National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 30

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

Today’s stories include wildin coyotes, trips from hell, riding the struggle bus, caffeinating bears, surviving storms and train stalkers. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Trammel Evans, please reach out to Joshua Tree Search and Rescue at [phone] or email [e-mail] Follow, find additional details and spread the word @findtram on all social accounts. 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!Earth Breeze: Use our link got get 40% off when you subscribe. Honey: Use our link to get PayPal Honey for free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally. Breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now spring's 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. Hey everyone, welcome back to National Park After Dark. We have a trail tales episode for everyone today. But we are doing things a little bit differently because we did just get off the phone with

someone who reached out to us. His name is Charlie Evans and he wanted to spread the word of his brother who is missing. So before we get into our trail tales today, we wanted to address this. And this is pre-recorded right before the trail tales is coming out. So after this, it's just going to transition into our regular trail tales episode. Yeah, we just wanted to do kind of like a public PSA and get the word out about Charlie's brother because he was gracious enough to take the time to speak with us on the phone and provide us with a lot of details regarding his brother's current disappearance. So we just wanted to spread the word even farther in hopes that one of you may be of help.

Yes. Charlie's brother who is missing is Trammell Evans. And you may have already seen it on our Instagram. We have shared it a bit and there is an Instagram page for it. but him and his family are very concerned and they've been looking for any leads to help find him. So we wanted to provide the information that he relayed to us to all of you. Trammell, also known as Tram, was last seen on April 30th, 2003 in Joshua Tree National Park when he was dropped off at the Black Rock Campground at 8.51 p.m.

His planned route was to go out to the Geology Tour Road via the California Riding and Hiking Trail. It was approximately a 25 mile out trail and he had plans to then hike 25 miles back to the Black Rock Campground. That night he had planned a short distance onto the trail approximately a quarter of a mile before setting up camp and continuing the following day. He had planned to be out on the trail for a full five days and to meet back at the Black Rock Campground in the morning of May 5th, but he never arrived. When he didn't show up that day, the park service was notified at 1 p.m. that he was missing. According to his brother, the National Park Service initiated an extremely intensive search and rescue effort. They conducted 25 hours of helicopter flight missions with heat sensitive cameras and attempts to locate

tram. They flew the entire route tram was expected to take, along with an area where footprints that matched his shoe size and tread were found. Marine drone teams were used and at the peak of the search efforts, 40 tracking personnel were on the ground searching. In any locations, they believed he could have ventured off the trail too. They also contacted all 55 permitted backpackers who were in the area at the time, all who had no recollection of seeing Tram on the trail. There has been no use of his cell phone, but this is not uncommon for Tram as he likes to live off grid, and his brother told us that he has gone extensive periods of time in the past without using his phone at all. It's also really important to mention here that Tram is a very experienced outdoorsman. He has through hiked the Appalachian

Trail, summited Mount Whitney, and has completed hundreds of backpacking trips all over the country. He was extremely well prepared for this hike. He had actually pre-prepared for this trip and had previously placed a two-gallon water jug at Juniper Flats Backcountry Board and a one-gallon water jug at the Geology Tour Road backcountry board. It was found that he never retrieved these water jugs, which were not exactly sure what that means. But with him, he also carried two gallons of water along with provisions for four days of hiking and a detailed map of the park. Despite the park services, extensive efforts to find Tram, along with recently adding cadaver dogs in their search, there has been almost no sign of him at all, and his family has reason

to believe that he may no longer be in the park at all. The footprints that were found were roughly a size 13 shoe with the same tread that matched what Tram was wearing. Only four prints were located, and the last one was located at the intersection of the California riding and hiking trail and the unpaved Covington Flats crossover road. The Covington Flats crossover road is a 4-4 road that is common for people to use and Tram's family believes it is possible that he could have hitchhiked out and abandoned his hiking plans completely. Tram had hitchhiked many times after becoming comfortable with it during his time through hiking the AT. He has spent

a lot of time in the backcountry like Cassie mentioned as well as off-grid. In the more recent years, he has lived in a more unconventional lifestyle and has spent spent long periods of time where no one has heard from him, but regardless of that, he has never disappeared under these circumstances and his family is very, very concerned about him. Because of his extensive preparation for this hike, his familiarity with the area, his knowledge of the outdoors, and the massive search for him that has, as of today, yielded no results, his family finds it unlikely that he got lost on the trail and they want people to consider alternative options to what may have happened to him and continue to search in

other areas as well. They believe it is possible that he, for an unknown reason, has decided to go off-grid again and has not told anyone concerning his whereabouts. Although they are unaware of any mental health crises he was suffering from, they don't want to rule that out as an option. And in that case, want to be respectful of him, but also find him to make sure that he is safe. They also believe that he could be the victim of a crime and is currently not safe. Tram's family is asking that anyone who has any information come forward to help find Tram and to also not make assumptions or speculations regarding what may have happened. There are a lot of unanswered questions, and they are looking into all leads regarding the investigation. If you happen to be in the area

the day he disappeared, saw him on the trail, have heard from him or seen anyone who matches his appearance, please reach out. We will upload pictures of him. We have a separate post on Instagram and on our socials right now concerning all of this information, photos of him, et cetera. Even if you have information that you're not sure if it would be important or not, it could very well be. So his family asked that you call the Joshua Tree Search and Rescue Team at 909-383-5652. Or you can send them an email at find Trammell Evans at gmail.com to reach out or to find ways that you can help.

