National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 47

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

Today’s stories include life saving butterflies, bobcat guardians, hotdog man rescues, baby trail snacks, puke curses, angel friends, madness at Mesa Verde and shitty situations. 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!Quince: Use our link to get free shipping and 365-day returns.IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping.3 Day Blinds:  For their buy 1 get 1 50% off deal, head to 3DayBlinds.com/NPAD.BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Focus. Listen to work getting done with Monday.com. Relax. As AI does the manual work, while your teams are aligned on a single source of truth. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform, so flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Notice you're limitless.

Limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally. Breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now spring's got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders.

That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope? It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to National Park After Dark. We have another Trail Tales edition. Seems like it's been a long time. Yeah. I know it hasn't been for all of you listening because it's coming out, but we pre-recorded and now we're like sitting back down and reading your stories. And we're really excited because this is one of our favorite parts of the week is to get to tell your stories. And it's fun that we don't have to research it either. We just get your perspective. So we are happy to be here today and read.

your stories. That is a plus. I will say that. It's light work over here for this type of story or episode. It's like we like reading anyway. Yeah. It's already all the information is there for us. It's great. Usually formatted, lovely. Do you want to go first or shall I? How about you go first? Okay. That works. I'm ready for a story. Okay. First, before we get into that, I meant to ask you. So we've had a side conversation about a show that I've been obsessed with. And I'm like, late to the game always always this is not a new show it's on amazon prime the first two seasons are out and it's from have you uh-huh did you give up okay so backstory daniel tells me watch this show i'm obsessed with it it's really good it's a little bit scary but um it gets better and i was like

okay so i turned it on it was like i get scared easily and then i was watching it and actually was watching it with al and al is like the jumpiest person than I've ever met in my life. And I was sitting there watching it. And the first thing that happens is someone gets like stabbed through the face. And I was just like, okay, this is scary. I told you it was creepy, but it gets scary, but then it gets better. And then it's just creepy.

Yeah. But it gets less. There's things in the window that like, oh, the first scene was there was a grandma in the window. And she was like, let me in. And this little kid's like, okay. And she opens it. And then a couple of scenes later, you see her on the floor and all her insides are eaten and like spilled everywhere. And I was like, oh, my God.

Okay. So aside from that, it comes in hot, but it, it simmers out and it's really good. And it's very, remember when I asked, I was like, have you watched Lost? Because it was giving Lost vibes. And turns out like two of the three producers of From worked on Lost. I'm like, okay, well, that makes sense. now. And I'm so bummed because, so the first season was included on Prime and then the second season was not like you had to buy it. I'm like, well, they got me. So here's $25. So I bought it, ripped through it within like three or four days. And now I have to wait, God knows how long. I've been waiting for House of Dragon for like three years. That's an exaggeration. It's been a

year and a half, I think. But it feels like three. But it feels like three. Same with Last of Us. It's just let's get this going. You know what I mean? Like, I can't get emotionally attached. I like getting emotionally attached to things when I click them. And it's like eight seasons. I'm like, yes, this is my. I actually, I just started watching, we were the lucky ones.

And I knew you would get into that without even seeing it. It's so good. And it's, unfortunately, it's not fully out yet as of this recording. Actually, a new episode came out today. So new episodes are coming out weekly, which I hate because I just want to sit down and binge them. But it has that actor who played, I forget her name, but she plays Gypsy Rose in the Hulu series. It was a series. It was in a docu series, but it was based on her life.

And she does such a good job. And now she's in this one. And this story is about this. It's a true story about this family who lived through the World War. two and the Holocaust era and they survived in totally separate circumstances and some of their family members died and all this stuff. And it's horrible and it's heart wrenching, but it's all a true story. And it's really, it's really wild. It's based on a true story. I saw it the other day at the bookstore. The book version of it. And I thought of you. I mean, maybe I'll get into that

or not. I don't know if it's not all out. Anyway, we don't have to have this discussion here. I was just kind of curious on my from experience. Yeah, and you gave up. I'll try again, but maybe I'll try again when the lights are on because the whole premise of From is at night. These things come crawling up to your house and try to make you let them in and then they consume you. Yeah, and it just gets so much more complex. I believe you that it's good. So maybe I'll give it another shot, but I just needed a break.

