Episodes 1 and 2 traced the origin of Eric Robinson’s motivation to hike challenging trails, and to venture out alone after the death of his closest trekking buddy.
Eric’s wife, Marilyn Koolstra, felt an increasing sense of concern for her husband’s welfare. What would Eric do if something went wrong while he out of contact in the wilderness?
“That was my concern,” Marilyn said. “I was saying, ‘So far you’ve walked by yourself. Maybe you can’t go by yourself anymore.’”
But Eric was undeterred. Shortly after returning home from a trek in Nepal in October, 2010, he started making plans to hike a pair of challenging trails in North America: the Uinta Highline Trail in the state of Utah, and the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
The Uinta Highline Trail
The Uinta Highline Trail is long-distance hiking route that parallels the backbone of the Uinta Mountains. The Uintas are a rare range in North America, as they are oriented east-west rather than north-south. This means hikers on the Highline travel either eastbound or westbound. The length traveled can vary depending on where one starts or ends. The longest version, crossing from McKee Draw on U.S. Highway 191 to the Highline Trailhead on Utah State Route 150, totals more than 100 miles (160+ kilometers).
Eric planned to walk a shorter variation, beginning at Chepeta Lake going westbound. He allotted 10 days to travel roughly 65 miles (105 kilometers) to the western terminus on SR 150, also known as the Mirror Lake Highway.
At first, Eric tried to convince Marilyn to join him on this trek. He was 64, and retired, with an open schedule. Marilyn, by contrast, worked as a primary school principal, with a staff, students and community that depended on her. Eric suggested she should retire as well, so she’d be free to accompany him on his hikes.
“I resisted his hints to retire,” Marilyn said. “I was still energetic, passionate, involved in my teaching.”
With Marilyn opting out, Eric next turned to his friend, Julia Geisler. Eric had met Julia on the John Muir Trail in 2006. In the five years since, Julia had moved to Park City, Utah. That put her close by the western terminus of the Uinta Highline Trail.
“He invited me to come with him,” Julia said. “I opted not to.”
Julia had recently started a new business that demanded much of her attention. She could not spare the time.
“I just said, ‘I don’t think the timing is great right now.’ And he respected that, but was like, ‘Well, I’m coming,’” Julia said.
Eric Robinson was determined to walk the Uinta Highline Trail, even if that meant going alone.
Eric Robinson departs Melbourne
Marilyn Koolstra drove her husband Eric to the Melbourne Airport for his departure flight on July 21, 2011. After he’d checked his bags, they lingered in the concourse, sipping cups of tea and holding hands.
“We sat there for an hour,” Marilyn said. “It was always a warm farewell. Eric had always warm hands. You could count on that. It’s kind of a thing that I liked.”
When the time at last arrived for Eric to leave, he smirked and told Marilyn to behave while he was away. Then, they stood, embraced and parted ways.
“He went off through the gate and I went home. And later that day, the beautiful bunch of flowers that he’d always organized before he left on any trip arrived.”
Eric’s travel took him from Melbourne to San Francisco, California, then on to Utah where he spent a few days catching up with his friend, Julia Geisler.
“It was just a really uplifting, upbeat time that he was here,” Julia said.
Julia had started rock climbing in the five years since she’d last seen Eric, and invited him to accompany her to an outdoor climbing area in the Uinta Mountains, near the end of the Uinta Highline Trail. Although it was late July, summer in the northern hemisphere, significant amounts of snow lingered in the mountains.
“We were bundled up,” Julia said. “There was a lot of snow that year.”
A big snow year in the Uintas
The Uinta Mountains rise to elevations above 13,000 feet (3,960 meters) above sea level. During the winter months, snow collects on the rocky slopes and in the alpine basins. With the coming of spring in the northern hemisphere, most if not all of that snow melts, feeding creeks and streams.
Most hikers on the Uintas Highline travel during July, August or September, when snow has melted out of the high-elevation terrain. Outside of that window, portions of the trail may be covered by high-angle snowdrifts that require special skills and equipment to cross safely.