They also have a Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Twitter at Find Tram, which is F-I-N-D-T-R-A-M, where you can reach out and share Tram's story. Again, we will link all of this information in the episode description as well so you can get the information easily and readily. But again, the phone number for the search and rescue team is 909-383-56-52, and they are going to be following up on all leads, even if it's not within the boundaries of the National Park. So please reach out if you have any information. Share Trams story, even if you don't have anything personally.

Spreading the word is the biggest thing that we can all do. So you can find all of that information in the episode description and on our socials. I know that's a little heavy. Yeah. And it's really important. Just please, if anyone has any information or you think you have information, please reach out. You know, whenever anything happens in the outdoors or in our outdoor community, we always want to try and help. And they say, you know, there's two degrees of separation between all of us.

And there's a chance that you or someone you know or someone you tell might know someone who knows someone. So just get the information out there. Let's try and find Tram and get some answers for his family. But we wanted to share that before we head into our Trail Tales episode. And we're just going to start it off as we had originally recorded it. So thank you for hanging in here, listening to the sharing Tram's story with us. and we'll see you for the trail tales. This episode is brought to you by Prime.

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Watch only on Prime. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to National Park After Dark, Trail Tales Edition. We're back, and of course, we have more trail tales. If you have your own trail tale, you want to send in, our email is Stories at NPADpodcast.com. You can send in your own, but today we have a bunch. All right, my story is titled The Trip From Hell, a Story of Forest Fires, Overheated Plains, and Something Falling Off a Cliff. Hi guys, my name is Caitlin. Wanted to first say I'm a huge fan of the podcast, love listening every week, and always save episodes for my long road trips.

Like the title suggests, this particular story is long and very eventful. In June of 2021, a friend and I decided to take a trip to the Utah 5 for a week of hiking and having fun. Now, before this trip, we both have been to some of the parks the year before separately, but wanted to do all 5. Our trip started with us in Vegas, then Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, and then Canyonlands. We planned a day or two in each park to hike and really see as much as we could. A lot went wrong during this trip, so I won't go into the whole trip as that would take up a whole episode, but buckle up for this fun ride. The first sign the trip was not going to be good was the car rental being overpriced. Another sign was the forest fire right next to Canyonlands and arches. Another one was the flight from Salt Lake City being overcrowded and over 100 degrees on the plane.

What? Wait. Your plane ride was 100 degrees. I remember, where was I? That's like 30 degrees Celsius, by the way, for people who don't know Fahrenheit. I don't know where I was going, but I remember, like, you know, it wasn't on Snapchat. I've long since deleted Snapchat, but the, like, when you can swipe and get the degrees of, like, the out. outside temp. Like, it's like a filter and you can see how hot it is. Oh, yeah. I think,

I think Instagram did that at one point, too. Oh, maybe it was Instagram. But I was like, God, this plane is so hot when we were boarding. And I sat down and it was like 82. I'm like, there's no reason it needs to be this hot in here. So I cannot even imagine it being 100 degrees. That is wild. The whole plane ride? That seems a legal. I'd open the exit door. You're like, we need some fresh air here. But the biggest thing to happen on the trip takes place in Capitol Reef National Park. So this was our third park as we did Zion and Bryce

the days before. I already hiked Angels Landing, did not do the chains, because hell no. And Ferry Loop Trail and BC. So I was feeling good about how well I was doing. We only had a day planned for this park so we decided on a trail that wasn't too difficult or long. This landed us with the Cassidy Arts Trail.

And yes, I love the episode you did on the namesake. So we started to hike. It was a little hot, but we were trucking along, taking photos and breaks when needed. It wasn't super busy, but we did have friends along with us during the hike up. After we reached the top, we sat down on the big rocks and started taking pictures and just chilling. There were a couple people chilling on the top, and there was a group of people canyoning. So after we took turns taking pictures on the arch, I decided to go over and take pictures of the people canyoning down and the rocks going down. After I got the photo, I decided to take a seat down on the ledges as the wind was picking up. Now, I have to state this. I was wearing a cowboy hat. I got it the year before in Jackson Hole.

Had my fanny pack, my camera on my neck, and lastly, my phone in my hand. The wind started picking up more, so I went on to the other steps to be farther from the edge of the cliff, because it was a bit scary. I was about 100 feet from the edge when another gust of wind blew through. I was holding onto my hat, phone, and camera. This is when the wind blew my phone right out. out of my grip and bounced one, two, three times before it leaped itself into a 600 foot death. And yes, I did hear the crack. When I say this was the most slow motion scene I have ever witnessed, I am not exaggerating. It felt like a movie scene and I was in shock.

