National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 101: Arm Funerals, Scottish Fairies & Coins from the Beyond

Episode Date: September 10, 2026

Today’s stories include being stalked on the Highway of Tears, lights over the lake, ghost grammies, arm funerals, Scottish fairies & coins from the beyond. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers! COME SEE US ON TOUR - LIMITED TICKETS LEFT! For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials: Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Thank you to this week’s sponsors! Nutrafol: Get $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shippingwhen you visit nutrafol.com enter promo code NPAD. Alloy: Try the original M4 skincare from Alloy. Visit http://myalloy.com and use code NPAD for 20% off your first order! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone, welcome back to National Park After Dark Trail Tales Edition. We're back with stories from you guys that you sent in to us. If you have one and you want to send it to us, check out our website and PADD Podcast.com because we love hearing from you and we have quite a few stories for you today. The same amount as we always do, but. Yeah, it's never changed. It's never changed once. But here we are. Here we are telling you again for the hundred and first. How do you say that?

1001st time. Yeah. And we'll keep on, keeping on. As long as you guys are generous with your time, if you would please send us stories. This one, I have a really awesome one. Can I start? Yes, please. The title is how I ended up burying myself in a historic cemetery.

Oh, right up your alley. Hello, ladies. My name is Amber. At first, I wasn't sure if my story. counted as a trail tale until I just got to the episode labeled Cemetery, our first public parks. And I realized, hell yeah,

it does. It's longer, but I promise it's all necessary for the story. And I think Danielle specifically will resonate with the little cryptic freak in me that made the choice I did when faced with my situation. I love cryptic freaks. So you're in good company. A bit about me and my backstory.

I'm a single mom of three, a wild, spooky child. turned mama in my teenage years. I love the outdoors and crafting and a good DIY project, and I am fiercely stubborn. I guess I'll start at the beginning of my disability journey and take you to the place where I ended up buried in a cemetery. In 2020, a few weeks... Buried?

Yes. Didn't you hear the title? I didn't know it meant like... Literally? Yeah, I was thinking that was like figuratively. No, no. Nay, nay. Cassie, nay.

In 2020, a few weeks before Christmas and during the COVID lockdown started to ease up, I decided to go out and do a little Christmas shopping. It was my first day in months without my kids. I had cabin fever from being stuck in the house doing virtual learning all week for months. I had also just traded in my beater Honda Civic for a beautiful Subaru Outback, and I was excited just to get out of the house and drive my nice new car and shop for the first time in forever. So on this child-free day, in my sweet new car, I headed off to my local mall. And in my first five minutes on the road, I was sideswiped by another car coming off a ramp that did not yield to traffic with the right of way, me whatsoever.

I flipped into oncoming traffic and as I slid, a truck drove over me. Oh my God. It's been all of about 25 minutes from the thought to go shopping to the moment my car was in oncoming traffic upside down with a truck on top. of it. I don't recall anything of the accident after thinking this bitch and hearing metal crunching as I was being cut off and sideswiped. I'm pretty sure that was my brain doing me a favor by not letting me remember what I experienced. Everything I learned was from reading the accident report or talking to my doctors. I was told I was so lucky to have been in the car I was in because it saved my life. And I am forever grateful that I had finally decided to turn in my old

run-down Civic for an outback just weeks before the accident. After the accident, I woke up from surgery in pretty bad shape. I learned from my doctor that my seatbelt had held me in so tight while I was upside down and sliding that it severed the nerves that come off of my spinal cord and supply function to my left arm. It's called, get ready for this, it's hard to say, a brachial plexus injury, and it left me paralyzed entirely in my left arm. The girl who caused the crash ended up with a slap on the wrist, and I ended up with a mangled one. There was a very long hospital stay, a lot of surgeries,

a surprise pregnancy with my third child, and eventually, after he was here with us, and all of my options to try and fix my arm had been exhausted, the decision was made to amputate. My arm no longer did me any good. It was completely atrophied and paralyzed. No matter how much medical intervention I attempted or positivity I tried to radiate towards a complete recovery outcome, it was just not in the cards for me. And that's okay because life is just like that sometimes. So for my quality of life, the best decision for me was to remove my arm. If you recall, I mentioned that I was a spooky kid and a stubborn as hell DIYer. Well, I had decided that if I was going to amputate my arm, I would be keeping it. It was the only way it felt right. I could admit that it did

not work anymore and needed to come off, but I was not willing to part ways with it. It took quite some time to convince the hospital that I was not going to sell it on the black market and then quite some time crowdsourcing the money. People be buying body parts on the black market. But an arm? Yeah, like for bones to like, you know? Yeah, I guess. Etsy's full of weird shit.

I don't know enough about the black market. Etsy is the black market? Sometimes, sometimes. And then it took quite some time crowdsourcing the money for my solution to convince them that I would not sell it. The agreement with the hospital was that they would release it to a funeral home for burial, but not directly to me. Originally, I had wanted to just keep it and have it cleaned professionally so that I could place my bones in a shadow box to be displayed in the house, but they were not down with my DIY bone art project whatsoever. So in order to keep it, I bought a plot in a cemetery and set up a funeral for myself.

