National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 39

Episode Date: November 23, 2023

Today’s stories include evil raccoons, love for law enforcement, UFOs over Phoenix shi***ing on a perfect day and vibrating packs. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!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  or Apple Subscriptions 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!BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.Reel: Use our link and code NPAD to sign up for a subscription to automatically get 30% off of your first order and free shipping.StoryWorth: Use our link to save $10 on your first purchase. 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. Hello everyone and welcome back to National Park After Dark, Trail Tales edition. This is another Trail Tales episode. You know what I was thinking today? What? Before we started recording.

So just for everyone listening, this is kind of our first day back recording a bunch of episodes after our trips and travels and all that over the last few months. And I was thinking that, especially after like I met a lot of people on our trip. I would say things that I just assume they know because of the podcast. I'm like, okay, if they miss that episode or missed like any, what I'm talking about or referring to, I'm making no sense. So that got me thinking. Do you have an example?

Yes, kind of. So one of the girls on the Madagascar trip, her name is also Danielle. We, long story short, we ended up driving back from New England or well, was technically Buffalo to Colorado because she lives near me, whatever. And come to find out. So she takes a whole Madagascar trip with us. She's lovely. Everything's great.

Turns out she's listened to five episodes. She just hopped on a trip because she heard it in one of the episodes. Yeah. I'm like, okay, so you like have no idea who I even am, which is cool. But like I was in the car with her, like preferring to stuff that she probably has no idea what I'm talking about. Yeah, okay, fucking crazy lady. Exactly. So I'm like, oh, fuck.

So that got me thinking of how many times we just hop on here and just like go about our day. I don't think we've reintroduced ourselves one time. Well, I'm Cassie. And I'm Danielle. And this is our podcast called National Park After Dark where we share stories about dark history and scary things and inspiring things and cool things in national parks. And the Trail Tales edition is actually stories not from us that we've researched, but they are from all of you and all of you listening.

And if you would like to write your own trail tail and have an interesting story to tell these normally take place in the outdoors in some capacity, but they don't always have to. Or there are some type of paranormal experience, some just weird encounter, whatever it is, you can go on our website, NPADpodcast.com and submit a trail tale there. Yeah. So that about sums it up. In case this is your first time listening and, yeah. Hello. I don't know. I just thought about that. I'm like... That's a good point. It's a good point. I know when I start podcast, I don't start from the first episode ever. I just pick one.

I go through the roster and I'm like, okay, what sounds interesting? And I'll click that one. Like, I know people have brains and they can read a description. But still, I just felt like a formal introduction was needed again. You know what I'm saying? You're like, hi, Danielle. I'm Danielle. She's like, oh, wow, it's nice to meet you.

I've never heard of you before. I know. It really, like, struck home when I was talking about, I think I was talking about, like, something that I did, oh, you know what it was? It was, do you remember the Boy Scout story of when, like, Ian and I encountered that Boy Scout at Mount St. He was, or the ape caves. Yeah. And he was like shitting his parents.

Yeah. Not Ian, the Boy Scout. If you haven't heard that story, it was not Ian shitting his pants. It was on Ian. And I don't know. I just was kind of referring to it and just kind of assumed that she knew what I was talking about. I'm like, okay, first of all, that happened years ago.

mentioned it maybe once on the podcast two years ago. She probably has no fucking idea what I'm saying. Yeah. She, like, was texting her friends that whole trip and was like, get me out of this car. She keeps talking about stuff. I have no idea what she's saying. That's why we came here straight and we didn't even stop. She's like, mom, can you pick me up, please?

Anyways. So you guys had a nice drive back, though? We did. Yeah. And I mean, she gave me her number. So I feel like... I hope she's listening right now. She likes me a little bit.

Probably not. That's why I feel comfortable disclosing this. But yeah, we... Okay, it's so funny. Not to pick on her. But so she was like, yeah, I've listened to like five of your episodes. And it's actually my friend who's like a really big fan. And she's the one like I went to the...

She went to one of our Stanley shows with her friend. But she made it. She framed it. as in her friend was like the fan and she just was like along. She's like my friend really wanted to go to Madagascar. She's like my friend really wanted to go to Madagascar but I got the spot. I'm just like she's cool as shit and it was like it was all good. I really like her.

She was really fun. Yeah. It's just funny. So it got me thinking of like there's probably so many people who have no idea who we are or what we're about when they just click on a random episode. So hopefully this gives you an idea. if you're new. But most of you are not new. This is very different than our main content, though. So this isn't a normal episode if you're tuning into this one for the first time.

Yeah. So I guess, I mean, just figure it out. And who wants to go first? I can go first. Okay. My first story is titled, Never Forget the Poop Bags. Hello, my name is Andy and I'm obsessed with the pod. I was introduced to you guys while on a wildlife veterinary internship in South Africa by the other wonderful vet students on my trip. We started listening to the Sabo Lions episode and I have been hooked on you guys ever since. You girls are wonderful and bring joy and awareness to so many of us listeners. Thank you both for shedding some light on the mental health struggles involved with working in veterinary medicine.

