National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 4

Episode Date: February 10, 2022

Today's stories include glitches in the matrix, near misses with cougars, disembodied screams in an archeological site and potential Bigfoot encounters.  All stories shared with consent.We love our National Parks and we know you do too but when you're out there, remember to enjoy the view but watch your back. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe from wherever you’re listening to NPAD! Become part of our Outsider family on Patreon to gain access to ad-free episode, bonus content and more. Follow our socials Instagram, Facebook , and Twitter. To share a Trail Tale, suggest a story, access merch and browse our book recommendations - head over to our website.  Thank you so much to our partners, check them out!   Best Fiends: Download Best Fiends for free on Google Play or the App Store Merrell: Get outside and enjoy Galentine’s day with friends. Head to the Merrell website to browse all their products. Green Chef: Use code npad130 for $130 off and free shipping  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Listen to Monday.com. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform. So flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Now open your eyes, go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally, breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear open that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to National Park After Dark. My name's Cassie. And my name's Danielle. Welcome back to Trail Tales. We have something very exciting to tell you. Trail tales are one of our favorite episodes to do because we get to listen to stories and read stories from all of our listeners.

And we're excited to tell you that we're making this a regular thing. Yeah, so surprise, this is going to be the second episode of the week. But you can expect a Trail Tales bonus episode every month from here on out. So you'll get the regular ones on Monday, but you'll also get a Trail Tales bonus thrown in there too. So that means we want to hear from you all all the time. Send us emails, NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Best place to email us. tell us your stories on the trail. We would love to hear them. Let us know if you're okay with us

featuring them on here. But we'd love to hear your stories. We really like hearing everything out on the trail from paranormal to survival stories. We've heard some animal encounters. You know, we've heard so many cool stories. And we're going to do it all the time now. So. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be National Park. A lot of people have been like, disclaimer, this didn't happen in a park. And that's okay. That's okay. Send them in. As long as you were. outside at one part of it, literally even if it was walking into a building, that works, that counts. Well, we did share one that was an alien encounter or something. She was in her living room. So,

you know what? Just send it in and we'll see how it goes. If you think that we'll like it, just send it. Yes, please. Do you want to go first or would you like me to go first? You can go first. Okay, cool. Hi, my friend and I are huge fans of your podcast and our favorite parks are also Yellowstone and the Teton's. Oh yay, just like us. Just like us. We had a weird experience this summer and I had to share. This summer, I was lucky enough to work and live in Yellowstone National Park. Me and my friend decided to visit Norris Geyser Basin one morning before work because we hadn't been there yet. For those who don't know, these geyser basins have boardwalk paths that you have to stay on because they are active thermal features surrounding you and the earth is very fragile there.

Yes, that means please don't walk off the boardwalk. Please don't, yes. We were walking on the boardwalks and my friend and I passed this man. She waved to him and said, oh hi, like she knew him. As soon as he passed, she turned to me and said she had no idea why she did that. She had an overwhelming sense that she just knew him when she didn't at all. I remember she even said, that felt like a glitch as a joke. She was a little freaked out and it made both of us feel a bit unsettled. We continued to walk this loop when somehow he ended up in front of us. of us, walking ahead of us. This didn't really make sense since he had just passed us going in the opposite direction. With that trajectory, he should have ended up in front of us going the same direction. He started waiting for us and was staring at this bird. He was astounded, but it was a robin, a very common bird in most places. He said, look, a sparrow in a weird, inhuman-like voice. It almost felt like he was trying to imitate a human. He then pointed to some sand, and was amazed by that too.

These were both things that the average human should have seen before, but he was so amazed by them, yet seemed chillingly emotionless as he spoke. The next thing he said put a chill down my spine. He pointed to the sky and said, The sky looks really digital today, but I've seen that before. My friend and I exchanged a look,

and we both knew the other felt like something was very off. He wasn't moving, so we started to walk ahead of him and fast, because we wanted to get out of there. He was then following behind us, and he started laughing, the most robotic laugh, and said, This will be easy. We were so scared and kept walking to the exit. Luckily, when we looked back, he had turned around to go back to the basin. Keep in mind, there is one exit to the parking lot, and you cannot go off the path.

My friend and I were so unsettled and knew without saying a word that we had to get to the car. As we approached the parking lot, we looked up and stopped in our tracks. To our disbelief, the man from the basin was walking from the parking lot towards us. This was impossible, unless he had legit teleported. He had a walkie-talkie in his hand and said something into it while staring at us. I think we actually ran into the car at that point and drove off. It was one of the weirdest experiences I have ever had and left my friend and I feeling unsettled for days.

