Aspiring

Summary

Uinta Triangle: Episode "Aspiring" – A Detailed Summary

Introduction to Eric Robinson’s Passion for Hiking

The podcast episode opens with Dave Cawley setting the stage for Eric Robinson's deep-seated love for hiking and the wilderness. He emphasizes Eric's preference for exploring nature over conventional travel, quoting John Muir to highlight the allure of untamed landscapes:

"It's far safer to wander in God's woods than to travel on black highways or to stay at home." [00:02]

The John Muir Trail Expedition

Eric Robinson embarked on a significant adventure along the John Muir Trail (JMT) with his friend Alan Beck in August 2006. The JMT is renowned for its breathtaking passage through the Sierra Nevada Range, encompassing three national parks: Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia.

Formation of the Trail Family

During the trek, Eric and Alan met fellow hikers Julia Geisler and her friend Devin McLive, forming what many trekkers describe as a "trail family." Julia shares insights into their camaraderie:

"He had so much energy and was just like this sparkle in his eye. He was smiling, just, you know, stoked on life." [04:48]

Their group dynamics were further enriched by interactions with Jonathan McCauley, who exemplified the spirit of "trail magic" by celebrating Devin’s birthday with pizza and beer:

"It's fatty, it's hot, it's pizza. You're psyched. That's what we call trail magic." [09:50]

Alan Beck’s Tragic Death

The harmonious trail family faced tragedy when Alan Beck perished during a climb on Mount Aspiring in New Zealand. While Eric was preparing for solo adventures, Alan attempted to summit the mountain with his partner Andy. A severe blizzard ensued, leading to Alan's fatal fall:

"He was scooted back into a hollow in a seated position, suggesting he survived the initial fall and sought shelter from the weather. But he had suffered severe chest and head trauma." [31:08]

Marilyn Robinson, Eric's wife, recounts the devastating impact of Alan's death:

"When I picked him up from the airport, he was still in a great state of agitation and distress about the inequalities." [49:38]

Eric’s Continued Solo Hiking Adventures

Despite the loss of his close friend, Eric's passion for hiking remained undiminished. He undertook several solo expeditions:

• Cape Wrath Trail in Scotland: Touted as one of the toughest long-distance walks in the UK.
• Port Davey and South Coast Tracks in Tasmania: Traversing the remote and rugged southern coast.

Marilyn expresses her growing concern:

"He knew that he wouldn't be doing such trips ever again with somebody, you know, that really had the same passion." [37:08]

Planning the Nepal Expedition

In early 2011, fueled by ambition and a desire to conquer new heights, Eric planned an ambitious trek around the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. Aware of the challenges, Marilyn insisted that he not venture alone. However, Eric’s determination led him to seek companionship from Julia Geisler:

"He emailed Julia and said, I'm doing this. Would you like to join me? Feel free. I'd love your company." [52:16]

Final Preparations and Departure

Julia agreed to assist with logistics, though she chose not to join the trek due to the unusually heavy snowpack in the Uinta Mountains. As July 21 approached, Marilyn grappled with letting Eric go, ultimately supporting his decision while remaining uneasy:

"Understanding that you have separate interests or life journeys or stories or places that you want to pursue alone." [37:59]

Eric meticulously prepared for the journey, equipping himself with essential gear, including a ruby red backpack for visibility and an EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon) for safety:

"He had physical maps, a compass, a GPS unit, I think a whistle, like just anything you could think of for navigation and emergency purposes." [59:46]

Disappearance on the Uinta Highline Trail

On July 28, 2011, Eric embarked on the Uinta Highline Trail, a challenging path through the Uinta Range in the United States. Julia recalls the final moments before his departure:

"And it's like, I'll see you in 10 days at the Highline Trailhead on the Mary Lake Highway." [61:11]

Tragically, Eric never returned as planned. His meticulous planning and equipment failed to prevent his disappearance, echoing the earlier tragedy that befell Alan Beck.

Conclusion: The Aftermath and Ongoing Search

The episode poignantly underscores the perils of solo trekking and the emotional toll it takes on loved ones. Marilyn’s relentless pursuit of answers and the community’s effort to locate Eric paint a vivid picture of the human spirit's resilience and the unyielding bond of love.

Notable Quotes:

• Marilyn Robinson on safety concerns: "So she said, so far you've walked by yourself. Maybe you can't go by yourself anymore." [25:43]
• Julia Geisler on Eric’s preparedness: "He had extra food, a couple days worth of extra food." [59:42]

Final Reflections

"Aspiring" delves deep into the complexities of passion, friendship, and the thin line between adventure and peril. It serves as a haunting reminder of nature's unpredictability and the profound impact such experiences have on individuals and their families.

For listeners seeking an immersive exploration of Eric Robinson's journey and the ensuing search, this episode offers a compelling narrative enriched with personal anecdotes and heartfelt reflections.

Transcript

[Dave Cawley]

Lemonade. Most travelers here are content with what they can see from car windows or the verandas of hotels. When an excursion into the woods is proposed, all sorts of dangers are imagined. Snakes, bears, Indians. Yet it is far safer to wander in God's woods than to travel on black highways or to stay at home. John Muir, our national parks. Eric Robinson loved to read. He spent his mornings in his garden with a cup of tea and a book. The Alaskan Adventure fiction of Jack London, the Mountaineering tales of John Krakauer, and the musings of naturalist John Muir.

[Marilyn Robinson]

John Muir was a Scotsman who established trails and parks and, you know, part of the wilderness conservation in America.

[Dave Cawley]

That's Eric's wife, Marilyn. She previously told us about a time when Eric disappeared while hiking alone in New Zealand.

[Marilyn Robinson]

The outdoors in New Zealand can be unforgiving.

[Dave Cawley]

I'll remind you. Eric's friend Alan Beck was supposed to meet him at the end of that trek.

[Marilyn Robinson]

One night I got a phone call from Alan and he said, he hasn't come in. We haven't met up yet.

[Dave Cawley]

We'll get back to what happened in New Zealand soon. But first I think it's helpful for you to know a bit more about Eric's friendship with Alan. In particular, we need to talk about an experience they shared. Before the New Zealand trip.

[Marilyn Robinson]

They walked the John Muir Trail.

[Dave Cawley]

The John Muir Trail, or jmt, is one of the world's top hiking destinations. Trekkers on the JMT follow Muir's footsteps through the Sierra Nevada Range in the US State of California, passing through three national parks, Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia. Hiking that entire stretch takes time.

[Marilyn Robinson]

It was nearly a four week trek that they took walking most of that trail.

[Dave Cawley]

It also takes planning, persistence and a good backpack. So Eric did some shopping before departing.

