A Viral Photo and A Mystery
When Kim posted photos of herself and her friend vacationing in Canada, the pictures soon caught fire in the social space—much to her surprise. Kim couldn't understand the hue and cry around the seemingly normal picture until one Reddit user pointed out the dark and spooky reality - one that left Kim in a state of utter disbelief!
The pictures seemed ordinary at first—just some friends posing in front of a valley at the top of a trail. But when she closely inspected the images, she finally saw the reason, and it was pretty shocking, to say the least! Can you see it yet?
Popular Hiking Spot
Dundas Peak in Hamilton, Canada is a popular hiking spot, and the woman and her friend had gone trekking on this peak. After all, the setting was all perfect—it was autumn, with colorful trees right in their bloom. At the time, they definitely didn't know they would soon become famous!
Tew’s Falls waterfall, located in the same region, is the tallest in the city and offers a breathtaking view. Thousands of people get their photos snapped here, so what made this lady's picture so special?
Getting Away from Monotony
Fed up with her mundane life as a mom, Kim decided to visit the park with her friend to do something adventurous. But even she didn't know that they would encounter a mystery that needed solving.
Kim headed to the park when her friend’s cousin showed them a picture of himself on the famous cliffs. Naturally, it was awe-inspiring and breathtaking, and Kim too wanted to visit the falls to witness its sweeping views and daring reputation. Not knowing the drama that was about to unfold ...
The Trek Begins
Although it was a moderate 2.4-mile hike, Kim and her friend still braced themselves because they would be going uphill to reach the peak with the gorgeous views. After nearing the top, they could see other hikers getting their photographs clicked. So, they decided to jump in on the trend!
Kim and her friend also wanted to snap photographs of one another; after all, why not? As it usually goes, they had a very specific image in mind of how they wanted to pose for the photo, but they didn’t have any idea that they would get photobombed by something strange!
Recreating Cousin’s Photo
The duo agreed to recreate the photo that had initially inspired them to go on the hike. To give you an idea about the picture in contention, the friend’s cousin had posed on the edge of the peak. Yep, quite dangerous, and we don't recommend doing that!
Instilling their own variation of the photo and giving it a personal touch, they decided on the perfect angle, one that would capture the timelessness of the area. Who knew that it was all a build-up for a moment that they would never forget for the rest of their lives!
Something Glimmered
As it usually goes, the women were taking turns, and this time around, it was time for Kim’s friend to recreate the pose that her cousin did in his photograph.
She adjusted herself on the cliff, and as she was about to pose for the lens, she noticed something glimmer below. It instantly caught her attention. She wanted to know more about the dangling shiny item, so she reached down to grab it when ...
Spooked and Scared
It was not usual to find something glimmering in the midst of what is actually no less than a jungle. Naturally, the girls were scared and spooked.
Kim was quite hesitant in reaching down below and discovering what the glimmering item was. But she had to—what if it was important?
Shiny Car Keys
The shiny, glimmering thing that they spotted were car keys, and they were hanging from a branch three feet below where the girls stood. It might not sound like a lot, but the stakes are much higher when you are on a cliff.
Kim and her friend knew that they could save someone a lot of trouble if they reached out for the keys. While Kim’s friend kept her stable, Kim swung her arm out to grab them. It was not the most comfortable thing to do, but they still decided to go ahead with it!
Finding the Owner
As the dusk fell, they started coming down the trail with the keys in hand. They approached the parking lot, hoping to find the owner. Since all the cars were nearly gone, they were able to easily discern which vehicle the missing keys belonged to.
While they did find the vehicle, the owner was nowhere to be seen. As the sky grew darker, they didn’t want to stay out in the cold. So they left the keys on top of the car on the driver’s side, not knowing the disturbing truth about the mysterious owner ...
Back Home
As it was getting dark, the ladies decided to return home, wondering if the man found his car keys or not. It had been a long day which was both fun and tiring. The friends hoped this was the end of their mystery, but they were so wrong!
However, during the span of the next week, the duo didn't give much thought to it until a piece of news flashed and something stirred in the very core of their hearts ...
The Missing Owner
After the car they found keys to appeared on the news a week later, the women discovered who the car's owner was. The news bulletin stated that someone had gone missing from the park and the police had already recovered their car—a Hyundai Elektra.
The women prayed for the stranger, hoping that the person would find their way home. But they had no idea that a month later, Dundas Peak would ONCE AGAIN resurface in their lives only to make matters even worse!
A Reddit User Pointed Something Out
It was a normal evening, a month after the incident when Kim decided to log into her social media to check what was happening around the globe. Of course, at the time she didn't know that things would go completely haywire!
