Check It Out: The Disappearance of Eric Robinson (Uinta Triangle)

Summary

Summary of "Check It Out: The Disappearance of Eric Robinson (Uinta Triangle)"

Podcast Title: Fail Better with David Duchovny
Episode: Check It Out: The Disappearance of Eric Robinson (Uinta Triangle)
Release Date: July 1, 2025
Host/Author: Lemonada Media

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Introduction

In the episode "Check It Out: The Disappearance of Eric Robinson," hosted by Marilyn Kulstra, listeners are taken on an immersive journey into the mysterious vanishing of Eric Robinson, a seasoned solo hiker from Australia. The episode delves deep into Eric's life, his relationships, and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance in the Uinta Mountains of New Zealand.

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Eric Robinson’s Background

Eric Robinson was a passionate hiker who had recently retired and embarked on a month-long trekking expedition across New Zealand's rugged terrains. His meticulous preparation included packing a GPS beacon, making his disappearance all the more perplexing given the safety measures he had taken.

Eric's Wife, Marilyn Kulstra [05:19]:
"That's the voice of Eric's wife, Marilyn Kulstra. Eric and Marilyn lived in Australia, in the suburbs of Melbourne. Eric was a few weeks shy of his 61st birthday and he had just retired."

Eric's adventures began in Glenorchy, traversing the Ries River and ascending into the Dart River Valley, a region renowned for its natural beauty and treacherous conditions, especially when wet.

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Personal Life and Relationships

Eric met Marilyn Kulstra in 1994 through an introduction agency. Their relationship blossomed over shared interests in hiking and outdoor activities, contrasting their previous experiences and personal losses. Eric had endured the early loss of his father, stepfather, and first wife, Helen, which fueled his passion for nature as a sanctuary.

Marilyn Kulstra [26:12]:
"The story of Eric's disappearance is Marilyn's story. Too, to tell it right, I need to share a bit of what she said when the tape wasn't rolling."

Eric and Marilyn maintained separate households for over a decade, allowing them to preserve their independence while nurturing their relationship through frequent hiking trips and shared adventures.

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The Trek and Disappearance

In early 2008, Eric set out to hike the Cascade Saddle, a notoriously dangerous segment of the trail known for its slick grasses and history of fatalities. Despite the challenging weather conditions, Eric proceeded with determination.

Marilyn Kulstra [64:08]:
"But Eric Robinson did not turn back during his walk over the Cascade Saddle. When our story resumes, I'll tell you exactly how his walk end."

Marilyn Kulstra, driven by the need to uncover the truth behind Eric's disappearance, embarks on her own expedition along the same trail, mirroring Eric's journey. Her narrative intertwines personal reflection with the unfolding mystery, highlighting the stark differences between her experiences and Eric's fate.

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Search Efforts and Unanswered Questions

Upon Eric's failure to return, Marilyn faced the grim reality of a missing husband. Concurrently, Alan Beck, a close friend of Eric's, also becomes a pivotal figure in the investigation. Their shared history and mutual love for the outdoors add layers of complexity to the search efforts.

Alan Beck [07:05]:
"He [Eric] could sit out in his garden and listen to the cockatoos and kookaburras."

The search involves engaging with local authorities, scouring through Eric's extensive hiking records, and retracing his last known steps. Despite thorough efforts, the exact circumstances of Eric's disappearance remain elusive, leaving Marilyn and Alan grappling with unanswered questions and the haunting possibility of foul play or tragic accident.

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Eric’s Legacy and Marilyn’s Quest

Eric Robinson's disappearance is not just a mystery but a catalyst for Marilyn Kulstra's profound personal journey. As she delves deeper into Eric's past, she uncovers his unresolved familial ties and the psychological scars that drove him to seek solace in the wilderness.

Marilyn Kulstra [29:57]:
"Eric and Marilyn were opposites in many ways, but they complemented each other where it mattered most."

Marilyn's quest to understand what led Eric to hike alone serves as a poignant exploration of human resilience, the fear of failure, and the innate desire to seek answers amidst loss and uncertainty.

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Conclusion

"Check It Out: The Disappearance of Eric Robinson (Uinta Triangle)" offers an intricate tapestry of love, loss, and the relentless pursuit of truth. Through detailed storytelling and emotional interviews, Marilyn Kulstra paints a vivid picture of Eric Robinson's life and the enigmatic circumstances of his vanishing. The episode serves as a testament to the enduring human spirit and the complexities that lie within our quests for meaning and understanding.

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Notable Quotes

• Marilyn Kulstra [08:35]:
  "The department is New Zealand's government agency responsible for managing backcountry trails. It would likely launch a search and rescue mission for Eric."

• Alan Beck [33:08]:
  "Eric was an anti conscription campaigner, protester, a hider of people who would not join up."

• Marilyn Kulstra [37:14]:
  "We just went to a party one night, and it was actually a wedding."

• Alan Beck [57:59]:
  "That was probably, you know, the highlight of their first foray into mountaineering. Glacial snow places together. It was a stunning place."

• Marilyn Kulstra [64:08]:
  "But Eric Robinson did not turn back during his walk over the Cascade Saddle."

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This detailed summary encapsulates the essence of the episode, providing a comprehensive overview of Eric Robinson's disappearance and the ensuing investigation. It highlights the emotional depth and complexity of the narrative, ensuring that listeners grasp the full scope of the story even if they haven't tuned into the actual podcast.

Transcript

[Dave Cawley]

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[Erica Mahoney]

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[Marilyn Kulstra]

Lemonada.

[Erica Mahoney]

Hey, feel better listeners. This week we're sharing another podcast with you that we think you'll really like and it's called Uinta Triangle. It tells the story of a solo hiker from Australia named Eric Robinson who disappeared while on a trek. Eric had taken steps to make sure he could travel the mountains that he loved safely, like packing a GPS beacon. So it was a real mystery when he vanished without a trace. Turns out the mountains where Erik disappeared are known for keeping their secrets. Uinta Triangle tells the story of the desperate search for Erik. Host Dave Colley follows in Eric's footsteps and joins Eric's wife in her worldwide hunt for answers. It's a Lost in the woods story, but much more. You're about to hear the first episode of Uinta Triangle. Follow the show by searching uinta that's u I n t a triangle on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. And now here's the show. Driving rain has a beauty of shape and movement, but there is a kind of rain without beauty. When air and ground are sodden, sullen black rain that invades body and soul alike. Then the desolation of these empty stretches strikes at one's heart. The mountain becomes a monstrous place. Nan Shepard the Living Mountain.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Autumn arrived in Aotearoa carrying a gift of rain.

[Alan Beck]

And when it rains in New Zealand, it rains.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Drought busting storms descended on Tai Waipounamu, the South island of New Zealand, at the beginning of March 2008.

