National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 3

Episode Date: December 6, 2021

Our mix of stories today include a spirit on the trail, amazing animal rescues and a tragic death by animal, stumbling across skulls on the trail and surviving a glacial fall.All stories shared with the permission of submitting partiesWe 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 episode, 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! Away: Start your 100 day luggage trial today! Prose: Free in-depth hair consultation and 15% off your order Uncommon Goods:  Shop unique gifts for everyone in your life. Receive 15% off your order Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Monday AI agents took over my work. And I absolutely love it. Chasing deadlines, writing status reports, updating stakeholders. Agents handle the daily grind now. They live inside Monday.com. So they see the full picture, my work, my team, the whole company. And I don't have to worry about the data. It's safe, which means I'm free to focus on the big stuff,

knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. Girl, 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 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. My name's Cassie.

And my name is Danielle. And welcome to the last episode before our live show. We're so excited. We have been getting prepared for this for so long. We have all of our stuff in order where we're going to stay in Joshua Tree, what we're going to do. We have someone coming out to take some really fun photos of us while we're in Joshua Tree. and then we're going to the live show and we're really, really excited. And tickets are still on sale.

So if you would like to come, you definitely can. The link is momenthouse.com slash NPAD. We'll be doing it on December 9th at 730 Pacific Standard Time, but it will be streamed for 72 hours afterwards. So if you can't make it, if it's too late for you, if you're working, whatever, it will be streamed for three days after. So you can come check it out. And don't forget that we do have a very fun and exciting portion of the live show that we already

disclosed to you. We're trying to keep everything under wraps, but this is just too good to not celebrate. So obviously it's my birthday or will be my birthday in a few days. And we're just in such a gift giving and receiving mood. I mean, I wonder what gifts will be bestowed on me this 31st year of life. in that spirit, I and Cassie want to give away a park pass. And like we mentioned before, the only rule for entry is purchasing a ticket to the live show. And we'll have record of that.

You'll be automatically entered when you purchase your ticket and you'll be in the running for a park pass that we will announce live during our virtual live event. Yeah, so we're going to have this really fun giveaway. and on top of that we have exclusive merch that is only going to be available. At the live event, Rayco Designs designed it for us. You can buy that. You can buy it with your ticket or you can buy it during the live show itself. So go check it out. We're really, really excited.

It's momenthouse.com slash NPAD. We have a Trail Tales episode today. And if you have a story that you want to tell us, you can email us at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Lovely, who wants to go first? You or me? I kind of have a fun one that I want to read. Okay, start us off. Cool.

Hi, Lovelies. I absolutely love your podcast. I discovered it while I was looking for something to listen to while on a solo cross-country trip this past summer through 16 national parks slash monuments in 25 states. Very cool. Get it. That's like the dream, you know? I love solo trips, too. That's awesome. Anyway, I finished every single episode that was available before I finished my journey and have been a weekly listener ever since.

Inspired by your Trail Tales episode, I began thinking back on an experience that I had with the Spirit of Arch's National Park. 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. When I arrived at the park early in the morning, I made my way through the front

gate into the Red Rock Beauty, stopping basically every 10 feet for the amazing photo opportunities. Sounds like hiking with Cassie. I stop all the time to take like a thousand photos. And then she's like, oh, let me just put my backpack down and get my, I have to switch my lens. I have to switch my lens. Every single time I'm like, we have walked literally 15 feet. But it's so pretty. During one of my stops at the courthouse towers, a woman gave me advice to hike the delicate arch trail.

I wasn't the most experienced hiker, but this woman assured me over and over that despite the high experience level, it would be something I would do and then it would be worth it. So I figured, I should at least try it out. If it's too difficult, I could always turn around. When I got to the trailhead, it was already 11 a.m. and the heat was still steadily climbing. Before I began my ascent, I made sure I had all the necessary supplies based on the summer hiking recommendations. I brought a gallon of water, a sunshade hat, a personal alarm in case of emergency, and plenty of sunscreen. Along my ascent, there were many times that I stopped and considered giving up, that something the woman said kept repeating over and over in my head. You will do this trail.