Yeah, it's cool. What are we doing here? We can't keep our own body. I know. This seems like a lot of... It's literally yours. Like, who are you to tell me it's my arm? Yeah.

Whatever. That's a whole other conversation, but... Yeah. We've now come to the part in the story that includes an arboretum and a cemetery. I didn't get a plot in just anything. cemetery, but the historic Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. Hollywood has housed presidents, a vampire, allegedly, according to local lore, Confederate soldiers, and now little old me. I like to think about the Confederates rolling in their graves

knowing they have to share eternity with a woman of color, LOL. I think you too would really love learning more about this place and its full history as it's about as beautiful as cemeteries get. I used to live in the neighborhood that it's located in. I would walk a block over to the grassy picnic spot to sit and then stroll through the shade of the trees with the baby thinking about how amazing it would be to be able to get a plot here one day, not even knowing how soon that day would come. The oldest part of the cemetery has a few unused plots, and if no one in the family who owned the plot has been alive for 100 years, those unused plots go back up for sale to the public. I just happened to be in the market for a plot

right when one came up, so I snagged it. They used an infant casket that was painted black, especially for me and my little goth heart, as they only come in white for little angels that typically rest inside them. I buried my arm with a lock of each of my kiddo's hair and the sweater I was wearing the day of my accident to keep her warm while she waits for me. I like to think that she haunts the locals that go to take spooky pictures in the cemetery. That is the story of how I ended up with my death certificate as a living person and burying a piece of me in a historic cemetery a few years ago. I have been able to grieve my old life and move on with my new one, knowing I'll be buried whole one day the way I was always supposed to be in a beautiful resting place.

I know it was long, but I hope you too get a kick out of me turning my terrible situation into a historic park and cemetery experience. I'm going to attach a few pictures from the day of my accident up to the day of my funeral. If you look closely at the picture of the chapel, my name is on the board for the burial of the day, and if you have the stomach for it, I have also attached pictures of her wrapped up in her little casket. There's a picture of my daughter in front of the vampire mausoleum and my son sitting on the plot I chose. As a little PS, the last nearly six years have been incredibly difficult as it's a lot harder to get out in nature now that I'm in horrible chronic nerve pain, and sometimes I just can't leave the house.

I miss my independent outdoors adventures, but listening to your stories about the outdoors has kept me feeling connected to nature when it's not physically accessible to me, and I cannot thank you too enough for that. I loved hearing about Cassie getting the chance to experience the outdoors and have more time via her donors. It encourages me to get out there as a disabled person

and still enjoy nature in the ways that I can, even if it's just in my hammock in my backyard. And I have also really related to you, Danielle, especially with being so open about your grief. I lost a little bit of myself, and I'm sure that's how you feel sometimes, too, without Ian. But we are still here and still seeing the beauty of nature and life, even through grief and pain. You ladies both inspire and encourage me to continue just being, even when it's exhausting and painful. I'm so glad I found you in your podcast when I did. It's been exactly what I needed to help me get through such a difficult time.

I'm so inspired by the two of you, and I'm glad I'm still around to experience N-P-A-D. Thank you for all you ladies do. So much love, Amber. Wow, that was really, really kind. Yes, it was. And we're so happy that we can be that for you. And we're also very happy that you're still here. Even if you're missing an arm.

Yeah. I think you're so cool. I think that's the coolest story ever. I think that's such a fun way. I know. And not many people can. say that our life, that they've had a funeral for themselves. That they attended their own funeral.

Yes. And it is really cool. I won't attach. I had the stomach for it. And I think most people would the picture of her arm like wrapped up in its little casket because you can't really like it's bandaged up. You can't really tell at first glance. But I will admit that one.

But everything else I'll post. And it's just really cool. The cemetery is beautiful. There is that little casket. It's just what an experience. And it's cool that you have a plot that you're, I loved the part where she said, one day I'll be whole again and I'll be buried there. And I was like, oh, this is your actual plot. Like for some reason, I was like, this is her arm plot. And I didn't even think about the fact that one day, this is where she'll be as well, which is really cool to be able to plan it and to already have this whole story surrounding. And of course, awful that. I mean, the car accident sounds horrific. And I couldn't help. The pictures of her car are wild, just absolutely destroyed. Yeah. I couldn't help but think about my mom in this story, too, because literally just yesterday,

my mom and I had been talking about that her car was just really small and unsafe. And I would always joke, if you hit a squirrel, you're going to crumble. Like, you need a different car. And she just bought yesterday a Subaru cross track. And so when she was mentioning that she wanted to save her car and like this one saved her life and I was just kind of thinking about my mom during that that she got a much better car. That's also a Subaru. Timely. Timely story. Use our code and PAD at Subaru and to get a free car. Have you ever owned a super? I haven't. I haven't, but Alice mom has one. So I go in one and Amy used to have one, one of my close friends growing up and she is, hers was really nice. And so I've seen them.