I don't know what he was, but my friend and I definitely do not think that man was human, And we'd love to hear your theories on what happened. That gave me chills. This reminds me, this whole story, which is very bizarre, reminds me of a podcast called Radio Rental. I think I've told you about it before, but there's a story in it about a glitch in the Matrix. And it's kind of very similar to this. And when she mentioned the glitch thing, it totally made sense in my mind. It's super freaky.

and I don't know if I have a theory on it. Because there's a lot of things going on. There's like the guy's inhuman sounding and doing weird things. And then he's like teleporting around. Like what is going on? Just when she wrote that he said, this will be easy. Yeah, that too is a little unsettling. That's like serial killer vibe.

Like, oh, this will be easy. Okay, but how is he all of a sudden in the parking lot coming in front of them when he was just behind them. I don't know. I don't know. I don't have the answers. It's really creepy. Yeah.

Like, what if he's some sort of, like, I'm picturing like a men in black type of situation. Is it possible that he could have walked off of the boardwalk? I know she said you're not allowed to. Right. So, yeah, I guess, yes. But I feel like they would have seen him, like, cutting across. Yeah. It's pretty open.

So weird. So weird. I wish we had theories. aliens, matrix? Maybe a glitch in the matrix, I think. But it also has the weird situation of like the friend said hi, like, and she didn't know why she did that. She was like compelled to say, hey, like, she kind of knew him.

Alien. Men in black alien. That's really, that's really bizarre. No theories other than we don't know what happened. And I'm glad that you guys are okay. But damn. Other than that gave me chills and I'm scared. Okay, you're next.

Okay. So I have one going in a very, very different direction. This one, they wrote, I just love your National Park After Dark podcast. It is wholly informative, educational, and just plain entertaining. Your podcast was introduced to me by my girlfriend with Night of the Grizzlies while on our commute to Glacier National Park for our stay over Thanksgiving weekend. Needless to say, listening to that two-part episode while on the way to Glacier left a big

impact and gave extra depth to our stay. We even made it a point to respectfully visit park location described in that episode, Night of the Grizzlies is my personal favorite. That was such a good one. Yeah, I really liked to read. I loved reading the book for that one. It's called Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olson. It's so good.

Even if you listen to the podcast, read the book. It's just so, so good. But they wrote, I have a trail tale of my own to share. Thankfully, it is not tragic or impactful as your glacier or National Park episode, but maybe can add informative insight as a national park traveler. It was Christmas in 2016, Big Bend National Park in West Texas. Given the holiday and the unusual cold weather at that time, the large remote park was relatively inactive with visitors. This lack of human activity in my experience brings increased wildlife activity in areas usually

laden with people. It's good practice to be extra aware of your surrounding because of that aspect. My girlfriend and I at the time decided to make our Big Bend home for the weekend in Chiso's Mountain Basin. We were the only visitors in the basin the entire time because of the icy conditions covering the mountain pass over the ridge. It was an eerie experience having the whole basin to ourselves. Peaks were semi-clouded over, wind was almost supernaturally howling, time seemed to have stopped in an unusual weather event in an already alien landscape. Given the already deep isolation of Big Bend, it was the most isolated I have ever felt. One night while in the basin, I decided to leave the SUV we set up in the bed to just walk around the empty campsite,

which was well lit up for good reason. It is also important to note that in the Chesos Mountain Basin, there is a strict rule in place to stay within the campgrounds at night as mountain lions are in high concentration and not shy of humans. As I was walking on the dark outer perimeter of the empty campsite all alone, I was peering out into the darkness trying to overlook the window trail when I heard a terrifying sound. It was a deep, guttural growl, just feet away from me. It cast a fear upon me I have never yet experienced. I immediately stiffened up like a statue, hairs on my skin stood up as if I had just seen a ghost, and I'm sure I was just as pale as one too. Unmistakably, though, I never saw it. It was a mountain lion, and it sounded like a big one. It was terrifying. My instinct took over after. I decided to

slowly walk backwards away while not turning my back to it. The growling continued but got less and tents the further away I got. It wasn't until I heard the growling stop that I turned my body away and walked still calmly away from the area and backed into my SUV for the night. I laid awake for the rest of the night, thankful for not having been an animal's victim. As I reflected on that close encounter, I was extremely grateful for being warned by a mountain lion rather than being its prey. If the lion had wanted to feast on me, I would not have known of its presence until it was already too late. I was also thankful for my quick instincts and knowing how to escape such a dangerous encounter. It is in that that it's important to know what a park visitor is getting into