[Alan Beck]

How it rained and it rained and it was very wet.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric Robinson was a few days into what was supposed to be a month long vacation. Trekking or tramping, as the Kiwis would say, all across New Zealand. He planned to tackle several ambitious routes. First on his list, Cascade Saddle. A long walk through some of the most beautiful terrain New Zealand has to offer. Think of those sweeping shots of snow capped peaks from the Lord of the Rings movies. Those were filmed in this part of New Zealand. Eric started from the sheep herding town of Glenorchy, going up the braided meanders of the Ries river through a grassy valley bounded by towering mountains. The water of the Reez flowed a brilliant robin egg blue, burdened with sediment from glaciers on the slopes far above. At the top of the Rees Valley, Eric ascended a pass and crossed into the neighboring valley of the Dart river, home to a cheeky kleptomaniac breed of parrot called Kea. It's a beautiful, exotic, wild place. Erik stayed a night in a hut along the Dart river, kind of like a hostel for hikers. The following morning he struck out for the Cascade Saddle, a steep, exposed stretch between the head of the Dart and Mitukituke river valleys. This section becomes dangerous when it rains because the slopes on the Matukituki side are covered with grasses that become slick when wet. Multiple people have died while attempting to cross Cascade Saddle. Eric didn't mind a little bad weather. He had a saying, there's no such.

[Alan Beck]

Thing as bad weather, just a poor choice of clothing.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

That's the voice of Eric's wife, Marilyn Kulstra. Eric and Marilyn lived in Australia, in the suburbs of Melbourne. Eric was a few weeks shy of his 61st birthday and he had just retired.

[Alan Beck]

That desire to retire at 60, I always thought was too early. But to achieve the walks and the places that he wanted to go that was necessary.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

With his newfound free time, Eric pursued his one aspiration to walk the world's greatest trails.

[Alan Beck]

And his mantra was, I'm going to do as many walks as I can for as long as I can carry a backpack.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric's got this list of places he wants to go. You probably don't even know half of all the places in his mind you know that he's going to walk before you.

[Alan Beck]

Oh, there's a book out the back I could check. A thousand places to see and do before you die.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric didn't intend to die anytime soon. He and Marilyn were in the prime of their lives. Both figured death lay far, far in their future.

[Alan Beck]

Yeah, we did expect to spend a long retirement together, traveling and doing things.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Marilyn, at age 55, wasn't yet ready to retire. She had a job she loved. It made it difficult for her to get away with Eric for the long walks he wanted to take. So Eric often went out alone.

[Alan Beck]

We had an understanding. If he wanted to go and hike somewhere, he would do that.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Marilyn remained at home in Australia while Eric went out adventuring in Aotearoa in early 2008. No sooner had he left for New Zealand than she received a delivery.

[Alan Beck]

The beautiful bunch of flowers that he'd always organized before he left on any trip. A loving gesture, but also the appreciation that I didn't tie him to the relationship, that he couldn't go off and do things him. It was a very strong partnership in that way.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Marilyn placed the blooms in the same spot she always did, in the Edinburgh.

[Alan Beck]

Crystal vase that was given to us.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

For a wedding present, a symbol of Eric's love, respect and devotion. The flowers were still there in that crystal vase when Marilyn arrived home from work a few nights later. She was in her evening routine, making dinner, maybe decompressing with a little tv, when her phone rang. She answered, and on the other end came the voice of Alan Beck, a friend and former co worker of her.

[Alan Beck]

Husband'S, which was most unusual. And he said, I don't want to alarm you, but Eric is overdue.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Alan was in Wanaka, a resort town on the south island of New Zealand. Wanaka was also where Eric planned to stay after his Cascade Saddle hike. He'd made plans to meet Alan there, but Eric hadn't arrived. Allen told Marilyn torrential rains were at that moment pounding the Southern Alps, the mountains that run the length of the South Island.

[Alan Beck]

He said, but I wouldn't worry. It'll be okay. I have a good feeling about this.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Alan knew the risks of mountain weather. As well as anyone. He also knew Eric was a competent backcountry traveler. Still, Marilyn heard concern creeping around the corners of his words.

[Alan Beck]

Alan was worried about his friend, who was a little bit older perhaps, than he was, and he said, I've alerted the Department of Conservation.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

The department is New Zealand's government agency responsible for managing backcountry trails. It would likely launch a search and rescue mission for Eric. At first light the next morning, he.

[Alan Beck]

Said, maybe you want to call DFAT and let them know.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

DFAT is Australia's Department of Foreign affairs, its equivalent to the US State Department. Marilyn's mind raced, picturing all the possible scenarios. She pushed the most intrusive out of her head, refusing to believe anything bad could have happened. Eric had gone prepared tent, waterproof jacket, extra food, all the essentials, but Marilyn knew none of that would make any difference if he lost his footing on soggy grass and somersaulted over the edge of a cliff. She hung up and glanced across the room at the flowers in the crystal vase, pausing to wonder if they might be the last she would ever receive from the man she considered her soulmate, Eric Robinson. Then Marilyn picked up the telephone again, dialed D Fat, and reported her husband missing. You're listening to Uinta Triangle, an audio documentary from KSL Podcasts about the disappearance of Eric Robinson. This is the first episode and it's called Overdue.

[Dave Cawley]

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning from the flight deck.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

We are going to start our descent into the Melbourne area in about 15 to 20 minutes. My legs are killing me. I haven't moved from this economy class seat for 16 hours, minus one brief trip to the lav. Right now we're looking at a touchdown.

[Dave Cawley]

About 9:50 local time in Melbourne and we'll get to our gauges.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

My name is Dave Cawley and I boarded this plane bound for Australia in January of 2024.

[Dave Cawley]

I want to thank you for flying.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

With us today and look forward to seeing you for these guys again. I'm an American and a journalist. I decided to fly partway around the world because I'm trying to solve a mystery about what happened to Eric Robinson. I first learned about Eric's story more than a decade ago while working as a radio news reporter. It left me with so many questions like what drove a man in his 60s to hike alone on challenging or even treacherous tracks with no way to call for help? How could someone as experienced and well prepared as Eric just disappear? My search for answers led me to Eric's wife, Marilyn. I first spoke to her in 2016. Eric was a guy who obviously knew what he was doing and was prepared to be where he was.

[Alan Beck]

Yes, he would plan in detail the hiking before departure. He was a minimalist person, but not minimalist on safety.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Now, I've talked to Marilyn many more times since, but our conversations were always over the telephone across time zones. Every call left me feeling there was more to the story, some deeper truth I could sense but not quite grasp. That's why I finally decided to fly to Melbourne and meet Marilyn in person.

[Alan Beck]

I was excited to have somebody come to expand upon the story of two people who met later in life and enjoyed passions and places together.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

The story Marilyn shared launched me on an even deeper journey of discovery.