Danielle, I am so sorry for your tragic loss. Your connection to Ian, even after he's no longer physically with us, is incredible. I certainly hug my husband a little tighter since hearing your story. Cassie, as someone who also has a chronic illness, you inspire me to not let my rheumatoid arthritis hold me back from enjoying the outdoors, even on tough days. Also, major congrats in your engagement, and I am so excited and happy for you and Al. Thank you. Thanks all around. Yeah, it's very nice. Speaking of all things weddings, this story isn't in a national park or even on a trail, but it does take place in the great outdoors

and it is sure to bring you some laughs, even if you don't share it on the podcast. I will also attach to the video of the events and photos, so feel free to share them. A little bit of background, I'm from Stillwater, Minnesota, and my husband, Remington, is a tall drink of water from the desert Southern California. Our love story is proof that there truly are no coincidences, as you always say, because he was living in the Twin Cities of Minnesota at the same time I was, but our paths didn't cross until we were both thousands of miles away, starting veterinary school in the Caribbean. Anyway, skip ahead through four long years of intense schooling past graduation to our wedding, March 4, 2023. We had planned a small

destination wedding in Los Berlis, Baja, I don't know if I said that correctly, with 60 of our favorite people. About 45 minutes from Cabo, Palumo National Park, does this count as a national park adjacent? Ha ha. Yes. This town is the perfect combination of beautiful desert mountains meeting the bluest waters and it holds a place in our hearts. We knew we wanted to be surrounded by nature on our big day. So what better place than nature's aquarium? The Sea of Cortez. Q Cassie saying it's on my list. We planned a short beach ceremony and decided we needed to include our two adorable fur babies. I mean, we're both veterinarians.

Obviously, our dogs had to be involved in the wedding. In the days leading up to it, though, my biggest source of stress was the dogs would be anxious or just straight up crazy before and during the ceremony, especially our adopted Caribbean street jog, Knox. We figured our yellow lab Taylor would be pretty chill. Fast forward to the day. Both my parents and I are in our designated hiding spot, awaiting the signal for us to walk down the aisle. Everything has been absolutely dreamy and perfect thus far, and we couldn't be happier.

As we wait, the three of us are discussing how great both dogs have been all day and how relieved we are that they're behaving and seem comfortable. We've realized we've been waiting for quite some time and there must be some trouble causing the delay. We finally get signaled to start our walk. The sun is starting to set. The ocean is perfectly sparkling blue. and Mabula Rays are jumping in the background, with my closest friends and family gathered for this special moment. I see my husband waiting for us, and he is handsome as ever. I think, how lucky am I to be marrying my absolute best friend? As we get closer, I realize Remy has a strange look on his face.

One I've never seen before. I figure he's just overcome with emotions, so excited to be marrying me, and in awe of how beautiful his almost wife looks. Spoiler alert, this is not what he was thinking. When we finally meet him at the end of the aisle, he exclaims, Taylor's shit in the middle of the aisle. I know. How romantic, right?

Everyone, myself included, burst out laughing. Sure enough, our sweet old lab had made it to the end of the aisle before deciding this was the perfect time and place to take a huge dump, front and center. At the same time, our crackhead mom. had slipped her collar and was running free, having zoomies in the sand. The tears in Remy's eyes were out of laughter, not from how beautiful his new wife was. Anyway, the turds were cleaned up and Knox was caught before I walked down the aisle. It's safe to say the pups were the talk of the evening, the biggest moment of my life, and our dogs steal the show. So overall, if I could give you

an unsolicited wedding planning advice, you can plan every detail, but the big day doesn't always go how you thought it would. But that makes it even more. memorable. And also, never forget the poop bags. Enjoy the view, but watch your step. Andy. I like that, but watch your step. I, that would totally be blue. Yeah. Blue, my dog, he will, he, the poops that come out of him, unexpected, always keeping you on your toes. Like, usually, you can see, you know, indications of when a dog is going to have to go. They have a certain pattern, sniffing style, posture, whatever. No. Blue just will. will be walking.

When he's ready, he's ready. When he's ready, he's ready. And it comes out hot. In the middle of a sidewalk, like Chaska, my other tongue, total gentleman, he won't even, he needs a bush or like shrubbery to go into and literally backs up into it. Like he doesn't want it out in plain sight. And Blue's just like, in the middle of the sidewalk is great.

That's so funny. Tucker is a little gentleman too. He will not poop anywhere except for in the woods. So he has to have the woods near him. So even in our yard, he's never, we've lived at the house for a month now, never once has he shit in the yard. He goes up over the stone wall to the neighbor's woods. Don't you have 10 acres? And he sometimes he poops on our side of the stone wall, but sometimes he walks up over on their side.

But they have like 30. I hope your neighbors aren't. They have like 30 acres, so I think it's okay. It's not, they're just little poops occasionally. But, and I don't know where they are. What do you mean little? He's giant. Okay, he's a giant thongs or not, which is small.

But he's a gentleman. He picks like the most discreet spots you'd never find them. Well, hopefully your neighbors don't find that or listen to this. It's not all the time. And they have a dog too. And they have a big dog. So who's to say who did the shit? How would they know? How would they know? They're never going to know. Their house is also very far from where this is happening to. Like they don't come to this side. They have 30 acres. They're not over here. I think it's fine. Yeah. 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.

