Joseph Wood Jr - Mount Rainier National Park - Washington - Locations Unknown

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Thousands of people have mysteriously vanished in America's wilderness. Join
us as we dive into the deep end of the
unexplainable and try to piece together what happened. And you
are listening to Locations Unknown. What's up, everybody, and welcome

(00:55):
back to another episode of Locations Unknown. I'm your co host,
Joe Eroto, and with me is always is a guy
who would never hike on mushrooms and call nine one
one to say a guy died who is most certainly
not dead. Mike Vanda Bogart.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Wow, that feels very specific.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
No, No, it's not. It's just general.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
It didn't happen.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
There was a no, didn't have No, it didn't happen
to be No, I would never do mushrooms in the
mountains to enhance the experience significantly. No, there was a
new starty. I actually had a friend send to me
that this happened. I think in upstate New York. I'm okay,
I'm going off memory, so probably with somewhere else. But
there's a group of hikers that were on mushrooms. Yeah,
and they thought someone had died and called nine one

(01:35):
one and the guy was just alive. They were just
chripping on mushrooms. Whoops, and right, well to turn yourself in.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, there you go. Thank you once again to everyone
for tuning into locations unknown. Just a couple of announcements
before we get going. First, some new Patreon shout outs,
So thank you to now this first name. I'm gonna
really butcher run my sheet t o ky Katie Melskog
and Raina Weth.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Thank you all for supporting the show. We really appreciate it.
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Speaker 1 (02:20):
Keep that in mind.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Will be, It, will be, it will check out some
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(02:44):
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Speaker 1 (02:53):
There you go, So all the good stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
And finally, just a little bit of news. As many
of you probably know, we're moving out of our studio
at the end of this month.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Show is not ending.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Show is not ending, but we will probably be taking
the month of July off just because we're gonna need
time to get the new studio set up.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Maybe we'll do some like from the cell Phone content, Yeah,
some like.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Blair Witch kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, flair Witch content, that'd be good.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
But yeah, we're excited to be moving into a new space,
but also sad that we're leaving the zoo as I
call it, because people peer into us like animals.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
I know, I love it.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
We are still recording a few more episodes, so if
you're downtown, make sure to swing by.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
And a group of people walk by before we started recording, Yeah,
and someone was walking by really fast, and I just
heard the guy go, why you walking so fast? You're
scared of being on TV.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
I'm gonna miss all that exactly, like all the weird
things we hear, or the that I put the picture
on our Facebook post of that giant bicycle, the nicycle
unicycle of front wheel was as tall as you know,
it's not a unicycle.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
It's got a weird it's got a funny name. Yeah,
it's a big oversized front tire and the really tiny
back tire.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah yeah, so we ride those. Well, that guy did
that one.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
And my last favorite quote, in a very very nerdy voice,
my relationship with Peanuts is very unfortunate. Someone walked by
in a group of people and that's all I heard
them say, and I wanted to know what the heck
the rest of that conversation was all about.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Oh so, yeah, we're gonna be missing all that, but
excited to be moving to a new studio. So we'll
probably be off for the month of July, but we
should be back sometime in August. Yes, all right, all right, everybody,
let's gear up and get out to explore locations unknown.

(04:51):
July nineteen ninety nine, a thirty four year old book
editor from New York set out for a day hike
near Comet Falls in Mount Rainier National Park. Despite clear skies,
he left the main trail and entered rugged, snow covered terrain.
When he never returned, an extensive search turned up nothing,
no gear, no footprints, no clues. Join us this week

(05:13):
as we investigate the disappearance of Joseph Leewood Junior. So

(05:42):
we are headed to mount Rainier National Park. This is
actually going to be on the south side of the park,
so the sub location is the vicinity of Comet Falls
on the Rampart Ridge Trail. This is in Washington State
and was established on March second of eighteen nine nine.
The park sees roughly one point six million visitors per

(06:04):
year as of twenty twenty two estimates.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
And just some interesting facts about Mountaineer National Park. It
is the most glaciated park in the contiguous United States.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Did you know that, mic I did know that because
when I he no, you didn't. When we hiked there,
we hiked up to one of the edges of a
glacier and we were actually drinking water right off the
the glacier.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
You're not supposed to do that, I know, but you
did it anyway. We did it anyways. I do that too,
and no one got sick. And I'm not recommending that. Yeah,
we don't recommend it. You're not supposed to do it,
no one should ever do it. But I think everybody
does it. Yeah, I mean if they say that, So
if you get sick. They can tell you I told
you not to do it.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
We probably didn't get sick, but we probably took a
year off our lives from all the pollution in the
water that we drank.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah. I think I saw an article once where they
showed under a microscope glacier water. It's got tons of
stuff and it like it's not here at all. No,
it's like really dirty.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Actually, yeah, it's probably terrible for you. Yeah, it just
seems like it's pure. It's just growing a third.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, it's just not okay. Despite not being the tallest
mounta in the US, that's Dnali, mount Rainier has twenty
five named glaciers covering more than thirty five square miles.
This is more permanent ice than all the other Cascade
Range volcanoes combined. These glaciers are the source of six
major rivers. It poses one of the greatest volcanic hazards

(07:22):
in the world. So Mountaineer is an active volcano and
considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes on Earth, primarily
due to the significant threats of layers. Layers are destructive
mudflows made of volcanic ash, rock, and water that can
travel dozens of miles. If a major eruption or a
flank collapse occurs, layers could inundate densely populated areas like

(07:44):
or tang A piul up in parts of Tacoma downstream
within minutes to hours. The US Geological Survey monitors it intensely.
I'm gonna be headed out that way for a hike
with my daughter because she just graduated high school.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
You better watch Dante's Peak before you go.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
I already watched Dante's Peak. Remember we talked about this,
and it was awesome going back and watching how they
used to make old movies and how terrible they are.
But I still loved it.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Peak Pierce Brosnan.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Oh, Peak Pierce Brosnan. Not Double O seven Dante's Peak.
That was before Double O Subro, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (08:17):
I don't know. No, you looked that up. I look
that up.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
That's important.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
But was it before Mama Mia? Because that might be
Peak Pierce Brosnan. Him singing and Mama Mia is still
one of the funniest things I've ever seen. When he
first sings and belts out, I like, can't stop laughing.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
We'll get to the bottom of this. While Joe talks.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yes, so ice caves and a hot interior. Despite being
covered in ice, Mountaineer has a hot, active interior steam vents.
Those are fumaroles near the summit's two craters, melt ice
forming extensive ice caves within the glaciers. Climbers sometimes use
these caves for shelter, while some parts of the summit
caves have collapsed or become unstable over time. The presence

(08:54):
of these subterranean warm, icy tunnels is a direct result
of volcanic geothermal activity. All right, hold the phones here,
hold the phones.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Double seven came out in a golden I came out
ninety five, Dante's Peak came out ninety seven, and Mama
Mia came out in two thousand and eight.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
See Dante's Peak was peak Pierce bros.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Then, I mean he started his first movie is nineteen eighty,
So I don't.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Care about anything else that he's ever done. It's all
about Dante's.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Peak seventy two. So, yeah, you know what I'm gonna say.
Dante's Peak was peak, Pierce Bros's.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
It was his Dante's peak. It is one of the
deadliest peaks in North America. Just going right back at it, well,
not officially tallied by the NPS in a single easily
accessible public statistic. Mountaineer has claimed hundreds of lives over
its history, from climbing accidents, falls, hypothermia, avalanches, and other incidents.