[Marilyn Robinson]

It was time to get a new backpack because the other one had, you know, worn a few holes.

[Dave Cawley]

The backpack Eric chose came in two colors, sapphire and ruby. Blue or red.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Eric didn't like the color red. I love the color red. I wear lots of red. I enjoy red, you know, and if I've got a high powered day where I need to feel confident I would wear something red but not Eric.

[Dave Cawley]

Marilyn expected her husband would buy the.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Blue one, but it was red. And I said, oh yeah, you've gone red. It's not red. Anyway. The argument went backwards and forwards. It's not red, it's ruby. And the backpack became known as Ruby.

[Dave Cawley]

That ruby red backpack made Eric easy to spot on the jmt. It stood out against the Natural Colors of Nature and Ruby later became a key target for searchers when Eric disappeared. My name is Dave Cawley and you are listening to Uinta Triangle, an audio documentary from KSL Podcasts. This is episode two. Aspiring Eric Robinson and Alan Beck started their hike on the JMT in August of 2006, beginning from the bottom of the Yosemite Valley.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Alan and Eric were very social on that trip and of course there are a lot of people coming onto the trail at various points along there.

[Dave Cawley]

One of the first people they met was a young woman named Julia Geisler.

[Julia Geisler]

When I was in my 20s, I was on the Travel the World plan and I wanted to do some backpacking and I had a friend, Devin McLive who wanted to join me.

[Dave Cawley]

Julia was no stranger to long hikes. She had thru hiked the Appalachian Trail a few years earlier. That's a walk from Georgia to Maine through the dense forests of the eastern U.S. julia had spent a year in Japan afterward, but was now back stateside with no commitments, no roots to have.

[Julia Geisler]

To cut or no ties, and free and had the time.

[Dave Cawley]

Her friend Devon shared Julia's wanderlust.

[Julia Geisler]

We were also, I think single at the time, both of us, and just like, oh, we're going to go into the woods and we'll probably meet some hot young dudes and get to hike with them. We met Eric and Alan, who are, I think in their mid-60s at the time, which was just as good, but not what we were expecting.

[Dave Cawley]

In fact, Eric was 59 and Alan was 48. Julia took an immediate liking to Eric.

[Julia Geisler]

He had so much energy and was just like this sparkle in his eye. He was smiling, just, you know, stoked on life.

[Dave Cawley]

The first stretch of the JMT carried them up past Half Dome, one of Yosemite's iconic landmarks. Julia marveled seeing rock climbers clinging to the sheer granite walls. Eric compared it to Patagonia, where he had hiked with Alan a few years earlier.

[Julia Geisler]

Him and Alan were definitely world travelers for hiking. Alan was a pretty established mountaineer and rock climber and I had just gotten interested in rock climbing. I hadn't become one yet, I wouldn't say, but I feel like every rock face I was like, can you climb that? And Alan would kind of talk about other places he climbed. And Eric's the same, you know, just these long distance trails that they had done.

[Dave Cawley]

There's an important distinction here. Eric was a trekker or bushwalker, someone who travels on trails. Alan was a mountaineer that's more specialized, a combination of Hiking, scrambling and climbing, often without a trail, sometimes over snow and ice. You don't have to be a mountaineer to hike the jmt, but keep this difference in mind because it will matter later in our story. From the Yosemite Valley, the JMT travels to a place called Tuolumne Meadows. The trail turns south there and breaks out of the trees before crossing Donahue Pass. They were in the alpine above timberline where no trees grow. A very different environment from the places Julie had hiked before.

[Julia Geisler]

I definitely thought a lot about the Appalachian Trail when I was out there and just the amount of rain and walking in wet shoes and monotonous long miles of green tunnel. Like, I was just psyched to have views every day and be out there in nature. And it was gorgeous.

[Dave Cawley]

But the tall mountains of the Sierra are prone to bouts of bad weather. Bursts of wind and rain can lash hikers. Eric and Alan Both came prepared.

[Julia Geisler]

I think that they had both had a lot of experience in the mountains and seen, you know, bad weather and were very knowledgeable on how to be prepared in high alpine terrain.

[Dave Cawley]

Getting soaked in the mountains can put a hiker at risk for hypothermia. Eric and Alan put up tents each night, attaching rainflies to make sure they stay dry.

[Julia Geisler]

They were both pretty concerned with Devin and I's camping shelter setup because I had hiked the Appalachian Trail with a tarp. Not knowing that, you know, high alpine terrain with rocks and not a lot of soil or trees is way different.

[Dave Cawley]

Hanging a tarp with no trees takes ingenuity. It worked okay for Julia on this trip, mostly because the weather remained calm. Could have been a different story in a storm.

[Julia Geisler]

A tarp maybe doesn't cut it in a storm or high winds or just a shelter in general. So they were pretty concerned that we had a tarp.

[Dave Cawley]

But that's part of the fun of this kind of camping. Testing your skills, equipment and spirit against challenging conditions. Sometimes scraping by with just the bare essentials. Julia could see her new friend Eric didn't compromise when it came to safety. But his ambitions in the outdoors were growing along with the potential dangers. And we'll soon see the consequences when disaster strikes in New Zealand.

[Julia Geisler]

I just have this image of him walking out of his tent at night or something like that, and slipping and falling and kind of off putting because he was such a mountain man.

[Dave Cawley]

Julia Geisler loved the time she spent on the jmt.

[Julia Geisler]

It is just magnificent getting out of Yosemite Valley and into that grandiose terrain day after day.

[Dave Cawley]

She saw her new Aussie friend Eric on the trail.

[Julia Geisler]

Always had this huge backpack on.

[Dave Cawley]

She learned to recognize him from a distance by the backpack's ruby color.

[Julia Geisler]

It was red. It's the red rucksack.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric brought such a big backpack because he needed space for a bear canister. The High Sierra is home to black bears, and hikers use canisters to keep their food secure. But they can only hold about a week's worth of food. That meant Eric and Alan had to leave the trail a few times to resupply. So they leapfrogged Julia and Devin.

[Julia Geisler]

You know, we hiked a lot of the hike with them, but not all the time. We did our own plan, but you kind of move along at similar paces and meet up and then separate and kind of goes along that way.

[Dave Cawley]

Over time, Eric, Allen, Julia and Devon merged into what some hikers call a trail family. And they weren't the only members.

[Julia Geisler]

Another thru hiker was named Jonathan McCauley, and he was a little bit ahead of us.

[Dave Cawley]

Jonathan was hiking the JMT solo, but he sometimes hung back to socialize. When Devin celebrated her 25th birthday on the trail, Jonathan went to town and came back with pizza and beer.