[Alan Beck]

You know, it's a story of a missing person, but it's also a legacy to that person for the love of what they did.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

I soon found myself on another plane crossing the Tasman Sea, going to New Zealand.

[Alan Beck]

Hold the handrails remain on the outside.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Of the markers on the tarmac to follow Eric's footsteps. And I'm about halfway up to Cascade Saddle on the Dart riverside. I traveled solo, just as Eric did, with all the risk that entails. I'm just, apparently I'm just falling down a hill because I wanted to learn what compelled Eric to adventure in wild places alone. And to answer the question why one time he didn't return.

[Dave Cawley]

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[Erica Mahoney]

Hi, I'm Erica Mahoney. You don't know me, but you know a version of my story, because by now we've all felt the impact of senseless gun violence.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

I think a stray bullet flew past me because I hear the it was.

[Alan Beck]

That horrible feeling of dread something's wrong.

[Erica Mahoney]

Four years ago my dad was killed in a mass shooting. My podcast Senseless is about moving forward after the unthinkable Senseless From Lemonada Media Premiering June 17th.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric Robinson met Marilyn Kulstra at the Perfect Time, 1994.

[Alan Beck]

We met in May.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

And how did you meet?

[Alan Beck]

Eric didn't like to talk about this, but I was at a professional meeting and a lady spoke. She was part of an introduction agency and I signed up.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

An introduction agency is a dating service.

[Alan Beck]

And our first conversation was over the phone, where we arranged to meet for a coffee at a little pizza place near the Rivoli Theatre in Camberwell, which is iconic.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

The Rivoli Theater is an old Art deco building with neon signs and a facade of orange brick. The pizza place sat right across the street. That's where Eric and Marilyn first met face to face.

[Alan Beck]

What stood out to me were his sparkly eyes and his Scottish accent, which he vows and declares is quite Australian.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Marilyn asked about the accent, Eric said he had grown up in Scotland.

[Alan Beck]

Physically. We were sort of of a similar Height, you know, and fit.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Both were a bit shorter than average. Marilyn was 41 years old and just dipping her toe back into the dating pool after separating from her first husband a few years earlier. She wore her hair in a pixie cut. Eric was 47. He had a broad smile and deep set blue eyes. He was balding on top and going gray, giving him a bit of a Jean Luc Picard look. Marilyn found him attractive, but the conversations.

[Alan Beck]

That we had were the attraction to, you know, experiences, travel, reading books, enjoyment of theatre and film.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric's face lit up when Marilyn said she enjoyed hiking. Eric loved to hike. At the end of that first date, Eric asked Marilyn if he could take her out again.

[Alan Beck]

And I said, well, I'm on school camp. I'll call you when I get back.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

School camps are a part of Australian culture. They allow kids to build skills and experience in the outdoors under the supervision of their teachers. Marilyn was teaching sixth grade at the time and was going to be unavailable while with her students at camp.

[Alan Beck]

And so dutifully, maybe three weeks or so later, I called him and he said, oh, well, how about we go and see a movie? And I said, oh, yeah, I'd like to see that movie, Four Weddings and a Funeral. You know, I hear it's pretty good. And he goes without hesitation. Yes, that'd be great. And we arranged to go on a Sunday night. And so we met at the Riverley Theatre. It turned out that it was the third time that weekend that he'd seen that same movie Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night with me.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric had hedged his bets while Marilyn was at camp lining up three dates with three women on three consecutive nights.

[Alan Beck]

And I was the third woman that he'd seen that movie with.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

And he didn't let on.

[Alan Beck]

He didn't let on. He never told me the story.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Marilyn only learned of this later for from some of Eric's friends. But whoever those other two women were, they didn't leave a lasting impression on Eric. Marilyn did. And she soon canceled her account with that introduction agency because she was falling for Eric. Starting a romantic relationship in your mid-40s can feel a lot different from falling in love in your early 20s.

[Alan Beck]

Unlike when you're young and you fall in love, you know, first sight, so to speak. This was a longer, sort of more gradual process, you know, as we spent time together, developed our interests, got to know each other, and it just evolved over, you know, 12 months.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

As their conversations deepened, Marilyn learned Eric had been married before as well, and he was a single father. To a teenage son.

[Alan Beck]

Eric had a son who they'd moved house after his wife died and he lived in the Green lady leafy eastern suburbs, you know, very natural bush around.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric had built this new house In Heathmont, about 30 minutes outside of Melbourne. The yard backed up to Dandenong Creek, a natural waterway surrounded by tall trees, thick brush and several walking paths. Eric could sit out in his garden and listen to the cockatoos and kookaburras. Marilyn shared an old home movie with me where Eric showed off a bit of his garden.

[Alan Beck]

Maybe Marilyn can pan across the garden.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

That's Eric's voice.

[Alan Beck]

This is Banksia borei, but it's commonly.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Known as the koala banksia, so the flower is soft and cuddly. Marilyn didn't at first understand the significance of this garden. She didn't realize for Eric, nature was a sanctuary, a place where he found comfort from the three great losses of his the early deaths of his father, his mother and his first wife. Eric and I are very different people, but I feel a sense of kinship with him over this. He has his wounds and I have mine. I grew up a long way from Australia in the mountains of the western US Our Yellowstone trip. We're at West Thumb at the geyser area. My family went on camping trips every summer when I was a boy. Mark and David are excited about this one. Looks like a volcano. My dad would haul this giant VHS camcorder around on his shoulder. Finished our little walk around the geyser basin about 4 miles. I think I'm about 5 years old in this video with blonde bangs, chubby cheeks, and a habit of wandering off on my own. Find ourselves here at Icy Lake.

[Dave Cawley]

There goes David.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

We lost him already. It's hard for me to watch these old home movies knowing that curious little boy is about to go through abuse at the hands of someone he trusts. No one around me knew what was happening. I carried the burden of that abuse through my childhood alone. Life didn't get easier as an adult. Doctors discovered a tumor in my chest when I was 21. They sawed my rib cage open to remove it. I felt physically and psychologically shattered. At some point during this dark stretch, I thought back to how I had loved hiking as a kid. I hadn't been out in years, so I bought some boots and a backpack and started exploring. I went to the mountains or the desert, often alone. Soon I learned a wild river. And the song of a canyon wren helped calm the chaos in my head. I've hiked in some amazing places over the years. And by the time I went to New Zealand to follow Eric's footsteps, I wasn't intimidated at the idea of going alone. But it turns out the Southern Alps of New Zealand are quite different from my home turf in the Rocky Mountains of North America. The seasons are backward, the night sky doesn't look right, and the climate's all wrong. So is the wildlife. You might be able to hear some squawking. I'm pretty sure that's Kea birds, notorious for their inquisitiveness and also willingness to destroy tents, steal gear, and generally harass hikers. The way to Cascade Saddle is well marked, but I did lose the trail a time or two and had to rely on my skills and experience to get back on track. Man, that's like, vertical. All right, hands engaged. There's the track.