Eric was aware of this and planned accordingly. He arranged his hike for the prime window, at the end of July and start of August. However, Eric was likely not aware that the winter of 2010-2011 had been abnormal in the Uinta Mountains. It was a double whammy of high snowfall and a later-than-usual start to the snowmelt.
This meant snowdrifts still covered portions of the Uinta Highline Trail near three of the passes along Eric’s intended route: Anderson, Dead Horse and Rocky Sea.
“Eric hated the snow, growing up in cold Scotland,” Marilyn Koolstra said. “He wasn’t a skier and he would not even contemplate a skiing holiday. But walking through the snow to get from one place in the wilderness to another, that was tempting.”
Early on the morning of July 28, 2011, Julia dropped Eric off at a bus stop in Park City, Utah.
“I was like, ‘I’ll see you in 10 days at the Highline Trailhead on the Mirror Lake Highway,’” Julia said.
Eric planned to take the bus to the city of Vernal, where a local guide he’d hired would ferry him to the Chepeta Lake Trailhead in the Uinta Mountains to start his hike.
“That’s the last time I saw Eric, was dropping him off at that bus stop,” Julia said.
Eric Robinson goes silent
Marilyn Koolstra did not expect to hear from Eric until he emerged at the far end of the Uinta Highline Trail, so it did not concern her when his text messages ended of July 28. Several days later though, she awoke in the middle of the night in the home she and Eric shared in the suburbs of Melbourne.
“I woke up in the middle of the night here with an awful sense of being alone,” Marilyn said.
She couldn’t think of a rational reason why this would’ve stirred her from sleep.
“I don’t usually feel alone. I can be alone, but I don’t feel alone and lonely,” Marilyn said. “I’m thinking, ‘Oh, he’s away. I’m in the house by myself.’ And I dismissed it because I needed to have a bit more sleep so that I could function well in the day.”
Several days later, Julia Geisler and her partner Blake Summers drove up the Mirror Lake Highway to meet Eric at the end of his hike. They’d arranged to rendezvous at the Highline Trailhead at noon on Sunday, August 7, 2011. When Julia arrived there, she did not find Eric waiting.
“We hiked out the trail a little ways, [he was] still not there,” Julia said. “I don’t think we were overly concerned.”
That changed as the afternoon hours ticked passed with no sign of Eric. Julia and Blake drove down off the mountain to get dinner, then returned to the trailhead around 6 p.m. Still, Eric had not arrived.
Julia hoped her Australian friend was still working his way toward the end of the trail, but decided the best course of action was to report him missing. She drove home and called the Summit County Sheriff’s Office to report Eric overdue.
Feeling alone
Julia also realized she needed to notify Eric’s wife, Marilyn, but realized she did not have Marilyn’s phone number. Instead, Julia and her friend Devon McClive turned to Facebook in an effort to reach Marilyn.
Devon sent Marilyn a message in the overnight hours of Sunday into Monday.
“It seems like Eric is the type who waits out weather and does not rush things, so hopefully everything is ok,” Devon’s message read. “The search and rescue team had not received an emergency alarm that would have been sent off if Eric had used his beacon device.”
Because of the time difference between Utah and Victoria, Marilyn received Devon’s Facebook message the evening of Monday, August 8, 2011.
“I’d come home from work and that’s sort of when it all eventuated,” Marilyn said.
Marilyn called Julia, who said she planned to return to the Highline Trailhead at first light to continue waiting for Eric. An official search and rescue mission would likely launch at the same time.
A sinking feeling hit Marilyn. She recalled how she’d come awake feeling alone several nights earlier.
“It was not until I got that call that Eric was missing that I felt, that I made a bit of a connection,” Marilyn said. “There was an emptiness once that phone call came through, linking it to my aloneness in the middle of the night. I didn’t feel that I was bringing my warm-handed Eric back.”