Yeah, okay. That's fine. That's fine. I was actually surprised that you said you watched it without because when you were like, okay, I'll try it. I thought you were going to just go in alone because usually Al's like working and stuff. I'm like, she's brave. She's so brave, but I'm not going to tell her to not watch it by yourself because then it would completely deter you. She's well-behaved.

Okay, I'm going to read my story. Okay. Or somebody else's story to you. Okay, thank you. And it is titled Something Follows Us, Where Something Follows Us Whenever We Visit a National Park. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. I love listening to your show, especially because my current lifestyle and location in the United

States is not conducive to national parking as much as I would like. I'm also a librarian who loves history, so listening to the research you put into each episode is so fun. Great work. My name is Colleen, and I don't have a specific trail tale, more like a pattern we've noticed as we've gone to national parks. It seems like a dark cloud follows us whenever we're visiting these majestic landmarks and it might make listeners think twice about having children.

Our first family trip to a national park was Olympic in 2014. Younger versions of my husband and I were going to Seattle with our one-year-old for a family wedding and we were both dying to visit Olympic. We planned out a nice trip with four days in Olympic and visiting all of the best spots. We were going to fly from Chicago to Seattle, rent a car, drive into the park from the South End and meander to the Lake Quinault Lodge where we would spend our first night. Quick caveat on me. I love hiking, enjoying the outdoors, marveling in nature, and a flushable toilet in the morning

and evening and a private shower. Fair. My husband calls me a cabiner. So we get into our car with my father-in-law to brave horrific Chicago traffic to the airport and our one-year-old decides it's the perfect day of his life to let us know he's going to be a kid who gets horrible. horrendously car sick. We're not even at the airport yet and our car is covered in puke. We rush to clean it, change him and thankfully we make our flight. Then we land, go to a grocery

store to stock up on snacks and hit the road. During which our baby cannot stop throwing up. Like, how does his small body have the ability to contain this much vomit? We decided to throw any sightseeing that day out of the window and are just trying to get to the Lake Quinnell area. We get incredibly lost. We don't have Google maps in the ancient times of 2014, keep having to pull over to clean up our rental car, and at one point pull over so I can take off all of my clothes on the side of the road and change into something puke-free, which was great for my postpartum self-esteem. We finally make it to Lake Quinault Lodge and can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Huge shout out to everyone who was

working that night and got us a room with a bath so we could get all cleaned up and a delicious meal pretty much immediately. I will recommend that place forever. The next morning my husband went to a small market to try and find some sort of cleaning supplies to clean out the vomit-soaked rental car and have a nice time commiserating with the owner whose daughter had thrown up all over his car the night before. But she was 17 and now grounded because of what caused the vomiting. Uh-oh. We spent our next two days seeing some beautiful sights watching our son run around Ruby Beach is something I'll never forget. But we ended up going to Seattle a day early and missing the whole rainforest in favor of visiting an urgent care to make sure there wasn't something seriously wrong

with our baby who continued to throw up nearly constantly. Don't worry, he was fine. Fast forward two years, we've added another kid to the family and decided it's time for another National Park trip. This time, we're going to Acadia in October, arguably the best place in the world to be in autumn. A lot of the same with this trip. Gorgeous scenery, beautiful walks through red, orange, and yellow heaven, throwing rocks into Jordan Pond, exploring the carriage, roads, which are perfect for strollers. Take your little kids here if you don't want to kill your back. And of course, a now three-year-old throwing up at every major destination and a bunch of pull-offs, fun times. Take three. Off to Sawaro. It's April 2017. Our almost four-year-old son now knows when he's

going to throw up. So we travel with a bucket. Our one-year-old daughter is a champ traveler, so nothing can go wrong. Whoops, I'm unknowingly five weeks pregnant with twins. It was 90 to when we arrived at the visitor center and I was not feeling good. I gave my husband a look and sprinted to the bathroom. I made it to the toilet because I'm a grown up, but if you were there and heard a woman absolutely emptying the contents of her stomach in the bathroom, I'm sorry. We tried to do a bit of hiking, but it was so hot and I was trying to not cry while dreaming of a popsicle in a pool. We ended up seeing Sawaro from the air-conditioned contents of the car, which was preferable to me and probably safer since that one-year-old daughter was a no-fear type of child and would have loved to hug a cactus.

