The Last Trip

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Today's podcast will feature three stories of journeys that seem to promise lots of adventure, but instead led somewhere far more sinister.

The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.

The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

The first story you'll hear is called Headlights, and it's about a father and son who get lost in the woods during a hunting trip.

The second story you'll hear is called Into Infinity, and it's about a mountaineering student in Alaska who walks where he shouldn't.

And the third and final story you'll hear is called The Signal, and it's about a man's trip into the Arctic wilderness that takes a turn for the worse.

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 come to the Wright podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

So if that's of interest to you, the next time the Amazon Music Follow button asks you to edit one of their YouTube videos, agree to do it, but then just permanently delete their channel.

Okay, let's get into our first story called Headlights.

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In December of 1961, James McCormick Sr.

was on vacation from his job as a fire inspector for the city of Portland, Oregon.

And he was feeling bored, he was feeling kind of restless, and he decided he wanted to go do something fun with his 16-year-old son named James McCormick Jr.

They settled on going hunting together as they were both avid outdoorsmen and so they along with their hunting dog headed out to Larch Mountain on December 4th.

Even though Larch Mountain was only 30 miles from the city, it was known as one of the most rugged and wild areas in the northwestern United States.

And so the men arrive at Larch Mountain, they're excited, they hop out of the car, they put their gear on, and they begin hiking into the wilderness.

Now the weather forecasters had said it was probably going to be pretty cold.

There might be some light snow in the area, but the weather should hold for their day trip out into the woods.

And so they hadn't brought any equipment to stay out for multiple days.

This was just going to be a full day event, but back at night.

But after walking for several hours into the mountains, they started to notice the temperature was dropping rapidly.

And then it started to rain, and then it started to snow, all in a very short period of time.

And initially, they decided they were going to gut it out and keep walking a little ways, but they decided, you know what, this is awful, and our stuff's getting wet, and it's going to get dark soon, so let's just turn around and go back.

We can go hunting another day.

But it had started snowing so quickly that when they turned around to start making their way back to their vehicle, the snow had covered over everything enough that it looked a little bit different.

And they didn't have a GPS, they were using a map and compass, and they were not on a marked trail.

They were just kind of walking around the mountains looking for a place to set up.

And so they're walking back and they're making turns and they're starting to question where they are.

And when they had walked for several hours in the direction they believed was back to the truck, well, they weren't anywhere near a road and they felt like they were in an area they didn't recognize.

and they realized they were lost.

At this point, it was snowing really hard hard and it was starting to get dark outside.

And so the pair decided, you know what?

We got to stay out for the night.

We're just, we're not going to find our vehicle tonight.

It's too dark and we don't know where we are.

So let's camp out for the night and tomorrow we will find our vehicle.

But remember, they didn't have any equipment to stay out for the night.

All they had was their warm clothes, but they didn't have a structure to protect them from the elements.

And so they decided their best bet was to climb up into a tree because at least that way they're off the ground.

They'd protect themselves from predators potentially, and the branches of the tree would kind of protect them a little bit from the snow and from the freezing rain.

So that night, James Sr., James Jr., and their dog, they huddle in this tree.

It's a totally sleepless, miserable night as they are just destroyed by snow and freezing rain and wind.

And then finally the sun comes up the next morning and there's a glimmer of hope, although it's still absolutely dumping snow on them.

But they're thinking to themselves, this is going to make a heck of a story when we get back.

And so they climb out of the tree, you know, they stretch, they kind of, you know, readjust themselves, and then they begin walking in a direction that they think is the direction towards their vehicle.

And for several hours, they're just kind of walking, hoping they're going to run into this road, and they don't.

At some point, they realize once again that they are in the same position they were in the day before.

They don't know where they are.

And now they've walked even farther, potentially in the wrong direction.

And so they stop for a second, and James Sr.

pulls out his map, and he's trying to make sense of where they might be.

He's looking around.

He's trying to terrain associate to see if he can figure out if there's a specific way he should be going.

