Patrick Terrence Whalen earned the title, "survivalist", due to hiking thousands of miles along the Pacific Crest Trail, and spending hundreds of hours in various national parks. Before his disappearance on November 2, 2000, he frequently visited Glacier National Park, the Colombia Falls area, and the Blackfeet tribal lands during the months of September and October of the year 2000.

Whalen's vehicle was later discovered near the intersection of U.S. Highway 89 and State Highway 49, at the eastern outskirts of Glacier National Park, near the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Almost 7 months later, on May 27, 2001, an abandoned camp was found in the backcountry of the Atlantic Indian Creek Campground, along the North Fork Cut Bank Creek between Bad Marriage Mountain and Medicine Grizzly Peak. At the camp were items that were identified as personal belongings of Whalen.

Search teams combed through the surrounding area, but Whalen was never found.