National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 14

Episode Date: September 22, 2022

Today’s tales include new perspectives on old favorites, tears of joy, unlikely friendships and a man in the shadows. Two bonus stories for Outsiders over on Patreon! 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! Speedify: Use our link to download Speedify today.Babbel: Use our link to get up to 55% off your subscription.Uncommon Goods: Use our link and get 15% off.StoryWorth: Use our link to save $10. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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lastly out for full terms. Hello everybody. Welcome back to National Park After Dark. We have another Trail Tales episode for everyone today. I'm excited because I picked two out of the three that we're sharing today. And they're like revisits to old episodes kind of. Cool. I love that. I know. I tried to stick with a theme. So I'm excited because and they're also two that I covered. Oh, that's perfect. I love when our trail tales like exist with our stories. I know. Yeah. It's very cool. Yeah. Well, do you want to go first then? Uh, yeah, sure. This one is titled Calopapa Trail question mark. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. I'm loving the show. I sent a message after listening to episode 69, and in it I mentioned that I did a variety

of field work for the park service, fish and wildlife, and the Department of Conservation in New Zealand that involved extensive time in the backcountry, and that I'd also try to send in some trail tales. God, some of our listeners are so cool. I know, I'm like, and you're talking to me? That's cool. Like, you're really cool. Well, right now, I'm sitting on a six-hour layover in Newark while flying from Oregon to

Edinburgh, and I'm listening to the episode on Calopapa. One of my jobs with the Park Service included during a survey for the Hawaiian Ore Bats, which also happened to take me to Calopapa for a couple months. So they just keep getting cooler. Just wait. When I was there, there was only about 13 patients remaining, and I had to get permission from the patients council and the CDC along with the park service in order to be able to live in the historic park even for that short amount of time. Access to the park has always been restricted to day trips

as part of a tour group for the general public. So to be able to stay in the park is a real rarity. So rare that they even put up posters of me around town so people would know who the stranger was and why it was there. Imagine it's just like, hi, it's me. Like don't be alarmed. Right, yeah. The place itself now does seem like a paradise, but I understand that wasn't always the case. The peninsula is about two miles long by two miles wide and previous to it being used as a place for people suffering from Hansen's disease. It had been a place where Native Hawaiians had settlements and, as you know, during its height, there were 10,000 patients on this small peninsula. This means that every square foot of this place was lived on by many generations of people. You do get the sense that spirits abound

and that you literally can't take a step without potentially turning over the remains of people that once inhabited the region. My first night there, I went to the bar, quote unquote, which was a roof with three walls, a few tables, and a counter with a fridge behind it that had two kinds of beer. I got a bottle of Heineken and sat at one of the tables. At the table next to me were a couple of people playing cribbage. The bartender, I believe Eucina, who the bar is named after, came over to see how I was doing. I said I was doing well, and then I mentioned I grew up playing cribbage with my dad. They encouraged me to see if I wanted to play. I waited until they finished their game.

One of the players got up and said bye, after which I went over and asked if the person remaining wanted to play. She said yes and told me to sit. It turns out that I was playing with Auntie Gertrude, Gertrude Seabury, who was one of the few remaining patients. I'm just going to describe Auntie Gertrude's appearance when I met her. She was missing most of the cartilage from her nose, making it almost flat against her face. Her lips were nearly gone. She was missing all of her fingers from the first knuckle down.

She was missing one foot from the ankle down and her other from the knee down. She was supposedly blind, but I don't believe that. Needless to say that despite me being an exceptionally good cribbage player, she could count her points as fast, if not faster than I. She was sharp as attack, quick to laugh, and generous to those around her. I gave her a good series of games and ended up getting invited to poker nights for the rest of my stay. When I went to Calipapa, it was a time when I was feeling quite sorry for myself, divorce, etc. But after meeting Auntie Gertrude and realizing that here was a person whose body had been wrecked by this disease, almost everyone she knew had passed away, and yet here she was, still laughing, generous, and still living her life as fully as she could.

It really helped put things in perspective for me, and I felt silly forever feeling sorry for myself. I was sad to learn that Gertrude passed away less than a year after I left. There is so much about this place that is so powerful. Just going on a walk through the bush, you would stumble across rusted out old cars, a random chimney with nothing else around it, a random stairway to nowhere. It was very surreal and almost felt like something out of a TV show. The last thing I'll add is the lighthouse. They say whoever was the lighthouse keeper was the loneliest person in the world.

They couldn't mix with the general population since they didn't have leprosy, but they they couldn't leave or mix with outsiders due to them potentially being exposed to leprosy. So they were kept in strict isolation in a fenced in area around the lighthouse and living quarters. In fact, the lighthouse itself was in a site that was a graveyard for the old native Hawaiian settlements, giving it an extra air of supernatural power. This life of solitude resulted in most of the lighthouse keepers ending up jumping to their deaths from the top of the lighthouse. I know, not very uplifting, but interesting.

climbing to the top of the lighthouse has always led to beautiful views, but also a bit of superstitious concern. This isn't really a trail tale, but I thought I'd share some of my experience with this wonderful place. I'll attach a notice about Auntie Gertrude from when she passed. Thanks again for the podcast and keep up the great work. Next time, I'll try to share an actual tale from the trail. Thanks again, Matt. That's like the most trail-less taley tale we've ever had. That's a trail-y trail for sure. I don't know what I was just trying to say. But you hit it on the head. Like that's exactly what we're looking for.

