Off Record: Lost in the Woods (with Gaby)

Hey, it's Patia from The Knife. Our show is up for a Signal Award in the documentary category, which is so exciting. The link to vote is in the show notes, or you can go to vote.signalaward.com, navigate to categories, and select genre, then documentary to find The Knife and cast your vote. You do have to sign up to vote, but it's quick and painless, and your vote would mean so much to us. Voting is open until October 15th.

Thanks so much, and we hope you enjoy this next episode. This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised. The claims and opinions in this podcast are those of the speaker and do not necessarily represent The Knife or Exactly Right Media. The Knife Welcome to The Knife Off Record.

I'm Patia Eaton. As most of you know, Hannah is currently on leave after having a baby. She's doing well. We actually had a chance to catch up yesterday, which was so nice, and she will be back soon. I'm sure you miss her just like I do. But today I have the distinct pleasure of speaking with one of Hannah's longtime friends, Gabi. Gabi has an amazing story to share with us that Hannah and I both think you will love. It's funny and terrifying. And, you know, we tend to cover a lot of really difficult topics and stories on this show. So this episode is a little bit of a breather from that. Let's get into it.

Hi, Gabi. Hi.

It's so nice to have you in the studio.

I'm so happy to be here.

So you are a friend of Hannah's. That's right. And I'm so excited to hear the story today. Hannah gave me just like the littlest bit of information. I was like, stop right there. I want the full scoop from her in person. And we thought it'd be perfect to record this while Hannah's on her leave anyway. And I'm so excited you're here. So we always love to start off with just a little introduction.

Okay. I'm Gabi. I live in Los Angeles, California. I lived here for about almost 15 years.

Me too. Wow.

Doesn't time go by? It really does. I am currently in school to become a nurse. Oh, that's exciting. A bit of a career change.

Yeah. From what?

Very exciting. I have been doing personal assistant work, but I was in the entertainment industry for a while.

Okay. I am a former personal assistant.

Yeah, so you know. I know the grind. It's really intense.

Yeah.

Shout out Patty Stinger, millionaire matchmaker, among others. It's a great way to see the city, but it's also so taxing.

Yeah, it's really taxing. Yeah, long hours. Long hours, which I'm about to go into, arguably. The most stressful, taxing career. Right, you're not going to be relaxing as a nurse. No, it's going to be worse, but different.

Different. Well, that's awesome. I love a pivot, you know?

Hey, we love a pivot.

Yeah, why not? So today, just to preface everything with a story, this story is about you and your now ex-boyfriend. And we're not going to use his real name because he's not here. And it wouldn't be right. So we're going to call him Ryan. Ryan.

That's right. We are going to call him Ryan. That's what we've decided on. We've decided.

We've agreed.

Great.

So I want to start off with a little bit about when you first met Ryan. Actually.

Actually. Ryan and I met because I cast him in a short film that I made. Never came to fruition, but he was great in it. He's an actor. He's a comedian. Was very drawn to the way he was in the world and his sense of humor. Very, very funny person. People were very drawn to him. It was a bit of a, it was a bit of one of those relays. It was like a rebound, not a rebound, but you know how like your next relationship.

But maybe you weren't in the perfect place.

Maybe I wasn't in the perfect place.

But so far, this is a perfect LA meet-cute. You know, you're casting him in a short film.

Very LA.

You're drawn to his energy.

That's right. Okay. So I think our relationship started well, but pretty soon after we started dating, COVID began.

Nobody did well in COVID.

Hey, people either did really well in COVID and got married or they broke up. I did not do well.

I spiraled. Yeah. No one told me if they were doing well because they knew I would spiral further.

I feel we all individually spiraled.

Right.

But as far as couples go, that was like make it or break it. And this was definitely a break it. Okay. Immediate break it.

How long had you been dating when COVID happened?

I was just thinking about that. And I don't think that long. I think maybe six months. That could be wrong. I think this happened in July. And I think we started dating in like December. Maybe it was like seven, eight months.

And COVID is an interesting time because it's like, then you kind of decide, okay, well, now we're in each other's bubble.

That's right.

And now we're spending a lot of time together because we've already established that. We're already here. We're already doing this.

Yeah. What was really interesting about that, which I'm sure maybe other people can relate to, is everything that was kind of propelling us along in our relationship ceased to exist. Like he ceased to be able to perform and we ceased being able to see people out in public. So it was really just us.

Yeah.

So the whole dynamic of the relationship changed.

Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I'm thinking back to that time and it's like, Not that much change for me because I'm such a homebody, but I did think it was really scary. Of course.

I mean, and that was another thing. My anxiety was like already have like medical anxiety. And so COVID was just like through.

The roof, sister. There was a neighbor of mine who would walk around with a full gas mask on. And I was like, maybe I'm the idiot, you know, like. Yeah. How could you blame him?

I mean, we were wiping down our groceries.

Yeah, of course.

Of course we were.

So you guys were, were you living together?

We were not. Okay.

No.

But we were really only seeing each other, I think.

Yeah.

You think.

Well, I mean, you know, we were doing like Zoom karaoke.

Okay. Great.

Social distancing.

Yeah.

Other people. But we were really each other's orbit.

So this story takes place in the great outdoors.

That's right.

How did that transpire? Because COVID was like lockdown.

Okay. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the beginning of that year or maybe during that year, were there like crazy fires? Yeah.

Gosh i don't remember i feel like i don't remember.

When the crazy fires were either there was something going on where i was losing my mind and i was like we have to get out of here we have to get out of our dingy apartments like we need to go i'm suffocating here.