and to follow the rules. Though I never left the campsite, I felt like my time would have been up if I broke the rules to walk outside of the campsite. Follow the park rules people. And please, respect wildlife. It is their home and only our privilege to visit. Thank you, Cassie and Danielle, for a great podcast. I appreciate all the work you put into each episode. And I greatly look forward to keeping up with them as they come. Oh, that's awesome. What a cool story because it had a great ending. Yeah, no one was attacked. No Night of the Grizzlies. Wow, that I will say that's my, uh, that's my nightmare. Encountering a mountain lion out on the trail is my number one fear for sure. Cats are scary. They're so scary. Well, like they said,

I don't know if you mentioned their name. So I'm sorry if I great. forget, but they said that if that animal wanted to make a feast out of them, it would have been over. Like, there was no option. They would have never known that cat was there. Right. No way. Which is the worst. I mean, I think I've said this. I don't know if it was on a main episode or on a Patreon story, but my encounter with the mountain lion in Colorado, but I was in my Jeep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have said that. That is exactly the place I wanted to be. Because I got to see it like slow motion crossing the road beautiful illuminated by my headlights it wasn't running it just walked to look at me and disappeared like it was so beautiful to see and such an amazing

experience but oh my god if i was hiking in the dark alone and i heard that over it's over i would have died totally different story yeah definitely easy prey for sure and that kind of reminds me of when we were hiking and heard the bear. That we didn't really understand. We knew it was a bear and we were like, okay, this sounds, what kind of sound is this making? Is it mad? So we later, much, much later when we were not on the trail anymore, we YouTube types of

bear noises. And unfortunately, the bear noise that we found was one of a very agitated bear. Yes. And thankfully, we didn't know that when it was. happening, but we did know to get out of the area very, very quickly. And it turned out fine. Yeah, that was an instinctual type of knowing to just get out. Yeah. Similar, similar to this story. Just get out of there and do it. And I liked the aspect that they added to know the park that you're visiting, know the wildlife around, because when you have the knowledge of things like that,

it can, it can make a huge difference in your decisions while you're in that situation. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L. every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen.

Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Okay, so mine is next. Okay, let's hear it. This is my favorite. This is kind of an older one. This one was sent a few months ago, and I've been hoarding it away. And I'm kind of really excited about it.

I love this one. Hey, guys, I recently started listening to your podcast and have particularly enjoyed the Trail Tales episodes. While my story isn't quite as exciting or eerie as most of the others, I thought I still might share it. Let me start out by saying that I have never believed in Bigfoot and still don't. A Bigfoot story. Can you tell why I love it? I'm from North Idaho and am one of the privileged few to have seen one of the fewer than 300 Wolverines in the lower 48 in the wild. I have met more

people who have claimed to have seen Bigfoot than a Wolverine, and yet Wolverines can be found taxidermied in every sporting goods store in my state, and their photographs can be seen on postcards across the northwest. I do not believe that something like that could exist in as populous as a place, as the United States without proof. That being said, I have no explanation for my personal experience in Olympic National Park. And if others have experienced similar circumstances, I can see why they might look into a cryptid like Bigfoot as an easy explanation. I was camped at Graves Creek Campground in Olympic National Park in the late fall a few years ago

with my older brother. He was recovering from a bad breakup, and I decided to remove him from Idaho for a few days and go on a Washington, Oregon Coast road trip. We visited family in Bellingham, went to a concert in Seattle, and then headed for the Olympic Mountains. It was very cold and rainy, and the campground was empty, aside from one other car with a teardrop camper. It was getting cold enough at night that the cedars would have frosty tips in the morning.

We had driven there in my 80s Toyota pickup, and I had set up my sleeping bag and pad in the canopy of the pickup, while my brother pitched a tent about 10 feet away. his hunting dog, an Irish setter named Stanley, slept in his tent, and my big mutt, Lenny, slept in my truck with me. After dinner, we settled down to sleep for the night, and I fell asleep pretty easily. I awoke to a feeling that something was off. My brother and I are both avid hunters and outdoorsmen. In the summer, we both camp every night in the backcountry for work, though we have different jobs, and in the fall, we camp for hunting. I've woken up to a mountain lion peeing on my tent, and my brother has had his tent fly ripped off by a curious bear while he was sleeping inside.

