Dead Reckoning

Summary

Uinta Triangle – Episode: Dead Reckoning

Released June 17, 2025 | Host: Dave Cawley | Produced by KSL Podcasts and Lemonada Media

---

Introduction

"Uinta Triangle," produced by KSL Podcasts and distributed by Lemonada Media, is an immersive true crime and adventure series that delves into the mysterious disappearance of Australian trekker Eric Robinson. The episode "Dead Reckoning" meticulously chronicles the exhaustive search efforts led by host Dave Cawley and Eric’s wife, Marilyn Kulstra, as they navigate the daunting Uinta Mountains in hopes of uncovering answers about Eric's fate.

The Disappearance and Initial Search Efforts

On August 15, 2011, Eric Robinson, an avid trekker, vanished while hiking the Uintah Highline Trail, a remote and challenging mountain range notorious for swallowing hikers. The initial search commenced immediately but soon stretched into a second week without any leads, heightening fears and desperation among his loved ones.

Notable Quote:

Marilyn Kulstra (03:17): “Rachel came with her hiking boots and her hiking gear. She was equipped and ready to go out there and search for her stepfather, more her close friend than stepfather.”

Joining the Search: Art Lang’s Contribution

Art Lang, a seasoned backpacker and mountaineer, arrived at the Duchesne County makeshift search command post at Moon Lake (02:04). Having completed the Uinta Highline Trail a week behind Eric, Art's expertise became invaluable. He identified the "navigation crux," a particularly treacherous section of the trail that posed significant challenges for searchers (09:45).

Notable Quote:

Art Lang (09:45): “The navigation crux is this place, this Oweep in the Lambert Meadows area.”

Family’s Struggle and Tension with Authorities

Marilyn Kulstra and her daughter Rachel Marsden faced significant hurdles in being included in the official search operations. The Duchesne County Sheriff's Office maintained a distance, leading to feelings of frustration and exclusion (02:47). Despite their eagerness to contribute, the authorities were reluctant to integrate them into the search teams.

Notable Quote:

Rachel Marsden (04:48): “I think I made it known that I felt that I could do that and I was willing to do that if they thought it was helpful.”

Challenges and Conflicts in the Search

Art Lang's proposal to focus search efforts on the navigation crux prompted a strategic shift. His deep understanding of the terrain helped the official search teams concentrate their efforts more effectively (10:15). However, tensions arose when Art sought to undertake a solo search mission, challenging established safety protocols (12:00).

Notable Quote:

Art Lang (13:03): “I'm here to actually go search. So I want you to fly me up into this navigation crux and I'm going to go looking for this guy.”

Desperation and Personal Risk: Rachel’s Attempt

Compelled by desperation, Rachel Marsden insisted on joining the search despite lacking extensive preparation. Paired with a volunteer named Charlie, Rachel embarked on a physically and emotionally taxing hike through rugged terrain (17:37). This decision underscored the family's relentless pursuit of hope amidst despair.

Notable Quote:

Rachel Marsden (18:25): “I could not have been less prepared.”

Emotional and Psychological Toll

As days progressed without breakthroughs, Marilyn and Rachel grappled with diminishing hope and the looming possibility of Eric’s death. The practicalities of search and rescue—costs, risks, and statistical probabilities—began to weigh heavily on them (06:20).

Notable Quote:

Marilyn Kulstra (08:00): “How hard can it be to find somebody out there?”

Art Lang’s Solo Expedition and Subsequent Rescue

Art Lang’s insistence on a solo search led to his isolated expedition deep into the mountains (14:54). Despite his determination, Art’s search proved fruitless over three days, culminating in his arduous return journey where he narrowly avoided exhaustion and dehydration (51:33).

Notable Quote:

Art Lang (55:04): “I was glad to have done my part and felt somewhat satisfied or rewarded in that respect.”

Finalizing the Search and Accepting Loss

By August 17, 2011, after extensive efforts and no viable leads, Marilyn and Rachel accepted that Eric might never be found. They commemorated him by building a cairn in an alpine meadow, symbolizing their heartfelt farewell and eternal bond (63:14).

Notable Quote:

Rachel Marsden (59:46): “We've done our best to try and find you, but we can't do anymore.”

Conclusion and Reflections

"Dead Reckoning" encapsulates the profound emotional journey of a family and community in the face of loss and uncertainty. It underscores the relentless human spirit to seek answers, the harsh realities of wilderness searches, and the enduring love that binds individuals together even amidst tragedy.

Key Themes:

• Isolation and Wilderness: The Uinta Mountains present both a haven for nature lovers and a perilous landscape for hikers.
• Human Resilience: Marilyn and Rachel’s unwavering commitment highlights the lengths individuals will go to for loved ones.
• Community Involvement: Art Lang and the volunteers’ dedication demonstrate the collective effort in rescue missions.
• Emotional Struggle: The psychological impact of prolonged searches and the heavy burden of hope and acceptance.

Notable Quotes Recap:

• Art Lang (09:45): “The navigation crux is this place, this Oweep in the Lambert Meadows area.”
• Rachel Marsden (04:48): “I think I made it known that I felt that I could do that and I was willing to do that if they thought it was helpful.”
• Art Lang (13:03): “I'm here to actually go search. So I want you to fly me up into this navigation crux and I'm going to go looking for this guy.”
• Rachel Marsden (18:25): “I could not have been less prepared.”
• Marilyn Kulstra (08:00): “How hard can it be to find somebody out there?”
• Art Lang (55:04): “I was glad to have done my part and felt somewhat satisfied or rewarded in that respect.”
• Rachel Marsden (59:46): “We've done our best to try and find you, but we can't do anymore.”

Final Thoughts

"Dead Reckoning" delivers a poignant narrative that not only explores the practical aspects of search and rescue missions but also delves deeply into the emotional and psychological landscapes navigated by families and volunteers during such crises. Through detailed storytelling and firsthand accounts, the episode offers listeners a comprehensive and empathetic understanding of Eric Robinson’s disappearance and the enduring quest for closure by those he left behind.

---

For more insights and to immerse yourself further, visit uintatriangle.com and consider subscribing to Lemonada Premium for exclusive content.

Transcript

[Erica Mahoney]

Hey, I'm Erica Mahoney, host of Lemonada's hit podcast Senseless. I want to tell you about an app that's honestly been a game changer for me, Duckbill. Duckbill is like an executive assistant for your personal life, powered by AI and real humans who tackle your to do list so you don't have to because life is busy. So think of Duckbill like your personal task force that never gets tired, never procrastinates, and gives you a break. All you do is submit a task and they get on it fast. I've used Duckbill to manage my calendar, book doctor's appointments for my kids, order thoughtful gifts for my husband, and even plan my podcast, launch party venue and all. It helps me show up for the people I love and take better care of myself because time is power and everyone deserves extra help in reclaiming theirs. So if your plate is overflowing, pass a few things off to Duckbill. Life is short, so duck it. Use code senseless for 50% off your first two [e-mail] that's getduckbill.com Two young fathers are shot to death outside an iconic Utah restaurant.

[Amy Donaldson]

I said, your dad has been hurt really bad.

[Judith Wright]

The grief was disorienting for those left.

[Erica Mahoney]

Behind, until one choice changed everything.

[Rachel Marsden]

I just remember writing this letter, and it wasn't me writing it.

[Erica Mahoney]

Can a personal decision shape generations?

[Amy Donaldson]

We're all falling for this guy's trick. I'm Amy Donaldson.

[Judith Wright]

Season 2 of the Letter Ripple Effect is available now.

[Erica Mahoney]

Follow [e-mail] or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Amy Donaldson]

Lemonada I heard from my bed his bugle breath go by and the drum of his heart in the measure of an old song I shall travel into.