Because this is post-covid this story happened oh this story is in the middle of covid in the middle of it this is.

Like july 2020 i think okay yeah All right.

So you're just like, the world is burning. There's a global pandemic. So this is your idea.

This is my idea. This is my idea. The background is that he had some chronic pain issues. There were definite limitations to his exercise ability and was not tuned in to the idea of hiking or backpacking, camping. Like I was really in charge of that situation. You were spearheading this excursion. I was spearheading the excursion. We thought, okay, you know, we'll be safe. Road trip to Oregon. We're staying in the car. We're staying in tents. We're not seeing anybody. We are maintaining social distance. It is just him and I in the car. That was like the one vacation idea that we thought was like responsible and doable.

So funny because it's like I was brainwashed to believe that car camping was vacation when I was a child. Like that is what we did. And then I grew up to experience real vacation. And now I know. I can picture exactly what you're saying because I'm from the Northwest. Grew up, did a lot of car camping. But did you have a lot of like outdoors experience or you just enjoy being outdoors?

I did have enough outdoors experience. Certainly, I had done many, many hikes in the greater Los Angeles area. I had done some backpacking trips. Generally, I don't like to car camp. I prefer to backpack. So I had done some backpacking trips. I felt equipped enough. I felt like I knew enough.

You're like, I can lead us.

I can lead us.

And so you're going from LA up the coast. Are you taking like the PCH?

No, I think we stopped at my parents' house and they live up in Northern California, maybe to drop off my dog. And then we continued on who knows what highway we took up. But our first stop was Cave Junction, Oregon.

Okay. Where is Cave Junction?

Southern Oregon. That's all I got for you.

Okay.

It's in Southern Oregon. But I think I found like this really cool Airbnb or maybe it was like a hip camp situation and it was on a river and I love swimming in a river. Any natural body of water, I'm in.

Oh, any natural body of water, I'm out.

You're out?

Terrified. A lake? A natural body of water. You don't know what's in there. You don't know which way the water is going to go and pull you.

It's rocks. Pasha, generally a river is going one way.

That's true.

I'm like, I just read about, I went over a waterfall. Yeah. Okay. So is he like, is Ryan on board? Is he excited about it?

Yeah. He's excited. Okay. I think he was kind of like, you're in charge because I don't know what I'm doing.

Yeah.

So like you're in charge of packing, you're in charge of the packing list, all drive, but you are the organizer. And I think the camping of it all, he was like, yes.

Yeah.

Swimming in the river of it all, yes.

Okay.

But then came our ill-fated day.

Okay. Yeah. And you are the self-proclaimed bad guy of this ill-fated day. So you make it all the way up to Cave Junction, Oregon, which we know is somewhere in Southern Oregon. Yeah.

You've dropped off your dog. People are saying bad things about Cave Junction, Oregon, by the way.

Oh, like what?

They're just saying it's not safe.

Oh, it's not safe. Well, I guess you lived to tell the tale, but I don't know by how much. Yeah. OK, yeah. So the dog luckily is safe and not a part of the scarier part of the story.

Yeah.

And so when you arrive in Cave Junction, are you going to a campsite?

Like set the scene for me. OK, we are at this very hippy dippy campsite. It's got like several campsites around. You drive your car to it. It's on someone's land, but they have a ton of land.

Oh, because it's a hip camp.

It's a hip camp.

Yeah.

So they have some cabins, like these really cool A-frame cabins that people can rent. And you just have these like camping spots. And then they had compost toilets and a shared kitchen and a river. And it was awesome for the night that we were there.

It was awesome. You're like, this is great. I could live this way.

I wish we stayed there.

Right. Yeah.

Okay.

But you didn't. No. You said onward.

We said, hey, today, let's do a day hike to this place called Babyfoot Lakes.

Babyfoot Lakes.

That's right.

It sounds gentle and easy. Right. For a day hike, that's like you're going to some destination, Babyfoot Lakes, and then you're turning around and you're coming back before the sun goes down.

Absolutely.

What's the weather on this day?

Hot as hell.

And are you packing... food? Are you packing emergency supplies? Like what does one bring on the hike like this?

Okay, here's what I can remember. I think I had like a bag of chips. I think I had a bag of chips. I feel that we had some sort of jerky, which maybe we had eaten. The initial hike was like maybe like a mile to the lake. So we walked in a mile to this lake, had a lovely day at this lake. And I think we ate our snack. We were drinking our water at this lake.

And so I think we ate the majority of our food at the lake. But to answer your question... We had, like, snacks, probably a water bottle each.

Because did you anticipate it would be a mile in, a mile back?

I posited the question to Ryan. I said, Ryan, we could do a mile in, mile back. Or on all trails, the app, I'm seeing that there's a five-mile loop we could do.

Okay.

A loop.

A loop. A loop seems safe enough.

Five miles, that feels very front country. We're used to that.

Had you had like a big breakfast? Because a bag of chips is not going to hold me over.

Of course. I think we ate breakfast and we ate a sufficient lunch. And we had some like trail snacks.

So you're leaving for this hike after lunch?

No.

Oh. You think the trail snacks was a sufficient lunch?

Okay. Are you okay? We're backing up. We've had breakfast at the campsite. Who knows what we had? Something great. We leave all of our stuff at the campsite, our tent, et cetera. Get in the car around, I don't know, 10. Drive to the trailhead, which I think was like an hour and a half, maybe like an hour because it was up like a dusty road. Get to the trailhead around 11. Walk to this one mile or whatever to this lake. Beautiful day at the lake, lunch at the lake, hanging out at the lake, having fun at the lake.