[Dave Cawley]

Look at that.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Where did I miss it? Well, I found it. In any case, problem solving is part of what I enjoy about hiking. Some problems, though, are worse than others. A couple hours into my hike, I looked down at my phone and saw a notification. The phone had dialed emergency services using satellite because I had supposedly pressed and held the power and side buttons together for, like, five seconds. Whatever that setting is. It seemed I'd made a butt dial to space calling for a rescue I didn't need. I couldn't see any way to cancel it. So that's frustrating. And hopefully there's no big search and rescue happening, because again, I am fine. It was the middle of the night back home in the US I wondered if my emergency contacts were waking to pings on their phones telling them I was in trouble. I don't like this feeling of anxiety over whether or not somebody at home is worried about my welfare. Worse yet, I realized Marilyn might be receiving a phone call telling her I needed rescue from the same place as Eric. I. I felt terrible at the thought of putting her through that. When I first sat down to interview Marilyn for this story, she held her hand out to show me it was trembling.

[Alan Beck]

Look. See?

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Yeah, yeah. So, deep breaths. I understood why she felt nervous. We were about to relive the worst moments of her life. But you might have noticed by now, Marilyn has an almost British stoicism about her.

[Alan Beck]

Yeah. Gosh, right.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

She keeps her emotions in check. I needed to pierce that shell. We recorded hours of interviews and have spent many more hours in unrecorded conversation about some very personal stuff.

[Alan Beck]

You know, childhood memories, family memories, things growing up. All sorts of memories.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

The story of Eric's disappearance is Marilyn's story. Too, to tell it right, I need to share a bit of what she said when the tape wasn't rolling. Marilyn grew up with an authoritarian father in a family where young ladies were expected to follow the rules, no questions asked. She didn't get her first taste of independence until she reached college. She joined a hiking club and started taking trips with the other members to destinations outside of Melbourne.

[Alan Beck]

Wilson's Promontory, the Grampians, you know, southwest coast of Victoria.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Don't worry if you're not familiar with this geography or any of the other places we will visit throughout the story. What matters is how it made Marilyn feel. She loved visiting new places, but those opportunities dwindled when she married a man who had no interest in hiking. They soon had a couple kids, a son, Marty, and a daughter, Rachel. The demands of motherhood and the disapproval of her husband stifled the sprouting seeds of Maryland's independence. Her only real outlet during this period was her job. She worked as a primary school teacher, specializing in literacy. But even that career was derailed after only a few years. Marilyn lost a pregnancy at full term. That loss devastated her. She was consumed by grief, unable to work. As a result, she became entirely dependent on her husband. They had two more kids in the years that followed, Jonathan and David, making a total of four. Marilyn Boy believed she had done everything she was supposed to. But fractures were forming in her marriage. Her husband started drinking more and staying out late. She told me one time he came home drunk after the children's bedtime. He wanted to wake them. She tried to stop him. The next day, a purple bruise showed around one of her eyes. Marilyn's husband soon told her he was leaving for another woman. They separated in 1990. After two decades with a patriarchal spouse, Marilyn suddenly had her independence restored. It was a struggle.

[Alan Beck]

There were four children, aged from 8 to 18, in various stages of education. There were severe financial restrictions. We had to sell the family home. You know, I was renting for a while.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

She went back to work, resuming her teaching career. The kids pitched in too, taking turns preparing meals.

[Alan Beck]

No matter what was happening, every night we sat down for dinner and we had dinner together. You know, it wasn't an easy time, but it was a time that gave all of us different strengths whilst being very emotional and challenging.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric was also going through a difficult period at this same time, following the death of his first wife.

[Alan Beck]

Helen died about the same time as my marriage broke down. So we were sort of, you know, timing, pacing together in that grieving process and, you know, getting your Life back in order and sort of moving on.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

By the time Marilyn met Eric, she had resolved to never become so dependent on another man. Eric saw that as a virtue he.

[Alan Beck]

Enjoyed and he loved the fact that I was independent and not just in a relationship for support or, you know, financial support.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric and Marilyn were opposites in many ways, but they complemented each other where it mattered most.

[Alan Beck]

He was rapt that I loved walking.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

But she didn't yet comprehend just how deep Eric's passion for hiking went. So let's talk about how that passion came to be and those three wounds that shaped it. Eric's roots trace back to the uk. His father, Victor, was English and served as a private in the Royal army during the Second World War.

[Dave Cawley]

Here is something of the gigantic naval armada assembled to transport the Allied armies across the English Channel.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric's mother, Margaret, was the daughter of a Scottish coal miner. She had taken a job serving coffee to soldiers and sailors. That's how she met Victor. Their romance played out during a pivotal moment in history.

[Dave Cawley]

Another of the great decisive battles of world history has been joined. This is the day for which free people long have waited. This is D Day Day.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Victor and Margaret married just weeks after D Day. Following the war, they moved to a small village in England. And on March 19, 1947, they welcomed their first and only child, Eric Joseph Robinson. But Victor died unexpectedly a year and a half later. Little Eric was too young to have any memory of it. He only knew his mom. Margaret swept him away to Scotland. She cut Eric off from his father's side of the family, never telling him why. So although Eric was born English, he grew up a Scotsman in a little village called Glencrag.

[Alan Beck]

His grandfather owned a few of the houses and he would go with his grandfather to collect the rent. And, you know, it was not a very wealthy existence.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Margaret remarried after a few years to a man named William Copeland.

[Alan Beck]

And it was not a happy one. It was alcoholism and family violence.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric's stepfather worked in the nearby coal mines until that industry collapsed in the late 50s. But opportunity was calling from the far side of the world. Australia's government was begging British citizens to resettle there to build up the Australian workforce. So In February of 1963, William, Margaret and 15 year old Eric boarded a plane bound for Melbourne. British emigres were promised work and affordable housing in Australia. All they had to Pay was a 10 pound processing fee and they emigrated.

[Alan Beck]

As what we call in Australia 10 pound.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Poms Pom is Australian slang for a British person.

[Alan Beck]

So they were offered Assisted passage to Australia to join the growing needed workforce here, you know, as skilled professionals.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Soon after arriving, William signed Eric up for an internship with a manufacturing company. Then William walked out on Margaret, leaving her destitute. Eric hated him for it and I.

[Alan Beck]

Think probably because of watching his mum and the challenges that she had faced, you know, he was a very strong advocate for women's equal rights, independence, respect.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

The apprenticeship taught Eric valuable skills. He trained to be a fitter and turner. That's a technical trade skill, a kind of mechanical engineering. Eric wasn't content to just work and survive, though. He was a young man eager to explore the world around him and inspired by cultural influences like the songs of the Beach Boys.

