National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 13

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

Today’s tales include uninvited house guests, strange sights, and sounds & backpacking baptisms! All stories shared with consent.We love our National Parks and we know you do too but when you're out there, remember to enjoy the view but watch your back. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe from wherever you’re listening to NPAD! Become part of our Outsider family on Patreon to gain access to ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more. Follow our socials Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. To share a Trail Tale, suggest a story, access merch, and browse our book recommendations - head over to our website.  Thank you so much to our partners, check them out! Microdose: Use code NPAD to get free shipping and 30% off your first order.Faherty Brand: Use our link and code NPAD at check out for 20% off.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Everybody, welcome back to National Park. After Dark, we have another trail tales today. Yes, we do. And I am so excited to share mine because I have a little something sweet.

Aw, you have a nice trail tales. I do. Well, yeah, I think, I don't know. Last time I totally messed it up and I was like falsely promising that I had happy ones. But I do really have something like a surprise one. Okay. Do you want to go first then? Yeah. Yeah. Sure. You don't sound super confident in that. No, yeah, sure. I'll go first and I'll start off with the something sweet. So, this is titled Sleeping with the Giants. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. I know this is a little weird as I am Danielle's mom, but after listening to all the trail tale episodes over the last year and a half, I figured it was my time to share a tale of my own. So this is my mom's trail tale. And I am. I'm so excited to share it. It is short and lighthearted, but here it is.

I want to preface this story by saying I am not a camper. Although my husband and I enjoy the outdoors and have had our fair share of National Park Adventures, we have always spent our nights in some type of lodging that included four walls and a roof over our heads. However, for his 50th birthday, I decided to go outside my comfort zone to give him a really memorable gift. My husband did a fair amount of camping when he was younger and always talked about the great times he had, so that was my inspiration. We had always talked about a trip to Alaska, and although we usually create and travel on our own, I decided to book this trip with a small adventure company. Our group consisted of six other travelers with two guides, and the itinerary included exploring Glacier Bay National Park, kayaking on the icy straight, and camping on Chicka Gough Gough Island. We spent the first two nights at Glacier Bay Lodge and enjoyed a catamaran cruise through Glacier Bay, where we saw several glaciers, plus lots of marine and land mammals, including a coastal wolf and a brown bear searching for food along the shoreline.

Oh, I remember that when they came back from this trip. Were you just so jealous? I was so jealous. I'm like, you saw a sea wolf? What the fuck? I was so jealous. Like, I was jealous of the whole trip, but I'm glad how are my step down? I'd had a good time. But anyway, the third day, we took the 10-mile boat ride across the icy

straight to Chick-A-Goff. I hope I'm saying that right. Chick-A-Goff. That's what it looks like. I believe you. Okay, good. Chick-A-Goff Island, where our group was dropped off, along with our gear in our kayaks, for the multi-day camping portion of our trip. The spot was gorgeous. Our view included a beautiful shoreline surrounded by distant snow-capped mountains. We grabbed our gear and started to set up camp. To my surprise, we were instructed to pitch our tents in the old growth spruce and humlock forests bordering the shore. It was explained that due to the large amount of coastal brown bears living on the island, it was safer to sleep within the tree line. I later learned that this island has the highest population of brown bears per square mile than anywhere else in the

entire world. I swear, Google it. Oh, that's scary. It's like, oh, comforting. Great. Glad you found that out later. Yeah, after the fact. Like, doesn't even enjoy camping and how it's like, oh, by the way, you're in danger. I just booked a trip to the most populated brown bear population in the world.

Let's go. You know, that meme was like, I'm in danger. Like you're sitting on the bus. Yes. I tried to hide my growing anxiety as I helped my husband pitch the tent. It was late afternoon by the time we got our campsite set, so we decided to explore the shoreline while our guides set up a cook site and prepared dinner. We saw several bald eagles and sea otters during our walk and also several piles of scat. By the size and shape, we concluded that it was bare scat, which was later confirmed by our guides.

Shit, I thought to myself. Literally. Your mom was so cute. I know. Due to the time of the year, end of June, the sun did not set until close to 1130 at night. We stayed up pretty late sitting around the campfire, but after sunset we headed into the woods to our campsite. I made my husband double check all of our gear to make sure we hadn't forgotten any food items, which were stored away safely from our site in bare cans. I was still pretty nervous and laid awake for a while in my sleeping bag, but finally drifted off to sleep.

At some point, I was woken up by a strange sound. I wasn't sure what I heard or if I was just letting my imagination get the best of me, but then I heard it again. It sounded like a muffled huffing noise coming from somewhere right outside our tent, and I was petrified. I couldn't move, and my heart was pounding so hard that it actually hurt. I tried whispering to my husband, but he was sound asleep. I was convinced it was a bear.

I'm not sure what I thought he could do since we did not have bear spray. Dumb move. I know. Like, wait, what? Before we can even say anything. She's like, dumb, I know. Literally in parentheses. She's like, dumb move.