When his son, who was a really tough kid, didn't complain about anything, he said to his dad, you know, I'm feeling delirious.

I feel like I can't think straight.

And it's hard for me to stand even.

I'm going to sit down.

And his dad's looking at him, not concerned about this, because it was a pretty miserable night the night before.

And so it makes sense he might be tired.

But I mean, they had slept a full night's sleep the days leading leading up to this trip.

They've only been out in the elements for one day.

They do have warm clothes on.

They do have food.

They do have water.

And so he figures his son will just sit down for a minute and then he'll get back up and be rejuvenated and they'll keep moving out.

And so James Sr.

continues looking at his map.

He's looking around, kind of waiting for his son to say, okay, I'm ready to start moving again.

But his son just continues to deteriorate.

He's speaking in nonsense and he can't stand up.

And this was the first time that James Sr.

really started to feel concerned for their actual safety.

Because even the night before when they were up in the tree, even then, it just felt like it was this crazy thing that was happening to them and that everything would be fine.

And even that morning when they got up and it was still snowing and they're still lost, he had that optimism and so did his son.

But now thinking, okay, we are potentially staring down another night out here and we're going to eventually run out of food and water.

You know, our clothes are starting to get wet.

The temperatures are dropping below freezing.

We don't have a tent.

We don't have a shelter.

And now something's wrong with my son, which is concerning in and of itself.

But if he can't move, then we can't make progress towards getting out of the situation.

And so James Sr., who was this really fit fireman, he said, okay, I'm going to pick you up and I'm going to carry you.

And he picked his son up, fireman's carry, put him over his shoulders.

And for three hours, James Sr.

just continues to march around looking for the way out.

And after three hours, when they had not gotten anywhere closer to a road or any civilization, and now it was dark out again, he collapses with the sun and he puts the sun down by a tree and he sits down next to him and he's totally defeated and he's like we got to get ready for another night we got to get back up in a tree and we got to do this again and so as they're sitting there kind of talking about how they're going to get james jr up into a tree for the night because you know he's too weak to climb up himself they both notice these very bright lights about 100 feet in front of them that look like headlights And James Sr.

is like, oh my goodness, what luck.

There is a road that we just didn't see and there's a car that's parked right there.

I'm going to go up and communicate with them and tell them that we are stuck out here and see if they can give us a ride.

Stay right here.

I'll be right back.

And so James Sr.

gets up and starts running towards these lights because these lights are their lifeline and he wants to get to them before they potentially pull away without realizing, you know, there's some people that really could use some help here.

And so as he's moving, you know, 50, 60, 70 feet away from where his son and his hunting dog were, the lights just continue to go farther and farther away from him to the point where James Sr.

stops and he's looking at these lights thinking, Are those headlights?

Like, what are those lights?

And at some point, the lights just kind of disappear into the forest and then they're gone.

James Sr.

looks around and he realizes, There's no road over here, I'm in the middle of the woods.

Like, what were those lights?

And so he stands there for a minute, thinking to himself, you know, am I losing my grip on reality?

Like, you know, what's going on here?

And he turns around and he starts running back to where his son and his dog were.

And when he gets there, only his dog is there.

His son is now gone.

And what's going through James Sr.'s mind is, how?

Because he couldn't walk until now, and my son certainly wouldn't have lied to me and made me carry him all the way here.

And there's enough light out that he could actually still see the footprints on the ground.

And so he grabs his son's backpack that was left by the tree.

He picks it up, he grabs his dog, and he starts yelling for his son and starts walking along the footprints that were left by, presumably, his son.

And so he's walking along these footprints, and he's yelling out for his son.

He's not hearing anything.

And this whole time he's thinking to himself, like, why would he even leave?

Even if he could move, why would he leave?

You know, we're obviously in this together.

Like, what's going on with my son?

And so he's walking, he's walking.

And after about 30 minutes of walking along these footprints, because the snow was coming down so heavy, the prints were getting harder and harder and harder to track because they were filling in with snow.

