National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 102: Wedding Day Emergencies, Near Death Brides & Bigfoot Anniversaries

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Today’s stories include wedding day emergencies, near death brides, cave ceremonies, Bigfoot anniversaries, wedding ghosts, dragon approvals and phantom runners. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone, welcome back to National Park After Dark. I'm Cassie. I'm Danielle. Come see us on tour. Yeah, come see us on tour. We're about to leave. We're heading out. We're starting off in the Midwest. Then we're heading to the east. And then we're going out west. And there is still a little bit of time left to grab your tickets if you want to come see us. Yep. We just got back from Scotland. And we're gathering ourselves for about seven days. And then we're going to hit the road. So we hope to see you. guys all out there. But for now, we have some stories for you. And I kind of themed to this episode a little bit because we had a lot of, did we request weird wedding things? Because we had a influx. Yeah, I think we did at one point. Okay. Of wedding chaos stories. So not every one of them is wedding themed. Oh, it came from the story where someone said that their husband got stabbed at their wedding. Right. Remember that one?

And then we started requesting more. So I love a little wedding chaos. I'm here for it. Great. Oh my gosh. And this is a special day because I'm drinking a beer. I know. Use our code and PAD.

It looks like shit if you're looking at it because on video because I'm in the mood for pumpkin head with the sugar cinnamon rim with caramel as one New Englander does and it's starting to melt everywhere. The caramel rim is so good. Tis the season. In 1980s, E.T. Pizza Hut collector's glass that I got at an antique market. So it's a good day. What a vibe. What a vibe.

Okay. first so I can like enjoy lick this room a little bit yeah okay I'll be quiet about it just slowly licking the rim and looking into the camera while I read this perfect I'll shut my camera off it makes you more comfortable but it's like when people have those those social media clips and it's like when your friend's trying to tell you something really serious but you have a tahine rim and you're like well this is serious because this one's titled wedding chaos. Well, I chose a Trail Tales to do this because it feels inappropriate to do on like a normal episode. A dark episode that's full of history and horrible happenings. Yes. So yeah. Anywho, begin,

please. Okay. Mine is titled Wedding Chaos. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. First, I just want to say I love the pod. I've been listening for years and I really appreciate the girls' girl energy you both put out into the world. For a little backstory, my husband and I live on 160 acres in Montana. We got married on our property with the Bridger Mountain Range as our backdrop. We were expecting about 350 guests and we encouraged everyone to bring a camper or tent so no one had to worry about drinking and driving. Thursday before the wedding, campers started rolling in. Our friend Dylan pulls up with an enclosed trailer and starts unloading his side by side. I immediately walked over and told him to load it right back up. I didn't want motorized toys ripping around the property because, let's be honest, we know how to throw a party and that sounded like a terrible idea.

He agreed and promised it would stay parked. Fast forward to Saturday, July 15, 2023. The big day is finally here after nine years together. We do our first look and then the bridal party heads to the old barn nearby for photos. As everyone is piling into vehicles, there are two people without a ride. and my soon-to-be husband, Cleave. Dylan says, Rach, you and Cleave should take the side-by-side. You'll look so badass. I told him, absolutely not.

I was wearing white and the wind would have absolutely fucked up my hair. Then Dylan asks, Can Cleave and I take it? At this point, I had exactly zero fucks left to give, so I sighed and said, fine, but only for this. It's not coming back out tonight. And they take off.

Photos wrap up and were about five minutes from the ceremony. I climb into a truck and happen to look over at the side-by-side. Cleve is in the driver's seat. I say to the entire truck full of friends, who let this motherfucker drive? He rolls every single one of these. The words had barely left my mouth before Cleave hit the gas to do a donut. The machine squatted, then stopped, and slowly rolled over. Dylan had taken his seatbelt off because it was squishing his boot and ear. As it tipped, he instinctively reached up to grab the roll cage. The roll cage landed directly on his arm. It broke both his radius and ulna and ruptured an artery. The whole thing happened in what felt like slow motion.