I know, I know. But he's six, six, and three hundred pounds. So at the very least, he could do something. I don't know how long I laid there listening to this periodic, heavy breathing sound, but finally one of our guides appeared at our tent and told us to come down to shore. I was so relieved to hear her voice. It was about 4.30 in the morning and the sun was already rising, so it was light enough to see the area outside of our tent. When I emerged from the tree line, I could see several humpback whales feeding right off of our beach. The loud breathing I was hearing

was coming from the whales exhaling through their blowholes, not my imaginary bear. The rest of the day was spent kayaking along the coast of the island. We saw quite a few more humpback whales along with more sea otters and a few sea lions. Our second night was uneventful and we never did see a bear on the island. The rest of our trip included an alpine hike on Mount Roberts and ice climbing on Mendahall Glacier. It was definitely a trip of a lifetime and one I will never forget. I know you two have trips planned to Alaska and I know you'll be having some great stories of your own to tell when you get back, enjoy the view, but watch your back. P.S., I included several photos for you, and I'll post them on our socials, but...

Awesome. I just thought it was... That's such a cool story. That's such a magical experience to come across whales in the middle of the night like that. And they're right off. I mean, so she included three pictures, and I'll post them, but, like, she, there's a picture of the tent of her in the tent in the woods. And then the picture of the shoreline where the campsite kind of was placed behind. And it's so beautiful. And then there's a picture of her from her kayak. Like it's, you could see the tip of the kayak. And then there's just a whale right in front of her feeding. That's so cool. It's just so cool.

But I can just imagine like being so when she said my heart was pounding so hard at her. Like I've been a couple situations like that that you're like, you could swim. where people could hear it, you know, your heart pounding. Like, this has to be audible to other people around me right now. So no bears, but yeah, I just thought, I do remember when they came back from that trip to, like, they were talking about how heavily populated with brown bears it was and how scared she was the whole time. I really appreciate how quick she was planning ways for her husband.

to go towards the bear. She's like, he's six, six and three hundred pounds. Like, I'm just, she's just throwing him at the bear. She's like, Robert can deal with it. He's got it like a shield. Yeah. She's like, okay, what can happen? What will I do while he's doing?

I know. So thanks, Mom, for sending in your trail tale. Yeah, it makes me really excited for our trip to Alaska too. Me too. Okay, so my next story is titled Trapped in Ventana. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. My name is Sophia. you can use it, and I've been hooked on your podcast since last year.

National Park After Dark inspired me to plan even more excursions into nature, including a solo trip up the Pacific coast from Point Reyes to Portland. Luckily, it was before your episode on the Trailside Killer, so I didn't freak myself out too much. I'm writing to share a trail tale from my first backpacking trip. This story is long, but I don't want to leave out any details. When I was in high school, I went to a school-sponsored backpacking trip over spring break called sophomore expedition. All sophomores who signed up were split into smaller groups of

about eight students with two seniors and a professional guide as leaders. The plan was to head to Ventana Wilderness for 11 days, each group with a slightly different route to minimize contact. We spent the first three days getting comfortable in the woods, hiking deeper and deeper into the Ventana. On the fourth day, we made camp next to a fairly shallow river and started our next challenge. solo. We were to spend two nights alone, getting picked up the next day, without food or human contact. My tent was set on an embankment about two feet away and three feet up the river. Looking back, this definitely was a little weird, but at the time I was excited. That is, until that first night. I woke up under my tarp to the sounds of light rain. I didn't think

much of it, rolled over, and fell back asleep. As I did, the rain got harder and harder. I spent the next day tying and retying my tarp as gusts of wind ripped from its ropes. The storm was on us. I finally gave up, crawled into the safety of my tent, and hoped the bad weather would pass as the river rushed by just a couple feet behind me. As the sun started to go down, I heard footsteps pounding towards me. I ducked out of my tarp just in time to see our guide and one of our senior leaders stopped next to me. Both were soaked, shirtless, and smiling wide in an effort to cheer me up. They told me to pack quickly. Why? Because it had rained so much the river was in danger of flooding the bank. I started to get my things together as they raced off to gather the next person. Suddenly,

our guide turned around and said, oh, and don't bother looking at it. for stepping stones, they're gone. On that happy note, he left. I shoved everything into my pack, put on my gaiters, and waded the river. When I made it to base camp, most of our group was already there, soaked through and exhausted. We very quickly ripped open a pack of candy that was supposed to be saved for the highest moment, because that for sure wasn't happening, and commiserated over our bad luck. The next day, during a break in the rain, we hiked out of the area and continued to our our next stop. Pine Valley, home to Jack English, a legend in the Big Sur area, not to be confused with Jack Lenton. Jack built his own cabin in Pine Valley by hauling it in all raw materials on foot and live

there with his wife Mary until she passed in 2001. Even though he moved in 2013 due to health issues, he was known for being very welcoming to backpackers and we were able to camp out on his porch for the night. He passed in 2016, and I will always remember that little kindness. The next morning, even worse news reached us. Our guide had radioed in and heard back from coordinators outside the Ventana. Every path of the valley and surrounding hills was blocked by fallen trees. We were, quite literally, not going anywhere. The Ventana is fairly remote, and we didn't know how long it would take crews to clear the trees with the storm,

showing no signs of stopping. We hunkered down as the weather continued, huddling under a single tarp for warmth. My feet were so waterlogged that it began to hurt to walk, and because of the constant rain, it was impossible to get dry. One day passed, then two. On the fifth day of being stuck in Pine Valley, nine days after we started the trip, we finally got the all clear to leave. This was the sixth straight day of the storm.