I mean, you had an experience in one of the places that we've spoken about and like the best kind of experience, you know? Yeah, it's really interesting to hear from someone's perspective that's been there and met the people involved in a story that you've told. And it was super interesting. It definitely counts as a trail tale for sure. Yeah. So thanks, Matt, because you.

You definitely brought the place to life. And just like everything from having your posters put up, meeting Auntie Gertrude, experiencing the island, and also while simultaneously knowing its history, it was just, it was cool to listen to. So thank you. All right. Well, my next trail tale goes in a totally opposite direction than this story, but it's a very cool and it's a happy trail tale.

Okay. It is titled, Happiest Day of My Life. Hi there, Danielle and Cassie. My name is Corinne, and I am a. huge fan of y'all's show. I found y'all around episode 20 and have binged and religiously listened to the show every Monday ever since. I know this probably won't end up on the podcast. I love when it says that while I'm reading it on the podcast, but I wanted to share a quick, wholesome story with you guys today. Back in May, my then-boyfriend Darian and four of our good friends took a road trip to Guadalupe

Mountains National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park. But this story will take place in Guadalupe Mountains. Side note, Guadalupe Mountains is an incredibly underrated national park. It is one of the least visited national parks and it is so incredibly beautiful for the area of Texas it is in with everything from tall, granite desert mountains to lush forests. Highly recommend if you haven't made the trip out there yet. Don't give Cassie any ideas. I'm like adding it to the list. She's like giving me the side eye. Like when are we going to Texas? It's underrated. And it's beautiful. And not visited very much.

Her eyes are just like getting lighter. I'm like as she's described or as they're describing it, I'm like, what else is there? We haven't done anything there, have we? Because we've done big bend. We've done big bend. We haven't told the story in Guadalupe. Yeah. It'll happen for sure.

I was really close to Guadalupe once when I was in white sands. And I say really close, but it was still like, I think it was like, two hours or something and I wanted to go, but we had a really long road trip. Cassie's one of those people. She literally sent me something yesterday or two days ago. I don't know. I woke up. There's this text.

It was just a link. And I opened it up. Like, what is this? And she's like, oh, when we're here, we can easily go here. And I look it up and it's literally a, you have to get on a plane and fly to this, like, it's far off island that's like five hours away from where we're actually going to be. I'm like, what do you mean easily get there? First of all, it's in a foreign country.

We have to take a plane. Obviously get different types of transport. But yeah, sure, it's easy. We're already going to be there, quote unquote. We're already going to be in the area. And there's only one plane that goes to this specific island. So it just makes sense to. Yeah, yeah.

All right, anyways. On the morning of May 31st, we got up at the crack of dawn to summit Guadalupe Peak. It was an eight-mile round-trip hike with a 3,000-foot elevation gain. I have some experience hiking mountains in 14ers, but this hike was truly a kick in the ass compared to some other hikes I've been on. Every mountain hike I've done, I've gotten pissed and cried at least once, and this trip was no different. Thankfully, Darien was incredibly patient with me and nothing but encouraging the entire way up.

One thing to note about this hike as well, there are quite a few high exposure moments where if you trip and fell, that would be the end of it. So that, coupled with my fear of heights, stressed me out quite a bit. Again, with Darien by my side the entire time. About five-ish hours later, we finally made it up to Guadalupe Peak and to the mail outposts monument at the top. I made it a point to hurry my butt up there to touch it first, and Darian wasn't far behind me. I got swept up in the typical euphoria of finishing a really hard hike like that and totally

was not paying attention to the people or my friends around me. When I finally did turn around to ask for the classic top of the hike picture, I turned around to find Darien down on one knee. Immediately, I'm bawling like a baby, laughing, and totally on cloud nine. He does his speech and asked me to marry him, and I, of course, say yes. Unbeknownst to me, his parents had hiked up ahead of us by an hour to surprise us with a bottle of champagne at the top. Because I was high on serotonin, I took the bottle, and accidentally ended up drinking the entire bottle of champagne by myself in the span of 20 minutes. Oh, God. I can just imagine that. Like, you're just so excited. You're just chugging champagne. And you're coming off the adrenaline of being scared,

kind of, you know, hiking up, like, exhaustion and you're scared. A little. A little. She just downed. She's like shotgunned champagne bottle by herself. I'm just thinking of the cliffs she was talking about when she's walking up. She's like, it's dangerous. There's cliffs. And now I just chugged a bottle of champagne. I have also attached a very pathetic picture of me crying and drinking the champagne out of the bottle, one of my favorites from the trip. And we'll post it because it's our favorite too. After that, I was totally drunk with a newfound confidence on Cloud 9 and just started