After I realized what had just happened, I yelled down to the people at the bottom who were canyoning if they saw my phone. They saw it and I asked in shock if they could grab it and bring it to the trailhead. Now, of course, my phone was dead, but I did not want to watch. to leave it, as that is not good for the park. I went through the stages of grief in just a few moments. I was more mad at myself for being so stupid to have my phone in my hand and how it could have been me instead of the phone. I'm still on my parents' plan, so I'm thinking of how much money it was going to cost them for me to get a new phone. Also, my duolingo string was 1500 days strong,

and I couldn't lose that streak. What is that? Dualingo? Yeah. It's the language app. So when you're trying to learn a language like Spanish, French, really whatever. And they give you points when you get a streak on it. If you practice every day, you get like this big banner that pops up that's like, congratulations. This is how many days you've been doing it. Wow, 1,500 days. That's a hard loss. Dedication. I hope you are fluent in that language. However, I went down that trail way too mad and not safe, but we made it to the bottom safely. We couldn't wait for them to bring my phone as we needed to get to arches before dark. I just hope they threw it away and it's not still in Capitol Reef. The rest of the trip included the forest fires and overheating, but luckily I only lost

the photos on my phone from Bryce Canyon in Capitol Reef and still had my camera to take photos. Takeaways from this lovely trip of mine is don't travel during Mercury retrograde if you can help it. Put your phones away if it's windy or just don't stand or sit by a cliff edge. Always back up your photos to the cloud. Lastly, even if you lose your phone or something, something happens to it, be happy. It was the phone and not you. I will attach photos below. The last one is not mine, but it's the exact spot to where my phone fell so it needed to be added. And thanks for reading and hopefully sharing. Sorry it's long, but it's good. Love you guys and enjoy the view as it might be you or your phones last. Caitlin. Yeah, all of that advice, the mercury and retrograde, sound advice. The cliff thing, I can't relate to people wanting to be at the edge of a cliff or steep drop off.

I just. I can for sure. My heart's speeding out of my chest even now imagining it. I can't do it. Like when I was in Canyonlands, I was like, I will envision what it looks like down there. And I don't need to see. Al and I took his motorcycle down that road that goes through Canyonlands. And I remember going down into the canyon itself and just looking over the cliff as we're on his motorcycle.

And I'm like, one wrong turn. One gust of wind. One gust of wind. one wrong turn we are done for it worked out we were fine but it was scary it was a little nerve racking yeah i don't i don't deal with heights well so my first story is titled not missing in death valley featuring janeal and cassie hello my name is lauren and i'm a college student originally from california i first heard about this podcast last summer and i'm still working my way through all of your episodes. This story is about making the best of a less than ideal situation and how this podcast

played a direct role in a recent adventure. This January, three friends and I were on a backpacking trip in Death Valley National Park. We thought it would be the perfect time of year with the daily highs in the 60s and lows at night not dropping below 40. Nothing like the infamous summer heat. I have a two person 10 and while I fit three in it before, getting all four of us in there was just not going to happen. We decided to just bring a ground tarp and cowboy out in the sand every night. It'll be fine, we thought. It's not like it's going to rain. And besides, we can enjoy the stars. Oh, how wrong we were. We did our research and planned meticulously. But as some listeners may know, there were historic rains in California this winter. Multiple atmospheric rivers, large areas evacuated,

dozens of feet of snow, and entire coastal towns and roads flooded or destroyed. When we got in the car to drive to the park, The forecast had a small chance of rain for our last night in the backcountry and the day we planned to hike out. We were apprehensive but brushed it off telling ourselves the percentage was pretty low and precipitation predictions always decreased closer to that time, right? I've never heard that. Have you? No. I haven't, but. Is that a thing? I don't know. Apparently not based on how the tone of this is going. Yeah.

We got to stovepipe wells to turn in our permit and the ranger assured us that while there was no, threat of a flash flood in the canyon where we would be, there was still rain in the forecast. But being the brazen college students that we were, we walked outside, looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and headed out. The first few days of the trip consisted of multiple snafus, including, but not limited to, having to park 10 miles from the trailhead because the road was washed out, adding 20 miles to our trip. Losing said washed out road and wandering through the desert in the dark with only a questionable GPS waypoint app, and last but not least, getting excited about finding footprints and following them despite the fact that they did not line up with the

waypoint, only to realize sometime later that they were, in fact, horse prints. We did see intact big horn sheep skulls, though. On the last night, we got into camp under an overcast sky. We had not seen anyone in three days, so when a pair of backpackers appeared from the opposite direction, we excitedly hurried over to see if they had any more recent weather reports. They told us that while there was still no crazy deluge or flash flood in the forecast, it sounded like we would definitely be getting some rain that night. My friends and I then got to work finding a nice spot to the side of a small wash, so water would not be funneled towards us. We used stones to anchor one end of our tarp at the top of a short rock face and stretch the other end to the ground as far away as possible, also

anchoring it with rocks. We had to put our sleeping pads straight in the sand because the tarp was now the roof of our wilderness mansion, but you got to do what you got to do. I am known to hate sand, so this was quite a time for me. And it was all just in time. We ate dinner as the rain began to fall and crawled under our tarp for a perfect winter backcountry bedtime at 6.15 p.m. Just kidding, we couldn't sleep and laid there like sardines, which wasn't hard, considering we had four full-size humans crammed into an area maybe four by five feet. We were as wet and smelly as sardines, too. And I must add, I know, gross description, but I get it. And I must add, the irony of shivering and being covered in mud while listening to the hammering of rain in the middle of Death Valley, the hottest place on earth, was not lost on us.