[Erica Mahoney]

Silence and in that fierce country when.

[Amy Donaldson]

We meet he will know he has.

[Erica Mahoney]

Been away too long.

[Judith Wright]

Judith Wright, lost Child.

[Amy Donaldson]

The dim blue light of predawn began to warm as Art Lang arrived at Duchesne County's makeshift search command post. Art, I'll remind you, is the backpacker and mountaineer who hiked the Uintah Highline Trail about a week behind the missing Australian trekker, Eric Robinson. Art had finished his hike on a Friday afternoon. Now, on Monday morning, he was eager to join the hunt.

[Art Lang]

I said to myself, I'm gonna go back in. And I loaded up my pack again.

[Amy Donaldson]

He parked near a grove of quaking aspen trees surrounded by sagebrush, just off to the side of Moon Lake. It was the start of August 15, 2011, day eight of the search for Eric. And in Artsview, the sheriff in charge.

[Art Lang]

Of the search was at that point kind of desperate.

[Amy Donaldson]

Desperate for help, desperate for ideas, desperate for a stroke of good luck. Eric's wife, Marilyn Kulstra, and her daughter Rachel Marsden, were desperate. Too desperate to be included, to be taken seriously, they felt. The Duchenne County Sheriff had held them at arm's length ever since they'd arrived in Utah, failing to return phone calls, not involving them in the search efforts.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

And Rachel came with her hiking boots and her hiking gear. She was equipped and ready to go out there and search for her stepfather, more her close friend than stepfather. She was a woman of action and wanted to be useful.

[Amy Donaldson]

So at the same time Art was arriving at Moon Lake, Marilyn and Rachel were on their way to the headquarters of the Duchesne County Sheriff's Office.

[Rachel Marsden]

I think it was like 4am and they were driving. It was a long drive just to get to there.

[Amy Donaldson]

It took about an hour to get from the house where they were staying in Park City, Utah, to the small rural town of Duchesne.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

It was just a building in the middle of somewhere that seemed to be not very busy. Not a lot of personnel in there.

[Amy Donaldson]

The sheriff's Chief deputy, Dave Boren, escorted Marilyn and Rachel into a room called the eoc, or Emergency Operations Center. A utilitarian space with fluorescent lights, plastic folding tables and a bank of landline telephones. It was supposed to be the nerve center of the search, but to Rachel it seemed strangely quiet.

[Rachel Marsden]

It was like, really, is this it? There's just like you and us?

[Amy Donaldson]

She'd expected to see a crowd of people getting ready to head out into the mountains. Where were they? Boren explained the searchers were meeting at Moon lake, about a 45 minute drive farther north. That's where Rachel wanted to be, not in some office building. She said she wanted to go out looking for Eric.

[Rachel Marsden]

You know, I think I made it known that I felt that I could do that and I was willing to do that if they thought it was helpful.

[Amy Donaldson]

Boren told her that wasn't a good idea.

[Rachel Marsden]

It was like, you leave it to us. We've got this under control.

[Amy Donaldson]

In the eyes of the sheriff's office, placing a family member of a missing person in the mountains, especially one who had never set foot in the Uintas before, was a recipe for trouble. But to Rachel, the response felt dismissive and patronizing, like, don't you worry, little lady. Let the big boys handle this. Marilyn and Rachel's first in person meeting with the people in charge of the Search was off to a rough start. And it got worse when someone, Marilyn doesn't remember who, tried to break the tension with a joke. They said it was a good thing she had been in Australia when Eric disappeared. After all, the romantic partner is always the prime suspect.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Yeah, that was the comment.

[Rachel Marsden]

What a crazy. What a wild thing to say to someone's spouse who's just flown across the wood. Yeah, but, you know, thankfully she wasn't there and they didn't waste time and resources.

[Amy Donaldson]

Rachel laughs about it now, but she wasn't laughing then. The search for Eric was entering its second week, and she knew the odds were against him.

[Rachel Marsden]

Too much time's passed. There's something untoward's happened, but what's that untoward? And are we actually going to figure that out?

[Amy Donaldson]

Search and rescue missions are expensive. They require huge expenditures for wages and overtime, equipment, food and fuel. They also expose the rescuers to risk. Searchers can confront the very same hazards that caused the person they are looking for to go missing in the first place. There comes a time when it's just too expensive or too dangerous for a search to continue. But to the families of the missing, talking about these practicalities can come across as insensitive. Like officials are placing a dollar figure on the value of a human life. While researching this story, I came across a study that analyzed five years of search and rescue data from the state of Oregon. It said most survivors were found within two days of a person being reported missing, and almost all searches concluded within four days. With the recovery of the victim either alive or dead. Beyond four days, the odds of mission success dropped to about 1 in 100. That's the point, the study said, when it's often not worth the expense or the risk of a search continuing. The search for Eric had already dragged on twice that long. But the authors of the study also cautioned not to rely too strictly on these statistics. They stressed odds of survival after four days were low, but not zero. There are always outliers in the data. Marilyn still hoped Eric could be that outlier. The one out of a hundred.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

How hard can it be to find somebody out there?

[Amy Donaldson]

My name is Dave Cawley. You are listening to Uinta Triangle, an audio documentary from KSL Podcasts. This is episode six, Dead Reckoning. A wispy layer of cirrus cloud high in the atmosphere turned pink, then orange, catching rays of the rising sun as Marilyn and Rachel drove away from the sheriff's office headquarters headed for Moon Lake.

[Rachel Marsden]

It was such a trek to even arrive at where they were Searching from. But it was a. It was a big process.

[Amy Donaldson]

Moon Lake sits right on the southern boundary of the Hyuentas wilderness area, about 12 miles or 20 kilometers south of the Highline Trail. The mountain air felt sharp and cold as Rachel stepped out of the car. She hoped to find hundreds of volunteers there, like the crowds who had turned out to search for a missing Boy Scout two days earlier. But she saw fewer than 20.

[Rachel Marsden]

My expectations maybe were greater than what was realistic or even possible, given the terrain and the situation.

[Amy Donaldson]

Art Lang was there. Jeff Stagg, the outfitter who had dropped Eric off at Chipita Lake, was there. Eric's friend Julia was there, too. This ragtag group milled about, awaiting instructions. Most of them, that is. Art took the initiative and approached the commander of Duchenne County's official search and rescue, or saar team.

[Art Lang]

I said to him, my name's Art Lang. I just traveled the whole High Line. In fact, I know the Uintas very well. Can I help you with the search? And he saw my backpack on and he goes, yes, you really can. And I said, I just traveled it. And I know that there is some problem areas that you need to be focusing on.

[Amy Donaldson]

One of the problems facing the official SAAR teams was their personnel didn't have much firsthand experience on the High Line trail.

[Art Lang]

So I said, I want to see the map. Let's talk about where we should. Where you should focus your efforts.

[Amy Donaldson]

It had been a day and a half since a scoutmaster had come forward with a story about encountering Eric way off the High Line along Yellowstone Creek. The sheriff's office had searchers out on horseback following up on that lead. Art thought they might be overlooking an area a bit farther to the west, an area he called the navigation crux, meaning the section of greatest difficulty for finding one's way. The crux wasn't one single spot, but instead a series of route finding challenges.

[Art Lang]

And I said, the navigation crux is this place, this Oweep in the Lambert Meadows area.

[Amy Donaldson]

We've talked about this bit of the High Line before. The Oweep Basin and Lambert Meadow is where Ardid encountered a large herd of sheep during his hike.

[Art Lang]

The Upper Owep, close to that navigation crux was missing a trail because it was just hundreds of sheep trails going every which way, and every blade of grass was down to the nubbins or gone.