I was almost out of the truck before it was completely upside down. My sister, one of the bridesmaids, saw me sprinting. She ran and grabbed me because nobody knew how bad it was just yet. Meanwhile, I'm screaming. This is why I fucking told you no, Dylan. crawls out. There's blood everywhere. His arm is bent in a direction arm should never be bent, swelling by the second, and he split his forehead open. Everyone rushes to help Dylan. Meanwhile, Cleve is still hanging upside down, buckled into the driver's seat, and unable to get himself out. Ironically, Dylan, the one with a broken hemorrhaging arm, ends up helping him get out. Once the dust settles, we realize, my wedding dress is covered in blood. Cleve's shirt and

invests are covered in blood. Dylan needs emergency surgery. So we all race back to the house. Unfortunately, to get there, we have to drive right past the ceremony. All 350 guests are seated. It's about 90 degrees, no shade, waiting for a wedding that's supposed to start in five minutes. We hid Dylan in the vehicle and everyone acted like absolutely nothing had happened. It took 45 minutes to get the blood out of my dress. We found Cleave another shirt and invest, the groomsman had a slight wardrobe, and our beer boy, yes, we had a beer boy instead of a ring bearer, stepped in to keep the wedding party even. Miraculously, no one had any idea what had happened until we went into the reception. I'd call that a success. Dylan went into emergency surgery that

evening. He was understandably disappointed. He missed the dancing, food, and party, but thankfully, his arm healed beautifully. The best part, we later learned the reason the side-by-side rolled, wasn't because Cleve was trying to show off, well, not entirely. When Dylan unbuckled his seatbelt, it chopped the throttle causing the machine to roll. I've attached a few wedding photos and the x-rays of Dylan's arm. He is the third groomsman from Cleve in the group photo. I hope you enjoy the chaos and thanks for everything you two do. Enjoy the view, but keep your seatbelt on.

You never know when you might end up seeing things upside down. Enjoy the view, but listen to your soon-to-be wife because she probably knows best. She probably knows everything. I just, I wish I could say I was suppressed, but the way that whole thing was starting to unfold, I could just so picture you and Al and his friends. Oh, my God. Well, we, I remember at our wedding, Al, the only thing he asked for our whole wedding, pretty much, was he wanted a photo on his dirt bike, and he wanted a photo with me on his dirt bike as well.

And I remember when we did it, my maid of honor, Amy, she was like there and helping with it. And she was terrified because she thought that my veil was going to get stuck in the wheel of the dirt bike. And she's like, you're going to get to capitated on your wedding day. Or the very least scalped. Yeah. And it was all fine. And Al got a really cool. photo out of it, which he was really excited for. I mean, that photo is one of the coolest pictures of

the whole. I agree. I mean, you have a lot of photos from that whole event, like that whole weekend, but that's one of my favorite ones. It's just really captures who you both are, you know? It's not like a traditional wedding photo. So he advocated for himself, and I'm glad he did, but. Yeah. We have it framed on the wall, and it went well, and no one was bleeding out and no head marching arms. Okay, my first story is titled, Accidentally Ended Up at a Bigfoot Festival on our five-year wedding anniversary. Hi, Cassie and Danielle, new listener here, slowly making my way through your backlog of episodes.

To say this is my new favorite podcast is an understatement. I'm a wedding and elopement photographer in Colorado, and I often drive four to five hours to different locations. Your podcast gets me through my late night and early morning commutes. I spend so much time in national parks and national forests, that I feel like I have a million stories to tell. But I just finished listening to the episode about the Patterson Gimlin film, and I thought this would give you both a good laugh.

Every year, my husband and I try to plan a trip centered around the outdoors for our anniversary. In 2023, it was our five-year wedding anniversary, and we went big with a road trip from Denver all the way to the Redwoods in Northern Cali. The road trip was amazing. We stopped at the Salt Flats, Great Basin National Park, Lake Tahoe, and I had a very cute geodome glamping site reserved for us in the Six Rivers National Forest. I have always been a Bigfoot believer and fanatic, but for some reason I didn't put two and two together when I booked this campsite. I knew Willow Creek sounded familiar, but I spent a lot of time

zooming in on random places on Google Maps and researching various spots looking for our next adventure, so I didn't think too much of it. We pulled up to our spot. It was super cute and right on the river. Our camp host met us and showed us around. She casually mentioned, oh, and it's a great weekend to be in Willow Creek. Bigfoot Days. Our annual festival is taking place in town this weekend. I froze for a solid 30 seconds while my brain put everything together. Total Charlie Day conspiracy red string moment. And then I squealed with excitement and said, this is where the Patterson Gimlin footage was filmed. My husband looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. I chatted. with the camp post about the footage, and she recommended we check out the festival and the