hip-hopping down the mountain, apparently making my friends and now my fiancee incredibly nervous as I descended with reckless abandon. Not only that, I made a point to tell just about every person. and we passed on the trail that I had just gotten engaged at the top. My friend that came with me made sure to tell me the whole damn mountain knew that we had just gotten engaged. We ended the night with more champagne watching the West Texas sunset and great company. I know this isn't typically what would end up on trail tales, but it was by far my most

special moment in a national park, and I have been to a great deal of them. So I hope you guys enjoy my happy engagement story. Thank you so much again for the wonderful podcast. You guys make my week every time I get to listen to the podcast. cast happy trails Corinne oh congrats Corinne and Darien yeah congrats I loved that story I just thought it was really happy and cute and not all of our trail tales have to be morbid and really sad although we do enjoy those ones too but I love hearing good experiences in national parks too winter is so last season and now springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry

eyes your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs you're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders that perfect hang on the patio sundress. 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 open that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Well, I have a good one that also involves crying. Oh, we love crying. I'm currently a huge fan of crying. Like, we cry all the time. I cry all day. day. And maybe one of these days, it'll be happy tears. But for now, we're going to talk about, okay, so this title is Move Over Tom Cruise. This one is about my danger zone. I like it already.

Hi, ladies. First of all, I discovered your podcasts a few months back as I was searching the depths of Spotify for something to hold me over while waiting for my other favorite ladies to drop an episode. It is truly such a pleasure to listen to your wisdom and genuine passion for the outdoors. I grew up in a small resort town in the Rocky Mountains, and I moved back home just before the pandemic started. This meant that I spent my unemployment exploring the backcountry that could be found right in my backyard, and I developed a deep emotional connection to hiking. Cut to the spring of 2021, and I got a text from a friend saying, I reserved a permit for us to backpack the four-pass loop in the Maroon Bells July 13th to the 16th.

And that was that. My big adventure of summer of 2021 was set, and I was consumed. with excitement. This would be my first multi-night trip, but I had averaged about 30 miles a week the summer before and was very confident in my hiking abilities. The date came quicker than I was able to plan. I was scrambling to play Tetris with my new Gregory pack, and I eventually crossed the trailhead with well over 50 pounds on my back and little to no training for the season. Yes, that's right, ladies, I was not prepared. The first day was a blur. We watched the sweltering sun slowly transform into dark clouds that showered us with freezing rain into the evening. We camped just below the first

pass, about six miles counterclockwise into the loop, far higher than the mid-July temperatures could reach, and I was frozen stiff. We awoke the next morning to frost on our bear cans, and we continued upwards as the fog danced over the ridge line. We covered two passes this day and set up camp as the sun was peeking through the sky to warm us up later that afternoon. Now the isolation was starting to get to me and my social anxiety was climbing as my friends were clearly more athletic than I was for these summits. I regularly took up the back of the group and I would break often. I couldn't find my pace and I was hurting. I decided to eat a gummy and let myself drift off to sleep before another big day. Spoiler, that's not what happened. The THC kicked that anxiety into overdrive and I didn't sleep a wink,

obsessing over how the world was continuing without me back home. Not only that, but another night of dropping temperatures creeped up through the inflatable pad and into my sleeping bag. All of this combined made the third day the worst one. We were making our way towards Trail Rider Pass. I had the same confidence in myself as you feel reaching a fall summit, and I apologized to my friend's girlfriend no less than 300 times for the amount of small breaks I had to take. We reached a shelf in the climb, and after a quick photo op, I gazed upon the final ascent.

After a stroll through a meadow that lined a small alpine lake, the trail veered left and shot right up the side of the mountain. I took a deep breath and my first step of many that I began counting to take my mind off the physical strain. One and two and one and two, I whispered to myself as I slowly made the climb. The brakes I took were frequent, which made starting again that much worse. Fellow hikers on the busy trail ensured me that they found this tougher than the CT in an attempt to crack a smile and motivate me. The anxiety was bubbling in my chest as my friend Dallas reached the summit and took his pack off. A good quarter mile ahead of me. His girlfriend Megan stuck by me as I began to tremble and my voice cracked. I think I might start to cry. I joked. And without missing a beat, she said,

then start crying. And I did. I cried because I was in a tumultuous relationship with someone who hardly put in the effort to see me before I left for this trip. I cried because I felt isolated even with two of my closest friends with me. I cried because I had barely slept. My meals could have been more nutritious, and I was carrying a monster of a pack. I cried because I reached my absolute breaking point, and I was struggling to press on.