[Amy Donaldson]

Art imagined a scenario where Eric lost the Highline trail because of sheep damage or took the wrong path because of a broken trail sign. Maybe while wandering, Eric found a creek and Tried to follow it downhill to civilization.

[Art Lang]

If you're walking totally unguided, he'd be tending to follow the creek down. That's one of the navigation cruxes I was speaking about.

[Amy Donaldson]

That would have carried Eric down into the trees where he and his red backpack couldn't be seen from the air.

[Art Lang]

The high line is mostly above alpine tundra, I'm guessing 70% where you can see everywhere and you can see a pack on the ground easily. So all these overflights would have seen him if he was in the open. I had kind of figured that he wandered off into the woods and had a heart attack or set up camp in the woods and then tripped on a root and fell off a little cliff or something.

[Amy Donaldson]

The Duchenne county sheriff was working under a similar assumption.

[Art Lang]

And the ground searchers were then focused on forest and places where he couldn't see. And you can miss somebody on the ground 100ft away, even if they had a red pack, if he's crouched down or on the ground or in a tent.

[Amy Donaldson]

The SAR team commander thanked Art for the information. It was just the kind of intel they needed.

[Art Lang]

So he was very accepting and eager to get my input.

[Amy Donaldson]

And he put it to use immediately, crafting a plan to blitz this so called navigation crux with as many of the volunteer searchers as possible. An air ambulance company called Classic Lifeguard had donated a helicopter and flight crew for the day. The TSAR commander split the volunteers into teams of two. He said the helicopter would fly them in. The teams were to work their areas until about 3 or 4 in the afternoon and then returned to their drop points so the helicopter could fly them back out.

[Art Lang]

And then at the end of that, I said, but I'm here to actually go search. So I want you to fly me up into this navigation crux and I'm going to go looking for this guy.

[Amy Donaldson]

ARD had loaded his backpack with supplies and provisions to last a few days. He didn't want to be flown out after only a few hours and he didn't want a buddy that would slow him down. He said he was going solo and.

[Art Lang]

He looked at me and said, I can't let you do that. And I said, you can't let me do it. That's really the wrong way to put it because I'm either going to walk up there for a day and a half and walk out for a day and a half with only one day to search, or you're going to fly me up there and I'll have four days to search. So which would you like?

[Amy Donaldson]

If the TSAR team commander agreed to send Art out solo and Art ended up going missing himself, it would turn an already bad situation into an outright disaster. If Art was injured or killed, the the inevitable lawsuit would be a multimillion dollar fiasco. The buddy system rule was supposed to protect against this, but Art didn't care about the rules.

[Art Lang]

The sheriff's deputy took pause and he said let me talk to some people. And he got on the radio and called the actual sheriff and the sheriff said let him go in but he's got to be accompanied.

[Erica Mahoney]

Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you are stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide and every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn [e-mail] credit card based on the February 2024 Nielsen report.

[Amy Donaldson]

Art placed his pack in the helicopter, then climbed into the front left seat. Two Duchesne deputies. The chaperones the sheriff had ordered to accompany him took seats in the rear.

[Art Lang]

And so I got to fly in this thing and there's two search and rescue deputies behind me. But at the end of the day they'd get flown back out that same day and I'd stay there.

[Amy Donaldson]

The trapper lifted off from moonlight, its rotor wash kicking up a whirlwind of dust. Art watched the landscape below shrink as the chopper climbed, then moved north in.

[Art Lang]

The morning light like an elevator going up to Lake Fork drainage.

[Amy Donaldson]

If you're looking down from above, the Lake Fork drainage forms a giant letter Y. Moon Lake sits at the bottom going north. From there you follow the river until it splits about halfway up. The left or west branch is the Lake Fork. The right or east branch is Oweep Creek. At the very top of the Wye. Midway between those two branches sits Lambert Meadow. The Uinta Highline Trail cuts across the top of the Wye from one side to the other. That entire stretch encompassed the section of trail Art called the navigation crux. Again, the plan for the search was to saturate this crux with as many people as possible. Art and his chaperones were the tip of the spear. The helicopter dropped them in an open space near Lambert Meadow.

[Art Lang]

I got out with my full pack and started setting my tent up. My aircraft took off and they were quizzing me. Well, are you gonna stay here by yourself? You know there's bears and other dangerous animals here.

[Amy Donaldson]

Art knew risky wildlife encounters in the Uinta Mountains were rare. The grizzly bears and wolf packs that once inhabited these mountains were killed off by ranchers decades ago. Black bears do still live in the Uintas today, but they tend to be small and shy.

[Art Lang]

And I said, I'm used to being by myself out here and I feel bad that you're feeling bad for me. Don't you know I'm here by free will? And frankly, I don't need you here to walk around with me. You're supposed to stay there the whole day and start searching. Interesting, because they were not really well equipped to walk much. They had cowboy boots on and jeans and water bottles stuffed in their pockets.

[Amy Donaldson]

The deputies were from the ranching communities of Duchenne County. They were both used to being outside, but weren't long distance hikers.

[Art Lang]

Maybe somebody can walk 10 miles in a cowboy boots, but I challenge. I'd like to see it.

[Amy Donaldson]

Art didn't get a chance to find.

[Art Lang]

Out because by the time I got my tent set up getting ready to start walking, the helicopter shows back up to haul him out.

[Amy Donaldson]

Back at Moon Lake, Marilyn and Rachel watched as the helicopter came and went. The group of volunteers shrank a little each time the chopper lifted off. Rachel realized she and Marilyn would soon be left alone there.

[Rachel Marsden]

Me just standing there waiting is not a good use of time.

[Amy Donaldson]

Rachel still wanted to join the search, and it seemed the opportunity was slipping away. So she approached the sartine commander. Yes, I know it's dangerous, she said, but look around. You don't have nearly enough people. You need my help. The commander conceded the situation warranted bending the rules. He agreed to send her out with one of the last remaining volunteers. The helicopter would drop Rachel and this other volunteer, a guy named Charlie, in an area called Brown Duck Basin. There was little reason to believe Eric could have ended up there, but it needed to be checked. Rachel said she was ready.

[Rachel Marsden]

I could not have been less prepared.

[Amy Donaldson]

Rachel and Charlie would start their search at the top of the basin and jog down a trail back to Moon Lake. The distance would be about equal to running a half marathon.

[Rachel Marsden]

Fortunately, I'd run a half marathon about three weeks before. The only time in my life I've ever done it. But I was probably the fittest that I've ever been, thankfully, because the guy I was paired up with was so fit. It was just, I went, what have I done?

[Amy Donaldson]

That feeling intensified as the helicopter ascended, affording Rachel a bird's eye view. Of Brown Duck Basin and the broad expanse of the uinta crest beyond. She felt a pang of dread.

[Rachel Marsden]

The size of it, the scale of it, of the range themselves, and what the task was.

[Amy Donaldson]

As soon as they hit the ground and darted out of the chopper, Charlie started off down the trail. Rachel hurried to follow, worried she wouldn't be able to keep pace.

[Rachel Marsden]

Adrenaline's an amazing thing. It didn't actually matter.

[Amy Donaldson]

Rocks the size of watermelons littered the trail. Dead pines blown down by the wind were hurdles in Rachel's path. Every step posed the risk of a sprain or rolled ankle. Her lungs, accustomed to sea level air, burned in the thinner oxygen at elevation. She shouted Eric's name over and over.

[Rachel Marsden]

I do remember, though, as we were running, that real reality of what I was going to do if I actually found him like this, sort of wanting to, desperately, desperately, like I was dizzy from my head, scanning, scanning, looking, looking. But then, you know, it was a weird thing and so futile like, you know, in reality. Would this be the moment that we were fortunate enough that it was. But also, what was that actually going to be like?

