Copper Ridge [h.s]

silence

Something that was concerning though were the missing posters pinned to the board. Some were older, one was as new as only five days ago. I counted to six posters before I had to look away.

I could not help but wonder if there had been more posters on the board once.

I could not help but wonder if there were people that had went missing and did not have a poster.

I could not help but wonder if any of them had been found, and in what shape they had been found.

Ellie, age 30, mother of two disappeared two months ago. She was here on a work trip. They were supposed to be gone for two days. On the second day when they were heading back, she got separated from her group and was never seen again.

Jack and his son Marshall, aged 45 and 17, disappeared five weeks ago. They lived not too far away from here and were well familiar with the area. They were heading up to Tapto Lakes to go fishing. Days turned into weeks and there was still no sign of them.

The newest one, Lisa, age 25, the same as me, disappeared five days ago. She worked as a park ranger and was heading up to Whatcom Camp to clean up trash left by people. She was, just like the others, never seen again.

I did not know it at the time, but one of my questions had already been answered. I would later find out that two of the bodies had been found, and one more were about to be.

Ellies body, or rather what was left of it, was found a month after she went missing. Her cause of death couldn't be decided due to the fact that she had completely decomposed and only parts of her bones remained. However, signs of fractures were seen on her bones, fractures that had to be the cause of an outer force. Authorities put it down as a bear attack.

Marshall was found two days after he and his father went missing by a group of local hikers. He had multiple puncture wounds to his chest area and a fracture on his skull caused by blunt force. The most disturbing thing was that both of his eyes were missing and upon further examination of his body, coroners could establish that they had been removed prior to his death. This was also put down as a bear attack. The explanation was that the puncture wounds and his skull fracture had been caused by a bear. The bear did not kill him, but it made him unconscious. In this unconscious state, scavengers had started to feast on his body, his eyes included. He eventually died of blood loss.

"I can already tell you're worrying about this."

"Doesn't it worry you? What if those people are still out there somewhere? What are their loved ones feeling? I mean one of them is only 17, he's a kid Adam." He came to stand in front of me, blocking the board from my view and bringing his hands up to cup my cheeks.

"Listen, I know it's a tragedy but it's not our problem, okay? I'm sure the authorities are searching nonstop for them. Regardless there's nothing we can do about it." I was a bit taken aback by his reaction. I understand what he was trying to say, but I do not understand how he can be so indifferent about it. "How about we get going? Afterall you're the one that has literally engraved that we have a 17- mile hike ahead of us today in my brain."

The sun had yet to rise when we eventually headed up the trail. All thoughts of worry had momentarily left me once we made it out on the trail.

It felt like there was a calmness surrounding us. It was almost a surreal experience after being caught up in the stressful life of the city. Walking around, losing all concept of time and space, seeing the sun start to slowly rise, hearing the chirping of the birds, witnessing the nature come to life. It was a long time since I felt peace like this.

The trail was rather dry despite it having rained all day yesterday, making it easy for us to walk. We tried to maintain our pace, but as the sun had fully risen, the views were making it difficult as we often stopped to admire the beauty of our surroundings. Since I did not have my phone with me, I brought a small camera and I made sure to make full use of it.