But, hazah, I thought. I remembered I had downloaded some podcasts in anticipation of our long drives to and from the park. So I pulled out my phone and started reading off the titles to my friends. We quickly decided that your November of 2021 episode, Missing in Death Valley, was the obvious pick. Oh, no. That's the one you did, right, about the German family? Yeah. Oh, here we are.

A story about people going missing and dying in the back country of the park we were currently in. What could possibly go wrong? We listened to the whole thing, laughing and commenting when you mentioned places we had just visited and enjoying every minute of it. In conclusion, somehow this episode put us in good spirits while being crammed together in the wet sand during a freak Death Valley rainstorm. And I thank you both for it. We woke up the next morning to a clear sky and a beautiful hike back to the night. the car. I've never submitted a trail tale before, but thought this would be fun because your podcast was directly involved and were proof that the outdoors can be fun no matter the weather. I've attached

two photos, one of our makeshift shelter, and one of us enjoying the beautiful desert on the way out. Thanks, Lauren. I would acquit when the road was washed out 20 miles from the trailhead. Yeah, or 10. Well, yeah, 10 because it added 20. Yeah, yeah, no way. We're like, no, I'm good. And my question is, like, you were following the footprints that you thought were horrid like what did you think they were if you thought they were like human footprints i'm a little we need to talk we need to have a lesson oh glad it all worked out though yes glad you were okay all right my story is titled struggle bus of mount reneer i feel like this is just a theme of this episode everyone is struggling um hi daniel and cassie i discovered

NPAD during the early 2021 after a really bad breakup. Your podcast has made a lot of very long drives fly by easily and I have told so many people about NPAD. And being a small animal internist, I have so much respect for you for both being vet techs because you girls are the people who make it possible for me to do my job every day. I thought about submitting a trail tale last summer when I was at Lassen Volcanic National Park after I realized I had a tendency of getting onto trails soon after various deaths and accidents occur, often not realizing until after I've done the hikes. From someone falling off the Grinnell Glacier Overlook in Glacier National Park to multiple hikers getting seriously injured on the Lassen Peak Trail right before I was going to hike it.

But then last summer, I decided to climb Mount Rainier and I realized my struggle bus story up the mountain was probably way more entertaining. Backstory, 2020 was a shit year for me. Working as a veterinarian during COVID sucked. I had a C-5-7 disc herniation and had a disc replacement surgery in August 2020 and a very triggering relationship which ended November 2020. So I went on a lot of solo hikes and trips as part of my healing journey. In July 2021, I went on my first solo national park trip.

I went to North Cascades for two days and did my first snow hike and then Mount Rainier National Park for two days. On my last day, I hike Skyline Trail. When I saw a lot of backpackers going off a side trail, I followed them. and found out that this was the trail to climb Mount Rainier. A hiker suggested I could try day hiking to the base camp called Camp Muir. I figured I could give it a go and as long as I turned around by a certain time, I would still make my flight.

So I put on my microspikes and started heading up the Muir snowfield. I made a friend on the way up, got to Muir, glissated down for the first time, and took longer than I expected to get back to my car. I am so sorry to anyone who was leaving Mount Rainier in National Park late afternoon on July 4th, 2021, because yes, I was that asshole who swerved in and out of the lanes to get my ass to the airport. Literally just made my flight. That gives me so much anxiety. I can't do anything, let alone hike to Campi Muir on a day that I have a flight. It's like, I could do it. It's fine. No way. Hell no. Since that hike, I'd intermittently thought about going back to climb or near,

but I didn't know what it would entail. My boyfriend at the time asked me in November 2021, what I wanted to achieve in 2022. And summiting Mount Rainier just flew out of my mouth. He told me to sign up for a guided climb, and the only one still available was a six-day glacier course with international mountain guides. Soon after, that guy broke up with me, and climbing Mount Rainier became a focus I latched on to.

After spending a lot of money to buy mountaineering gear, this turned out to be a very expensive hobby, ha-ha. And trying to train for it, I set off to drive up to Washington from Los Angeles in late July 2022. I hiked through Shasta, where a fellow hiker convinced me to find another trail with him and ended up bushwhacking in the bloody heat wave. I freaking hate bushwhacking, and I got a really bad cold.