[Amy Donaldson]

She couldn't imagine a scenario where Eric greeted her with a smile and a cup of tea, asking what had taken her so long.

[Rachel Marsden]

I was prepping for worst case. Yeah, maybe that he would be unconscious and alive, but not. I was thinking it would be pretty bad.

[Amy Donaldson]

She still didn't want to believe Eric could be dead, but finding his lifeless body would be better than not finding him at all.

[Rachel Marsden]

I obviously wanted it to happen, but had to prep myself in case that was the reality and what that was going to be like. Strange combination of feelings to have, yeah.

[Amy Donaldson]

It was nearly 10am by the time the chopper finished flying all the volunteers to their search areas. Eric's friend Julia remained behind to be with Marilyn. They traveled together back to the sheriff's office headquarters to attend a briefing with Sheriff Travis Mitchell. Marilyn stood again in the eoc, that big empty room, as the sheriff walked her through everything that had happened so far.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

I had my notebook.

[Amy Donaldson]

Mitchell went day by day as Marilyn scribbled notes, trying to keep up, writing down names of unfamiliar people and places.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

My notes are somewhat sketchy.

[Amy Donaldson]

I've reviewed them and they're actually quite good. Sheriff Mitchell told Marilyn how he had flown the entire length of the Highline Trail a week earlier to look at each of the passes. Marilyn wrote the words dead horse pass, nasty snow. Mitchell told Maryland the air ambulance company had already donated tens of thousands of dollars in fuel and flight time to the search, but couldn't keep flying for free and was going to start charging the sheriff's office.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Helicopter has limited fuel. Pilots have other chores.

[Amy Donaldson]

Surely there had to be other helicopters, marilyn said. Why not call in the military or the state governor? The sheriff told her it would cost $5,000 an hour to bring in another chopper.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

He told me, it's different. You don't understand, you know. And I emphatically said, well, please explain. I need to know. You need to fill me in on the differences. You need to explain to me how you do things and what is going on.

[Amy Donaldson]

Marilyn was not the weepy, inconsolable wife Sheriff Mitchell might have expected. She told him she knew a bit about mountains herself, having trekked around Annapurna in Nepal. He didn't need to protect her feelings. Just be blunt, she said.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

I was standing around twiddling my thumbs, trying to get my head around a lot of new things of, you know, sketchy, patchy information. And I needed to know.

[Amy Donaldson]

A KSL TV reporter arrived early that afternoon to update the station's story about Eric. Now, eight days after his expected return, Duchene County Sheriff Travis Mitchell says his deputies are searching a 60 mile long trail with very little to go on.

[Dave Cawley]

We're looking at on our side of the Uintah Mountains, somewhere in the neighborhood of about 400,000 acres.

[Amy Donaldson]

Notice how, Mitchell said our side Duchene county only covered the south slope of the Hyuentas. I'll remind you Summit county was responsible for the north side but had declined to join the search. The Duchene county portion alone spanned more than 1600 square kilometers, an impossibly large area to cover. Sheriff Mitchell told the reporter they needed the public's help to shrink the scope.

[Dave Cawley]

Get somebody that's seen him other than where we have now, then we can maybe narrow our search area a little bit smaller. That would help us immensely.

[Amy Donaldson]

In the meantime, Marilyn does what little she can, keeping family members up to date as she closely watches the search.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

We have five children and nine grandchildren, and it's pretty hard for those back in Australia.

[Amy Donaldson]

I covered many search and rescue missions during my career as a news reporter. There's often a telling moment when a search drags out where the officials switch from saying rescue to recovery. That's when they admit to themselves and to the public the person they are looking for must be dead. Sheriff Mitchell wasn't calling it a recovery just yet, but Marilyn could sense the shift coming.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

I got the sense that hope of a positive finding had fast dwindled.

[Amy Donaldson]

The chief deputy, Dave Boren, went over detailed weather reports beginning with the day Eric had last been seen by the Boy Scouts. Scattered storms had moved across the Uintas that day and for two days after it raised the possibility Eric might have been struck by lightning. Fatalities from lightning are very rare, but your risk for getting injured or killed by lightning increases when you are the tallest thing in an otherwise barren landscape. This point came into sharp focus on that afternoon when Julia's partner Blake, her friend Devin and Julia's sister reported in following a search. They'd been out for three days since Saturday.

[Judith Wright]

Blake and Devin and my sister have a story of trying to go over a pass and it was lightning and they had to make this choice of like, run for it back to camp or, or stay put. And so that there's just a lot of risk with volunteers being out there.

[Amy Donaldson]

That you assume electrical storms in the Uintas can be as memorable as they are terrifying. There's nothing like seeing the white flash and hearing the air rending crack at the same instant. The U.S. national Weather Service describes barren mountain peaks, ridgelines and wide open areas as, quote, extremely dangerous terrain for lightning. That all perfectly describes portions of the Uintah Highline Trail. And I had my own close call with lightning during my hike following Eric's path.

[Dave Cawley]

Hopefully the wind doesn't make this recording completely inaudible.

[Amy Donaldson]

I was headed for Porcupine Pass when I found myself trying to outrun a storm.

[Dave Cawley]

There are some really ugly clads off to my right, which would be north, and I just heard some thunder crackling inside the clouds. I'm way above tree line. I'm in wide open tundra, Just rocks, grass and little bushes about shin high, spaced very sparsely. So if the weather comes in in any significant way, I'm gonna get the brunt of it.

[Amy Donaldson]

The weather service suggests getting inside a car or building when you see lightning. But I was in the wilderness with no car or building anywhere in sight. Mountain hikers usually try to get over passes early in the day when weather tends to be calm. But sometimes storms don't stick to predictable schedules. I was caught in the open, the tallest thing around, a literal lightning rod.

[Dave Cawley]

So if you hear me breathing heavy, that's why I've got to push.

[Amy Donaldson]

Cold wind made my sweat feel like ice. I paused to catch my breath before sending the final few switchbacks to the top of the pass, only to have the sky remind me not to dally.

[Dave Cawley]

That's not scary. That's not scary at all. All right. Walking away from the thunder. Everything to my back is Dark, super ugly, really ugly clouds coming over from the north. Like I am just missing this storm right in front of it.

[Amy Donaldson]

I crested the top of the pass and looked down into the Oweep basin. A big beautiful meadow.

[Dave Cawley]

Oh my word. And the view into the Oheep. There it is. Freaking. Oh weep. Oh my word. That's gorgeous. That is unbelievably pretty.

[Amy Donaldson]

From my perch at the edge of the precipice, I could see a long wall of cliffs to my left, boxing in the south side of the o' Weep Cirque. The spine of the Uinta crest formed another barrier to my right. Between them sat the Owep, a long narrow valley. The Highline trail, a thin stripe of brown, cut through the grass far below. The vertical relief made me feel like I was in a Jack and the Beanstalk fable. And the rumble of thunder from behind told me a giant was about to catch me.

[Dave Cawley]

It's not a sound I like when I'm standing on a 12,000 foot pass.

[Amy Donaldson]

You'd better run. You'd better take cover.

[Dave Cawley]

Oh my word.

[Amy Donaldson]

I couldn't help snapping a few pictures. First we gotta take an iPhone photo.

[Dave Cawley]

Of that too because I got the ultra wide camera on the iPhone and that deserves freaking ultra wide. Okay, that's too close. Okay, we got a boogie off of this freaking pass. That one was too close for comfort.

[Amy Donaldson]

I shoved my phone in my pocket and scurried to where the trail dropped off the west side of the pass, dragging my trekking poles behind. A blast of what felt like hurricane force wind slammed into me right where the Highline trail plunged off the edge. Holy cow.

[Dave Cawley]

Okay, I gotta turn this recorder off.