Bigfoot Museum right in Willow Creek. I swear on my life, I did not plan to spend our romantic five-year wedding anniversary at a Bigfoot festival, but my husband definitely thinks it was on purpose. But as I like to lovingly remind him, do we really think the Bigfoot Festival wouldn't be factored into the itinerary if I knew about it? The festival was incredible. People dressed up, a Bigfoot calling contest, local vendors, and live music. It cut into our Redwoods time a bit, but I have zero regrets. I've been to a handful of Bigfoot museums, but this one felt extra special. There was a huge collection of casts, newspaper articles, photos, and of course, the Patterson Gimlin film playing on a loop. I got a very funny shirt that has a picture of a Bigfoot and says,

find me, that's where I'll be. I still giggle anytime I wear it. And that is the story of how our five-year wedding anniversary will always be the time we accidentally ended up at a Bigfoot festival. If you ever find yourself in Willow Creek in July, it's definitely worth checking out. Anyways, as I mentioned before, I have so many stories I could share, so you'll probably hear from me again. Thank you for keeping me awake on my long drives and for your creative, thoughtful, and well-researched approach to true crime. Lots of love, Amy. What a fun way to spend your wedding anniversary. That's my kind of way. I want to go to a Bigfoot Festival so bad because like her.

I know there's a UFO festival next weekend. Where? In Epping. Oh, okay. Because there's always one in Exeter. Or maybe it's an Exeter. Yeah, well, I've been with Choska a couple years ago. I have a picture with him there.

But Betty and Barney Hill's niece speaks at them. That's so cool. We're going to be in Scotland. And I'm pissed. The Exeter UFO Festival starts on September 5th. Oh my God. We're not going to be in Scotland. Oh, my God.

I'm having a Charlie Day red string theory moment. You can go. Am I going to be here? I can be. Oh, my God. This changes everything. Okay, great. Perfect.

Oh, my God. This beer is a frigging disaster. It's so sticky. And it's melting everywhere. How do they do it to keep? Keep it not dripping everywhere. Bartenders let me know because I messed it up for sure. Maybe it's a special caramel or maybe they freeze the glass first.

I did that. Oh, you did? Yeah. I froze it or I chilled it. I chilled it. I dipped it in the caramel, the sugar and cinnamon mixture. And then I put it back in the freezer for a little bit to chill before I put the beer in it. And I sat down and we recorded.

So and it's like, it's not even hot in here. It's just melting. Everywhere. But anyway, I clearly don't drink a lot. I don't know what's happening, but okay, go ahead. Okay, my next story also in the wedding theme, is called the half-drowned bride. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement, and nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19-speaker AKG surround audio system. This city demands agility, and optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary.

Let's take the Cadillac. Find out more at Cadillac Canada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. Hey ladies, I've recently discovered your podcast and have been loving hearing about the wild histories of the national parks around the world. You helped the 10-hour workdays go by so much easier. I was listening to your trail tales talking about weddings,

and thought you'd like to hear about my honeymoon story. I'll write another one about Danger Kitty and a Funny Moose story, but first, the half-drowned bride. Feel free to read this on the podcast and use my name. My partner and I decided to have a camping slash fishing mini-moon. I was very new to fly fishing, but one of his favorite rivers, the San Juan, was just a few hours away. It's northern New Mexico, so it's gorgeous, and we were looking forward to a great trip. Our first full day we set off for Texas Hole. To get to the best spot, my partner leads me across some fast-moving spots that did not feel beginner-friendly, but I did it, and by the time we looped around to his favorite spot, I was feeling confident.

For context, this part of the river is big, 60 or so yards across and deep. My partner sets me up in a spot and points out about two feet away, there's a drop-off right there, so don't go much further out. Message received. I planted myself, and we got to fishing. I'm watching the folks across the hole and my partner and everyone's moving around a little bit, so I figured I could too. I start moving sideways since two feet in front of me there's a drop. Side step cast, side step, cast, side step, sploosh. I was juggling my new rod, trying to doggie paddle, and on top of my, thankfully, very tightly cinched down, waiters were filling up with the coldest water ever, cold enough that it took my breath away. I couldn't get any forward momentum and I couldn't get any forward momentum and I couldn't

get enough breath to call my partner. Q are fellow fishers across the hole. A woman sitting on the other bank looked up from her book and saw me. She hollered for her husband and son. Tell him to get her. Tell him to get her. They start screaming and waving for him. He looked up, then turned around. Next thing, he was hurrying over to drag me out.

After that, I was placed in front of him so he could watch me. Yes, we kept fishing. I ended up catching a massive trout about 10 minutes later. After that, we did stop because I was soaked and we were both more than a little frazzled. We went back to camp and changed clothes, then headed to the local spot for the great fixer of all crazy experiences, a green chili cheeseburger, if you know, you know. I don't know if I know, but I want to know because I love green chili and I love crazy burgers. Well, this sounds like the spot. Like peanut butter jelly burgers?

