A Trail of Questions

0:00Appliance breakdowns happen and repair expenses add up. Help protect your wallet with an American Home Shield warranty. AHS can help fix major appliances and home systems, no matter how old. And if they can't repair the cupboard item, they'll replace it. Plus, as a benefit to select plans, you can video chat with a live repair expert. American Home Shield. Don't worry, be warranty. Get 20 % off any plan at ahs.com slash MrBallen and see promo details. See ahs.com slash contracts for coverage details, including service fees, limitations, and exclusions. In 1959, nine hikers cut their way out of their own tent from the inside and then ran off into the snow.

0:43All nine died. Nobody's ever explained it. Dr. Harini Bhatt does. Follow Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bhatt. Every Monday, she takes something unexplained from history, reads the evidence like a case file, and tells you what she thinks happened. No hedging. Start with the Dyatlov Pass episode for answers you didn't expect. Follow Hidden History wherever you listen to your podcasts. Today's podcast will feature three hiking horror stories that are still shrouded in mystery. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.

1:17The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called The Overlook, and it's about a hiking trip that turns into a nightmare. The second story you'll hear is called One Sock, and it's about a Boy Scout who disappears down a well-marked and populated trail. And the third and final story you'll hear is called I'm Looking For You, and it's about a bizarre mystery on a mountain in China that leaves authorities clueless. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week.

1:53once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please move into the apartment directly above the Amazon Music Follow Buttons apartment and then make it a habit to sprint on your treadmill every morning at 3 a.m. Okay, let's get into our first story called The Overlook.

2:36In 2007, Barbara Bullock was a 55-year-old fit, happy, healthy woman living in Montana with her husband of 14 years. In July of that year, her husband's cousin named Donna and Donna's boyfriend named Jim Rawmaker, came to stay with them for a couple of days. On the evening of the 17th, Barbara offered to take the couple hiking with her the following morning at her favorite hiking spot, which was this totally unspoiled wilderness area on the border of Idaho. Barbara liked to hike a particular trail that brought her up to the Bear Creek Overlook that had this incredible view down to the valley below.

3:13The couple happily agreed, but the following morning, Donna was not feeling so good so she couldn't go on the hike but her boyfriend Jim was still feeling up for it and said I'd still like to go and so he and Barbara wound up doing the hike on their own at 1 30 that afternoon Barbara's husband got a phone call from a police officer saying his wife was missing and her husband just couldn't understand that Barbara hiked in that area all the time and she had been with Jim so where could she have gone but the police officer didn't have a great answer and he just told him you should come down here and hear Jim's explanation about what happened.

3:52When Barbara's husband arrived at the park he rolled right up next to the officer and Jim. He got out and Jim who was in total shock began to explain what happened. He and Barbara had made it up the trail successfully to the Bear Creek overlook. They'd stayed up there for about 30 minutes. They had a picnic and they were enjoying the scenery and then at the end of it they packed up and Barbara began walking down the very well-marked trail and she was about 20 feet ahead of him when he decided to turn around and take one more look at the beautiful view and he said he was looking at the view for about 40 seconds before he turned back around and Barbara was gone and he hadn't heard her call out for help he hadn't heard her fall there was no sound of other people there was no sound of other animals there was no sound of any struggle whatsoever.

4:37It was just complete eerie silence. And as he took a few steps down the trail, he said he started looking around expecting to just see her behind a tree or something, but she was nowhere. And as he walked, he noticed that the ground underneath every step made a lot of noise because there was lots of loose rocks and shale all over the ground. And so he stopped and he's listening really intently to see if he can hear where Barbara's gone, but he doesn't hear anything. And he's thinking, how could she have gotten away from me without me hearing the sound of her footsteps. And then he also began looking around and realized the area they were in, this trail, it was well trafficked.

5:13And so it was not very densely forested. You could actually see a pretty good distance in all directions because there was enough space between the trees. And so he's looking around thinking there's almost nowhere to hide. And so Jim started to feel scared and just began walking down the trail expecting to run into her at any moment, but he didn't. And he kept turning around and looking behind trees and rocks. And he's thinking, you know, this is impossible. I should have seen her. I should see her now. Where could she have possibly gone? And so he made his way all the way down the trail the whole time turning around and looking for her and yelling for her, but never getting any feedback from her.