Not in a reassuring way, but as if she could see the future. I continued my way up through the heat and lack of shade, stopping often to catch my breath and drink some water as I inched my way along the ledge of the last turn. I finally saw it. Delicate arch. I began to cry. It was so beautiful and I was so proud of myself for completing such a difficult trail. I scrambled across the rocks to get a closer view and I saw her again. The woman who told me to do the trail. She greeted me with a warm smile and I told you so and a wink. The woman couldn't have been older than 60. Her dark hair spotted with the occasional gray, and her face displayed years of smiling. Her hair was pulled back into a single braid except a strand that was tucked behind her ear.

Her skin looked like it was made of earth itself, and her eyes made of sky. She stood about five, four, and was wearing a white tank top, black running shoes, and hiking sandals. As I was waiting my turn for a photo opportunity, she stood next to me and said, You see that ravey that ravey raven there? That's the spirit of the park. He sits and judges those who stand beneath the arch, letting the park know if someone would dare to hurt it. If he's silent, he knows that your heart is pure and that you will respect this natural beauty. If he cries, he knows your heart is selfish, and that you would desecrate the park. On top of the rock that balances the aptly named Delicate Arch sat the biggest raven I had ever seen. You could tell that he had to be. He had

been there for quite a while based on the amount of bird poop covering the top of the rock. Several people stood underneath the arch while I was waiting and the raven sat quietly, so I thought the woman was just making it up. That was until a man stood underneath the arch and the raven began to caw. I watched the man after he stepped away from the arch, curious to see if there was any truth to this woman's story. And sure enough, he proceeded to pull out a bag sunflower scenes, litter the shells, and fed some to wildlife. I turned to look at the woman in disbelief, but she was gone. One minute standing right next to me, and the next, nowhere to be found. Almost as if she had disappeared into thin air. I asked another person in line if they had

saw her leave, and they said they hadn't even noticed anyone standing next to me. My turn under the arch finally came, so I made my way underneath. and posed with my arms stretched wide to show, I did it. I looked up and the Raven stayed silent. I was still skeptical, but felt honored if the story were true. I grew up a passionate follower of the Take Nothing But Pictures and Leave Nothing But Footsteps Philosophy

and have cried at every single national park I've been to. Yes, every single one. Oh, that's sweet. That is. At this point, I thought maybe dehydration was causing me to imagine the whole thing. So I sat down to drink some water and relax before beginning my descent. I watched as several other people went underneath the arch with no noise from the raven. That was until a young couple walked underneath and the raven began to caw again.

When the woman stepped out to take a picture of her partner by himself, the raven was silent. When they switched places, the raven began to caw again above the woman. I watched and waited to see if she did anything to indicate that she was disrespectful of the park. like the sunflower soup guy before, but nothing happened. The couple talked briefly before ultimately beginning their descent, so I once again shrugged off the story of the so-called spirit of the park. I left the landmark about five minutes after the couple did and began my descent back to the trailhead.

While walking the last steep hillside, I finally saw why the raven cried above the woman and not the man. Further down the trail, I saw the woman finish drinking from a plastic water bottle, crumple it and throw it to the ground. Her partner picked it up after her and scolded her against littering. My jaw dropped. When I finally got back to my car, I still couldn't wrap my head around whether what I saw was of dehydration mixed with confirmation bias or something truly paranormal. Either way, I was content, because if the raven was the spirit of the park, I was honored to be judged as pure of part. And if it wasn't, I had another story to tell about my cross-country road trip. Well, thank you for

sharing that story with us. That was really cool. I had never heard of the spirit of arches before. And I've been there, so. Yeah, I've been there too, but very briefly, so I don't think I could even say that I was there long enough to hear a local legend. But I haven't heard of it brought up in anywhere else. So that was awesome. And I really liked the way that she wrote it because I just had that really weird. The way she wrote it. I really like the way that it was written because she alluded to like,

yeah, the ravens, the spirit of the park, but did she have another interaction with some sort of spirit? Like, that woman seemed odd, like not a regular visitor that she would run into. Yeah, I agree. There seems like there was something up with that woman. I don't know what, but... Yeah, not sure, but something was going on.