Don't make that face until... It wouldn't work on a veggie burger. I'll give you that. But I also am not a big peanut butter and jelly fan in general. Oh, my God. Anything with peanut butter on it? I'm down for. Peanut butter, yes, jelly, no.

Okay. So would you try a peanut butter burger if it didn't have meat? If I was like gone to my head, sure. But like, I wouldn't order it at a restaurant. It's disgusting. I would. Really? Yes.

Yeah. I would. A green chili. That sounds delightful. Green chili, yes. Peanut butter jelly. No. Burger. Well, this person I understand. I feel like I know. Okay. Is what I'm trying to say. Candid spirits. Yes. While we were mid-bite, I'm suddenly getting a hug from behind as a woman I've never met cries. Oh my God. I'm so glad you're alive. Yes, cried, actually teared up. It was the lady from across the river. She almost hadn't gone with her guys to the river since she was going to go reading anyways, but it had been a little too warm and their campsite didn't have good shade. We were all thankful for that too hot campsite that day. The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful,

but I did get to see a muskrat when I sat down on the bank of a different part of the river. Furry little dude just popped out of the grass behind me and waddled into the water within petting distance. I didn't, of course. It's been 23 years now and we still joke about how I almost got us turned to to a Netflix documentary before they were even a thing. He did say he's always felt terrible for taking me to a very not beginner river for my first trip, but if he hadn't, I'd never have caught a fish longer than my arm or seen my muskrat.

It was definitely foreshadowing for all of our adventures, though. None have been boring. Thanks for reading all of that and for everything you do to entertain us and teach us about the wild. Enjoy the view, but watch out for those sneaky drop-offs, Nat. I remember growing up and fishing with my dad and just the fear he instilled in me about your waiters filling up and how it would be a death sentence. And I was just, it's never left my mind. Every single time I see people with waiters on, I'm like, that's a risk.

But careful. Careful. But interesting thing about fly fishing real quick. This is going to not be a surprise to a lot of people who are in the fly fishing world, but I have never been. And I read a super interesting book this month called The Feather Thief by Kirk Johnson. I feel like I've heard of that. Yes, it's been very, it kind of like has exploded a bit.

I don't know. I know it's relatively new, but I've been seeing it everywhere. So I'm like, the feather detective has been on my list. And now it's all, it's a bird theme recently. But so I read it. And it's very, very good. But, and it goes into the heist of some rare birds from a museum in the UK and why that happened. And of course, he mentions the history of people wanting birds. Like, and he, explores what you did in your Guy Bradley episode about plume hunting and like why that was a thing and what drove that like fashion and all of that. But the reason that this particular individual, which happened, I think this was in like 2009, like it was relatively recently, he broke into this museum and stole a ton of rare bird skins and feathers was for Victorian fly tying for fly fishing. Whoa.

And there's this huge black market. There's a huge black market for like people who are doing it according to like these particular standards for fly fishing. Like you have to have these particular birds and feather or feathers from birds for the flies. And there's, I mean, illegal because of all the different protections that different birds have. And many of them are extinct or on the brink of extinction. So he broke into this museum and stole all these birds. And the author goes into how those birds were even collected in the first place and like the expeditions that they were collected. It's so good.

So if you're into that. That's so interesting. Please pick up that book. I learned a lot because I knew a lot about the plume hunting for fashion. But I had no idea it was a fly fishing thing too. Yeah, I never heard of that until now. That's crazy. Okay.

My next story is titled Tutsi Roll or Walter the Ghost. Hey ladies, we have been besties for about five years now and it's finally my moment to shine. Danielle requested weddings gone wrong. Okay, well, there we... There it is. You did this. I did this to us. So you got it.

After our engagement, we immediately started visiting venues to get an early start on planning. As soon as we stepped into the beautiful ballroom of the Rett Law, we knew it was the one. The Rett Law was first established by a businessman named Walter, Rett Law backwards. Oh, clever. Although Walter lived a long and happy life, he is still said to be roaming the hallways along with some other ghostly friends who may have been murdered or jumped to their deaths. Fast forward to our wedding day. It was a crisp autumn day. Everything was going perfectly from the ceremony to the delicious mashed potatoes at dinner.