We immediately hiked all the way out of Ventana to a campsite with real pit toilets, just as the rain finally let up and the sun came out. We were picked up the next day, and I've never been so happy to see a school bus. Despite everything, I'm happy I went and now have a great story to tell, but there were some close calls. Two kids had to be helicoptered out before the storm hit for not being well prepared. Someone in my group had a severe reaction to the Poison Oak, and one of the ones. group had a falling tree flattened their tent in the middle of the night, narrowly missing everyone

inside. Oh, God, that's scary. That's so scary. It was one of the worst storms the area had seen in 10 years, only to be beaten that December when Big Sur saw 4.4 inches of rain in two hours. In some ways, we got lucky. I'm super grateful to my parents for taking me to National Parks from a very young age and to you for building a community of like-minded people. around the world. Listening to your podcast is a reminder of how much value there is in these last wild places. I've lived in California my entire life and the worsening climate crisis is making drought conditions in our state truly dire. Storms like the one that stranded me in the ventana are becoming more and more infrequent. Wildfires threaten parks like Yosemite, Redwood, and Sequoia every year. We will lose these places

unless we make a change. And I really appreciate that. you tackling these issues on your podcast. Thank you for reading and don't get trapped by killer trees. Didn't you have an experience with that? I had an experience. It was a few years ago where Al and I went backpacking and a huge tropical storm came in and we set up camp and we actually set up our tent under this really large fallen tree because it was shelter if another tree fell down. There was like this huge, like it was an oak tree, I think, that was on top of us already. So, but all night, I was awake all night because I heard trees and branches and stuff falling around me. And I would wake up out and I'm like, this is sketchy. Like, is everything okay? And he's like, yeah,

everything's fine. Go to bed. Like, go to bed. You're fine. And in the morning, in the morning, he was like, I was terrified. He's like, I just want you to freak out. He's like, that was fucked up. we were going to die for sure. Oh, my God. That's so scary. That's all I could think of during that trail tale once they said that. I mean, the whole experience was very trying, it seemed like. Yeah.

That was their first backpacking trip, too. I think that's what makes it the trail tale so wild, too. Because imagine your first time backpacking and the entire time you're out in this monsoon storm. you're almost in flash flooding. Trees are falling down. It's just it's a mess. Well, the bright side of that is hopefully the next one by comparison will just be so much easier. Be magical.

You love it. You love it. And they clearly still love the outdoors, so it wasn't a deterrent, which is awesome. My next one is titled, There's a Mount Lion in our house. Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point. Yeah, that sounds like it deserves it. lot of ex. Yeah, three for sure.

Hi, Danielle and Cassie. I recently moved to Seattle, Washington with my partner to start my PhD and have become obsessed with your podcast. I can't get enough of the incredible and chilling stories you both share. I actually sent you another story a few weeks ago, but as I was hiking in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness yesterday, I realized that I have an even better story, and it's really funny, and only a little spooky, if you need a laugh. I feel like we all could use some extra laugh.

these days, especially you too. I grew up in Evergreen, Colorado, right by a big open space meadow and forest. When my parents built this house, it didn't used to get very hot in Colorado, so we didn't have AC. As the years have gotten warmer, we started keeping our front door and deck open to create some sort of breeze. Yes, that probably sounds crazy, but we were never afraid of anyone walking in, and we only ever got a few birds and chipmunks inside until one day. Also, my parents are both Australian and still have accents. This becomes important later. And just a side note, I don't think that's, I mean, like on paper having your doors and, you know,

everything open sounds dangerous, but I also grew up somewhere without AC and I get it. Like you need some sort of cross breeze or you're just, it's not. melting. I was a sophomore in high school and I had just broken my ankle after being a little stupid at Jump Street a few days prior to this. My dad and little sister were out of town, so it was just my mom and I sitting on the couch watching a movie. Our house is a split level with one staircase going down to my parents' room in a bathroom and another going up to me and my sister's rooms. There's a long hallway before the stairs and our front door is about halfway between the stairs and our living room. It was late afternoon, and the front door was open, as it always was in the summer. We heard a small thud in the hallway, and my mom got up to see what it was. She saw something reddish-brown run down the stairs to her bedroom and called to me. Zan, get your camera. There's a fox in the house. I get up and make my way down the hallway.

I raise my phone up and start taking a video when we see something move. Down the stairs, there is a small window where you can see into my parents. bathroom. We see something huge jump up onto the bathtub and try to jump out of the window to the outside. It smashes into the glass, falls down, and turns around to face our direction. My mom, in an Australian accent, yells, and I'm going to try my best Australian accent. Okay, I can't wait to hear this. Okay. Jesus shit. There's a mountain lion in our house. Oh, that's good. Okay, thanks.

I don't know how you say Jesus shit in Australian. That's hard. There's a mountain lion in our house. Yeah. There it is. There is. What happens next is total chaos that I luckily caught on video to some extent. We start running back down the hallway, trying to escape, sure that the mountain lion is right on our heels.