Infant twins and a pandemic put a dent in our travels for a long time, but we found sanctuary in the open lands those years, letting our kids explore everything northeastern Illinois has to offer and keeping ourselves from going crazy in 2020 and 2021. March of 23, we decided to give a big park another shot, not a national park, but Brown County State Park in Indiana. It's close to home, only a four-hour drive. The hikes are manageable for all of our kids, now 9, 7, 5, and 5. And best of all, the nearby lodge has an indoor pool. That's a big deal with kids. We left home and it was 30 and snowing.

Got to Brown County and it was 60 and gorgeous. The ride had been rougher than we imagined because one of our twins, who is usually our easiest child, cried constantly and was a general hot mess. My husband and I discussed that maybe road trips were just not her jam. We got to Brown County and hit the closest trail to our cabin, a pretty two-mile loop, but nothing our kids couldn't handle. Except that the usual angelic twins were falling apart, making my husband giving her a piggyback and generally just miserable. Fast forward to 7 p.m. and I want to help her into her pajamas and she's burning up with a fever, sobbing that her throat hurts, but she didn't want to ruin our vacation, and covered with a rash. I called the lodge and found the closest urgent care, got an appointment for the next morning, and they also left.

Let me know that there was an ambulance bank nine minutes away in cases became an emergency. She and I drive to the birthplace of Mike Pence, and I'm super happy she can't read because of all the hell is real and abortion is murder signs littering the side of the road. We finally get to the doctor. She had scarlet fever. Scarlet fever. What is this? 1850? She spent the rest of our vacation in bed while my husband and I traded off who took the other kids hiking or to the pool. and by the last day she felt good enough to go to town, but no more hikes for that poor girl.

At least no one threw up on that trip. With summer 24 on the horizon and a trip to Acadia as a family of six all planned and pay for, I'm feeling prepared. I already know where the urgent care is and everything. Plus, would it even be a vacation if someone didn't get sick? I hope everyone had a chuckle and wasn't dissuaded from taking their kids to national parks. In between all of the vomiting and the scarlet fever, we really do love the outdoors. Why else would we keep going back?

Maybe after this next trip, I'll have some sort of ghost story, but I hope not. I don't think I could handle a surprise trip to urgent care and a haunting. Thanks for listening. Enjoy the view, but watch your back. One of my kids might be standing behind you and about to puke. Colleen. I feel like there's a lot of moms listening to this right now that is like, yes. I know exactly what you're talking about.

And that has happened. And also kudos to you because I think a lot of people are like either they think if they have kids, they can't travel or once they have kids, they're afraid to travel and to just get out there despite knowing that these, despite having to look up where the urgent cares are because you know something's going to go awry. You still get out there and go and have a good time. And that's exciting. Yeah, it's not a deterrent just because it's more difficult than it was prior. It doesn't dissuade your family from. that and giving your kids that experience. So, I mean, it makes for a great story years later, you know, like in hindsight. So thanks for sharing. And glad your kids are okay too.

Yeah. And Scarlet Fever, like, what is this? 1850? You got me for that. That's a good one. 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. All right, my next story is titled, or my first story, because I haven't told any today, my first story is titled 500 miles of reasons to stay. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. First off, I want to say that I absolutely adore you too. Your podcast has gotten me through long drives,

plane trips, gym sessions, and most importantly, my 500 mile through hike of the Colorado Trail. This past summer, I spent 36 days hiking, listening to your podcast, and knowing that I was going to have to write in a trail tale. Between a mama bear growling at me from six feet away, broken water filters, sleeping bags and bowls, cabins with strangers, food poisoning, and 100 miles on a broken ankle, I've had a hard time deciding on one story. Fast forward five months later, and I have finally made my decision. For a little backstory, one of my best friends lost her battle against her mental health about a year and a half ago. One of the many reasons I wanted to hike this trail was to get myself out of a rut. I have struggled with my own mental health

for many years, and this past year was one of the hardest of my life. I was able to motivate myself by planning, preparing, and eventually hiking. However, on my last full day on the trail, I felt like I had nothing else. My one motivator for life was coming to a close, and I didn't feel strong enough to keep going. I have never believed in signs from our loved ones who have passed. But after listening to your episode all about signs from the universe, I decided I might as well try. I asked my friend for a sign that it was not my time to leave, that I had more to offer to the world. I had the fleeting thought of butterflies, but wasn't sure if it was too cliche. Expecting nothing of my plea I kept on hiking. That evening, I set up camp only 14 miles from completing