As soon as the dance floor was ready, it was quickly filled. with our best friends and family. The boys did their dance to in sinks by, bye, by, and the girls danced in their circle to call me maybe, but as soon as the Tutsi roll came on, my friend and I locked eyes and knew it was go time. We quickly remembered our choreographed dance we made up in middle school. As we were really getting low, I felt a pop, and down I went. My new husband swiftly swept me into his arms and carried me to a chair. Unable to walk, I knew we had. We had a little bit. I had to make an ER visit. Funny enough, when we arrived, there was a bridesmaid and groomsmen from a different

wedding also there. We playfully laughed and joked this was the real after party. Imagine. It's the people from your story. Imagine. I wonder where this happened in comparison to both. Well, where's the ret law? Yeah.

You guys got to, you got to figure it out and come back to us. That would be a crazy coincidence. Okay. We playfully laughed and. joke this was the real after party. After some x-rays, exam, and referral to orthopedics, we returned to the hotel to get some rest before gift opening the following morning. As I rolled up in my wheelchair, the stories started coming in. Apparently, some of our wedding guests were riding the elevator with ghost hunters that were filming on the seventh floor. My wedding guests were

convinced that Walter pushed me on the dance floor, causing my torn ACL and meniscus. To this day, I am still correcting people. I was not a victim of Walter. I am just a millennial who has pop, locked, and dropped it one too many times. Either way, my wedding is the most memorable to my family and friends, and a fucked up knee was worth all of the free drinks my wedding party got after the incident. Can't wait to see you in Milwaukee for some cheese and beer. Enjoy the view and watch your knees.

The 69 boys might be after you next. Jenny. See you in Milwaukee, Jenny. I have also pop-locked and jopped it too many times. So funny. God, it's so funny. These knees don't work like they used to. That is for sure.

That is for sure. My right one, it's a little crackly recently. Yeah. Oh, no. I know. 36 is fast approaching. It's all downhill from here. That's what they say.

I don't know. They do say women come into their own and like they keep changing the goalposts. They're like, no, your 30s are so much better than your 20s. Actually, the 40s are where it's at. And then you get to approach your 40s and they're like, no, actually, you're never truly yourself until you hit your 50s as a woman. And then people in their six, the women in their 60s are like, oh, just wait. It's so good in your 60s. You don't care. and you've been there, done that. So if that's true, it's all up from you. All the eras are good. Yeah.

Just different. The pop lock and drop an era is your 20s though. Yeah, leave that behind. That is for sure. Leave that as the memory it is. All right, my next and last one is titled, Someone or Something Wanted Us Gone. Hi, ladies.

My name is Jillian, and I've been listening for about a year now. I sped through your episodes while doing chores, working out, painting, or trying to sleep. My boyfriend thinks I'm morbid for that last one, and he isn't wrong. Exactly a year ago now, I went on a road trip to Portland, Oregon with two of my closest friends to celebrate my college graduation. I am a big outdoorsy gal, so of course, along the way up the coast, we planned stays at various national parks and forests. We drove out from our hometown of Albuquerque and made it to the Grand Canyon on our first day. It was there we had our first spooky experience of the trip. After hiking partway down the canyon, looking through gift shops and mailing out my graduation announcements from the post office in the National Park, we needed to find a camping spot.

Trying to save some cash, we camp several times in dispersed sites, which always feel farther from civilization, which can be both a good or bad thing. This time, it was a bad thing. This was our first night, and we rocked up to a dispersed site near the the National Park just before sunset. We ate dinner, drank some lavender-flavored beer, because we're girls, duh, and set up our tent. Something to know about me. I am not usually scared of the dark or wandering away by myself. My friends, on the other hand, are rightfully much more cautious than I am. So, once it got dark, I decided I wanted to change into my PJs and rather than fight with my clothes in our small tent, I thought I'd just walk a little out of sight and change there. So I grabbed my clothes,

and my bright red laundry bag and went into the dark. I walked further than I meant to, looking for a place to set down my clothes while I changed and went to the bathroom. It took a while until I found a nice log to set things on, but once I did, looking down, I realized I had somehow dropped or left behind my pajama pants. So, camping pretty close by,

I left my shirt and again bright red laundry bag on the log. I walk back slowly, scanning the ground with my headlamp for my pants, but I couldn't find them. They weren't in the car or in my bag, meaning I had definitely dropped them somewhere. Oh well, I was just being dumb, I thought. Eventually, I gave up and grabbed another pair of sweats and went back searching for my log. After a while, I realized I had walked too far and must have surely passed the log by now

and turned around because now I had pants and no shirt. After I turned around, I realized I was walking back in an entirely new direction. Nothing was familiar. I passed an exceptionally creepy-looking dead tree with warp branches like witch's fingers and a completely intact skeleton of a horse. And by completely intact, I mean entirely, I've never seen anything like it. Though it was sun bleached and had clearly baked under the Arizona sun for a while, no predators, wild dogs, or scavengers had so much as disturbed one bone. At this point, I began to get a bit freaked out. I thought I must have been turned around and headed back to camp.