[Alan Beck]

He was a mad keen surfer. So his first car was a little Volkswagen and he'd put the surfboard on the car and sleep in the car down the surf coast each weekend and back again.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric and his mates went to rock and roll dances on the weekends. At one, he met a pretty young woman named Helen. She too had immigrated to Australia as a child, but her parents were refugees, survivors of Nazi oppression in Poland. Eric and Helen shared strong anti war convictions. The Vietnam War was raging and many young men in Australia were being drafted. Eric's number was never called, but he helped at least one friend evade the draft.

[Alan Beck]

So he was an anti conscription campaigner, protester, a hider of people who would not join up.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric and Helen dated for three years, then married in August of 1969. The wedding had an unintended consequence. It isolated Eric's mom, Margaret. She lived alone with no other family in Australia, and soon decided to move back to Scotland. Eric escorted her to the dock on the day she left, waving as she boarded an ocean liner. Not realizing it would be the last time he ever saw his mom, Eric applied for a job with a company called Dynavac at the start of 1970. He showed up for the interview in surfer attire, shorts and a blue tank top. The guy who interviewed him, a young man named Russ Inkle, looked past the casual outfit.

[E]

The clothes don't make the man. It was clear that he was a very intelligent guy.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric felt drawn to this company because it prioritized the rights of its workers. Russ hired Eric and they became fast friends.

[E]

I'd have to say Eric would be my best friend and we were pretty much in sync. Two young left wingers, you could say.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric pinned a note to a corkboard in the Dynavac break room one day, inviting his co workers to come along on a camping trip over an upcoming holiday.

[Alan Beck]

Weekend, cup weekend. It's the only place in the world, I think, where the whole nation stops for a horse race.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric wasn't interested in the Melbourne Cup. Instead, he, Russ and several others drove out into the bush. They spent time around a campfire, talking, relaxing and enjoying nature. And cup weekend camps became an annual tradition for Eric and his friends.

[Alan Beck]

They had trips across Australia, through the Simpson and the Tanami deserts, up into Central Australia, all kinds of off road experiences.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Another of Eric's work friends was a guy named John Sidwell. John and his wife Jeanette joined Eric on several of these off roading adventures.

[E]

Oh, look, he loved his bush. Yes, yes. And he loved getting out into the bush and wasn't afraid to be out on his own.

[Alan Beck]

He was a good bloke, although he still always thought of himself as a Scotsman.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

These camping trips left a deep impression on Eric. They were the foundation for a growing sense of environmentalism.

[Alan Beck]

And he became a protester. He tied himself to a tree, got arrested.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

The intensity of his budding passion sometimes surprised his friends.

[Alan Beck]

I guess I could see what his love for it was. And it was love for it. You know, he couldn't help himself. That's where he wanted to be.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric became an Australian citizen at the end of 1973. He and his wife Helen planned to fly to Scotland a few months later to visit Eric's mom. But Margaret died unexpectedly from stomach cancer. She was just 51 years old. Instead of visiting his mom, Eric flew to Scotland to bury her. He couldn't afford a headstone, so Margaret was interred in an unmarked grave. Growing up, Eric had never pressed his mom for the story of what happened to his father. Now that he was an adult, eager to understand, her death deprived him of an opportunity to ask. By age 26, Eric had lost his father, stepfather and mother. His wife Helen was all he had left. But even that relationship started to fray.

[E]

Helen and Eric's relationship was very volatile. So they would yell and shout at each other, really yell and shout.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

They didn't expect to have kids. Helen was diabetic and doctors told her the odds of her getting pregnant were one in a million.

[E]

One day we were out playing cricket in the backyard and someone said to Helen, oh, you got quite a tummy, Helen. And it turned out she was pregnant.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

It was a complicated pregnancy. Helen delivered at 26 weeks, giving premature birth to a boy they named Glenn.

[E]

Glenn was born and it was the size of a pound of butter. Just this tiny little thing.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

The pregnancy worsened Helen's diabetes. Her kidneys were compromised. She went on dialysis. Still, all through the 1980s, she joined Eric and their little boy Glenn on camping trips. Russ Inkle told me Eric was an enthusiastic but impatient dad.

[E]

We were away camping. Glenn's helping him pull out 10 pegs or some bloody thing. He wasn't doing a particularly effective job. And Eric yells at him, you're as useless as tits on a ball, Glenn. This is a seven year old kid.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Yeah. Eric wasn't going to win Father of the Year. Losing his own dad so young had deprived him of a strong example.

[E]

Eric didn't have the role model.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Helen went to the hospital in May of 1990 for treatment of peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdominal wall. She had an infection. It turned septic and killed her in a matter of hours. She was only 44 years old. Helen's death came just weeks before her son Glenn's 12th birthday and Eric was reeling.

[E]

A couple of months after Helen died, Eric was not in a good place.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Russ and his wife Marg were planning a long road trip through the Simpson Desert up the Kakadu national park at the far northern end of Australia. These were familiar and favorite places for Eric. Russ invited Eric and Glenn to come along, hoping to take their minds off Helen's death.

[E]

It was a really wonderful holiday, just the four of us.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric spent those evenings peering into the.

[E]

Campfire and you're looking out on this amazing array of stars in the sky.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

I don't know what went through Eric's mind, but I imagine the beauty of the desert drew his thoughts away from his grief. Eric's friends John and Jeanette Sidwell also invited him on a trip. In the wake of Helen's death, he joined them on a trek in Tasmania.

[Alan Beck]

We did the overland trek in Tassie with him and it was just amazing.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

The overland track crosses through scenic wilderness and it's usually done over several days. Eric hadn't done many long multi day hikes like this this before carrying all his food and gear on his back. But he loved it.

[E]

Yeah. And that probably was the first walk that got him back into it, got him going again. And from then on, yeah, he was off.

[Dave Cawley]

So.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Look, I don't want to oversimplify by suggesting a couple campfires and one long hike completely closed the wound of Helen's death. They didn't. But these experiences taught Eric nature wasn't just a place to play. It held a healing power, an ability to soothe his sorrow. This helps explain why soon after Helen's death, Eric sold the house they had shared and bought that small plot of land a bit farther out in the suburb of Heathmont, where he built his new house on a secluded dead end street next to a nature preserve.

[Alan Beck]

After he built the house, then he worked on the garden. That's always good therapy. And the back living area overlooks the garden, which seemingly goes on forever because it has a chain mesh fence that allows the outside natural bush in.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

I mentioned this garden once already. It became Eric's hideout, a haven where he went to heal when he couldn't escape to the wilderness. Marilyn quickly learned her new boyfriend Eric took every opportunity to get outside and he brought her along as often as her work schedule allowed.