[Julia Geisler]

Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Something you don't have to carry on your back. It's fatty, it's hot, it's pizza. You're psyched. That's what we call trail magic.

[Dave Cawley]

Trail magic takes many forms. It's a free ride for a hitchhiking trekker or spritz of bug spray to a stranger who forgot their own. An act of generosity. Hiking is a funny hobby in this way. It can simultaneously be the most solitary activity and the most social.

[Julia Geisler]

It's pretty intimate experience being out in the woods with folks. Definitely lifelong bonds I think are established and yeah, pretty meaningful times of life.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric and Julia would have probably never met any other way. But their chance encounter on the JMT turned into a friendship that will have major repercussions later in our story. For now, just know Eric leaned into his role as the father of this ad hoc trail family.

[Julia Geisler]

Devin liked to sleep in the mornings and Eric wanted to get going. And he would just like pretty much not yell at the top of his lungs, but loud enough that she would hear like, devin, stay. Time to get up. It's time to get on the trail. You know, that was his personality of like he was so happy out there and passionate. I mean, it's a grand adventure. It's great to be out there with friends or it gets a little bit Boring.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric lived for this grand adventure, but he told Julia he wished he could share it with his wife, Marilyn.

[Julia Geisler]

Yeah, definitely sharing about family and friends back home. His wife, Marilyn, he talked about a lot and love of his life and, you know, his grandkids. And he had a pretty strong, it seemed like, family network.

[Dave Cawley]

The JMT ends just below Mount Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48 states. Eric and Julia both woke early on their last day so they could ascend Whitney's summit for sunrise. As they approached the top, they passed behind a series of pinnacles.

[Julia Geisler]

I have this image of actually being up there, and Eric in particular, walking between these huge spires of rock. And there is just light like you've never seen it before. It's like this golden light that shines between these huge spires of rock. And he was just standing between two spires with his arms open, just like basking in that light. Yeah, that memory definitely stays with me.

[Dave Cawley]

Returning to civilization after weeks in the wild without cell service or news from the outside world can feel jarring. After finishing the jmt, Julia and Devin headed to San Francisco.

[Julia Geisler]

I definitely struggled coming off that trail because it was a month in the woods and then I was dumped into this city. And it's a pretty eclectic, crazy city where anything goes. So it was a bit shocking and overwhelming to come out of the woods for me that time than I think any other hikes I've done. And I had no idea where I was going next. So it was a little bit unmooring to come off of. You know, you have your goal and then you're done. And now what?

[Dave Cawley]

Eric, meanwhile, went to meet up with Marilyn.

[Marilyn Robinson]

I flew over to San Francisco to meet Eric after he and Alan came off the trail. And the first thing I hear, we've been invited to a party tonight. It's across the bay. We're going across the bay to a party. It's Devin's birthday.

[Dave Cawley]

They arrived at Devin's house to find it packed with people half their age.

[Marilyn Robinson]

It was like stepping back in time to university. And there were people everywhere and everybody was drinking, eating, chatting, talking, having a great time.

[Dave Cawley]

Marilyn really hit it off with Julia and Devon in spite of the age gap.

[Marilyn Robinson]

So Devin and Julia are lifelong friends for both of us, you know, from. From that walk.

[Dave Cawley]

But privately, Eric told Marilyn his friendship with Allan had worn thin.

[Marilyn Robinson]

And I guess he was a bit angry after a few, you know, differences there. And I'm not going to walk with him and I'm not going to do anything more again.

[Dave Cawley]

She Couldn't quite suss out the source of the friction.

[Marilyn Robinson]

You know, how they'd manage things along the way, or who did what, or whatever was the conflict there.

[Dave Cawley]

Look, I've done long trips like this. Being stuck with people, even ones you like, can strain friendships. Little disagreements get under your skin like a sliver in your thumb.

[Marilyn Robinson]

A month is a long time to be with one person.

[Dave Cawley]

I also wonder if Eric's irritation had to do with Pace. Being older, he didn't hike as fast as Alan.

[Marilyn Robinson]

I recall one instance where Eric would say, you know, he'd just charge off and I wouldn't know what was going on. And Eric liked to know what was going on.

[Dave Cawley]

Whatever the case, Marilyn figured it would blow over. Eric's friendship with Allen and the adventures it enabled were too valuable to give up. Eric and Marilyn spent a couple days in San Francisco, then rented a car and drove to Yosemite. They went to an overlook called Glacier Point. Marilyn marveled at the view, listening to woodpeckers and jays busy in the trees below.

[Marilyn Robinson]

I saw my first bear. We had fun. We went through the Sequoia forest.

[Dave Cawley]

They visited Tuolumne Meadows, where a gurgling river runs through verdant fields bursting with birdsong. It was the first time Maryland had seen a high elevation subalpine meadow like this. There's no no place like it in Australia. It felt magical. They left Yosemite late in the afternoon, driving east out of the park into the arid, empty expanse of Nevada.

[Marilyn Robinson]

We drove all night to get to Las Vegas for a Celine Dion concert. We just made that.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric relaxed in the driver's seat with one hand on the wheel. Marilyn held his free hand in her own.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Eric had always warm hands. You could always count on that. I have cold hands, so, you know, it's kind of a thing that I liked.

[Dave Cawley]

They'd burned a mix CD with some of their favorite songs to fill the time during the drive. The tunes were epic and intimate. The score from Dances With Wolves juxtaposed against Girl from Yesterday by the Eagles.

[Marilyn Robinson]

We went then to Grand Canyon and we camped and walked and explored Grand Canyon.

[Dave Cawley]

The mix CD played again as they drove to Los Angeles to catch their flight home. Marilyn sang along to the Carly Simon song. It was so easy. Now we're grown with debts and regrets and broken hearts and sentimental schemes now every tender failure Seems to overthrow old dreams Love can lead a normal woman to extremes. Eric turned 60 about six months later, in March of 2007. Marilyn decided to throw him a birthday bash.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Growing up, you Know, in a low income family in Scotland, birthday parties weren't a regular thing. And he'd made comment that he'd only ever had one birthday party before in his life. It was also significant too that his mother died fairly young. So that was sort of an anxious period for him and his life. You know, I've got as far as my mother lived. And so it was a celebration one of his life, his healthy life, but also the fact that he hadn't had a party before.

[Dave Cawley]

She invited all their friends and neighbors.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Typical Australian party with the barbecues on, the braziers out the back and everybody comes and goes and your whole house is filled with people.

[Dave Cawley]

Every gift Eric received reflected his love of nature in some way. His friends all knew hiking wasn't just a fun holiday for Eric, it's what provided his life purpose. He told Marilyn he was going to retire so he'd have the freedom to travel and tackle even more long trails.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Because there's more walks than I can achieve in a lifetime out there.