Well, my mom is running, but my ankle is broken. so I am literally hopping down the hallway with all of my might absolutely panicking. The video looks a bit like The Shining and gives me motion sickness to watch. We tried to make it to the deck by the living room to hide, but the door wouldn't close. My mom yells to our neighbor to let him know what's going on and he goes inside his house. After a lot more swearing, we run through the kitchen, my mom grabs our home phone, and we go outside to the garage door. We run slash hop up our neighbor's driveway,

which is on a steep hill, and my mom calls 911. As we are sitting there waiting for police to show up, we watch the mountain lions stroll casually out our front door, down the driveway, and back into the forest without so much as a backwards glance. When the police came, they searched our house top to bottom to make sure it was really gone, but all they found were some slobber marks on our windows and a small, tough to fur stuck in the bathroom faucet. luckily the video I took will forever be preserved on my dad's Facebook. I'll attempt to share it with you on

Google Drive because it's just too funny. I will never forget the moment that mountain line turned around to face us, and I will certainly never forget all of the new swear words I heard that day. There isn't really a moral to this particular story, but I hope it made you laugh. Thank you for all the work that you do. You've created such a wonderful podcast and a wonderful community to go with it. Much love, Zan. I love that story. That's so funny. And I'm glad everyone's okay. That's a wild story. And I am going to attach the video that she sent because it is chaotic. You can see like the mountain line literally like hop up and turn around and then they just freak out. And I mean, obviously we can

laugh about it now, but um, because everyone's okay. Because everyone's good. But God, it's just so funny because I have always had that fear of a mountain lion or a bear walking into the house. Because I leave my doors open too sometimes, like especially, maybe I shouldn't. But because I don't have AC. I don't have AC here in Washington. Like I didn't in New Hampshire. I used to do it in Colorado. And I lived really literally two street, like driveways away from an open space just like this that had.

literal mountain lion warnings posted on the trailhead. And I'm like, but it's hot. It's fine. The mountain line won't come in here. Well, now you know, they might. The chances are bigger than I thought initially. So yeah, I'll rethink that next time. All right. Well, my next story is titled, I heard something on the baby monitor last night. Oh, God. I think I'm scared already. No, okay. Hi, y'all.

First of all, I wanted to say that I love your podcast. I just purchased an NPAD sweatshirt and I love it. It gets lots of comments and gives me a great opportunity to talk about my favorite podcast. Second, a little disclaimer that this did not happen in a national forest or even outside. It happened in my house last night. Honestly, I'm still processing it and trying to rationalize it, but I think the story is right up your alley and something you would find interesting. So here we go. We recently purchased and remodeled my grandmother's old home, a home that's been in my family for over a century. After extensive renovations on the house,

my husband, two-year-old daughter, and myself finally moved in and started living here about two months ago. I occasionally smell things that smell distinctly like my grandpa or my grandma, but it was their house, so it makes sense that I would occasionally catch whiffs of the people that lived here before. Last night, I woke up after having a terrible nightmare. I always like to leave our bedroom door open at least halfway in case anything happens and I need to run upstairs to my daughter's room and grab her. With the door open, I can directly see into our kitchen, the island, bar stools, and walk-in pantry. When I awoke, I was facing the door and saw what looked like a human form next to our kitchen island, angled right towards our bedroom, but it seemed hazy. I knew that sometimes

people see things when they first wake up, so I looked away, now facing my sleeping husband, and let my eyes adjust before turning back. It was still there. I did this about six more times, turning away and looking back to see if it was still there. I thought about reaching for my phone to take a picture and see if anything would show, but I was a little nervous to make big movements and didn't want to expose my eyes to the light of my phone. After a little while of staring at it, I decided that it could just be a trick of the light because the form still wasn't moving.

The fact that it didn't move calm my nerves, and I decided to walk into the kitchen and check it out. I got out of bed and wandered into the kitchen hallway. I didn't see anything and settled on it being a trick of the light. I snuggled back into bed and started to doze off when I heard a sound on the baby monitor that jolted me awake. It was a sound that I've never heard before, and I don't know how to explain it. It wasn't human, nor was it an animal.

I feel a little crazy talking about it, but it sounded otherworldly. If you've seen stranger things, think Demogorgon. A Demogorgon. Demogorgon. I don't watch it. It shows. It shows that you don't watch it. It was very strange. I immediately went to rationalizing, thinking that it could have just been a noise I heard while dozing off, similar to when you are falling asleep and dream of falling and jolt awake. I decided to continue listening while fully awake and if I heard the sound again, then it was real. I lay in bed, eyes wide open, waiting, and then it came. A noise, not human, coming from the baby monitor. I immediately woke up my husband and told me,

him I heard a weird noise come from the baby monitor and was going to check on our daughter. He volunteered to come with, which I was so relieved by. We hurried up to her room and found her laying on her stomach in her crib. I leaned over to watch her breathing while my husband went and checked the other rooms in the house. Our daughter was apparently awake as she rolled over and reached up to me as soon as I stood next to her crib. She wasn't crying, but she did want to be held as I rocked her back to sleep. I laid her back down in our crib and walked to our bedroom. My husband didn't see anything when he checked the other rooms in the house, which was comforting, and I eventually fell back to sleep. I then had a dream that I told my husband and father about

what happened. When I woke up, everything felt like a dream and I wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't. Then my husband asked me what happened the night before and what the weird noise that came from our baby monitor was, and I realized that it did happen. I keep questioning what I saw and heard. Was it a ghost? Another life form? Was a signal of some sort picked up by the monitor? I don't think I'll ever know. As a side note, when I took a shower this morning, I was replaying things and vividly remembered the sound that came from the baby monitor. At that exact moment, the water in the shower cut out and came back on. It's never done that before.