[Amy Donaldson]

And get off this hill. Hailstones pelted the ground as I jogged down the rocky path, lightning peppering the place I'd just been standing. You don't get to hear that thunder because I put my own safety above standing around to record the sound recorder off. Lightning can and has killed people up here. Marilyn returned to Moon Lake on that Monday afternoon to await Rachel's return. She knew her daughter had taken a risk going out to search like all the volunteers. And every hour that passed without word from Rachel tightened a knot of anxiety in her gut. Marilyn told herself Rachel would be fine.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

She's an outdoors person, she's cautious, but will give things a go. And she was with other people who knew the place. She wasn't out there alone.

[Amy Donaldson]

Rachel and her search buddy Charlie came off the trail around 6pm they were dusty, sweaty and exhausted. Rachel felt a twinge of remorse at having Left her mom alone.

[Rachel Marsden]

Mom just had to stand there and wait all day.

[Amy Donaldson]

Marilyn told Rachel about her briefing with the sheriff, how she had begged him to do more, and how the sheriff had said, you don't understand. Rachel spat out a few choice words.

[Rachel Marsden]

I was probably, you know, swearing and being frustrated and perhaps a little bit more quick to judge in my frustration, where she was probably a bit older and wiser and a bit more measured, I think.

[Amy Donaldson]

They waited at Moonlake until the last of the volunteers reported in. None had any news to share, so Marilyn and Rachel then started their long drive back to Park City. Once back in cell service, Rachel called her husband Jeremy. She couldn't find words to describe her experience running down the trail, wondering if she might see Eric's lifeless body. Jeremy went to Google Maps and zoomed in on Brown Duck Basin. It was just a tiny corner of the Uinta Range. That's when it hit Jeremy.

[Art Lang]

You know, Eric goes, I'm gonna go onto this trail, right? You go, yeah. Okay, off you go. When you looked at it, you know, on Google Maps or whatever, and you went, holy, this place is huge. And, you know, then you get on Google Earth and you see how steep, you know, the slopes are from the top of the trail down. And when I got better context of what it was, you know, it's a very different experience because we weren't thinking about running down a hill and potentially tripping over his body either.

[Amy Donaldson]

Night fell. Marilyn felt a bit disoriented driving in the dark. She had to concentrate to keep the car from drifting across the centerline to where habit told her it should be. Australians drive on the left, Americans on the right. Rachel knew they were headed back to Julia's place, but didn't know the way.

[Rachel Marsden]

We were very reliant on Julia, who lived in Park City.

[Amy Donaldson]

They had Julia's address, but at some point realized that wasn't where they were actually staying. Remember, Julia was house sitting for a friend. The friend's house is where Marilyn and Rachel were supposed to go, but they didn't have that address. Rachel felt her patience starting to slip.

[Rachel Marsden]

You know, I'd been really focused on.

[Amy Donaldson]

A task until that point, the task of finding Eric, which was beginning to feel hopeless. On top of that, she was now lost on some dark highway in a foreign country, physically exhausted and emotionally spent. In a moment of confusion, Marilyn took the wrong exit off the highway. She realized her mistake and came to a stop, then put the car in reverse and started backing up the exit ramp. Rachel's exhaustion and frustration boiled over she exploded, swearing at her mom. What are you doing? Stop. Are you trying to get us both killed?

[Rachel Marsden]

It was awful. It was awful. Yeah.

[Amy Donaldson]

They ended up calling Julia, rousing her from sleep to get directions to the house. They finally made it to Park City and collapsed into bed. Marilyn, Rachel and Julia all needed rest.

[Judith Wright]

I think we were not only physically tired, but emotionally spent.

[Amy Donaldson]

They remained at the house in Park City on Tuesday, August 16, day nine of the search for Eric to recuperate and chart a path forward. Marilyn and Rachel talked about what had happened on the drive home the night before, hoping to heal any hurt feelings. Julia could see the resilience of their bond.

[Judith Wright]

For as emotionally trying as it all was, like, Marilyn and Rachel were just wonderful to be around the entire time. Like I would have lost it.

[Amy Donaldson]

The trio set themselves to work that morning trying to solve some immediate problems. The sheriff had told Julia, we only.

[Judith Wright]

Have so many more days of a helicopter. So we put out the word, like does anybody have a helicopter we can use?

[Amy Donaldson]

One of the people in Julia's social network was a former ski patroller turned tech CEO who had access to a helicopter. He offered to donate it to the search. But there was a problem. Federal law prohibited takeoff and landing of aircraft within wilderness areas. The U.S. forest Service had granted special permission to the Duchesne sheriff and the air ambulance company to break that rule during the search. That permission didn't extend to private citizens. Rachel couldn't believe it.

[Rachel Marsden]

There's this hope, there's this avenue of possibility, and then it's not there anymore.

[Amy Donaldson]

Marilyn spent a good part of the day on the phone, updating the Australian consulate and checking for any activity on Eric's credit cards. They hadn't been used. There wasn't much else they could do. It seemed helpless to Rachel.

[Rachel Marsden]

Logically, we're not getting anywhere. So before we leave, I want to make sure we have given it every possibility.

[Amy Donaldson]

In desperation, Rachel suggested they consult a psychic.

[Rachel Marsden]

I don't go to a clairvoyant in my day to day life. I don't believe in those things.

[Amy Donaldson]

Frankly, neither do I. In my years as a journalist, I've done several deep dives on cold cases. Police reports from those kinds of cases always seem to include some element of psychic charlatanism. Never was once have I seen a so called psychic bring anything meaningful to an investigation. These people often suck money out of victim families. They're peddlers of false hope. Predators on the despondent.

[Rachel Marsden]

I get that. But it doesn't stop you as a human trying to actually Try every possibility.

[Amy Donaldson]

Chief Deputy Dave Boren called that afternoon. He convinced Rachel. Paying a psychic just to hear I'm seeing green. Eric's in a place with many trees wouldn't help.

[Rachel Marsden]

The police talked us out of that and said, really, it ends up being a waste of resource.

[Amy Donaldson]

And at this stage, everything hinged on resources.

[Rachel Marsden]

You're in a strange country and they've told you this is the best we can do. And you just have to take them.

[Amy Donaldson]

At the Bourne said he'd managed to get one more day with the helicopter, but if they didn't turn up any new clues, the search would have to end. The last grains of sand were slipping through the neck of the hourglass. Marilyn said she would likely return to Australia at the end of the week. Boren requested she make a complete inventory of everything Eric had taken on his trek before she left.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

It seemed like he was covering, should we find somebody in the very near future.

[Rachel Marsden]

That.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

They'D be able to match the right person without having me to go back and identify.

[Amy Donaldson]

In her notebook, Marilyn wrote the words running into roadblocks. People discouraged, no resolution, not good. The effort to find Eric was at its make or break point when Marilyn, Rachel, Julia and Blake all returned to Moonlake on the morning of Wednesday, August 17th, day 10 of the search. Julia and especially Blake had already clocked many long hours in the field.

[Judith Wright]

Blake did it a lot more than I did. I think he put in a couple hundred miles for this search. I don't know exactly how many, but it seemed like that, you know, just being out there. From the first boots on the ground to the last boots on the ground.

[Amy Donaldson]

The Duchesne sheriff's office remained focused on the so called navigation crux. Julia decided she and Blake, along with Eric's friend Jonathan from the John Muir Trail, would use their final helicopter trip into the wilderness to join the that effort.

[Judith Wright]

I mean, it was our last attempt of searching up there.

[Amy Donaldson]

The helicopter would drop them near Lambert Meadow, the same place Art was at that time searching. They wouldn't cross paths with Art, though, because it's such a big area. They'd work their way south, checking a cluster of ponds far off the Highline Trail. Julia knew it was a long shot, but felt they had to try.