At the time of this occurrence, we were very far from being staked out in the backcountry. It was a national park campground, basically civilization. Neither of us would be spooked away by just a sound in the woods at night, but something woke me up. I waited for a while, listening, and was just about to fall back asleep when I heard three sharp, distinct, cracks in the distance. It sounded a bit like an axe splitting a thick log in very rapid, quick succession. I chalked it up to a human sound of some kind and started to fall asleep again. Then the noise repeated. Three cracks. I thought it was a little closer this time, but wasn't sure. The noise repeated two more times, and at this point I was certain it was getting closer, and very

quickly. My dog stood up in the tent and became restless, and my heartbeat quickened, as it sounded like the noise was bearing down on us. Then the steady beat ceased for a minute before the air filled with sound as a tree fell somewhere nearby. Everything seems louder in the stillness of the night, but when a tree comes crashing down, even a few hundred yards away, it sounds like it's falling directly on top of you. There was very little wind that night and outside of a dead stand, it isn't something you expect to hear on a calm night. At this point, the hackles on my dog's back were up and he was green. He was greener. growling in a way I had never heard him growl, and I could hear Stanley in my brother's tent whining. I looked out of the windows of my truck canopy but could see nothing in the dark.

After the tree fell, the rhythmic triad of cracking started up again, much closer. The closer they got, the more it sounded like someone beating the trees with a baseball bat. I could hear the pitch change a bit with a thinner or thicker tree being hit, and sometimes it would muffle a bit, like it had hit. a soft or rotten spot on the wood. I saw a light click on in my brother's tent and he poked his flashlight out to scan the woods. I asked if he had seen anything, but he said no. I didn't know what time it was, but I thought maybe it could be some kids camping down the road making a ruckus. The sound seemed too rhythmic to be an animal. I didn't really get spooked until the dog started howling.

My dog, Stanley, and the Bernese Mountain Dog that I had seen with the Teardrop Camper, all started acting up. I could hear my brother talking to his dog between the cracking sounds trying to calm him down. I've never heard my dog or Stanley howl before or since, but they were manic with alarm. When the cracking stopped and the second tree fell, I saw its enormous form grazed by the light of my brother's flashlight. He snapped it back to where it fell, in time to watch it settle, caught the branches of another tree only about 50 feet away from camp. It wasn't an enormous cedar or anything, just a brittle, dead tree about five to six inches thick and maybe 25 to 35 feet tall. When we discussed the incident the next morning, we both thought we saw movement in the foliage below the tree after it fell,

but neither of us could be sure. After the second tree fell, the dogs quieted down after a few minutes and the cracking ceased altogether. The next morning, I walked out into the woods towards where the the first tree fell hoping for tracks, but not much shows in that cedar duff. I think I found the other tree that fell about 200 yards away from our camp and slightly bigger than the one by our tent, also dead and about 6 to 7 inches thick. This one had fallen on the ground and was largely rotted. Now I feel like I could find explanations for any one of these things separately. Moose knock over trees in the fall to intimidate rivals, and bears sometimes knock over trees for territorial displays as well,

but these trees were a bit larger than what they would normally knock over. The dogs could have been frightened by an animal that they seldom encounter, maybe a lynx or a cougar. The cracking sounds could have been kids in a nearby camp playing, though they seemed very heavy-handed for a kid.

But all of them together defies anything I've ever encountered before or since. I've heard similar stories associated with Bigfoot territorial displays, and these actions, to me, did feel like a territorial display of an animal, with the exception of the steadiness and consistency of that cracking sound, which made it feel human. I'd be very interested to hear if any other listeners have had similar experiences and what their take on them was, because it left my brother

and me pretty stumped. Thanks for reading. Keep up the good work, ladies. I would also like to know if anyone else has had an experience like this. That's wild. That's scary. It's super scary. In the Middle of the woods. Middle of the woods, middle of the night. And there's just, I really love this story for a couple reasons. Number one, because they are clearly experienced in the outdoors. And they're rationally trying to put together different scenarios. And like they said at the end, you know, all of these things separately do make sense.