(09:50):
Oh you know how he talked about hypothermia in the
previous episode. Yeah, you see the email from John Woods.
You have a listener. Yeah, he's the one that came
up with all the Barnado the Barnado stuff, and he's
done a lot of our videos. Let's remember to talk
about that.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Maybe he's experienced two really bad hypothermia events.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Do you have the email? Yeah, you want to pull
it up, and when we get to the dangers, we'll
touch on that. Well, he didn't explain it in the email. Yeah,
we can talk about what he said.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Didn't know, he just said we can talk with him
about it.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Oh, okay, all right, John read the email? Did you?
I used Gemini summarize for the first time. Apparently I'm
not going to do that again. So anyway, so John,
we're going to talk to you. You need to tell
us the story, send like a voice recording if we
can't get a hold of you. Yes, So back to
what we were saying this makes it one of the
most dangerous, if not the most dangerous mountains in North

(10:37):
America in terms of total fatalities, even compared to higher peaks.
The combination of its weather, complex, glacier systems, and popularity
draws many who may underestimate its challenges. Nearly deforced before
becoming a park, so before before it became the fifth
US National park in eighteen ninety nine, there was significant
logging activity in the area surrounding the mountain. The push

(11:00):
for the park satus was partially driven by the conservationalists,
who wanted to protect its unique old growth forests and
alpine metals from further destruction, recognizing its ecological and esthetic value.
So good on them, Good on them. Yeah, back then
it was really unpopular to be a pro climate. So yeah,
they're up against a lot, I'm sure. Yeah. Speaking of climate,

(11:21):
the park experiences a temperate rainforce climate at lower elevations,
transitioning to subalpine and alpine at higher altitudes. It's characterized
by a strong maritime influence from the Pacific Ocean, leading
to very high annual precipitation. The park receives exceptionally high
precipitation The west side of the park, where Longmire and
Comet Falls are located, is particularly wet due to orographic lift,

(11:44):
that is, moisture laden air from when the Pacific is
forced upward by mountains cools and then condenses into rain
or snow. Winters are very wet, with most precipitation falling
as snow at elevations above three thousand feet. Summers are
comparative drier, but rain and mountain storms are still common.
Even Longmire, which is at twenty seven hundred and sixty feet,

(12:06):
receives significant snowfall, but the area around Comet Falls at
four thy eight hundred feet and higher up accumulates very
deep snow packs during the winter. July is generally the
mildest and driest month at long Mere. Daytime temperatures can
range from the low sixties to low seventies or fifteen
to twenty five degrees celsius for our foreign friends. However,

(12:27):
temperature decreases significantly with elevation. The Comet Falls area will
be cooler, and nighttime temperatures throughout the park can drop considerably,
even into the forties or thirties, especially after sunset or
with cloud cover that is zero to ten degrees celsius.
Mountain weather is notoriously unpredictable. Even on clear sunny days,

(12:48):
conditions can shift rapidly to fog, clouds, rain, or cold temperatures,
increasing risk of hypothermia. And if John Woods told us how,
we'd say that here, but he did not. So we're
not going to big thing the mountains. You want to
get off the peak like kind of around noon. You
don't want to be up there late going early morning.
You're usually gonna be.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Okay, storms usually start rolling in if there's gonna be
some in the afternoon. Agree, Yeah, sorry, I was reading
John's emails to make sure I wasn't.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
I'm sure you're correct. Well, okay, I thought he did
say something like brief. He said it wasn't the whole deal,
but he said he would like elaborate.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
He had some mild nerve damage in his fingers from frostbite.
That's really all you said. But yeah, that's what I
was picking up on.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Okay, But yeah, we should reach out to him and
maybe he'll give us a sound bite or two. So
the terrain in the area where Wood went missing. The
landscape is highly irregular, shaped by volcanic activity. Glacial erosion
and water. The features include steep slopes, rocky outcrops, deep ravines,
cliff bands, and areas prone to rock fall or mudslides.

(13:49):
The main trail is often carved into the sides of
these steep hillsides, but venturing off trails presents immediate and
severe challenges. The hike begins at Longmire, which is at
the twenty seven hundred feet mark. The destination Comet Falls
at foury eight hundred feet, meaning a contiguous, strenuous uphill truck.
The terrain generally gets steeper and more rugged as one

(14:11):
ascends beyond Commet Falls towards Van Trump Park or Mildred Point,
his presumed direction. The elevation continues to climb into sub alpine,
eventually alpine zones, featuring even steeper slopes, rockier train and
more exposed areas. So it just gets worse and worse
as you go.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yeah, it's a cool hike. I definitely want to go
back there again.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
I'm going to see if I can get out there
with my daughter. We're hitting like a lot of parks.
I'm gonna do a lot of videos when we're out there.
We're just going up to Canada, and driving down and
just doing hot spots of Pacific Northwest. Cool. So that
was her one thing. Each of our kids can pick
a trip before they go to college, and she wanted
to go hike Pacific Northwest as like, oh, yeah, you
are my daughter? Yeah, perfect, Yeah, that's what you want
to do, all right? Perfect?

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Can I be your adopted son?

Speaker 1 (14:57):
I would put you back up for adoption. The lower
and mid elevations, including the initial parts of Common Falls Trail,
are dominant. We've never had one returned.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, he's he's in his he's middle aged. You can't.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
I don't even know how you adopted him. Why are
you in our office? Including the initial parts of Common
Falls are dominated by dense old growth temperate rainforests. These
consists primarily of Douglas for western hemlock and other conifers,
often with a thick understory of ferns and moss. That's
exactly why I'm excited to go there. I've never been

(15:35):
in like deep old growth forces and northwest. I'm so excited. Yeah,
I want to hit all the Twilight filming locations.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
You might need more time than you've a lootted.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
I don't know how you don't know how long I'm
going to go there for.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
I mean, we were there for almost two weeks.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
You think you could outrun me. I'm just gonna say
that to everybody that walks by.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
It makes no sense.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
I hate those movies, but they're so good to watch.
The dense ve agitation can significantly impede visibility and off
trail travel, making it easy to get disoriented or lost.
I said, it really trade you. As elevation increases, the
forest transitions to subalpine meadows, interspersed with smaller, hardier trees
like mountain hemlock and sub alpine fur. The area is

(16:19):
heavily well why does it popping up? Heavily influenced by
Mountaineer's Glacier glacier and snow melt. It is crisscrossed by
numerous powerful flasks, fast flowing and icy glacial fed waterways.
Key streams in the air include Pro Creek, Van Trump Creek,
the Devil's Dream Creek. These creeks descend through steep, often rocky,
ravines and gullies, forming waterfalls like Comet Falls itself. A

(16:42):
little bit about the animals in the area deer, Roosevelt, elk,
black bear, marmots, coyotes, bobcats, cougars, they're a little less common.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
So no grizzlies, Nope, no grizzlies.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
None. Extreme snowpacks, so record snowfall. The nineteen ninety eight
nineteen ninety nine winter had seen record snowfall. At Mountaineer
they recorded two inches or ninety three point five feet
a lot of snow. That's a lot of snow. Even
in early July. This meant massive amounts of lingering snow,

