372: What if you were lost on the Pacific Crest Trail?

This Is Actually Happening

Wondery

True Crime, Tiah, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 9.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A young woman grows up in chaos and instability but finds strength through education and a deep connection to the outdoors—until a harrowing solo trek on the Pacific Crest Trail challenges her sense of self and reaffirms her bond with others.

Today’s episode featured Betty Nickerson. If you’d like to email Betty, you can reach her at [email protected].

You can find Betty on Instagram @mustang___betty.

Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits, Sara Marinelli

Content/Trigger Warnings: divorce, suicide by gun, teen pregnancy, unhoused/rough living, poverty, being lost in the wilderness, extreme cold while lost outside, smoking, explicit language

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Instagram: @actuallyhappening

Twitter: @TIAHPodcast

Website: thisisactuallyhappening.com

Website for Andrew Waits: andrewwaits.com

Website for Sara Marinelli: saramarinelli.com

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Intro Music: “Sleep Paralysis” - Scott Velasquez

Music Bed: Re-Entry

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Wondry Plus subscribers can listen to exclusive episodes of This Is Actually Happening
0:05.0	by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:09.7	This Is Actually Happening features real experiences that often include traumatic events.
0:14.0	Please consult the show notes for specific content warnings on each episode
0:17.2	and for more information about support services.
0:34.4	I didn't feel like lonely. I felt solo. All of a sudden, I'm the one making the rules,
0:37.7	all the rules, because I have no reference. That's scary. That's scary to just think, like, you have all this stuff within you
0:41.1	that is going to either kill you or save you.
0:43.5	What is in there that is going to actually be able to be pulled out and utilized in a way
0:48.7	that's going to save your life?
0:59.9	From Wonder. From Wondery, I'm Whit Misseldine. You're listening to This Is Actually Happening.
1:07.5	Episode 372.
1:10.9	What if you were lost on the Pacific Crest Trail?
1:18.0	Hi, I'm Misha Brown, and I'm the host of Wonderry's podcast, The Big Flop.
1:27.0	Each episode, comedians join me to
1:28.9	chronicle one of the biggest pop culture fails of all time and try to answer the age-old question,
1:35.1	Who thought this was a good idea? Follow the big flop wherever you get your podcasts.
1:40.0	My name is T.J. Raphael. I'm the host of Liberty Lost, a new podcast about who gets to be a mother and the control of young women hidden behind the veil of faith.
1:51.4	Binge all episodes of Liberty Lost ad free right now on Wondery Plus. My mother was a teenage bride, and she met her husband at 15. They had their first child, and she actually died
2:20.9	of SIDS four days after she was born, and I think that was a really difficult time for my mom.
2:26.3	She really wanted to be a housewife, and I think she really idolized this quintessential idea of
2:31.6	the female homemaker.
	...

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