Just another weird thing that made my heart stop after everything that happened last night. Anyway, I'll for sure be watching my back for the next little while and we'll let you know if anything else happens. Thanks again for treating us with the world's best podcast. Stay safe. Oh, my God. Okay. So, well, that was, she wrote that what the day after it happened.

Yeah. or mind. And things could have happened since then. We have to know. Please write us again. I don't know. I feel like when you have really vivid dreams about things, like, especially after something like that, I think there's more to that.

And especially then the water cutting out. I don't know. Something's going on. The fact that the house is centuries old, too. Yeah. And you've only been there for about two months. So maybe it's got some spiritual stuff going on in there. I'm very invested.

So please give us updates. And I hope everyone keeps, yeah, obviously safe and, you know, it's not scary. Or dangerous or anything. Or dangerous. Maybe, I mean, you can have a comforting haunting. But if anything described as a demigorgon, I'm sorry. Doesn't feel happy. Doesn't feel comforting.

Yeah. My next one is titled Talking to Wolves in Isle Royal. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. First, I just wanted to say, I just found your podcast a little while ago and have been marathoning episodes ever since. I especially like the episode on Isle Royal, a place I have visited several times. You mentioned that it is one of the least visited parks, but I also wanted to add that it is the most revisited park and definitely worth adding to your list.

That's interesting. I didn't know that. I wanted to tell you about a trip I took to Isle Royal in 2016, which happened before the wolf reintroduction onto the island. At this point, I believe there are only two or three wolves left there, and spotting one was incredibly rare. This was my second trip to Isle Royal, and I decided to take my sister, who has never been backpacking and her boyfriend. One morning, after waking up on Mosky Basin and watching the sunrise, we decided to hike out towards Chicken Bone Lake. This wasn't an incredibly long day of hiking, so we stopped for lunch at Lake Richie to take in some

views. We had been sitting near the edge of the lake for a while when suddenly we heard a long, low howl coming from somewhere near the lake. It was beautiful and mesmerizing and left our group completely silent. After hearing the calls a few times, my sister decided that she would call back. She imitated the howling sound as best as she could and was excited when the call was returned. They went back and forth a few times, howling and listening, when suddenly we heard a rustling in the bushes behind us. We turned around and saw, looking down at us, the stare of a fellow backpacker. That's a loon, she said, before rolling her eyes and heading back towards the trail. I turned to look at my sister and laughed. It turns out she was having a conversation with one of the

many, many local loons. My sister, the loon whisperer. P.S., this exchange also earned her, her first official trail name, Loon Girl. This name is now commemorated on one of Isle Royal's celebratory banners made for the centennial anniversary for the founding of the National Park Service. Happy hiking, Becca. That's a really funny story. Oh, loon girl. I love that. Okay, but at the same time, like, I know that, like, she was making fun of her sister and they, like, they were all laughing and making fun of her. But, like, sounds like they were invested in this exchange as well, you know, like they were invested in a one-way thing. It was a conversation, maybe not with wolves, but it was happening.

Oh, my God. It's just so funny. Yeah, I loved that one. Lighter-hearted. All of mine were lighter-hearted. Yeah, well, you had to make up for last one because the last one you did was not light-hearted. Yeah, that's true. That is true. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, The Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting.

Watch only on Prime. All right, well, we'll do my next one. I actually have another mountain lion story too. Oh, okay. This one is titled Close Call with a Mountain Lion, just a part of Colorado living. Hi, ladies. As an outdoor enthusiast who loves the paranormal and true crime, your podcast has been an absolute treasure. Thank you for all that you do.

I apologize in advance if this is a little long. I live at the base of Pikes Peak slash Tava. Is that how you say it, Tava? I think so. Okay. I live at the base of Pikes Peak slash Tava in the little mountain town of Manitou Springs. My heart. I used to live in Manitou Springs and Cascade, which is literally like for anybody, sorry to like, you're not even one sentence in.

But it was the best little. So literally there's like the highway, kind of like Mount Washington, you can drive up Mount Washington. There's the entrance to Pikes Peak Highway. And it's right off of the main highway. And right across from the entrance to get onto the road to drive up Pikes Peak are some little cabins. And I lived in one.

And it was the converted like 1800s post office. It was like a, it's like a studio. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah. And they had converted it into, yeah, like a little cabin. And I mean, it was one room. I slept on the pullout futon. Like it wasn't even big enough for a bed.