I was dying with the start of a coffin fever the next day when I went to Crater Lake National Park. And that night, I checked myself into a hotel at Bend, Oregon, and drugged myself to try to sleep it off. The next day, three days before climbing Mount Rainier, urgent care gave me oral and inhalant steroids for post-viral bronchitis, but not injectable, which usually would work much better for me, because I still had a low-grade temperature and they didn't want to risk it. Two nights before the climb, my fever finally cleared for me to safely start my steroids,

but I had a lingering bronchitis C cough. I explained the situation to the guides, and they decided to let me climb since I was no longer infectious, and I felt comfortable enough to climb. So with a family-sized packet of lozenges and steroids, I set off on a six-day camp, I set off on a six-day trip to live on Mount Rainier. I learned so much on that trip, and if anyone wants to get into mountaineering, I highly recommend this glacier course. On day two of the climb, they taught us how to put on and walk with crampons. I realized my crampons would just lengthen because of a design flaw of the particular crampon with smaller feet. Bear in mind, crampons

are these tiny knives under the boots to maintain purchase on the snow and ice. They are a critical piece of gear on Mount Rainier. After some fiddling, I had no other issues with the crampons, until Summit Day, of course. We had to wake up at 10 p.m. and I couldn't sleep at all. So basically I'd been up since 5.30 a.m. the previous day. We left high camp a little before midnight to climb up the never-ending disappointment cleaver, my least favorite part of the entire climb. In the middle of that first leg, my crampons lengthened mid-climb again.

Normally, you just don't stop until you get to a designated rest stop, but it was serious enough that one of the guys hurriedly helped me retie it as he could. And as soon as we got to the first rest stop, the guide came over to try and fix my crampons. During the second leg, my crampons failed again. I had to kick in every extra step to try and secure my crampons, praying I wouldn't break the crampon because if I did, I was basically fucked. As someone who doesn't thermo-regulate well, I don't sweat much and basically internally cook on a hike if it's too hot, but also has terrible circulation with cold hands and feet often. I became hypothermic during the second leg of the climb. I was shivering and crying, thinking I wouldn't be able to summit.

The lead guide decided it was safer for me to keep pushing, because at least if I kept moving, I could try to get warmer. So I climbed the last leg in at least four layers. We summited at 5 a.m. I stayed at the summit crater to try and warm up instead of heading up another 100 feet to the Columbia crest, which is technically the highest point. One of the guides swapped crampons with me because his bigger feet were fine in my crampons. We started our descent shortly after sunrise at 5.30 a.m.

That's when I could actually see the level of exposure and those crevasses we had crossed on tiny ladders and holy shit I freaked out. I was exhausted from shivering earlier, mentally already anxious from the cramp-on fiasco. During the climb, we were roped up either long or short rope depending on the terrain. At one point, my teammate in front of me walked faster than I could descend and pulled me on the short rope. I slipped and quickly self-arrested, but I had a full-scale meltdown for about 40 seconds before I got my shit together to keep going, in tears and snot. I was the last one to make it onto the shuttle off the trailhead, and my harsh inner critic was loud for not having done better on the climb. I swore off mountaineering after that climb for probably about two weeks.

Before I started thinking about how I completely minimized my achievements, as someone who was afraid of heights and had to overcome a lot of anxiety through my life, while my summit. push was a complete struggle bus. I freaking summited the most glaciated mountain and the lower 48 on my first mountaineering trip. And that was something worth celebrating. Oh yeah. I mean, people like train for so long to summit rainier. Like all the, a lot of the mountains in the area like Mount Sai, Little Si, mailbox peak, like some more of the challenging hikes around the area in Washington, people will do in preparation for months before even attempting. rainier. So for her to just be like, I'm going to sign up and do this and did it is amazing. Yeah. Despite the struggles, that's definitely something worth celebrating. And typical me,

of course, that was not my last mountaineering trip. And I've tried it again since on some local mountains with new crampons. I know better how to train for it now than I did last year. It's now mid-March, 2003, and I'm one month away from a guided trip up Mountaineers route on Mount Whitney. It's going to be much colder, which is going to be a different experience than Mount Rainier in the summer. Add the historic level of snow in California and the infamous final 400 foot of Class 3 scrambling up the summit in mountaineering boots. It's definitely going to be a challenge, but I'm also very excited about it. Mount Whitney has been a dream for years after having lost in the permit lottery year after year. So wish me luck, and hopefully this summit push will be far less eventful.

For everyone's amusement, I've attached my only photo on the summit, looking hilariously like a giant mushroom in about five layers. Feel free to share this ridiculous photo. Thank you for your amazing podcast that has helped me through so much during the last two years of healing and adventures. Lots of love, Betty. Maybe I'm biased, but I feel like Betty is the typical veterinarian. Like, harsh on yourself, does hard things.

And in the moment, you're like, God, why am I doing this? And then as soon as it's over, you want to do it again. And like, I don't know, just every veterinarian I've ever worked with has this type of personality. Yeah, very smart, dedicated, determined. Mm-hmm. And, yeah, I agree. Well, when this comes out, it'll probably be right after you summited or during, because this is coming out. In May.

The first week of May. No. End of May. End of May. Never mind. So you've probably already summited when this is coming out. But good luck. We hope it went well.

And let us know. We want to know how it went. Okay, my next story is titled, that one time I accidentally caffeinated a black bear in my tent paid the price. Oh, God. I'm sorry. I just have like cocaine bear vibes. Hello, ladies.