But I did. Mere feet from the summit, Dallas pointed a camera at me, and through tears, I screamed, I'm fucking coming! This immediately made me and his girlfriend start laughing, along with a few other hikers, and that's when I felt myself reached the other side of my break. breaking point. I made it to the summit and all of the hikers passing through congratulated each other

and myself. I took a photo with snowmass lake on display below, fresh moisture in my eyes. I sat for a moment and cried again because I did press on. As someone who eats, praise, and loves the outdoors, the outdoors are what showed me my limits, not just physical, but spiritual, emotional, and mental. Trail Rider Pass beat me, laughed in my face and ultimately cleansed me. I was carrying something dark with me on that trip that I just couldn't shake, but trail rider shook it. The remainder of the four-pass loop was so deafeningly silent. For the first time in my life, my body felt still, aligned, and quiet. Even as the final feet to the car were loud with pain and yelps of excitement. We stopped in Aspen for a sandwich, and nothing has ever tasted quite as good as that Italian

sub. Shout out to the Grateful Deli. I'm sorry this was long, but I do hope it somehow mirrors your own experiences back to you as you read it, whether into a microphone or just to each other. Much love, Hannah. P.S. Yes, I cried again as I wrote this. We love it. I loved that story because I feel like I can relate. I do feel like that was a mirror a little bit because I do feel healing and cleansing in the outdoors. And I haven't had that exact experience as far as like being on an overnight and just getting your ass kicked and then you just like want to cry. But I've definitely been in that like emotional breaking point that you're like, this is it. Like I feel myself about to just lose it.

And then all someone has to do is to just be like, look at you the right way or hug you or say, like give you permission to cry and you just like absolutely just floodgates open. And then somehow through that and then like getting on the other side of that, you get your shit together somehow and it feels so good. It's like you have this release. Yeah. And I just love that this release and the healing happened in the outdoors. And I'm pretty sure, you know that picture I have from the antique store that Ian and I have hanging in the house? And it's the woman on horseback and she's looking out over the water. And I was like, where is this? And I asked people like, this was literally like over a year ago. I asked, I posted it. I remember that. I'm pretty sure that snowmack.

Lake. I think it was too. I'm pretty sure someone told us that it was that. Yeah. Wow. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. So for anyone who doesn't know, I have a picture. Ian and I were antique shopping when we first got here to Washington. And this picture caught my eye. It's a black and white photo of a woman on horseback at the edge of a lake with mountains in the background. And it was just so beautiful. So I picked it up and we hung it on our wall. And I'm like, God, I have no idea where this is. You know, it's clearly out west somewhere. I just didn't know where. And so I took a picture of it and posted it. And it was like, does anyone know where this is? And actually one of my college friends who now, I'm pretty sure, lives in Breck, and he's a professional skier, he was like, that's no mass lake. Like right away,

he's like, that's snowmass lake. I knew exactly where it was. Yeah. So that's funny that there's a little connection there too. So I'll post her picture because she did send her crying post cry picture um so i'll post that but i'll also post a picture of the uh the picture i have this week's trail tale is going to everyone submitted crying photos i know yeah i swear that's my last cry story 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 camp 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. Well, my next story kind of goes off of like this happy outdoor experience kind of vibe that we have going on and changes that a little bit. So this one is called a chilling trail tale story. Oh, I thought You said it was going to continue it. Like we're going to keep riding that. No, we're not continuing to ride that. Oh, okay. I'm bringing it down.

I'm bringing it down. All right. I'm ready. Just wanted to say, I love your podcast and binge listen while I do my art, a.k.a. wood burning. You guys are so knowledgeable and make a great pair. Plus, make every story so good and funny at the same time. Huge fan, keep rocking at girls.

Also was just in tears over the Yellowstone Wolf episode. I listened for the whole. pod while doing my art. It was so sad and so informative. Now to the chilling trail tale story. It was a crisp fall night. My boyfriend and I went for a night cycle ride on a local trail. I did ask a close girlfriend of mine to go, but she had to work. We rode for a while. It was cool hoodie weather as leaves were falling from the trees and the moon and stars were out and everything was so peaceful. Almost magical. We seemed to be the only ones on the trail after dark. There wasn't a lot of lighting on this particular trail. We decided to stop on the trail to take a quick drink of water.

While we were stopped on our bicycles, we heard a crunch noise towards the wood line. Almost as if a deer or animal had stepped down onto a stick, we both turned to the direction where we heard the stick crack and came eye to eye with a creepy figure of an older man staring directly at us through the tree line and he was about 10 to 15 feet away from the trail. Completely freaked out and startled at the time, my boyfriend said to him, Hey, how's it going? The man did not move at all or respond. As if we couldn't see him in the woods. He stood with no movement, staring right towards us, but we couldn't make out any close details of his looks as it was dark. Then, after him not saying anything, not a word back to us, we got super creepy vibes about his presence.

