't do again oh yeah because I'm

48:32

much more aware of the dangers I agree with that I think that's just something you gain through kind of the wisdom of

48:39

hiking a lot and you know someone who's inexperienced in the backcountry they don't know that stuff yet so

48:45

um it's just very interesting kind of thinking about this whole story in that light so

48:51

yeah another bad night for him uh thankfully the second night wasn't as cold and but they still periodically got

48:58

up to run in place so it is now uh the next day Monday morning which is May 8th

49:04

of 2006. this is their third day on the mountain so they picked themselves up and kept

49:09

going uh they were certain at each Bend in the Stream that they'd see the base of the

49:15

mountain and the City of Palm Springs at one point Brandon fell through a

49:20

crevasse in some rocks and twisted his ankle and also nearly fell while repelling with a branch down a 15-foot

49:27

Cliff so geez again something another thing you don't think

49:32

about is he's repelling down this 15-foot Cliff if that Valley is a dead end how do you get back up yeah without

49:38

climbing you're stuck down stuck we we covered this in a patreon episode of a guy who died in uh Grand Canyon National

49:45

Park going off Trail and he was going from Cliff ledge to Cliff ledge like

49:51

slowly going down and he eventually got to a spot where he couldn't get back up and he was stuck on a cliff ledge and

49:57

died and that's another reason why if you don't have a map it's probably not a good idea to just go down in elevation

50:04

on cliffs that you can't get back up yeah um so after he was falling

50:10

uh as he was falling his hand unfortunately caught a branch and held on probably saving his life uh the

50:16

vegetation grew even thicker and harder to penetrate but with cactus starting to appear they figured they had to be

50:21

getting close to the desert floor they crossed the stream several times looking for an easier route at one point

50:27

having to strip down and Wade across carrying their clothes over their heads to keep them dry smart move they stopped

50:34

every hour on the hour to take water and arrest Gina would tell Brandon I do not want to spend another night on this

50:40

mountain so it is now 5 p.m of May 8th 2006.

50:46

they had just come around another Bend in the Stream crawling through the foliage when Brandon stood up he saw a

50:52

campsite on the other side of the stream with a green Poncho strung between two trees

50:58

he said come here Gina look up right right there is that what I think they shouted across the camp hello help

51:05

anybody there were lost so they looked for a place to cross the stream and Brandon slipped and got wet

51:11

another that's why you hike with hiking boots they have good yeah traction if you're I've hiked in running shoes and

51:19

you do exactly what you slip on wet stuff hiking boots aren't going to slip on that stuff just another tip

51:26

uh so they look for a place across the stream like I said they arrived at the makeshift camp and immediately realized

51:33

something wasn't right so there was a rusty Fork and Spoon and a disposable

51:38

razor laying in the dirt nearby there were two sneakers lay about 10 feet apart and there was an orange and yellow

51:45

backpack at the water's edge that would be really creepy yeah coming across that they saw that it was sodden weathered

51:53

and had been there for some time inside the pack they found

51:58

uh Ziploc bag which contained medicines a bag of socks tent Stakes a navy blue

52:04

fleece pullover a compass a cooking tin and a prayer card for Saint Christopher the patron saint of Travelers

52:11

they also found a wallet and within it was an ID of the name John Joseph

52:17

Donovan from Petersburg so you can see how the first timeline ties into this

52:23

one yep uh then Gina came across some topographic maps with notes written in

52:29

the margins and white spaces the writing covered the margins of several maps and there

52:35

were about a dozen entries in total the author which we presume was Donovan

52:40

said he was Trapped In The Gorge Gina said baby look at this no way somebody

52:45

has to be around here because it's dated stay May 8th somebody has to be here Brandon responded Gina that's May 8th

52:52

2005. that's so crazy though it's the exact day yeah to a year it's crazy so

52:58

the map entries were a year old and they realized then that something terrible had happened at the camp and they

53:05

extreme got extremely anxious I would too that's pretty weird um Brandon kept reading the journal