(17:16):
especially at elevations about four thousand feet where wood was
last seen. This will lead to the deep covered snow
and basically obliterated many sections of hiking trails, making navigation
extremely difficult. A hiker could easily lose a trail and
straight into hazardous train. This was direct in critical danger.
Snow bridges are spans of snow that cover voids like crevasses,

(17:36):
deep gullies, or rapidly flowing streams, and can collapse or
be unstable when stepped on. So as the snow melts
in July, these bridges become dangerously thin and unstable, prone
to collapsing without warning. So it looks like solid ground. Yeah,
you could just be over a giant drop and not
know it.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, whenever I've been in alpine where there's snow, a
lot of times I'll sit there and before I walk
out on something, I'll use a hiking pole to kind of,
you know, like get a.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Little like shimmy, a little shaky what's under there. So
Bruce Common, the last person to see, would explicitly warn
him about a dangerous snow bridge further up the trail.
A fall through one of these could lead to a
fatal drop, submersion in icy water, or being trapped in
avoid so post holing deep melting snow makes for unstable footing.
Hikers can post hole sinking suddenly and deeply into snow,

(18:21):
which can lead to falls, twisted ankles, or becoming stuck.
Wet snow avalanches, while less common than winter avalanches, steep
slopes with melting saturated snow, can be prone to wet
snow slides, especially during warmer periods. That sounds way worse
than just snow itself. Like heavy, thick water laden snow. Wet.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah, wet snow avalanche. Yeah you just get crushed, Yeah,
just pushing you around on rocks.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah. Basically, no one should go to mountaineer in the winter.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
It sounds like, well, this is July, so this is
these dangers I kind of or July what woold could
have experienced in July at that time? Okay, because of
the heavy snow.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
That makes on Yeah, and then if that's not gonna
get you falls from cliffs and steep terrain will The
area around Comet Falls and Van Trump Park is extremely
steep and rugged. It features numerous sheer drops, rocky outcrops,
and deep ravines carved by water and glaciers. A misstep
on slippery snow or loose rock, especially when off trail,
could lead to a fatal fall. With extensive snow, Mountain July,

(19:19):
creeks and rivers in the area like pro Creek and
Van Trump Creek would have been swollen, extremely cold, and
flowing at a very high velocity. So what are you
gonna look out for? Hypothermia is obviously one of the
top items, especially with how wet it sounded like all
the snow was. And then disorientation and getting lost.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, So I mean his the conditions he was hiking in.
It's not your brain. You think I'm going hiking in July.
You don't think you're gonna experience all this stuff, but
they remember they got ninety three feet of snow. Yeah,
that's a lot of feet of snow upper elevations that
takes months to melt.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
So that's ten houses stacked on top of each other.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah, it's what tens building?

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah that's insane. Yeah no not No, ten houses decked
on top of each other.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
So I mean trying to think well, like without roofs
without Okay.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
So some tips for hiking safely in this area. Don't
you want to check the current conditions, upcoming weather forecasts.
Bring the essentials navigation, a map, compass, GPS, GPS device
and know how to use it, and have extra batteries.
Headlamp and flashlight with extra batteries again for unexpected delayser nightfall.

(20:31):
Sun protection is always important, especially with how the sun
can reflect off the snow. First aid kit for minor injuries.
You want a knife or repair kit, fire starters, shelter,
emergency blanket or lightweight tarp, extra food, extra water, extra clothes.
You do not want to get wet and stay wet,
so layers of non cotton quick drying clothing like wool
or synthetics. You want to know your route and stay

(20:53):
on trail. Acknowledge snow hazards, especially early in the summer,
share your hiking plan with friends and family, hydration and nutrition.
And in this situation, if you lose the trail, just
don't go. I've turned around many times where there's been
like an avalanche over the trail. Yeah, and just I'm
done for the day. Yeah, not worth it. No, and
know the signs of hypothermia before you get to the

(21:13):
point where you don't know you of hypothermia. Mike, why
don't you tell us a little bit about Joe.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah, So the subject of tonight's case, his name was
Joseph Joe Lee Wood Junior. Date of birth was nineteen
sixty five. He went missing on July eighth of nineteen
ninety nine. He was a male aged thirty four. We
didn't have any description really of height, weight, hair, eye color.

(21:38):
He was African American ethnicity. He had no distinguishing physical
marks or characteristics that were widely publicized that I could
find clothing Garria's last scene, and so you'll get the
sense that he was not really planning to do more
than a quick day hike, because he definitely was not
prepared for that. He had a light shirt on, he

(21:59):
had a newly purchased lightweight windbreaker. He was carrying binoculars
and a bird watching book, and he was equipped for
a day hike. But like I said, he lacked any
equipment for an overnight stay. So he didn't have adequate food,
warm clothing, or any type of emergency shelter. So obviously

(22:20):
when we get into the timeline, this will factor into
what we think happened to him. Personality wise, he seemed
like a really cool dude. Everyone that knew him loved him.
He was considered an intellectual and cultured. He was a
prominent book editor and journalist. He was highly respected in
literary and journalistic circles. He was described as part of

(22:41):
an intellectual mafia of black writers, so very well known
at the time. He was known for being very bold
and direct, he demonstrated by his pointed questions to Bill
Bradley at a conference breakfast, and he was described as
bold by Cornell West. He was known as curious and engaging.
His interest in birdwatching and hiking really suggested a curious

(23:05):
nature and a desire to engage with the world around him.
He was also described as very independent. His decision a
solo hike suggests a degree of self reliance and enjoyment
of solitude. And obviously, being an editor of a major
publication from New York City, he was very well connected.

(23:25):
He had an extensive network of friends and colleagues, and
it really highlights his social engagement and impact. Medical issues, now,
this is an interesting one. So he had recently just
discovered a heart issue only a few months before his
disappearance and was considering getting a pacemaker, So that might

(23:46):
have played a factor in this. Anytime you're hiking at elevation,
you're putting more strain on your cardiovascular system just because of.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Getting the two.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
And if you think about it, New York City is
at something like thirty three feet above sea level, and
that's the elevation he's used.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
To see how close you are keep going.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
And now he's hiking up at elevation above four thousand feet,
which normally is not four thousand feet is really not
gonna stress your body out. You're really not gonna start
feeling it until.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
You're at Like, dude, did you have that in the notes?
I knew it ahead of time. It's exactly thirty three
feet above sea level. I was like, oh my god,
along like you really should. Like the little spirk on
your face gave you away. You're trying to hide it.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
I was.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
I was like giving you. I was like, oh my god,
you're a genius.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
I'll tell you where I knew, you know when elevation
starts to hit you when I went skiing in Breckenridge.
When we were carrying our bags into the house there,
that's Breckinridge is like, what seven thousand feet?

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Let's see if you got that one right. Guests are
the really specific number. I just want to see how
close se fifty nine feet. I'm always typing the wrong keyboard,
I think. I mean, I have two keyboards and two mice. Here,
what did you say?

Speaker 2 (25:06):
And fifty nine? All right?

Speaker 1 (25:09):
I have it in meters. Nobody wants meters.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
But while Joe's looking that up, did you find it
your way off?

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Nine thousand, six hundred feet?