And they're really nice. And I like them. They drive really well too. And they have all the gadgets, like the heated seats and the big screens and the Apple Carplay and all that good stuff. Not an app. Not an ad, but use our code. Sponsor me. Sponsor us

This family is on the brink of Civil War On September 18th, Mobland The hit original series is back on Paramount Plus We are the Harrogans Don't know the net And Google us From the underworld of Guy Ritchie Do you want to step up the ladder

I won't come up dead Starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan And Helen Mirren Do I have to do everything myself You want to want I'll give you a New season hits September 18th on Paramount Plus. Okay, my next story is titled,

Almost Becoming a Ghost on the Highway of Tears. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. My name is Coventry, and I've been a fan, listener, and a National Park comrade for many moons over the years. You are both so special in your own unique ways and are the perpetual soundtrack to all of my adventures amongst the Canadian wilderness. I'm a 31-year-old young lass

and was 24 at the time of this tale, this will serve as relevance later in the story. As an avid alpinist, majority of my time is spent off the grid, where I also live full-time with my wildcat Thomas O'Malley, my fierce protector, and crazy Gemini-Brindled Tiger soulmate pit bull, river sticks, and as of recent, a stoic and humble old man husky named Duke. The amount of stories I could share have no end, but this one in particular is the scariest. I live in rural British Columbia, but my dream has always been to live in the Yukon, running a sled dog team, living fully and completely off the land and off the grid. This story isn't necessarily based in a national park, but rather the long journey home after leaving one.

When the pandemic happened, I got to get a taste of just what living up north may look like. Canada Day, 2020 was on the horizon and being peak pandemic time, I decided that this, This was the perfect time to go experience what would become my biggest addiction. The Yukon. A 30-plus-hour drive north from my small town of Squamish and we arrived. Every five minutes, the rural roads were lined with bears, moose, porcupine, fox, and bison. Literally not more than five-minute intervals would you be without the abundance of wildlife. We soaked in Miles Canyon River, camped naked under the stars in Spirit Canyon,

alpine the second highest mountain in Canada, Mount St. Elias, barefoot, enjoyed wine by the fire under the Eternal Summer Sun that never fully touched down. The obsession had been solidified and my plans to return, grow, and live were set in place. The last day of our adventure had welcomed us with unforgiving arms. There are two ways to get back to Squamish Valley, BC, from the Yukon. There is the way we first traveled, which is up to the northeast passing through Dawson's Creek, and heading due west along the Alaskan Highway. But seeing as we had already taken this route,

I opted for the one that led down the Dease Lake and eventually Prince Rupert along the logging road off the Casarria Highway, which, at the time I said, what could possibly go wrong? There was a final gas station before leaving the Yukon that I grabbed a coffee from. The attendant asked me where I was venturing to, and when I said Squamish, they replied,

well, that's a hike. neglecting to explain just how much so and how virtually every town on the way was boarded, shut, and closed down due to COVID. I had 75% gas left and figured that would be enough to get me to the next town a couple hours away. I was severely misinformed. Along the gravel road in the middle of literally fucking nowhere, I had not seen another vehicle, person, or animal in hours.

Surrounded by dense forest and mountains in the distance. I felt completely alone and not in the ways that I normally would find comfort. I thought I was hallucinating when I first saw it. A puppy right there smack dab in the middle of the road ahead of me. I pulled over and was calling out for it, but to no avail. It would not come. It was barking and running up and down the road, and that's when something caught my eye. A dark shed deep in the woods.

Something you'd miss immediately if your eyes hadn't veered left for a split second. Now, I'm an avid true crime freak, and this felt a little too close to home. Being lured to a dark shed in the middle of nowhere by an innocent puppy, nope, not today and not me. I left one of my dog's water bowls and a bunch of food and decided nature can take its course. The gut feeling I had was palpable. I also have to add that since leaving the gas station, I did not have any cell service for the next 24 hours,

which makes this tail all the more dark, dangerous. and terrifying. I finally crippled my way into the Deas Lake gas station that was one minute from closing and I was one minute from empty. I figured I'd sleep in my truck overnight, seeing as this seemed to be a safe location. Right before I had given up on fueling for the night, a man came out of the gas station, not an attendant, but a stranger, and said the attendant would allow me to be the last fuel up for the evening and thank fucking God as I had just drove eight hours and was desperately starving for a nap with the ability to wake up in a couple hours and keep trucking along. Upon entering the gas station, there was nothing on the walls except for one board.