Then I say, should we do the five mile loop or turn around?

I can hear like foreboding music playing under this moment. Is Ryan immediately like, whatever you think is best?

I remember me asking the question and being happy when he was like, let's do the five mile loop.

Yeah.

Because I was like, okay, great. He really wasn't a hiker. This might have been his like longest hike he's ever done or something.

Do you guys have hiking boots on?

We do.

Okay.

I believe he bought hiking boots for this occasion. I don't even remember if we packed sunscreen. We must have packed sunscreen. I don't think I had a hat or anything like that though.

Wow. Okay. So you're going to do the five mile loop.

We're going to do the five mile loop.

And it's no big deal. Five miles, I'll loop de loop.

That's right. At this point, we can imagine it's like 2 p.m.

Okay.

Maybe 1.30.

And in the summertime in the Northwest, it stays light out for a long time. Like I can remember many nights of sun being out at like 9.45.

Yes.

Okay. So then that makes sense that it was like around 2.

So.

Backtracking a little bit because what else was in my backpack was inexplicably like this multi-use survival tool that was like fire starter, compass, whistle.

Had you packed it for this trip or you just had it?

I just sort of like instinctually bring it with me. And here's the thing, I don't really know how to use a compass at all. And I couldn't probably use that fire starter either.

You're like, even if I know which way is which, I don't know where the car is.

Exactly.

I didn't It's just like for the whistle, which wasn't helpful. So we embark on this five mile hike and.

Spirits are high?

Spirits are high. Spirits are high. To keep in mind, I do believe that we both, I screenshotted the name of the hike, sent it to my mom.

Smart.

I think he sent it to his friends. And I remember looking at like the details on all trails, though I didn't download the map. Because again, I'm used to California front country trail signage, which is great.

Yeah. How does it differ from like what you were looking at in Oregon? Okay. Okay.

So like generally, unless you're doing like some crazy backcountry trail, but even then it's very well labeled. Okay. Anytime there's a junction, there will be signage pointing you what direction you're supposed to go to. Anything that's like, you know, I've done like 17 mile hikes in like over Mount Baldy area. It's very well labeled and the trails are generally pretty clear.

So you're like, I don't need this map. Right.

I was like, for five miles for a loop, all the reviews are like, easy peasy, fun. I'm like, I don't need to download the map. Like, we've told people where we are. This won't be a problem. It's five miles.

You're thinking it'll take, what, an hour and a half? Two hours? How long does it take? I don't know.

I would say it's probably going to take, like, with the up and down, three and a half.

Three and a half hours. Okay. Yeah. I'm, like, picturing myself as, like, an ultra marathon runner.

You're going to do a seven-mile run. For sure. Until you have an hour?

Gotcha.

All right.

So you're thinking three and a half hours, four hours, and you'll be back.

Yeah, yeah.

Well before sunset because summertime in the Northwest.

So we embark pretty immediately. It was like rocky trail, kind of like cliff, sort of scrambling on these, like on the side of this mountain. And we're like, okay. Rocky start.

Rocky start.

Nice.

But you are still at this point, like, this is the trail.

This is the trail. This has to be the trail. And I think there were moments, even in the beginning, where we were like, oh, where is it? Where's the trail? And then we'd find it and be like, okay, certainly this is it. So we're going to keep going. We keep going. We're walking. And we were kind of losing and finding the trail multiple times. And we were going for a while and it was like really hot. And we noticed like the area that we were in did have burn scar. So there was a pretty recent forest fire.

So all the vegetation burned, trees burned. So we just keep walking because we're on a trail. And I think it was like perfectly well-timed from nature where we were kind of like, Okay, we're walking for a while. But then we saw a sign that said Kalamiopsis Rim Trail, which is the trail we were supposed to be on.

So you're like, we're doing great.

We're on the trail.

And you must have thought you were by this point, like what, halfway done?

Yeah. So I kept looking at like Apple map or like the Apple health.

So you had some service.

No service. Oh, sorry. Apple, like the health, like the steps.

Oh, okay. Got it.

Calculator.

To see how far you've gone. Exactly.

Which to me, that thing is dramatic. Like sometimes you're like, certainly I didn't go seven miles. And I think it was telling us like we had already gone three and a half, four miles or something. It doesn't feel like we've gone that long. So we just keep going.

Is anyone hungry?

Certainly we're hungry.

Okay.

And we are eating our snacks periodically and we are drinking our water periodically.

And he is, Ryan is still, he's like, you're leading the way here. I trust you.

Yes.

And you're like, good, you should.

Yeah.

Get up this rocky scramble, Ryan. Yeah, exactly.

He's like, you got it, boss. Yeah, all is well. Spirits are high, but we are hungry. going down into ravines and then we're going up onto like the chop the plateaus right going back down again we're like in the forest then we're back into the sun.

And how often is someone asking the other one is this a trail are we on a trail.

I privately was being like maybe something is wrong maybe something is wrong. I was in charge and I didn't want to scare him. And we had been walking so long. It was like, it says we're on the trail. We have to be on this trail. Right. So we're on the trail and this is the trail we're supposed to be on to leave.

And you had seen that sign.

We had seen that sign.

And it's a loop.

So it's a loop.

You're like, we must be reaching the end. Yeah.

What other trail could there be if not the trail that we are on?

Right. That everyone said was easy peasy.

Right. Okay. And we just keep going. And at some point I am starting to sing. Like I'm trying to keep morale up so much. And I think we're both getting scared because we're like, damn, we've been going for a really long time.

