Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast - Wednesday One-Shot: The Business Casual Hiker

Episode Date: July 12, 2023

Welcome to Wednesday One-Shots. Enjoy this bonus story to help get you through that midweek slump. This week we have a story by a listener named Jessica.   The story you've heard this week was narrated and produced with the permission of its respective author. Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast is not associated with Reddit or any other message boards online. To submit your story to the show, send it to [e-mail]. Get access to extended, ad-free episodes of Let's Not Meet: A True Horror Podcast with bonus stories every week at a higher bitrate along with a bunch of other great exclusive material and merch at patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast. This podcast would not be possible to continue at this rate without the help of the support of the legendary LNM Patrons. Come join the family! Check out the other Cryptic County podcasts like Odd Trails, Welcome to Paradise (It Sucks), and the Old Time Radiocast at CrypticCountyPodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts! - Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/433173970399259/ - Website - https://letsnotmeetpodcast.com/ - Patreon - https://patreon.com/letsnotmeetpodcast - Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsnotmeetcast/ - Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/bongotate

Welcome to Wednesday One Shots, the series where we share a bonus story with you to help you get through your midweek slump. This week we have a story by a listener named Jessica. I'm a 28 year old woman and this happened maybe five or six years ago. I enjoy hiking a lot. I used to do it so much that I would go on five to ten mile hikes once or twice a week. I favored one state park in particular, Jones, Gap and North Carolina. My husband and I would pack up our goofy and laid-back yellow lab

and spend hours up there. I always felt relatively safe there, but I never went alone. As a safety precaution, and at the time, I figured a dog wasn't bad to hike with, although I didn't have a whole lot of faith in our dog, doing any protecting. He's silly, he's a very relaxed dog. It was like any other time we went. It was a mildly cloudy day, and we decided to hike on a trail that we hadn't yet finished due to either exhaustion or the weather. Since we made our hiking a weekly exercise, we felt up for the challenge.

There's about a quarter of a mile distance between the parking lot and the trailhead. Before you got to the actual trailhead, there was a fork in the path, one way leads to the Ranger station, and the other way leads to a bridge taking you to the trailhead. As we reached the fork at the end of the asphalt path, a man stood in the middle of the fork between the bridge and the trailhead and the ranger station. I didn't think too much about it at the time. I continued walking with my friendly, blonde dog happily trotting beside me. My dog's demeanor drastically changed when we noticed the man. The closer we got, the more his hair started standing up, which I don't think I've ever seen him do.

I thought that it was weird, but I decided that the dog knew something was up. We were passing by maybe six feet away from this man when the man started approaching me. The dog completely lost it on the spot, snarling, barking, teeth exposed. My dog pushed me away from this man, backing his 100lb self up on me, with every I'm going to rip your face off, bark. He was in full defense mode, not allowing me to get any closer to this person and pushing me back, I nearly fell into the river behind me.

The dog was ready to really hurt someone. My husband had to intervene and drag our dog away from the man and off of me. We crossed the bridge and headed toward the trailhead. The man followed us, but stopped in the middle of the bridge, pacing back and forth while staring at us. My dog still wasn't having any of it. He sat there and quietly growled while not taking his eyes off of the man. We began our four-hour hike and forgot all about that odd man at the entrance for the duration. We only passed by one other hiker, as we made our way off of the mountain

and closer to the trailhead, I jokingly said, I wonder if our friend is still here, wouldn't that be creepy? My husband chuckled and agreed with me, not thinking that that would be the case after four hours. I kid you not. The air was knocked out of me when we came to the trailhead and found the man in the same spot that we had left him, still pacing. This time I noticed a few things. The man was very out of place with what he was wearing. He

was wearing business casual clothing at a state park. Not the attire that you'd commonly see for hiking or camping. It was weird. When he saw us, he made a beeline for the parking lot, with us right behind him. His pace picked up with every step that he took. He glanced over his shoulder periodically to look at us, and we were fully sketched out by this point. We got to the parking lot, and he went to his red grand Cherokee Jeep and just stood there. The other hiker was right next to me in her car. She was taking off her boots with her ear buds in, not paying any attention, which worried us. My husband stood behind our car and stared at the man who quickly realized that we weren't

going anywhere until he left. I sat in the passenger seat, riding down his license plate number to call the park rangers as soon as I got cell service. You may think that maybe we were a bit paranoid, but during that time, there were reports of a man going around that part of North Carolina. He was pulling guns on people and leading them into the woods, then he would tie the victims to trees where he brutally assaulted them, or worse. There were multiple cases in the area. My dog has never acted like that before, and hasn't done it since to anyone in years to

follow. This guy was the only person my dog has ever flipped out on. Was I in the presence of true evil? Ready to pull it gone on me? Or was it an eccentric nature admirer with an affinity for business casual clothing? We won't know. I called the park ranger and they agreed that it was strange and they would keep an eye out. Whoever he was, my dog was not letting this man get near me, and I truly believe that animals can sense something that we can't. Weird, outdoorsy business casual man, let's not meet.

Thanks to Jessica for submitting that story, and if you have a story to share, send it over to Let's Not Meet Stories at gmail.com. We'll see you all next week for a full episode of Let's Not Meet, a true horror podcast. Everyone, stay safe. Thanks for watching!