This board immediately caught my eye because on this board, the only display hung up in the gas station had hundreds of missing girls and women posted all over it. The man who told me to come fuel up was smoking a cigarette and saying, standing creepily in the corner. I paid for my gas fuel and parked along the side of the building, not entirely sure what to make of this, and still had the puppy lingering in my mind. I was sitting on the tailgate of my truck while the dogs ate, preparing for a very uncomfortable sleep in my old Ford when all of the sudden the man from the gas station, who had initially called me inside, came out and sat on top of a quad just staring at me. I thought, well, that's

really fucking creepy, but paid it no mind. Minutes later, he flew up the hill across the gas station disappearing into the approaching darkness, not only to immediately return, and he wasn't alone. A man on a dirt bike was now with him, and they both were about 20 feet in front of me just staring at me with their engines roaring. My gut instinct said absolutely fucking not again, and decided it was time to skedaddle. I put the dogs back in the truck and started driving. 15 minutes along the road heading south, I saw them in my rearview mirror. To see the quad and dirt bike hot on my trail set a blaze inside me and I tried to speed up, but it was no use. The quad had me pin from behind while the dirt bike was on my driver's side

ramming into the door, both trying to push me off the road and into the ditch to do God only knows what to me. I finally slammed on the gas and found a clearing far away to pull over and thought audibly to myself, what the hell was that? My windows were all down because it was a hot summer and my old truck didn't have AC and all of the sudden, through my fit of an anxiety attack, I heard motors approaching. I was absolutely petrified when I looked back and saw them parked and beginning to get off their quad and dirt bike and start walking towards me. By the grace of power, I'll never understand, my one-year-old pit bull, who wouldn't even hurt a butterfly,

never mind a human being sprung into action. Before I could do anything, she jumped out of the truck window in full pursuit of these men. She grabbed a hold of one of them by the leg and shook him profusely until they both got back onto their motorized vehicles and fled the scene. My fierce protector and love of my life. This became the first of many times my girl would have saved my life out in the bush. I didn't feel safe staying where they had nearly captured me and the darkness. was setting in, so I kept driving through the night. Tired and exhausted, and almost on my 15th hour of driving, I had found another but-fucked town on the sidequest of a highway, and no one in the parking lot, so I figured we will crash here for a few hours. I parked in the furthest corner of

this closed gas station parking lot and put my windows up all the way and began to rest. Not moments later, a truck pulled up virtually out of thin air and parked directly beside me. I immediately found this strange considering this parking lot was massive and there was a million other places he could have chose to park, but didn't. I heard the truck door open and saw the man leave, but he never came back. 20 minutes went by, 30 minutes went by, and then 40. By this time, I was so shook from the events that had taken place, I started to get up and look around my surroundings. In my real, I really, rearview mirror, I saw a giant handprint on the back window of my truck. I've unfortunately lost the photo now due to so many new photos since then, but with all the heavy breathing inside of my truck

from my dogs and I, it formed a cloud film on the windows where you could make out a completely perfect and obvious handprint placed on the back of my window. Where was this man? Why had he touched my vehicle? What were his intentions? To instill fear? To take me? So many thoughts. So many thoughts. were ruminating in my mind. There wasn't a town or houses or stores for hundreds of kilometers, and the gas station here was not open whatsoever as it was the dead of night. This triggered more alarms and off we went. Kept driving, no sleep, just pure adrenaline.

After a couple more hours of driving without seeing another car, house, building, or person, I was approaching a white figure along the side of the road. At first, naturally, I thought I must be hallucinating at this point. just what the fuck is going on along this highway. As I got closer, I realized it was a man, shirtless, in the middle of the dark, without a headlamp or flashlight, flagging me down. I kept speeding. The coincidences were becoming so intense that I couldn't help but wish I was already home and out of this nightmare. As morning approached and I was 20 hours into a 30-hour drive home that would normally take me a few days, I found a side gravel road to park a long.

and passed the fuck out. I was awoken a few hours later by my dog's growling, to which I peered outside the driver's side window in a haze and felt relief when I saw a massive grizzly bear just grazing on some grass. The least scary part of this entire trip, and felt in a weird way a sense of calm. Always choose the bear. Eventually, after 24 long grueling hours of driving and surviving, I finally made it to Prince Ruber and got to self-service. All of my friends and family had been blowing up my phone without knowing just what kind of shit I had gone through in the past day and were all extremely worried the worst had happened. Did I mention that I never told a soul that I was embarking on this quest home and not the initial road that I had originally taken? Yeah,

early 20s aren't the cleverest of minds or times when you're a free bird without a care in the world. It wasn't until I told my dad the events of that day that he said, Coventry, you were just on the fucking highway of tears. I had never heard of this highway before. I was 24 and not in the know of the north just yet. A highway where 40 women and girls have gone missing or been found murdered. There were billboards all over Prince Rupert broadcasting this highway and all of its women. I felt hollow inside.