Okay, well, we already know what we're doing next. Cassie, wherever that book is that you keep of our list, I would like you to add delicate arch trail to see the spirit of it. It is added to my list. Excellent. Okay. So I'm going to share a story next. It begins,

Hi, friends. A friend of mine recommended your podcast to me and I have been binging episodes all week. I wanted to write in with a story from my parents, although I was present for part of it. I'm actually not sure if you'll count this because it takes place in a national monument rather than a national park, but here it goes. National monuments always count. For the record.

When my dad was a teenager in the late 80s, he went backpacking in one of the canyons in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, with his parents and a friend of his. I'm being intentionally vague about where the story takes place exactly, because it's very remote and I worry about folks getting lost or injured trying to get here if they don't know what they're doing. See the whole Utah monolith aftermath slash shit show of 2020. Anyways, one day my dad and his friend went off exploring by themselves and climbed up the canyon wall, trying to see if they could spot any petroglyphs in the sandstone.

On a ledge, maybe 100 feet from the top of the canyon, my dad accidentally moved a rock and ended up, face to face, with a human skull that was buried in the sand. My dad yelped, and his friend came to look. They could see the teeth sticking out, grinning at them. My dad replaced the rock out of respect because he felt bad for disturbing this person's grave. When he and his family made it back to town, they reported the remains to the rangers at the visitor's center. I think it was understood that these remains were of an indigenous person, possibly piute, and very old. We don't know what ended up happening after that if the remains were removed or whatnot.

Fast forward to 2009 when I was 15 years old. We lived right outside of the monument and had just moved there in 2007. In September of 2009, me and my parents and my younger sister were backpacking in that same canyon. We set up camp one night on a sandbank along the river, right below the spot where my dad found the skull. In the middle of the night, my mom was woken up by the sounds of scream. and frantic splashing. Her immediate thought was that it was of a child or several children, and they were drowning. She rushed out of the tent with a flashlight to help only to find that there was no one in the river.

I slept through this whole incident so I don't remember it, but the canyon wall was curved in such a way that sound echoed very eerily, especially added with the sound of the water, so I can only imagine how creepy those sounds must have been for my mom to hear in the dark. I 100% believe that Canyon is haunted and would love to be able to visit again. Thanks for reading and keep up the good work. Wow, that was wild. I can't imagine going out hiking first off and just finding a skull. Literally stumbling across it. Like his foot kicked it out of place. And then just be like, I'm so sorry and just like tucking it back in. It's like, oh, I just did something really. dead by accident.

And out of the whole canyon, out of all the places that he could have put his foot, like the chances of that are crazy. I am also very interested as far as what did happen. Like maybe the Rangers were, you know, like they said, the Rangers seemed to have like some sort of understanding that. Like usually I would think that Rangers would be very concerned that were there were human remains in a remote canyon of the park. But yeah, so we don't know, you know, what goes on behind the scenes,

especially if it's an area that has a lot of indigenous people's history and all of that. So either way, I thought it was a cool one. Yeah, very, very cool story. Thank you for sharing. Going into our next one, we got a listener story that is related to an episode that I did. It was episode four, Yosemite, the serial killer in Yosemite, Carrie Stainer. and someone wrote us a story that had a firsthand experience with Carrie Stainer. Oh.

Yeah. Really crazy, so I have to read this one. Hey, NPAD. I just wanted to share a really interesting family story I just heard about that I think y'all might enjoy. Recently on a long road trip, I was listening to your episode about the Yosemite serial killer, Carrie Stainer, with my dad and fiancé. My family is originally from the Bay Area. my dad and his brothers visit Yosemite pretty regularly when they were young, so I figured my dad would probably have some memories about hearing it on the news. Turns out, I was pretty spot on

about him having some memories. During the part about how Stainer was caught came on, my dad very casually said, oh yeah, Vince, his brother, my uncle, met him. I didn't believe it at first, but when I finally got to talk to my uncle this weekend, I found out that not only only did my aunt and uncle meet him, they shared a hot tub with him hours before he got caught. Well, because he was at that nudist place. Right. Yes. Yes.