But it was my first place in Colorado. And then I went to Manitou Springs. But yeah. So anyway, I've also lived at the base of Paxh week. It's like I didn't know exactly what you're talking about. said I had to pause the recent Trail Tales episode and make my husband listen again when you guys mentioned the Manitou incline. You're absolutely right. The staircase is no joke. Being in a semi-rural town right up against the national forests, we get a lot of wildlife. My dog has chased

a black bear out of my yard, deer frequently walk through downtown, not carrying one bit that they're holding up traffic. A set of beavers live in a local pond. And last year we had to to relocate a moose that was hanging out in a park by the public pool. It's a pretty magical little town and I am so lucky and thankful to live here. However, the story I'm writing today takes place in Sylvan Lake State Park about 20 miles south of Eagle. It's our favorite touristy campground in the state because it has cabins, tent camping, a shower house, and running water in the summer months. But it's otherwise pretty remote. There's no Wi-Fi, no cell service, and the closest town is a 30-minute drive away. It's our go-to when we have city folk family in town. A few years ago,

my husband and I went camping on the lake in mid-June. The weather was warm during the day and perfectly campfire chilly in the evenings. We decided to take a late afternoon hike, not realizing that because of the bowl shape of the lake slash campground in our proximity to the mountain, sunset came much earlier than we anticipated. We were only halfway out on the out and back trail before deciding we wouldn't have enough time and it was best that we turn around. Right as we made that decision, after standing there for a few minutes to debate, the entire forest went dead silent. All birds stopped chirping. Bugs stopped their gentle hums. It was like someone had muted the television volume. Growing up in the woods, I knew this was a terrible sign that there was a terrible sign that there

was a large predator nearby. We calmly but swiftly walked the quarter of a mile back out of the tree line and through the meadow to camp. About an hour or so later, it was now completely dark. We were sitting by the campfire when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I jumped when I looked up and noticed a large doe walking between us and the fire. She was close enough to reach out and touch. She never took her eyes off of us, but she slowly and nervously, strolled right through our camp. Once she passed, my husband and I looked on an absolutely bewilderment, shooting glances at each other like, did that just happen? We chalked it up to animals in the park being used to humans and took it as a sign that they wanted their turf back. We started cleaning up

for bed and put out the fire. As I made my way to the water spigot, I looked up into the field behind our camp and my heart sank. In the pitch black of the night, I saw two sparkling lights. From a mere 60 feet away, I was staring directly into the light reflecting off of a mountain lion's eyes. I immediately screamed and dropped the bucket I was using to put out the emperors of our fire. I expected the noise to startle the animal, but it stayed completely still. I even started to second guess what I was seeing until I saw it blink. My husband rushing over after my scream slowly bent down to pick up nearby rocks and began tossing them while yelling at the cat to get lost. His words were not so kind.

Still, despite rocks landing all around, it didn't budge. Eventually, my husband decided it was best to just go inside and let the cougar follow what we now knew to be its prey back to the surrounding forest. Needless to say, I didn't sleep away. I never heard the lion walk through our camp, which is terrifying on its own, but the evening and remainder of the trip wrapped up without incident. The cat was long gone by the time the sun rose. We have a trip to Sylvan planned for this fall after having to cancel last year's plans due to the massive wildfires on the south side of the park. Thankfully, it never jumped the lake to the campground, but it did manage to burn down several homes slash structures in the area before it was

fully contained. We are all too familiar with wildfires in the state, but having it come so close to a place so close to my heart was a devastating reminder to spend time in the places you love while you have the opportunity. Sorry again for the length, enjoy the view, and watch your back for big cats. Oh my God. There's just something about, there's just something about mountain lions that is so terrifying. They're so sneaky. They're so sneaky. That's it. It's because they're sneaky. And you just don't have a, you don't have a prayer, really, a hope of, you know, if one wants you and it's an adult, you know, it's going to get you. It's going to get you. Like, I know, there was even a story about one I remember years ago. And I want to say it was in Colorado, but I don't know, don't know, don't. Don't. quote me 100%, but I remember seeing the headline only at first. I think we were at work or something and I just happened to see it really quick. And it was like, man, fights off and kills mountain line

with bare hands. Oh, I remember that article. And I was like, I'm like, this seems weird. Like, either this is like a juvenile or a baby or it's elderly or it's sick or injured or something. Like you can't just fight off and kill a mountain line with your bare hands. Like, yeah, it's not going to happen. And it was. It was a juvenile and it was like if you see pictures of it, like, it's small. But the guy was like, I mean, a full grown man, he was like, this thing kicked my ass. Like, it was a hard fight. And it was a baby mountain lion. Like imagine if you're coming across an adult. You're not going. It's going to, yeah, come from behind. And I will say like, if you are super into animal attack stories like I am, um, I know we don't. We, we don't. We,

We've done a few, but we haven't done a lot. There is an amazing podcast. And I definitely have said this before. So I don't know. At this point, how many times I've said this. I have no idea if it was on Patreon or here or if I was just having a private conversation with someone. I don't know. But tooth and claw podcast is amazing. And all they do is talk about animal attack stories. It's led by a wildlife biology. who works in Yellowstone, so knowledgeable, and it's all about not only animal attacks, but understanding the animal, conservation issues, why animals behave the way they do and what we can learn from quote unquote attacks or encounters. It's amazing. Such a cool spin to put on animal attacks, too. It's such a breath of fresh air. Your breath of fresh air.

You're like, oh, it's such a heartwarming podcast. It is. It is, even though it's horrific and I don't know. Kind of similar to this. Yeah. You know, it's got an undertone. There's something else going on to it. So anyway, yeah, Tooth and Claw Podcasts.