[Judith Wright]

We were definitely out of our element of knowing what to do.

[Amy Donaldson]

Rachel asked if she could join them. Her muscles were still sore from that half marathon hike a couple days earlier, but she couldn't stand the idea of staying behind.

[Rachel Marsden]

I felt way more useful being another pair of eyes crossing off another area.

[Amy Donaldson]

Julia Agreed. So the search party of four flew up to Lambert Meadow early that morning. I've gone through photos and videos Rachel and Julia captured that day as they walked through the trees doing what Australians call bush bashing. That's slang for hiking off trail. Rachel found herself back in that odd state of mind, wondering what it would be like to find Eric. She felt immense pressure, knowing this was her last chance.

[Rachel Marsden]

Could this be the moment that I look in the wrong direction? Like it? Yeah. When in reality there was a lot of unlocked space. Anyway.

[Amy Donaldson]

As Rachel, Julia, Blake and Jonathan were bush bashing, Art was doing the same. When last we heard from Art, his chaperones were departing Lambert Meadow and they.

[Art Lang]

Flew back out, wishing me good luck in my high adventure solo experience.

[Amy Donaldson]

That was early Monday. Art had been alone ever since. Hiking back and forth to various points along his navigation crux, he assumed Eric had become lost. Eric was carrying a GPS device, but those could break, run out of batteries, or simply fail to get a signal.

[Art Lang]

Me, I would sit down, I'd get my map out and I'd try and figure out which the peaks were and start triangulating orienteering.

[Amy Donaldson]

The skill of using map and compass is a bit of a lost start in the smartphone age.

[Art Lang]

Maybe he wasn't that skilled at that. Or maybe that's what he was going to do if it got worse.

[Amy Donaldson]

Eric did know how to use a map and compass, but he wasn't familiar with the Uinta landmarks. He could have become confused. Art imagined where Eric might have gone.

[Art Lang]

I knew where the cruxes were. I walked up the Owepe drainage.

[Amy Donaldson]

I'm going to jump back and forth from Art's search to my hike, following Eric's path. So I can give you a firsthand account of what it's like traveling through Art's cruxes. I entered this crux after rushing off Porcupine Pass. The Uintah highline soon disappeared into a spiderweb of sheep trails. And the weather kept getting worse.

[Dave Cawley]

There's not one hint of blue sky anywhere. The entire sky is gray.

[Amy Donaldson]

Steady rain fell as I trudged along.

[Dave Cawley]

Looking down Lake Fort. There are clouds hanging down into the fingers of the side canyons.

[Amy Donaldson]

These swirls of mist blotted out the distant peaks. Thankfully, I have a pretty good mental map of the Uintas and wasn't worried about losing my bearings. I kept track of my position in my head. But by dead reckoning, that's a way of estimating your position using only direction and distance traveled. I regained the trail before long and followed it to an intersection.

[Dave Cawley]

This is a trail split here.

[Amy Donaldson]

I've described this spot before. It's marked by a signpost made of a log with carved wooden boards bolted to it. Or I should say the boards are supposed to be bolted to the log. I found them sitting on the ground. Can you read that?

[Dave Cawley]

Because I can't.

[Amy Donaldson]

Those boards were also on the ground at the time of Eric's trek in 2011. Nobody had fixed this broken sign in over 12 years. Art told me this is common in.

[Art Lang]

The Uintas, mainly because the Forest Service hasn't had the funding or had the opportunity to do any maintenance. So the trail is in cryptic condition. So it's mostly non existent. Most of the signage is broken, fallen on the ground, or just actually missing.

[Amy Donaldson]

The trails Eric was used to hiking in Australia and New Zealand were marked with durable metal posts or blazes. A blaze is a visual marker, like a paint splotch or plastic reflector on a tree or rock. The Uintah Highline is not marked with posts or blazes. If the trail faded out beneath Eric's feet, would he know how to find his way?

[Art Lang]

In my opinion, that was one of the biggest navigation difficulties of crossing the Highline trail was the lack of significant trail to follow.

[Amy Donaldson]

Art came to this same busted sign during his search for Eric.

[Art Lang]

I wasn't gonna see any there because it's all open alpine tundra with great views, so a tent or a pack or a body would be seen from a helicopter. But I walked up to Squaw Pass, which goes over the divide down to the north.

[Amy Donaldson]

The name of the pass Art just mentioned was accurate when this interview was recorded. But since then, the US Board on Geographic Names has changed it, along with more than 600 other place names across the country that previously used the SQ word. That's because the word carries racist and sexist connotations. You won't hear it again in our story. Instead, I'll use the name that applies, Nagoch Pass. Nagach is a Ute word that means mountain sheep or bighorn. But Rocky Mountain bighorn don't live in this part of the Uintas anymore because domestic sheep wiped them out more than a century ago. The problem is that virtually all domestic sheep carry pasturellum. If wild bighorns pick it up, it can give them a fatal dose of pneumonia. Nose to nose contact typically is what it takes. Physical contact between domestic sheep and wild sheep. A pasturella outbreak can kill off 90% of a bighorn herd in a matter of days. The U.S. forest Service manages Grazing in the Uintas. But a different agency is responsible for managing wildlife. It's called the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and it tried to reintroduce bighorn to one small corner of the Uintas back in the 1980s. The state was only able to do that because the forest service banned domestic sheep from that same small area. But Nagach Pass is not part of it. In fact, Nagach Pass is one of the main routes herders use to move domestic sheep between the north and south sides of the into range. During art search in 2011, he peered out from the top of Nagach Pass hoping to see Eric's tent or red backpack somewhere in the trees below.

[Art Lang]

Saw no sign. Saw plenty of animal prints, ungulate prints going over the pass, but no footprint sign.

[Amy Donaldson]

Art doubled back to the broken trail sign, thinking to himself where else could Eric be? On my hike, I left that trail sign headed west along the Uintah Highline. I managed to follow the trail pretty well until it reached a crossing of Ohweep Creek. Right at the crossing, I found a sheet of paper tucked in a plastic sleeve pinned to the ground with a rock. It was a warning not to drink from the creek or stick my feet in the water, it said. A day earlier, Utah's state wildlife agency had flushed the creek creek with a toxin called rotenone to kill off non native fish. I wasn't planning on taking a bath in Oeep Creek since I was already getting a cold shower. But I couldn't just hop over the creek. At the trail crossing, sheep had eroded the banks, widening the waterway. I left the trail and scouted around a bit, bushwhacking through waist high brush until I found a more narrow portion I could jump. But then I couldn't find the trail again on the far side. I walked back and forth looking for it, Became frustrated and decided to just keep moving west without a trail.

[Dave Cawley]

Pretty typical for this part, this stretch between Owep and Lambert Meadow. Viewing to Highline. Hey, I think I found it. Yeah, that's probably it. That may be game trail. I don't know. I'm gonna walk it and see where it goes. But that's, that's why Art Lang called this the navigation crux. Because you went to Highline. From Oweap to Lambert Meadow, that trail just walked me into. Into nothing.

[Amy Donaldson]

It's a mess.

[Dave Cawley]

It's. I mean it's practically non existent.

[Amy Donaldson]

I had known Art's navigation crux was coming, but still managed to lose the trail there. Walking off trail in the Uintas is a skill I practiced, though, so I.

[Dave Cawley]

Know generally the direction I need to go. And so I just picked the best game trail and run with that and head in the direction that I think I need to be going, Thinking that at some point I'll regain the actual trail trail, but who knows when that'll be?

[Amy Donaldson]

Dead reckoning didn't let me down. I soon spotted a cairn, a stack of rocks in the distance, headed toward it and regained the trail.