He was just hanging out at a nudist park when the authorities eventually came and got him. So this is where they are. Yeah, it has to be. Both my aunt and uncle are a bit more on the eccentric and funny side. So it's kind of a well-known family secret that they've been nudist for pretty much their entire lives. They would frequent a lot of nudist campgrounds slash areas when they were younger, which is how they ended up in the same place as where a stainer was caught. My aunt was telling me that before she met him, she always thought she could tell if she were

in the presence of pure evil. But she surprisingly never got that feeling with him. While in the hot tub, she said they both tried to talk to him, but he was just weird. They said he kept to himself and didn't really have a lot to say and eventually just left to go to the bar, which I believe is where he told an employee his name, which led him to getting caught. The next morning, my aunt and uncle were chatting with people, and they heard that the Yosemite serial killer was caught at the site they were at, and when they saw a picture, they knew that that man, who they shared a hot tub with, the evening before, was the infamous Carrie Stainer. So that's my quick little family story that I had somehow never heard.

of before listening to your podcast. Both my fiancé and I recommend your podcast to pretty much everyone we talk to and listen to all your episodes together. So it was cool to be able to hear a personal family story about one of the episodes. Love the Pond. Wow. Wow. I don't have a family story like that.

No, me either. Not that I know of at least. That's wild. That's wild to find that out about your family member. They were so close to a serial killer. and even had a conversation with them and just had no idea. And in such close proximity to his crimes when he committed his crimes. And then he got caught.

Like they came in. I mean, I guess they didn't raid the place because it was a very casual. They just like walked in and they were like, hey. And he's like, okay, he caught me. It was very anticlimatic when he finally got caught. But just to know that you're in the area that it happened. and yeah, wild. Wild, wild. Wild. This one is pretty morbid, but I love it. I recently found your podcast, and it has quickly become my absolute favorite,

combining my love of all things morbid, nature, and adventure. I have a morbid tale for you from my grandmother. She is a retired deputy sheriff and investigator, and is definitely responsible for my love of true crime. This story takes place in the 90s a little after I was born. Although, it does not take place in a national park, it does take place in Auburn State Recreation Area in the Sierra Foothills 40 miles northeast of Sacramento, California. My grandmother would tell me from a young age, probably too young, that a friend of hers was tragically attacked and killed by a mountain lion while she was going for her morning jog. I'll keep her name anonymous out of respect for any relatives, but on April 23rd, 1994, my grandmother's friend disappeared after her regular

morning jog on the American Canyon River Trail. She was an avid jogger and in great shape, with a love for the outdoors like many of us in the area. When police finally found her remains, they realized that she had been cashed and partially consumed. The autopsy showed, yeah, it gets a little worse. The autopsy showed that she was attacked by a mountain lion and then apparently had escaped several times only to be run down again and ultimately dragged off. Oh, cats are so scary. Big cats are, I mean small cats are scary too if you're in bedmed, but cats are just so scary because they play with their food and that's just, it's what I'm picturing now. I will say mountain lions are my number one fear while I'm out hiking by myself. I mean, running into a predator face to face is startling and very frightening, whether it be a grizzly or even a black bear or whatever it may be. But mountain lions, you're not going to see them coming if they're actually coming for you.

Like if you stumble across one like that remember that guy in Utah in provo in provo I think it was and he was trail running like this woman was and he came across in the middle of the trail there were little kittens and he thought they were like bobcats and he approached them and then out of the fucking frame this female mother cougar comes a barreling spitting hissing swatting at him and follows him for a couple miles as he's backing away from it and she's like attack going after him defending her. That was really scary. Yeah. Like if it's something like that, like she's not looking to consume you for a meal. She's just defending her young. But in this case, it seems like this cat had other plans and just based on accounts of people getting attacked and or

attacked and killed by mountain lions. It's just the way that they stalk their prey is very frightening, and that's why I'm petrified of them. Okay, back to the story. It looked as if the lion had also come back several times to feed on her over the next couple of days. A search within the lion's territory ensued, with the intent to put her down as it would be too dangerous to allow an animal that now saw joggers as prey to continue to live. They did find the mountain lion very close to her attack site, and she was subsequently treed and shot down by hired hunters. The marks on my grandmother's friend's body matched that of the 80-pound female cougar's teeth,

but the story does not stop there. They realized soon after that this lion had given birth within the last four to six weeks and likely had cubs nearby that she was feeding. So, a search for the cubs then began, as their chance of survival after a week would be rare. Once the cubs were found, they were sent to the Sacramento Zoo to be cared for. My grandmother, the sweet, morbid soul that she is, would definitively exclaim every time she took me to the zoo as a toddler and a young child, those are the cubs of the lion who ate my friend. Oh my God.