Love you guys. Love your work. All right. So my last one for today is titled A Ranger Tale. As a longtime listener, something that I have noticed is that there is a gap when it comes to stories about weird things that happen to Rangers while they are working in national parks. That's a great point. Rangers, step on up. Send us your stories. We'd love to hear them. I know we tend to be a bit secretive and hold many of our tails close to

our chests, but there are spectacular things to learn if you ever get the chance to sit down with us for a while. I know I have seen my fair share of things while on patrol in the backcountry, but it was my first unusual finding that will always sit at the top of my list. I worked my way to be becoming a park ranger along the typical path. First as a volunteer, then as an intern with the Student Conservation Association, and then finally I became a fully fledged ranger. This story comes to you in that first phase of career development. Back when I was a volunteer for my first park far away from my New England home, Big Bend National Park in southwestern Texas. There it was my first job to wander around the trails and develop social media posts for the park. Partway through my season,

I decided to go to my longest patrol thus far and headed up the South Rim Trail in the Chisos Mountains. I had hiked a good portion of the day, bringing my camera along to document the birds and the mule deer along the trail when I witnessed something I still cannot explain. This particular section of the trail was all cliffs and the path meandered its way along the edges with more cliffs across a gap that you can look at head on. I came around the corner opening up the view in front of me. Much to my surprise, there was a gathering of people all congregated on the edge of the cliff. I was about 50 yards across the way and I had full view of them. Standing on the edge, much closer than I believe anyone should get to a couple thousand foot drop. There were three distinctly clothed people. They all wore loose-fitting

garments that reminded me of togas, each one in a different color. On the left, there was a person wearing a robe of royal blue. In the center, the person was in pure white, and on the right was a person wearing what I can only describe as that particular shade of orange Buddhist monks wear. All three of them were facing out over the landscape, and incidentally, me. Behind them, a few paces were at least 15 people wearing matching black suits and top hats. Here I am, a 22-year-old kid, many miles from help, wearing her park uniform and armed only with a radio, overlooking what I can only describe as a cult meeting, moments before there is a dramatic, gravity-induced human sacrifice. Why else would those religiously robed people be standing on a cliff over eight miles away from any trailhead, thousands of feet up a mountain?

Why else would the onlookers be wearing mourners black, 19th century style? I knew I was not equipped to interact with these people and whatever the hell they were up to in the backcountry, lest the top hat groupies decide the young fed who stumbled upon their scene would be perfect for their next victim, so I booked it. I have never hiked so fast in my entire life. I did not look at the view. I did not make eye contact with the people. I just jogged past like nothing was wrong and did not stop jogging until I was back to my vehicle. I was so shaken by whatever the heck that was.

What was their plan? Did the white toga guy go off the edge like I was fully expecting? Did they hike to that spot in those outfits or did they come in regular hiking clothes to blend in with the rest of the visitors? If so, did they still wear the top hats because holding them that far would be silly? I just have so many questions. Even now, years later, despite all of the things I have seen in my job as a park ranger since, who were they? I've yet to find out. And maybe I do not want to know.

Thanks for reading. That's so weird. If anyone who is at that meeting and a top hat is listening right now, please write to us. We want to know what you were doing and hopefully it wasn't sacrificing. anybody. I mean, all valid questions at the end, though. Like, how did you logistically, like, I want to know the details. Not only what you were doing, but like, how'd you get that? Did you pack that stuff? Were you in regular clothes? Like, I'm not imagining someone in Big Bend hiking up in suits and top hat. Yeah, it's all very odd. It's very, very strange.

It's like, that's the type of stuff exactly that, like, sticks with you for years. Like, what the Hell did I just see? And I just love the like visual of just like just jogging by. Like, I'm not even making eye contact. Like I am fine. Carry on. Carry on. I will not be interfering with your sacrifice. All right. My last story is called my moose encounter in the Uintas. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. I just finished listening to Trail Tales 10 and thought it was time I write in my favorite story to tell when me and my friends got our granola bars eaten by a moose. This happened last summer in the Uinta mountain range of Utah. I had spent the winter working as a ski instructor at Solitude in Utah and returned home to

Pennsylvania for the summer. I had planned a three-day backpacking trip with two of my Utah friends and my best friend from home. My Utah friends picked out the trail. One of them had done it before and assured me that it was a great trail. My friend from PA and I flew out and when we landed, it was 110 degrees in Salt Lake, which was way hotter than we were expecting. We got to the trailhead, hiked up a bit, then set up camp. The next morning, we hiked to the top of the trail. I think it was about 14 miles round trip, where we saw some beautiful alpine lakes and amazing views all around us. At this point, it was 60 to 70 degrees and we still had plenty of water and,

food. As we were hiking down, my friend from home had started to develop a terrible cold. She just wanted to hike to a campsite and lay down. However, one of the other members of our group had recently been in a bad ski accident and was having trouble carrying the weight of his backpack. We decided the best thing to do was to split the heavy stuff between the three of us and let him carry the light stuff. After that, we were moving a lot faster and consuming a ton of water as we were getting back down the mountain and it was getting hotter. We remembered seeing plenty of streams on the way up, but we were currently in the driest spot of the trail, just trying to get water before someone passed out. Then, all of the sudden, I heard a rustling in the bushes. It was kind of far off,