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Watch only on Prime. Okay, my first story is titled Teton Sasquatch question mark. Ooh. In 1989, I was 14 years old and went on a three-day backpacking trip on the west side of the Teton's with a young men's church group. We had eight teenage boys and two adult leaders in our group. The trail we were packing on is east of. Dregs, Idaho and north of Grand Targay Ski Resort. At the trailhead, as we were putting on our backpacks, a National Forest Service ranger came down the trail. She asked us about our plans,

where we would be camping, etc. When we mentioned that we would be camping at Green Lake, she gave us notice that there was an active grizzly bear in the area and warned us to take all of the bear precautions, including hanging our food in the trees out of reach of bears. We reached Green Lake in the late morning of our second day of the trip. We spent the day hiking around the lake, fishing for native cutthroat trout, and exploring the area around our campsite. We often went hiking and camping in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem area, and we had never taken any bear precautions because there were so few bears. When is this? That seems concerning. Like, I've heard there are bears. Oh. It was in 1989. Okay. I should read more. Yeah. The literal

next sentence is they had not yet made a population rebound after the bear purges a decade earlier. So even though we had been warned to take bare precautions, we didn't. We fried fresh trout in skillets over the fire and because we were teenage boys, we had pounds of candy that we packed in with us. One of the boys had brought an entire can of tang orange drink powder that he mixed with water for his canteen. When we went to bed in our tents that night, we left the skillets and plate out around the camp that had fish grease, bones and remnants of meat. We had our candy in our backpacks next to our tents,

or some of us had candy in our tents with us. The boy with the tang had a cooking pot with about an inch of the sugary orange drink in his little cooking pot right next to the door of his tent. A bear's paradise. Literally, yeah. It's like a food platter set out. It's nice.

I'm not trying to publicly tell this story, so I'm just going to give you my eyes and little indications, but this reminds me of a certain situation. of candy in a tent. Oh my God. She's talking about me, you guys. I left candy at a tent when we were sleeping in bear country, and she's trying to be discreet. It was jam.

With a bear on it, the jam. It was closed. It was a literal can or little glass jar of like literally it was called like berry-licious jam or something. It was like a bear's paradise. And we had taken the camps. This was in Alaska. when we're camping in Alaska. And we had taken the campsite that was used as the kitchen because everyone was freaked out.

We're like, all right, we'll take one for the team. We'll sleep in the smelly kitchen area. So I'm already freaked out. And then whatever, we go to bed, next morning, she just staring at me. I'm like, what is it? And she silently pulls out this berry-licious jam that she had gotten at a convenient, like some, we were shopping or something the day before. It was like a little souvenir.

It was locally made jam. It was literally next to our hands or our head. the whole night. Well, that wasn't the only thing that I did too because then I realized I had toothpaste in there, remember? And then the next night, I discovered that I had like a chocolate bar in there. I blocked that out. Block that part out. It was like every night I would like try really hard to get everything out of the tent and then it was like I'd find a Snickers in there or something like, oh, fuck. Like a new thing. Like each night you're like, okay, I don't have the jam. I don't have the toothpaste, but I do have a Snickers.

Oops. I'm like, I'm going to fucking kill you. I can't go out like this. It's like not if I kill us first. It's bad for the brand. We get Ian by a bear because I have berry-licious jam next to our pillows at night in a tent. That would be bad for the jam. Bad for the brand.

Anyways. Okay. Deep in the night, we were all awakened by one of the boys yelling, bear, bear. We all grabbed our flashlights and scrambled out of our tents to see the bear. The boy who had awoken us said that he woke up to hear something rummaging in his pack just outside of his tent. He found his flashlight and shined it out through the bug net to see something large, brown, and hairy just a few inches away. When he yelled out, the bear ran off into the trees. We all walked around the camp shining our light onto the ground to look for the bear tracks or out into the trees to see where the bear was.

The ground was too hard and rocky to see any tracks, and our lights were too weak to see deep into the forest. Our leaders decided that we should clean up camp to get rid of any bear tractants even though it was the middle of the night. We began washing up the skillets, pots, and plates and gathered our food together to hang from sacks in the trees. We also decided that a fire would dissuade a returning bear from coming into camp. I was helping with the fire when something came clattering across the ground in camp. That was a rock, said one of the leaders as he shined his flashlight out into the darkness. We continued getting camp cleaned up, but every few minutes, a rock. would fly into camp coming from multiple directions.

None of us were hit directly by any rocks, but one did hit a tent and broke the fiberglass pole. We decided that instead of just cleaning up camp, we would pack up camp and hike back out to the trailhead. When the sky was starting to get a little light in the east, a rock the size of a soft ball landed and bounced into the fire. One of our leaders turned quickly with his flashlight. Some of us saw a very tall bear standing on its hind legs. It pulled its arms back and threw another stone before it turned and retreated into the woods.

We didn't see anything or get any more rocks thrown at us after that. As soon as it was light enough to see the trail, we hiked out of camp. Years and years later, I started learning more about Bigfoot. And when I read and heard accounts of rock throwing, I wondered if it wasn't active grizzly bears in the area of Green Lake at all. But in actuality, an active Sasquatch mistaken. for a bear, Charlie. I think you might be on to something.

Makes you think. Makes you think. Hey, we're not ruling it out. Grizzlies don't throw rocks. Crislees don't. Repeatedly. But you know who does? Bigfoot.

Bigfoot. I don't know. It's interesting. It's a cool twist on this story. I believe you. Charlie, you saw Bigfoot. Maybe. Maybe.