[Dave Cawley]

Here I am back on the high line navigation crux. You got to be good at figuring out where you are, where you're supposed to be. When you get off, get back where you want. That's hiking in the Uintas.

[Amy Donaldson]

Art thought Eric could have lost the trail due to just as easily as I did. Except maybe Eric didn't find a lucky cairn. Art didn't find any sign of Eric during three straight days of searching. By Wednesday afternoon, he decided to head for home.

[Art Lang]

Had a pretty much fruitless hunt. Started trudging out and there was no helicopter to carry me out, but luckily it was downhill.

[Amy Donaldson]

From Art's camp to the search command post at Moon Lake was a walk of more than 15 miles, or nearly 25 kilometers. He made quick progress, but started to wear out. About halfway there, I got a pack.

[Art Lang]

On and I'm trudging along, exhausted. I stopped, took my pack off, sat down next to a stream and pumped some water or treated some water. And I hear runners coming behind me and coming down the trailer are three runners. And I know one of them, Buddy, that was a neighbor. He and his two running friends had been airlifted into the Upper O Weep and ran the drainage down. They ran the creek down. They'd been lifted in that morning and they were coming out. They were one of the last trips. Sent in to look for Eric, these.

[Amy Donaldson]

Runners encountered Art just below the center point of the wye I described earlier where oh Weep Creek and the Lake Fork river converge.

[Art Lang]

And so they came running down and they found me, and I was like leaking oil, tapped out. They picked up my spirits and escorted me out back to the trailhead.

[Amy Donaldson]

Marilyn was at that time waiting at Moon Lake.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

And I spent a good part of the day sitting, walking along the road, steering clear of helicopters as they made their dust up and down and talking with the sheriff for any sort of updates. They did take me somewhere where they had lunch at a diner somewhere, you know, and I met the sheriff's wife there. It was a bit like a social outing to, you know, calm the nerves and, you know, Be a little bit of normal.

[Amy Donaldson]

But nothing about this felt normal. Over lunch, the sheriff told Marilyn he couldn't keep pouring resources into a search that was, statistically speaking, not going to bring Eric back alone.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

They had decided that the search was being scaled back because it was, you know, coming up to two weeks.

[Amy Donaldson]

Even worse. The chief deputy told Marilyn Eric's body might never be found.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Dave Boren was the holder of that discussion. You know, people have been up here.

[Amy Donaldson]

Sometimes we find them, but sometimes they don't.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

So said, you know, it's such a wild, you know, remote place. There are not a lot of people who come up here. It's likely that there will be nothing.

[Amy Donaldson]

The sheriff brought Marilyn back to Moon Lake. Art had, by that point, arrived there on weary legs. He was loading his pack into his car when he spotted Marilyn. He recognized her, having seen her a few days earlier, but he hadn't talked to her then. So he walked over and introduced himself. They chatted briefly about Eric and his many adventures.

[Art Lang]

And I think that she thought it normal but eccentric for him to go off all over the world backpacking by himself. I think it'd be kind of like someone talking to my wife. We had a nice conversation, and a deputy that was running the search and rescue came over. And while we're standing there talking, he said to Marilyn, we're pretty much out of time and money to keep flying this helicopter, but the sheriff would like to offer up to you one flight for you and your daughter.

[Amy Donaldson]

Rachel. Julia, Blake and Jonathan had reached the end of their search. They were waiting in a meadow to be picked up by the helicopter. This flight would bring Marilyn up to.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Join them, and they offered me the opportunity to go up in the helicopter to, you know, one of the meadows which I jumped at.

[Amy Donaldson]

Art stepped aside as Marilyn walked to the helicopter, climbed inside and strapped in.

[Art Lang]

I was glad to have done my part and felt somewhat satisfied or rewarded in that respect. And I really enjoyed the fact that the community had risen up. Not only the sheriff, who spent multiple million dollars on this rescue, on this search, not a rescue. This happens a lot in Utah and the Uintas specifically, in which the community rallies and tremendous amount of hours and resources are spent, not all of it well guided or well planned, but if anybody ever asks people to stand up and look for one of their own lost, and they went to, people rise to the occasion. And I felt good to demonstrate that to Mary.

[Amy Donaldson]

The helicopter rotor began to spin. It picked up speed, the sound of it slicing through the air, growing louder with every pass. Marilyn watched the blades from her seat inside the helicopter until they became a blur. The chopper's skids lifted off the ground. It hovered for a moment, then the nose tilted down and it started moving forward. Marilyn watched out the window as Moon Lake slipped by below.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

It was a very calm day. It was beautiful sky, beautiful blue skies. It was a little chilly once we got up there, but it was a beautiful day.

[Amy Donaldson]

The pilot flew to Port Capitol Pine Pass, then turned west and followed the route of the Uintah Highline. Marilyn saw the navigation crux with her own eyes. Medics from the air ambulance company pointed out places where they had dropped different groups of searchers.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

They were wonderful young men. They were very empathic, you know, in their conversation and their support.

[Amy Donaldson]

She clutched her hands together, but not because of any fear of flying. This was even Marilyn's first trip in a helicopter. She had taken a sightseeing flight with Eric at the Grand Canyon after he had finished hiking the John Muir Trail five years earlier. Marilyn thought he would have loved seeing the grandeur of the Uinta crest from above.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Yeah, the. The ridge line is imposing. The escarpments, the drops, the meadows. It's a magical place. I've got goosebumps just coming up my legs now as I'm talking to you about that.

[Amy Donaldson]

The sight of high alpine fields reminded her of walking in Tuolumne Meadows at Yosemite with Eric. She pressed her camera lens to the windshield and snapped photos as the helicopter rounded the massive south ridge of Mount Lavinia. There, the aircraft slowed and descended, preparing to land just to the side of the Highline Trail. From the ground, Rachel watched the helicopter land, then experienced a pleasant surprise as she saw her mom step out. Rachel had been on the mountain all day and wasn't aware the sheriff had arranged to fly Marilyn up to join.

[Rachel Marsden]

Her, which was such an amazing thing that they thought of.

[Amy Donaldson]

That act of kindness erased many of the hard feelings Rachel had harbored toward the sheriff. Her two difficult days in the field also helped her understand why the search commander at first refused, refused to let her go.

[Rachel Marsden]

It gave me a greater appreciation as to why we probably had those earlier difficulties.

[Amy Donaldson]

Rachel realized there was no malice behind their misunderstandings.

[Rachel Marsden]

It was lost in translation. I think it was perhaps more about their method or style of communicating with us and perhaps how we went about asking for information or how they read us on first impressions that I think really that was about, because I remember getting a sense as the days unwound the next few, that actually there's a lot going on why didn't they just communicate and tell us that that's what they were doing?

[Amy Donaldson]

The meadow was an open space ringed by pines. Wildflowers carpeted the ground. The Lake Fork river, just a stream here, so close to its headwaters, ran along one side, giving off a placid gurgle. In all of Rachel's travels around Australia, she had never encountered a place quite like it.

[Rachel Marsden]

We don't really have meadows like that here, so it was really striking to me.

[Amy Donaldson]

Rachel embraced her mom as they both stood on the Highline Trail at a place Eric might have also stood only days earlier.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

We talked about what Eric might have been thinking and seeing and appreciating.

[Amy Donaldson]

Marilyn had come to Utah with an empty suitcase. She'd felt Eric was dead and thought she would need space to carry his possessions home. Now she accepted she must return, return to Australia without even an explanation of what happened to him. Rachel, too, tried to make peace with the idea of never knowing.

[Rachel Marsden]

I felt fortunate to have a sense of where he was, you know, if we weren't going to find him and take him home. To actually physically have been where he was actually felt like a real privilege.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

It was. It was Eric's place, and I understood why he wanted to walk through there. You know, magnificent, you know, if his.