so I didn't really worry about it, but one of my friends looked at me and said, hey, look, a moose. I looked over and there were two moose standing a couple hundred yards away. They definitely saw us but just kept eating, so we kept hiking. A few minutes later, we found the most beautiful stream with crystal clear water. This stream led into one of the most beautiful meadows I had ever seen and we knew that that was going to be our campsite. We set our backpacks down. Two people stayed behind to set up camp while me and my other friend went down to fill up the

water. All of the sudden, the two that were setting up camp came running over, yelling, Moose, moose! At first, I was confused by this as we had just seen two moose and they weren't freaked out that much. So what was different now? That's when I learned that a huge bull moose had charged at them and now had our face in our backpacks. We watched from the tree line as the moose carefully inspected our tent, clothes, and even nibbled at my granola bar. After a while, it looked as if he had lost interest and started to graze the grass around. It was getting dark and we needed our packs. We very slowly went out of the tree line. He did not like this and charged at us once more. We decided the best thing to do was to hide behind a boulder and wait till he left completely.

about an hour after he charged us, he went to the other edge of the meadow and laid down. Seeing this as our only opportunity to get our stuff before it was pitch black, we sprinted out, got our stuff, and hiked down the trail. It was almost pitch black by the time we had found the campsite, which was coincidentally the same one we had camped out the night before. The next day we woke up, hiked out, and called my parents to tell them that the weird slime that they would find all over the camping gear was not what you would expect. It was moose snot. Thanks for reading my super lengthy email and I would be absolutely ecstatic if this made it onto a trail tales. Here's my advice for anyone listening. If you see a moose or two, there are probably more in the area and much like

people they like to hang out by streams and meadows. So watch out because you might run into a curious moose trying to camp with you. And if you do run into one, make sure you get far away. And you because they can run very fast and it is very scary. Thanks so much and I hope you enjoyed my story. Yeah, moose are no joke. Mouser scary. When we go to Alaska, I'm definitely nervous about the bear situation, of course, but I don't know. Like, I'm just like really, moose are so scary.

Moose are very scary. And we're going to be in a tent for like two weeks straight. And the chances. They'll have babies. that point too. Okay. In case you needed something else to worry about. Didn't need to add that little gem of a detail. Yeah. I just, and I don't think I've ever seen, I've seen two and I was in a car both times. One, I saw, I saw one in Breck and I saw one on my way back from Keen. Like when I was coming home from Keene State. Like that drive, you know?

Yeah. I saw one like off the side of the road. I have never seen one in New England. And I know people see them all the time here. I have never once seen a moose in New England. But I have seen a lot of them in Wyoming. And I've also seen a lot of them in Alaska. Well, it reminds me of that video. Did we talk again, I don't know anything. Did we talk about this on the podcast? The video of the woman that had her sled dog team out. And a moose came and literally trampled all of her dogs for like an hour. Oh my God. Yeah. I did see that. And they all lived. And I'm pretty sure.

I thought one of them died. I thought they all lived. I don't know. Maybe. I don't know for sure. I thought I had read that. But so scary. Yeah, because I think she had a small firearm.

Oh. Maybe I'm getting two reports or two videos that came out around the same time, confused. But yeah, they're just, they're terrifying. Either way, it's terrifying. They're massive. And I mean, like, what are you going to do? There's so much bigger than you even think to. You're like, oh, it's like a big deer. And then you see one and you're like, oh, my God, it's like a house. Yeah. Did you, um, Courtney, Ian's sister hit one recently. Is she okay? Is her car okay? No. It got totaled. And she was getting on the highway in Colorado. and it like ran out in front of her and it smashed her entire I mean her cars total she had glass in her eyes

I remember she called and Ian was like oh are you are you okay and I was like what just happened like you got off the phone with her and she was yeah she hit a baby moose and she had no idea what it was she thought it was an elk at first and then someone came up to the side of her car and was like are you okay and she's like was that an elk or was that a moose She's like, it was a baby moose. Like if it was an adult, she probably would have been significantly hurt. Yeah. Oh, that's so scary.

You see science all around here, like slow down for moose. And it's like, yeah, it's so scary. You really, you got a break for moose because your car and you can get really, really hurt if you don't. Yeah. Oh, it's so scary. People are like, yeah, we know. You're not telling us anything. I know.

Anything that we don't know. It's just like I'm like reiterating it to myself almost. I'm like drive slow at dusk because it's scary. Well, thanks everyone for joining again. If you have your own trail tale that you would like to submit, the email for that is NPAD Stories at gmail.com. There's also a submission form on our website, NPAD podcast.com. Send up anything and everything in. I mean, if it's outdoor themed, that would be preferable, but not a requirement. Doesn't have to be. I mean, paranormal inside. We love those ones. We also like indoor things. Yeah. It doesn't have to be in the national park either, just like anything that you think we would like.

I know. We're like, okay, so anyways, there's no... There's actually no rules at all. There's no criteria. Just something cool. All right. Well, we will see everyone next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale you'd like to share, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Become an outsider by joining our Patreon where you'll gain access to monthly bonus stories and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our partners, you're supporting our show.

To access our special discount codes along with source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For information on the show, to shop our merch store, sign up for our newsletter and more, visit npaddpodcast.com. And if you're enjoying the show, please rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressives save over $900 on average. Pop over to Progressive.com, answer some questions, and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by.

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