[Dave Cawley]

But Marilyn wasn't always available or interested in the more ambitious hikes Eric wanted to do. In her absence, he had turned to Allen as his trekking partner. That is, until their falling out on the jmt. Alan was making overtures, trying to patch up their differences. But stubborn Eric wasn't ready to mend the fence. Instead, he encouraged Marilyn to quit her job and join in his adventures.

[Marilyn Robinson]

But I was still energetic, passionate, involved in my teaching chores, and I resisted his hints to retire when she was ready.

[Dave Cawley]

Maybe in a few years she would step away from her job and join him. But in the meantime, they came to an understanding. Marilyn gave Eric her permission to hike alone.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Every relationship fosters and grows. Well, if people have their own space and their own interests and you're not tied to each other's apron strings or glued at the hip and you can go off and do things and come back and relate and enjoy and share.

[Dave Cawley]

But they agreed. Eric needed two new pieces of gear if he was going out solo. First, a handheld GPS unit. Remember, this was 2007 before everyone carried a smartphone. GPS devices were far less common. Eric had learned how to navigate with a map and compass. But GPS would be an important tool if he ever got lost.

[Marilyn Robinson]

You could set in where you were going, you know, it recorded where he wanted to go. And look how far I've walked and look how far I've climbed and you know, he could plot and plan on that.

[Dave Cawley]

The second new piece of gear they bought was a big, chunky DSLR camera. So Eric could show Marilyn photos of the amazing places he visited. Retirement meant Eric didn't bump into his estranged hiking buddy Alan at work anymore.

[Marilyn Robinson]

It was the lunchroom connection that started it all.

[Dave Cawley]

And the lack of that lunchroom connection slowed their reconciliation. Eric and Alan were on speaking terms.

[Marilyn Robinson]

I don't think there was, I'm never going to speak to you again. It was, I'm not going hiking with him ever again.

[Dave Cawley]

Alan tried to break down that barrier. He invited Eric on a trip to New Zealand in early 2008. Alan wanted to climb the summit of Tititia, Mount Aspiring, the Matterhorn of the south, an imposing fang of gray rock.

[Marilyn Robinson]

There was discussion beforehand of Alan encouraging Eric to climb Mount Aspiring.

[Dave Cawley]

Getting to the top would require crossing glaciers and making some steep, exposed climbs. That's mountaineering.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Eric goes, oh, no, you know, in our discussion, I don't think I want to do that. You know, know I'm not experienced in that. It's a young person's thing. It's Alan's thing. I don't really want to do that and hold him back.

[Dave Cawley]

He instead made his own plans to go to New Zealand by himself to solo hike the Cascade Saddle, a challenging trekking route just to the southeast of Mount Aspiring. Marilyn felt apprehensive, but took comfort in the idea. Allen would be close by if anything went wrong, which it soon did.

[Marilyn Robinson]

They met up a couple of times in New Zealand, until that had a sad ending.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric and Alan departed from Melbourne separately.

[Marilyn Robinson]

They went off in different directions or they arrived at different times, but the base was Blonica.

[Dave Cawley]

The tourists town of Wanaka sits at the foot of a beautiful lake. There's a footpath along the shore. Eric and Alan bumped into each other there. Eric said he expected to be back from the Cascade Saddle before Allen left for Mount Aspiring so they could grab a drink when their paths crossed again. Then Eric headed off on his trek. Which brings us back to where our story first started. Marilyn receiving that phone call from Alan, letting her know Eric was overdue.

[Marilyn Robinson]

He was confident that it was just a rain delay and instead of walking in the pouring rain, you would stay dry in your tent.

[Dave Cawley]

But hours passed, stretching into a full day with no word from Eric. Marilyn wondered, what if he had slipped, fallen and cracked his head on a rock? No one would know.

[Marilyn Robinson]

So I called Department of Foreign affairs and they liaised with New Zealand. The message went down the track and all the Conservation Department workers were on alert.

[Dave Cawley]

Still, no word came. Where was Eric? Every passing minute cast additional doubt in Marilyn's mind. That her husband was simply sitting in a tent waiting out a storm. But it seemed all she could do was wait and hope. A haggard hiker carrying a red backpack walked up to the aspiring hut on the side of the Matukituke river around midday on March 2, 2008. He reached for the door handle and stepped inside.

[Marilyn Robinson]

And one of the workers, a Scottish lady, was standing at the door of the hut. And Eric walked in and she said, oh, you're Mr. Robinson, I presume.

[Dave Cawley]

The door fell shut behind Eric. He shrugged off his pack and explained how he had sheltered in his tent atop Cascade Saddle for two straight days. When the storm broke that morning, he rushed to make a treacherous descent down to the hut.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Eric smiled and it was a bit of a laugh about, you know, how people worry.

[Dave Cawley]

It all seemed a bit silly to Eric. He hadn't realized anyone was looking for him. Eric made it back to Wanaka a day later and called home to let Marilyn know he was okay.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Oh, he called. Yeah. What were you thinking? What were you doing? You're a troublemaker, you know. Look what you've done caused a bit of concern and we had a bit of a laugh about it. But we also talked about the safety angle of that.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric's safety was never in question, at least from his perspective. Marilyn saw it differently. Yes, Eric had come out of this situation okay. But getting stranded on Cascade Saddle highlighted how his choice to go out alone amplified the risks he faced. Marilyn told Eric how awful she'd felt during those uncertain hours. She didn't want to go through that ever again.

[Marilyn Robinson]

So she said, so far you've walked by yourself. Maybe you can't go by yourself anymore.

[Dave Cawley]

He shrugged her off, saying, don't worry so much. I'm fine. In fact, he was already repacking Ruby, getting ready to go out on another solo hike. He went to buy some food and ran into Alan.

[Marilyn Robinson]

They crossed paths fleetingly because Alan held back in Wanaka to make sure that Eric was safe. I think maybe a day's delay. And they had maybe a 5 minute, 10 minute conversation.

[Dave Cawley]

Alan said it wasn't too late to join the climb of Mount Aspiring.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Alan took an extra pair of crampons in case his friend would change his mind and they would climb together.

[Dave Cawley]

But Eric said no. That would have been Eric's kind of last chance to say, okay, yep, I'm jumping and going up.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Yeah, I'm not coming. I'm not climbing. I don't want to delay you. I'm not familiar. I haven't walked in crampons. I don't want to hold the team up.

[Dave Cawley]

Alan slapped his friend on the shoulder and said he was glad Eric had made it back safe. They agreed to reconnect in a few days to swap stories. Then Allen dashed off to board the helicopter that would fly him up to the shoulder of Mount Aspiring.