I have what I consider a more lighthearted trail tale, or it's a lot funnier now anyway. So I hope you can throw this in between some heavy ones. Feel free to use my name in all details. My name is Denise. I was born and raised in eastern South Dakota and enjoyed camping with my two sisters. They live in North Dakota and Minnesota, so we like to meet up in camp in our respective states. We tend to hit up a lot of state parks, and this particular story takes place in June of 2022,

and why do I always get the ones I don't know how to pronounce. Ideska State Park? Yeah. Yeah. Sounds right. It's in the northern part of Minnesota. Fun fact for you. Idiska State Park contains the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

This particular camping trip seemed ill. faded from the start. It was supposed to be a quick Friday to Sunday camping trip, but very strong storms were forecasted for the park that Friday night. We hemmed and hawed about what to do and finally decided we'd meet up and stay at my sister's house in Fargo, North Dakota, and then drive the two hours to our campsite really early on Saturday. It wasn't quite the start to the trip we wanted, but we were glad we did as they had 75 mile per hour winds and very heavy rain. And that, my friends, sounds like no fun in a tent. We got there and got all set up in our tents and my parents and brother joined us in their camper nearby. The campsite we were at is kind of a typical state

park around here where sites are near each other, but since we were in Minnesota, there's what I would call medium coverage of thick trees between each site for a little bit of privacy. Everything was going pretty okay. Crisis averted with the storm and we were going to head out to hike soon. That's when we started hearing a lot of honking and pan banging at nearby campsite. We also started noticing a lot of rangers out and about. A ranger finally stopped us and told us they were experiencing a lot of black bears hanging out at campsites this summer, so we needed to be sure to put away all food or food-like items and lock it away in our vehicles, including things like the coconut-scented sunscreen, deodorant, etc.

This was no problem as we typically do this anyways, but we made sure to throw away any non-food items that might attract them to our vehicles too. Now reminder that I'm from the prairies of South Dakota, so the biggest campsite critter we typically run into our raccoons. We have run into Black Bears while camping in Minnesota before, so I probably felt overconfident that I had this handled since we've run into this before. And truly, I thought I did. We were sitting at my mom and dad's campsite just a spot away from us when all of a sudden, my brother lets out this huge, dramatic gasp and whisper shouts, Black Bear, at your campsite. We let it do its thing, since again, I knew we had all. all of our food put away, and then we walked over to see if anything had happened.

My brother was the first one over and turns and says to me, uh, Denise, I think it got your tent. And that's when I suddenly remembered that I had a coffee in one bag in my tent that I had completely forgotten about until that second. Sure enough, the bear had slashed a hole in the side of my tent to get to the coffee that I had inadvertently left in my bag. Fortunately, that coffee was in the corner of the bag, in the corner of my tent, and all my other belongings were intact, with the exception of the cover of the paperback book that was next to the forgotten coffee. We got out our trusty duct tape and taped up my tent to survive the night, and I made sure to move what was left in my coffee to our vehicle. I was obviously a little bummed

about my tent, but I was a little more distressed at the fact that I had accidentally caffeinated a black bear in the process, and therefore assisting the bear in doing bear things even faster. How that works. Here's a little tidbit for you. This bear only touched the steeped coffee bags, but not the instant coffee sticks. So it looks like black bears have a coffee preference. Or at least that one does. We went on our hike, but my parents and brother cut the hike short,

and they went up to the headwaters where we later joined them. When we all eventually got back to our campsite, my parents told me they had something to give me. It turns out, they went to the gift shop at the headwaters and bought me an adorable stuffed black bear to always remember this game. camping trip. I'll attach photos at the vicious reenactment that we made sure to take pictures of. So let this be a reminder to double check your bags for forgotten food the next time you're in bear country. Side note, I just want to say I love your podcast so much. I started listening before

a big hiking trip in Zion National Park with my twin sister and our longtime childhood friend, and I look forward to every new episode and all the perks that come with being an outsider. Thanks for all the quality content, sincerely Denise. That was a funny story. Yeah, it was. I mean, it's like a kick yourself moment, but I'm glad it was just like as minimal as it could be. That was, I had my kick myself moment when we were camping up in Lake Willoughby, Vermont. And we had removed all our food. We had cleaned everything, but we left the stove on the table that's attached to. We have a table that like pulls down from our bus.

And we left the stove. We had cleaned the stove, but we had left it. And there had to have been remnants of smells on it. because that's when we woke up in the morning to a black bear shaking our bus and left like these big scrape marks, claw marks in the wood of the table. It's like, oops. Oopsie. Yeah.

All right. My next one is titled A Cheese Snatching Coyote. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. I just want to say thank you for creating such an amazing podcast. I found you guys shortly after I finished a week hiking out in Utah and Nevada, crossing off four national parks within three days. I came home obsessed with national parks, ready to visit them all, and I need something to satisfy my obsession in the meantime. Happy to say it was you guys. As a fellow New Englander, I love hearing your stories from home.