Except that in this particular situation, they've never experienced something like that before or since and are having a difficult time trying to put it together. And I love that they did mention the Bigfoot, Bigfoot territorial display thing because in any bigfoot show that I've ever watched, I mean, take it with a grain of salt on how legitimate they are. But they do all have the same explanation as far as territorial displays of tree knocking. And chimps and great apes do that behavior as well. And then we think that big foot is related to apes or whatever too. Right. So it's just very interesting. The whole thing is really interesting. Whether or not it was truly a big foot or not, something did happen. Definitely. There was something out there. Not all those trees, especially like if it had been a storm and these trees were falling down, I would be like, okay, well, that makes sense. But the fact that it wasn't even windy and it was like a really quiet night. That's so scary. And when dogs get scared, you just automatically get scared too. Like sometimes, Owls Dog,

will just like look in a direction for a while and I'm like is someone there like is someone looking in my windows right now. Oh yeah, just blank stare. And that's all they have to do. Like imagine if your dog is literally freaking out and there's weird noises around you, that just makes it so much scarier. Like something's definitely here now. So frightening. But I really enjoyed reading it and I would be interested too. Yeah, if anybody has had similar experiences. I know there's somebody I know from town that had a really eerie experience in Olympic while they were camping as well. Not exactly tree knocking and stuff, but something that they had never experienced as well. So anyway, it is very interesting. Well, there's lots of rumors that there's stuff hanging out in Olympic. So.

That's right. Is it my turn? It is, my dear. It is. Okay, another story. This time we are heading to Wyoming. And this person wrote, hey ladies, as a lover of the outdoors, I've been listening to your podcast for a while now and have been really enjoying it. I think you do a great job, and I appreciate the details and passion you put into it. My story takes place this last summer, July 2021, in the Washachee Wilderness, Shawshone National Forest, Wyoming. This wilderness area was designed in 1964 as a wildlife buffer zone for Yellowstone National Park and is one of the most remote places in the lower 48 states. This wilderness area is home to grizzlies and black bears, mountain lions, moose, elk, bighorn sheep, wolves, coyotes, porcupines, beavers, and white-tailed deer.

To quote the National Forest Service blurb of this area, these animals occur in abundance here. This area is extremely mountainous and ranges in elevation from 6,600 feet to 13,200 feet. Side note, I really appreciate the intro of the area. Yeah, the description and all that, I can definitely envision it now. I'm there. I'm there now. Although the Washiki Wilderness is devoid of humans outside the occasional summer visitors today, it is an archaeological wealth of human activity. As a PhD student in archaeology, I have spent the last two summers doing field work in this wilderness area above 9,000 feet in elevation.

The team I work with has found Native American artifacts spanning 10,000 years of time in this area. Our team spent 31 nights in the wilderness last summer between July and August. There were seven of us, and the only way to and from our base camp to the nearest infrastructure was 10 miles on horseback over rough terrain. The outfitters packed us and all of our supplies in, dropped us at the place which looked like a reasonable place to camp, and headed back down to the mountain with plans to return and pick us up in one month. Our communication with the outside world was through the garment and reach devices, powered by solar panels, which I would highly recommend for anyone who wants to spend time in the backcountry. Not long into our stay, we located an enormous archaeological site along a creek.

It was a two-mile hike from base camp because the daily four-mile round trip we would have to make to record the site didn't sound optimal. A contingent of our group, a man, another woman and I, decided to make a temporary camp next to the site. It ended up taking us 13 days just to record the artifacts which were on the surface of the ground. What? Just laying on the ground? Just out there. It's the middle of nowhere. I guess no one's touched it. No one's really been out there. I guess I'm picturing. That is so cool. Wow.

Yeah. Wow, what a find. I actually, after I read this story and I'll read more of it, but I looked it up online and I found a couple articles about a lot of artifacts that were found out in this area. Oh, okay. All right. Continue. We saw the one and only other person we came across in the entire 31 days while we were

in the wilderness. A lone cowboy fellow with gun strapped over both shoulders, an ammo. belt across the chest and towing a pack pony behind his horse. He told us he was headed up above the tree line to scout big horn sheep and we never saw him again. But this gives you an idea of what kind of place that we worked in. It ended up being one of the largest sites ever recorded in the Shoshone National Forest, artifacts spanning 5,000 plus years of time. In a long day's work, I began to think about all the people who had passed over the site, who had been born here, who had died here, What were they like? And what was it about this spot in particular, which made people keep coming back?

