She Disappeared While Hiking In The Sawtooth National Forest In 2020
Fern Baird, a 62-year-old from Park City, Utah, was an avid hiker known to stick to trails. She didn’t mountaineer, bush-whack, or take any shortcuts.
Yet, after she signed into the Prairie Creek trailhead logbook in Idaho at 1:17 p.m. on Monday, October 19, 2020, she vanished and has remained missing ever since.
Fern was the owner and principal broker of Powder Beach Realty, selling residential homes and managing vacation rentals.
She also founded a yoga equipment bag company known as YopaBag and had one son named Breck, who lived in California.
Leading up to her disappearance, Fern had been visiting Idaho and staying in a hotel near Ketchum. She’d asked the hotel staff for hiking recommendations, and Prairie Creek, located in the Sawtooth National Forest, was suggested.
This moderate 10-mile loop, located west of state Highway 75, traveled along Prairie Creek, crossed small waterfalls, and gained about 2,000 feet in elevation on the way to Prairie Peak. Given her hiking experience, Fern was fit and properly dressed for a fall afternoon hike, too.
She was last seen leaving her hotel. CCTV footage showed that she was wearing black pants, a grey jacket, and a black fanny pack.
Nonetheless, she never returned to her hotel, and on October 22, 2020, she was reported missing because she failed to check out of her hotel room.
The same day, Blaine County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue started scouring Prairie Lake and other nearby regions.
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The search included two drones, three K9 units, various Idaho National Guard helicopters, officers on horseback, and officers on foot.
After nine days of looking for Fern, though, not a single sign of her was found, and the effort was called off on October 30, 2020.
“This is not the outcome we were hoping for, but after 10 days of searching, we have exhausted our resources. We will continue to investigate any leads we gather,” Blaine County Sheriff Steve Harkins stated at the time.
Her 2018 black Subaru Crosstrek with her personalized license plate, “YOPABAG,” was discovered in the Prairie Creek parking area, and her purse was still inside.
However, her bank account, credit card, and cell phone have remained inactive ever since she signed the trail’s logbook.
A Tulsa, Oklahoma, family of five had also signed the logbook around the same time as Fern on October 19. The police were able to get in touch with the family, but according to Chief Deputy Will Fruehling, this lead was unfruitful.
“They did not see her or provide any useful information,” Fruehling said.
He also discussed how Fern might’ve become disoriented after going off the main trail despite her tendency to avoid risk-taking and remain on marked trails.
“As far as a working theory goes, I’m afraid we still have numerous possibilities of what happened to her. I still think that anything is possible at this point, but I do believe it is most likely that something happened to her in the Prairie Creek area,” Fruehling explained.
“The most likely theory is that she became lost, perhaps left the trail, and had to spend the night. There is nothing that points to foul play, but there is nothing that points to anything concrete, either.”
Fern’s clothing was appropriate for a daytime hike that Monday. Even so, colder temperatures arrived with sunset, and wintery conditions moved in on Friday, bringing temperatures in the low twenties and a four-inch blanket of snow.
Still, the search for Fern has not entirely ended. Most recently, in August 2023, the Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation led a comprehensive search effort, aiming to investigate new areas and add more trails to the main search map.
The non-profit organization is based in California and launched in 2020 after two Pacific Crest Trail hikers, Kris Fowler and David O’Sullivan, went missing on separate hikes in Washington and California.
The foundation funds and organizes search parties for missing families that are entirely free for the hikers’ loved ones. Additionally, it gives out free GPS devices and hosts wilderness survival workshops.
“We had about 22 volunteers show up. That’s a good number. We always have radios. We’re always in contact with each other, so safety is always on our mind when we have volunteers out there, and we always track ourselves,” recalled Cathy Tarr, founder and executive director of the Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation.
According to Cathy, the fact that Fern went missing during the daytime and while wearing dark-colored clothing complicated things.
“Day hikers are the most unprepared hikers out there. What happens is they get hurt or lost, but they have no shelter. They didn’t bring food because they brought just a snack. That’s a very scary place out there when you’re by yourself, and you’re in that situation,” she detailed.
Unfortunately, the latest effort turned up no further clues regarding Fern’s whereabouts.
“She’s still there. It’s just that no one has come across her,” Cathy said.
Fern was five foot five and weighed 115 pounds. Anyone with information regarding her possible location is urged to contact the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office at (208) 788-5555.
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