But yeah, that story otherwise, Bigfoot excluded, makes me so nervous. Like, they did everything wrong. Yeah, it sounds very dangerous. dangerous. Everything was wrong, but I'm glad you didn't get eaten by a bear or a big foot. Same. All right, my next story is titled, Shot at on a Wildfire? Question mark. Hello, ladies. My sister and my brother's girlfriend introduced me to your podcast about a year ago, and I've been hooked on it ever since. I haven't missed a single episode, and yours is always the first podcast I download for when I'm out of cell service, which is fairly often considering my line of work. I've been working as an EMT

on a hotshot crew and the Southwest for a few years now. As you can probably imagine, the work is brutal by hiking every day and camping every night, not showering for weeks at a time while traveling around the country with 20 of your best friends all summer is a bachelor's dream. I have heard. I'm sure you have. I have heard coming from Al was on a hotshot crew for a long time. I've heard some stories, probably not many of his life because I probably wouldn't like

them too much. But I'm sure you're living a bachelor's dream. I know. It's like, let's not go into too much. detail you're going to upset Cassie. Like, please don't tell me what you do. Otherwise, I'm going to have to fight with Al tonight. Like, I'm going to have to fight with him over something he made a decision on before we ever met.

Like, you shouldn't. You're going to be like, I just stopped work and James told me that this and this and this happens. And now we're in a fight. It's like, now I'm worried that you do this as well or did this. So be honest. And let's start talking about it now. Like, please tell me what you did in 2012. I need to know.

it directly involves me now in our life together we're going to get married i need to know were you cheating on me before we met yes or no yes or no tell me right now anyway bachelor's dream here what was sorry what was it you remember and um like all i have in my mind is sammy sweetheart i think she's the one that was like yes or no run like did you sleep with her yes or no Do you remember that? I just remember the note that like, what was it? Oh. Snooky wrote.

It was Snooky and J. Well. Yeah, Snooky and J. wrote a note and it was like, Ronnie kissed a girl in the at the club last night or something like that. No, it's like something about she had, he had his head between a waitress's breasts or something like that. It's just like the anonymous note. Anyway, okay. I'm sure that has nothing to do with this story.

or there. Okay. This story comes from my first season of firefighting before I joined the Forest Service. I started my... This story comes from my time with Al. Like, I knew Al and I can tell you. I can't, I can't read this anymore if there's, I don't know where this is going, but I'm, no, I'm just kidding. Okay. I started my career on a type six brush engine, basically a big pickup with a 200-gallon tank and pump based out of Arizona. We got a resource order to the now impover. infamous Dixie Fire in Northern California. It was, and I believe still, the largest wildfire in California history, topping out at almost a million acres. We drove the two days from Arizona to NorCal, and when we got to the incident command to await our orders, we could tell this was the real deal. Camp was packed full of every firefighter resource you could imagine, and some I hadn't even thought of until then. We received orders to hold the fire across a small river and a steep mountain canyon and keep fire, now established a us from backing down our side of the canyon. We had a quaint two-story log lodge and a well-kept campground on our side near the bank of the river. It would have been a dream vacation destination

in a different situation. The sky had been soaked in by smoke since we got there, and though it was a bright, sunny California day, we hadn't seen the sun since we got within 30 miles at the fire. When we got to the canyon, there were two law enforcement officers posted up in their SUVs on either end of this two-lane road winding into the mountains. closing off the road making sure the public didn't get into this dangerous and fire in Gulf Canyon. At this point, we'd been here for roughly a week, and every day we drove by these cops who watched the road from sunup to sundown, until they were relieved by night resources, and they were understandably bored out of their minds. One shift, we were back in this little camp area along the creek, watching the fire across the river,

and scanning the green for any signs of smoke near our structures. All of the sudden, we heard a pop, and then another pop, and then another. I grew up shooting, and I instantly recognized this was not fire popping or rock splitting from the heat. These were definitely bullets. I've been shot near a couple times, but they've all been accidents, or far away enough to not immediately make me feel threatened. This time was different. I felt unsafe, and in this remote part of California, it was not uncommon for firefighters

to be disliked by a portion of. of the general public. My engine boss agreed, and we retreated to the relative safety of our trusty engine. We quickly drove up the road, maybe a quarter mile, to where the cops were posted and informed them of the situation. Without saying a word, they looked at each other. The driver contacted dispatch on the radio with some number code I didn't know, but I assumed it was related to possible gunfire, and his partner grabbed his rifle from the patrol rack and loaded around. They told us to stay there until they returned and drove into the smoke. I'd never been so proud of law enforcement, but also never been less envious of their job.

I thought, I'll fight fires all day, but I do not want to get shot at. About 30 minutes later, they returned after scouring the hillside behind the structures where the shots came from and reported finding a hunter's box of exploded rifle casings sitting in the burnt dirt. They figured they had accidentally dropped them at the previous date. The fire had reached the box and set off the rounds. I was relieved there wasn't a madman running around the mountains picking off firefighters, which has actually happened a few times. And my adrenaline quickly dropped back to somewhere near normal. It was a false alarm, but definitely got my heart rate up. I had never thought deeply about the job of the backcountry law enforcement until then. But seeing firsthand how quickly and selflessly they were willing to go into a possible shootout without any hesitation definitely made me respect their work. There were a lot of of other crazy things I experienced during my first fire season, but this story stuck out to me. I'll attach some pictures from the fire, and I hope you get a kick out of it. I love what you do and keep up the good work.