5:50And he got all the way to the parking lot and he saw her car was still parked in the parking lot. He's looking around the parking lot. She's not out there. And he noticed a crew was working in the road and he went up to them and he asked if they had seen her or anybody come out of that trail and they said no. So Jim's starting to panic. He ran right back up the trail all the way back up to the Bear Creek overlook hoping that along the way he would see some indication of where she went but again there was nothing on the trail. He gets up to the overlook. He's looking around. He's yelling for her.

6:20Nothing. And so he ran right back down again and he contacted authorities.

6:30over the next 48 hours a huge search was launched all around this area for barbara it included helicopters and huge search teams and highly trained sniffing dogs but nothing was found there was no signs of foul play there's no signs of an animal attack or some sort of abduction there was nothing not even her scent was found despite the fact that the dog's handlers knew exactly where her last position was, but none of the dogs picked it up, which is highly unusual. It really was like she had vanished into thin air. At first, Jim was obviously a suspect because he was the last person to see Barbara alive, but he never changed his story despite how far-fetched it seemed, and he was very cooperative and was very quick to offer to take a polygraph test, and so the police ruled him out as a suspect.

7:19And shortly after the search started, they shut it down because there was no sign of this woman anywhere. And so unfortunately, her family had to face the awful reality of getting zero closure. She was just gone and nobody knew what happened. And unfortunately, to this day, we still don't know what happened because no trace of Barbara has ever been found.

7:49Our next story is called One Sock.

8:05In late August of 2004, Kevin Bardsley and his 12-year-old son Garrett went on a father-son boy scout camping trip in the Uinta Mountains in northern Utah. Their campsite was situated next to Lake Kuberant inside of the Wasatch National Forest. The lake was actually pretty remote and difficult to access because it was almost completely surrounded by huge mountains. The only side you could get to the lake on was its western side, but the western trail leading to it was very cumbersome because you had to bypass seven different lakes. And so by the time Kevin, Garrett, and the rest of the Boy Scouts and their fathers were at the lake, they were at least an hour's hike away from the nearest civilization.

8:47Early in the morning on August 20th, Kevin and Garrett woke up, they hopped out of their tents, none of the other campers had woken up yet, and so they decided they would head down to the lake to get some early fishing in. And so they got their gear, and they began walking down the very well-defined 150 meter long trail down to the lake. As they get there, the sun's coming up over the mountains, and they're really excited about their day of fishing. And so as Kevin is preparing a fishing rod for Garrett, Garrett was jumping around on different stones that were poking out of the water. And at some point he tripped and he fell into the water soaking his shoes in his pants.

9:19And so he hopped out of the water and he's kind of laughing at himself and he told his dad that he didn't care. He'd fish with wet feet and wet pants and he would change them later. And so Kevin laughed and handed his son his fishing rod and then the two of them began to fish. After a while when they hadn't caught anything Garrett said to his dad that you know what dad this is actually pretty uncomfortable. I'm gonna go change my pants and my socks. And so Kevin said no problem. I'll be here with our gear. I'll see you when you get back. And so Garrett stands up and he starts walking back up the well-defined 150 meter trail back up towards the campsite.

9:50And Kevin actually turned around and watched his son disappear into the trees, but he heard the sound of other campers at the campsite and so knew his son wouldn't be alone. For the next couple of minutes, Kevin kept fishing, but periodically would look over his shoulder expecting to see Garrett come out of the woods again, but he didn't. And after about 20 minutes, Kevin was a little bit concerned. so he picked up his fishing gear and began walking back up the trail towards the camp. When he got there, he saw other Boy Scouts and their fathers just getting up and having a bite to eat and he's scanning around the campsite and he doesn't see Garrett and so he goes over to Garrett's tent and he opens it up and Garrett's not in there and there's no sign that he's removed any of his wet clothing in there.