See, now if I'm on a trail with someone and we're both questioning if this is indeed the trail and they start to sing, I'm pissed.

You're out. You're turning around.

Yeah.

Yeah. You know what? I feel he did appreciate it.

Oh, okay.

He appreciated the singing. It was either singing or like, maybe I'm panicking.

Right.

And I didn't want to do that.

You definitely don't want someone panicking. So I guess if you have to sing to not panic, then, you know.

And I think more than anything, we were getting really tired. And his body was really hurting.

It's hot out.

It's so hot. He was really hurting. Also, the fun deviousness of nature was that we would like go down and then we would be climbing up to the top of something. And it seemed so familiar to the point where multiple times we would be like, Oh, when we reach the top of this, this is going to be where the car is. This will be where the car is because. Yeah, it looks like where the car is.

It looks exactly like where the car would be. So then I think there reached a point like sunk cost fallacy where we were kind of like, we've been going so long and it is so hot and we are so tired. And that was hard. That was hard, by the way. Like we've been, we were going up and down. I don't want to turn around. Because I don't know if we could do it.

You're like, I'm not doing that again.

I don't know if we could do it.

Yeah.

And at some point you would then have to worry about it getting dark.

Exactly. So basically we like round a corner and his body is like really hurting at this point. It's so hot. We round a corner and we were basically like, this for sure is it. This for sure is it. We like go down and we come up and we are just like in the middle of nowhere. It is like all you can see are trees.

So you're not even like on a random logging road. You're in the forest.

We are in the forest. We are on a trail that's like this big, which by that point we had really been losing, finding, losing, finding, like kind of just being like, oh, that looks like something.

And for reference, for those who are listening, this big, you're saying is about like three feet, three feet, three feet.

Yeah. Small, two feet maybe.

Hope is beginning to dwindle.

Hope is, it's over.

Oh, the hope is gone.

The hope is gone. He's gone down. Now, I was recalling this this morning in anticipation for telling this story. By some grace from above, we had one bar of cell phone service. My phone was dead. Oh, no. And his had 10%, 15% or something.

You don't want to see that.

But we had that one bar of service because we were up on a freaking like top of a mountain. Yeah, we were at some peak, which we have been like ascending and descending in the forest.

Which is confusing. You're like, are we going down? Are we going up?

I have no idea where we are, obviously.

And have you gotten your little compass out at this point?

Absolutely not. I didn't pull that thing out once. What was I going to do? That was just going to waste time.

You're like, oh, okay.

Perfect. Northeast.

That was just to add a little weight to your back. Yeah.

That was for exercise purposes.

Yeah.

So he goes down and he's so tired and like so hurting that he can't even make it back up to that cliff. And by that point, we had sort of turned to each other and we were like, hey, we're in a bad situation.

We are not on the trail and we haven't been on the trail for.

Quite a while. Tensions were high. Tensions were high. Okay.

Is he pointing the finger or like what's the tensions are high elaborate?

No, I don't think he's pointing the finger because I think that we were in agreement. Certainly, if one of us had said, hey, we got to turn around. Seriously, we got to turn around.

Yeah.

I think we would have turned around. So I think we were sort of in agreement for how we were continuing to go. But tensions got high when I was like, okay, we have one bar of service up on this mountain. Let me just check the map. I'm just going to check the map and see where we are.

You wanted to use the service to check the map? I'm like... I want to call my mom.

Exactly. And you're correct. I was wrong. This is why I'm bad boy. Because he was like, you need to call 911. Oh, okay. You need to call 911.

So by this point, Ryan knows. He's like, we're not getting ourselves out of here.

And honestly, he was right. Because I kind of was like, certainly we are so close to the exit of this forest that if I just simply check the map, I can guide us out of here with my compass.

Just like I guided us around the loop.

So I start checking the map, and he's screaming at me. That's when tensions start playing. He's screaming at me, yelling at me, and he's like, call fucking 911. And I was like, stop screaming at me.

Meanwhile, the phone's like, I now have 9%. Exactly.

Exactly. So I kind of frantically am looking at the map, and then he was just like, seriously, call 911. And so. I can't remember. I must have called 911 first. Or maybe we called, maybe he called his friend. Maybe he called his friend and was like, I think we were kind of like, we need to tell someone that we're lost.

Oh, that's smart. Immediately. Because if you get cut off from 911, at least someone else can, you know.

Yes. So I recall him calling a friend, basically being like, hey, man, we are lost. Like, maybe we sent our location and we're like, we're super lost. This is what's going on.

Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe I called my mom, but I don't know if we could get two calls in. And so then we did call 911.

Did you get through?

We got through. One bar of service in the middle of nowhere. It was truly a miracle.

Yeah.

So I called 911.

And you tell them what, like, we were supposed to be on this one trail, but we're clearly not on it. And I don't know how to tell you where we are, because if I knew, we would have gotten back to our car by now.

Yeah. I think I say something like, we are lost. in the woods. I'm assuming from every crime show I know, you can trace this phone call. We are lost.

Do your little ping.

Yeah. Do your ping. Ping the towers.

And get here.

And I was like, and by the way, the phone is dying. The phone is dying. So please.

So get here in a hurry.

Yeah.

They were like, okay, so turn the phone off. And then they were like 15 minutes before sunset, turn it back on. It was pretty close to sunset at this point.

So turn the phone off and 15 minutes before sunset, turn it back on.

They gave us some arbitrary time before sunset to turn the phone back on, which I was like, how will we turn the phone back on?