And finally, it got dark out, and then he really couldn't see the prints anymore.

And now James Sr.

is absolutely panicked.

You know, this is a nightmare.

Where's my son?

What were those lights?

Oh my gosh, it's going to be another night out here.

And he just picks a random direction and holding on to his son's stuff with his dog, he just starts running.

The next day, James Sr.

and his dog would stumble into this lodge that was about six miles away from where they had parked their car over at Larch Mountain.

Now, that doesn't mean they moved six miles to get there.

They probably zigged and zagged all over the mountain and they covered much more than six miles, but it was a six mile shot to this lodge.

They stumble inside and it was just a miracle that he had found it.

He basically had ran all night until he found a road and he traced it up to this lodge and he told the staff inside, my son is missing.

We've been gone for two days now.

He's out in the middle of the woods.

He's hurt.

Someone needs to go out there.

And so very quickly the police were called and word spread to the firefighters in Portland, Oregon that the fire inspector's son is missing.

And so 200 off-duty firefighters made their way up to the mountain as well to assist in this search.

The paramedics wanted James Sr.

to just go to the hospital and let the searchers do their job.

But James Sr.

was not about to leave his son and he refused medical attention and he went out with the first group of searchers.

And somehow he was able to get them to the rough area that he was able to recognize as, you know, roughly where his son had been sitting when he went missing.

They searched that area and very quickly found James Jr.'s glasses case as well as his boots and his socks, but no James Jr.

Later in the day though, they would find James Jr.

He was about a thousand thousand feet away from where his boots and his glasses case were found at the bottom of this cliff and he was deceased.

Now initially the thought was, well, you know, he must have gotten confused and walked away from where he had been told to sit and fell off this cliff.

But they determined he did not die from the fall off this cliff.

He had made his way down to that cliff and then died of exposure.

So how was James Jr.

able to suddenly be able to walk again?

And once he had that skill skill back, why didn't he go to his dad?

Why did he walk away from him?

And why did he take his shoes and socks off to do that as well?

And what were those lights that James Sr.

saw in the middle of the woods?

Because they weren't headlights.

And it was only when he went to investigate them that suddenly James Jr.

up and walks away.

To you, my darling.

No, to you.

The roses were living the dream.

More champagne for me, people.

Until it all came crashing down.

He got fired.

Quiet.

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Our next story is called Into Infinity.

On July 11, 1999, 17-year-old Thomas Nazaro was taking part in a month-long mountaineering course in Alaska.

He, along with 10 other students and three instructors, had spent the past 26 days hiking up several peaks, and now they were taking a break at the base of this glacier.

They were going to hike up the glacier, but before they did, it was customary to reward the students that had done the best job over the previous few weeks, taking on all the different mountaineering skills and survival skills, and allowing those students to hike on their own up this glacier for the last couple of days.

And so the instructors hand chose a couple of students that fell into that category, Thomas was one of them, and told them after this break was over, they could head up and they would see them at the end of the trip.

And so feeling very proud, Thomas and the other students who had been chosen stood up and began walking up this glacier.

And after a couple of hours they had made it about three miles up when they found this perfectly flat area that was perfect for camping out.

And so they decided that that would be their campsite for the night.

And so everybody started setting up their own tent and getting their sleeping bag laid out, and Thomas volunteered to go find some water.

He had heard what sounded like a stream a little ways away from where their campsite was, and so Thomas grabbed his pot and he went around the corner out of sight.

After a while, when all the other students had set up their campsites, they realized Thomas had not come back yet.

And so they walked around this corner and they looked and they realized it was a dead end.

About 100 feet in front of them is just a huge ice wall that goes up on all three sides and there's nowhere else to go, but Thomas is not up there and he did not come back to the campsite.

And so they're thinking, that's pretty weird.

I mean, is he behind some ice crevasse that we can't see?

And so as they're looking from a distance, they see that his water pot is sitting at the base of this ice cliff.