We decided not to go any further, and I believe my boyfriend stated right then to him, you're real weird for standing there like that, and then I shouted, I was calling 911. We then turned around, peddled back to the direction our truck was parked, and I turned my head around looking over my shoulder many times. We then turned around, peddled back to the direction our truck was parked. I turned my head around looking over my shoulder so many times, all while calling 911. my hands were shaking from how scared I was, hoping that the man would not start to follow us or run after us. I then gave the location to the dispatcher and they said that they would come send someone

out ASAP. The trail was in between a wood line and then there was a business on the other side of the woods. The woodline of where we saw the man backed up to a local auto body shop. I assumed that the man could have been a thief or a creeper, but I mean who really knows. I had let dispatch know of the address of the shop, and then the next morning I called the company to let them know that there was a strange man in the woods who possibly could have been a thief. After thanking me for calling, they offered me a free oil change for us at their shop. A few days later, after we had the encounter, there was a report on the news of someone who had been attacked a mile up the same trail that we were on, and we were thinking, it must be that same man. Then, this is a total curveball of the story,

roughly 1.5 weeks after the trail encounter, I was reading the local news on my cell at lunch, reading of a man who had been brutally murdered with an axe at a local auto body shop. Turns out it was the same shop that we had called letting them know of the possibly strange man slash thief. After reading more details, it turned out to be the owner's son. Totally freaked out, I immediately told my boyfriend what I had read and he was shocked as well. Could that had been the man we saw in the woods that night, could that have potentially been us? Again, another curveball, as if the previous two were not enough. Fast forward a week later, I get a letter in the mail about serving for jury duty. So I got to my assigned jury duty day and showed up, learned about the case.

I had no idea what case it was. So I start reading the paperwork and then my jaw dropped to the floor. At that moment, I found out that the case was for the recent murder case. We were all told not to watch the news at all regarding the situation while attending duty. I was lucky I was not chosen for duty on this case. We had also had to sit down in a room and say our name and address in front of the murderer and lawyers in a very small room. Not sure why they do that as I was so uncomfortable, hoping he didn't recognize me and that it had not been the same weird man on the trail that night or that it was just too

dark for either of us to know exactly who each other were. Truly, I was so nervous. I happily left the courthouse that day relieved. After this entire experience, my boyfriend and I decided we would not go for a night bicycle ride anymore. I suffered a lot of anxiety about being alone for quite some time as well. Time went on and the memory will always be in my mind while walking that trail. Time went on and the memory will always be on my mind while trail walking. Truly grateful to have went with my boyfriend at that time and not one of my girlfriends as she had to work that night. Sorry for such a long story, but truly was one of the scariest experiences of my life, and I will never forget it. Also shows you should never bike alone or without a friend or personal protection to protect yourself day or night. I now have a little girl, and she loves to ride her bike, but we go to an open trail around a lake now and not a wooded area, as I still have anxiety from that day.

I also conceal Carrie and can protect her if need be. I always am aware of my surroundings and notice everything from now on. Stay safe ladies and I can't wait to listen to the next episode of Trail Tales and so sorry for rambling as I'm not a good storyteller. Much love, Ash. I mean, I feel like what are the odds? Like that I really believe that that person was responsible for the killing. They had to be, right? It had to be the same. It creeps me out that they had to state their name and address in front of someone on trial for murder. Yeah, that doesn't seem. That seems very scary. I've only been. selected for jury duty or I don't know if selected is the right word called for jury duty once and I wasn't selected so I didn't really go through like much of the process so I'm not really too familiar

with how it works but that does seem a little odd yeah I've never been selected not next week you're not going to tomorrow I'm going to get like notified yeah yeah that's a really scary story and I'm glad you both were okay just I mean and I was thinking about it too when I was reading it. If I saw a creepy man in the woods, I wouldn't maybe necessarily think to call 911 and I would just run away. But the fact that they did call 911 and they did tell the shop to be on the lookout and stuff. And it ended up being the shop owner's son, which is also really weird. But it's just so smart to call even if you're not sure. If it's, it's better safe than sorry. Yeah, I think it's more of because he wasn't responsive to their like initiation of conversation.

Like the guy, the boyfriend was like, hey, how's it going? Like if he was just like, oh, hi. I don't know if they would have done that. I think it was the total lack of response that they were like, all right, something's definitely fucking up here. And just staring at them through the trees, just silent. Yeah, that's also. And bad vibes. With an axe. Martyred with an axe. Oh, God. That's so weird. Luckily, you guys were on bikes and not, like, walking. Right? You could just pedal super fast away.

You can go super fast away, yeah. Okay, so my next story is also a revisit to an episode that I did. I have no idea what episode number it was. So you're going to have to search for it if you haven't listened to it yet. But it's about Birkenhair in Hollywood Royal Park was the episode in Edinburgh. and this one is titled Stories from Edinburgh. Hey, I just started listening to your podcast a few months ago and I'm really loving it. I'm a history student here in the UK at the University of Edinburgh and I just listened to your

episode on Hollywood Park, which was super fun. I hope this isn't too forward, but I'm also a tour guide at one of the historic sites here in Edinburgh and I've had the opportunity to study our local history as part of my degree. So I thought I might pass on a few photos and bits I've picked up. I can also see the peak of Arthur's seat from my kitchen, so I'm taking that as authority, too. Not too forward at all. You're the expert. I just read about it online. You're there. I'm looking at a flight right now. You're living there. You're studying there. We're ready. So you are the authoritative figure in this situation.