And then it's like, I'm thinking to myself, I'm in this situation, I'd be like, I have so many questions about this instruction, but my phone is dying.

Right.

Or Ryan's phone is dying. Mine has died.

Mine has died.

So you're just like, oh, okay.

Yeah. So we were like, okay, sounds good. Hang up the phone. And then we were like, no, this isn't... This is.

When things start to crumble between you.

This is when things start to crumble. We're sitting on like one of our beach towels, like eating the last crumbs of our like kettle chips or whatever. And I'm pissed at him because he was screaming at me. And he's pissed at me because I was being stupid.

You got you guys lost.

Okay, pay shot. Did I get us lost? Sounds like it. I mean, okay, you can decide later. I got us lost or it was nature's problem. But yeah, we're just like sitting there and we're like really not happy with each other. And like, we're obviously both scared. It's very tense. We didn't have a lot of water and we're kind of just like sitting there. So now it's like this thing where we're like, okay, we think we're going to get rescued.

Because does 911 tell you stay where you are? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's another instruction that I understand, but I wouldn't want. I'm like, I don't want to lose my autonomy here, even though I don't deserve it.

I need free reign.

Yeah.

I need to be able to roam.

What if I get a good feeling about going down that hill?

Yeah, don't do that. Yeah. So you stay put on the beach towel. We're staying put on the beach towel. We're kind of just like mad at each other. Eating crumbs. Talking about like, what would we do if we had to spend the night here?

Oh.

Because that was also a thing where it was like, no other cars. Just absolutely no vehicles. Just bear poop. Like, just bear poop. Oh, bears.

You hadn't even gotten there yet.

Yeah, sister.

Bears. No. Okay, I don't want to spend the night.

No. I was thinking, of course, thank God I have my multi-tool with my fire starter. Thank God. Thank God. So we're just sitting there, and I think to myself... you know what? We're so close to the entrance. They're going to like send a ranger. They're just going to send a ranger on foot and he's going to come get us.

Like you silly geese.

Yeah. Uh-oh. Your car's over here.

It's right here. Yeah, exactly.

So I was just kind of waiting for someone to meander down the hill.

Meander.

I kind of also knew that that wasn't going to happen. So it was time to turn the phone back on. I turned the phone back on.

Number.

So right when they call, we then hear the helicopter. He's like, hey, we're in the helicopter. We're coming around to get you. And then we hear the helicopter coming around. And I will admit to you, I was being extremely not helpful. My head was in my hands and I was just so embarrassed. I was so embarrassed. Meanwhile, Ryan sort of took the beach towel and was waving it around.

He's like, we're over here, boys.

He was like, come over here, we're over here, which is like what you should do. I was not being helpful. I think he then yelled at me to like be helpful. Yeah. I was like, hey guys, I'm here. Like pretty sheepishly.

So when you realized they were going to have to send a helicopter to reach you, like what were you processing then about how far you had gone off the trail? Were you surprised?

Were you like a helicopter? Yeah, I was like a helicopter. And I think in my head, I still was like, this is an overreaction. This is an overreaction. Like, they have to do this because it's a rescue. But like, you guys, come on. Like, maybe because a car can't get in here. They have to send the helicopter. But I kind of still wasn't really processing. I thought we were so close.

Because you were in charge.

I was in charge and I had taken a screenshot of the map. Right.

So the helicopter is like looking for you.

The helicopter is looking for us. But I think I get another call and they're like, hey, we can't find you.

Oh, the towel's not working.

We continue to wave more and they do finally spot us.

How long do you remember that taking between like, Turn it on 15 minutes before sunset. Get the call.

I think it was like five minutes.

But it probably felt like a long time. Yeah.

I mean, they kept circling. I think at one point they left and they came back around again because they knew where we were. The cell phone pinging.

Oh, right.

So we're waving the towel. They finally find us. They're circling around and we're like, why aren't they landing? Why aren't they landing the helicopter? Time to land the helicopter. Just go ahead and land the helicopter.

Right. Like, we're over it.

Right. Just like, let's load up. But then they like send this man down.

From the helicopter?

From the helicopter. And the helicopter's like, I don't know, 25 feet.

Up in the air. This is getting scary for me because I'm like, do you think I'm going back up with you? Oh, no.

He rappels down fully like Indiana Jones style. Yeah. And I have to tell you, as someone who's like in the fight with Ryan and just being like, we hate each other right now to like watch this like buff Coast Guard man rappel down off this helicopter.

You're like, you better be nice to me.

I'm going with him. Yeah. So he comes down and he like marches over to us like Top Gun style, takes off his helmet. And he was like, Guys, it's too rocky to land the helicopter here. We're going to have to send down the basket.

The basket?

Yeah, the basket.

Like the thing they dump water in?

It's like a shopping cart style basket, but like half the depth.

Oh, I would think you'd want quite a lot of depth.

No, you don't get a lot of depth.

Oh, no.

You don't. And so they said, we're sending down the basket. And I was like, okay. I guess I'll go first. So they send down the basket and I get in the basket and the helicopter is so high up. And I do have to say, I'm very afraid of heights. This was probably the scariest part of the whole thing.

You know, and like I know that they can stay more stationary than a plane, but like I imagine they still have to move around a little bit up there.

Yeah, and the propeller is going, it just feels very precarious.

Are you like harnessed in? No.

Oh. No, and by the way, oh, I did have a hat. I did have a hat because I remember in my head being like, oh my God, my hat is going to fly off my head. It's going to get into the propeller blades of the helicopter. And then we all die. It's going to take the helicopter down.