Had I just escaped the deadliest high. in North America, a place where it would be so easy to become missing. If it weren't for my trusty Seed River and my sheer intuition, I sure would have become number 41 on this devious route. And that concludes my story of how I was nearly a victim to the murderous souls of the Highway of Tears. Thank you for reading and remember to enjoy the view, but watch your back and do your research before impulsively driving through thousands of hectares of untouched land on Canada's serial killer highway. Love y'all and thanks for accompanying me as the background to the forefront of all my

adventures with my four-legged family. Your wild, hippie, witchy friends, Coventry, Tom, River, and Duke. Holy shit. That is probably one of the scariest stories that has ever been submitted to us. This one and one other will stick in my mind. What's the other? Forever. The one where someone wrote into us where she was in her drive.

with her infant and a photographer pulled into her driveway and said he wanted to photograph her and took her out into the woods. And she like said that her husband was home sleeping and he like creepily got in his car and left. And then she saw posters of him in the post office after that that he was wanted for, um, assaulting women. Yes. I remember that's so strange. I feel like I heard that story somewhere else. Do you know what I mean? And I didn't. I didn't.

You didn't. But it's just like it stuck in your mind so much you feel like you heard someone else tell it to you. Yes. Maybe you told it to me, I think, who read it. Yeah. Well, going back to this one, that's absolutely terrifying from so many different angles. Like you're isolated, you're alone, you're being repeatedly hunted down. You know, like it's just.

And we've talked about doing a story on this highway. I have literally, hold on one sec. I literally have this book right here. Highway of tears, a true story of racism, indifference, in the pursuit of justice for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. And it's about the highway of tears in Canada. And I've had this on my bookshelf for a long time. And I haven't, oh, I guess I read till page nine,

because that's where my bookmark is here. But I haven't dove into it, but maybe this is a reminder that we should talk about this highway and what's going on there. Absolutely. I'm really glad that you made it out okay and you were just like, you know what, fuck this. This is not happening to me. I'm getting the fuck out of here and you listen to your gut and your intuition. And it sounds like, you know, we hear a lot with women that we're always told to be polite. and to like it's not bad like be polite to the people around you and it feels like the whole time

I was reading this story I was like you were just following your gut and you were just like no not today not me and it's really unfortunate that you had to kick into those survival instincts when you're just on this road trip but I'm really glad that you listened to your gut and your instincts and you got out of there and that river which killer name by the way river sticks amazing. Do you know, it's like the, I forget what mythology it's rooted in, but the river sticks is like this waterway that the ferryman, like the death, like death transports souls between the living world and the dead. Yeah. Is that in, that's referenced in Hercules, isn't it? I don't know. Probably because Hercules has to, has a lot to do with the underworld and Hades.

And so too does the River Sticks. So I believe so. I just haven't seen Hercules in a really long time. So. But I wouldn't be surprised. Yes. It says the River Sticks is featured prominently in Disney's 1997 animated film. Hercules.

Wow. I got a movie reference. Correct. There you go. Chad. Thriving. All right. Well, moving on to my second story, it is titled Whatever Lit Up Blue Lake.

Hey, guys. I've got a trail tale from several years. years ago that I still cannot explain. Several summers ago, I was carrying around a lot of grief. I wasn't sleeping much. My head wasn't in a good place and I felt like I had completely lost who I was. So I loaded up my truck, drove to the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, found a spot on National Forestland outside of Plotoro and decided I was going to disappear into the mountains for a couple of days. I hiked about 10 miles into Blue Lake with enough food to stay two nights. The further I got from the trailhead, the quieter everything became.

By the time I reached the lake, I hadn't seen another person all day. And I never did. For the next two days, I had the entire basin to myself. The first day was incredible. Deer wandered through camp on and off throughout the afternoon, never seeming to be too bothered by me. That evening, I even spotted a black bear way off on the opposite side of the valley. I'm sure it knew I was there, but it took its time letting me enjoy seeing it.

and honestly, watching it disappear into the timber was one of the coolest wildlife experiences I've ever had. I spent the rest of my time catching little brook trout, reading, and just sitting there listening to the wind, move through the pines. It was exactly what I needed. The second night is what I can't explain. Sometime around two or three in the morning, I woke up instantly, not slowly, instantly, like someone had whispered my name just outside of my tent. Before I even opened my eyes, I knew something was wrong. There wasn't a single sound.

No wind, no insects, nothing. Then I noticed the inside of my tent wasn't dark. It was glowing. Not flashlight bright, not moonlight. Everything around me had this cold white light to it. I unzipped the tent expecting maybe someone had wandered into my camp, but instead the entire basin was illuminated. The trees, the cliffs,

the lake, every blade of grass. It looked almost like daylight, but wrong. The light didn't seem to come from the moon or the horizon. There were shadows, but they didn't make sense. It was like the whole valley was glowing from nowhere. I remember turning in a slow circle trying to find the source of the light, but there wasn't one. Then every hair on my arms stood up. I had the overwhelming feeling that I shouldn't be standing outside, not because something was chasing me, but because something knew I was there. I don't know how else to describe it. I backed into my tent without taking my eyes off of the tree line. Then, just like someone flipped a switch, the light vanished. Complete darkness. Within seconds, I could hear insects chirping again like nothing had happened. I looked at my watch. Less than a

minute had passed. I didn't sleep another second that night. I just laid there staring at the ceiling of my tent until the first bird started singing at sunrise. The next morning, I packed up my gear and started the 10-mile hike back to the trailhead. I still hadn't seen another person. About halfway back, I finally crossed paths with a couple hiking in. We exchanged the usual good mornings, and we were about to pass each other when the woman stopped and asked, were you camped up at Blue Lake? I told her, yeah, I was. She looked at me for a second and quietly asked, Did you see that light last night? I just stared at her. Before I could answer, her husband laughed and said, don't mind her, she thinks everything up here is haunted.