[Alan Beck]

Every school holidays, he would plan to maybe take a long weekend.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

They traveled all over eastern Australia, road tripping in Eric's 4x4.

[Alan Beck]

I learned to four wheel drive from Eric.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

He took Marilyn up past Brisbane one time to a place called K' Gari, also known as Fraser Island. To get there, they had to ferry the 4x4 across the water on a barge. Eric was out of the car when the barge landed on the sandy beach. Marilyn was at the wheel. He had taught her to keep momentum when driving on sand, so she floored it.

[Alan Beck]

I drove off and left him there. Most, most indignant about that. He shouldn't have taught her to drive.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Marilyn knew how to take Eric's sarcasm and dish it right back.

[Alan Beck]

We did bring a change of clothes just in case we got wet, didn't we, Robinson?

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Yeah, I forgot to bring yours.

[Alan Beck]

I brought my own. I wouldn't rely on you for my change of clothes.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

They were well matched in this way.

[Alan Beck]

Now, if you want to say something, Eric, shout, shout. Sorry. I laughed.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric and Marilyn hiked all over New Zealand together.

[Alan Beck]

We walked the heathy track in the Wongapeka. And it's a beautiful country.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Derek even took Marilyn and a couple of her kids to Tasmania, one of the places he had confronted his grief after his first wife Helen's death. He led Marilyn up a ridge.

[Alan Beck]

Eric said to me, come and look at this. This is magnificent. So I traipse up behind and across the valley. Below were many, many lakes. It was called the Thousand Lakes. And I said rather glibly, flippantly, oh, look at all the puddles. And he was, they're not puddles, they're lakes. We just laugh, laugh, laugh. And then forever after, I've been stuck with the nickname Puddles.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

The pet name was a sure indication Eric was in love.

[Alan Beck]

I'd never had a nickname.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric gave her a different nickname in hen, a Scottish term. Of endearment. He used it whenever he most wanted to show his affection. Good morning hen. You can do it hen.

[Alan Beck]

It was a development of respect and understanding and shared interests and the times that spent together.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

They daydreamed of the future they might share. Growing old together, traveling the world, hiking side by side.

[Alan Beck]

That love of walking, I think really drew us into a lot of activities together.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric introduced Marilyn to his friends who went months thinking her name was Marlin, like the fish because of how Eric's Scottish accent squashed the middle syllable in Marilyn. His best friend Russ Inkle told me Marilyn changed Eric for the better. He seemed happier with her than he had ever been. Eric's closest friendships were all born at work at that company Dynavac, I mentioned earlier. So it hurt Eric when he lost that job in the late 90s.

[Alan Beck]

His original workplace was sold and everybody moved on.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric bounced around for a bit, eventually landing at a factory that packaged toilet paper for the Aussie brand Sorbent. Not the most glamorous gig, but an important one because it's where Eric made a critical new connection.

[Alan Beck]

There was a New Zealander, Alan Beck.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Who liked walking and Eric's new co worker. Alan loved climbing mountains.

[Alan Beck]

And so the two of them over lunch breaks would conjure up places that I want to go. Because Alan's wife didn't like doing those.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Kind of adventures, they began going on hikes together and bonded over their love of the outdoors. Over the next decade, that friendship would take the two men around the world and lead to a tragedy neither of them saw coming. Because this is the same Allen who would eventually call Marilyn with the news Eric was over do.

[Alan Beck]

Hey.

[Erica Mahoney]

I'm Reshma Sajani, founder of Girls who Code and Moms First. I consider myself a pretty successful adult woman. So why is it that in midlife, as I'm about to turn 50, I feel so stuck?

[Dave Cawley]

Join me as I try to find.

[Erica Mahoney]

The answer on my so called Midlife from Lemonada Media. I talk to experts and extraordinary guests about divorce, exercise, menopause, sex, drugs and more to understand what we're going through and how to make the most of it. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

An Australian hiker travels to the American west to walk a wilderness trail.

[E]

Wasn't afraid to be out on his.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Own, but Eric Robinson vanished in the in the Hyuinta Mountains.

[Alan Beck]

I remember thinking, Eric, what were you thinking, mate?

[Marilyn Kulstra]

I'm Dave Cawley. Join me on my podcast Uinta Triangle, where I travel the world to answer the question, what happened to Eric? Robinson. Follow Uinta Triangle. That's Uinta Triangle on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. I'm Josh Mankiewicz and I hope you'll join us for season four of Dateline Missing in America. In each episode of Dateline's award winning series, we will focus on one missing persons case and hear from the families, the friends and the investigators, all desperate to find them. You will want to listen closely. Maybe you could help investigators solve a mystery.

[Dave Cawley]

DATELINE Missing in America. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

The historical society in Heathmont, where Eric Robinson lived, profiled 200 of the suburbs residents in the year 2000. Eric contributed a brief autobiography. He introduced himself and his son Glenn. One of the reasons we chose to live here is the diversity of flora and fauna in the area, eric wrote. Our garden is planted out with Australian natives. You've already heard him showing off the garden in this home video recorded by Marilyn. Grebelias are still flowering, as you can see. This one's just about ready to break up. The strategy is to have shrubs and trees flowering as well as seeding all through the year to encourage birds. Eric wrote Eastern Spine Bill in the grevillea just here. Got nothing to fear. Cute, isn't he? Marilyn had bought her own house in East Bentley, about 40 minutes away from where Eric lived in Heathmont. A year into their relationship.

[Alan Beck]

I felt very independent and proud about that and it was close to where.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

I worked, so they lived separate lives during the work week.

[Alan Beck]

We each maintained our own households.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Life had taught Marilyn not to surrender her hard fought independence.

[Alan Beck]

I'd always jokingly said, well, I don't cohabit. It's marriage or nothing. And he just goes, oh, I don't know if I want to get married again.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric's reluctance had a lot to do with the problem of integrating his and Marilyn's families. Marilyn had introduced Eric to her kids early in their relationship.

[Alan Beck]

It's baptism by fire with four kids because they all had, you know, very vibrant personalities.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric had built bonds with each of them. Marilyn had likewise tried to connect with Eric's son Glenn, but with very little success. I have one of Eric's home videos from 2002, eight years into his relationship with Marilyn. It shows them at Eric's house celebrating Glenn's 24th birthday. Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Glenn Happy birthday to you. Hey, hey, hey, Glenn.

[Alan Beck]

Cutting a birthday cake.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Glenn still lived at home with Eric, and the two of them didn't always get along. Eric disliked his son's friends and suspected Glen was using drugs. Marilyn wasn't willing to move in with Eric so long as Glen lived there. And Eric wasn't going to move in with Marilyn because that would require kicking his son to the street. They were at an impasse. This same home movie includes another bit where Eric and Marilyn traveled to Yarra Ranges national park with some friends.

