- Mm.
- No. Oh shit.
No, no, no, no.
No.
- Hello?
Hey, you mind if I join you?
- Sure.
- Oh, sorry. Clown feet.
- It's easier than a hand pump.
- Yeah.
- Want me to fill yours up? I got plenty.
- I'm good. Thanks.
- No worries.
It's kinda overkill for one bottle, but I'm testing it out.
- Hmm.
I'm Ford, by the way.
- Irving.
- It's good to see someone out here.
Haven't seen anybody in days.
- Same.
- You solo hiking?
- Yeah.
- Same. Trying out sections all year.
Trying out new gear, cutting weight where I can.
Well, thanks for letting me talk your ear off.
- No problem.
- Maybe we'll run into each other
further along down the Trail.
- Weren't you heading North?
- Oh, I just backtracked for the water.
We can hike it together,
if you're all right with the company.
- Sure.
- Hey, you know why they call it lichen?
- Why?
- 'Cause it's when a moss and a fungus
take a lichen to each other.
How many miles are you doing?
- I'm not sure.
- You're not worried about the cold?
- I brought sweaters. I'll be fine.
What is that?
- It's a cairn. Trail marker.
Helps people find their way,
especially if The Trail isn't well maintained.
- Hmm. - Some people do it for fun,
but it can mess with the ecosystem.
It's a right here.
This junction's only a day away from the next lake.
- That's the long way, isn't it?
- It is. But someone's warning us not to go that way.
Could be something dangerous,
like a rock slide or something.
- I can handle some rocks.
- Are you sure?
- Yeah, I'm sure.
- Okay. Well, it was good to have some company.
If you need anything, you know where to find me.
Stay safe.
- Ford?
Hey.
- Oh, sh.
- It's good to see ya.
- Hmm. - How'd the other trail go?
- Not great, obviously.
- Have you eaten yet?
- Here you go. Careful, it's hot.
- Mm.
Whoa. That's pretty good.
- Thanks. - Mm.
- Sorry it's not much though.
Trying to forage as much as I can this trip.
- Forage? Like finding truffles?
- Kind of. It's a lot easier than you think.
- Is it safe?
- If you know what you're doing.
My dad took me camping a lot when I was a kid.
First time I remember, I was six.
I was running around collecting every single plant
I could find.
Found this patch of foxglove under this redwood
that was split down the middle, struck by lightning.
There were these little red berries on 'em.
A few minutes later my parents found me passed out.
- Oh my gosh.
- After that, I wanted to learn
as much about plants as I could.
Turns out there's a lot.
- Like what berries to eat.
- Exactly.
- So what are these guys?
- Claytonia perfoliata, miner's lettuce
It's pretty common out here. At least in the woods.
Boil it in some water, throw in a bouillon cube,
and you got yourself some soup.
Sometimes I bring a few onions or some garlic
to give it a little extra flavor.
- So are you like a botanist back in the real world,
or a chef?
I'm a paramedic.
Going on two years.
I was an EMT before that. - Wow.
- What about you?
What brought you out here?
- It's an escape. Hmm.
It is simpler out here, and peaceful.
- I get that.
There's not a lot of things in life that make sense,
but this does.
- Yeah.
- You know those trail markers?
How do you know they're guiding you the right way,
if you don't even know who put them there?
- You don't.
But they've never steered me wrong.
Irving.
Rise and shine. It's a beautiful morning!
- Where do you get it all?
- The oatmeal? - The energy.
- Oh, I really don't know.
- Well, you scared the crap outta me.
- Sorry about that.
I dried your clothes, by the way.
- My clothes?
- Thank you. - No problem.
I boiled some water, too, if you need it for oatmeal,
or coffee.
- You have coffee?
Oh, Yeah, yeah.
- Sorry. I make my coffee strong.
- Not another word.
- Campsite's just another quarter mile around the lake.
- You said that an hour ago.
- Well, that's the secret. It's always a quarter mile.