It does wonders to get people out into our nation's national parks and forests we fight so hard to preserve. Thank you again. Enjoy the trail, but watch your back. James. That was a heartwarming one. That was. I apologize for saying I almost couldn't read it. You were very good and didn't write anything.

That made me want to fight with Al. But that's a scary encounter. Yeah, I take it back. But that's a really scary encounter to even, I'm glad it wasn't someone who is shooting at you, but to have that happen is still scary. And also respect for the people who would just run out into that, like, knowing there might be some type of shootout involved. Yeah, without thinking twice, just like he said.

Okay, so my second one is titled Phoenix UFO Encounter. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. I have been listening to your podcast for a few months now and started at the beginning. I'm really enjoying your well-researched stories and my daughter is also loving listening. Our favorite so far is about Harry Truman and his refusal to leave Mount St. Helens. Good choice. Also one of my favorites. My parents lived in Belmont, Washington during the time of the eruption and have told us about their personal experience. It was so interesting to hear about the history of the area, the mountain's proper name, La Walla Clow. I think that's how you say it.

and the events leading up to the eruption. I just listened to episode number 63 about Travis Walton and his abduction along the Magolan Rim in Arizona. His experience is pretty well known to us Arizonians, and I believe his encounter was real. I'm a native of Arizona and grew up in the Phoenix area, but I have spent many summers camping and hiking in the Apache Sit Grieves National Forest.

Regarding UFOs, there have been several occasions I have seen unexplained lights while camping out on the Magolong Rim. And in the Kokachino National Forest. God, putting me through my paces. I know. It's like, please pronounce all these words. And I'm going to be really upset when you don't.

Not you, but you as a collective. I'm, everyone else. I'm upset. I know you barely can listen to this. Anyway, okay, sorry. Okay. And in the Kokachino National Forest, which includes Flagstaff, where I went to Northern Arizona University. Despite being an avid outdoors woman and spending much of my free time in the forest,

my most compelling UFO encounter happened in the metro Phoenix area, around the area of State Route 51 and Shea Boulevard, which lies between the Phoenix Mountain Preserve and a suburban neighborhood. The date of the encounter was May 19, 2001. My friends and I had just graduated from high school, and we were in an apartment swimming pool, celebrating one of my friends' achievements. Her mom threw a casual pool party for her, and we spent the day swimming, eating pizza,

snacking, and drinking sodas. There was no illicit substances or alcohol involved with this party. We were considered somewhat nerdy in high school and were not involved with the party scene. While we swam, the sun was setting, and there was a strange guy that was lurking around the pool. He appeared to be in his late teens or early 20s. He had dark hair and was just hanging out alone. There was five of us left at the party by this time, and we just ignored him, thinking he was a random creeper trying to chat us up. When the sun set, we went inside her apartment to eat cake,

listen to music, and sing karaoke to in sync and Backstreet Boys. We were heavy into boy bands at the time. I know, super cool. We wrapped up the party around 10 p.m. since most of us had to work in the morning. I was going to say, most of us are still into boy bands. Didn't you go to a Backstreet boys concert, like, kind of recently? A couple of years ago, yeah, and I jammed out. I was so excited. When Backstreet Boys came out on stage and they were like, Backstreet, It's back. All right. I, like, cried a little bit. Tears were welling up. We watched out for each other and walked to our cars in a group. As we headed towards the guest parking lot of the apartment complex, the weird guy from the swimming pool was standing in the middle of the lot, staring at the sky, with his mouth hanging open. He frantically motioned towards us and said, look at this. Come look. What is this? We timidly approached the strange young man in our group of five and walked out from the cover of the trees that surrounded the apartment complex. We were cautious to stay together since we didn't know what his intentions were. As we looked up into the sky, we saw what he was talking about.

Above us was a rod of lights, one big red light in the center, and two smaller red lights on either side of the big one. It was hovering silently above us in the black night sky, maybe about 1,000 feet in the air, and about 50 feet wide. I don't remember there being a bright moon that evening. The sky seemed so black, even though we were surrounded by the city. The lights were bright, but not blind. We were baffled and tried to rationalize what it is that we were seeing. Since the craft was silent, we knew it wasn't a helicopter, and a small plane wouldn't have been able to hover in that fixed location silently.

The lights did not blink and were steady. One of the girls in the group had a 35-millimeter point-click camera and pointed it at the sky with the flash on, trying to capture something. She snapped several frames and then stopped. The rod of red lights began to spiral in a circular motion, and it was still silent. We all screamed as it appeared to fall quickly towards us, and then it vanished without a trace. We were shocked and scared of what we had just witnessed. The weird guy thanked us for coming out to see it because he didn't think anyone would have

believed him. We left the apartment in shock, and I remember driving home wide-eyed, glancing at the sky to see if there were any other lights. I woke up my dad to tell him what I had just witnessed, but he didn't believe me and asked if I had been drinking. We were 100% sober, and to this day have no idea what we witnessed. The worst part was when the friend had her role of film developed, it was blank. There was no proof of what we had seen.