We're booking a flight right now. We're getting a tour. No, we are not. Someone rain or in, please. Okay. She booked up my entire. next year of life. Okay. So someone put a stop to her. I can't be stopped. First of all, Hollywood Park has always been a place

for the supernatural. It's quite strange to have the remains of an active volcano in the middle of a city after all. You mentioned the prevalence of witch trials in Scotland during the 16th and 17th centuries in the podcast,

but Arthur's seat was also given a connection to fairies during this period. In 1572, Janet Boydman claimed she visited fairy-like supernatural entities underneath Arthur's seat, possibly in a cave, claiming to speak with figures including King Arthur himself. These individuals would have likely been Catholic, as this was post-Reformation Scotland where superstitious, quote unquote, Catholic practices such as prayers for the dead in

purgatory, would have been punished as the Scottish Church tried to abandon folklore practices as much as possible. Ferry stories are often connected with music, which Edinburgh also continues the trend of. There is a tale of a piper sent down a secret tunnel between Edinburgh Castle and Hollywood Palace, situated right next to the park, underneath the Royal Mile. At some point, the piper stopped playing his music that the soldiers on the surface below were using to follow him, and he was never found again. This is a common story, however, across southern Scotland and northern England, so I'm not too sure of its historical accuracies. Going back to the witch trials, I think it's also important to note that one of the biggest trials of this period took place at Holyrood Palace.

The North Berwick Witches, a seaside town about 30 minutes by train, east of Edinburgh, were accused in 1590 of attempting to kill King James the 6th of Scotland, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and his new wife, Anne of Denmark. I won't go too much into the history, but James played a very important role by actually engaging in the interrogation of one of the accused, Agnes Sampson, himself. A very unusual thing for a monarch or even nobility really to be involved in. Agnes was taken to meet the king who commanded she be shaved and searched for a witch's mark. A mark on the body where you were believed to have been kissed by the devil or suckled by a familiar, usually in the genital area. She was eventually found guilty for the crime and sentenced to death.

In Scotland and Europe, the crime of witchcraft was deemed hearsay for which the punishment was burning at the stake, different to English trials, including those held in Salem, where it was seen more as a criminal offense with a sentence of hanging. Many now claim to see Agnes in Holly Roodhouse, but I'm not too sure about that. James went on to be involved further when he wrote Demonology in 1597, which is basically a huge academic discussion of the supernatural world. The work went on to influence the 1604 Witchcraft Act, as well as subsequent trials such as the Pendlewitch trials, and infamously, Shakespeare's Macbeth, which was produced when James

became King of England. I've actually had the opportunity to go see the coffins, and the coffins are what we discussed in the episode. And for anyone who is looking to go see them for themselves, it's actually really surprising that they are not really on display. In the Scottish history section of the Natural Museum of Scotland, on Chamber Street, they are really hidden away down a small corridor to the back. This was a few years ago that I got to see them, so they may have moved, but it's absolutely worth seeing for yourself how small and delicate they are in real life. Recently, I also had the opportunity to go to the anatomical museum where the skeletal remains of Burke are usually held, which is usually closed off to the public post-pandemic,

as it's been a really interesting point of discussion over the display of human remains, particularly as we don't know where or who many of the artifacts have come from. Many of the items, however, are still used by current anatomy students here at the university. Burke is actually currently on display at the National Museum of Scotland as part of alone with the anatomical museum this summer. Finally, and sorry to go on a bit, the University of Edinburgh actually still has a fully functioning anatomy lecture theater. It's situated in the old medical school and although isn't the one that Knox would have been familiar with, the medical school was built in the 1880s, it's still an amazing experience to be in. Pre-COVID actually, many of our lectures were actually

held in this room, and it is still being used now by first and second year students. I've attached a recent picture for you to have a look at, as well as the old college where the autopsies would have taken place. There are so many more stories about Edinburgh, literally around every corner, so I do hope you guys get to visit us here someday. P.S., I'm also super excited to start your episode on the Yorkshire-Dales, as I'm originally from there. There are some really interesting cases about the bodies of two women who are found. The first is a semi-solved case from the west in the Yorkshire-Dales National Park, and the second is still an ongoing investigation. I believe from the North York Moors National Park, if you wish to return there. Kind regards, Melissa. So I love someone with just like a passion for

history, and you got it, for sure. I love that you took so much time to really explain a lot of the history there because it was such an interesting episode too. So to hear more follow up on it and firsthand experience there is really cool. Well, location with such history. I mean, literally she said around every corner and it's true. You know, dating back to like the 15, 14, hundreds and even further, it's hard to not find somewhere that has a bunch of different stories. So to just narrow it down to one for that one episode was difficult. So I'm glad I was really happy to see that someone had written in with more information about the area because it does have so much. And someone who especially is becoming an expert on the area, like professionally,

and not just someone who thinks it's interesting online like me. So yeah, thank you for writing that in. You know, it's really cool too. What? While you were reading the story that they submitted to us, someone tagged us in their story at the museum and they put the coffins from Arthur's seat and posted it and tagged us in it while you were reading that story. Oh, just now? Yes, right now. What are the chances? Stop. What are the chances?