I could picture the hillside down to the stream covered with cook fires, shelter, and people living their lives out here in the mountains. Little children, old women, and young lovers, all sharing this space that now we are occupying. The site was completely exposed to the sun and there were a few days near the end of our stay at the site that it was very hot. After work, the three of us would often go sleep in our tents or sit in the stream to try and cool off. On one of these days, I was napping around 5 p.m. when I was awoken by a scream, which I thought came from the near creek, only about 15 meters away. It sounded like a woman's scream, and I immediately thought it was my colleague. I jumped up out of my tent and didn't see anyone nearby. I did a little bit of looking around before deciding that I had either dreamed it, or that the woman in the

man I was with were together and that it wasn't a big deal. It had not sounded like a scream of distress to me or else I would have been more worried. Besides, it was just us out there. Right? About an hour later, the three of us met up to make dinner and I was relieved to see that we were all accounted for. I asked the other woman if she had screamed and she replied, no, I thought that you screamed. She explained that at about 5 p.m. she had been bathing in a curve of the creek about a hundred meters away. She had heard a scream coming from near the camp and had headed back that way to check it out, but had seen nothing alarming either. The man said that he had been off mushroom hunting, a good ways off, and had neither screamed nor heard a scream. We let it sink in for a

little bit. Something human sounding had screamed very close to our campsite and had gone undetected. Something in between my tent and my colleague about 100 meters away. The three of us were all alone, the whole time that it happened and had seen nothing of concern at the time. We had not seen another person in days, let alone another woman. Our crew members were two miles upstream and would have no reason to come down to see without alerting us ahead of time. We decided to search the area and found nothing. We even got in touch with our crew members and they assured us that they were all accounted

for and had not seen anyone since the cowboy days earlier. We came up with several possible explanations. One, it was some kind of animal. Elk bugles do sound extremely eerie, especially if they are distorted by running water. Further mountain lions have been recorded to make calls which sound like a human scream. Two, an animal had been killed nearby. Three, at least one human had come through our campsite area completely unnoticed and for some reason cried out. Four, for whatever reason, I had screamed in my sleep and confused myself, though the last option may be possible. I have never known this to happen. However, it is certainly the most comforting possibility,

given that sneaky mountain people and man-eating cats were among us, were our most likely options. So we had finished all our recording the site and we stayed up there for two or three more nights. The three of us never wandered alone again and we kept a very sharp eye and ear out for anything to know. We eventually wrapped up and headed back to our base camp to continue our efforts elsewhere, which I was more than happy to do. I do not think that I scream in my sleep or that it was a dying animal, it would also have to have been the strangest elk ever known. That's just not what I heard. As scary as the possibility of a mountain lion prowling around our camp area, the thought of the screaming originated from an unknown person is still much more

settling to me. However, I must admit that out there in those mountains, a day's ride from anything logical or familiar, for a moment I believed in ghosts. There we were, disturbing artifacts, long been cast aside made by the hands of long dead individuals people who live their lives on this stream bank the whole experience certainly prompted my mind to wander it still gives me goosebumps to write about what the hell was it thank you for listening i hope you enjoyed i attached a couple pictures of the area the end the end they didn't write that i just said that wow what do you think i feel like my first thought goes to Fisher Cats because Fisher Cats, they sound like women screaming. So that was my very, very first thought, but they also sound like they're pretty well-versed in the backcountry,

and I would think that that would cross their mind. I wonder if now that you say that, because our minds go to Fisher Cats just because we have them in New Hampshire, but do Wolverines make that type of sound, like a Fisher Cat? Because like that previous email that I wrote or about Wolverines, they're super rare and elusive and would probably go on detected within a camp. That's a Wolverine. Okay, it sounds like a wart hog, first of all. Did you type in Wolverine scream? No, I did Wolverine sounds.

Okay, do Wolverine scream? It still comes up with the same video. Okay, so maybe not. I don't know. It says that they can make loud ones, but they come off as a snarl or a growl. Okay, so that's out. Never mind. I just thought because they're like a weasel. And then when I wrote in scream, Fisher Cats came up. Yeah, Fisher Cats is nuts. The first time that I heard a Fisher Cat scream, because I live so close to the nature preserve, I was young. Damn, it does sound like a person. We used to hear them all the time from the house that I grew up in because we're like pretty far away out there. And yeah, we used to hear them all the time during the summer, especially. I be just sitting outside, like looking at the stars. And it would just be like a blood-curdling woman screaming. But it's like, oh, it's just a fisher cat. It's fine. Like what if it wasn't? Great.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, she does have a good, or I keep saying she, they, I don't know if you said their name. So again. No, I didn't. Well, they did say that they were disturbing a lot of stuff. And you never know. I think that was a really good point. Especially if it. truly had gone undisturbed for so long. Like if it's just sitting on the surface of the ground, clearly nobody has been around since it was left. Or no one's cared to touch it. Yeah, what a weird experience. And I don't blame you for wanting to stick together after that. Yeah, it's very weird. Bizarre. As the Krispy Chicken Sandwich from 7-Eleven, people always call me loud. And I'm like, yeah, I know. I'm crispy. Did you expect me to whisper? If you want quiet,

Go eat some soup and reflect. Like, I know I'm a handful. I'm bold, I'm juicy. Throw some pickles and barbecue sauce on me, and baby, I'm a whole meal. And with seven rewards, I'm just $4. Quiet, no. Krispy, saucy, and $4?