[Rachel Marsden]

Number was up, if his time had come, this is where he would want it to be. And it was beautiful.

[Amy Donaldson]

They both understood this was the end.

[Rachel Marsden]

If this was to be the conclusion, he couldn't have chosen a better place in terms of the nature that he adored.

[Amy Donaldson]

The conclusion not only of the search, but of their life with Eric. They reminisced about all the wonderful times they had shared with him. Rachel remembered his strong sense of right and wrong, his temper and his tree hugging. How he had taken the family to rallies protesting logging or in support of the climate.

[Rachel Marsden]

He loved the environment.

[Amy Donaldson]

So it seemed somehow fitting that this small, impromptu gathering in an alpine meadow would be Eric's funeral.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

Rachel, I think, said to me, what are we going to do? I go, well, you know, it's a very Scottish thing to do to build a rock cairn. So we all scarpet around, gathered suitable rocks and made them into a rock can to leave there for Eric. And we took that moment to use that as a final goodbye, because I wasn't going to be able to get back there again. The helicopters were being pulled out. I didn't know if I would ever come back to Utah.

[Amy Donaldson]

They assembled the cairn just to the side of the Highline Trail, stacking pink quartzite stones about knee high. They plucked wildflowers from the meadow and placed them in the nooks between the rocks. There was American Bestort, with its clusters of tiny pink and white blossoms, shrubby cinquefoil showing off vibrant yellow blooms, and wandering fleabane made up of delicate lavender petals arranged around an orange disk. A bouquet equal in beauty to the flowers Eric had always send Marilyn when headed off on some grand trek. Rachel had carried printed photos of Eric while searching to hand to any hikers she might meet along the way. Now she propped one of those pictures against the cairn. Marilyn used a small stone to etch Eric's initials into one of the larger rocks. And so the cairn transformed into a cenotaph, a physical marker of Eric's death at some unknown place. Marilyn took out her phone and started recording a video to share with loved ones back home.

[Julia]

Here we are, Julia, Rachel and I, standing at the little cairn that we've built at a place where Eric possibly walked through. If it wasn't this spot. There are many other meadows like this throughout the Highline Trail.

[Marilyn Kulstra]

We all shared our thoughts and, you know, we did it as a farewell speech, which was, you know, a very emotional time for all three of us.

[Rachel Marsden]

Acknowledging out loud and to ourselves, well, to ourselves and to him, that we've done our very best. We have done our best to try and find you, but we can't do anymore. And even though you'll be here, you'll be with us in so many other ways.

[Julia]

We've had no success in the search over the last two weeks. And today the medevac helicopter has been absolutely invaluable, along with the sheriff and the deputy sheriff and the head of the search and rescue. And they've brought us up here and left us with some time to be able to say goodbye to Eric and acknowledge the wonderful person that he has been to all of us. For all those who have been left behind in Australia, for Glen, his son, for all our children and the grandchildren who hoped for his safe return. We loved you, Eric. We loved the person that you were, the values that you so staunchly held to, and the way that you've touched each of our lives.

[Amy Donaldson]

Rachel sat on the ground and saw robbed. She cried for Eric, but also for her mom.

[Rachel Marsden]

You know, my mum's had a lot of things dealt to her that are not fair, that are awful, you know, unreasonable. And you go, really, like, why would the universe throw something like this at her? Not only that there's a tragic ending, but to not have the answers like you. To have to now have done this with no outcome and to just have.

[Judith Wright]

To.

[Rachel Marsden]

Leave, it's just felt very cruel in that way for her.

[Julia]

He's here in the mountains that he loves, somewhere that we just can't find. Up here is one of the passes that he would have head on his route. Red Knob Pass.

[Rachel Marsden]

Lambert Meadows is Beyond.

[Julia]

And it's 5:30 in the afternoon of Wednesday the 17th of August. Farewell, Eric, and thank you for the years we had together.

[Amy Donaldson]

Later that night, after they had flown off the mountain and driven away from Moon Lake for the last time, Rachel sent a final email update to family and friends letting them know the search was over.

[Rachel Marsden]

Mum and the sheriff have concluded together that everything possible has been done. Their feeling is that Eric has come up against something he was not able to overcome. Our conclusion and that of the sheriff's is that the mountains have decided to keep him, maybe not forever, but certainly for the time being. Together we built a cairn on the edge of the meadow overlooking a stream. Inside, we enclosed a photo. We scratched his name onto the rock and we picked some wild flowers and decorated the can. We spoke our words of love and thanks for Eric, our words of sorrow that we could not find him, and our words of appreciation that Eric will remain in a wild, beautiful and mountainous place.

[Amy Donaldson]

Hope is a flower that can sprout even from infertile soil.

[Judith Wright]

Maybe he's still out there and he's still alive, you know, because you don't know.

[Amy Donaldson]

Julia and Blake didn't stop looking for Eric after the official search ended in August.

[Judith Wright]

Kind of like, well, maybe he'll show up, you know, He's a pretty resourceful guy.

[Amy Donaldson]

Hunters replaced hikers in the Haywintas during September and October, but none of them stumbled across Eric either. Russ Alston, the Boy Scout leader who was one of the last people to see Eric, also held on to hope.

[Dave Cawley]

He never came out. He's somewhere up there. Someone will find him.

[Amy Donaldson]

Russ worked as a commercial airline pilot based in Salt Lake City. Air traffic going in and out of Salt Lake often passes along the flanks of the Uinta Mountains heading east, you.

[Dave Cawley]

Know, towards Denver or other points. You're on the north edge, looking at the right side of the airplane at the high country of Utah.

[Amy Donaldson]

He sometimes gazed out from the cockpit at that sprawling expanse and wondered what could have happened to Eric after they parted ways along the Yellowstone River.

[Dave Cawley]

I can trace the trail through the drainage. From the trailhead, I can see all the other ravines. I'm thinking about him, you know. Where is he? He can be anywhere up there.

[Amy Donaldson]

But surely, Russ thought, someone will find Eric. Weeks became months with no discovery, no answers. Then winter came to the Uinta Mountains.

[Dave Cawley]

And in the winter when you fly past that, it is just snow blanketed. It looks like a solid blanket of white.

[Amy Donaldson]

That blanket smothered the last flickers of hope. Eric, the Scotsman who hated snow, was presumably buried under it among the forest, cliffs and canyons. But he wouldn't remain hidden forever. You Enter 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 media using intointatriangle 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 do you ever wonder why?

[Judith Wright]

What will happen to the places you've lived or the gardens you've cultivated after your death? In bonus episode six, Dave visits the grounds of Volkstone Primary School with Marilyn, where Eric's garden and frog pond still live. She reflects on his dedication to the garden and what it meant to be part of that community when she returned home without Eric.

[Amy Donaldson]

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 Jenny Amint. Uinta Triangle is a production of KSL Podcasts and Lemonada Media. My personal thanks to the following past and present members of the KSL Podcast's team Erin Mason, Amy Donaldson, Felix Bunnell, Josh Tilton, Kellyanne Halvorson, Nina Ernest, Ryan Meeks, and Trent Sell. Finally, from me to you. Please remember wherever your life's trail takes you. None of us ever truly walk. Al.

[Erica Mahoney]

Suffering is inevitable and it sucks. But we're still expected to thrive. Everything Happens is a podcast for people who are tired of coffee, monk platitudes and want something with a little more teeth and a lot more heart. Each week, Duke Professor Kate Bowler talks with guests like Glennon Doyle, Sharon McMahan and Coach K about grief, absurdity and the beautiful, terrible days we actually live through. No hustle culture, no silver linings, just real talk and good company. Listen to everything happens. Wherever you get your podcasts.