Yeah.

So I remember just holding onto my hat and going like as evil.

As I can. You're like, once again, I have to be the hero.

Are you watching me? I'm just like hyperventilating, eyes closed, being like... I get up into the helicopter. I scurry to the back of the helicopter. And they're all kind of looking at me like, you good? And it's so loud in there. And I just was like, yeah, I'm good. And I like go back. Right.

Do you guys all take the same basket or now Ryan needs to take the basket?

Ryan needs to take the basket.

Oh, you take the basket separately.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's no way that basket is fitting two people.

It's quite chivalrous that he sent you up first.

I think it was more... I was testing it out. Oh, okay. He was seeing how it worked. I see.

This is a trial run.

There's no way, by the way, just to give you an idea of how small that basket is, there's no way two people are fitting in that basket.

I was picturing like a hot air balloon, if you will. No, no, no.

I would say, again, think width and length of a shopping cart, half the depth.

Scary stuff.

Yeah.

That's not for me.

No, it wasn't for me either.

Wow. Okay.

He gets in to the helicopter and we sort of just like, wordlessly look at each other like, oh my God, what did we get into? And they're like, okay guys, where's your car?

You're like, if we knew. Would you be here with your helicopter?

We're like, look for the trailhead. Look for the baby foot legs trailhead. Yeah. And they have Google Maps up on a little iPad and they cannot find it.

So now you're all lost. We're all lost.

And we're like, really?

Seriously?

Just like, again, just Google baby foot legs trailhead.

Go ahead.

And they're like, wow, we can't find it. So like they were having some trouble. It's almost sunset. And they were kind of like, well, guys, we can't find where your car is. So we're going to have to take you back to the airport because we need to refuel.

Oh.

And we're like, okay, where?

Where's the airport?

Yeah. He was like, well, by car, it's about two and a half hours away in a town called Brookings, Oregon.

Never heard of it.

Well, I have.

So by helicopter, how far is that?

I don't remember how long we were in the helicopter. 30 minutes? 20 minutes?

I mean, still, just hearing that you're low on fuel, you're like, well, dang it.

Exactly. And they were like, and it's getting dark out. I will say that they did give us a good, they gave us a good, like, reassurance of hey it's really good that you call this when you did because a lot of people wait until it's dark out and then it's really impossible to find people because we have to use our heat seeking goggles.

Now if i'm ryan in this fight i'm looking at you with dagger eyes as they're saying this like i freaking told you i.

Know I know. And he was justified. He was justified.

Okay.

I'm the bad guy.

So they take you back to this airport. But when this happens, do they bring you food? Do they bring you water? No.

And remember, also it's COVID.

Oh, right.

So immediately we're in this helicopter, tiny little space with these Coast Guard people who are so nice. Yeah. But I'm like, we're contracting COVID right now from these strangers because we also hadn't been around people. Right. This was like the smallest space we had been in with someone.

Yeah.

For a long time.

And they're like, well, your risk factor in a helicopter is already quite high, ma'am. You know?

Exactly. So we land at this airport and it is like in the middle of nowhere airport. And there's no one there save for one man in a minivan who Ryan tries to pay to drive us back to our car.

And of course, it's COVID. Right.

So he's like, hell no. So it's just us and the Coast Guard. It's like kind of a really scary airport. There's like obviously one toilet and... It's not where you want to be. No, we don't want to be there. And they were like, well, guys, we're not going to get the orders to fly you back up to get to the car in the dark. Like our captain's not going to give us orders to fly you back. Right.

So you have to stay there?

So we're like, well, what do we do? And they call the sheriff of this town who was like going to drive us... I don't know, somewhere. He certainly wasn't going to drive us back. And so we're just like, well, what do we do? Like, we can't call a taxi. We can't call a Lyft.

Yeah, do they have phone chargers? Are your phones still dead?

Phones are, at this point, 10% and 0%. So then I do remember being like, wait, Brookings, Oregon. I know someone who lives in Brookings, Oregon.

What?

I know. My dad's old co-worker slash friend Rory, shout out Rory, lived in Brookings, Oregon. And in fact, Rory was like, knew the cops.

I was going to say in a small town, you can probably be like, do you know Rory?

And he did. He did. Because Rory donated a lot of money to the cops.

Oh, well. Yeah. We're not out on Rory, but.

You know what? Hey, everyone's got multifaceted.

Yep. So these must be really good cops.

Exactly. Yeah. So I called my dad and I was like, dad, so sorry. Hi, we've been helicopter rescued.

My phone's at 10% and I really need you to call Rory.

I need you to call Rory and I need you to ask Rory if we could come to his house and he can help us because we're in Brookings, Oregon and we have no one. Right, exactly. He is our last and only hope. My dad calls Rory and Rory says it's okay.

Wait, I have to know what your dad says or is he just like, Okay, I'll call Rory.

He was like, wait, what? Okay. I was like, I probably was like, no time, no time, no time. Yeah. 10%. Call Rory. Call me back. We've been helicopter rescued.

Right.

And so he was like, okay, yeah, yeah, for sure. He calls me back and he's like, yeah, Rory says it's fine. So Levi, the sheriff.

Levi.

Uh-huh. Okay. He was actually really sweet. Yeah. And it was kind of like, I've never been in the back of a cop car. I sat in the back. Ryan sat in the front, of course. Oh, perfect. And it's kind of funny because he did stop at a gas station to get us snacks.

Oh, that's nice.

But he left us in his cop car, like with his shotgun in the... Oh, interesting. Kind of really trusted us.