That's right. these lions were the grown cubs of the man-eating mama who took down my grandmother's dear friend and my grandmother found it appropriate to tell me about it every time we went to the zoo face palm emoji imagine being a child and your grandmother's telling you that like what grandma like grammy and then she says again no wonder i now have a love of all things macab I didn't think much of this story, as my grandmother is a bit of an exaggerative person, until I started listening to your podcast and it brought up all of those traumatizing memories of this tragic story. So I researched it only to find out that it was all very accurate.

And here I am sending it to you. Hopefully you enjoyed it. I hope her and her family are at peace and all right with me sharing. And thank you ladies for sharing the horrible but informational and interesting stories of the awful things that happen out in the wilderness. Please keep up the good work, and I look forward to tuning in Sage. Oh, that was really nice. I did love that, Sage.

In a very weird and terrible way, I enjoyed it. And I'm really sorry for your grandmother's friend's loss. But the way that you wrote that was, it had just enough comic relief to make the story digestible. So thank you so much. Yeah, very, very well written. Okay, I have another story, and this one's a little bit longer, but it's really good. And it's a cautionary tale. Hi, ladies, my name is Alice, and I'm so glad I found your podcast in the past few months.

I grew up in Utah surrounded by the Big Five, and every year we would do a family reunion in Arches National Park that I hold near and dear to my heart. But the story I want to share with you doesn't take place in a national park. but in Uinta National Forest in eastern Utah. My dad is an avid outdoorsman, and me being the oldest daughter of six with two boys right underneath me, I always got to participate with my brothers and my dad's hobbies. Fly fishing, kayaking, and backpacking were always on the summer to-do list. One of my family's all-time favorite backpacking trip is in the high Uinta mountain range.

Ryder Lake is nestled in a glacier-fed valley called Middle Basin. surrounded on all sides by tall, bouldered, covered, newly formed mountains, including Hayden Peak. The altitude we hike to is over 11,000 feet, where we boulder hop with 30-pound backpacks up and over a ridge to a fishing paradise. There are two ways to get into Middle Basin. The first, being a nine-mile gradual climb through the forest, this way is long and not nearly as dangerous as the alternative. The other way, which is our preferred method, is to hike to hike to.

directly up and over the saddle of Hayden Peak, which from the parking lot to the campground is about three miles. While it's technically shorter, you gain almost 2,000 feet in elevation in the first mile and a half. The hike is treacherous and there's even some points on the trail that require us to take our backpacks and hoist them over cliffs above us, passing our packs up the mountain. I did this trip every year starting in eighth grade with my dad, brothers, uncles, and occasionally a couple boy scouts that would tag along. Really, whoever my dad could rope in for the weekend of fishing paradise. Sometimes I got to bring a friend. My dad had done this hike almost every year for the past 20 years. He's highly experienced in the outdoors and has had his share of crazy experiences up there,

including having to give a 12-year-old boy some stitches on the side of a trail. But nothing could have prepared him for what his teenage daughter was about to throw at him. While I have numerous experiences at Ryder Lake, this one in particular I want to share with you, partially to raise awareness of the dangers of mountain glaciers. One year we had a particularly wet water year and the snowpack was still going strong by early July. Snow lined the ridge that we were set to climb over to get into the valley and parts of the glacier stretched from the top to the valley beneath, about a mile and a half long. The hike down is dangerous, steep boulder hopping and one wrong step will send a boulder careening down the mountain, possibly injuring or killing the people

beneath you. However, this year the glacier that stretched down, the chute, was tantalizing to my dad, who thought that we could save a couple of hours hiking and some muscle soreness for possibly a safer route just by trekking down the glacier. Everyone was pretty hesitant and exhausted and opted to wait a minute before beginning, except for me. A junior in high school, a school, the time, my dad, and two of the older Boy Scouts that came with us. As we slowly started to hike down, my judgment was blurred in a total Toron moment. The thought came to my mind that I could simply just sled down the glacier. I pulled my trash bag out of my backpack and sat on it, thinking I would just butt shuffle down the mountain, the way you do as a kid on a hill with fresh powder. However,