Maybe he was right. Maybe there was a perfectly normal explanation to it. But I've spent dozens of nights in the backcountry since, and I've never seen anything remotely like it again. Whatever happened that night, I left those mountains with a little less grief than I carried in. Love the show. Keep the trail tales coming. Oh, I loved the ending there. I thought that this was going to feel like a little more ominous. And it's like whatever happened, I felt lighter at the end of this experience. It reminds me of just the way that they painted this picture in the scene. It reminds me a lot of what was described in the Alighash story that I told in Maine about the light.

I mean, it wasn't the whole place lit up, but just like this. And there was clearly a source that these men saw hovering above the lake. But the way that they were describing how everything was lit up, it seemed very parallel to some of the descriptions in the Aligash UFO story. I could see that. That's not where my mind was going. I was thinking of the blue orbs in North Carolina. Ooh, yes, that we've also covered.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. When was it? National Forest. Yeah. Yeah, I, that's like the, but that was more of a floating orb, but it was still the blue lights and stuff. So that's where my mind was kind of venturing to. But. Interesting.

I don't know if I think haunted for this, but definitely some type of spiritual or alien. I don't know. Something. Who says aliens can't be spiritual? That's true. Let's go with that. Well, my next story is titled Dimes Everywhere. Dear Cassie and Danielle, I have been meaning to write this for a while.

I am currently listening to Episode 69 and Ode to Ian and I'm devastated with your pain. I am so sorry, Danielle. We lost our beautiful 17-year-old son in 2008. It's hard to believe a person can survive that pain. You know what I'm talking. about. For many years, when the kids were little, we would go to Yosemite with three to four other families of dear friends. We would stay in housekeeping, which is glorified camping, cement slab, tent walls and ceilings, beds, and electricity. Hello, plug-in coffee maker.

We have years of memories of hiking the Mist Trail, biking to the Yawani for happy hour, swimming in the freezing Mersed, group dinners, and smores by the fire. A few years ago, my friend planned a Mother's Day Yosemite trip for the adults as all the kids were now grown and off in a way, including our two daughters. So my husband and I decided to go. I wasn't prepared for how difficult it was to be surrounded by all the young families. The memories were overwhelming. Since our son passed, we have found dimes in the craziest and most unbelievable places. I have a big dish of them. On the beach in the sand, on hiking trails, in a rental car, on a floor that was just vacuumed. One time I was in a museum walking by an old-fashioned cash register, and as I passed,

the drawer popped open and something fell out. I knew it would be a dime, and it was. I never asked for them, but they seemed to show up whenever we needed them most. That weekend, I asked for one. I was standing on the bridge over the river, and I said, Cameron, I could really use a dime today. Later that day, I was walking from the campsite to the road. I wasn't on a trail. I was on a trail. all. I was walking through the leaves and happened to look down. There, in the dirt, sticks and leaves, I couldn't believe I saw it. I couldn't believe I looked down at that exact moment and there was a shiny dime. Danielle, as you know, the pain we carry fills us with compassion for the grieving of others. Think of all the people, including me, that you have blessed by sharing your journey. I am thankful.

I adore you both and love the pod, especially trail tales. sending you buckets of love and gratitude for being the beautiful humans that you are. Oh, I love that. And I just love how usually when we get science stories, you know, the people are requesting specific things and looking out for them. And it's just kind of like reverse. It's like, you're getting dimes from me. And I hope you're on board because they're going to be flying out at you from everywhere.

And it's just so cool because, you know, you're taking meaning. from that. I have, I can count maybe on one hand the amount of times I found coins, let alone dimes around. Yeah. Something so specific. Yeah. And I just, I think that's a beautiful story. And thank you so much for sharing it. And it goes without saying that we're sorry for your loss. You know, that's tough to have to carry that forever. But it's beautiful that you have a way to communicate with your son through money honey okay so my last story is titled how scottish fairies helped us escape the highlands and of course i had to choose this one for this episode because as this releases we're in scotland wow i hope we're having a nice time me too i bet we are

I bet we're thriving right now. Okay, it begins. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. My name is Alex, and I'm a huge fan of your podcast. It's gotten me through several adventures with my corgi indie, as in Indiana Jones. And while I've had several stories I've wanted to send in, like how I saw a mama Black Bear and her two cubs up close in Yosemite, or how I took my doggy on a trip to Olympic National Park after a bad breakup, thanks to you two inspirational ladies.