It's just so funny. And my first trail tales that I was talking about, the Calipapa one, he said he was on a layover to Edinburgh while he was writing that story. All I know is that this is all pointing signs and I looked at flights and they're not that bad falling out of Boston. I got to ask you. Did you just fucking look up flights when I was telling that story? Just for a second. I had the app that came up in like two seconds. The audacity.

I just. The audacity of that pulled ass move. Okay. I'm just inspired. You're cut off. I started as soon as they said that they, as soon as they offered to give us a tour, I began searching for flights. Okay, Cassie, when are we going to go to that? October 3rd to the 9th. No, we are absolutely not. Of this year? Yeah. No. That's where I found the flights.

Okay, well, we're not going. You're just getting back from Greece. I'm just getting my ass to Colorado. We're not going to Edinburgh. Sorry. I feel like, I'm drawing the line. I feel like I'm being lectured by my mom right now. It's like absolutely not. sit down, go to your room, and just chill. And read me your last story, please. All right. My last story is a happy one as well. It's San Isabel National Forest titled Happy Little Story. Hi, Danielle and Cassie.

My name is Caroline, and I found your podcast about a year ago and have loved every episode since. You both do an amazing job. Anyway, I wanted to tell you a happy little story about my most recent camping, hiking, trip. I just finished my fourth year at University of Nebraska and my boyfriend and I were doing a summer trip. Wanting to visit more national parks, we planned a trip with two of our friends to drive out and camp in Great Sand Dunes National Park. Since all of our front country sites were booked, we got a backcountry permit and camped about a mile out. We unfortunately found out the next morning that there was a designated spot for us to camp even though we had a backcountry permit,

which we thought meant you could camp anywhere as long as you respect LNT. A park, a park ranger happily let us know that we were about a mile away from our correct camping spot and he gave us a souvenir to remember our time in the dunes in the form of a ticket smiley face apart from that the sand dunes were amazing i saw more stars than i've ever seen in my life and i convinced my friends to stop at the ufo watchtower of course after leaving the sand dunes we headed north to camp outside ledville we were going to get an alpine start the next morning to hike mount albert the tallest peak in colorado which is the san is I consider myself pretty in shape, but I got mono about two to three weeks before we had planned this trip. I got the go ahead from my doctor to hike, but she told me to take it easy.

I warned my friends of this beforehand and just let them know that I would need more frequent breaks since we would be hiking to the top together. 4 a.m. rolls around and we get started on our hike. I peeled off my layers quickly and two of my friends took the hiking as fast as we can approach. My boyfriend, being the most experience of all of us, told them that we were were going too fast. Our hike was about 10 miles round trip with about 4,500 feet of elevation gain. So this was a slow and steady, complete the race type moment. As we started hiking farther, the two girls with us would get way ahead of my boyfriend and I and then stop. Wait for us to

catch up just to take off hiking again the same fast pace, also known as the bitch stop. I've had people do the bitch stop to me before. The two girls we were with were out of sight within the first four miles. My boyfriend and I kept going, me needing a lot of encouragement. I was so exhausted from the thin air and my decreased ability to hike that I was wheezing and just had to keep stopping. At one point, I started crying. It was a little embarrassing. After a hug and more water, we kept going. I was having to stop every 20 steps to catch my breath. After we got out of the tree line and a mile or two more in, I told my boyfriend that I was quitting and that he should just go ahead. I had to convince him that I wouldn't be mad and I wouldn't run off the trail. I had self-service. There was a bunch of people

on trail and I could see all around me so I felt pretty safe. My boyfriend kept going while I sat down on a rock to put on sunscreen, text my mom that I was dying, and have a snack. Everyone on the trail was saying hi to me as they passed, so I felt safe. One older gentleman passed and commented that he, quote, hadn't had this many people pass me since the Boston Marathon. Deciding that I should try to make it a little farther, I got up and started hiking behind him. I asked him where he was from and if he was retired. Since I could barely breathe, we would both hike a ways in a comfortable silence, stop to catch our breath before I asked this with pauses and my phrases to gulp down air. He told me that he had retired in 2012, so I guess that he was about in his 70s. This was absolutely perfect. I was

recovering from Mono and he was in his 70s, so we were hiking at the same pace. He told me that he was a retired National Park Ranger. I thought this was so cool. He had worked in Shiloh Battlefield, the St. Louis Arch, and the Grand Canyon. He went on to tell me that he has visited 421 out of 423 National Parks, Reserves, Monuments, etc. He has completed the National Park list five times, but more keep being added. What a great reason to have to keep visiting more. I was blown away by his commitment to the national park system and his drive to travel. The two he has yet to visit are two Japanese internment camps, one in California and one in Hawaii. In 2012, when he retired, his wife Cynthia and him through hiked the Appalachian Trail. Some of his

favorite adventures included hiking to the Everest Base Camp, hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, and of course exploring national parks. I struggled so much up this hike, but hiking with my new buddy, Woody, who is not only an inspiration, but just so cool, made it really amazing. Woody and I both made it to the top. I met my friends who were just starting to hike down as I peaked. They met me with shock that I had made it up to. I was shocked myself.