While browsing through her socials, Kim saw one picture that looked very similar to one of her friends'. What's astonishing is the reason behind people sharing it—something that gave Kim chills.
The Mystery Behind the Picture
On Reddit, Kim discovered that the photograph of her friend’s cousin had gone viral. A Reddit user spotted something in his photograph that would immediately send shivers down her whole being.
As soon as the discovery spread like wildfire, more people began talking about the picture. Everyone was deeply engulfed in getting to the bottom of this simple picture. Let's see if you spotted it?
Nothing Seemed Extraordinary, at First…
At first glance, the photo seemed ordinary with her friend’s cousin posing at the cliff, wearing black attire. It was upon close inspection that Kim and her friend found something that shook them to the core.
When they zoomed in as much as they could, without pixelating the picture, they spotted a figure in a white top and dark bottoms standing on the cliffside, as you see towards the very left in the picture above. One thing was for sure, that spot was completely unaccessible. No one could have gotten there safely, so who was this person, a ghost, an apparition, or something else?
Digging Deep
Like any rational being, the very first thing that Kim and her friend did was to take a look at the image that they clicked during their outing. The figure that was present in the cousin’s image was missing in Kim’s photograph.
The place was exactly the same but the figure was missing and what made Kim and her friend uneasy was the fact that a woman had gone missing from the park. Could the mysterious figure turn out to be the missing woman?
Social Media to the Rescue
They decided to go the social media route to decode the mystery. Kim posted the entire incident on her account, stating each and every detail. She needed something concrete to go on with her investigation.
They didn’t have a ton of material to go forward with the digging. So, she decided to add a request to her followers at the end of her social media post.
Different People, Different Theories
She asked her followers to send in more and more pictures of the same location so she could compare them to figure out precisely what that mysterious figure was.
People were eager enough to come with their own set of theories. Some stated that it was a ghost of another hiker, while some believed that it was a technical problem. Others claimed that there is a trail that leads to the area the figure was seen.
Mystery Solved
The whole mystery surrounding the ‘ghostly’ figure came to an abrupt end when one Reddit user claimed that it was them who was captured in the photo. Shocking right?
The person alleged that they had been at Dundas Peak the same day that the mysterious photo was taken. But, how did they reach this inaccessible area?
Backing Their Claim
To back their claim, he further stated that they remembered donning a light grey sweater and dark jeans. As it turns out, the whole hype was overexaggerated. Or else, it is also a possibility that the person was only saying it was them to put an end to the discussion. Perhaps we will never get to the bottom of the truth but it’s fun to think about!
If you think that this incident could have included a bit more action, read on to find out about an American who got into a life-threatening situation on his trip to Bali! This one will really keep you guessing!
Another Mystery from Around the World
Mikey Lythcott has a huge friend circle from his travels across the world. An avid social media user, Lythcott has always been keen on sharing his adventures with his friends online. The 36-year-old globetrotter lived as an ex-pat in Lisbon, Portugal but he has always been on the move.
Lythcott’s social media handles were always abuzz with pictures of mountains, beaches, lakes but when he went on a trip to Bali, Indonesia, he posted something that would leave all his friends worried for his dear life.
Bali Trip Planning
He met Stacey Eno during his visit to Thailand in February 2018. Stacey was an English teacher based in South Korea. They both decided to meet the following August so that Lythcott could check off the 55th country–Bali from his list.
They landed in the town of Ubud on the island of Bali on August 22, 2018. A neat way to explore Bali’s upland region is via scooter so they both rented one, completely unknown to the fact that this could change their life for the worse.
A Van passes them
It had only been 7 hours since they started exploring Bali. Like any rational traveller, they had been riding cautiously, albeit a little slower and soon, a van passed them.
“After it passed, I could see a turn coming up. So I hit the brakes as normal, but the brakes didn’t slow the bike leaving us very little time to make a move and not enough time to negotiate a turn,” Lythcott would later recall to CNN.
Can’t See a Thing
When they couldn’t accommodate the turn, Lythcott and Eno eventually rode right off the hill and into a ravine. When he regained his consciousness, all Lythcott could see was the sky through the trees.
It was incredibly dark because they were somewhere in Bali forest. Regaining his consciousness, Lyhtcott soon realized that he had lost his helmet and his eyeglasses. Unable to use his left wrist, Lythcott had no idea that something in his pocket would be their only saving grace.
Realization Dawns
“My back felt half broken. I couldn’t move and barely could pull myself up when I found a thick vine in the dark. Every move, I kept slipping,” he told CNN.