[Marilyn Robinson]

And that was the last time he saw Alan.

[Dave Cawley]

Marilyn's plea to not hike alone fell on death ears because Eric went right back out again alone. He spent the next several days out of cell service with no way of knowing the tragedy that was unfolding on the icy flanks of the mountain.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Above.

[Dave Cawley]

A blizzard descended as Alan Beck and his climbing partner Andy made their first attempt at the summit of Mount Aspiring on March 4th. They retreated to the safety of a hut, waited a day for the storm to die down, then made a second attempt. Once again, high wind and whiteout snow drove them back. At the hut on March 7, Alan talked to another pair of climbers, Cameron and Anna. They all agreed the weather made the peak too dangerous to climb and the wind would prevent helicopters from retrieving them. So the two parties decided to join together and hike across the Bonner Glacier to a place called Bevan Call, where they could descend to safety in the Matukituki River Valley. Cameron had a radio. He used it to inform friends back in Wanaka of the plan. He said if they didn't make contact again by Saturday, those friends should alert Search and Rescue. The four climbers then left the hut and started across the glacier. Progress came slowly. They were about halfway across the ice when the ever changeable New Zealand weather took yet another turn. Heavy snow fell, cutting visibility, a treacherous situation when walking across an ice field riven with crevasses, they decided to stop and wait out the weather. Allen pitched his tent on the ice and the party of four huddled inside. They spent an entire day trapped in that tiny cocoon. Then, on the morning of Saturday, March 9, with the storm still blasting outside, Alan told the group he was going to scout for a way off the glacier. He put on his coat and crampons, but left his climbing helmet and stepped out into a swirl of snow. The weather cleared a few hours later. The party was by that point overdue. A search and rescue team flew up to the glacier that afternoon to retrieve the stranded climbers. All but Allen, who they couldn't find. Eric arrived back in Wanaka that same day. He expected to find Alan there. Instead, he experienced a role reversal. Now Eric was the one making phone calls to let friends and family in Australia know Allen was Missing?

[Marilyn Robinson]

Eric called me and he was extremely upset. You know, I had to keep asking. What did you say? Tell me that again. Explain what happened.

[Dave Cawley]

It took two days for the rescuers to find Alan, his lifeless body tucked under an ice shelf at the glacier's edge. It appeared he had lost his footing and fallen on a steep section of ice. He'd probably flailed as he picked up speed trying to stop the slide, but he couldn't. One of his crampons had come off. Allen launched over the edge, making a 10 meter drop onto bedrock.

[Marilyn Robinson]

And no crampons. And the black ice and the rocks. Bang.

[Dave Cawley]

He was scooted back into a hollow in a seated position, suggesting he survived the initial fall and sought shelter from the weather. But he had suffered severe chest and head trauma. A coroner later determined Allen died from internal bleeding.

[Marilyn Robinson]

He was cremated in Wanaka. Eric went to that small ceremony, or that happening with Alan's wife, Amanda.

[Dave Cawley]

Alan's death weighed on Eric. His anguish poured out in phone calls with Marilyn.

[Marilyn Robinson]

I. I was concerned for him.

[Dave Cawley]

So she took emergency leave from work.

[Marilyn Robinson]

He was there. He was alone. He was clearly distressed. And I went to be with him.

[Dave Cawley]

They met in Christchurch, then traveled to the small seaside town of Akaroa, where they quietly marked Eric's 61st birthday. It was a stark contrast to the big party a year prior. Eric showed Marilyn photos he had taken during his Cascade Saddle hike with their new DSLR camera. One showed his red backpack at the top of the saddle, looking across the Matukituki river valley toward a fog shrouded Mount Aspiring. The picture seemed ominous in retrospect. Eric couldn't stop thinking about what might have happened if he had accepted Alan's invitation. Maybe his friend would still be alive.

[Marilyn Robinson]

There were many debriefings over that. And processing everything that had happened, he.

[Dave Cawley]

Kept expecting a call from Alan's wife, letting him know if and when she intended to hold a memorial service back in Australia.

[Marilyn Robinson]

But he hadn't heard, and that distressed him even more, and he couldn't understand why.

[Dave Cawley]

Marilyn finally called home and learned Allen's celebration of life was happening the next day. She and Eric rushed to the airport. The printed program for that service included two photos of Alan. Eric had taken them both during their trek in Patagonia. The program also included a quote from famed New Zealander and mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, who, along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, was the first man known to have summited Mount Everest. You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things, to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals. To Marilyn Allen's death highlighted the inherent dangers of mountain travel. She thought it might be an inflection point for Eric where he paused to question the wisdom of going alone. But he rationalized it, telling her what happened to Alan couldn't happen to him. He was a trekker, not a mountaineer. He avoided ice.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Different set of circumstances to something that Eric had experienced before and would not have been doing himself.

[Dave Cawley]

Marilyn wasn't so sure. She had just endured having her husband go missing, followed by the death of his closest trekking buddy.

[Marilyn Robinson]

We then started talking about strategies of, you know, what you would do, but preferably Eric not walking by your.

[Dave Cawley]

As the initial shock of Alan's death started to fade, Eric settled back into his routine. But he soon found retirement left him with too much idle energy.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Every day he would walk up to the post office and along to the bakery. Fresh bread, milk, and then back down again. So he had his cardio exercise, you know, just doing daily things. But he did get a little bit bored and ended up being a maintenance man at my school. And a gardener.

[Dave Cawley]

Marilyn's kids joked about Eric turning into Groundskeeper Willie, the cantankerous bald headed Scottish school gardener from the Simpsons. Willie hears ya. Willie don't care. But unlike Willie, Eric relished his role at the school. He accompanied Marilyn on school camps. She shared a video from one where a grade five student interviewed Groundskeeper Eric.

[Marilyn Robinson]

So, Eric, how was your time at camp?

[D]

The time at camp has been really good.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Have the children behaved in general speaking?

[Dave Cawley]

Yes, they have.

[Marilyn Robinson]

What are your highlights of the camp?

[D]

The highlights of the camp have been.

[Dave Cawley]

Been the interaction with all the children. The children have been very good, very.

[D]

Entertaining and a very well behaved group.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric had matured. So much so I tend to forget the stories I've heard about how he struggled with fatherhood as a younger man.

[Marilyn Robinson]

What would you recommend to other people coming to this camp?

[Dave Cawley]

Apply rule number one, which is always have fun.

[Marilyn Robinson]

That's right. Thank you, Eric. Thank you.