Yeah.

Which I guess why wouldn't he?

Yeah, why wouldn't he? You guys have great judgment displayed so far.

We've already, yeah, let's just let it rip. So he knows where Rory lives, I think, and drives us to Rory's house. And then we get to Rory's house. And I had been there as a kid multiple times. So I kind of was familiar with it. And Rory is like a pretty funny person where he's like very curmudgeonly, but is very sweet. We tell them the story. He's like, hey, it's my wife's 60th birthday party tomorrow. Why don't you guys stay? And we were like, we can't because we're so sunburned. We have no clothes and all of our stuff is back at that campsite.

Oh, the campsite in Cave Junction.

And that's who's talking shit about Cave Junction is Rory. He's saying it's really dangerous.

We were like, well, arguably Babyfoot Lake is the real danger here.

It's worse. It's worse. So he really kept trying to get us to stay and we're like, we can't, but can you drive us back?

It's only two and a half hours.

It's only two and a half hours, so that'll be a five hour round trip for you.

You'll love it. So how do you eventually get back to Cave Junction? Sweet Rory drives us at five o'clock in the morning. Oh my gosh. Wow. What a guy. Yeah.

He tries one more time to get us to stay. We're like, we really can't.

I mean, you can't blame him.

We really can't. We've already messaged to the Cave Junction host. And we're like, hey, long story short, we got helicopter rescue. We're going to be late to get our stuff. Because we were just at checkout, I think, that day. She was cool about it. Yeah, he drove us back.

Wow.

Two and a half hours.

And once you and Ryan were alone again for the first time after that, was there like a sense of understanding this was the end? Because you still had to get back to LA.

You know what? I think, no, that was the beginning of our road trip.

Oh.

We had a whole rest of the road trip to go. And honestly, I think surviving that situation gave us a high because we were like talking about it with people. Right. It gave us this great story. I think it gave us like a little bit more juice, but things really did fall apart.

And so once you get back to the campsite, Or I guess once you start having these conversations with people like your mom, you know, behind the scenes, like what was going on? When were people starting to worry or did people not know to worry until after you'd already called 911?

That's a great question. I think my mom is just automatically worrying no matter what. I can't remember because I think by the time we called someone, I can't remember if I called her. Gosh, I wish I could remember these details for you.

Oh, no, it's okay. I mean, a mom automatically worrying makes perfect sense.

Yeah, yeah. I think she was just like probably really worried from the start.

What was her reaction to finding out what happened?

She was like.

Like, what were you thinking?

Yeah. I mean, more than anything, she's like, thank God you're okay. I was praying. Oh, my God.

And so then did you ever find out where you were?

Yeah, we did. So we were 11 to 12 miles away. on an old mining road. And what happened was, someone contacted my ex and I sent you the newspaper article. And it's really funny because the email is like, there could have been bodies. Which, like, he's not wrong.

Like your bodies.

Yeah, our bodies. Yeah. And I saw that actually people get rescued from that wilderness quite often, Kalmiopsis Wilderness.

Okay.

Because it is so... It's wilderness.

Easy to get lost. Yeah.

Easy to get lost. And on the forest website, it kind of says, bring a GPS because you will get lost. We didn't know we were, of course, venturing into that wilderness.

Right.

Anyway, yeah, we were 11 to 12 miles in on an old mining road leading to absolutely nowhere. Wow. And so the fire had burned down the signage.

Oh.

That would have... pointed us where to go so there was like a very counterintuitive almost like backtrack to continue on with the loop i see what must have happened was that because the fire down burned down the signage we didn't veer left when we were supposed to veer left into where we're supposed to go and we just kept going straight on an unmarked trail thinking that that was the.

Trail right 12 miles and you're supposed to go on a five mile loop and you're 12 miles and helicopter 12 miles on a helicopter. And a two and a half hour drive.

That's right.

Back to the car.

That's right.

Did you continue the road trip?

We did.

Oh.

We did. We were kind of like, we have to. The worst has happened. The worst literally has happened. Nothing more can happen that is bad. And so we did continue the road trip. But yeah, that was the end for us.

That was the end.

I think we definitely, it was kind of like, hey, we have a lot of differences.

Yeah. Not the least of which, you wanted to download a map when I wanted to call 911. Yeah.

It was silly. It was stubbornness. I think my advice to people is like, don't be stubborn and just know when nature got you.

Yeah.

I mean, to be fair to you guys, like, yeah, if the signage had burned down, then I would hope that there would be a new sign at the beginning of the trail being like, there is no signage. Don't continue.

Exactly. Yeah.

Because that's dangerous.

Which ultimately I think is why, here's what I've learned, because the helicopter ride didn't cost us any money. So- One, it was the Coast Guard, so that's federal. I think a certain amount of mileage in from the coast will be a Coast Guard rescue. That's a federal rescue. So they can decide if they're going to charge you or not.

I don't even think I realized, but of course people get charged for those, just like an ambulance, right? Yeah.

It's kind of like it's their discrepancy. And if someone's doing something stupid, like if we were wasted and we fell and we broke our legs.

Like you're paying for that.

Exactly. You're paying for that because you guys were drunk and that was stupid. But it was kind of like, well, we can't fault them. The signage burned down. Okay.

And so this was a federal rescue. This was the U.S. Coast Guard because where you were was not that far from the Oregon coast. All right. And so then you continue the road trip, but the relationship continues. Didn't make it back to LA.

The relationship, it did make it back to LA, but it really was, I mean, there was just like so many fissures.

Yeah.

You know?