[Alan Beck]

And we're doing a rainforest walk at Warburton so Nay can say something. Hi, Janie. Hi, Janie. Happy birthday.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Janie was Eric's aunt, his mom's sister in law. Janie lived in England and was about to turn 70. Eric devised a plan to surprise her. He told Janie he was going to visit Scotland to go trekking in the Cairngorms, the highest mountains in the Scottish Highlands. Catching the ferns on the tree.

[Alan Beck]

I've got the ferns on the tree.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric don't get that in Scotland. In reality, he was going to drop in on Janie unannounced to wish her happy birthday and give her a copy of this video.

[Alan Beck]

Here we are at the top of Mount Donabywang, and just like I said to you during the week, we've had our first fall of snow. This is the lowest area area in Victoria that you'll find snow and it's just little smatterings across the ground.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Australia's mountains just don't rise that high. Donna Boing tops out at 1,245 meters above sea level, or 4,100ft. Marilyn noted that's just as high as Cairngorm in Scotland, where Eric did plan to hike after dropping off the surprise birthday video to his Aunt Janie.

[Alan Beck]

By the time you get to see this video, you'll know that the whole story of Eric trekking has been a hoax. And the whole surprise for you will have happened. But we've joked about bringing him up here to acclimatize him for the weather. Back in Scotland.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric had spent his whole life wondering why his mom cut him off from his father's side of the family. Since he was already going to the UK to deliver this birthday video to his Aunt Janie, he decided to also go in search of his lost Robinson relatives. And he was able to find them.

[Alan Beck]

Yeah, he did. Yeah.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric's birth certificate listed his father's occupation as painter and it had the address where Eric was born in the town of Ross on Wye. So Eric went to that town while in England and stopped at the local library to get directions to the house. While there, he saw an ad for a business called Robinson Painters. It Couldn't be a coincidence. Eric went to that business and knocked on the door. A young boy answered, took one look at him and shouted over his shoulder, it's cousin Eric. Eric had found his long lost family. In the conversations that followed, he learned the heartbreaking story his mother had never told him. The story of his father's death. On an August evening in 1948, Victor Robinson walked home from a movie with his dad and brother. The three men could hear a motorcycle in the distance, wending its way down some distant path. The rumbling seemed to come and go due to tall hedges along both sides of the laneway that sometimes blocked the sound. The Robinson men were nearing home when all at once the mother motorcycle sound roared into their ears from directly behind. The bike whipped around a bend and plowed into Victor, hitting him square in the back. He never regained consciousness and died at a hospital two days later. An inquest placed blame for the accident on Victor and his father. They had been walking on the wrong side of the road. And that might explain why Eric's mom, Margaret rushed back to Scotland so soon after her husband's death, cutting young Eric off from his Robinson relatives. I suspect she blamed her father in law for what happened. Eric returned to Australia with a newfound respect for the transience of life. It could end at any moment, so don't waste a single day going forward. He intended to seize every opportunity to venture into the wild. Eric yearned to travel the world with Marilyn, taking on longer and more challenging treks in exotic locales. But Marilyn had received a promotion at work, becoming principal of Volkstone Primary School.

[Alan Beck]

And I was not able nor willing to take time out of work. I was happy to travel in school holiday times, which he was not happy about because being the canny Scotsman that was more expensive.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

So instead Eric turned to his work friend, Alan Beck.

[Alan Beck]

You know, I think they had a bit of a reputation in the lunchroom and in the workplace of being, you know, those nutter outdoor people. Alan was die hard outdoors.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Alan was even more experienced than Eric when it came to mountains. He was a rock climber and mountaineer, comfortable in more extreme terrain than Eric was used to traveling. But they'd already done some hikes together.

[Alan Beck]

And they seemed to bond well. And they weren't always walking side by side. As I understand the recount, both men.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Wanted to take their adventuring to the next level. One of them proposed what about Patagonia?

[Alan Beck]

And the next trip was planned to South America.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

They flew to Punta Arenas in Chile in February of 2003. Then traveled north along the Argentinian border to Puerto Natales.

[Alan Beck]

The area in Patagonia on the Chilean side was their destination. So they did. The Torres del Pani.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric and Alan spent a week trekking around a mountain group called the Cordillera del Paine, walking a path called the O Circuit. It's a trek of about 120 kilometers or 75 miles. Eric carried a film camera and I viewed the pictures he took. They show gorgeous scenery. Granite towers slicing into puffy clouds, a rainbow breaking across the expansive ice of the Gray Glacier. There are frames that show Eric and Alan posing on pilot piles of shattered rock and others where they're huddled in tents, sheltering from wet weather. They appeared to get along well.

[Alan Beck]

Alan, being younger, would walk faster and taller, had a longer gait, so there would be, you know, space and time to contemplate, you know, not have to consider somebody else.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Side by side, Alan pushed Eric a bit beyond his comfort zone. During the trip, he scrambled up a steep, rocky slope to the foot of a high angle snowfield in an area called the French Valley. Eric hated snow.

[Alan Beck]

Growing up in cold Scotland, he wasn't a skier and he would not even contemplate a skiing holiday. He would prefer not to be hiking through snow or going through snow. He certainly would try to go around that.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

But Alan prodded, so Eric braved it.

[Alan Beck]

That was probably, you know, the highlight of their first foray into mountaineering. Glacial snow places together. It was a stunning place.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Patagonia impressed Eric beyond anything he had ever seen.

[Alan Beck]

When he came back, he was so full of this beautiful place because the rock formations, the snow, the animals, the plains, the Chilean people. He was waxing lyrical about this for months on end. Eric said, so when I die, I would like you to scatter my ashes, some with my mum in Scotland, some in the Grampians in Victoria, and get Alan to take some ashes and scatter them in the Torres del Pani National Park. That's how significant that trip and hike up the Gray Glacier was with him.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

There was just one problem. Eric and Marilyn weren't married. If Eric were to die, Marilyn wouldn't have any authority to carry out this final wish. Eric and Marilyn marked the 10 year anniversary of their first date in May of 2004. They'd both matured during that decade together, but Eric remained reluctant to take the next step.

[Alan Beck]

And he'd always said that he preferred his own company.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Eric had, by this point, sent his son Glenn off to live more than 20 hours away by car, hoping to break Glenn away From bad influences.

[Alan Beck]

Glenn had moved out, gone to Queensland. And I think he realized that, yeah, okay, your company's fine for a while, but ultimately you're living on your own and there's a relationship happening that maybe it would be much nicer to enjoy that together.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Marilyn's kids were all grown and out of the house as well. So Eric and Marilyn owned two empty nests.