There it is.
- It's breathtaking.
- Nothing like it.
- You don't waste any time, do you?
- Nope.
I didn't get much sleep last night,
so I'm probably gonna knock out early.
- Mm.
- Four-man tent.
- What?
- It's just a big tent for one person.
- Well, at least I just have one tent and not two.
- Well, actually,
one's a bug net and the other's a hammock,
and both weigh less than that.
- Hey. - Hmm?
- Are you all right? - Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you ever go swimming?
- Ooh, not this time of year. Too cold.
- I think I wanna try, even if it's freezing.
It is just awe-inspiring.
It looks untouched,
like we're the only people who've ever been here.
- Ford!
- Okay, stay with me, Irving.
Hang in there.
It's gonna hurt.
Hang in there.
Stay with me. Focus on me, Irving.
Irving? Irving?
Irving, can you hear me?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Don't move too fast.
Drink.
Eat this.
- What happened? - Eat.
You've been in and out for about 12 hours,
but you're stable now.
We're lucky it didn't hit an artery,
but the punctures are pretty deep.
- I need to get to a hospital.
- We'll get there.
But right now, I need to apply a proper bandage
- Ford?
I need you to talk me through this,
'cause right now you are scaring the shit outta me.
- Okay? Basic wound care.
Assess, stop the bleeding, disinfect, and bandage.
Got it? - Got it.
Okay.
Just keep breathing. Just keep breathing.
- What is that?
- I dunno. Maybe scrap sheet metal.
I'm gonna clean the wound now, okay?
Actually, maybe you wanna bite onto to something.
Just in case. Just in case.
- Three, two.
- Okay, I'm gonna put out some antibiotic minute.
Keep breathing.
Here we go. I'm gonna put this on.
It's gonna help with the pain and the bleeding.
- What is that? - It's yarrow.
It's pretty common out here. Found some by the campsite.
Still with me?
Looks like we're on our own.
Forgot to charge my GPS, so I left it in the car.
Does does your phone still work?
- It's dead.
- Great.
Well, I have enough supplies for a few more bandages.
- Until we can get to a hospital?
- Right.
I'm going ahead, but the nearest road is two days away.
- Go. I can wait here.
- Even if I drop everything
and make it to someone with a phone in two days,
if you pass out or an infection sets in,
it's too big a risk.
- So we keep moving.
- The more you walk, the more likely
it'll bleed thought or get infected.
- If we stay put, we run outta supplies
and it gets infected, if we keep moving-
- It'll reopen and the risk of infection gets worse.
But we might have a chance
of getting to a hospital.
- Are you sure there's not anyone who can help?
Another hiker? Anyone?
- It's the off-season.
You knew that before you came out here, right?
- No. I just found a trail and started hiking.
- I haven't seen anyone in days.
I mean, I'll keep trying,
but the odds of someone finding us soon...
- Did you see it?
- See what?
- Something grabbed me, something big.
- I didn't see anything.
Like I said, it was probably sheet metal or something.
- I don't think it was sheet metal.
Something grabbed me.
- You just lost a lot of blood.
You might not know what you saw.
- I know what I felt, Ford.
- Let's just focus on getting out of here, okay?
Mommy.
How'd you sleep?
Same.
- How's it looking?
- Just trying to narrow things down.
Got some water and acetaminophen for you over there.
What's this?
- Nothing. You can toss it.
- Can I ask why'd you choose an external frame pack?
- What do you mean?
- It's just that most people go with an internal frame.
Better balance, lighter weight, that sort of thing.
- It was my mom's, she left it for me.
You know she liked the PCT when she was a teenager?
- Oh? - Yeah.
- Did she ever take you with her?
- No, we never got the chance.
I always wanted to, though.
- Oh wow. Iodine tablets. Haven't seen those in a while.
- Yeah, most of her old stuff is still in there.
I just threw in some clothes and the tent.
- You wouldn't happen to have a compass in there, would you?