10:27And so Kevin turns around and he asks one of the fathers, hey have you seen Garrett? He was supposed to be up here a minute ago. And the father said, no I haven't seen him. And so Kevin's starting to panic and he yells out to the group, hey has anyone seen my son? Do you guys know where Garrett went? He was supposed to be up here. And no one knew where he was. They said, no, we haven't seen him. And so horrified, Kevin drops all of his gear and starts running back towards the lake, screaming for his son. And the other campers instinctively know what's going on. And so they chase after him, yelling for Garrett.

10:56Almost immediately, the sheriff's department was notified and they launched this huge search that included the FBI. And so hundreds of people have descended into the area around the lake and they're looking for Garrett. They can't find him, but later that afternoon, searchers were about a half mile away from where Garrett was last seen, and they found a single Nike sock that appeared to have been removed from a wet foot wedged into one of the boulders in this huge boulder field. Garrett's mother would confirm that was Garrett's sock, and so the search effort was shifted to this big boulder field, and for days they looked all over the place for him, but there was no sign of Garrett anywhere and so eventually the search was terminated.

11:34The authorities determined this was an accident that Garrett's father and the other campers had nothing to do with Garrett's disappearance. What their theory was is Garrett must have gotten lost on the walk back to the camp and then ultimately died of exposure. But the idea that a boy of Garrett's age would get lost along a well-defined 150 meter long trail that he was familiar with that he had been on that day That seems a little far-fetched. Also, as Garrett was walking down that trail, he would have heard the sounds of the other campers in the campsite. So that would have helped him figure out exactly where he needed to go.

12:08He's on a well-marked trail. He's walking towards the sound of the voices. But he never made it to the campsite because no one at the camp saw him and there was no sign that he had put his wet clothes in his tent. So something happened to Garrett almost immediately when he left his father that caused him to wind up a half mile away in a boulder field with one sock missing. It screams abduction case, but remember, this campsite was over an hour's hike away from the nearest civilization, and they know this group of Boy Scouts and their fathers were the only ones in the area that day. It is possible that an animal could have taken Garrett like a mountain lion, but there would have been signs of a struggle and they didn't find any on the trail or anywhere nearby, and you would figure if he was getting dragged off by a big predator, he would have yelled out for help, But he didn't.

12:53He just left his dad, it was total silence, and then he vanished. And all we have is his one sock.

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15:44The next and final story of today's episode is called I'm Looking For You.

16:03At 5 a.m. on September 30, 2008, a 61-year-old man named Xian Tiyasheng finished getting dressed inside of the bedroom that he shared with his wife in the city of Beijing, China. After he finished getting dressed, Shen reached down and scooped up his backpack off the floor that was already packed. And then he carefully walked around his bed trying to be as quiet as possible. And then as quietly as he could, he kind of tiptoed around the bed to his wife's side to give her a kiss goodbye. Shen was going to be heading out to a local mountain that day for a day hike. And so Shen, he gets next to his wife and he bends down to kiss her.

16:37And right as he does that, he accidentally wakes her up. And so his wife opens her eyes and she looks up at him. And Shen just says, you know, I love you. he gives her a kiss, and he tells her, hey, I'll be back tonight before midnight. And so his wife, she kind of groggily said okay, and she grabbed his hand and squeezed it, and she told him that she loved him, and then she fell back asleep, and moments later, Xian had left the bedroom and walked out the front door. Xian's home was only a couple of blocks away from the train station, and since he needed to ride a train and then also a bus to get to this local mountain that was about an hour and a half journey away, the train station was his first stop.

17:13And so Xian, as he walked towards the station, he was all smiles. I mean, he was really excited about this day. So, Zhen was retired, but he had spent his whole life teaching geography at Beijing No. 5 Middle School, and he was a very passionate teacher, but the thing he was most passionate about, that he routinely really pushed on his students, in some ways more than geography, was his love of nature. In fact, Zhen loved nature so much that when he was not teaching, he basically spent all of his off time out in nature going for hikes. I mean, that was his thing. And today, Jian was especially excited about his hike because he was hiking one of his favorite trails.