the second I scooted I was shot down the icy, hard-packed glacier at top speeds. My dad looked up and caught a glance of me speeding down and yelled down to the Boy Scout in my path. Garrett, tackle her. Garrett pounced on me just as I sped by him and we rolled down the glacier a couple yards before he stopped our bodies from falling into a crevasse between the glacier and the rocky side of the mountain, probably about seven or eight feet deep. We both stood up, and Garrett brushed it off as I thanked him, but I stood up too quickly and was dizzy from all the rolling before I fell down on the glacier, and the weight of my backpack pushed me to slide down the mountain again and around the corner out of the sight of everyone in my party. My friends and family at the top held their breath as I disappeared, and my dad called up to everyone else telling them to take the longer, better known route through the boulders while he high-tailed it down the glacier.

as quickly and safely as he could with his trekking poles. As I was sliding down, I dug my fingers and heels into the glacier and attempts to slow me down. I was moving way too fast for that to do me any good. I was out of control. I finally relented and consigned myself to just sliding down the rest of this glacier, where I was headed to a sharp pile of boulders. In my mind, I imagined what would happen. The weight of my 25-pound pack-pack would throw my body.

down into the boulders, I would break ribs, probably get a concussion, if not, just lose my life right there. I held my breath and an overwhelming piece came over me, a knowledge that everything would be okay. As the boulders got closer and closer, I stuck out my feet, bent my knees, embraced my body for impact. Much to my surprise, my feet planted firmly on the first boulder it touched, and I stopped instantly. I walked off the glacier with numb hands and fingers, and a soaking wet butt. What I didn't know was that my group at the top of the mountain was yelling for me as loud as they could to try and get a response for me. I couldn't hear anyone. I was about a mile away and I yelled from where I was standing.

I'm okay. Would somebody please grab my trash bag? Right then my dad turned the corner with a sigh of relief, called back to me. That trash bag is the least of my concerns right now, but I got it and I got you. My dad was genuinely worried that he was going to have to call in a life flight to come pull my mangled body out of the backcountry. I regained feeling in my hands after about a day or two of them feeling tingly, but I couldn't feel my fingers for almost five days. My arms were bright red and covered in small little cuts from the ice, but aside from that, I escaped with no real bodily injury. It really was a miracle. We were able to continue on with an enjoyable backpacking trip and many prayers of things.

were given over those dehydrated backpacking meals. About a week later, after the adventure was all said and done, one of my dad's friends who had been on the backpacking trip with us and his son, sent my dad a link from the local news. A story highlighting a scoutmaster, who that same weekend while we were gone, was on a day hike and slipped and fell down a glacier in a local canyon and broke multiple bones. It was all caught on film and truly shook us to the core as he rolled head over heels hitting seemingly every rock on the way. It was a stark reminder to all of us the real danger that we were in, and we've never taken a chance on a glacier since. This last year I had the opportunity to take my husband for the first time to ride her lake after about a six-year hiatus of backpacking. It was incredible to do this

hike with him and the altitude at the top of the crest made him a little emotional. It's truly one of the hardest hikes I've ever done. I'll try and include some photos both from this and last trip, as well as from the year of my near accident. But this story still serves as a stark reminder to my family not to let the altitude cloud your judgment and to pause and think before you do anything regrettable in these wild places. I'm privileged to know this mountain rage so intimately, and to be able to share my story today. It's not in a national park, but it's such a fun story to share with a good word of warning. I couldn't resist. That story gave me anxiety. Well, Anna had two close calls in it. The first one, she almost rocketed into a eight-foot crevasse going top speed. And then the other one,

she almost crashed into boulders. Yeah, it was really, it reminded me one time last year I was hiking and not even close to these kind of mountains, but I was out hiking. And we hiked up the backside of a ski mountain and I brought my snowboard and I went to go down and the conditions were horrible. Like, we were on a black trail and it was clear ice. Like it was dangerous and I sat down just to like figure out where I was going to go. And my butt started sliding down and I was breaking with my snowboard, but it was so icy that my snowboard like wasn't stopping me. And I started moving faster and faster and faster. And I grabbed onto a branch and I like dug part of my snowboard into there was like this small patch of snow.

