“Oh yeah, lots of people hike this, especially this section. It’s one of the most popular. I mean, I don’t want to give you the impression it’s Hennepin Avenue busy or anything like that, but every few miles you meet people, kind of like the BWCA where you tend to meet a lot of people on the portages. Here, you see them more near the trailheads and sometimes in between. Also, one of the best parts of hiking long stretches is that you can hike off the trail to state park campgrounds or pick designated spots right on the trail. It’s very cool.”
Triscuit took a stab in the dark. “You don’t happen to remember meeting a young woman hiking alone? It would have been over a year ago.”
The hiker laughed. “Well, that narrows it down, but remember that woman who went missing hiking this trail alone? Well, my friends and I talked about that after it happened, and we did meet a woman who matched the description, but…who knows, could have been her, but probably not.”
“Where was she, and what direction was she going?” Hodges asked.
“Funny you should ask. It wasn’t far from here, in fact, it was just after the next trailhead, and she was going the way you’re heading now.”
“Did you ever tell the sheriff about it?” Triscuit asked.
“Yeah, we did, but we just didn’t have much information beyond what we told you so I don’t think it helped them at all. They showed us pictures of her, but none of us could be sure it was the same woman, so it probably wasn’t.”
After a little more inconsequential talk about the encounter, Triscuit and Hodges thanked the young man and resumed their hike with a little more spring in their steps.
A visibly excited Hodges took the lead and flailed his arms as he spoke. “This could be important. If this was the woman who disappeared, than we have a timeline and a location where she might have gone missing.”
“Listen, Jasper, the sheriff and the police combed this entire area looking for her and found absolutely nothing. Dozens of volunteers walked the trail, off the trail, some searching for miles beyond where she was thought to have gone missing. There were no signs of her anywhere.”
“Just like my friend, Mr. Tryton,” Hodges said.
They stopped, and Hodges leaned on a beefy, tree trunk while Triscuit stood a few feet away. He slowly pulled the Crusher from his head and mashed it into a ball. He loved that he could do that and the hat would resume it’s natural form when he opened it up again.
“These people, my friend, Seth, didn’t just disappear,” Hodges said as he mashed and then reformed the hat. “To simply vanish, does not make sense to me.”
“It does if they all ended up in Lake Superior. Because of the coldness and bacteria in the lake, they don’t ever see the surface again. Lots of people have never been recovered from the lake,” Triscuit said.
“Oh please… the theory of the man falling into the smaller lake, drifting out of that lake, to the river, down various waterfalls, and eventually settling into Lake Superior is absurd. That man was snatched by someone. And Seth, we have direct evidence that another man pretended to be him and then probably moved his car to the parking area near the lake to give the impression that Seth was drinking and drowned when he fell over a chest high barrier into the channel where the ore boats enter and exit the harbor. Ridiculous! They dragged the harbor and channel and found nothing. And the woman, did she also fall in the water and end up in the lake? Does that make sense?” His eyes were hot and determined as he looked at her.
She said nothing for several seconds, wavering in her own convictions until she spoke, “No, no; it doesn’t.” She stood still for a moment longer and then quietly said, “They could all be alive.”
Hodges cooled down and nodded. “That is what I am hoping.”