No compass and no GPS. Shit.
- Ford.
I need to stop soon.
- Okay.
- Pretty glad I brought this tent now, huh?
Ford.
- What?
- What's wrong?
- Nothing.
- You know I'm going as fast as I can, right?
- Yeah. - Come on, talk to me.
- I don't know if we're gonna make it.
This is my fault.
- It's nobody's fault, Ford.
If you hadn't pulled me out that lake,
I might not even be here.
- Last year, I took a call
when a guy got trapped under water.
By the time we got there,
he'd stopped breathing and he barely had a pulse.
We loaded him up.
We're on our way to the hospital,
and then he died.
Right next to me.
- That's awful.
- Never felt so helpless in my life.
- This is my daughter, Eleanor.
It was her birthday party.
We had a little photo booth set up.
- I'm glad you got something to keep you going.
- It was a car accident.
- I made it out, but she was trapped inside.
- That must have been terrible.
- You just can't save everyone.
- But you have to try.
- You good? - Yeah.
- It was a long day. - Yeah.
You should get some rest.
I'll check on you in a bit.
- Mm.
Hey, can I grab one of those granola bars?
- Yeah, just don't eat too many.
You're gonna spoil dinner.
We made good progress today.
You should be proud of that.
Irving, you can't drink alcohol.
- We're celebrating.
- That's our emergency disinfectant.
- Shit. I didn't know.
- You know I'm trying to help you, right?
- Yeah. - That was stupid.
It was reckless and selfish.
What is wrong with you? I'm trying to help you.
You're not gonna make it outta these woods
if you do stupid shit like that.
I thought you wanted to live!
- I'm sorry.
Irving, I'm sorry.
It's just stress. - Leave.
- We still need to Leave.
- Hey.
Can we talk?
I'm just trying to get us outta here.
- You don't get it.
- Get what?
- His name's Ben.
Even though every crush I had as a kid was on girls,
he was funny and he was nice to me.
I got pregnant, and we were married at 18.
The flowers and little gestures dried up,
and all that was left was Nori.
I always knew I wasn't straight,
but I built an entire life based on assumptions
other people made for me.
A default that wasn't true.
- And how do you just become gay?
- You not listening to me.
- I wish I wasn't.
Because all I'm hearing is selfishness.
- I knew I wanted out,
but I didn't know how to do it.
- You're joking, right? - Get away from me.
Ben, you're hurting me.
I couldn't accept that he wasn't that same person,
and he couldn't accept me.
- I'm so sorry.
- I know you're stressed. We both are.
But you can't yell at me like that. It's a hard line for me.
- Okay. I can do that.
- Thank you.
- When we get to the hospital,
are you going back there?
- I've been trying to figure that out.
What? What is it?
Ah, poor thing.
Looks like a newborn fawn.
Tried to walk, but ended up in the creek.
Maybe the doe got scared off by something
and didn't come back.
Whoa. Hey, you okay?
- I need a minute.
- Not to be indelicate,
but I think I need to get our water from upstream.
We can't drink this.
- I wanna bury her.
- What?
I wanna bury the fawn.
- Irving, we don't have time for this.
- But she's worth it.
- It's a deer.
We're in the woods. Animals die.
- I am the one who's dying here,
and I will decide if it's worth it.
Mommy!
- Thank you.
- You ready to go get her?
- Do you see her?
Could have sworn she was right here.
- I think she was further upstream.
Irving? Irving!
- Irving, what happened?
Oh shit.
Don't move your head.
I'm gonna stop the bleeding.
This is gonna hurt.
- Hang on, hang on. Stay with me.
Hey.
Can you tell me your name?
Do you know where you are? Irving?
- Ford.
Ford?
- Take it easy. You just lost a lot of blood.
You need to drink water right now.
- You're running a fever.
- Does that mean?
- Infection, yeah.
Were you feeling feverish before today?
Weakness, chills, headaches?
- No.