And I finally slowed myself down. But it was scary. Yeah. The whole like when you start even if you're doing it like you're going sledding or something with the intention of gaining speed and you know, zipping down. down a mountain. The moment that you start picking up speed is thrilling, but then it can quickly turn into sheer panic when you're like, okay, I'm now out of control. You're like, how fast am I going to go? Yeah, like, it might keep gaining speed. Like, what's happening? Am I being launched to the moon? Yeah, I don't mess around with glaciers. Yeah. But I loved that she had a cautionary tale to

share with everybody because it's so true, like especially in places that, I mean, she described her family goes there always and she felt very comfortable there and intimate with the space. And just because you've been somewhere 10, 15, 100 times, it doesn't take away the danger. Exactly. Well, my next story has nothing to do with dying. Almost dying. Okay. It does.

It does have to do with almost dying. But it's much shorter and has a really sweet outcome. And it actually has to do with one of the episodes that you covered. I forget which number it is, but it was about the Amazing Animal Rescues. Oh, that's really cool. Yeah, that was a fun episode to do. It begins. Just listen to your podcast on Amazing Animal Rescues.

I am a new listener and have been really enjoying your podcast. Keep up the excellent work. Thank you. Glad to have you here. I did especially love the hippo story because you are right. Hippos are usually so aggressive and I have a certain view of. them. My father-in-law was an exotic animal veterinarian here in the Seattle area. He was on call to attend to animals at our local zoo. There was a newspaper story about him cleaning the tiger's teeth,

and he was frequently involved in some of the more harrowing procedures with the larger animals. He told me the story of how he was working in the African Savannah exhibit, which is a fabulous, huge, open area where animals of Africa roam with the illusion that they are all mixing and mingling. It won an award for its design and inspired other zoos to create a more natural environment for the animals. There are parts where the animals actually do share space, like the zebras and the giraffes can be together, and the elephants and the hippos at the time were together. My father-in-law says he was in the hippo and elephant area, head down, working with an elephant, probably working on its tusk, when he hears a large thwop.

He vividly described that sound. It was like a massive animal. It's flesh flopping, thudding to the ground. He looks up to see Watutu, the African elephant, pushing the hippo that was charging directly at him to the ground. This certainly would have been disastrous. He likely would have been grievously injured or killed. It was years later, after a break from working at the zoo that he came to visit the elephants,

and Watutu came running over, recognizing the human he had saved a while ago. I would later bring my young daughter to the zoo and I would point out Watutu, the elephant that saved your grandpa. Thanks so much. Looking forward to more stories, Sherry. That is such a fun story. Elephants are great. I imagine you're like head down, so focused on what you're doing and you look behind you

and a boss-ass elephant just took out a charging hippo that was coming off on you? Like, what? That stuff doesn't happen. What? This is real? Amazing animals. I do want to go to the zoo up in Seattle, which I haven't been to yet since I've been here. So it's on my list, and now I'll know to look at the African Savannah exhibit and Marvel

add it a little more than usual. So thank you so much, Sherry, for sending that in. I'm just realizing right the second that I picked two stories that had to do with people bringing their children to zoos and pointing out animals for different reasons. That's so true. Well, that's all we have for today's listener tales. Thank you, everybody, for sending all of your stories in. We read all of them. We may not get back to you right away, but we promise we read every single one. And we We are making our way through our list of responses. So we really appreciate you sharing your special stories with us. And like Cassie said, you can email your Trail to NPAD Stories at gmail.com.

Remember to grab your ticket to our live show because we, as this is releasing, are flying into Southern California right now. We're probably having a great time. We're probably on the plane and we're super tired and we're hungry. but then after we're going to have a really great time. Cassie and Danielle of the future are about to have a really good time. And we can't wait to see you in L.A. to share some stories of Joshua Tree. So go to momenthouse.com slash NPAD to grab your ticket.

You still have a couple of days. We will see you then. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. See you in Joshua Tree. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for coming along with us again.

this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, 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. Come hang out with us on Patreon for monthly bonus episodes and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show. For exclusive discount codes, along with source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For more information on our show, our book recommendations, merch updates, and more, visit our website at NPAD podcast. And please rate, review, and subscribe from wherever you listen to podcasts.

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