And so they figure, okay, he's somewhere over there, obviously.

And so they start walking up towards the base of the ice cliff, still yelling his name, and he's not yelling back.

And they get about three quarters of the way to this ice wall when one of the other students yells, stop!

And they all stop and look down where he's looking, and they all realize what's happened to Thomas.

They turn around because it's extremely dangerous where they're walking and they run back through their camp down the trail and they find their instructors and they tell them what they think happened to Thomas.

Their instructors are horrified, they run up the trail, they make it just before the base of this ice wall to get as close as they can knowing that it's very dangerous what they're trying to do and they realize there's nothing they can do to help Thomas.

And so before long the police are called and it's a full-scale rescue operation on top of this glacier.

The theory of what happened to Thomas is he left his campsite with his pot of water, he went around the corner so he's out of sight, and he went to the stream, the glacier stream, and he started filling up this water, but it was taking a long time because the stream just was not very powerful.

And from where he was, he would have heard the sound of rushing water coming from the ice wall because there was water pouring down the ice wall.

And so he would have walked over to the base of this ice cliff and put his jug out to get water.

And as soon as he was right up against it, he would have slipped down into the ice.

Because at the base of this ice wall was something called a mu-lan, which is a hole in the glacier caused by water runoff percolating down through a crack.

And over the years, they can get pretty deep.

And so when the police showed up, they went over to the hole and they're yelling down to Thomas, but they're not getting a response.

So one of the skinnier officers put on a dry suit and then a harness and then was lowered headfirst into this hole.

And so the inside of a mulan, it starts wide, but then it gets smaller and tighter all the way down until it comes to a point.

But sometimes that point is very far down into the ice.

And so this officer was hoping that at least, even if he couldn't get to Thomas, he could at least see Thomas.

But after going 100 feet down, the hole got so narrow he couldn't go any farther.

And even with his light, the hole just kept going.

It was like into infinity all the way down into this glacier, and there was no sign of Thomas.

And so after that officer was pulled out of the hole, the police went to a fiber optic cable that had a camera at the end of it, and they began lowering that down into this hole.

And so down it went, deeper and deeper it passed the 100-foot mark.

and all the way down until they literally ran out of cable.

And so from this camera's perspective, 250 feet down into this glacier, the hole just kept on going and going and going, and there was no sign of Thomas.

And so they pulled the cable out and they realized there was nothing they could do for Thomas.

Since he was below 250 feet, that means he fell at least 250 feet, and so it's unlikely he survived the fall to wherever it eventually stopped.

And if he did somehow survive the fall, which is a horrifying thought in some ways, he would have been wedged somewhere deep down inside of this glacier and the water runoff coming off of the ice wall would have eventually filled up all around him and gone over his head, and he would have drowned.

And so, shortly after the search was started, they called it off.

There really was nothing they could do, and unfortunately, his body was never recovered.

The next and final story of today's episode is called The Signal.

On the morning of August 7th, 1981, a 34-year-old wildlife photographer named Carl McCunn stood on the edge of a lake in the Alaskan wilderness and chucked a box of ammunition into the water.

The splash it made was surprisingly loud in the total silence that surrounded him.

Carl was on the last day of a five-month-long solo camping trip in a very remote area of northern Alaska that was actually inside the Arctic Circle.

A plane had dropped him off here in early spring, and he had set up his tent by this lake, which was surrounded on all sides by forest and huge snowy mountains.

And during this five-month trip, Carl had not seen or spoken to another person the entire time.

There were no phones, no roads, no rangers, no people around for at least 100 miles.

I mean, this is true isolation.

Carl looked up into the sky and listened carefully for the low roar of the plane that was supposed to pick him up today.

But as he listened, he couldn't hear anything.

But this didn't worry Carl, because he actually had only arranged for his pickup date, not the pickup time.

So it was just at some point on this day he was going to get picked up.

He didn't know exactly when.

And so as he anxiously waited, he just kind of puttered around his campsite and continued to pack up his things.