53:11

looking for Clues John said he knew no one was looking for him and was down to his last few crackers in the last entry

53:19

dated May 14 2005 he said he wanted to be very buried in the VA cemetery and wrote goodbye and I

53:26

love you all that's sad yeah so a man with equipment in maps had died

53:33

here but what did John Donovan mean about being trapped uh so was this Gorge he was talking

53:40

about where his body was Brandon did his best to maintain a positive attitude but

53:45

it was difficult looking at Donovan's idea he told Gina this guy was 60 years old maybe he had a heart problem maybe

53:52

he fell and broke something so I mean staying positive that's a good thing Brandon later said his last journal

53:59

entry was one year ago to the day that we found it which is very eerie I 100 agree nobody knew where he was nobody

54:06

knew to come looking for him so he was preparing for the end we were looking at the words of a man who was passing

54:12

we definitely knew that he that we were looking at somebody's grave the thought was

54:18

um is this going to be our grave he was quoted so they decided to head off leaving the

54:25

backpack as it was wet and heavy but they kept Donovan's personal effects thinking the family would want them I

54:31

still love that they have the mindset they're going to get out of it yeah I think that's important yeah

54:38

so they came to another waterfall this one was about 25 feet high and they

54:43

managed to climb around it 50 yards further yet another waterfall with Steep Canyon walls this one was 100 feet in

54:49

height with a cliff that was probably uh that dropped about 300 feet so they're

54:54

trapped uh they now realize what Donovan's journal entries meant going back the way they came wasn't an option

55:01

with rock faces that couldn't be climbed they were trapped just like John they returned to Donovan's campsite to see if

55:08

there was anything else there to help them fortunately Gina had missed about 25 strike anywhere matches in his gear

55:15

so they took the backpack the foam mat the Poncho and returned to the waterfall

55:20

finding a spot near the canyon wall above the tree line to ensure that they were visible to Rescuers Gina put on

55:28

Donovan's fleece and laid out some of his wet socks and the Rocks setting up the Poncho as a screen preparing for the

55:34

wind that came down the mountain every night so they're kind of trying to set up a camp which is good

55:41

um there was a tent back at the campsite I would have maybe grabbed that stayed in the tent yeah even though I mean it

55:47

was a creepy area like if it's survival or being creeped out I'll take survival

55:53

so Brandon set out to make a signal fire but he realized that if he lit a signal

56:00

fire beneath their perch on the canyon wall they could be engulfed in flames themselves

56:05

he found yeah so I mean you don't you also you wanna you wanna signal to

56:11

authorities but you also don't want to start a forest fire which is tough I mean uh your number one goal is to survive

56:18

but you don't want to be responsible for millions of Acres burning down which could engulf you and kill you anyways

56:24

yeah exactly um so he found another small part of the gorge uh wall where he could set the

56:31

fire and control it as he got the fire going you heard the sound of a helicopter and Sheena began jumping up

56:36

and down waving her arms but the helicopter was uh quite a ways

56:41

off and after a few seconds it disappeared behind a ridge Brandon fed the fire as quickly as he could then

56:48

started waving a burning stick Gina took off her jacket picked up a branch

56:53

uh onto which she had tied an orange Fabric Square from Donovan's bag and started waving the helicopter appeared

56:59

again in the distance and appeared again four times it appeared and then was gone

57:06

and she ended up saying to Brandon what if they don't compact Brandon didn't have an answer

57:12

it is now the next day May 9th Tuesday this would be their fourth day on the

57:17

Mountain uh the couple had been without food for three days Brandon told Gina he'd made the decision I'm gonna light

57:24

this place on fire I'm gonna light the whole damn Mountain on fire she said do it so they're desperate I

57:32

mean anyone in a desperate situation is probably gonna like yeah well I'm gonna lighten place and fire yeah so

57:40

um Brandon let Gina left Jean on the perch and disappeared Under The Canopy

57:45

he waited for the wind to shift as it heated in the valley he swept back up the mountain away from the perch he

57:51

found a fallen tree with piled twigs and leaves into an indentation he'd made by jumping