[Alan Beck]

He said, I had a thought. He said, how about you come and live at my place?

[Marilyn Kulstra]

A prelude to a long overdue proposal.

[Alan Beck]

We were out to a family lunch on a Sunday. We were having yum cha and it was dripping rain. And underneath a tree in a busy suburban street in Doncaster. He proposed.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Marilyn said, yes. They kept their engagement quiet. Then, In March of 2005, they invited friends and family to a garden party at Marilyn's place in East Bentley. Midway through the evening, Eric and Marilyn surprised their guests by standing before a minister and exchanging rings. Their friends John and Jeanette Sidwell were among the guests.

[E]

We just went to a party one night, and it was actually a wedding.

[Alan Beck]

And Eric wasn't in jeans.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

That's how you know something is up.

[Alan Beck]

Yes.

[E]

Yeah, but we knew something was up, but we didn't expect a wedding.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

They exchanged vows and rings. Then Marilyn announced she was moving to Heathmont. No more would she and Eric live apart.

[Alan Beck]

We maintained that lifestyle for 11 years, much to the amusement of family and friends and, you know, what do you two think you're doing?

[Marilyn Kulstra]

They integrated their lives at long last.

[Alan Beck]

You know, it filled that space of companionship and, you know, at the touch and the warmth of another human being.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

They traveled to the UK together later that year and visited the cemetery where Eric's mother, Margaret was buried in Scotland. Her grave had sat unmarked for more than 30 years. Eric purchased a headstone and had the words, in loving memory of my dear mother Margaret inscribed in gold lettering. Eric had lost nearly everyone he had ever loved, but he finally found peace in two places. In nature and with Marilyn. We started our story with Marilyn learning Eric was overdue on the Cascade saddle. That happened in 2008, three years after their wedding. I'm going to take you back now to my walk on that same track. After I accidentally triggered an emergency alert on my iPhone. I kept hearing helicopters in the hours that followed. Hopefully they're just going on a sightseeing tour and not looking for me. They didn't swoop low like they were searching, so I figured the satellite call must not have gone through. The false alarm meant I was free to continue on without worry. I Originally planned this walk to be four nights, five days. I came prepared to spend all of that time alone. But hiking is a popular pastime in New Zealand, so I did run into people along the way.

[Alan Beck]

Hello.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

How you doing?

[Alan Beck]

Good.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

How are you? Great. Beautiful. Here. I had paused to take a picture of a sign that read, danger. Multiple fatalities have occurred on this route.

[Alan Beck]

Nice camera.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Oh, thank you.

[Alan Beck]

What are you shooting?

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Just a sign.

[Alan Beck]

Yeah.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Yeah.

[Alan Beck]

I also do the same, actually. It's interesting.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

I'll get out of your way. Yeah. We chatted a bit. I said I was going to stay in a tent atop Cascade Saddle. Most trampers don't do that, opting to instead stay in a warm, dry hut.

[Alan Beck]

Oh, my gosh. It would be so nice to go cast camping there tonight.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

As long as the weather's good.

[Alan Beck]

Yeah, it's gonna be.

[Erica Mahoney]

I don't know.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Last time I said it's gonna be.

[Alan Beck]

Quite rainy tomorrow, but, yeah, it will. See?

[Marilyn Kulstra]

See?

[Alan Beck]

We'll have an amazing trip.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

You too. Thank you. Bye.

[Dave Cawley]

Bye.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

There are plenty of ways to die out here. Aside from falling, drowning is a risk, too. When heavy rain hits glacier ice, it can cause flash flooding. The track to Cascade Saddle crosses several streams that flash rain regularly. I saw a weather report scrawled on a whiteboard at one of the huts I passed. It said heavy rain was on the way. At some point, you have to ask yourself, is it worth the risk? I pressed on, marching up the Dard river under ominous skies. At the head of the Dart, I started up a second steep slope toward the saddle, weaving through tussocks, gaining elevation with every step. Glimpses of blue sky through the clouds goaded me on. But I could see the storm on the horizon blowing my direction. And there's the wind. Okay, right. An echo of what happened to Eric Robinson. I was only about 45 minutes from the top of the saddle where I could shelter in my tent. But how long would the storm last? And how high would the creeks rise? If I was delayed more than a day, I'd miss my flight back to Melbourne. I thought about Marilyn. I couldn't make her relive this experience, so I will sign off. I gave up on my goal and retreated to safety. But Eric Robinson did not turn back during his walk over the Cascade Saddle. When our story resumes, I'll tell you exactly how his walk end. Uinta Triangle includes immersive field recordings made in real outdoor locations. For the best listening experience, please consider using a good pair of stereo headphones. And if you'd like to build a better picture of the places we visit. You can find maps, photos and [e-mail] that's uinta spelled u I n t a triangle.com find us on social media using Uinta Triangle Bringing you this story has been an effort years in the making to support this kind of work. Please follow the show and share it with your friends. You can also help us by subscribing to Lemonada Premium right in your podcast player. It gets you access to exclusive bonus episodes. Here's producer Andrea Smarden with a peek at the latest bonus in this podcast.

[Erica Mahoney]

Dave Colley captures recordings of sliding rocks on talus slopes, flooded trails, and hidden wildlife from the southern island of New Zealand to the Uinta crest of the Mountain West. Check out bonus episode one to find out the lengths a podcast producer will go so you can experience the wild and beautiful places where our story unfolds.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Uinta Triangle is researched and written by me, Dave Colley. Andrea Smarten is lead Producer and Sound Designer with contributing producers Ben Kiebrick and Jenny Amint. Our main score and original music are by Alison Leighton Brown. Uinta Triangle is a production of KSL Podcasts and Lemonada Media. My personal thanks to the first following past and present members of the KSL Podcasts team, Aaron Mason, Amy Donaldson, Felix Bunnell, Josh Tilton, Nina Ernest and Ryan Meeks. Lemonada Executive producers are Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittleswax. And for KSL Podcasts, our Executive producer is Cheryl Worsley. Finally, from me to you. Please remember wherever your life's trail takes you, none of us ever truly walk alone. Thanks for listening to episode one of Uinta Triangle. To hear the rest of the show, find and follow us by searching Uinta that's U I n t A Triangle on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

[Erica Mahoney]

Hey, I'm Nicole Norfleet.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

And I'm Erin Brown and we work at the Minnesota Star Tribune and we've.

[Erica Mahoney]

Got a brand new show called Worth It.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Every week we get together with a group of people who know Minnesota inside and out.

[Erica Mahoney]

We skip the Minnesota nights and get right to the good stuff. We share the stories and the happenings around the state. Worth your time and your money.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Worth it from the Minnesota Star Tribune and Lemonada Media.

[Erica Mahoney]

Every Friday, wherever you get your podcasts.