Speaker 2 (25:16):
The Breckenridge is at nine thousand feet nine thousand, six
hundred Okay, so that's why I was feeling it. Nine
thousand feets. You're up there.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
So you're saying you were getting a little sick bringing
your luggage into your snow resort.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
I just wasn't used to the elevator, like I hadn't acclimatized.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
We had just we champagne problems.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, we've flown into Denver and then drove all data break.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
We flew into Denver and had to drive all day
to Breckinridge. Well, if I was I could barely carry
my bags into the resort so tired.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
I mean, if if we had really made it, we'd
have flown in the breck and Ridge.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Oh sorry, yeah, sorry, maybe when our show gets syndicated,
you can fly directly into Breckenridge.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
But to circle back to what I was trying to say,
fourth thousand feet shouldn't really. I mean, if you're exerting
energy all day four thousand feet, you'll start to feel it.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
But yeah, I am agreeing with you. I just like
teasing you. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
But either way, if he had a heart condition that
could have even been at four thousands feet could have stressed.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Sure, and your body and how rugged the terrain is.
I'll pull it back up on the screen like it's that.
There is no joke.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
So his occupation, he was obviously a book editor at
the New Press, which was formerly The Village Voice. He
was also a journalist hobbies. Like I said, he was
in the hiking, bird watching, outdoorsmanship experience in the wilderness.
He was an eagle scout, so he also just was
a keen outdoorsman. He enjoyed spending time in natural environments,

(26:46):
and he was comfortable with general hiking. He was not
an expert mountaineer, so he was experienced in general wilderness hiking,
but he wouldn't be considered an expert in high altitude,
glaciated or technical mountain conditions, which are very prevalent at
mountaineer And like Joe said, when we were going through

(27:08):
the climate in the hazards, you really need to be
pretty comfortable in that type of environment to safely hike.
And not all of mountaineers like that. But the hike
he was trying to do was difficult for his skill level.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
I believe. Yeah, it sounds like it, especially given the conditions.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, and we do not know if he was familiar
with this location. I'm going to go out on a
limit say he probably had never hiked this area before.
He was in Seattle for a conference and he decided
to just go do a day hike. Friends and family.
His statements about him like I said, people loved him.
You know, bold intellectual sounds like a really cool guy.

(27:48):
Getting right into the timeline. It's July seventh, nineteen ninety nine.
It's the evening. So what arrives in Seattle, checks into
his hotel, meets his friends andling Samini Semgupta, a New
York Times reporter and his former partner. It's now July
eighth of nineteen ninety nine. It's the morning. Wood attends

(28:10):
a breakfast session at the Unity ninety nine conference. Among
the notable attendees are doctor Cornell West, who is a
renowned academic and former Harvard professor, and Bill Bradley, a
former NBA star and then a Democratic presidential hopeful. During
the breakfast Wood it was noted that Wood was asking

(28:32):
some really pointed questions. He was being very direct and bold.
He actually asked Bradley. He was quoted, how are you
going to distinguish yourself from Gore Visa VI, the black community,
and what makes you think you can win? Cornell West
later recounted later recounts the question as particularly striking. That

(28:53):
just goes into the kind of person. He was very bold,
and you know, he didn't care who he was talking
to potential president of the United States. I'm going to
ask him what I want to ask him. After breakfast,
Wood decided to take a trip to Mountaineer for a
hike and bird watching, which, like I said, was a
personal interest. He rents a car in Seattle for the
roughly sixty mile drive, and he recognizing the park's variable weather,

(29:16):
he purchases a lightweight windbreaker. So now it's approximately twelve
PM to twelve twenty nine pm. Wood drives from Seattle
to Mountaineer during this time. At twelve twenty nine pm
he enters the park. So he entered Mountaineer National Park
via the Nisqually Entrance on the park's southwest side, and
this entry time was confirmed by a car parker seat

(29:38):
that was later found and reported weather conditions at the
time it was sunny and mild, with temperatures in the
low seventies, but with notable wind, but all in all
pretty pleasant.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
To say, Like, when you started that type of temperature,
you think you're gonna have an easy day hike for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
Now, like you said, he's starting his hike at twelve
thirty Yep, no, boy, I know I would start that
hike at five thirty am.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
I'd say minimum, like depending on where you plant it.
If you're like gonna summit, yeah, two or three am.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Yeah, you get out the sun comes up, absolutely, and
part of that's to avoid the crowd.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
Yeah, well he said he wasn't. You know, he's an
Eagle Scouts, so he probably knows what he's doing outside.
But if he's not a mountaineer, I think people wouldn't
think that.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
Knowing what to do outside and hiking in alpine environments
is different. Yeah, but like even when we hiked the
Angel Staircase in Angel Landing, Angels Landing, Yep, Angel Staircase.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
I don't way, I said that. I don't know either.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
We started hiking that at four thirty in the morning. Yeah,
the sun was We had to get through Walters Wiggles.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Walters Wiggles, remember, No, you know the back and forth
road all the way up to Yeah. Yeah, it's called
the Walters Yeah, I'll pull it up, keep going. That's
I love that name more than anything.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
So it's now early afternoon when he commences his hike.
Would likely parks his rental car at the Longmire parking Lot,
which is an elevation of two thousand seven hundred and
sixty feet and not likely that's where his car was found.
Why I put likely? This is a common starting point
for the comet falls.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Walter's wiggles. Oh remember that?

Speaker 2 (31:11):
Oh yeah, it was like grueling. We did that in
our car.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
No, no, we fo Yeah, you do that on foot.
That's how you get Where was I? I must have
been like half awake. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
You're as you say, that was pretty memorable sharing the screen,
I am okay, yep, that's Walter's wiggles. Just back.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
How did I not remember that?

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah? Twenty one short steep, switchbacks.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Twenty one short steep. That doesn't look like a nightmare.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah, well Walter wiggled his way up there, and that's
how it got its name.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Wow, I don't even remember that. I don't know what
what I was doing.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
Yep. I'll pull a picture of us there to prove
to you.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
That I know I remember being on top of it.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Angel, I know you remember being up there, but you
don't remember Walter's wiggles.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
I just teleported up there. Yes, So where was I?
Like I said, wood parked at the long my parking lot.
This was the common starting point for the Comet Falls
Van Trump Park Trail system. He begins his hike, presumably
heading towards Comet Falls, which is a popular destination. As
I said before, he was equipped for a day hike.
He had binoculars and a bird watching book, but lacked

(32:15):
any provisions for an overnight stay, no adequate food, warm clothing,
or emergency shelter. It's now approximately two pm. This would
be the last confirmed sighting of Wood. He was last
seen by Bruce Galmond, a hiker from Olympia, Washington, near
Comet Falls. Comet Falls approximately three point three miles uphill

(32:36):
from Longmire on the Rampart Ridge Trail, which was at
an elevation of roughly forty eight hundred feet.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
What do we got there, Joe? This is I don't
know if this is off Walter's Wiggles.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
No, that's at the top. I remember that.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Okay, Yeah, here's Angel's landing. Yeah. I don't know if
I have Walter's Wiggles no, because I think it was dark.
Oh but when we got there, yeah, because we.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Started it probably four thirty or five in the morning.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
I remember coming back down. There were so many people
going up because we got up there at ten o'clock.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
In the morning. What a great trip.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah, looks like, what's Shay doing? You know? It's Ben.
It's Ben there sha putting some dip in. Yeah, they're both.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
They're both about to argue about something that doesn't need
to be argued about. That's what they did the whole time.
They just fought each other or whatever.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
They Yeah, it's funny.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
See, like what I'm even laughing at him, Like, hah,
you guys are fighting over dumb stuff, all right.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Anyway, Anyway, so Gommand observes would approximately one hundred yards
off the main trail, following footprints in steep difficult train
covered by an unusual amount of compact snow, probably about
four to six feet deep for early July. And again,
this is like Joe said, it's really easy to wander

(33:53):
off trail, especially if you see footprints, you just assume
that's part of the trail. And if if you have
four to six feet of compacted snow, you're not gonna
see any Karens or anything marking the trail. This hiker
noted that Wood was wearing a light shirt and obviously
his newly purchased windbreaker. Asks Gommon. If the snow covered

(34:14):
trail continues, hiker warns would of a dangerous melting snowbridge
furler up the trail, which he described as unstable and hazardous,
and advises turning back. Gommond himself turns back after evaluating
the risks. So, despite the warning and the evident danger,
Wood is observed continuing onwards, seemingly following the footprints in

(34:34):
the snow, potentially aiming for Van Trump Park or Mildred Point.
I would say it's always good advice if you come
across other hikers that seem to know the area a
little better or seem a little more experienced than they
advise you to maybe turn around. I would probably do it. Yea.
If someone told me there's an unstable snowbridge up the

(34:56):
trail and it's very hazardous, I'm probably to turn around.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
Oh yeah, I've had people. I was the second attempt
at Long's Peak. That's a guy was up ahead of
us and he was coming back. He's like, hey, I
wouldn't go. I was like done. I didn't even question.
I asked questions about why, but I was like I
just wanted to know why. I wasn't gonna not listen
to him. He was a native Colorado and that we
told me what to do. I was like, all right,
I'll listen to you, man.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
We when we were in the tee Tons, we were
coming down this nasty switchback. It was late in the day.
It was like five or six o'clock at night, and
we had just hiked all day up over the paint
Rush divide and we were coming back down and once
you get to the bottom of the switchback is where
our permitted campsite was. And we came across this family,

(35:43):
this husband and wife and a couple of their smaller kids,
and they were in like sandals and they're getting ready
to go up the switchback. And it's six thirty in
the evening. Hey, we told him. We told him, He's like,
you guys should probably turn around and do this in
the morning.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
And they didn't listen.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Kept going all right, So what episode were they? No,
it's just and I'm not saying we're like.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
Yeah, they could have made it out, and lots of
people do, but yeah, there's unnecessary risks that you don't
need to take.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
I'm guessing they were the end of their trip and
they're trying to cram something in and they probably got
halfway up the switchback and said, yeah, let's turn. It's
definitely something you want to go down. Yes, afternoon. This
would be post sighting. It is theorized, so this is
not known, but theorized that would continued his ascent into

(36:32):
increasingly challenging in snow covered terrain. The path towards Van
Trump Park and Mildred Point involves navigating dense forests of
western hemlock and Douglas Fir, crossing active glacial meltwater streams
like Pearl and Devil's Dream Creeks, which could have been
treacherous because they might have had snow ridges across them

(36:53):
and they were probably flowing really fast at this time.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Oh yes, if you fall through there, you're gonna get
swept away. Yeah. Yeah, freezing water, thirty five degree water
like just recently just smelted. Yes, you'll have maybe a
couple minutes.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, if you're lucky, And if you fall through a snowbridge,
you're going to be submerged and then covered by more snow.
And if you have a heart condition, the shock from that,
oh man, yeah, okay. So the conditions were deceptively warm,
warm sun but significant snow cover, especially off trail and
at the higher elevations, which created hidden dangers, and given

(37:31):
his light clothing and lack over night gear, hypothermia would
become a serious threat if he had become stranded after dark.
It's July ninth. Now, what day was it before? That
was July eighth.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
Yep, July eighth generally falls before Januly ninth. Thank you
for that on the calendar.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
Yes, yeah, okay, learning something new every day.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
The more you know I see the star, the more
you know it's July ninth, which comes after July eighth.
Thank you, Joe. Nineteen ninety nine. It's three fifteen. Wood
fails to meet his friend in Seattle's planned which starts
raising concerns. It's now July eleventh of nineteen ninety nine.

(38:13):
Wood was scheduled to check out of his Seattle hotel
at this time, but does not. Obviously, this significantly increases
alarm among his friends and colleagues, who expected him back
at the conference or in route to New York. Now,
the funny thing is I'm thinking about this is nineteen
ninety nine. Cell phones aren't as prevalent as they are now.
I mean, everyone had, you know, everyone in his circle

(38:36):
probably had cell phones. But I feel like if that
were me, I would have been concerned much sooner than that.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
If he wasn't responding.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
If I knew you were going on a solo hike
Ereineer on July eighth, and it's now July eleventh, and
I tried texting you, Hey, you're supposed to go out
for a day a day. You're supposed to be back
to last two nights ago.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
Although unless if he was like a precarious individual, like, oh,
he's off in some adventure, that's like, I here's to
benefit of the doubt to them, that could have been
par for the course. I mean, he did just go
by a jack of o, I'm in a Hikereneer, Like
maybe they thought he was just off doing other stuff.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yeah, maybe his friends are. Now it's July eleventh, his
friends are very concerned. He hasn't checked out of his hotel.
On July twelfth of nineteen ninety nine, friends, including some Gupta,
become increasingly worried when Wood is unreachable by cell phone
and has not returned to the conference or New York
s Gupta begins an urgent round of calls to ascertain

(39:33):
his whereabouts. July thirteenth of nineteen ninety nine, sin Gupta
files a missing person report with the Mountaineer National Parks
Service Office. Park officials almost immediately locate Wood's rental car
in the Longmire parking lot. Inside the car, they find
a sweater and a briefcase containing clothes, confirming he had
not intended an overnight stay. And this actually really helped searchers.

(39:57):
So this narrowed the search area significantly. So the Comet
Falls Van Trump Park trail system. Now, could you go
back to the map and where is Longmire Parking Let's
look here. You just kind of want to get a
picture of where he started.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
It was it said it before. It was like the
visitor center. That's probably where we want to go long
Willderness Information Center.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Yeah, try, that's the close that is to here.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Oh, I don't know if that this is like where
the parking lot is. You have the museum, like you
know how they have like the area's the national park. Yeah,
like all that you can buy all the stamps and stuff.
But unless he went to the campground Comet Falls, Comet
Falls trailhead. Okay, yeah, there's a parking lot here. It
looks like is that a parking lot? No that I

(40:46):
mean there's oh here we go, yeah, right here, but
that's no side road. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
This is the general area.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Here we go. It's somewhere here. Yeah, there we go.
If I zoom out far enough.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
It's somewhere in that one hundred square miles. Yeah, where's
Comet Falls? Because he was relatively close.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Common Falls is right here?

Speaker 2 (41:08):
Okay, that is some that's.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Not arley, that is yeah, that's like yeah, there's and
now you have like dense snowpack and snow bridges. That's
no joke. No, but yeah, I mean if it's seventy
degrees when you start, yeah, you're not sunny, you're yeah,
you're not thinking about.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
And if you're not used to hiking in alpine conditions, yeah, you.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Think you think it's like a great day to be
out hiking.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
You can get lulled into thinking this is going to
be a great hike. And it's July.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
You know what could go Seventy July sunny sounds like
a wonderful day to go hiking.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Yeah, and yeah, Longmire parking lot that must be and
the common starting point is the Comet Falls Van Trump
Park trail system.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah, so that's right here, this is Common Falls Van
Trump Park trail hud.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yeah, so he must have parked down by that visitor
center and then hiked up there.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yep. Oh, I'll get the all trails going, keep.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
Going, okay, So, like I said, July fourteenth, park officials
locate woods rental car almost immediately at the Longmere parking lot,
and they found all that stuff inside his car. July
fifteenth of nineteen ninety nine, a massive search and rescue
operation begins. They really focused intensely on the Comet Falls
in Van Trump Trail area. The search involved a lot

(42:24):
of different assets. They had backcountry rangers, firefighters, numerous volunteers,
up to thirty eight people at its peak, between four
and five bloodhounds, and they had a helicopter. Bruce Gouman
sees this. So at this time, Bruce sees a newspaper
story about the missing hiker and contacts rangers, confirming his
July eighth sighting and providing critical deal details about Wood's

(42:47):
last known location and direction of travel, as well as
the dangerous conditions. Very helpful for searchers that Bruce contacted
them so now they kind of have a bullseye where
they can start their search radiate out from. Now Joe
has got all trails up.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
I want to see what type of elevation gain you
get from.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
So one mile you're seven hundred feet yeah, half a
mile while.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
And a half of one thousand feet. That's taking it
for a little bit there. Oh, that's it, and then
you're going back down.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
So that obviously wasn't the trail because he was spotted
at about forty eight hundred feet.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
No, no, this is the elevation gain. Oh gain, yeah, yeah,
that's not altitude, so that was It's twelve hundred feet
again in three and a half miles. That's that's deep. Yeah,
that's no joke.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Easier if you're you know, packing light. Yeah, but still
we had our standard fifty pounds on our backs. That
would be a fun little hike.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
I know, right, we're so not lightweight. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Search conditions during the search were extremely challenging due to
the heavy snowfall from the preceding ninety eight ninety nine
winter season. Like Joe said, over one thousand inches of snow.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Seeing they say the estimated time is two and a
half hours. So again seventy sunny. You're looking up a
popular hike. Oh, I'll go out there. It's two and
a half hours. Yeah, that's everything about that sounds doable.
I'm gonna look to see if there's reports. You keep going.
I'm gonna look for trip reports from that time.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
While the weather on July eighth was clear, the ground
is still covered by two feet of actively melting snow.
This obscured tracks, It created hazard hazardous train So we're
talking hidden creeks, crevasses, unstable snow bridges, and potential for
post hooling, which Joe talked about basically quickstand quicksand and snow.
So the melting snow also makes it very difficult for

(44:36):
scent dogs to pick up a consistent trail. So it's
July sixteenth of nineteen ninety nine. Now heavy rains begins,
which severely hampered the search efforts and increased the risk
of hythermia for anyone's surviving in this area. So if
Wood is still alive, he's gonna have a really difficult

(44:56):
time on his hands, especially with the gear that he
had at the time his hike. Despite this, rangers extend
the active search by one day due to a forecast
of improving weather. No evidence of Wood or his belongings
were found. And I gotta go back to the thing
we say every episode. You gotta give these searchers a

(45:16):
lot of credit. They doesn't matter what park, what state.
Any someone goes missing, they've never met him, they probably
never will meet them, and they risk their lives to
go up there. Doesn't matter what race you are, what
gender you are, what you do for a living, rich, poor,
If you've gone missing, they're gonna go out there and
look for you in any condition. Yeah, it's quite amazing.

(45:40):
I can't think of many other things in life that
are that selfless.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Really, No, I agree? I mean I have a gripe
with All Trails Oho our sponsorship, and I know right
they updated their algorithm so it's so much harder to
go back in time. That stinks. Yeah, I'm so dumb.
This didn't exist in ninety nine. Man, I don't know

(46:07):
what I was thinking. Okay, go on, just out of myself,
I'll cut it out.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Why aren't there any reviews from nineteen thirty two?

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Like why can't I search it back to nineteen ninety nine?
An All Trail geez?

Speaker 2 (46:16):
Like how you probably started. It was in diapers then, yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
Why do you think it was a guy? Could have
been a female.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
Oh we could have been Oh we're gonna cut that out.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
No we won't. Oh this is beautiful.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
What river is that?

Speaker 1 (46:28):
This is Comet Falls via van So it's just along
the trail that's not common falls yet but this is
like on the way up there it is.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
And oh now some eight hours ago.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Yeah, Amelia Rose, wonderful pictures, amazing listictures show. Yeah, they
just post it.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
So it's June. Yeah, and look at the snow.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Yeah, it's like a couple of feet in some areas. Yeah,
that's gorgeous. Like he's is his T shirt so it
must be warmish. Yeah, look at that.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
Holy cow.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
Yeah this is three days ago.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
And we don't know the kind of snow they got
this year. It could have been.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
How raging the water is all that's melting? Yeah, look
at that? That is legit.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
Yeah I should I really wish I could find the
pictures of when we were on Mountaineer.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Did you even look?

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Well, they would probably be on Facebook.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Okay, I'll go off screen and look and if I
can pull it up. All okay, all right, keep going.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
It is July eighteenth of nineteen ninety nine. Sengupta and
friends traveled a mountaineer and attempt to hike the Comet
Falls area where Wood was last seen. They are turned
back by rangers due to the hazardous snow covered trails.
In a poignant gesture, they leave an earring under a
dwarf dogwood tree near the trailhead is a token for Wood.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Are you off screen? Yes?

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (47:44):
I told Jo would you need to trust me?

Speaker 2 (47:47):
We'll do some trust falls after the episode.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
No, we won't. No, we won't.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
I don't trust you enough.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
When did you go around or do you have an album?

Speaker 2 (47:57):
Probably this is long enough ago where you just still
put albums on Facebook, right, I don't even really put
pictures on Facebook anymore?

Speaker 1 (48:05):
I know, right, what's wrong with you?

Speaker 2 (48:06):
I know? Well, we did a lot of funnier stuff
back then.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
Oh man, I'm bringing up a lot of memory here, yeah,
because I'm not sharing the screen. Yeah, you know, like
what the year was, I'll find it that way.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
I remember that. I don't remember the year now. Now
you're prabaying to just dig through photos.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
Pre Joey wedding stuff, because that's how you name my
bachelor party and your album's pre joey wedding stuff. Probably
that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
So July nineteenth of nineteen ninety nine. Oh, there's that's
yo seventy yosemity was that when I was off recording,
ye unexplained flame. That was our You didn't miss a
lot because of the smoke.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
Yeah, all right, keep going, Okay, I'm getting real stop
being distracted.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
We'll cut all this.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
No we won't.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
It's July nineteenth of nineteen ninety nine. So after five
days of intensive search efforts that yielded no clues, the
official search official large scale active search is formally suspended.
Oh go back, it's Flavio Grands Flaby. We called them
Blueberry that trip, so he wore a blue shirt and

(49:17):
blue shorts.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Park official site.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
The hazardous conditions rain, cold temperatures, persistent and rapidly melting
snowpath your phone.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
I'm gonna need to scary it and you didn't pick it. No,
that's like a very potent psychedelic mushroom. Oh really, yeah
you could. You could have had called that one one
and they claim that that's an Olympic Yeah, that's a
very popular mushroom. Amongst psychedelic mushroom us. I had no clue. Yeah,
you wouldn't. I don't know why I know either.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
I thought it was just cool looking.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Yeah, oh there's now you're getting there. I'll show this
one because it's really Actually, that's really nice. Three of them?
Were they in a circle?

Speaker 2 (49:55):
No?

Speaker 1 (49:55):
I think the lunch was just those those three. Sometimes
they like form. I think they call it like a
ferry ring. Oh really, yeah, they'll row in a circle sometimes. Interesting. Yeah,
it's a cool mushroom. That's so super Mario Brothers. That's
like the that's what I was thinking when I took
that picture. That's kind of the inspiration for that. Okay,
you know how you like eat it and he like
he does weird things. She fire out of his hand

(50:15):
and things like that. Yeah you could have did that.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
All right, Well next time, next time.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
I'm not cheering anymore.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
Yeah, Oh, there we go.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
There's some of the glacier pictures mountaineer. All right, yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Guess you can so. Yeah, this was our time on
the mountain.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Twenty sixteen, twenty sixteen. That was so long ago. Oh god,
there is there is about Well that's actually a great
image right here, of a snowbridge. Yeah. See how it's
hollow underneath. Yeah. If this opening wasn't there, he could
be walking across that. Yeah, I'm sharing and then poop
right through. Now granted that's only a couple of feet, Yeah,
but get the impression. But imagine even just falling through

(50:53):
there on a rock, you break your ankle. Oh yeah easily.
So Yeah. If you're traversing across there and now you
have one of those river going under there, yeah, you
are potentially done for.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
We were pretty high up at this point. I don't
know what the elevation was, but we were getting up there.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
Yeah. It was cool. I love mountaineer. It's beautiful. Yeah.
And this was September.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Yeah, so it's getting a little chillier and cold.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
You haven't did you go to any did you go
to Comet Falls? From doing any of that? I don't
think so, yeah, I don't know. Just glaciers, yeah, big
tree choir. Oh, this is gorgeous. Yah. That's Olympic.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
That was on our hike into onto the coast. So
we're really in the like all the mosses and that's beautiful. Yeah,
that's what you have to look forward to.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
I'm still looking forward to I'm gonna go find Edward
Edward Twilight, Oh, Edward Cullen, Edward.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Okay, people are gonna hate this episode. We have veered
off so much.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
I know, we'll cut it out. We'll cut it all
out to like five minutes.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
We won't, all right, All right?

Speaker 2 (51:53):
Back to the case. July nineteenth of nineteen ninety nine.
This was when the large Scales search was formally suspended
due to hazardous conditions. All the stuff we've been talking about, rain,
cold temperatures, persistent rapidly melting snowpack, steep train, and just
the lack of any evidence of Wood. They found nothing

(52:13):
of him, and at this point they believed he might
have succumbed to hyperthermia given his light clothing and the
challenging environment. And at the time, Joe Wood became the
sixty fifth person to go missing in Mountaineer National Park's
history without being found in nineteen ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Geez, yeah, you.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Could do a whole show on just the people that
have gone missing in Mountaineer.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
Well at least sixty five episodes.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
Yeah, and this was twenty five years ago. Yeah, And
Ranger state they will conduct follow up searches after the
snow meoult was complete later in the season, which is
very common in any disappearance. It is now late summer
fall of nineteen ninety nine, as the immense snowpacks finally
met elt through the late summer and fall, park rangers
and volunteer searchers conduct several targeted follow up searches. They

(53:07):
meticulously combed the Comet Falls and Van Trump Creek areas,
including steep ravines, waterfall basins, dense forest sections often accessible
only after the snow has receded, and despite all of
these efforts, no remains, no clothing or any of Wood's
personal belongings. Binoculars are something that would not easily disintegrate

(53:31):
over time. You would assume if he hadn't, if he
didn't fall into a river, you would find those. They're sturdy,
They're going to last for a while. Yeah, because bird
watching book was missing, none of that was ever found.
So between nineteen ninety nine and the year two thousand,
Wood's father, Joseph Wood Senor, gathers friends and family, urging

(53:53):
them to accept the tragic likelihood of his son's death
and to cease exhaust of searching, emphasizing the knee for
grieving and closure. Wood's literary agent, Faith Child's, hires a
private investigator to retrace his steps and review the case,
but no new leads or evidence ever emerges. In the

(54:13):
year two thousand, memorials held for Wood at the Schomberg
Center in Harlem, reflecting his impact on New York's literary
and journalistic communities. Poet Major Jackson and in an Orion
magazine piece, suggests Wood was murdered, possibly due to a
racial motive. Novelist Lynn Tillman, a friend, agrees on the

(54:35):
dangers of hiking while black, but disputes the murder theory.
No evidence of foul play has ever found, so between
nineteen ninety nine to the present day, there has been
no remains, clothing belongings of Wood ever found. Not a
single trace of him has ever surfaced in the twenty

(54:56):
five years since his disappearance, and not that uncommon sadly
in cases we cover. So getting into just the theories
and then I'll open the stage to Joe. The leading
theory pretty much across the board was accidental fall or

(55:19):
irretrievable location. So the facts supporting this theory, there's numerous ones,
so The first set of facts are last known locations
and conditions, so off he was, off trail and dangerous train.
Wood was last seen by Bruce Gommon approximately one hundred
yards off the main trail, following footprints in deep compacted snow,

(55:43):
probably footprints that weren't on the trail, and this indicates
he ventured into less stable and potentially more hazardous terrain.
He didn't heed the dangerous snowbridge warnings, so the hiker
explicitly warned would about a dangerous melting snowbridge further up
the trail. And a snowbridge is, like Joe said, as

(56:03):
a span of snow, often unstable and thinning, covering a
voids such as a crevasse, a hidden gully, or a
fast moving stream. If Wood had continued and stepped onto
such bridge, it could have collapsed, plunging him into a
void or a fast moving river. He also had the
unusual snowpack of the ninety eight ninety nine winter season.