And as Carl did this, he remembered that the type of plane that was going to be picking him up today, it was his buddy Rory's plane, it was really small.

And there was a chance that he couldn't actually fit all of his belongings on the plane.

And so in anticipation of this, he had identified that he didn't need all of his ammo.

And so that's why he was chucking his ammo into the lake, basically in preparation for pickup.

Just then, a breeze kicked up, and so Carl zipped his parka up to his chin.

This was actually the so-called warm season in the Arctic Circle, but warm in the Arctic Circle meant still near freezing temperatures at night.

And as much as Carl loved being out in the wilderness doing these solo camping trips out in the middle of nowhere, he really was excited to get back to his home in Anchorage, Alaska and see his friends and call his dad and, you know, be in a nice warm house for once.

Carl was about to chuck his sixth and final box of ammunition into the lake when he heard the loud sound of a wolf howling on the other side of the lake.

And it made him stop for a a second, and he decided that, you know what, maybe until the plane gets here, I'll hold on to at least one box of ammunition.

So he stuck this final box into his bag, he picked it up, and then he walked along the shoreline up to where he had rigged a net to catch some fish.

And when he got to the net, he saw he had caught two trout.

And so he scooped the fish out, he went back to his campsite, he made a fire, cooked the fish, and as he sat down to eat them, he just kept looking up to the sky and listening, hoping for this plane to arrive soon.

When he was done eating, Carl made a quick entry into his diary, kind of detailing the last day at camp.

And then he finished packing up all his stuff and he brought it all down to the waterline, ready to be picked up.

And then he sat on his trunk, again, just kind of waiting for his friend to show up.

And by this time, it was about mid-afternoon, and still, no sign of the plane.

But nonetheless, Carl sat there kind of taking in the scene, this beautiful lake and nature.

I mean, this is the last time he's going to be here, and so he's trying to appreciate it.

After all, this had been a really successful photography trip.

He had shot 500 rolls of film that he knew he could sell and that would make enough money that he'd be able to do this again the following year.

And so as Carl sat there taking in the scene and daydreaming about next year's trip, he noticed the sun was beginning to set.

And when he noticed this, this was kind of like the first time that Carl actually became worried.

This far north, the sun stayed out for nearly 20 hours a day in the summer.

And so if the sun was setting right now, that meant it had to be near midnight.

And so his friend Rory, who was supposed to pick him up today at some point today, well, now that we've hit midnight, Carl knew his friend had officially missed the date.

And Carl had no way of contacting him to see what had happened or when he would be here.

And so as dusk fell, and still there was no sign of Rory, Carl continued to get more and more anxious.

And finally, he had to reset up his tent and he crawled inside, got in a sleeping bag, and went to sleep praying that his friend would be there the next day.

The next day, Carl got up early and packed up his stuff and waited by the shoreline for his friend, but all day he waited and the plane still never came.

Carl tried to convince himself that, you know, maybe his friend got mixed up on the dates or, you know, maybe something came up that's delayed him a couple of days, but he'll be here.

But then another day came and went, and then another.

and still no plane.

And it was around this time that Carl remembered something that made him feel sick to his stomach.

On the night six months earlier, when he and Rory had discussed pickup plans, Carl remembered that night had been filled with drinking.

I mean, these guys were just laughing and having a good time.

And at some point, as the beers were flowing, Carl had asked Rory, hey, can you pick me up on August 7th at the end of my trip?

And Rory had said, yeah, I can probably do that.

But Rory had also said that he would have to check his schedule first before he could 100% commit to this.

And Carl, in his excitement about going on this trip and getting ready for it and all that, had just forgotten to follow up with Rory and make absolutely sure he could pick him up.

And so now Carl was realizing that Rory wasn't delayed or mixed up about the dates.

Rory wasn't coming.

And Carl knew there was zero chance of another plane just happening to fly over the area and that plane picking him up.

I mean, for the entire summer Carl had been out here, he had literally not seen any planes.