57:57

on him he got a fire going and headed back to Gina by the time he got back to the perch the Flames were everywhere

58:03

with trees exploding with heat the fire started to burn itself out after about 45 minutes and then a little

58:10

more than an hour after Brandon had lit it the fire was out then they had heard a helicopter flying

58:17

around the bend right at eye level there it was they waved and jumped and Gina's legs were so weak they crumbled beneath

58:24

her from the helicopter they heard we'll be back uh it turned and headed down the valley

58:30

Gina turned to Brandon and told him you saved my life Brandon just kept thinking we made it we made it we made it

58:36

uh they both understood it was John Donovan's matches that saved their lives

58:41

when they were finally picked up Brandon told The Rescuers that they had found a campsite belonging to John Donovan

58:47

and they promised to return to find him they were examined at a local hospital and only had blisters and bruises it was

58:55

um one of the most amazing survival stories um that could have happened and it

59:00

wouldn't have happened without Donovan's gear that they just randomly found yeah so

59:06

fast forward now to June 2006. a new search kicked off for John

59:12

about one year later in June 2006 so that's a year later after John went missing and a month after Gene and

59:19

Brandon were rescued a team from rmru returned to retrieve John Donovan's body

59:25

which surprisingly had not been burned so I think there must have been a forest fire there recently

59:31

uh they worked with Riverside Sheriff's Office to organize a search near the Lost camp for Donovan's remains

59:36

after a lot of planning and several delays the operation finally began on June 4th of

59:42

2006 Searchers were flown one at a time to The Landing Zone about a four one-fourth mile from the camp

59:49

the LZ had been hacked out on a steep slope on the mountain and the team had to cut through thick brush

59:54

and there was no sure footing anywhere finally at the campsite they started looking around and within 15 minutes

1:00:00

found the body oh wow Donovan's body lay just 50 yards from where Brandon and

1:00:05

Gina had been though they never saw it it was just Downstream by a 20-foot waterfall

1:00:12

in a pool set amid Birches in Mossy green rocks it was straddling a fallen Branch choking the Stream

1:00:18

they described it as follows due to the Heat and exertion of moving through the incredible incredibly difficult train we

1:00:26

were all exhausted it was one of the most strenuous rescues I've ever participated in we were pleased however

1:00:31

to have been able to bring closure to John's friends and family Patrick McCurdy one of the Riverside

1:00:39

rescue volunteers who went back in for Donovan says he initially thought the couple was pretty stupid to have gotten

1:00:45

lost the way they did but McCurdy had never been down into Long Valley and

1:00:50

once he had seen the vegetation and the steepness of the canyon walls uh where he understood to his mind

1:00:57

there's no question they would have died if it weren't for the signal fire no way McCurdy says we would have never sent

1:01:03

people down into that Gorge so what happened that's so lucky that's

1:01:08

crazy so you know the reason John saved their lives yeah I mean it's and the

1:01:13

odds that they managed to get into that Valley where he got lost and stuck yeah

1:01:19

so what happened to John so at the time

1:01:24

of his death John I guess had an enlarged heart which made breathing difficult at altitude

1:01:30

he had strayed from the Pacific Crest Trail and was traveling ultralight using

1:01:36

a tarp instead of a tent in socks in place of gloves and he had a few Provisions he headed

1:01:42

into uh the storm against the advice of other hikers he had met Donovan was

1:01:47

described as stubborn and headstrong and spent his life confounding others with what appeared at times to be

1:01:52

contradictory behaviors California thirties now know that Donovan checked his bravado after

1:01:59

partying a company with the davises on May 3rd and try to detour West down into

1:02:04

Idlewild but with no way to navigate he became disorientated disoriented gosh darn it

1:02:13

every time I read that word I'm gonna purposely I'm never letting you get away with it either purposely change that

1:02:20

with something else in future episodes no you you got to keep doing it and then one day you'll get it right I'll never

1:02:25

get it right then all the phone calls will start I refuse um so in a journal written by written in