My friend and I still bring up this encounter to this day, and it has made us believers in extraterrestrial life. I've encountered other strange lights, but only in the woods. But none of those experiences stand out like the one from my high school graduation. I am a believer, and I want more encounters, but I definitely don't want to be abducted like Travis Walton. I have more trail tales regarding dehydration in the Grand Canyon and encountering people who are not in their right minds at the Havasupai trailhead. I would love to submit them as a cautionary tale if you're ever interested. Thank you for putting together an awesome podcast.

I can't wait to catch up to your current episodes, Bailey. Well, I mean, the government did just come out and say that aliens are real and UFOs are real and it sounds like maybe you are someone who has experienced them. So cool. I agree with her sentiment of, I want more encounters. I want a encounter. I haven't had a single encounter. Do you still want to be abducted? I know you've said it in the past. Yeah. Even more so now. What's left here for me? You know what I mean? You might as well try on another planet. I will say I would be very upset if you got abducted. Like they could abducted you for like a couple days or something, but I'd be pretty upset if you were gone for a long time, especially like how do I do a podcast by myself and it would be bad for the brand it would be very

bad for the brand it just you can you can go for a couple days but that's that's about it or or it's like okay I can only be gone for a couple days and they're like okay fine but then time works differently so I'm gone for a few days in my mind but then I come back here and you're like 90 years old yeah that would be unfortunate that's like some interstellar stuff I know, I know, which I actually, for being a big fan of like space travel movies and like intergalactic, like I hated interstellar. Why? I don't know. I just, first of all, isn't it really fucking long and like so confusing?

It is long? Yeah, I don't know. I just, I didn't enjoy it. I remember. Maybe I should give it another shot because I think I only watched it from start to finish once and didn't really like it. And then from here on out, every once in a while it will be like on a plane or I'll catch bits and pieces of it. And I'm like, I guess I'll give it a try. And I never watch the whole thing.

I get the concept. I really liked Interstellar. I like Matthew McConaughey. And they, I thought they did a really good job of like looping all these things together to coincide with the time. Like loops and laps. Well, because it was time. Yeah, different. Because something about like he's in behind a bookshelf or something.

Am I ever? Yeah, he is behind a bookshelf, but he's in another dimension and he finds a way to communicate with his daughter in a previous time period, which ends up inspiring her life to work on aerospace travel. And it ends up, he promises her that he's going to come back someday. And he does, but he doesn't come back until she's on her deathbed, basically. And he's still the same age. And he's still the same age, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, like I said, I get it. And it's fine. But I just, I didn't like the execution of it. I think maybe it's because I'm not a big Matthew McConaughey fan. And I feel like I just personally attacked you and I'm sorry. Can you still read the next story or are we not talking? I don't know.

This is tough. I finally have a movie that I know and can talk about. And I understand everything we're talking about. I've seen it and you're disliking every moment. Sorry. Okay, my next story is titled, no title. Hey, besties. Okay, listen.

I know this friendship is only one-sided, but like many trail tale tellers, this podcast has given me so much joy and lots of stories to retell to my real-life besties who sadly don't care that much. Maybe one day I'll have the bank account to support us becoming actual besties on a life-changing trip, Patagonia Round 2. question mark. But for now, I'll continue supporting y'all from afar. Okay, now that the obligatory and much-deserved appreciation intro is finished, I'll get to my story. In November 22, my sister and I both got a travel bug and decided to visit Big Bend National Park for a weekend.

Despite living in Texas our entire lives, we had never visit Big Bend, and this was going to be our first road trip without our parents. My sister and I are best friends, and we were so excited for this trip. We had initially booked a campsite in the Rio Grande campgrounds within the park, but just a couple days before our trip, I was notified that our campsite had been taken over by a family of Black Bears and that we could get a refund if we wished to find accommodations elsewhere. My sister and I are pretty adventurous travelers, but one, we are very inexperienced campers, like literally planned on figuring everything out as we went. Two, we didn't know there were Bears at Big Bend or even in Texas, L.O.L. And three, we were not.

about to figure out how to camp amongst these bears. So we found last-minute accommodations and stopped at an ace hardware and a nearby town to grab some bear spray just in case. We got up super early on the Saturday for our trip in order to start the summit up Emory Peak. But before we started the trail, we decided to speak to the volunteers at the Chesos Basin's Visitor Center to get more information on the local black bear population. Here, we met two wonderful married volunteers who told us all about the bears at Big Bend. The woman experienced. that the bears were small and not all aggressive, and she even had a favorite bear who she had adorably named Brownie. My sister and I stood there in awe thinking that this woman was so cool

when she told us that she has scared off hundreds of bears during her time in the park and even gave us a quick lesson on how to scare them off ourselves should we need to. She made me promise to keep my bear spray in the car and to report back to her at the end of our hike to tell her if we had an amazing opportunity to see any wildlife. Throughout our 13-mile hike, we fondly spoke of this volunteer and said we could literally only dream of being as cool as her when we got older. We never got her name, so to keep our minds busy on this strenuous hike, we came up with names that she could possibly have, such as Amy Louise and Debbie. We couldn't wait to see her again, but sadly, this hike ended up taking us the entire day and we were unable to report that we hadn't seen any bears to our favorite volunteer. After we got home from the trip, we frequently spoke of the super cool volunteer named Amy Louise slash Debbie and how safe she made us feel at the park. This trip sparked a deeper love for traveling in me, especially traveling to our beautiful national parks.