[Dave Cawley]

Marilyn's kids were by this point, raising children of their own. They called him Granddad Eric. Many other men in Eric's place would start settling down in retirement, trading in their hiking boots for golf shoes. But Eric wasn't like many other men. He was an ordinary chap, sure, but a furnace of motivation still burned within him. Hiking had become his core drive. The experience in New Zealand didn't change that. But Alan's death meant Eric lost the chance to reconcile with the partner he had come to depend on for those grand adventures.

[Marilyn Robinson]

He knew that he wouldn't be doing such trips ever again with somebody, you know, that really had the same passion. And he was hopeful that I would retire earlier perhaps and, you know, join him on some of those walks that he wanted to do.

[Dave Cawley]

But Marilyn still wasn't ready to retire. Eric felt disappointed, even frustrated. He said if she wouldn't retire, he'd just keep trekking alone. Life had taught Marilyn the value of independence. She believed in Eric's right to autonomy as well as her own. But that belief was crashing like a wave against a wall of fear. She couldn't stand the thought of losing him. The act of loving Eric by its nature meant she did depend on him. Still, she forced herself to honor their agreement.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Understanding that you have separate interests or life journeys or stories or places that you want to pursue alone. You have your space to do that.

[Dave Cawley]

About six months after Alan's death, Eric headed to Scotland alone. He hiked the Cape Wrath Trail, touted as the toughest long distance walk in the uk. He went to Tasmania six months after that to hike the Port Davey and South coast tracks. These two trails cross an extremely remote stretch of wilderness along Tassie's windswept southern coast. Again, Eric walked alone. Both times Marilyn caught herself wondering if something terrible might have happened during the weeks when her husband was out of contact. The anxiety felt corrosive. It ate at her like a cancer. So when Erik proposed his next big adventure to Nepal, she refused to let him go alone. Eric dreamed of trekking in the Himalaya or Himalayas, in Colonizer Speak, Home to the highest mountains on earth. Annapurna is the 10th highest mountain in the world. The circuit is a long trekking route around the massive mountain.

[Marilyn Robinson]

You can do it by yourself, which was what Eric liked to do. He didn't want to take guides, so he didn't want to have to have that constraint and responsibility, more of another person.

[Dave Cawley]

Completing the circuit would require three weeks, a much longer trek than any Marilyn had ever attempted. She wondered if she was up to the task. Altitude sickness is the biggest risk. It's a result of the body's response to lower oxygen pressure at higher elevations. And it can affect even conditioned athletes if they rush too high, too fast.

[Marilyn Robinson]

He hadn't really done anything of that altitude. Neither had I.

[Dave Cawley]

Crossing the circuit's highest point, Therong Law Pass would put Eric and Marilyn both at risk for altitude sickness if left untreated. Altitude sickness can cause cerebral or pulmonary edema. Life threatening conditions where fluid builds up around the brain or lungs.

[Marilyn Robinson]

So we were very conscious that we had to monitor our bodies and act accordingly.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric and Marilyn flew to Kathmandu that September, then took a long bus ride to the start of the track.

[Marilyn Robinson]

It was hot to start and as we got higher it got cooler.

[Dave Cawley]

They ascended into evergreen forest, gaining jaw dropping views of the Annapurna massif, its high summits brilliant white with year round snow. They came to the village of Manong, where they paused for a day to let their bodies acclimate. One way to stave off altitude sickness is to hike to a high point during the day, then retreat down to sleep at a lower elevation. So on their rest day in Menang, Eric and Marilyn walked up a steep hill to Prakungumpa, A tiny Buddhist monastery chiseled into the side of a cliff.

[Marilyn Robinson]

It was folklore that you went up there and got a blessing for safe passage. So we made that trek to get to the holy man.

[Dave Cawley]

They each bought a good luck charm from the monk, a necklace made from a hand plated string looped through an old coin with a hole in the middle. From Menong, they trekked west and north, climbing constantly.

[Marilyn Robinson]

So it was steep, it was rocky, it was was imposing. And then the night before we did the pass, it snowed, so everything was silent and it was a beautiful postcard picture.

[Dave Cawley]

They started for the pass in the dim blue light of Predawn. Within a few hours they reached the last outpost of civilization. A small stone hut where a Nepali.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Man served hot tea and the overpowering smell of kerosene. If I close my eyes, I can still smell that.

[Dave Cawley]

Then they stepped back out and made the final push to the pass. At last they reached the top. Strings of tattered Tibetan prayer flags came together at a large sign that said Congratulation for the success in painted yellow letters along with the elevation.5,416 meters, or 17,769ft. That's more than three miles high. About halfway to the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner. Marilyn had proved she was every bit as capable a hiker as her husband.

[Marilyn Robinson]

This pass seemingly to me was the Mount Everest of my walking and probably the Mount Everest of Eric's as well.

[Dave Cawley]

The Annapurna trek wasn't the only experience Eric and Marilyn shared in Nepal. They went to an orphanage school and saw how the staff there struggled to meet the needs of the kids.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Eric was always confronted by the difference in treatment between the rich white hikers and expeditioners and the conditions that the Nepalis faced.

[Dave Cawley]

He felt so moved, he pledged financial support to the school with a recurring donation out of his pension. Eric's understanding of the inequalities came into sharper relief a year later when he received an invite to return to Nepal. He joined an expedition co led by a mountaineer named Stuart Morris.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Stuart is my eldest son's close friend since high school.

[Dave Cawley]

Stuart was about 20 years younger than Eric, but he had hiked with both Eric and Alan Beck in the past. He's even been to where Alan died.

[D]

I've made a couple of attempts on Mount Aspiring and the particular point I think where he had his accident is, yeah, it's brutal in there if the weather goes.

[Dave Cawley]

Stewart and a buddy made plans to attempt a climb of a mountain in the neighborhood of Everest in 2010.

[D]

Mount Chamling was the name of it is a 7300 metre peak in Nepal.

[Dave Cawley]

Getting there would require a week long trek. They invited several friends including Eric to join them for that part of the trip. They went expedition style with a hired team of Nepali porters carrying most of their gear.

[D]

Yeah, I'm not sure how Eric felt about that because I could imagine he was a traditionalist in that he probably wanted to carry his own stuff.

[Dave Cawley]

Marilyn saw Eric off at the Melbourne airport where he and the party posed for photos with an Australian flag. Eric also snuck in a Scottish flag to fly at their camps.

[Marilyn Robinson]

There was a statement of, you know, this is the Australian Scottish expedition. That's what that was about.

[Dave Cawley]

She handed him a small pocket journal as they said their farewells.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Even though I'd give him a journal, you know, when he went the second time to Nepal, he said, write it down. No, he didn't do that. He was not a writer, he was.