1:02:33

the margins of the photocopied guidebook Pages Donovan scribbled couldn't find a

1:02:39

uh the trail to Idlewild so instead he cut away from Idlewild drawn by the lights of the much larger Palm Springs

1:02:45

traveling about three miles north east of Saddle from saddle Junction area that

1:02:51

night he traversed skinny Willow Creek then climbed a small Ridge and dropped down into a steep cutting called Hidden

1:02:58

Valley as he dipped into the lower areas the brush became thicker and thicker Donovan's Journal places him in Long

1:03:05

Valley at about 4 300 feet the night of May 3rd on May 5th still camped in the

1:03:11

same Ravine he took a fall how badly he was hurt is unclear as John didn't give details but clearly

1:03:18

the ordeal of the past few days had landed him in big trouble he wrote that he'd already become too weak to climb

1:03:23

out of the canyon the notes that John wrote on the maps depicted a man coming to terms with the

1:03:30

bleakness of his situation he tried to signal for help with Amir and he tried to build a few weak fires that smoldered

1:03:36

out due to the time of year he was hiking foreign so even in the O'Sullivan case he went

1:03:45

missing in this exact same area yeah and that that was uh I think I said it was episode 67 right sounds right yeah

1:03:52

so like it was like the same area yeah so I mean there's a good chance this

1:03:57

isn't the only kind of valley that dead ends where if you hike into it you get stuck and can't get out in his wasn't

1:04:03

his the case too where it was uh snowing yeah it was hard to see the trail so it seems like this area do not hike through

1:04:09

this portion of the PCT if there's snow on the ground because it seems like it's like a strainer point for different areas where you can go down somewhere

1:04:16

where you cannot get back out again and maybe carries some climbing gear with you yes yeah or just don't hike the

1:04:22

trail if you can't see where you're going yeah uh so yeah he tried to use a signal flare couldn't get a fire going

1:04:28

at one point in May 5th John took an inventory of his supplies uh he was down to just 12 cheese crackers

1:04:34

and his notes he conceded that Ken Baker had been the smart one he regretted not heeding his advice about waiting a few

1:04:41

weeks to start the PCT and told Baker he wanted to be buried at a Navy Cemetery

1:04:46

on May 11th he celebrated his 60th birthday by eating two of his crackers in his last entry dated maybe oh that's

1:04:54

sad yeah on his last entry dated May 14th he scribbled that he was going down to Long Creek for water riding goodbye

1:05:01

and love you all the only mystery that lingered was was was Donovan's final message a

1:05:08

suicide note did he leap to his death anguished after 11 days of waiting or did he slip and endure a final fall no

1:05:16

one will ever know this um but on July 11th they buried John

1:05:22

Donovan in a veterans cemetery in Amelia County 80 people filled the chapel and a minister

1:05:27

read from Psalm 23 he read it he leads me beside quiet

1:05:34

water he restores my soul a ramrod stiff Navy officer presented Ken Baker with a

1:05:39

flag bagpipe bagpipers played amazing grave Amazing Grace and Lynn Padgett

1:05:46

moved to the Grave bearing uh a red plastic cooler there he opened a

1:05:52

Sea Breeze bottle filled with Irish whiskey and began filling up plastic cups so everyone could take a nip

1:05:58

so what a crazy story that is a crazy story I think I it goes to show that

1:06:06

small decisions that seem innocuous can end up causing huge problems and I think

1:06:12

that's what attrips people up in the wilderness like if you're just going for a hike you know just like a little quick jaunt off the trail yeah and then that

1:06:19

turns into I think we're lost let's go this way let's go just little little dumb decisions that again they don't

1:06:26

seem that big of a deal yeah and we'll just keep pushing you into a further red territory yeah and I think what really

1:06:33

drew me to this story of these two individual three individuals is we got a

1:06:39

first-hand account of what probably a lot of people have gone through when they've gone missing yep

1:06:46

I'll talk about that in a second uh you know yeah you're right it's um

1:06:52

what's really was what I really liked about this these people had zero experience yeah and you can it's almost