- Seeing things that aren't there?
- I'm not sure.
- This is exactly what I was afraid of.
- What do we do? - I don't know.
I don't know.
There's no way.
We're not gonna make it. - That's not true.
- I shouldn't be doing this. I can't help anybody.
- Ford.
We can still make it out of here, okay?
I don't have to be in good shape.
We just have to make it to a hospital, right?
- Yeah. - So how do we do that?
- Um, to keep moving, we need to slow down the infection,
but we're out of Tylenol.
Antibiotic ointment only does so much.
- What can you find out here?
- What?
You've been foraging for yarrow.
Is there anything else?
- There's oregano.
Garlic, but we're not gonna find that out here.
Maybe there's wild thyme.
- Okay, wild thyme.
Ford?
- Honey. - What?
- I need to leave you for a while.
Promise me you'll stay awake.
- Go.
- I don't know if we're gonna make it.
When we get to the hospital, are you going back there?
Ford?
- He couldn't accept me.
- Nori.
Good morning. - Hi Mommy.
Did you get some good sleep?
- Mm-hmm. What's on your arm?
- Oh, Mommy just got in a little accident.
- Daddy yelled again?
- He's just under a lot of stress.
- Okay.
- Nori, how did you get this?
Nori, did daddy hurt you? Nori?
- Morning.
- How you feeling?
- Better, a lot better.
Why do I feel better?
- I got lucky.
Found a wild beehive.
Honey's one of the best natural antiseptics in the world,
- Honey? - Mm-hmm.
- Some of the comb and more yellow in there.
We're outta supplies,
but honey's good enough we can leave it on.
Wanna give it a shot?
- I can walk. - You can walk.
Thank you.
- Not to burst the bubble,
but we should talk about what's next.
- Yeah, we can do that later.
Ford, we're gonna make it.
- How you feeling? - Good.
For the first time in a while.
- You ready?
- Okay, new problem. It's a dead end.
- No, it, there can't be a dead end.
People hike this trail all the time.
It can't just end. - Hey.
We'll figure this out. There's always a way through.
- Ford.
- What's up? - Moss.
We were headed south, right?
Moss grows on the north side of the tree.
I remember that one. My mom taught me.
- Of course.
- We cut through the woods headed south
and gain some elevation,
we should either run into The Trail,
or be able to spot it from distance.
- You sure you're up for cross-country?
Come on, let's go.
Let's take a break.
- Oh, thanks.
Ooh.
Hey, do we have anything to eat?
- Ah, two granola bars and some GORP.
- What the hell is GORP?
- It's a, it's trail mix.
- Is it actually trail mix, or are you just calling it that
to get me to eat something called GORP?
- Granola, oats, raisins, peanuts. G-O-R-P, GORP.
- Okay, so two granola bars and some GORP.
- Mm-hmm.
- GORP.
Gooooooooorrrrrp
GORP.
- Okay, we can stop saying GORP now.
- I don't think I'll ever stop saying GORP, to be honest.
Are we gonna starve because we don't have enough GORP?
- Well, technically humans can survive 30 days without food
and three without water.
- Right.
Let's not test that, shall we?
You're not asleep, are you?
I wish I was.
- Mm.
- I haven't gotten more than an hour of sleep
since the lake. - Mm.
- But I'd kill for one of those hours right now.
- Yeah.
I thought it was hard sleeping on The Trail.
- I could string up the hammock if you want.
- No, it's, it's not the mat,
or even the ground.
It's the
silence.
Even in the country on a night like this,
you'd hear crickets,
birds, bugs,
wind rusting in the trees.
But out here, every night's like this.
Just silent.
- Huh.
I hadn't noticed that before.
- You can't not hear it.
- There goes that hour.
- Hey, Ford.
- Yeah?
- What's your worst fear?
- I'm gonna have to think about it.
You?
- Hm,
abandonment.
Not being abandoned.
Abandoning someone I love,
and not realizing it till it's too late.