His best hope was that his dad or maybe one of his friends would report him missing.

But he knew that was unlikely and it actually was his own doing.

Carl traveled constantly and almost never told people where he was going or when he'd be back.

And on one trip recently, Carl had gone out and missed his return date.

and his dad had been concerned about him and so called the police.

And when Carl had come back and realized what his dad did, he told his dad to never do that again.

Never contact authorities if I'm late.

I'm fine.

And all of this meant now Carl was going to face a brutal Alaskan winter all by himself with limited supplies and only a single box of ammunition.

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A few weeks later, at the end of August, Carl was still stuck out in the Alaskan wilderness.

By now, Carl had fully accepted that Rory was not going to come pick him up, and Carl was doing his best not to fixate on his stupid mistake.

He figured he had two choices.

The first one was that he could just stay put and hope to be rescued.

This was the conservative option.

He knew how to get food and also firewood near his campsite, so he wouldn't starve to death and he wouldn't freeze.

But this would only keep him alive.

This would not actually get him rescued.

The other choice was that Carl could pack up his campsite and attempt to basically hike out of here 75 miles to the nearest city, called Fort Yukon.

Now, this could get him home, but with it came a much higher chance of death.

If Carl did the hike, well, those 75 miles would be over extremely rough terrain with absolutely zero human-made trails.

And so one little slip-up and he could fall and get hurt or get lost.

And also finding food was sort of a toss-up and the weather at best would be brutal and at worst would be fatal.

Plus, the entire region those 75 miles were in was absolutely teeming with wolves.

Carl knew both of these choices were bad, but he was running out of time to make a decision.

The brutal Arctic winter was fast approaching, and if Carl was going to attempt this horrible hike, he would really have to do it soon.

And so as Carl thought about what he was going to do, he trudged his way over to one of his rabbit snares, and he was so happy to see he had caught a rabbit.

And so he took the rabbit back to his camp and he cooked it over the fire, and as he's eating it, he's thinking, you know what, this isn't so bad.

I caught food for now.

I mean, this will keep me alive at least for a couple of days.

You know, maybe I should just stay here.

But deep down, he knew the staying put option was not a real option.

I mean, even though, yes, by staying here, he could keep himself from starving, you know, he knew how to get food and all that.

Well, he'd still be a sitting duck for all the predators in the area, and there were many, and remember, he only has one box of ammunition.

But just then, Carl heard the most glorious sound, the distant whine of a small plane engine.

At first, he thought he must be hearing things.

Remember, he has not seen a plane at all since he got here.

But sure enough, he looked up into the sky and a second later, he saw a plane flying directly towards his camp, low and slow.

Carl ran in his tent and grabbed the most brightly colored thing he could find, his sleeping bag, which was bright orange.

He ran outside of his tent and began waving it back and forth to get the pilot's attention.

Carl saw the plane belonged to the Alaska State Troopers, and so he figured his friends must have reported it missing, and now the police were out to rescue him.

A moment later, the plane passed directly over Carl's camp so low to the ground that Carl could actually see the pilot looking back at him.

Carl looked right at the pilot's eyes, and when Carl was nearly certain he had just made eye contact with the pilot, he threw his fist up in the air in excitement and jumped up and down.

He couldn't believe it.

He was saved.

The pilot was going to land and take him home.

With a big grin on his face, Carl watched as this plane, sure enough, made a big U-turn.

And then Carl watched the plane make another pass over the camp low and slow.

which Carl figured meant, you know, the pilot was looking for a place to land.

And so as the pilot was doing that, Carl rushed to his campsite and began packing everything up.

And as he did, he's kind of keeping an eye out, watching the plane, looking for it to land, but it didn't.

The plane just kept on flying straight away, away from Carl's campsite until it disappeared over the horizon.

For the rest of the day, Carl just stared off into the distance, hoping for this plane to come back, but it didn't.

Lying inside his tent that night, Carl couldn't sleep.

He was so shaken up by what had happened that day.