[Dave Cawley]

A talker and increasingly a photographer. Eric took many photos on this trek. Using the photos I can trace the path of the party as they arrived in Kathmandu, then flew to Lukla, a destination familiar to anyone who knows the history of Everest.

[D]

You're literally flying through mountains and you just don't realize that in the distance there's a little rectangle and that's the landing strip.

[Dave Cawley]

They landed at Tenzing Hillary Airport. It's sometimes called the most dangerous airport in the world because the Runway's short on a slope and dead ends against the mountainside. It's often closed with no warning due to strong winds and low visibility.

[D]

It's amazing because you can see the pilots making this physical effort to control the plane. They have to obviously use as much of the Runway as they can because they need it. That's a Very exciting start to the trip.

[Dave Cawley]

From there, the party trekked to a village called Kare. They paused there to prepare for the next leg of their journey up and over a glacier covered pass called Merrilla.

[D]

People in the group weren't necessarily familiar with crampons and axes and harnesses. So a bit of a training session for everyone on just moving on a glacier.

[Dave Cawley]

One of Eric's photos show him doing this training wearing crampons and a harness, roped up on an angled slab of ice.

[D]

All this stuff wasn't always going to be necessary, but it was just about being safe. It's not like you're just going to be handed a set of crampons and an ice axe and we'll see you at the top sort of scenario. It's just like so you know what it feels like.

[Dave Cawley]

It's the closest Eric had ever been to a true mountaineering experience. But he never put the training to.

[D]

The test to cross the Mera. We didn't even need it. It was a well worn path even though it was on ice and we just sort of plotted along and safely got up and over.

[Dave Cawley]

I do wonder if crossing the glacier made Eric nervous, knowing what had happened to his friend Allen. Stuart told me he saw Eric overcome by emotion at several points on the journey.

[D]

I think he was missing people back at home, but he was also really overwhelmed by the environment and the experience as well.

[Dave Cawley]

When the party made it to the foot of Shamlung, they split into two. Stuart and his climbing partner made base camp and prepared to attack the mountain while Eric and the other trekkers turned around and started walking back the way they had come. This meant crossing Mera Pass again. And while there, the trekkers intended to visit a nearby summit.

[D]

One of the very popular trekking peaks in Nepal is Mera Peak.

[Dave Cawley]

A trekking peak is one you can get to the top of without mountaineering skills or climbing gear. Mira is one of the highest trekking peaks in the world. Its Summit is nearly 6,480 meters above sea level, or about 21,250ft. That's higher than Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, higher than Denali in Alaska.

[D]

They got up in the morning to do that and started moving up the snow slope towards Merripeak and at some point turned around either through a combination of weather and or time.

[Dave Cawley]

A disappointment soon overshadowed when two members of the party developed altitude sickness. One was Eric's tent partner, Peter, my father in law.

[D]

He started to get sick on the way down.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric could only watch as Peter's condition deteriorated. He developed cerebral edema and pneumonia, a life threatening situation. The party called for a helicopter to evacuate him.

[D]

But then there was the difficulties of the weather getting a helicopter up.

[Dave Cawley]

It was a race against time. A short window of fair weather finally allowed a chopper to reach them. It flew Peter to a hospital in Kathmandu where thankfully he recovered. But the other person who got sick, one of the porters, never made it off the mountain.

[Marilyn Robinson]

The Australian was airlifted out and the Nepali person Porter died.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric's pictures prove he spent a lot of time getting to know the Nepali team. He took the porter's death hard.

[Marilyn Robinson]

When I picked him up from the airport, he was still in a great state of agitation and distress about the inequalities.

[Dave Cawley]

Those inequalities come in many forms, like, for example, I don't even know this porter's name and have no way of finding it. Mountaineering fatalities are tracked in Nepal, but this porter's death occurred on a trek, not a climb, so it wasn't reported. Eric felt shocked at seeing how the locals who shoulder the burden of the trekking trade in Nepal aren't treated as equals to the affluent outsiders.

[D]

Why does this happen for a tourist, whereas a local doesn't get the same opportunity of care?

[Dave Cawley]

Eric wouldn't or couldn't see that his tent partner Peter, might have died too, if not for the support of the team and a lucky break in the weather. Twice in the space of two years, Eric confronted death in the mountains. Still, he insisted it couldn't happen to him. Eric started planning a trip to North America in early 2011. He set his sights on two separate trails considered to be difficult, though he figured neither would prove as challenging as the places he had already been.

[Marilyn Robinson]

He had asked if I wanted to come because he was always inclusive and hopeful that I would join in on these adventures. But it was the start of term three, which is a very busy, intense teaching time and, you know, a lot happening in schools. And I said, well, you know, I can't, or more, I won't.

[Dave Cawley]

Marilyn's kids were also uncomfortable with the idea of their mom doing another big trek with Eric, given what had just happened.

[Marilyn Robinson]

They were concerned that he was going off and doing this, you know, again.

[Dave Cawley]

They tried to talk him out of.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Going, but he convinced them, you know, I've got the gps, I've got a map, it's a trail, I'm just following the trail.

[Dave Cawley]

He figured it would take him about a week to hike a trail called the Uinta Highline in the US Then he would fly to Canada to tackle the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. Two epic walks done back to back.

[Marilyn Robinson]

You know, he had a detailed Excel spreadsheet of days, dates, names, costs. It was meticulously planned.

[Dave Cawley]

Since Marilyn refused to go, Eric reached out to his friend Julia Geisler from the jmt.

[Marilyn Robinson]

He emailed Julia and said, I'm doing this. Would you like to join me? Feel free. I'd love your company.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric and Julia had kept in touch over the years.

[Julia Geisler]

I do remember getting, like, messages mostly from Eric on updates of life, of, like, you know, here are the grandkids, or Marilyn and I are doing this, or I guess I somehow learned of Alan's passing, probably through Eric.

[Dave Cawley]

Julia shared updates about her life, too. She'd moved to a place called Park City, a ski resort town in the state of Utah that's one of the landlocked western states. The Highline Trail Eric wanted to hike ran through a mountain range just east of Park City called the Uintas.

[Julia Geisler]

I don't think I'd ever really heard much of the Highline Trail. It's kind of Utah's best kept secret, which might be out once this podcast comes out, but I don't remember that much, like, knowing that much. And so him saying, you know, I want to do this trail. It's at, what, 10,000ft for a lot of it and right in your backyard? I was like, huh? And my partner Blake was very familiar with it, so started looking at the map and, you know, it was a pretty cool adventure.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric thought so too, and he hoped Julia would join him.

[Julia Geisler]

He invited me to come with him, and it was a big snow year and I opted not to.