Very. Only at 711. Valley through 62326, participating stores only while supplies last the app for full terms. Okay, I have a, my last one today is lighthearted, and I thought it was so funny. Okay.

Okay. The title, she titled it. The time a wild screeching orangutting ambushed my tent at 2 a.m. and I peed on my friend's backpack. Okay, so now we're requesting titles because that was just to set the tone. So if you write us an email, please title it. Please title your story. Hello, fellow outdoorsy gals. My name is Keeley, and I'm not even sure how I stumbled upon your podcast, but I love it. I grew up and still live in the tippity top of North Idaho. As such, being outside, camping, hiking, skiing, etc. was a part of my upbringing and a large part of who I am today. I was listening to a Trail Tales episode and I really wished I had something

crazy and funny happened to me that I could share. And then I realized, I do have something. The time I was backpacking on the PCT and was awoken at 2 a.m. by a crazy screeching orangutang, baby bigfoot, teradactyl. I don't even know. Okay. It was August of 2020 and my baby sister and I had planned about a hundred mile backpack on the PCT from somewhere in the Mount Adams Wilderness north of the Chinook Pass in Mount Rainier National Park. We have done several overnight backpacks together in the Selkirk and Cabinet Mountain ranges, but never a multi-night adventure. I was not even close to being in good shape. I work as a registered nurse, and COVID stress has done a number on me mentally, emotionally, and physically. We way overpacked

and had to reevaluate and repack several times at the trailhead, and also had gotten a little wine drunk at some rando winery in Hood River, Oregon, while trying to remember how to use our paper maps and navigate with our GPS from the 90s that my mom gave us. So this was going to be interesting. Fast forward about a week, we made it to White Pass Washington. The hike was amazing. The Mount Adams Wilderness is seriously one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

I had even spent a month in New Zealand, gallivanting around early, earlier in 2020 pre-COVID, but I'm telling you, this hike was comparably beautiful and I highly recommend it. So anyways, we meet my best friend Katie and her dog Kua, K-U-A-K-U-A-K-U-A-K-A-K-A. K-A-K-A. Would you say? Cua. Yeah. It sounds like-S. Sorry, Kua if that's wrong.

We love you. We love you, sorry. At White Pass to do the next 30 miles to Chinook Pass together. And just so you know, she attached pictures to her email, a lot of them. One of them is a view from the hike, and she's not exaggerating, like, one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. I'll post it. Yeah, I was going to say post it and I want to see it. Yeah.

Okay. Thank God Katie is also a nurse and a much better one than me, L.O.L. Because my feet were jacked up. Blisters, toenails falling off, and raw skin. Okay, Yosey. So while we ate multiple jars of spinach dip and drank IPAs from the gas station until I couldn't feel the. pain anymore. She doctored my nasty-ass-ass-face-to-our-to-ar very last night. Three of us and the doggy are cozied up in my two-person tent. Real snug. At this point, I had been wearing flip-flops

hiking because my boots hurt my feet so bad. And it was so hot that day I had chugged probably a gallon of water when we stopped to camp. So sound asleep, dreaming of cheeseburgers and beer, I was awoken suddenly by an insanely loud-pitched, rhythmic screaming, screeching sound coming from the trees above our tent. It was so close. First, I shit my pants. Second, I was able to mutter, Kirsten, are you awake? And I hear a soft, yes. And I say, what the fuck was that? Katie says, I have no idea. And it keeps going. This wild, rhythmic screech. I'm thinking Bigfoot for Shizzle. Huge Bigfoot fan here. Finally, it stops after a bit. And I realize I have a whole ass gallon of urine in my bladder. and I got to pee. My heart is racing. My hands are shaking. We are three girls alone in a tent in the

middle of the woods with a wild screeching orangutang tang up in the trees. After a few minutes, Katie got out of the tent and walked over into the trees to pee. What a bad bitch. I, however, took two steps from the tent, still terrified to my core, squatted and released the contents of the Nile River. After a solid minute of flow and praying to God this orangutane doesn't jump on my head from the trees, I look over and realize my river of pee has partially flowed onto Katie's backpack. She wasn't exactly excited about that, but also thought it was hilarious. Fast forward to the next night, my mom picked up us dirt bums from the parking lot at the Chinook Pass, and we were happily drinking wine and doctoring my feet at a cozy Airbnb in