- I think I got one. - Hmm.
- When I was in EMT training, my dad got sick.
He said it wasn't a big deal.
Turns out he needed emergency surgery
with a 30% chance of survival.
He didn't tell anyone he was going,
and he didn't make it.
- How awful.
- If he'd told us, we could have been there for him,
but in the end, he died alone,
without anyone he loved,
or anyone who loved him.
- Kind of like that patient you told me about.
- Yeah.
- So I guess that's my worst fear.
To die alone.
- Holy shit.
Ford! Ford!
This is it. This is The Trail.
- We need to find a trail sign.
- Come on. This is The Trail.
Come on.
- Careful. - We're gonna make it.
We're gonna make it.
- That is... - No.
- It's the same lake.
Ford, that's the same lake!
Look at it. Look at it!
That is the same lake.
How did this happen?
- I don't know.
- We were, we were headed south.
We followed the moss. How are we back here?
- Maybe we were doomed from the start.
- But maybe it wasn't an accident.
- What?
- I followed you here.
We headed south the whole time.
You saw it yourself with the moss.
- I don't know what I saw.
I'm feverish and seeing things, remember?
You weren't trying to help me.
You wanted to keep me here.
- No, Irving.
I swear, I don't know how this happened.
- Irving! Irving!
- Stay away from me.
The moment I first saw you, I knew.
Oh, I should have listened to my gut.
But you were nice and funny, just like him.
And I trusted you! Just like him.
Just to have you lead me in circles
out here until I die.
- Irving, I'm here to help. - Bullshit.
- What is that?
- You can hear them?
The sirens?
- Do not follow me.
I'm getting out of here without you.
- You wanted to blow up our lives.
Our kid's life
- Are you coming back?
- You're not going to die here.
You're not going to die here.
Come on. Come on.
Come on.
Just get outta here.
No.
Help!
Anybody!
Please!
Irving!
We need to get out of here.
Come on. Come on.
We need to go.
- I cut your hand at the lake.
- Yeah, you did. And it really hurt.
- This isn't a fever.
- Just say something.
- What?
- Say something.
Please, just say something. Anything.
The last thing I remember,
I was driving down the highway,
thinking I couldn't live with the guilt.
Nori, sweetie, can you do me a big favor
and bring out some clothes?
- Why? - We're going on a trip.
It's gonna be so much fun.
Um, and toothbrush. Bring your toothbrush, please.
- Okay, Mom.
- Money, credit card. Okay.
Okay.
- Mommy, you forgot to lock the door.
- Oh, that's okay, sweetie.
All right. Get on in.
Oh, thank you. Okay.
All right, buckle up.
Okay.
- Mommy, I forgot my fox.
- That's okay, sweetie.
Uh, we will get him when we come back.
- When? - I don't know.
- Mommy, I want my fox!
- Okay, uh, run inside and get it.
- Okay. - All right, be quick.
Go, go, go.
No, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no!
- Irving.
- No, no, no, no, no, no.
- She's alive.
You told me she died.
- Because what kind of mother
would leave her child with a man like that?
That's the last thing I remember.
- And then I was on The Trail.
- We are not on the PCT.
- Am I dead?
- No, but you're not far from it.
The crash nearly killed you,
and if you don't make it out of here...
- It doesn't matter.
I should be dead.
I left her in that house with that man!
- You were terrified. You can't hold that against yourself.
- Are you kidding me? I abandoned her.
- I am so fucking ashamed.
I don't deserve her.
I don't deserve her. I don't deserve to be here.
How can I ever look her in the eyes again?
- Because of what you're about to do.
Find her.
- How?
- She's right where you left her.
Come on, you can make it. You can make it.
- Where I left her. Where I left her.
I'm coming, Nori.
I love you, Nori.
- Nori, come on. You ready?
All righty. And one, two.
Do you wanna fly? Okay, stand right there.
- Yeah! - Whoa, nice.