I mean, that's a pretty big crack in the foundation to go through that, but I get what you're saying about the high after. You know, I met my husband, we've been together since early 2013, right? But we had one of our like worst fights over a hip camp. And we have a lot of differences. So I'm saying something.

This hip camp fight happens the Christmas before COVID. And we're deciding between Paris and an RV trip. And, you know, to not know that on the horizon is like a lockdown.

Right.

If you knew that, you'd pick Paris. But we didn't know that. And my dog at the time, Bunker, a very bad boy. Hard to find a sitter for Bunker.

With a name like Bunker.

Right. And he's... He's unkind in moments. He's not good with other dogs. Separation anxiety, I mean, the whole bit. Like, I'm very good at making dogs feel loved and respected. I'm not good at them respecting me.

Bunker's walking all over you.

Yeah, he's walking all over me. Nobody can watch this dog other than me. We just have some sort of a truce. And so I'm like, we got to do an RV trip because we can't leave him.

Because Bunker.

So we get this RV. Okay. We get a hip camp in Joshua Tree. That's the first night of the trip. And it's Christmas Eve.

You don't have your baby. It's just the two of you.

No, just the two of us. And Bunker, of course. Yeah. This is 2019. And the hip camp instructions are like, okay, you're going to get to this four-way stop. But it's a dirt road, right? On someone's property. Yeah. And then you're going to continue straight on this four-way stop. Well, straight ahead of us, and my husband's driving the RV, are these logs that look very intentionally placed blocking the road.

And so we're like, well, surely then we must have to go one of the other directions.

Crazy that in the listing it wouldn't be like, never mind the logs. Yeah.

But we're trying to reason what's really happening here. We're looking at the directions, looking at the logs, trying to get service, but we can't, to message the hippocamp people. So I don't know what came over us, but we get out and we move the logs out of our way and we continue on. And so we're driving. Well, of course, this was the wrong move. And we drive and drive. We get nowhere except, you know, if you've ever been to Joshua Tree at nighttime, it's dark. So dark.

Like the only minor light pollution you're getting is from the stars. Like there's nothing there. And, you know, before working in podcasting and true crime, I'm a true crime content consumer. So being in the desert in the pitch darkness lost.

That's where people get buried.

Yeah.

And I know it for a fact. And so my husband, he's like, we're driving. He's like, this can't be right. We got to turn around. So we try to turn around. Well, now we're not on a road and we get stuck. And I'm like, oh, my God. And he's like, well, do you want to drive or do you want to get out and tell me where to like navigate the RV to. And I'm like, I'm not getting out and I'm definitely not driving. And so he's like, we got to do one or the other. And so we're like, I'm like, I'm not going out there. And he's like, there's no serial killers. It's just the desert and it's dark outside. It wasn't even like that late.

I thought that you think you stepped foot outside of the RV, a serial killer laying in wait.

Oh, good. That's where these hip campers have arrived. And so we had to call this guy's is Christmas Eve and this is our miracle of our hip camp debacle is that this tow truck driver one man show local to Joshua Tree answers the phone on Christmas Eve and he's like yeah I can come get you out of there.

It'll be $ 600. And we're like, oh, that's Christmas Eve. Yeah. Merry Christmas. So he gets us out of there. And honestly, look, $ 600, that's a lot of money. Yeah. But we would have had to like call that RV rental company and been like, look, we had to leave it in the desert. So all in all, great.

That is really scary.

It was so scary. So he comes and he gets us. He tows us out. We get back on this road. We give up on this hip camp. And we end up spending Christmas Eve night in a Lowe's parking lot. And like in the morning we wake up and I notice we're like actually parked next to the Christmas trees where they had the Christmas trees.

It's kind of sweet.

Kind of sweet, kind of festive. And then just beyond that was like a El Pollo Loco.

You have everything you need.

And Bunker thought it was a great trip. He was like, I love this. We're all together. I can run around this parking lot. It was a dream for him. And so... Anyway, hip camp has not been a success for me and I wasn't even attempting to really camp. I was in a motorhome.

I mean, did you get a response from what the logs were?

You know, I don't remember. I think at some point they were like, yeah, we put the logs there so that you wouldn't go down that road and you would know. Like, I remember the takeaway from whatever they said being like, that's not enough. Right. If we're going to get there after dark, you got to have like signs because we told them we're going to get there when it's dark.

Right.

So. I blame us 50% because we shouldn't have moved the logs.

It was confusing though.

It was so confusing. So that was our Christmas Eve tow truck to Lowe's. I mean, I feel like nature, it's supposed to be peaceful. It can really bring it out of you. It will be very humbling.

Very humbling.

Yeah. And to this day, my husband brings it up. He's like, I can't believe you wouldn't get out of that RV. It's like, you can't keep listening to these podcasts.

Yeah, I mean, it will be scary.

So stay safe out there. Well, thank you so much, Gabi, for coming into the studio and sharing your story with me. And as you know, Hannah's on. leave and she'll be back soon so thanks everybody for listening thank you if you have a story for us we would love to hear it our email is the knife at exactly right media.com or you can follow us on instagram at the knife podcast or blue sky at the knife podcast this.

Has been an exactly right production hosted and produced by me hannah smith and me.

Patia eaton our producers are tom breyfogle and alexa samorosi.

This episode was mixed by tom breyfogle Our.

Associate producer is Christina Chamberlain.

Our theme music is by Birds in the Airport.

Artwork by Vanessa Lilac.

Executive produced by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark, and Danielle Kramer.

Off Record: Lost in the Woods (with Gaby)

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