Backbone Trail
9
MENTIONS
5
EPISODES
2
PODCASTS
Search complete. 9 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Backbone Trail".
Oct 2, 2026
JimmyHOST
Then he did something odd, and at about 7 o'clock, the BMW passed through a white gate onto the Topanga Tower Motorway.
JimmyHOST
This is a dirt-fire road that runs out along a ridge toward a spot called Rosa's Overlook, high above the Backbone Trail and Hondo Canyon.
JimmyHOST
The road is normally closed to vehicles, and the gate is normally locked, But that morning, it wasn't.
JimmyHOST
A security camera on the motorway caught the car heading toward the overlook at around 7.15 and at 7.28, it reached the end of the road.
Dana GoodyearHOST
Yeah.
Dana GoodyearHOST
Riders can come along the trail, cross Cold Canyon Road, and connect to the Backbone Trail, a 67-mile-long trail that runs all through the Santa Monica Mountains.
Dana GoodyearHOST
The Backbone passes by the mouth of Dark Canyon, the canyon where Mitrice's remains were ultimately found.
Dana GoodyearHOST
And she was definitely alone when you spotted her?
23 MINS LATER
Dana GoodyearHOST
She turned up a street that dead-ended into the woods.
Dana GoodyearHOST
We got out of the car and stood at a trailhead.
Dana GoodyearHOST
If you followed that trail, you'd hit the Backbone Trail.
Dana GoodyearHOST
A lot of the properties in this part of Monte Nido basically border the wilderness.
Dana GoodyearHOST
We tried going up Dark Canyon from the bottom a few different times.
Dana GoodyearHOST
The remains site is not even a mile up from the entry point on the Backbone Trail, but it is incredibly slow going.
Dana GoodyearHOST
It's hours of hiking and traversing this stream bed back and forth, I think, to get up to where she was.
Dana GoodyearHOST
When I went, it was after a winter of heavy rain, and the water was gushing.
20 MINS LATER
TravisGUEST
But there is a trail.
Dana GoodyearHOST
Oh, yeah, there is a trail down here.
Dana GoodyearHOST
But then, to our indescribable disappointment, we find ourselves on the Backbone Trail, a few yards from the point at which you turn up into the creek bed, the place we've been so many times before.
Dana GoodyearHOST
I feel like I'm being pranked.
Dana GoodyearHOST
There were more than 300 people, more than 60 horses, dogs, ATVs, bikes, and air support.
Dana GoodyearHOST
They searched from Calabasas to Pacific Coast Highway, including all throughout Malibu Creek State Park and the Backbone Trail.
Dana GoodyearHOST
Here's Sergeant Tooey Wright of Malibu Search and Rescue.
Tooey WrightSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
I can tell you that it was a huge undertaking, and, um, it was pretty much unprecedented.
5 MINS LATER
Tooey WrightSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
We went out there in a, a couple of different vehicles.
Tooey WrightSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
We took, uh, at least one rifle with us and maybe even a shotgun, um, because it sounded suspicious.
Dana GoodyearHOST
The location was in the wilderness off Payuma Road, about a mile up the mountain from the Smith's house in Monte Nido, close to the Backbone Trail.
Tooey WrightSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
And we went in, and eventually we found what could be described as a fort.
Dana GoodyearHOST
I punch them into Google Maps.
Dana GoodyearHOST
There, off to the side of Payuma Road, is a skeletal tree, right in the area Neil had showed me, and there's a trail running by it, a section of the Backbone Trail.
Dana GoodyearHOST
I decide to go check it out.
Dana GoodyearHOST
I'm thinking maybe I'll find something, some remnant of Rick.