[Dave Cawley]

If you don't live in a place with big mountains and strong seasons, you might miss the significance of a big snow year. Utah's mountains are like batteries. They collect snow from storms that blow in off the Pacific each winter. That snowpack builds until the weather warms in the spring, melting the snow and releasing the water into rivers and streams. And the highest parts of the Uinta Mountains, where the High Line Trail runs, are always the last to melt out. That means hikers usually have just a narrow window when the trail is snow free in July, August, and maybe September, the trail's high elevation passes are packed with snow. Anytime outside of that, when you're looking.

[Julia Geisler]

At going over passes on a high alpine trail that gets hairy quickly if you don't have the right crampons and poles.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric scheduled his trip during that window in July and August. But 2011 was an unusual year. The Uintah snowpack was the deepest on record, and a cold snap that spring delayed the start of the melt by several weeks.

[Julia Geisler]

So that snow took a long time to melt, even in August. It's still up there in the high mountains.

[Dave Cawley]

Julie had only lived in Utah a few years by that point, but she had been a skier her whole life and recognized how unusual these conditions were. It seemed like more risk than she wanted to tackle. But I'm not clear just how strongly she communicated that to Eric.

[Julia Geisler]

Yeah, I just said, you know, I don't think the timing is great right now. And he respected that. But he was like, well, I'm coming, so can you, you know, help me out with logistics of picking me up and getting me, you know, to the airport? And I was definitely excited to see him.

[Dave Cawley]

She agreed to host Eric in Park City for a few days before he set off on his hike. But her decision not to accompany Eric left Marilyn feeling uneasy with her husband's plan. She applied pressure, telling Eric he shouldn't go without someone to watch his back. Her kids were more blunt, telling him, what happened to Allan could happen to you.

[Marilyn Robinson]

We want to have you having a safe trek, and we want to have you back home again.

[Dave Cawley]

Some of these conversations grew heated, but Eric didn't budge. I've been in his shoes. I've heard loved ones grumble when I insist on going out into nature alone. And I've ignored them because I trust in my skills and abilities. But if I'm being honest, that's also landed me in trouble. A timer or two. Eric understood the concern, but he wasn't willing to give up on his ambition. So he came up with a compromise.

[Marilyn Robinson]

He bought an ePub.

[Dave Cawley]

That's short for emergency position, indicating radio beacon. In other words, a distress signal. If Eric ran into trouble, he could press a button. It would send an SOS message to Search and Rescue by satellite, along with GPS coordinates for his location. The beacon wasn't a phone. It didn't text. It could only send one message. Help. Marilyn still felt uneasy, but he was.

[Marilyn Robinson]

Determined to go, and he had the epirb. And he was well into his planning of being able to walk that way solo.

[Dave Cawley]

She had to make a choice. Forbid Eric from going or accept it. Refusing to let him go would violate their understanding and her own morals. It would tear the fabric of their love, perhaps irreparably, and he might just go anyway. So she made her peace. Eric's flight was scheduled to depart on Thursday, July 21. He cooked dinner for Marilyn the night before and in the morning loaded his red backpack into the trunk of her car.

[Marilyn Robinson]

I took him out to the airport and he said just drop me there and I've gone. No, I'm parking the car. We'll go inside and we'll have a cup of tea once you've booked in you your bags. And we did.

[Dave Cawley]

When Eric stood to go, he took Marilyn's hands in his. She felt the warmth in them that she so loved. They kissed.

[Marilyn Robinson]

It was always a warm farewell.

[Dave Cawley]

Pulling back, he said with a smirk, now hen you behave while I'm away. Then they broke the embrace.

[Marilyn Robinson]

He went off through the gate and I went home. And later that day, this beautiful bunch of flowers arrived.

[Dave Cawley]

The afterglow of that departure lingered on Marilyn's lips for the next few days. She received sporadic updates from Eric by text message as he made his way to Utah.

[Marilyn Robinson]

He was having a great time with Julia. Devin had come across from San Francisco.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric, Julia and Devon all felt Alan's absence from this reunion of their JMT trail family, but tried not to let that overshadow the joy of being back together. Julia showed Eric and Devin around her adopted home in Utah, even taking them to a rock climbing wall in the Uinta Mountains. She invited Eric to try a pitch he didn't climb.

[Marilyn Robinson]

He didn't want to climb.

[Dave Cawley]

But he took pictures with his DSLR as Julia showed Devin how to clamber up the rock face. On the last night before Eric departed for his hike, Julia watched as he loaded Ruby, the big red rucksack he was repaired.

[Julia Geisler]

He had extra food, a couple days worth of extra food.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric had crammed all that food into one of those bear canisters I talked about earlier. And he had slapped an Australian flag sticker on the side. That way he would know it was his if a bear batted it away in the middle of the night.

[Julia Geisler]

He had physical maps, a compass, a GPS unit, I think a whistle, like just anything you could think of for navigation and emergency purposes. He had it in there.

[Dave Cawley]

That included his new emergency beacon. Eric was ready to go. He would depart for the Uintah Highline first thing the next morning. It's at least a half day trip from where Julia lived in Park City to the start of the trail. To get there he would take a Greyhound bus to the city of Vernal from Australia.

[Julia Geisler]

He arranged to have a rancher dude pick him up in Vernal and take him to the Highline trailhead, which is, you know, it's not off of a main freeway or anything. You got to kind of want to get there and figure out your transportation there. It's not like a taxi is going to take you there. So you found this guy that if he could get to Vernal, would take him to the trailhead.

[Dave Cawley]

Eric would then walk the length of the Uinta Range, emerging at the far end where Julia planned to meet him 10 days later. The plan was set at 8am the next morning, Thursday, July 28, Julia drove Eric to the Greyhound stop.

[Julia Geisler]

And it's like, I'll see you in 10 days at the Highline Trailhead on the Mary Lake Highway. And that's the last time I saw Eric was dropping him off at that bus stop.

[Dave Cawley]

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 uinta triangle.com find us on social media using uintatriangle. 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, exclusive bonus episodes. Here's producer Andrea Smarden with a peek at the latest bonus Would you hike.

[Julia Geisler]

Alone in the wilderness? No one to talk to, just you with your thoughts and no one to help if something goes wrong. In Bonus episode two, Dave Colley talks about his personal experience trekking solo and how he attempted to get inside the mind of a fellow hiker he's never met.

[Dave Cawley]

Uinta Triangle is researched and written by me, Dave Colley. I also did the field recording. 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 Layton Brown. Additional voices in this episode from Alex Keary. Uinta Triangle is a production of of KSL Podcasts and Lemonada Media. My personal thanks to the following past and present members of the KSL Podcasts team Aaron Mason, Amy Donaldson, Felix Bonnell, 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.