my adventure. I was eating plain tuna straight from the packet when two butterflies landed on my arm and hung out for a full 10 minutes. I laughed and started tearing up knowing my friend was no doubt telling me to keep fighting. I fully believe she sent me to to make sure I really got the message and I didn't try to come up with some lame excuse. Since then, I ended up going to a treatment Center to get some much needed help and I now feel the best I have in years. I know this was a bit of a longer story, but I hope that you know that your podcast led me to ask a question in which turned saved my life. Thank you ladies for doing what you do. All my love, Maggie. That's so touching. Maggie, God. Maggie, I'm so glad that you got help and I'm glad that you are here and you found a purpose to be here and I'm

very happy that you share this story with us because I think that you're not alone and that there's a lot of other people who are facing similar struggles and maybe hearing this story is a sign for them and maybe this is a sign of hope for other people. So thank you for sharing that story with us. Absolutely. A very personal story with us. Yeah. Well, my next story is titled New Heights in Memory of Matt Richard. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. I have a trail tale to share and it's with a heavy heart. I appreciate that you have shared your experiences with the loss of loved ones on the pod. I am now aware of how comforting that can be to people who have experienced grief in their lives. Thank you for everything that you do and giving me a place to write about a dear friend and the positive impact he's had on me. I met Matt for the first time at a red rock show. How classic Colorado. He radiated positive energy and I was immediately drawn to being his friend. Since then, we kept in touch via social media and finally hung out when I started getting into rock climate. He was always posting photos of his rock climbing endeavors and I reached out to see if he wanted to climb together. Even though I was brand new at the sport, he was stoked to introduce me to the climbing community and to show me the ropes, no pun intended.

I've never felt so welcomed into a community and have never had so much fun doing something so difficult. He made me feel like I could accomplish anything in and out of the climbing gym. Though Matt was a newer friend of mine, I felt like I could talk to him about anything, whether it be my struggles with mental health or just sharing a new weird song I was into. I was so excited to have him in my life. After many gym sessions, Matt invited me to climb outside for the first time with him and his friends and I was slightly nervous but thrilled to join. I had a few too many drinks the night before and struggled to get out of bed to climb.

I could not bail on Matt though, so I decided to get myself together and follow through with our plans. After locating my car at the bar strip I left it on, I raced to meet him out on. I raced to meet him out on the crag, out in Golden, Colorado. Dehydrated and pale, I arrived at the climbing route and Matt said, All right, you're up. This is the tallest one. What had I gotten myself into? Everyone there was so skilled and I was so nervous to get on the wall.

I started climbing with hesitation, but sure enough, Matt started to hype me up and make me feel like I could actually do this. After getting past the toughest part and making it about halfway up the wall, my anxiety kicked in. I needed to come down. I bullied to the bottom slightly defeated, but when I got down, Matt made me feel like I had done the coolest thing ever, while simultaneously making fun of me for being hung over in the most endearing way. I suddenly felt so accomplished and ready to try another route despite being aggressively hungover.

I made it to the top of the second route. With a full heart and a new thrill, I had faced a fear of climbing outside, and I had a blast doing it. All thanks to Matt in the awesome climbing community that he was a part of. Matt passed away in February while climbing in Potrero, Mexico. He was having the time of his life and had just completed his hardest climbing route to date. Matt was all about living his best life and was so positive and uplifting towards anyone he met. He advocated for following your dreams and enjoying every step of the journey. Though I knew Matt for a short time, I will be forever grateful to have had him in my life.

It is clear to see that he made such a positive impact on so many people. My heart goes out to anyone dealing with a loss of a friend and a loved one. Excited to see a sign from Matt. Remember to watch your back, tell your friends that you love them, and enjoy life to the fullest. That was such a good story. And thank you for sharing that. That was a rough one. It's rough.

It's like it's so sad. And our hearts obviously go out to you. And he sounds like such a wonderful person and such a full of adventure. And it's just like those people, you know, when you feel like really down and they described it. Like she's like, I came down and I felt defeated. And he's like, you just did the coolest thing ever. Like that was so great. Yeah. Those people are so special because I know for sure I'm not one of them, even though I would love to be.