Eno wasn’t spared from the unfortunate event either as she couldn’t move because she was injured as well. They heard running water nearby and since they were on an incline, they were just hoping that they don’t roll over and drown in the body of water.
No One to the Rescue Apart From…
“I then did think ‘I’m gonna die here,’ because no one knew we were here or went over and we were both hurt and for a minute I couldn’t even remember how we got there,” he recalled to CNN.
Lythcott was conscious enough to realize that he needed to call someone to the rescue but his cellular phone with a local SIM got lost in the crash. Luckily, he felt his American phone in his jacket pocket. It barely had a signal but it was enough to pull off what he did next.
SOS on Facebook
“I got it and turned on international roaming and just barely got signal,” Lythcott told CNN. He decided to put out an SOS on Facebook. He put out a simple post that read, “Help. In danger. Call the police.”
Lythcott met Aimee Sparks in Seattle back in 2004. Sparks was one of the first people to see Lytchott’s SOS. “I saw Mikey’s post just a minute or two after it went up. I work remotely and tend to have Facebook open while I work. I saw it and of course, was startled and a bit surprised,” she told CNN. Sparks could feel that something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
Worried Sparks Makes a Move
At first, she wasn’t quite sure what to do. “I went on his FB page and was going to send him a message when I realized that there is a call option now, so I called him. I think I was the first person to actually talk to him.”
Some of his friends were of the belief that it was a scam but what Sparks heard on the call told her that Lythcott was in deep trouble.
The Window Kept Getting Shorter
It was incredibly lucky for Lythcott to be able to post an SOS to Facebook and talk to Sparks. Lythcott could only use his right hand to type on his phone. Moreover, his phone’s battery was about to die since international roaming was beginning to take its toll.
But luckily, Lythcott was at least able to share his location with Sparks as he managed to send a pin drop that gave Sparks an approximate idea of his location. But his phone’s battery was almost drained in the process.
Friends Coming Together to Help Mikey
Since his friends now had an idea of his whereabouts, they banded together to rescue their dear friend. Some friends called the Bali police while one of his friends in Prague accessed the phone numbers of the Indonesian consulate.
“She gave me her email and I sent her screenshots of Mikey’s location. I don’t want to think about what would have happened if he didn’t have his phone, or if his battery was dead,” Sparks told CNN.”
Help Was on Its Way, But…
“I got a call from a guy named Joe from the [consulate] who said help was coming but to help him find me. I told him there was a hotel near my GPS pin, that I’d be just before that hotel, then my battery died,” Lythcott recalled to CNN.
While a huge international rescue effort was going on, Lythcott and Eno’s situation soon got worse as they slowly started slipping in the ravine. Even worse, Lythcott slowly began losing consciousness.
Help Arrives
After the a long and dreadful night, Lythcott and Eno could hear people on the road so they called out for help with whatever little energy they were left with. It might have been hours since the accident but it surely felt like ages to them.
They were put on the back of a flatbed truck and were taken to a local hospital. But they had to shift both of them to a better-equipped medical facility because the X-rays revealed that their condition was far worse than the hospital could handle. They might have gotten out alive but they had bigger challenges to face ...
The Damage
They were taken to the BIMC Hospital in the Bali resort town of Kuta. The list of injuries that Lythcott suffered was very long and included a skull fracture, a broken wrist, cracked ribs and spine, as well as internal damage and perforated bowels.
Talking about Eno, she seriously fractured her cheekbones, nose, and her left wrist. While Eno returned to her home in Korea, Lythcott had to stay in the hospital for a little longer with his sister.
Shocked But Still Determined
“I was talking with Mike on Wednesday. That was our two-week anniversary [of the crash], and we were both so in shock from it all, like it actually happened.” Eno told Inc. on September 10, 2018.
She told CNN that the accident won’t keep her from exploring the world. “This guy’s trip to Indonesia to meet me spontaneously meant his 55th country! He truly inspires me. I know travel is scary and risky sometimes, but there is no way either of us will stop.” she said.
Technology – the Knight in Shining Armor
“Without technology and friends, we would have not survived. Without the people we met along with our adventures we would be much deeper in trouble and less of this magic you give,” Eno also told CNN.
Things could have been way worse but Lythcott’s stars aligned in the desired manner that he had a huge friend group who were willing to go the extra mile to save him but more importantly, he had his cellphone!
Recovering and Thankful
No wonder both Stacey and Mikey are pretty thankful for the amazing technology, their friends, and the quick response from Bali security forces that save their lives. If not, things could have gone terribly wrong!
So, these were two stories from different parts of the world showing how much of a boon technology really is. What did you think of this story? Don't forget to let us know by commenting down below and share it with your friends!