After that trip, I ended up visiting eight more national parks between March and June of 2003. At each one, I thought of Amy Louise as I spoke to all the wonderful volunteers in the visitor centers to get the inside scoop of hikes inside the park. As a side note, if you ever want to meet the nicest people in the world, speak to any volunteer within the national park system. Every single interaction I've had with one has been nothing but pleasant and helpful, and they have given me the best advice and recommendations. My most recent trip was a vacation to Acadia National Park with a friend in late June of 2003. On our first day there, we stopped at the main visitor center to grab maps and speak to the volunteers about the recommended attractions and hikes in the park. My friend spotted the Wild Garden Nature Center on the map, which seemed like a great first place to stop. When we got there, we hiked a few nature trails where we ended up seeing an otter and a couple of woodpeckers, which us Texans thought were absolutely amazing.

We decided to walk back and report our animal sightings to the volunteers posted in the Nature Center. We spoke with them for a few minutes about how lucky we had gotten to see the otter, and I was already beaming with joy and excitement about the wonders of this beautiful park. After this interaction, I decided to ask one of them how she became a volunteer within the park system and told her that I would love to be one someday. I'm typically pretty introverted, so I usually don't ask strangers personal questions, but this lady was so warm and friendly that I felt comfortable speaking with her. She told me that she and her husband lived in the RV and actually traveled between a few different national parks each year. I already thought this was super cool and asked which ones she had been to most recently, to which she replied she had been at Big Bend, from August 2022 to March, 2003. I was so excited to tell her that I had visited Big Bend in November,

and she asked me if I happened to stop at the Chesos Basin's Visitor Center. That's when it clicked. Amy Louise? Debbie? There was no way. I had to confirm this. With the cheesy smile on my face, I told her I had stopped at the visitor center and suspiciously asked her if she, by any, chance, had a favorite bear named Brownie.

She met me with an even cheese. easier grin and was so shocked that I could possibly have known that. It was her. I couldn't believe it. I delightfully told her that she had made such a positive impact on my trip with my sister and made us feel so safe in an unfamiliar territory. She got such a kick out of the fact that I remembered her and we were both beaming with excitement and awe that we could possibly run into each other over 2,500 miles away from Big Bend. I simply could not get over the coincidence and had to immediately call my sister to tell her the story. Of course, she remembered our friend, the amazing Big Ben volunteer with a favorite bear named Brownie. I still can't believe the same woman was able to make

two of my national park trips so fun and so memorable. I have always felt such a magic within the parks, and I was so happy to tell her that she contributed to that magical feeling twice. So I want to end this story with a big shout out to all the National Park Service volunteers, but a huge shout out to Amy Louise slash Debbie, who is actually named Mary Allison. That's so cool. I mean, what a coincidence. But the best part is that she got to convey how special that interaction was. And she actually thought about it for a long time after.

Like it wasn't just a chance thing, one-off conversation type of thing. And she got to convey that. Yeah. And what a small world. Just to run into someone who had such much. meeting to you and two separate parts of the country and to be able to tell them that. It's such a cool story. And a small world national park service, small world community.

It's a cool. It's a very cool coincidence. And I do agree that the volunteer, I mean, the staff as well, but as a whole, the volunteers, volunteers in any capacity are generally the nicest people you'll, you'll ever meet because they're dedicating their time and effort for free into a passion. and they want to spread that around to people. But I agree that every volunteer I've ever encountered in a National Park Service capacity has been so helpful and kind.

So I appreciate the shout-out at the end. That was cool. All right. My last story is titled Raccoons Are Evil. Okay. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. First off, just wanted to say how much I love the podcast. My fiancé and I were recommended to give you guys a listen

when we were down in Bryce National Park this last February, and I've been hooked ever since. Growing up in the Salt Lake City area, Utah has been the ultimate playground for me as a nature lover. I have fond memories in Bryce, Zion, Arches, and we venture up north quite often to go to Yellowstone and the Teton's, where we actually got engaged last fall. Growing up at the mouth of the Cottonwood Canyons, home to four ski resorts with some of the best skiing,

I'm constantly hiking and getting into the outdoors. Because of being in nature so frequently, I've had a handful of encounters with wildlife, and I can confirm moose are real, but the real purpose of my story is to tell you that raccoons are evil. Now, my story actually takes place farther south in Arizona in the Havasupai area, which is located in the Grand Canyon. A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to snag an extra permit to do the four-day Habasupai backpacking track with some good friends, and it happened to fall over my birthday week, so I was extra-pice. I have had backpacked numerous times before, so I knew what to expect, but backpacking in Havasu is a little different. Once you make it to the 10 miles to the campground, you have to find one of the many

empty, heavy-duty five-gallon buckets, and you have to make sure it has a lid that fits tightly. You might wonder why. It's to store your food in, because raccoons in the campground are smart. They have these little hands and thumbs, and have figured out how to get in rat sacks, and we'll also just chew through them to get to the food. So you have to secure all your food in these buckets. Make sure the lids are on tight and then weigh them down with lids even further with massive rocks. And last but not least,

store them under the picnic benches that are at each campsite. If you don't follow these steps, you will lose all of your food. Now, when I go backpacking, I sleep terribly. I mean, who doesn't? You basically have only a small cushion layer between you and the hard ground. So when these raccoons were running around