Once there, I decided to try again paying more attention this time. The log was a maximum of 50 feet away. I couldn't miss it, right? Wrong. Again and again I started over trying to find my missing clothes to no avail. Again and again, I came across the dead tree and the horse skeleton. I started to feel like someone or something was messing with me. Eventually, I gave up and changed in our tent and decided to

find my clothes in the morning, thinking, surely I'd just been turned around in the dark. I told my friend Zora and Anessa about what had happened because they had seen my headlamp doing nonsensical zigzags in the dark for the past 30 minutes. My friend Zora went quiet. A year ago, she had lost a name tag for work inexplicably, only for it to appear at her door three months later. Her friend, who is Dina, told her that in her family, objects disappearing randomly is a sign of a trickster spirit. I told her that was the exact feeling I had wandering in the forest. Not fear, not anxiety, just frustration, like when adults would play a joke on you as a kid. But the tricks didn't end there. After explaining my tale of the disappearing pajamas, we brushed our teeth for bed.

While brushing my teeth, my friend Anessa turned to me and asked, what did you say? Through the toothpaste dribble, I responded, nothing, but she was insistent. No, what did you say? Nothing? I said, a bit frustrated. In college, the pair of them liked to play pranks on me. Harmless and helpful pranks really, like washing my sheets and making my bed and then insisting they hadn't. I thought they were up to their usual shenanigans, but the pair had started to get freaked out the more I got angry. Apparently, they really had heard me make a sound while staring out into the distance where I lost my pajamas. It sounded to them like an exclamation, like when you see something in the distance and want everyone to look too. But really, truly, I swear, I never said a thing. The spirit was

playing tricks again. The next morning, I found my laundry bag and my shirt right on the log where I'd left it. I never did find my pants, though, despite looking for a good while. I tell you this story first to contrast it against the other entity we would come to know on our trip. This one was not playful. This one just wanted us gone. Flash forward about a week, and we had made it to the Pacific Northwest. We were at Crater Lake, which was beautiful, although we only got to see it for about five minutes. The traffic was so horrendously bad on the one-way road that we spent hours in the car and eventually had to give up in hopes of returning the next day. However, we never did because by the time we sat through traffic, all the first-come first-served

campsites of which there were 50 had been filled. So we decided to just mosey on and camp somewhere in the National Forest. Keep in mind that at this point, we had no cell service and no way to tell anyone that we were deviating from our original plans. Yikes. Working off what little information my phone had downloaded on Google Maps, we found a hot spring off the river. It was a nice consolation prize for not being able to spend time at the park. We soaked it up, despite passerby's telling us that a bear had been seen bathing and hunting fish in the river below. Armed with bear spray with at least a dozen cars in the parking lot, we were undeterred.

As we approached the trailhead to my friend's dismay, but my enjoyment, the trail was called the Dread and Terror segment. I kid you not. Comforting. It's like, this sounds great. I laughed so hard at that, but my friends didn't think it was very funny.

Reading the sign, apparently that part of the trail was named because firefighters were too scared to step foot on it because of how spooky it was. people had a tendency to get lost in the woods there. But luckily for us, we didn't get lost and had a great time at the springs until the sun began to set. Zora and I were having a blast and thought it would be fun to stay and watch the stars. Anessa wasn't as thrilled, though she didn't tell us until later that the entire place gave her the creeps.

However, a couple who were clearly on drugs showed up and started arguing pretty viciously, so we thought it was best to head back to our car sooner. By then it was dark, but we got to the car quickly after making a slight wrong turn that we caught right away. So much for dread and terror, I thought, but the dread and terror was ahead of us, not behind. With our fingers and toes shriveled up like raisins from the springs, we hunted for a campsite in the dark. After pulling into several established campsites that were entirely full, we were exhausted. we decided to just turn down the first forest service road we could find and camp right there. So with no cell service, we just drove and drove.

Then up ahead, I saw a forest service road called Old Medicine Creek Road. We turned down it and I immediately had a bad gut feeling. That feeling got stronger and stronger the farther we went. It was a thin, one car only road with huge trees making the whole drive feel intensely claustrophobic. We passed a concrete bridge, and once we got to the other side, my anxiety reached a fever pitch. I had not seen anything. There was nothing visually different about this strange dirt road compared to the dozens of others we had already driven down during the trip. But there was this intense feeling of dread that I could not ignore.