My story today doesn't come from a national park, but a national seashore. I grew up and currently live right over the bridge from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Traveling to the Cape is not necessarily a vacation for me, but just a part of life. And while there is something special about the Cape and the off season once all the tourists leave, My event occurs during the peak season of summer. My dad and stepdad have a very small condo in Provincetown, the very last town on the tip of the cape. I often spend weekends with them during the summer, walking around town, seeing shows, or relaxing on the beach. For over 10 years, we've also participated in a week-long carnival celebration in August, which includes a major parade that attracts over 100,000 people to the tiny summer town.

My two best friends, Claire and Sarah and I, would dress up in matching costumes to fit the three. and it became our summer ritual. Things changed a bit in 2016 when college was over and real life began. Sarah and Claire moved out of state, Rhode Island in New York City, and thus having all three of us together takes far more planning. For the first time since COVID began in 2020, we finally had a few free days in early August of 2021 to see each other. We planned it all out. We'd go down to the condo, spend time on the beach, have nice dinners, and talk the hours away. On our second night, I suggested we go to the Race Point Beach on the Cape Cod National Seashore and have a sunset picnic dinner. I've watched the sunset so many times on the sandy dunes and I can tell you it is an

incredible experience. We picked out some fancy nice cheeses, meats and other small items, packed up our blankets and headed to Race Point. Being a National Seashore, wildlife is expected and warning signs are posted, but this is usually for the numerous sharks that tend to frequent the waters in the summer months. We didn't anticipate there were coyotes. We walked through the path over the dunes into the expanse of sandy beach and picked a spot close to the path but also near the edge of the protected bird nesting site. I sat facing the ocean while Sarah had her back to the nesting area and Claire faced her. We laid out all of our picnic items, poured some wine and began watching the sunset. As the sun hit the horizon and gave us a show, despite some clouds, we decided to dig into our meal.

But as it was dusk, our coyote friend decided it was also dinner time. I happened to see in my peripheral vision something behind Sarah and looked in her direction. About 15 feet behind her was a coyote, sneaking up to us in crouched position, trying to conceal itself. While coyotes are natural predators in Massachusetts and they frequent everywhere, it doesn't mean it's not terrifying to be able to see one looking directly at us. Not to mention about a week before, a woman on. on the very same beach had to fight off a coyote with a stick and be rescued by a nearby fisherman's boat. I yelped and jumped up, alerting Sarah and Claire to the presence behind us. Claire and I backed up while Sarah remains seated insisting that we shouldn't abandon the food,

and she thought we should do something else. Quite honestly, I didn't care at that moment because this coyote looked very skinny and determined for a bite of something, and I didn't want that to be me. We all finally backed away and he took his chance, coming up and smelling, everything before finally opting for our coveted blueberry goat cheese. He ate it all in one bite and looked quite satisfied with himself. Before he could have more, a woman coming onto the beach saw our predicament and told us we had to use loud noises to scare it, which then resulted in some embarrassingly loud noises from all

of us. He finally went away and shakingly, we all sat down. Devastated that our cheese was gone. And while we began to laugh about it, what do I see? But the coyote trying to come back for seconds. We yelled and got him to run back into the nesting area, but he did not run back into the dunes. He then began to take other roots and sought out a large family with a campfire. He would sneak down multiple times and one woman chased him every single time back into the nesting

area, throwing rocks and shells to deter him. He was relentless and was going within 20 feet of every group on the beach. We finally decided this was enough excitement and packed up to go home. Plus it was getting dark and I didn't want this coyote to have full advantage. To make matters worse, the next day a child was bit on an adjacent beach by the same coyote. It did not end well for the coyote as park rangers had to shoot it and test it for rabies. We have affectionately named the coyote Cleo and to this day remember this event fondly, even though it could have had dire consequences.

I have a new appreciation for the dunes and the mysteries and wildlife they hold. Although we did not purposely try to entice him with our food, he felt comfortable enough to approach us because of the litter or food life. left behind over the summer months. It's important to remember that whatever you bring in, you have to bring out to prevent things like this from happening. And enjoy the view, but watch your back. You never know when a coyote might steal your cheese. That's actually kind of a terrifying story. It's so scary. That coyote sounds like, I'd be curious to know if this coyote did have rabies. Or it was just so conditioned and brazen. And as tooth and claw would say, coyotes be

weilin. And that one was whioling. Yeah. But yeah, not good. And she mentioned he was skinny and maybe he was sick and was, I mean, it could have gone different. And obviously did for another person. Another person, another family the next day. Yeah, that's super scary. I mean, we have, obviously coyotes are everywhere. Like if you think you live in the United States in a place that does not have coyotes, you're wrong.

There are coyotes everywhere, even in cities. And they're super adaptable. And they make whatever environment work. and sometimes it's too close for comfort. We had, when we were in Patagonia, actually, I was looking at our community, like, Facebook page, and there were so many, I mean, we get a lot of posts about, like, hey, just heads up, like, Mount Lions here, here, here, whatever,

which is normal for us, but there were a lot of posts about coyotes. And then there was one that showed a video across me is a big open space that has tons of elk and obviously coyotes in different wildlife, but someone's dog had gotten loose and there was literally a pack of coyotes tearing it apart. Oh my God. That's awful. And it was crazy. And I was like, I looked at like my camera. I'm like, are my dogs?