He didn't understand, you know, he saw the pilot.

The pilot seemed like they were looking back at him.

Why didn't they land?

Why didn't they stop?

Karl told himself that, you know, maybe the terrain was too rough and there was no way for the pilot to land.

You know, that was possible.

And so perhaps this pilot was flying back and getting another plane.

Maybe a float plane to land on the water.

Karl didn't know, but he felt like that could be a possibility, and it sort of made him feel a little bit better.

But he still couldn't relax enough to sleep.

And so, knowing he was just going to lay there all night, he sat up, turned on his flashlight, and began looking for something to read, just to occupy his mind.

Now, at this point, Carl has been out in the wilderness all alone for months and months, and he's been stranded for weeks.

He has read all of his books and all of his magazines like a million times.

He's even read his diary a dozen times.

I mean, he's read everything.

And so, as he was looking around his tent, he was looking for literally anything else to read.

And suddenly, he found something.

His hunting license.

It was like the one thing he had not closely read.

Not an exciting thing to read, but new.

It was just a little paper certificate with some rules and regulations and safety tips about hunting.

And so, Carl just began reading the front and he read it all the way down.

And then he flipped it over and he continued reading.

But then he saw something that made his heart practically stop.

At first, he thought maybe he misunderstood, but no, he read it over and over again and it was very clear.

And so Carl looked up in shock.

He suddenly understood why that pilot had left left him.

For weeks, Carl stayed close to his camp, just hoping and praying that somehow, some way, that plane would still come back, but it never did.

And by the time Carl had actually accepted this fact that really the plane's not coming back, well, by that point, it was too late to try to hike out.

So all he could do was stay put.

However, the lake had frozen over, so he couldn't fish.

His snares all sat empty, because all the wolves and foxes got to his catches before he could.

By October, Carl was getting really skinny.

By November, Carl was genuinely starving.

On November 26th, Thanksgiving Day, Carl laid inside of his tent and made a diary entry.

There would be no Thanksgiving feast for him today.

His food stores were totally gone.

And the Arctic winter was getting so, so bad.

In fact, his fingers and toes were turning black from frostbite, and he was sick all the time and constantly had chills.

And as Carl wrote in his diary, he looked out the tent flap at his dying fire, knowing he had no more firewood.

He knew he only had one choice left to make.

He scratched a final sentence into his diary.

He wrote, they say it doesn't hurt.

Then he set his diary on the floor of the tent near his rolls of film.

Then he reached for his rifle and his last box of ammo.

A little while later, a single shot rang out across the lake.

A couple months later, in early February of 1982, Alaska State troopers would find Carl.

Carl was deceased.

He had taken his own life.

What Carl had only realized later was that when he made that fist pump when he was so excited when that pilot had flown overhead and he thought he was going to get rescued, Well, that fist pump had sealed his fate.

Because, like it said on Carl's hunting license, a single arm raised in the air is the universally recognized body sign for all okay, do not wait.

And so when that Alaska State Trooper pilot flew over Carl's camp, he did make eye contact with Carl.

He saw him.

But he also saw Carl raising his fist in the air and thought he was okay.

And so he turned around and he left.

If Carl had only read that hunting license a little bit sooner, he would have known to have raised two hands in the air as the pilot flew over for the universal sign that means, pick me up.

A quick note about our stories.

They are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

The Mr.

Ballin podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr.

Ballin.

Our head of writing is Evan Allen.

Our head of production is Zach Levitt, produced by Jeremy Bone.

Research and fact-checking by Shelly Hsu, Samantha Van Hoos, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, and Camille Callahan.

Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear.

Audio editing and post-produced by Witt Lacasio and Cole Lacasio.

Additional audio editing by Jordan Stidham.

Mixed and mastered by Brendan Kane.

Production coordination by Samantha Collins.

Production support by Antonio Minata and Delena Corley.

Artwork by Jessica Klogston-Kiner.

Theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden.

Thank you for listening to the Mr.

Bollin podcast.

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