1:07:00

crazy how the brain works and gets really sharp in those types of conditions because they started recalling things that we talk about yeah

1:07:08

and they did not know what they were doing so it's people have that knowledge like almost innately in them of they've

1:07:14

probably heard it somewhere you know he said oh we're supposed to stay where we are now if he was a little more seasoned he would have known that out of off the

1:07:19

bat but I wonder how many of those people start realizing the right things to do and unfortunately they never get

1:07:25

found in time yeah and I mean how incredibly lucky were that John went

1:07:31

missing in there and they just happened to come across the valley that had all his gear in it because without that gear

1:07:37

they Brandon and Gina would have died I wanted like a statistician to calculate the odds it's like it's got to be

1:07:43

ridiculous yeah like you could win the Powerball twice and get hit by lightning before that would probably find out that

1:07:49

Valley just like people just like funnel into their there but even then you think

1:07:54

they would start searching that area after finding yeah said they would have never searched it yeah so but still

1:07:59

think of the odds of somebody going missing a year prior and

1:08:05

leaving behind the exact items you need to get rescued in the exact same spot a year later and

1:08:12

those things surviving the elements and then you stumbling upon that randomly yeah and then a helicopter

1:08:20

being in the right spot to see the signal fire that you let that only lasted a certain amount of time yeah like those odds have to be ridiculously

1:08:27

insane yeah I mean yeah it's like one eye after the other like the odds of this happening the odds of that

1:08:33

happening like it's crazy so if you're a fan of the show I shouldn't be alive uh season three episode two date from hell

1:08:40

is the story is it really yes that's what this is and these are the actor uh recreated photos that I was I was like

1:08:46

kind of giggling at like this is from the TV show look at they're on their date their meeting for the first time

1:08:52

wow hey look at there's that what's funny is this is the actual photo this is the recreated one they like

1:08:58

found the same clothing except they couldn't find a dude with black hair like

1:09:03

like they the the girl actually looks pretty similar to her yeah like but the so

1:09:09

yeah you can go watch look at like oh he's very scared and serious I mean what what's that on uh let's see

1:09:17

what so I'm on IMDb right now to see uh it's aired uh in 2010. okay January

1:09:25

22nd it's saying you can watch it on freebie freebie so go to IMDb date from Hell on

1:09:32

I shouldn't be alive you can watch it let's be good if it's only on freebie yeah so

1:09:39

um well that's all I had top comment why isn't anyone concerned that he tried to start a forest fire the potential harm

1:09:45

this could have caused what a dumb comment Rachel owens62633 well we covered that yeah

1:09:52

leave no Trace but guess what if I'm five days out almost dying and I have matches I'm probably gonna start a big

1:09:57

fire too I probably won't try and set the whole force on fire I'll gather stuff but shut up Rachel Owens I'm gonna

1:10:04

say that okay and I care about the environment a lot yeah but that's a dumb

1:10:09

comment why weren't they concerned I'll be quiet go be happy somewhere all right well on

1:10:16

that positive night join us on patreon uh for our exciting Dolly oh yeah

1:10:22

artwork episode yeah thanks again for tuning in to our show we appreciate you all for listening and sharing locations unknown with your friends and family be

1:10:29

sure to like and follow us on Facebook Instagram Twitter and YouTube where you can find the videos of each episode also

1:10:34

if you would like to support the show monetarily as Mike said in the beginning please visit our website or Facebook store to buy some sweet sweet swag

1:10:41

Additionally you can subscribe to our patreon account and on YouTube and apple

1:10:47

podcast the the special Apple podcast where you will have access to our special events and additional shows for

1:10:53

paid customers only just like Mike said we're gonna have a fun one next lastly when enjoying the beauty of nature

1:10:59

weather backpacking camping or simply taking a walk always remember to leave no Trace thanks and we will see you all

1:11:07

next time

1:11:13

foreign [Music]

1:11:26

[Music]

1:11:39

[Music]

1:11:45

foreign [Music]