I told them that my hiking buddy, Woody, was just behind me. Woody and I got a picture together at the top, and I attached it below. I had a snack at the top with my friends before we all started to head down again. The two girls took off and I hiked down with just my boyfriend. I thought it was going to be so easy going down, but man, I was wrong. I did cry on the way down as well from being so exhausted, but I made it. Although I had the toughest time out of my group, I had the best story because of the unlikely chance of meeting Woody and being brave enough to ask him questions and make a new friend.

In town the next day, my boyfriend and I went to the Melanzana shop, a very niche sweater store for outdoor people and we ran into Woody and Cynthia on our way out. I was able to find Woody and Cynthia on Facebook and we have stayed in touch. Thank you again for the amazing podcast. It's always a highlight of my week. Hearing the positive and not so positive stories of the outdoors has inspired me to get out more and has helped me feel more comfortable making friends in the outdoors. Happy trails, Caroline. Oh, whoa. Woody is cool as hell. That's a huge accomplishment. How do you travel that much. Well, they say yes when someone says I'm booking flights to Edinburgh. Okay, I guess I set myself up a little bit for that, but that's like amazing. It's just amazing. It is amazing.

After you retire to through hike the Appalachian Trail too, and it's just so cool. It's so, what a cool person and a person to meet while you're up there. So do you think when they said that he completed the National Park List twice or whatever? What did you say? Five times. Oh, five times. Okay. That's even more crazy.

Like the actual, like the 60-something U.S. parks. Do you think? Because then they said that he did like 420-something units. Of the preserves and monuments and all that. And he just had the internment camp. So he's traveled all over the U.S. to everything that's preserved pretty much. That is just so incredible.

What a cool person to meet on the trail, like out of everybody. Yeah. And I think it's really cool to talk to an older person too because I think a lot of times people see an older person on the trail and many times you're like, oh, you're moving slow, move out of the way. And this opportunity like gave them the chance to meet someone and hear like a really cool story. And I remember one time when I was hiking, I was in the White Mountains and we were on a pretty hard trail. And this 70 year old woman was with her two grandchildren and she blew by us. And we talked to her for a minute and she was a through hiker. And she had through hiked like the PCT, the AT and had done all this stuff.

And just in the brief conversation we had with her, we're like, you are so cool. You are way cooler than us. So I just think it's awesome when people take the time to actually speak with older people who are out on the trails because they're out on the trails because they're cool and they're badass. And even if someone's moving slower, like they're way cooler than you, probably. And they're likely way more experienced clearly, like Woody was. And I just think it's really cool that she aligned out of all people with that particular person. Like she needed a little boost and inspiration.

And like, yeah, I know it was a good match at the time because he was a little slower and she was sick. But also I think it was a cool connection to make just for like pure encouragement other than matching a physical level at the moment, you know? Yeah. I loved the mention of Melanzana. too because Melanzana is just like the Leadville store. Everyone just goes to Leadville to go to Melanzana and stand in line to get a sweatshirt. Oh, really? I've never. You haven't been to, you don't have a Melly. No. Oh my. I don't even know what it looks like lived in Colorado. What? A Melly, like if you go to Leadville, go to the Mellie store. You can't, you can't order their stuff online unless you win a lottery,

which I did win once, but you have to go to the store. What is it? Sweatshirts. Yeah, they have sweatshirts. They have like dresses, but it's a certain material. It's like the class, you've seen Mellies before I guarantee you. I really don't think I have. I'm going to look it up. Well, they don't sell stuff online, but. But you've got to be able to see what it looks like. Yeah, you can. This is bougie. It's the outdoor gear to have. The fact that you, well, you're moving to Colorado soon. You got to go get a Melly in Leadville. Okay, but I also lived in Colorado for years and have never even hurt. I, I'm a goodwill. My first time at Mellie, it was like 2014, so you got to go.

It's probably because I never could have even imagined of spending any sort of significant money on anything when I was living in Colorado. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's like, okay, well, I, why would I go and wait in line for something that I can just look at and not purchase, right? That's got to be it. No, you got to go get a Melly. Okay, all right, all right.

I'm being. Half of our listeners. ears are wearing a melly right now and they're like what is sorry sorry god smelly mally mally trade in remelly okay all right yeah maybe i'll uh they're big they're big everyone in vermont has mellies and when you talk to him everyone's like yeah i i went to leadville i got my i've literally never specifically went to leadville to go to the melly store and we both have melies from when we did cross-country trip. Like, it's a, it's a thing. Okay. All right. Well, I guess I know my first, uh, big stop in Colorado. Sorry to everybody who's a Melly fan. I just never knew. Okay,

well, Patreon, you'll get two extra stories, everybody else. That's it for today. And, uh, we'll see you next time. Enjoy the view. And also watch you back. Okay, bye. Bye. 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.

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