I'm just not naturally like that. But the people who just exude that type of like positivity and encouragement and just like spiked. and just like spice for life and just there is no like you kept saying he was a newer friend he was a newer friend but he didn't make you feel that way I think everyone can kind of relate to knowing those types of people like it doesn't matter if he's known you for three weeks or three years he's going to treat you the same and that's just such a special quality that again not everybody has and it's really special to find when you come across it so even though he was only in your for a little while physically.

It's really clear that his impact will last the rest of your life, which is something to cherish. Beautifully said. Thank you. Well, my next story is titled Hot Dog Man to the Rescue. Okay. Let's take it in another direction. Yeah, a very different direction.

Hi, Danielle and Cassie. I recently started listening to NPAD and I love it. I'm a huge fan and listen to it in the car while walking my dog while doing homework whenever I get the chance. I just got to the Iditarod Trail episode and I was very excited about it because I've been into dog sledding my entire life. I grew up in upstate New York and have been recreationally dog sledding with my husky for a while now. I am also a pre-veterinary student. I was so excited to hear that you guys were in vet med too. At the University of Vermont, hey, we're neighbors. Hey, look at that. Look at that. I know and Allie, Golden Colorado. I don't live in

golden but very very close. Very close. Yeah. Small worlds. Small worlds. At the University of Vermont and work with a local racing sled dog kennel, I have a bit of light, I have a bit of a lighthearted sled dog story that does not take place in a national park or even a park of any kind, but it does take place on a trail. So I figured it counted. Definitely. This is called trail tales. It's definitely not as crazy as some of the stories that kept sent in, but I hope you guys enjoy it nonetheless. I was recently on a 20-mile running run with the kennel along a snowmobile trail in Danville, Vermont, a small town in the

northeast kingdom. The first half of our run was a mess. We were training new lead dogs and it seemed like things just kept going wrong. I was ahead of the teams on a snowmobile with a walkie-talkie so that the mushers could communicate with me if they needed help so that I could let them know what was heading towards them, other snowmobilers, cross-country skiers, other dogs, etc. My radio suddenly crackled to life and one of our friends that we were running with, frantically letting me know that she had a bad line tangled and she desperately needed help. Dogs getting tangled up in the lines can be a big deal and it can be dangerous for both the dogs and the musher. My partner on the snowmobile with me turned it around and we sped back, rounding the corner and expecting to find hurt dogs or something else horrible.

To our relief, all dogs were happy and safe and our friend had anchored. her sled and was working on untangling her dogs with the help of a man in a hot dog costume. If the situation hadn't been so initially stressful, I don't think I would have been able to hold my laugh in. The guy had been riding his snowmobile in his hot dog costume and happened to be the closest when the dogs got tangled and jumped into action. I hopped off the snowmobile along with my partner and we helped get the dogs straightened out again. Two focused on our jobs to even process the fact that a hot dog just saved our dogs from potential injury. We got everything figured out. The dogs were all okay. And they went right back to barking and

bouncing around because they wanted to get moving again. Hot dog man told us that he ran a hot dog stand called the Winter Weiner. That's really funny. And I want to be on this. Okay. You're so close. You need to do some personal investigation. Research here. Okay, well, I'll let you finish, but I have questions. Where is the Winter Weiner? Does it just operate in the winter? Is he on the sled in his costume as promo?

It sounds like it might be on a snowmobile trail that you can go on. It sounds like. Like a stop? Yeah. Okay. Keep going. Which is hilarious. And a good idea.

Hot Dog Man told us that he ran a hot dog stand called the Winter Weiner along the trail and was out promoting it when he saw that our friend needed help. There it is. There we are. So he jumped into action and helped untangle the dogs. Untangling sled dogs is a fine art. It's not easy and takes years to perfect. I'm still learning.

And this man dressed as a hot dog with presumably no experience with sled dogs, leapt into action like he did it every day. We regrettably didn't get his name in the heat of the moment. So as we disappeared down the trail, we bid him a simple. Thank you, hot dog man. Hut Dogman was our savior that day, and we even joked about running a 30-mile race in Maine that we have coming up in hot dog costumes in honor of him. Thanks to Hot Dog Man, the rest of our run was relatively peaceful through the gorgeous mountainscapes, forests and farmland of the Northeast Kingdom. With happy mushers and even happier dogs, if you're ever out on the vast snowmobile trail system in the Northeast Kingdom, make sure to stop by the winter weiner and let Hot Dog Man know what a great sled dog handler he is.