Okay. Obviously they were. And obviously coyotes are wild animals and they do what they need to. But yeah, it's really scary when they get so close to people and obviously just don't have any sense of fear. Yeah. All right. My story is titled Stalker from the Train. Hi Danielle and Cassie. I've been binging your podcast most mornings for the last month or so and absolutely love how much I've been learning. This one is not a national park, sorry, but does mostly take place outside in a car park. I hope that's okay, but I feel like it's too crazy of a story not to tell you. If it doesn't match the criteria for the podcast, then I won't be hurt. Some background, I live in the UK, and at the time, 2018, I was at university near Liverpool, but lived off campus with my now fiancée just outside the area. Now for the

the story. Me and my friend had decided to go shopping in Liverpool for the day. We had been there for a little while and my friend had bumped into some of her friends, which I didn't know all that well, and to be honest, I was ready to go home anyway. We were supposed to be traveling back to the university's town together on train, but I had decided to go back on my own and let my friends stay with her friends. At this point, I'm on the train and I've let my partner know that I've gotten an earlier train back as he was due to pick me up in the university's town. I had to switch trains at a tiny train, station halfway to be able to get there. As we were approaching the stop, something felt wrong, and it felt like someone was watching me. I turned around, and I saw a man kneeling on the back of his

chair, our chairs were back to back, sniffing my hair. Obviously freaked out. I quickly stood up and went to the train door ready to leave. The train stopped and I got off and walked to my platform, which was just a little further down where the train had stopped. The platform was completely empty, and I realized the connecting train was an hour away. So I decided to wait on the platform, but the man from the train followed me and was approaching me. So I decided to quickly walk past him up some stairs into the car park where there was also a little kiosk and one person working. I called my stepmom because I thought if this man overheard I was speaking to someone, at least if I was attacked, the person on the phone would know what happened.

My stepmom told me if I felt too uncomfortable that I should call the police. But I told her I was okay and I was going to just walk around the perimeter of the car park while I was on the phone with her, which she was happy to do. Please keep in mind, the entire time I was walking around the car park, the man was following me, staring at me and making me feel incredibly uncomfortable. After five minutes or so, I looked around and I couldn't see the man anymore. So I told my stepmom I was going to call my partner to come and pick me up as it was quicker than waiting for the train. So that's what I did. I still couldn't see the man, but I still felt really uncomfortable. So I looked around one more time and I could see the man in a hedge,

completely submerged with only his face showing, staring at me, and I could see that he was on the phone. The only thing going through my head was that he was calling someone to kidnap me. I instantly called the police and the police told me to go to the kiosk. So I turned around and started making my way across the car park. I looked back while still on the phone and the man jumped out of the hedge and started sprinting towards me. Oh my God. I was shouting at the police officer. He's running after me and they just kept screaming at me to go to the kiosk. I was crying, sprinting for my life and eventually made it to the

kiosk where one woman asked if everything was okay. The man hadn't followed me into the kiosk but was waiting outside, staring at me through the glass doors. I told the woman that this man had been chasing me and stalking me and she called transport police. Lucky for me, this is where it ended. The man turned around and walked away, and the amazing woman at the kiosk took care of me until my partner arrived. When I got into the car, I burst into tears and I told my partner what happened. And when we drove away, the man came from a shop with bags of alcohol. My partner was so angry and threatened to get out of the car and set this man straight, but I said I just wanted to leave. So we did.

My friend feels incredibly guilty for letting me travel home alone, but it was my choice to do so. This shook me up so much that I rarely travel on my own anymore and get incredibly paranoid when people walk behind me. But I'm getting better. I hope that it didn't matter. This wasn't a national park and it was just creepy enough on its own. I wish you both the best, Sarah. Yeah, there's no confronting someone like that. No.

Too unpredictable. Too brazen. Obviously, like, he's sprinting for her in or after her in such a public space. He obviously doesn't care. Even though there's no one around, but it just, yeah. And he's sitting in a bush. She's on the phone. And it's so sad because you should be able to travel home alone.

Like it shouldn't be something where your friend should have to feel guilty. You should be able to, as a woman, go home to travel home on public transportation. That should be something that you should be allowed to do and not have something like this happened to you. So it's just horrible that there's people out there that think that it's okay for them to take your feeling of safety and comfortability away from you. Oh, God. I wish that that person stuck around long enough to be apprehended by police because who knows what he got up to next. You know. Yeah, someone like that. It's probably not their first or their last time doing that to someone. Yikes. Well, yeah, it was creepy enough on its own. Didn't have to be in a park. For sure, was. Well, thank you for sharing that story. That is everything we have for our main listeners. But if you are an outsider, either on Patreon or Apple subscriptions, we do have. have two more stories for you, so stick around. But for everyone else, enjoy the view. But watch

you back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at NPAD Podcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Join our Outsiders only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock monthly bonus episodes, and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show. For our exclusive discount codes and 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 N-PADPodcast.com. And please rate, review, and subscribe from wherever you listen to podcasts.

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