Packwood, Washington. I decided to Google screeching monkey sounds in the woods and come across a YouTube video of an owl making the exact same noise. An owl. T'was a fucking owl. I felt pretty dumb for being so terrified and peeing on my best friend's backpack. However, we are still great friends and shout out to my badass sister, Kirsten, who has since solo through hiked the Colorado Trail in 23 days. Would also like to say to all fellow outdoorsy women out there, get into the mountains go hike go play don't be afraid be smart be strong and know that owls are screeching maniacs and try not to pee on backpacks keely oh yeah cayley so so oh my god i just loved it that inspiration at the end oh my god i just loved it i'm glad you guys are still friends

after you peed on her backpack i know imagine it's like that's not great, especially when it's so much. No, if you peed on my backpack, I would still be friends with you. Thanks. I appreciate that. But I just totally understand the panic of just... And everything is intensified when you have to pee. Don't you think? Like, everything's just more urgent. If it's dark and you have to pee, yes. I have that fear even when there isn't a crazy orangutan owl above me. Like, you know, in the middle of the night and you're camping, you're like, no, I'm. have to pee. I literally hold out as long as I can. I'll try and wait until it's light out. I'll literally sit there holding my bladder, almost peeing my pants, being like, it's going to be

light any minute now. The last time I did that, we were in the badlands and I had to be, first of all, I had to be so bad, but the tent was pretty much sideways because we forgot the stakes and we were being blown away. And we were on a ledge also. And we're on. That's why I'm like, okay, that's number one. And number two, those sheep that were so close to us. Their eyeballs were glowing and staring at us. So we were camping in the badlands and we look over and there's these sheep and they had decided to sleep next to us. So we were shining their lights because we can hear them. And then they're glowing, beady eyes are just staring at us. And I swear to God, every single time we've shown the light on them, the eyes were closer.

They were. They were. I thought we were going to like, we were going to turn the light up and turn it on and their face is going to be like four inches from hours. Yeah, that's what I'm like, okay, so I'm going to hold this pee because I'm going to get blown off the edge of this cliff and then get trampled by, no, the sheep is going to kick me off the ledge. It's going to fall in the wind. Yeah, yeah, I know the feeling. So, um, anyway, thanks Gile for such a lighthearted, um, funny story. I'm dying that it was an owl. I know. I know. I'm actually going to share my screen with you really quick. So, you can see this picture because I have it up.

Do you see it? Oh, wow. That's so pretty. Isn't that really pretty? Yeah. Yeah, that's beautiful. It kind of, it feels like the Western version of the Franconia Ridge loop. It looks very similar to that when you're on the top of all of the ledges, I guess.

The ridge line, yeah. The ridge line, that's the word I was looking for, yeah. The edges. The edges. That was a lighthearted one. I liked that one. I feel like maybe we should end it on a high note. Yeah, I like that.

Okay, great. So, like we said in the beginning, NPAD Stories at gmail.com is the best place to send us your stories. We'd love to hear any and all of them. And what did we say? Um, today, title your stories because I loved that. Yes. Title Stories. Title Your Stories.

If you want your name included, sign your name. And I had one more thing. Oh yeah, send pictures if you have it. Yeah. Pictures are great. And if you go on our website, NPADPodcast.com, and you go to the contact information part, we have a little form right there where you can write in your stories that go straight to our email.

And there's a little box that you can check that says, like, I want to remain anonymous or I don't want this featured. If you want to tell us the story, but you don't want us to talk about it, you write that into because we love to just read things, but definitely specify if you want to be anonymous or not. And we're really excited. We're going to start doing this monthly now. And this is going to be a bonus episode. We're not taking away from the content that we already put out to do Trail Tales episode. This is actually going to be an extra episode that we're going to do every month moving forward. Yes, so excited. Just there's so many people with so many cool stories. We couldn't just limit it

to every once in a while. So exactly. All right. Well, We'll see you guys next week. Have a fabulous week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week.

If you have a trail tale you'd like to share, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Become an outsider by joining our Patreon where you'll gain access to monthly bonus stories and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our partners, you're supporting our show. To access our special discount codes along with source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For information on the show, to shop our merch store, sign up for our newsletter and more, visit npaddpodcast.com. And if you're enjoying the show, please rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You're listening to this podcast,

so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressives save over $900 on average. Pop over to Progressive.com, answer some questions, and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99% of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit Progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary.