Do you know how to get to Bells Canyon?

MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories XX

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[0] Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad -free on Amazon Music.

[1] Download the Amazon Music app today.

[2] Today's podcast features two separate, unique stories that are both themed around the same thing.

[3] Strange events that took place in the wild.

[4] The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from my YouTube channel and has been remastered for this episode.

[5] The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

[6] The first story you'll hear is called the Russian death march.

[7] And it's about an event that was so horrifying, the one person who survived it couldn't speak when she finally stumbled, bloody, and terrified out of the forest.

[8] The second story you'll hear is called Bell's Canyon.

[9] And it's one of, if not the most, talked about episodes in the entire Mr. Ballin content catalog.

[10] It's about a solo hiker who comes face -to -face with a very strange nighttime visitor.

[11] But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious, delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[12] So, if that's of interest to you, please kidnap the five -star review button and then force them to brush their teeth with a very minty toothpaste.

[13] When they're done, make them drink a huge glass of orange juice.

[14] Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Paulin podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts, so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads.

[15] Okay, let's get into our first story called The Russian Death March.

[16] I'm Dan Tiberzky.

[17] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York.

[18] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[19] What's the answer?

[20] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[21] Hysterical.

[22] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[23] Binge all episodes of Hesterical early and ad -free on Wondry Plus.

[24] By 1993, Ludmila Corovina, who was a 41 -year -old Russian hiking instructor, came under fairly intense criticism from her colleagues for being too survivalist with her students.

[25] They thought she was a little bit too aggressive with how she pushed her students, putting them in unnecessarily risky situations out in the wild where they weren't really ready for it and at any point she might push them too far and wind up getting someone killed.

[26] Her students, however, absolutely adored her.

[27] They said on the mountains, she was fearless and in tune with nature and they felt very safe around her.

[28] and then at camp, she was very motherly and tender and always took the time to make sure all of our students were taken care of well before she was.

[29] Former students have said the mentorship they received from Ludmila went well beyond just hiking instruction.

[30] They said she taught a mindset that they carried with them into adulthood, and they pointed to as one of the main reasons they were successful later in life.

[31] In the summer of 1993, Ludmila was scheduled to lead an expedition up to the Hamar -de -Ban Ridge, which is in eastern Siberia, and it's one of the old.

[32] oldest mountains on the planet.

[33] With her on this expedition would be six fairly experienced hiking students that ranged in ages from 15 to 24 years old.

[34] One of those six students was a 23 -year -old young man named Sasha, who, although he was not Ludmila's biological son, she called him her son because she had raised him ever since he was a young child, and he looked at Ludmila as his mother.

[35] Sasha also happened to be the most physically fit and competent of all six hiking students and he would function more like an assistant to Ludmila on this particular hike rather than a pupil.

[36] The other five students were 24 -year -old Tatiana, 19 -year -old Dennis, 16 -year -old Victoria, 15 -year -old Timor, and 17 -year -old Valentina, who she is the only reason we know anything about the horrible things that happened to this group up on Hamar Devon Ridge.

[37] On August 1, 1993, Ludmila and her hiking group boarded a trans -Siberian railway car in Kazakhstan, and later that day, they arrived in a town called Marino, which is on the eastern side of Siberia on the southern end, and it butts up against the base of the Hamar -de -Ban mountain range.

[38] The Hamar -Dibon mountain was not considered a very dangerous hike to make.

[39] It was relatively small.

[40] It was just under 2 ,400 meters in elevation, and in the summertime, you'd have scores of recreational hikers all over this mountain range.

[41] Plus, the weather forecast for Ludmila and her group's multi -day hike in that mountain range was going to be.

[42] be incredibly favorable.

[43] It was going to be warm, clear, nice summer weather.

[44] Ludmila had charted a course that began just outside of the town of Marino, which is the town they were staying in that first night.

[45] They were going to start next to Lake Baikal, which is the deepest lake in Russia.

[46] From the lake, they were going to move north and inland over the stretch that was totally barren.

[47] There was no trees, with just rocks and grass, before ultimately reaching the Hamar -de -Ban Ridge, which was their destination.

[48] And at that point, there would be shelter and firewood, and they could take a break before ultimately descending.

[49] And so in total, from the lake all the way to Hamar -de -Ban Ridge was approximately 50 miles.

[50] Ludmila's group would not be the only group making this particular movement towards Hamar -de -Ban Ridge.

[51] They'd be taking their own path, but there'd be two other groups that were on similar courses, basically parallel to them, making their way up to the ridge.

[52] And one of those groups was actually led by Ludmila's 16 -year -old biological daughter, and they had actually made plans to meet up on one of the last days of this multi -day hike as they were making their descent, there was a forest they were going to meet up in.

[53] So Ludmila and our six students stayed the night in Marino and the next morning they got up early and made their way over to Lake Baikal.

[54] The weather's beautiful.

[55] They're excited to start their journey and they'd take off.

[56] And everything was going great until the late afternoon.

[57] It would turn out the weather forecasters were just completely wrong.

[58] And as soon as the group climbed above the tree line, the temperatures plummeted and it started raining and snowing on them.

[59] It was just absolutely miserable.

[60] This treacherous weather would persist over the next few days and it really started to destroy the morale in the group.

[61] But Ludmila, she was a pro and she had hiked in far worse conditions than this.

[62] And so she made a point of telling the group that this stuff happens.

[63] Bad weather happens.

[64] We are prepared.

[65] We are trained.

[66] We're going to be fine.

[67] You need to have a positive attitude about this.

[68] We need to just keep pushing forward and not play a victim here.

[69] And that was enough to inspire the group to just keep on going.

[70] You know, they believed in Ludmila and she's telling them to keep going, so they kept going.

[71] By the evening of August 4th, so this is three full days of hiking later, they were only about 30 minutes away from the summit.

[72] They have now reached the point where they are in the open section of the mountain where there is no reprieve from the wind or the rain or the snow.

[73] There's no trees to block anything.

[74] And so it's just an absolute abomination trying to decline this last stretch.

[75] Every step is like an eternity as the wind just cuts through their clothes and they're soaking wet and miserable.

[76] Ludmila's students were not about to ask for a break.

[77] They knew how she operated.

[78] She was someone that really believed in pushing through your own pain and fatigue and misery.

[79] And she always led by example and they saw her, you know, right out in front leading the charge up towards the Hamar de Bonn Ridge.

[80] And so they were very surprised when she stopped and she turned around and told them we're taking a break.

[81] And in fact, we're actually going to camp out for the night right where we are right here.

[82] No one knows why Ludmila made this decision.

[83] You know, on the one hand, it does make sense to take a break and say, you know what, we'll reach the summit tomorrow.

[84] We've had a really hard couple of days here with the bad weather.

[85] We'll make camp and we'll get some rest and we'll hit the summit tomorrow.

[86] That makes sense.

[87] But where she elected to make camp does not make sense.

[88] She had them stop right smack dab in the middle of this totally open section of the mountain where there are no trees.

[89] There's no objects to protect them from the horrible wind and snow and ice and rain.

[90] That's just going to be pelting them all night.

[91] And so some people have speculated that when she looked at her crew of hikers, they were so badly beaten down and tired and miserable that she knew she could not ask them to go any further.

[92] And so that was why she said, let's just make camp here, we'll make do.

[93] Others have said her map may not have been very accurate.

[94] And so she didn't know how close she was to the summit, where at the summit there was literally a shelter that had firewood and a place for you to rest.

[95] Maybe she didn't know she was so close.

[96] Perhaps she thought she was much farther away and this is the best we can do.

[97] But what the inaccurate map theory does not account for is Ludmila would have known there is a forest about two and a half miles down the mountain because the whole time they've been on this hike, they've tried to stay up above the tree line as they make this final approach up to the ridge, and so she would have known there's a forest right down there.

[98] And if I wanted to, I could go down there and seek shelter in the trees.

[99] And so for whatever reason, she decided that we can't go down to the forest, we've got to stay here.

[100] And so perhaps that lends more credibility to the idea that the group was far more beaten down, then maybe we even realize, and she thought they can't make the two and a half mile journey.

[101] We're going to have to just make camp here and make do.

[102] But regardless of her reasoning, they did make camp right in the middle of this open section.

[103] They set up two wet, crappy tents, and they use their little kerosene stoves to make a tiny meal.

[104] And then they all crammed inside of these two tents and huddle as the wind howled outside.

[105] That night, the storm got much worse.

[106] The wind picked up, and again, they're totally exposed on this open section of the mountain.

[107] And so they're just getting destroyed by this wind.

[108] And at about 2 a .m., the wind actually broke the ropes that were holding the tents down.

[109] And they had to go outside and retie them.

[110] And they were able to do that.

[111] And then a couple hours later, at about 4 a .m., the wind actually lifted up the section of the tent that was facing where the wind was blowing.

[112] And it pulled the tent up in such a way that water rushed into the tent and soaked their sleeping bags.

[113] And they were able to go outside and they put the stakes back down on the ground.

[114] But, you know, they were sleeping in wet sleeping bags in the middle of this mountain, in the middle of a storm.

[115] So this is getting quite dangerous at this point.

[116] But they were able to eventually fall asleep.

[117] And at about 10 a .m. the next morning, Ludmila gets up and looks outside and she can see that everything is frozen, that it's snowed and the temperatures have dropped again, and everything is just snow and ice.

[118] And she knows that, you know, we're actually reaching very dangerous hypothermia territory.

[119] And if we don't warm up soon, this could be life -threatening.

[120] And so she woke everybody up and she said, we need to go down into that forest and we need to start a fire as soon as possible and so everybody said all right they got up they started packing up their things rolled up their tents and they began walking down the mountain in a line although this was not intended when ludmila had said we will reach the summit tomorrow that had delayed their schedule and it meant they were not going to be able to meet up with her daughter the next day but now in the morning when they're deciding basically to abandon the summit and turn around and head down again they were now back on schedule to meet up with her daughter down in the forest however her Goddard said she was at the rendezvous point in the forest and Ludmila and the six other hikers never showed.

[121] Four days later on August 9th, a group of Ukrainian kayakers were making their way down this river in southern Siberia and they were passing by the Hamar -Dibon mountain range.

[122] And so as they're kind of slowly moving their way down, it's this beautiful morning and they're looking up at the mountains all around them, the leader of this group happens to see something move on his left side.

[123] There's a forest right up against the left side of this river and he turns his head and he has to do a double take because there is this girl who's standing there at the edge of the forest looking out at them totally expressionless and she's covered in blood and she's not doing anything she's just standing there and at first he actually thought like we need to leave his first thought was we need to just get away from this person there's something wrong with this person but very quickly the group realized like we cannot abandon this girl this is a young girl who should not be out here I don't know what she's doing out here and so they turned around and they went on shore and they yelled to her.

[124] They said, are you okay?

[125] And she just stood there not reacting.

[126] And they tried a couple more times to say, you know, hey, we're not going to hurt you.

[127] We just want to know what's going on.

[128] And she didn't say a word.

[129] She just stood there in shock.

[130] She looked very scared.

[131] They finally got up right next to her.

[132] And they asked her, you know, what are you so scared of?

[133] Were you coming from?

[134] And they just could not get her to speak.

[135] But they're up close looking at her.

[136] And, you know, she's got blood all over her.

[137] She looks dirty.

[138] She looks like she might be sick.

[139] And so they decide that, you know, this girl needs help and they had blankets.

[140] And so they threw blankets over her.

[141] They put her in one of the kayaks and they brought her back to town.

[142] Once in town, the Ukrainian kayakers went and got authorities and said, hey, we found this girl.

[143] You know, she was covered in blood walking out of the forest.

[144] We have no idea what's going on with her.

[145] And so authorities came over to speak to her.

[146] And although she barely spoke, she would finally say that she was 17 years old.

[147] Her name was Valentina Yotachenko and that she had been a part of a seven -person hiking group up along the Hamar -Dibon Ridge.

[148] And then she paused and they said, well, where's your hiking group?

[149] How did you get separated?

[150] This is what she told them.

[151] Back on the morning of August 5th, so this would have been the morning after that terrible night's sleep on the mountain where the tent ropes are breaking and their sleeping bags are getting soaking wet.

[152] Well, Valentina wakes up and she looks outside of the tent and she sees Ludmila and she's standing there with her hands on her hips and she's looking around.

[153] She looks very concerned.

[154] Valentina goes out there and Ludmila turns to her and says, we need to leave.

[155] We need to go down to the forest and we need to make a fire.

[156] Can you help me wake everybody up and start having them pack up their stuff so we can get moving?

[157] So Valentina goes in, she starts waking people up and everybody very quickly packs up the tent, packs up their things and they're in a line and they start walking down in the mountain.

[158] They had only made it about 10 meters into their descent when Sasha, the 23 -year -old young man that Ludmila considered her son, he just suddenly falls.

[159] And the other hikers, Valentina included, run over and they help get him up again and he looks kind of shaken.

[160] he takes a couple more steps and he falls again.

[161] And this time, when Valentina goes over to try to help him up with the others, they see his eyes are wide and he looks like he's really terrified and then blood starts rushing out of his nose and his ears and his mouth.

[162] And then he just suddenly dies.

[163] And Ludmila runs over and she grabs him and she's panicking and she's trying to feel for a pulse and she's checking for his heart.

[164] And then she screams out in pain and anguish and she yells he's dead.

[165] The other hikers can't believe this is happening.

[166] They can't even process that.

[167] someone any of them had died let alone it be sasha the most physically fit and healthy one of all of them including up until a few minutes ago he wasn't showing any signs or symptoms that something was wrong he was perfectly fine what's going on ludmila was in shock she's on the ground and she's holding on to sasha and she's telling the group that she's not going anywhere she's staying with sasha and valentina would say the group is just falling apart at this point you have some of them that are crying others who are just standing there looking around like what's happening to us right now and at some point Ludmila collects herself and she says to the group, go down to the forest.

[168] Go down to the forest and start a fire.

[169] And Valentina said they didn't want to leave her and they were pleading with her to let them stay.

[170] And she said, no, go down to the forest and start a fire.

[171] And finally, Valentina said the group would.

[172] They'd get together and they'd turn around and not really knowing what was going to happen next.

[173] They just begin walking down this mountain and they only get a few steps.

[174] They hear Ludmila yell out to come back.

[175] She's saying, I can't move.

[176] And they turn around and Valentina was towards the front of the returning group as they're going back up the mountain back to Ludmila and she's now bleeding out of her nose and her ears and her mouth she's heaving like something's going on inside of her and then all of a sudden she keels over on top of Sasha and she dies right in front of them and now now the group is in hysterics and valentina's in the front she can't see anybody else and then she turns around then she can't believe what she's seeing to her side now everybody else is bleeding from their nose and their ears and their mouth and some of them are frothing from the mouth.

[177] Valentina reached for her mouth and her ears and her nose to look for blood and there wasn't any and then she turned and she saw 16 -year -old Victoria and 24 -year -old Tatiana suddenly fall to the ground just like Sasha had, except they weren't just laying there.

[178] They began rolling around and ripping their clothes off and clutching at their throats and they're frothing at the mouth.

[179] And so Valentina reaches down to try to help Victoria, the 16 -year -old, and Victoria bites her on the hand that she pulls her hand back.

[180] And then Victoria curls into a ball and then goes still.

[181] And then Tatiana begins hitting her head on a rock over and over and over again until she goes still.

[182] At this point, Valentina is in pure survival mode.

[183] And so she looks at the other two, which was 15 -year -old Timmer and 19 -year -old Dennis.

[184] Everybody else is down on the ground at this point.

[185] And she sees Dennis is moving behind a rock, and he looks like he's not acting as erratic as everybody else.

[186] And so she starts making her way over to Dennis to see if he's going to be okay.

[187] And on the way, she sees 15 -year -old Timmer fall to the ground, and he's suddenly lying there still.

[188] And so she believes he's dead too.

[189] She gets over to Dennis, and he's bleeding profusely from all of his orifices in his head, but he's talking to her.

[190] And he's saying, okay, you need to go back to your bag, get out whatever you can that is essential, ditch the rest, and run down to the forest, and I'll meet you down there.

[191] And so Valentina says, okay, she makes her way up to her bag, she gets her sleeping bag and a couple other small items.

[192] And when she turns around to go back to Dennis, she sees that he's now slouched over his backpack, and now the blood is just pouring out of his head.

[193] and she can tell that almost certainly he's dead as well.

[194] And so not only is she all alone, she's now totally traumatized and believes whatever has happened to them is going to happen to her.

[195] And so she runs down the mountain and she goes into the forest and she gets underneath this rock overhang, she puts her sleeping bag down, she crawls inside, and she drips in and out of consciousness for the rest of the day.

[196] And then that night, she's still laying there and the storm picked up dramatically and she could hear all night these huge trees all over the mountain falling and slamming all around her.

[197] And so she's thinking, if I don't die from whatever killed my friends, I'm going to get hit by one of these trees.

[198] But she manages to get through the night.

[199] The next morning, the storm had cleared.

[200] And so Valentina gets up.

[201] And she's thinking to herself, maybe by some miracle, one of them is still alive.

[202] And so she climbs back up the mountain to where they were.

[203] And she finds all of them still laying exactly where they were when she left them, all motionless, all deceased.

[204] And so she decides to go one by one.

[205] close each of their eyelids and then she says her goodbye and then she turns and kind of wanders back into the forest where she would stay for the next four days desperately walking around hoping to be rescued at some point the whole time just expecting to die either from exposure from an animal attack from whatever killed my friends eventually she does hear voices and she starts making her way towards where they're coming from and that's when she gets to the river and she sees the Ukrainian kayakers who ultimately pick her up and bring her back to town After authorities heard Valentina's story and realized there were other hikers out there, they launched a search party, and it would take them a month to locate them.

[206] Their bodies were contorted, and their faces were locked in these grimaces that looked like they were in absolute terror and agony right as they died.

[207] In addition to missing most of their clothing and their shoes, they were also all missing their eyeballs.

[208] The autopsies were only able to conclude that hypothermia contributed to their death, although it wasn't the only factor, as well as a protein deficiency, despite the fact that they had all eaten well over the course of their trip, and that all of their lungs were very bruised, but they didn't know what that was from.

[209] But nothing the autopsy concluded could reconcile what Valentina said she saw happen, which was a sudden, violent death of six healthy people with no signs and symptoms leading up.

[210] Suddenly, they are bleeding out of every orifice, and they're falling to the ground, tearing their clothes off, grabbing at their throats, frothing at the mouth, and then dying.

[211] And whatever happened to them, why didn't it happen to Valentina?

[212] To this day, we don't really have a good answer why that happened, and the case is closed.

[213] It was ruled they mostly died of hypothermia, and it was an accident, and that's that.

[214] But this isn't the first time something like this has happened in Russia.

[215] In 1959, nine very experienced Russian hikers set off on a 16 -day expedition into the Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union, and about 10 days into their hike, they reached a part where they needed to crest over this mountain before some bad weather rolled in, and they started moving up this mountain, which would be renamed the Diatlov Pass, after the leader of this group, his name is Deatlov.

[216] They started making their way up the Deatlov Pass, and they were going too slowly, and the weather was coming in too quickly.

[217] And so they had to make a critical decision, stay put, but being this totally exposed open mountain face, much like the Hamar -de -Bahn situation where they were up on that open mountain face, either hunker down there and get really, ruined by weather, and the weather was a lot worse for the Diatlov Pass group.

[218] It was, you know, sub -zero temperatures and just snowing ruthlessly.

[219] Or they could go down and give up ground and go down to the forest at the base of this mountain where you'd be sheltered from the storm with some trees.

[220] And so these hikers, who might be a little bit overconfident in their ability, decide to stick it out right on this mountain face.

[221] And over the course of that night, at some point, they cut open their tent with a knife from the inside and ran out into sub -zero temperatures, Most of them not wearing shoes, not wearing jackets, not wearing pants.

[222] They're basically in underwear.

[223] And they calmly walked down the mountain all the way down to the forest.

[224] And once they got down there, two of them tried to desperately climb this big tree, where there wasn't any low hanging branches.

[225] And so they couldn't climb up it.

[226] We don't know what they were trying to climb up it for.

[227] But they ended up building this little tiny fire that could not have provided very much warmth at all.

[228] And they were found deceased lying around this fire.

[229] The seven other hikers were found.

[230] in two different areas.

[231] One, that appeared to go down to that tree where those two were, but then doubled back and tried to get up to the campsite, but didn't make it and fell to the ground and died there.

[232] The other group was not found for a couple of weeks later.

[233] They were found at the mouth of this river.

[234] They were inside of this, this den, and they were wearing the clothes of the other hikers that were deceased.

[235] And the clothes they had on had traces of radiation on them.

[236] And the ones that were in the den had these devastating chest and skull injuries.

[237] And one of them was missing their eyeballs.

[238] And the official statement by the Soviet Union was they died from an unknown compelling force, which is a really mysterious way to describe how someone might die.

[239] This case was actually reinvestigated in 2020.

[240] And the new cause of death is death by avalanche, except loads of people disagree with that.

[241] In fact, experts have gone out to where this happened.

[242] And they say, not only was there no avalanche, there's never been an avalanche in this area.

[243] There's literally never been one.

[244] So what do you think?

[245] Is there a connection between Hamar de Bonn and the Diatloafas incident?

[246] Is there a cover -up in both cases where something far more sinister has happened to both groups that we don't know about?

[247] Or are they unrelated?

[248] And these are just both examples of Mother Nature being far more powerful than we even realize.

[249] Hey, all you fans of the strange, dark, and mysterious.

[250] It's me, Mr. Ballin.

[251] And today I have some big news.

[252] It's something I'm holding in my hands right now, and so obviously you can't see it.

[253] But this is something you're really going to want to see.

[254] It's the first ever official Mr. Ballin publication.

[255] It's a graphic novel, and it's called Mr. Ballin Presents, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, The Graphic Stories.

[256] It's an anthology of both classic and brand new, terrifying stories that we've never covered on any of my other platforms, because we created them specifically for this first book.

[257] Each of these stories in the book are feature -length Mr. Ballin's stories that really needed to be told visually.

[258] And the artwork in this book is, I mean, I'm looking at it, and it's just, absolutely stunning.

[259] So the book is not actually coming out until my birthday this year, October 1st, but you can pre -order it right now at book .bollen studios .com.

[260] Again, that's book .bollin studios .com.

[261] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[262] She had been under the influence that she left him there.

[263] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[264] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

[265] What happens next?

[266] Depends on who you ask.

[267] Was it a crime of passion?

[268] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[269] This was clearly an intentional act.

[270] And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[271] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

[272] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of own from going down.

[273] Everyone had an opinion.

[274] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

[275] To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[276] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.

[277] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus.

[278] Join Wondery Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcast, or Spotify.

[279] The next and final story of today's episode is a Mr. Ballin fan favorite.

[280] It's called Bell's Canyon.

[281] In 2016, a 25 -year -old Wall Street banker named Matt was camping near Mount Rainier in Washington State.

[282] His job was so hectic that in the rare times he got a chance to, he would disappear into the wilderness for a few days to clear his head.

[283] Despite living in one of the biggest cities in the world, Matt was actually a very competent outdoorsman.

[284] And so for this trip, he decided he would stay way off any trail.

[285] deep in the back country in random locations.

[286] On the first night, he found a nice clearing in the trees, and so he set up his campsite there.

[287] He ate some food over his fire.

[288] He pitched his tent, climbed inside, and within a few minutes, he was fast asleep.

[289] Several hours later, Matt woke up to some strange sounds coming from outside of his tent.

[290] It sounded like a couple of animals or maybe one animal moving around right outside.

[291] And so after a while of just hearing this constant sound, he rolled over and he barely unzipped his tent flap just to look out and see if he could see whatever animal it was.

[292] And what he saw shocked him.

[293] There was a man sitting in front of his fire pit.

[294] There was no fire in his fire pit.

[295] And the guy was just sitting there with his hands on his knees, looking straight down, and periodically he would just kick his feet in the ashes of the fire pit.

[296] And Matt didn't even know what to do, so he's just looking at him through this little tiny gap in his tent.

[297] And this man all of a sudden looks up directly at Matt and makes eye contact with him, and the guy's eyes go wide, and he stands up, turns around, and runs away from Matt's campsite.

[298] Matt has no idea how to react to this, and so he just quickly unzips his tent, jumps outside, and shines his light into the forest looking for the sky.

[299] He's thinking to himself, who is this guy?

[300] I am in the middle of nowhere in the back country of Washington State.

[301] How long was he sitting outside there for?

[302] What does he want?

[303] And so as Matt is trying to make sense of this totally weird thing, he's thinking, okay, I'm going to look out and I'm going to see his flashlight somewhere, or I'm going to see his campsite.

[304] You know, maybe he's set up nearby, and he's looking around into the total darkness.

[305] He's looking through all the trees, any light source, anywhere out there he would see.

[306] And there's not one.

[307] There's no fire.

[308] There's no flashlight.

[309] There is nothing.

[310] And so eventually, Matt goes back inside of his tent.

[311] He zips it up, and he's just left kind of dumbfounded.

[312] He can't understand how some person was just sitting outside of his tent for no apparent reason and then vanished into the forest without even turning on a flashlight.

[313] And so after a very restless night, finally the sun came up again, and Matt was very relieved.

[314] He stepped outside.

[315] And after a little bit of time now from this strange incident, Matt started to tell himself that all that was is some guy happened to set up his campsite nearby.

[316] It is possible, albeit rare, because we're in the backcountry.

[317] And maybe he was just intoxicated and he wandered over here.

[318] And, you know, stranger things have happened.

[319] So that's probably all it was.

[320] And so Matt felt like there was nothing to worry about.

[321] He packed up his campsite.

[322] and he began hiking into the forest.

[323] Matt didn't have a planned route.

[324] Instead, he had a map and a compass, and he began just kind of wandering in the forest, kind of exploring wherever he wanted to go, and over the next two days, he covered at least 10, maybe 15 miles in kind of random zigzag directions.

[325] He found a nice clearing, and he set up another campsite.

[326] That night, he set up a fire, and he was eating some food near his fire, and then as he's sitting there, he hears rustling coming from behind him.

[327] And he's pretty sure it's an animal, so he turns around and he doesn't see anything, and he goes back to eating his food, and then a little while later he hears some more rustling behind him, and this time he can't really just write it off.

[328] Clearly there is something behind him that's moving around.

[329] And so he stood up, turned around, and remained motionless, and just listened, expecting to see maybe a deer come out of the woods.

[330] But instead, he hears a man's voice come out of the darkness that says, Do you know how to get to Bell's Canyon?

[331] And Matt's heart starts racing.

[332] He knows that even though he can't see him, it has to be the same guy he saw two days ago.

[333] Because they are in the middle of nowhere.

[334] He hasn't seen any other hikers or campers or anyone, and clearly this guy has the ability to sneak up on him.

[335] And so he's thinking, what does this guy want?

[336] I just spent the past two days hiking in random directions for 15 miles, and he must have followed me. And so Matt, not knowing what else to do, just says, I don't know where Bell's Canyon is.

[337] And then there's silence.

[338] And Matt, one part of him is thinking, I hope this guy does not come into the light.

[339] I hope he just goes away.

[340] The other part of him is thinking, well, you know, maybe this is a different person that is lost and they're looking for this place called Bell's Canyon and they'll come into the light, it'll be a big relief, I'll send them on their merry way and everything will be fine.

[341] But as Matt is having this wishful thinking, the voice from the shadows does not come any closer, but instead ask the same question a bit more forcefully this time.