None of them have felt so worthy until this story. one. This story begins with the most nerdy thing I could possibly say, a Dungeons and Dragons live show in Edinburgh Castle. If you haven't heard of critical role, please let me be the one to introduce you. They are a bunch of voice actors whose voices you've probably heard all playing D&D and their fan base has grown so large that they now have two shows on Amazon Prime and tour internationally to do live shows. I see their planning on doing a live show in Edinburgh Castle. D&D in a literal castle. Of course I had to go. Enter Scottish Adventure Planning montage here. Fast forward through an 11-hour flight, several episodes of your podcast, including the one set in Karen Gorms National Park,

the live show at the castle where of course I wore a princess dress in plaid, walking up and down the Royal Mile and more plaid, and then we end up in the magical Isle of Sky. I am a huge outlander fan and have always wanted to visit the Isle Sky and since I was in charge of planning this trip that was happening. We visit a few castles along the way. Ely and Donen highly recommended and take a gorgeous hike through a place called the, why are you doing this to me and girl? I haven't been to Scotland yet. I don't know how to pronounce any of these things. Quering, queering? I don't know. I swear if dragons could exist anywhere it would be here. It's summer so the sun doesn't really sat until midnight giving us plenty of time to explore the

highlands. The next day, we're set to go on a famous hike called the fairy pools. Oh, I've heard of it. And I feel like we're going to go because, and maybe you'll tell us in this story, but I think this is where, like, it's legend has it if you stick your face into the water. The fairies bless you with eternal beauty and youth. Oh, catch me in there. The ultimate skincare. Catch Cassie, like, taking off all her clothes and plunging herself in there. The ultimate skincare routine. We were worn to go later in the evening as it's a very popular tourist spot, so we procrastinated by going to yet another castle and a couple of small hikes.

I made the whole day fairy themed, so one of our pit stops was Ferry Bridge and another the Fairy Glen. Pictures of all of these are attached. please plan a trip to the highlands and I will absolutely go again. Okay, now we get to the fairy pools. It's a beautiful valley full of little pools down a river surrounded by large mountains, which the Scots called Munroos. We get there late enough that it's pretty much just us and a couple of stragglers. The sign says that the out and back is about two hours,

but I had just purchased a subscription to All Trails and had found a more adventurous four-hour loop. easy-peasy, or so I thought. We finished the main trail and it started to get close to dusk, but we decided to continue on to the more adventurous trail. We see what seems to be a smaller rocky path, so fully believe that all trails is guiding us true. We continue on this trail until the trail becomes a very polite term and our feet begin being sucked into a bog. I have good hiking shoes, so I scout ahead and promise there's more of a trail further along. We keep on going. Suddenly, these two Highlander deer pop out of the twilight and stare directly at us.

They seem to spook to see us, like, what are these stupid American tourists doing out here in the highlands so late? They follow us nervously as we attempt to bypass the bog. Clearly, what was once a trail is no longer, but at this point we're too deep in and stubbornly keep going. The deer are tentatively plotting along far behind us, and suddenly the wind picks up dramatically, like hilariously huge gusts propelling us back towards the direction of our car, making it hard to step forward. We all realize that it's far too late and the last half of our journey would be in the woods with little to no light and make the decision to turn back to the path we know will get us to our car in one piece. I look up and this dramatic bank of fog is beginning to descend into the glen.

Extremely ominous. It almost seems as if the fog is on a timer, and we need to make it out before it reaches us or the fairies would take us. At this point, we're almost half running, trying to get to the main trail before we lose the light entirely. We got to our car just as the sunlight winked out of existence. Remember, the sun disappears around midnight here at this time of year, so we're completely exhausted and just want to be in bed. My friend who's driving enters the B&B we're staying at and we plot along listening to the pro. proclaimers trying not to fall asleep in solidarity. Soon, I realized we're back at the castle we went to earlier in the day, which is a full

hour and a half away from our B&B. My friend had accidentally put in the wrong address thanks to the spotty signal. We sigh, not much to do about it, and turn around, not getting home until about 1.30 in the morning. Fairy pranks or spotty signal? Hmm. I fully believe we were escorted home by Scottish fairies, or they were warning us to get away before it was too late. The deer were their centuries, the wind a more insistent warning,

and the fog a last call. Get out of our lands, we've let you be here long enough. They seem to be saying, needless to say, I no longer trust all trails. Sorry if this is getting long, but to tie this into a national park, the next day we did go to Karen Gorms, did a falconry experience, which was the coolest thing ever, and have a kooky British old man guide us on a beaver walk. The place we were staying at that section of the trip was a rewilding project trying to reintroduce natural flora and fauna to the cairngorms. The owners had been fighting for decades to protect the beavers and their importance to the ecosystem. We walked along as he told us the Latin names of plants and then sat and waited by the beaver dam for an hour in the deepening dusk. At last, we caught a quick glimpse of two beavers after hearing their little splashes before they disappeared into the water and we went home.