I blurted out, we should turn around. When I looked over, Zora was crying and so was Anessa in the back seat. Simultaneously, without talking or looking at it, at each other, we knew we all had the same intense feeling of dread. For those of you with anxiety, you'll know that anxiety attacks often ramp up until you feel like you are in the verge of life or death. I've been medicated for generalized anxiety for years now and haven't had a full-blown anxiety attack since. But that night, I felt like I'd been dropped into the worst part of an anxiety attack out of absolutely nowhere. We all genuinely felt like we were about to die.

Despite this absolute panic, I calmly told Zora to do as many turns as she needed to back the car up and begin heading the other direction. Through tears, she told me she was too afraid to look in the mirror or any of the backup cameras. I was as well, but I knew we needed to move or something bad would happen. I told her to take it slow and I would look. I peeked at the mirrors but was largely too afraid to look closely. We were driving blind with fear. Zora continued to cry saying something bad was going to happen and that we needed to leave. I told her calmly that everything would be okay because we were listening to our intuition and leaving before anything could happen.

We drove slowly down the road, not daring to scan outside the vehicle's headlights. Once we crossed the bridge, the feeling lessened somewhat. Once we reached the pavement, the feeling mostly went away, leaving only adrenaline. We decided that in the middle of the night we would drive straight to Portland. No more camping and tents for us. Once on the road, we began to talk and realized for a fact that we'd all had the same experience simultaneously despite not speaking at the time. Sudden, terrifying dread and then relief, especially once we were out of the National Forest.

We called a friend back home and told him we'd had another spooky experience to which he said, of course, at Crater Lake, right? We had no idea that there were tons of ghost stories associated with Crater Lake and the area surrounding it. People getting mesmerized by the water and drowning, babies crying from the woods, people getting lost easily or going missing entirely, and entities following people through the wilderness. We knew none of this. While my friend drove to Portland, I read these stories with horror. We had no idea, no preconceived notions to freak ourselves. out with, and yet we had, despite never seeing anything to trigger it.

I looked up Old Medicine Creek Road and found no further information about it other than it being listed in a random travel magazine as an entry point to find the only surviving cave paintings in the entire Pacific Northwest. At the end of this unassuming unmarked road that we randomly stumbled upon was something ancient. What were the chances? We came to the conclusion that we had somehow crossed the line and that entity wanted us out. How does something get you out? Scaring you shitless. Maybe it was protecting the area, the same entity that protected these ancient drawings

that somehow survived when no others could in the rainy climate. Maybe it was protecting us from something else. A murderer or a creature worse than itself. I tend to believe in the latter. If whatever entity we had stumbled upon wanted to harm us, why wouldn't it? Or at least, why wouldn't it show itself, chase us down or attack us? But no, whatever this was just wanted us gone. And all it had to do was create an unignorable sense of terror.

I have never felt such a feeling in my life and I hope I never do again. Remember to enjoy the view, but trust your gut. Best Jillian. Wow. I don't know if I've ever felt like that outdoors or hadn't experienced that visceral. Yeah. I don't think I have. Like, I've definitely felt uncomfortable.

Yeah. Like, maybe uneasy, but never a full-blown. I need to remove myself immediately. Yeah, move to tears because you feel so unsafe, even though, despite nothing having happened, but just having such an intense emotional reaction to a location, I don't think I've ever. had. Especially with your other friends, too. Yeah, it was a shared experience. Yeah. I think that not, I hate to say it adds a layer of credibility because it's not like I don't believe you. It's just it adds more to the story that it was not just you experiencing it.

Because I think even if that was me, I could find myself probably writing that off of like, oh, maybe I was just, I don't know. But I was being silly. I was being scared it's night. Kind of just pretending it wasn't real. I already had a freaky experience before, you know. Yeah. But yeah, well, glad you're okay. And hopefully you have the chance to return to Crater Lake for a different experience because it is beautiful there.

And I think that you can maybe try and go back and see if you have a more pleasant experience. Because I want it to be a positive one for you. Okay, my last story is titled, What Died Didn't Stay Dead. Hello, fellow nature lovers. The story I'm about to share is a bit of a long one, but after hearing your episode, a sit down with a psychic, I knew I had to share. Even if I don't get featured on a trail tale, I really wanted to share this with you too. My cousin Charles was one of my favorite people in the world.