(56:24):
Like we said, it was a record snowfall, almost ninety
six feet of snow, and even in early July a
lot of the snow was still present, especially up at
higher elevations and in shaded areas, and at this time
it would have been actively melting, so it's much more
dangerous when it's actively melting. It would probably have been

(56:45):
safer from the hike up there in January when it
was all frozen, but you're hiking in July when a
lot of the snow under the surface is melting, and
it creates all these snowbridges like we've been talking about,
and it just creates a ton of hidden dangers. So
it can obscure trails, cliffs, ravines, crevasses, and one misstep

(57:07):
and it's done. It can also create unstable surfaces, and
the melting snow obviously is unstable, and it can lead
to what Joe mentioned, the post holing and icy water.
You've got all the snow melts, it's got to go somewhere.
It's going down those rivers, and it's cold. I've gone
swimming in a couple glacial lakes in the mountains and

(57:29):
that is the coldest water I've ever experienced in my life. Yeah,
I mean, second you get in, your body just goes numb.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
Yeah, everything just goes Yeah, you can't breathe. It's like, yeah,
it's wild how cold it is. It's cold and then
doing the polar punch here probably, I mean, yeah, no,
it's definitely colder than yeah that I've done one year
where you're they'd cut through the ice, so maybe, but
even then it feels.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
So it's just the shock though too, Like whenever I've
done it, we've been hiking for half a day, so
you're hot and sweaty, and then you go and get
into this glacial lake and it's like whoa, yeah, wakes
you up, that's for sure. Other facts supporting this theory
is just the environment of Mountaineter National Park, so it's
rugged vertical train. You can't stress that enough if you've

(58:17):
never been there. The area around Comet Falls in Van
Trump Park is characterized by just extremely steep slopes, numerous clips, cliffs,
deep ravines, waterfalls. A fall down this terrain would be
serious injury, if not death, and sadly a body could
become could come to rest in an an inaccessible location

(58:38):
that's never going to be found. And another risk and
a fact that supports the series the glacial melt water.
So the park is obviously heavily influenced by glacial melt
and these streams such as Pearl and Devil's Dream. Creeks
which would have crossed or been here, are powerful and
turbulent during this time. A body falling into a stream

(59:02):
like this would be quickly carried away, potentially very far downstream,
become lodge beneath rocks or logjams, and again would make
recovery almost impossible. And then you've got just the dense
vegetation we were looking at just a couple of pictures
of Olympic which is not very near, but it's not
the primary cause of his disappearance, but there's very dense

(59:22):
old growth forests there which would help conceal a body,
especially from aerial searchers, and it would just make it
it's just more difficulty when they're trying to search for somebody.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Other facts that support this theory are Wood's preparedness and experienced.
He was a decent outdoorsman, I don't think we can
disagree with that, but not a mountaineer. So it's just
a different scenario when you're hiking in the mountain, especially
a place as rugged is a mountaineer and he just
wasn't prepared for even a day hike, you still need

(59:57):
to prepare for that. He had light gear on he
was equipped for a day hike, light shirt, windbreaker, and binoculars.
I would I was doing a day hike, I would
still bring enough gear to survive a night interineer. Yes,
that's because we overpack. Yeah, but we also don't get
lost knock on wood. Not yet Yeah, not yet. If
he had suffered an injury or become stranded for even

(01:00:18):
a few hours, the combination of the cold temperatures, especially
at night, and the exposure would quickly lead to hypothermia
and most likely death. And the other facts that support
this theory is just the complete lack of any evidence
despite the search. This really is the most compelling evidence
for the accident theory, one of the largest and most extent.

(01:00:41):
It was probably not the largest search in mountaineer's history,
but it was a big search, and they had a
trained personnel, dogs, team, dog teams, helicopters, and they scoured
thousands of acres for days and didn't find anything. So
the complete absence of any trace, no clothing, no backpack, innoculars,
bird book remains strongly suggests that if he had fallen,

(01:01:06):
his body and all his belongings were either carried away
by water, buried under snow and ice, or fell into
an accessible void. If he had simply succumb to hypothermia
on the surface or died from a fall on more
accessible train, some trace of him or his gear would
likely have been found. The clean disappearance strongly points to

(01:01:27):
a deep concealment or complete removal from the meeting area.
Some of the theories that were dismissed, even though that
one book or article mentioned foul play, foul play has
been pretty much dismissed in this case. So there was
a lack of evidence. There's never been any forensic evidence,
witness accounts, or circumstantial clues to suggest foul play. There

(01:01:48):
was no signs of a struggle, no discarded items that
would indicate an altercation, and no suspicious individuals were reported.
Law enforcement agencies involved in the search also found no
indication of criminal activity. Now, the hiking while black article
did open up a debate, So Jackson's essay raised the

(01:02:08):
possibility of a racial of racial violence as a factor.
It was a broader social commentary on the vulnerability of
black individuals in certain spaces.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
Hey, it sounds like it was just a thing, he said.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
A specific claim of evidence for foul play in Wood's case,
So while you know it had valid societal discussions, it
does not provide evidence to support for a crime in
this particular disappearance. So the lack of physical evidence makes
this theory highly unlikely in the eyes of actual law
enforcement investigators. The final theory that was dismissed pretty quickly

(01:02:44):
was voluntary disappearance. So the main reason was there was
no motive. Wood was a successful, well connected, and highly
respected individual with a thriving career and a close network
of friends and family. There were no reports of financial troubles,
personal crises, or any other motive that would lead to
him abandoning his life, and he had actions that contradicted

(01:03:06):
this theory. So his actions leading up to the disappearance,
attending a prominent conference, engaging in bold public questions, his
known plans for travel all contradict the idea of someone
planning to vanish. People planning to disappear rarely leave such
clear trails or engage in such high profile activities just
before doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
Well, I haven't off the deep end, all right?

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Well yeah, well, now what's your theory?

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
I the one that stuck with me the most before
he even went in the theories, and then you said it.
I feel like and I could be biased because the
one interaction he had warned of a snowbridge, him falling
through into his stream and getting swept away just because
they couldn't find anything at all, I assumed he got
swept away.

Speaker 2 (01:03:46):
That's the accidental fall theory.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Yeah. I think that's what I've been thinking about the
whole episode, just based on what I saw from pictures,
and if it had that much like record snow the
whole deal and it was just melting, that seemed like
perfect storm conditions to make that happen. Yeah. My off
the deep end is if he's pushing the buttons of
a new presidential candidate.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
Oh, they're like, hey, Wood is going to be up
in the mountain. Stay, why don't you send that guy?

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
Pissed me off?

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
Send some of our goons up there to to go
hiking with him.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
Off the deep end is a political discourse.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Okay, so that's you're off the deep end. I'm gonna
say he stumbled upon Bigfoot's layer. For my off the
deep end, off the deep Pacific northwest, right, that's a
hotbed for Bigfoot sighting.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
No matter what you do, there's a hotbed for bigfoot sightings.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
No, in all seriousness, though, I think I think he
fell through a snowbridge. He didn't, he'd sadly didn't listen
to that hiker that was coming down, and having hiked
in areas like this and seeing snow bridges, you could easily,
if you don't know what you're looking for, walk across
one and fall through it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Yeah easily. Yep. I haven't been in this area, but
I've been on snowbridges and in areas where.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
Just yeah, you go right through and if you're unlucky
enough to have a fast moving river under it, oh yeah,
pretty much over.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
That cold Yeah, the whole deal.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Yeah, and his body could have been carried miles away.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
Yes, with that type of melt when the speed was
going down. Absolutely, Yeah, that's I think we're on the
same train. Yeah, all right, let us know your theories,
contact us on social media, share and like this all
but thanks again for tuning into our show. We appreciate
all of you for listening and sharing locations known with
your friends and family. Be sure to like and follow
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(01:05:28):
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where we'll have access to special events additional shows for
paid customers only. Lastly, when enjoying the beauty of nature,
whether backpacking, camping, or simply taking a walk, always remember

(01:05:51):
to leave no trace. Thanks and we will see you
all next time. To like to be fl

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Joseph Wood Jr - Mount Rainier National Park - Washington

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Joseph Wood Jr - Mount Rainier National Park - Washington