camp at night, I could hear them. When I woke up the next morning, I could see little raccoon paw prints right outside of my tent. I was on high alert the next night because I hated knowing that a raccoon was literally inches from my face. So when I went to bed our second night, I slept even worse. It's probably safe to say I didn't really sleep at all, which honestly was a good thing, because just past midnight I heard a hard plastic thud. I knew this was a raccoon trying to tip over one of our buckets to get the lid off. This also woke up my friend. I was sure. sharing a tent with, and she started freaking out because that was our only food, and we were only halfway through our trip. So, without even thinking twice, I undiped my side of the tent, grabbed my

headlamp, didn't even put shoes on, and started running at a pack of raccoons. They scurried up a nearby tree, and all I could see was their beady little eyes reflecting from my headlamp. There was at least six of them. When I kept my headlamp on them, they were frozen in the tree, but I had to get the lid back on this bucket and secure it with a rock to weigh it down. So I tried to do just that, but any time my head limp would drop from shining on this ravenous pack of raccoons, they would scurry back down the tree and inch towards me. Now, at this point, I'm literally shaking and yelling at my friend in the tent to come help me because I'm, one, not looking to lose all our food, and two, not looking to get bit by more than likely rabies-carrying raccoons.

So my friend jumps out of the tent to try and give me some backup. And what does she do? Starts yelling and throwing fucking rocks at this pack of raccoons that are literally less than 10 feet away from me while I'm trying to secure this damn bucket. Now this really pisses them off. They start hissing. Like picture an extremely pissed off cat at the vet type of hiss and then add an even more exorcist-like guttural sound to it. I love these descriptions so much. It's just funny.

It's funny, actually. And I know you guys know what type of pissed off hiss I'm talking about. I mean, I don't blame the raccoons. Not only was I taking their jackpot of food source away from them, but rocks were landing on their feet. I'd probably be a cat at the vet level pissed off too. But damn, they were evil and persistent to get their mitts on our food. The next morning, the rest of our group got to hear about how I jumped out of our tent without hesitation to try and save the buckets. Surprisingly, none of them heard us yelling at the raccoons or the evil hissing that accompanied it. My rock throwing tent mate told them all about how crazy I was,

and she thought we were going to at least try and devise a plan before just jumping out of the tent. But I told them all I could think about was acting fast. That morning, we discovered that the raccoons were successful in getting into our toothpaste, and we were missing an entire bucket. Our camp was right next to the falls, so the chances of it being tipped over and rolling into the stream, then off into the falls with no hopes of retrieving anything, were high. Luckily, the hike to the tribal reservation was only two miles from camp,

and they have a convenience store where we bought snacks, get us through our third day. I learned a lot about nature and myself on that trip. And apparently when it comes to fight or fight in regards to food, I fight. Probably not the wisest decisions were made. And looking back on it, things could have ended up much worse because you never know what wild animals are capable of. The hike to the Havasu Falls is unforgettable and I highly recommend it. But just know, the raccoons are evil. I'm sorry for the length of my story, but I hope you get a kick out of it. I've attached some photos from the awesome views we experienced on this trip as well as our campsite, and you're welcome to share if you choose. This story is truly a testament to enjoy the

view, but watch your back, Bree. I thought that was a fun story. I just love all the descriptions they used of these raccoons. It's clear that you don't mess with raccoons. I feel like I was there. I have two stories, but I won't share them, but there are two stories that I've had close encounters with raccoons. One was with Ian in the sand dunes in Oregon. And the other one was when I was in high school. And there was literally like, I'm not even exaggerating because my family was there and they could back me up. There was dozens of raccoons that were climbing all over our porch. My stepdad literally took a mac, you know, those big mag lights that are kind of like a baseball bat style, like flashlight. And he was like batting them off. And they kept coming, climbing up

our porch and he would like swing and try and bat them off. And they kept coming up and they were like trying to attack our dogs. We had two Jack Russell at the time. And it was like an, it was an invasion. Like that sounds like an apocalypse. Like it just is the world. And what's going on with all these raccoons? And we had no, I mean, obviously we live in New Hampshire. There's raccoons no matter where you are. And we had seen them, but we had never seen that many at one time,

let alone them like organizing a strategic invasion of our property. You know what I mean? Like it was wild. They plan to takeover. I just love how she was describing. She's like, they have these little hand. and these little thumbs. I'm like, yeah, but they're really cute. They're really cute. I've never had a bad experience with a raccoon. I think they're cute. Let's keep it that way.

Well, thank you everyone for submitting your stories. They were all really fun to read and so interesting. And we love to hear from you all in your real life experiences. I know a lot of people listening. This is one of your favorite parts of the show and this is some of ours too. So thank you for always sharing them and keep sending them in. We have two more. We do have two more. And I will say, so I put this together, this episode together months ago. So I kind of forget a lot of these stories because I read them so long ago. But your bonus one that I picked for you is really fun. And it's a little X rated.

Oh. So that's why it's a bonus one. That's why it's a bonus one. It's a bonus one that is for outsiders only. So if you're interested, you can listen on Patreon or Apple's subscriptions. But if you're just listening on the regular feed, the episode is done for today. but you can always come listen to this X-rated one on another platform. And otherwise, I guess you'll just never know.

So in the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. See you. 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 npadpodcast.com. And please rate, review, and subscribe from wherever you listen to podcasts. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressives save over $900 on average.

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