After 10 days dancing around the Highlands and plaid skirts, I finally had to go back to reality and reflected on the trip. I truly believe we were either pranked or protected by the Scottish fairies at the ferry pools, and I will leave it up to you two to pick which one. Thank you so much again for all that you do, and I really hope one day I can join you on one of your group trips, Alex. What are your thoughts? I think there are some things in the world that we'll be. we don't fully understand. And I think a lot of times we write it off as just like natural phenomenon when it could be a little bit of magic as well. And I think there is a lot of magic in

Scotland. Yeah. I love that answer. Faries are known to be pranksters too. That's right. And your pictures are beautiful. We'll make sure to post some of them. Like just your outfits, It's the whole landscape, the falconry. There's a lot of beautiful pictures of the birds. So we'll make sure to share them because what an adventure you had. And I don't think it's nerdy to go to a D&D is not my thing. But trust, I have a lot of nerdy interests that I would fully go ten toes down on like this. So yeah, live your life.

Yeah. I went larping once. You did go larping once. And I had a great time. Yeah. Actually, I didn't have a great time. Okay. But only because there was a mutiny and I was the target where everyone attacked me.

Yeah. So that was upsetting. But other than that, I had a good time. But yeah. Okay, my last story is titled Grammy's Ghost. Hey, girls. Obligatory opening of how much I love you and the pod. I've been with you since almost the beginning.

I don't know for sure, but it's been a long time and I'm proud of how far you've come. Your stories have been with me, making me laugh, cry, and helping me heal while going through my dad's strokes and eventually his passing and the passing of my beloved Grammy, who this story is about. Real quick about my Grammy, she helped instill a love of the outdoors and national parks and me. She's traveled to all 50 states and could remember. all of the laundromats she's visited around the country. As she lost her eyesight and mobility,

I would tell her about my travels and she would ask me which roads we traveled so she could picture where we had been. The U.S. Road Atlas was printed in her mind. Now, you need to know that Grammy lived in a big 100-plus-year-old farmhouse and that several family members sadly passed on that farm. When my son Austin was little, maybe two, he went upstairs by himself and led out a blood-curdling scream. The scream where you immediately get up and run to them. When I got to him upstairs, he is pointing down the hallway saying, Monster!

I kind of shrugged it off, but it still stuck with me. Fast forward to 2022, Grammy took her final road trip along the country roads to Eternal Peace. Austin, four now, and I were tasked with going to her house and collecting pictures for her services. While we were sitting on the floor, he looked up at the front door and said, Oh, hi, Grammy. We high-tailed it out of there, but when I told my family, they were kind of like,

well, she wanted to be in that house forever. Guess she was just getting back home. In a way, it brought us peace, but was still creepy as fuck. A few months later, in our own backyard, Austin was playing with a squirt gun and towards an empty chair, said, I'm going to squirt you, Grammy. Later, as we were cleaning out the farmhouse and preparing it for an estate sale, Austin asked my aunt and I, who were the only adults in the house with him, Who's that man in the basement?

Since selling the farm, Austin has stopped seeing Grammy and hasn't mentioned any mystery men. But was it all his imagination? Was she there watching over us? She and I were always very close, and she said my boys were the light of her life and the reason to keep living. I do believe she is with me all the time. I feel her when I travel and every time I see a hummingbird, I know it's her coming to say hi. Thanks for reading my story. I'll probably scream if I hear it on the pod.

Keep up your hard work. You mean so much to so many people. And remember to enjoy the view, but watch out for those creepy-ass spirit seeing little kids. Michaela. It is scary when kids see spirits. It is, but like it's someone you really love, right? That is true. Does that make it less creepy on paper? Yeah.

But children seeing dead people. Yeah. By default is scary. It's scary. I don't care who you are. On the other end of that, though, I think children just kind of have more of an innocence to them and a different view of the world at that age. And I do think that children are more susceptible to seeing things that maybe we don't. I agree. I agree with that.

sure. Well, my camera just died, but we do have two extra stories. So I'm going to have to take this to my laptop camera. Wow. Wow. There she is. There I am. Totally different angle. It's not my best angle, but we will make it work. Okay. Well, my bonus story is titled Fock Delaware. And mine's titled Nearly Abandoned in Glacier Bay. All right. Well, we will see everyone who is a Patreon subscriber or Apple subscriber over for an extended Trail Tales, as always, for the 100 and first time. And for everyone else, we will see you next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back.

Bye. Bye. Thanks for joining us for another episode. We hope you learn something new and have another location to put on your list. If you want more MPAD content, make sure to follow along with our adventures. on all socials at National Park After Dark. For more stories just like this one, with the added bonus of exclusive content, you can join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions.

If you prefer to watch our episodes, head over to our YouTube channel. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform. I was severely misinformed. I missformed. We do this for a living. We read and write. every day. Would you believe it? But do we speak? I don't, I don't think people realize

I don't talk until I'm with you on this show, on this show. It's like, I live in complete silence until we're recording. Okay. Sorry, okay. I, misformed God. Okay. Hey girls, obligatory opening. I've How much I love you. As soon as I said it, I was like, that's not. It's like, I'm going to just roll with it. Where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. A fad to some, the future of money to others.

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