Best friends at seven, we shared all the typical adventures that kids do. He was obsessed with the one and the only. Britney Spears and had a laugh that was so contagious. In 2022, I lost him unexpectedly. He was walking a local trail, got lost, and died alone in the woods. It felt like something in a movie. There was a search party, and it was all over the news with people in the comments speculating, a nightmare. We found out later that he had relapsed. He was a recovering addict, panicked when he couldn't find his way out, and passed away. I was shattered. I tried to speak with a meeting. but at the time was told he's not ready to speak yet. He's resting. I was so disappointed and angry

as I felt this was what I needed to heal. Fast forward a year later and I get a visitation dream. That had never happened before, but it's just like you say, you just know. He walked right up to me, bear hugged me and said, I'm ready to talk now. I woke up sobbing and could feel his arms on me. There was a psychic convention on his birthday weekend and I bought a ticket. This time, it was perfect. We connected and I felt this huge weight lifted. Now to the present day. He had been heavy on my mind and I was planning a trip to Colorado.

I thought maybe I should sprinkle some of his ashes there, but he didn't really have any connections to Colorado. Something was telling me it wasn't for him, but for me. After your episode with Alyssa, I realized I have never truly asked him for a sign. So I thought, okay, Chuck, if I'm supposed to bring these ashes with me, send me a dragon. He always loved dragons and even had a whole tattoo piece on his back. The next day at work, my coworker comes running down the stairs and says, Oh my God, look what I just got for my desk. In her hand is the smallest 3D printed dragon I have ever seen.

I had to hold back my tears so I wouldn't look crazy. The same day I went to lunch, open TikTok, and the first video was of a woman walking around a garden with dragon statues everywhere. So I said out loud, all right, I hear you. I take the ashes on vacation, and on the second day, I'm hunting down an anime shop for my kids, and in the same strip mall as a giant window painting of a pink dragon. He's such a show off. I ended up hiking a few miles in Roxborough State Park and spread his ashes in a beautiful

meadow bordering Pike National Forest. Out of all those I have lost, he is the only one that really feels as if he's still here. Giving me hope, signs, and the hugs I miss so much. Keep up the amazing work with love, Olivia. And so I put this in our document and prepped it because, as you know, I prepped them a little bit of head of time. And as I was scanning our emails, I realized that there has been an update. So I included the update. Amazing.

And she said, update. Hi ladies, I am so excited to give you this update. I recently sent in a story about all the connections I've had with my cousin who passed away. All of these signs had led me to sprinkling his ashes in Roxborough State Park. I had dinner with his best friend this past weekend, and I said to him, I just took Chuck's ashes out to Colorado. I know he's not connected to that state, but it just felt right. To which he replied, yes he is, we've gone on vacation there together.

Come to find out they had been right in Roxburgh. State Park. And when I explained that I went to the foothills that border up to Pike's Peak Forest, he just smiled at me and nodded. I couldn't believe that he had literally led me right to where he wanted me to sprinkle those ashes. Never in my life would I have expected to be so connected to him since his passing. What I didn't mention in my original story is that my car broke down the very last day of my trip. My aunt and uncle had to come pick me up and take me to their house right by the park. So now he's going to be known as the ghost who broke my car. Funny enough, after his ashes were scattered, that car drove just fine all the way back to Missouri. Much love to you both, Olivia.

Wow, I love that story. The same park. What are the chances? None. It's not a coincidence. And it's not even like, not to say state parks aren't the same as National Park, but there's so many more state parks in Colorado than national parks. So just like the chances of that being there in that same. Olivia, you were guided by your cousin to do that. And that was such a great story. Thank you for sharing it with us. And we're really happy that you got something out of our story with Alyssa, or our episode with Alyssa, because we get emails a lot about that episode in particular. And it's very, rewarding to just see the impact, you know. Yeah.

So anyhow, thanks, everyone. Yeah, thanks for hanging out with us again for Trail Tales. If you are listening and you realize that you have a story that you want to submit to us, head over to our website, MPAD Podcast.com, and you can head over to the submission link right on there and write into us. But if you are a subscriber, as always, you get a little bonus bonus. We have two additional stories to share with you. one each. And what is yours titled?

I'm getting back into the wedding theme. Mine is titled The Wedding Story. I played harp for a ceremony in a cave. Ooh. And mine is titled Phantom Runner. So we'll see subscribers in literally one second. Everyone else will see you next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you back. Bye. Thanks for joining us for another episode. We hope you learned something new and have a 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.