17:56It was located on Mount Miao Feng, which is a mountain located 30 miles to the northwest of where Jian lived. And this mountain was quite famous because of all the sacred and ancient temples that kind of dotted the mountain all over the place. And then also there were all these beautiful roses like the flower that would bloom all over the mountain in the summer. And so it's just this totally strikingly beautiful place. And normally, Jian would actually hike up this trail and then actually camp out on Mount Miao Feng, mostly because on the summit, there was this incredible view of downtown Beijing.

18:30And at night, the view is like spectacular with the city all lit up. But on this particular day, Jian knew an overnight stay was not possible because he had to be back home by the next day because it was his mother's 90th birthday, and he was very close with his mother, and he was not going to miss that. And so Zhen eventually made it to the train station, he bought his ticket, he boarded his train, and then he sat down in a seat, and as soon as he did, he opened up his bag and pulled out a stack of papers. For this hike, Zhen had packed himself some food and water inside of his backpack, he also packed a newspaper called the Beijing Youth daily, and he brought along his diary.

19:08But his diary was a little bit unique. Zhen, because he loved nature so much and didn't like the idea of wasting anything, what he would do when he was a teacher at Beijing No. 5 Middle School, he would just take scrap paper and start writing on that. He would compile all his scrap paper into these sort of diaries that he would keep. And so Zhen passed the time on the train by writing in his diary, aka his stack of scrap paper, and also reading this newspaper. And Zhen knew he really needed to read the entire newspaper pretty quickly, because by the time he got to the mountain, he was going to do what he always did, which is he would bring a newspaper with him on a hike, and as he walked, he would take out a page periodically and tie it to a tree, kind of marking his way.

19:53That way, when he turned around and came back down, he would have his path marked, because Zhen did not always walk on a clearly marked trail, and so this was his way of not getting lost. And so Jian would ride the train car, and then he would get off, and he would board a bus, and then finally, right around 7 a.m., that bus would come to a stop in the tiny village of Chenfang, which is located right at the base of Mount Miaofeng. And so Jian grabbed his backpack, he hopped off the bus, and then began walking through the village towards the mountain.

20:29and then by about 7.20 a.m., so not long after Jian had left the bus, he was almost up to Mount Miao Feng when he pulled out his cell phone and he called his cousin. It was a brief conversation, and all Jian really wanted to do was just to make sure his cousin was going to be around the next day for Jian's mother's birthday, and the cousin said he would, and so Jian told him, okay, I'm going hiking today, and I will see you tomorrow, and then he hung up, And then, only a couple minutes later, Jian disappeared into the beautiful forests of Mount Miao Feng.

21:06So, Jian's wife did not expect to hear from Jian at any point that day, because she knew he would have terrible cell phone service up on the mountain. But she did expect her husband to be home on time. He had told her that morning before he left that he would be home that night before midnight. and if you knew Zhen, you knew this guy was never late. He said, I'm going to be someplace at a certain time, he would be there. So when 10 p.m. rolled around that night and still Zhen was not back yet and he had not called, Zhen's wife was actually not worried because she was thinking, okay, well, it's 10, he'll be home in the next couple of hours because he said he'd be here by midnight tonight and he will be here tonight.

21:47And so she went to bed expecting to wake up and see Jian in bed with her in the morning. But the next morning when she woke up, Jian was not in bed, so he did not come home. And so his wife immediately was very concerned and began calling Jian's family, and nobody knew where he was. And so that day, the family went to the police, and they reported Jian missing.

22:16the local police immediately organized a search for Jian however they knew this was going to be a very challenging search Mount Mia Feng is not some enormous mountain by any means it's a decent sized mountain but you know it's really known for having these paths that twist and turn all over the place so it's pretty easy to get lost and then also there's a whole bunch of sheer cliff faces kind of all over the place, so if you're not paying attention, you could literally just walk off a ledge. So in short, this is a dangerous and confusing place. And at the same time that this search was happening out on the mountain, the police were also in contact with Jian's cell phone service provider to see if they could track down Jian's cell phone, because obviously if they could find that, they might find Jian too.