Keep up the great work, Cass. Okay, Cass. You've just opened the door because I'm... Did you find Head Dog Man? Okay, well, no. I'm just, there's a lot going on here. I typed in the Winter Weiner and I'm getting so many pictures of doxins in sweaters. That's really cute.

And I bet your algorithm, like all your Facebook ads are going to be doxen sweaters now. Shit. Hold on, though, because I think I just saw something about Vermont. Okay, Vermont. Is that close to you, Dan? Did she say? The Northeast Kingdom is north of me, about like an hour and a half north of me. I found it.

I found it. You found him. What's his name? Well, I don't know if it's, no. I don't find him. Okay. The Winter Weiner has 235 followers and 151 likes, about to be 152. I just liked it.

It says perfect vast trail stop to enjoy our homemade pigs in a blanket. visit us in Vermont's winter wienerland. Oh yeah. And literally, oh my God, literally one day ago. It says, see you next season. The 2024 vast season is officially over. Thank you for everyone who ventured out to the winter weiner despite the less than ideal conditions. Okay.

So we missed our opportunity first. But I will say, you know what I'll say, is my house is along the vast trails in Vermont. and we're planning to get snowmobiles. So when that happens and you're moving back to New England, you can come over. We'll hop on some snowmobiles and we'll ride up to go see the winter wiener. It's done. Plants. Set and stone for 2020, 2004, 2025 winter.

Yeah. We'll have to keep, I liked the page. So now you're going to get updates. I'll get updates. You'll know when they reopen. Yeah. Well, you don't even eat. I was just thinking that.

I don't even eat hot dogs. Maybe they have a vegetarian hot dog. Well, they have soup. They have their menu on here. I don't know where it went. Oh, yeah. Veggie hot dogs exist and I like soup. Okay, they have a chocolate chip cookie.

They have hot cocoa. I love that. You love a hot cocoa. Especially when it's cold out. And they have soups. Perfect. So, okay, we're just giving so much promo to the winter weener. Use our code.

Discount code. Discount code. Okay. Okay. All right. So I'm going to continue on. with this silliness because the next story is titled A Shitty Situation. Oh, God.

Yeah. I can already hear the pun in that. But continue. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. I have been listening to your podcast for a few months now and I absolutely love you too. I just wanted to say that I am so sorry for your loss, Danielle. It hurts my heart knowing that you are going through grief and my thoughts and prayers are with you. Thank you for that.

This isn't your average trail tale as I have contemplated whether to send this in or not. But since I haven't heard of many embarrassing trail tales on your show, I thought I would send mine in. Brave. First of all, I just have to say. Okay, so there's a warning here. It says, warning. The following material contains uncontrollable diarrhea. Viewer discretion is advised. Huge inhale, long exhale. Okay, here we go. We're listening, not viewing. Yes, yeah. Listener discretion is advised. All right, here we go. This happened back when I was 15 and I'm 32 now.

So, as you can see, I never had any embarrassing moments top this one in the span of 17 years. For about four years, my parents would take my twin sister and I to a Christian camp where we would go hiking and kayaking for about a week. And it has always been so much fun and that's why I continued to choose to do this particular activity at the camp because hiking is my favorite. A few days into the hike, my twin sister sprained her ankle. so she had to be taken back to the main camp a few days early so she could rest her ankle, which at the time was sad for me, but after the embarrassing moment I am about to have, I am so glad she wasn't there because she has a big mouth and it would have spread like wildfire. It was the last day of our hike before leaving to go back to camp,

which by bus was only a few hours away. After breakfast, me and a few of my campmates decided to go to the stream to get some water for our bottles. After filling up our bottles, we put a purifying tablet into each, and, well, I was thirsty, and I didn't want to wait the 30 minutes or so for the tablet to work its magic. So, you guessed it, and I drank my water. For those of you who know how purifying tablets work, this is a big no-no. You have to be patient for the water to purify. After gulping my water down, I felt good, hydrated, and ready to hike back to the bus to leave.

I was looking forward to this bus ride back because there was a boy who was part of the group that I had the biggest crush on. Oh, no. Of course you did. I was able to snag a seat across the aisle from him. No. So little 15-year-old me was super happy. No.

About an hour or so into the bus ride, we all stopped at a pizza parlor to chow down since we've been camping in the woods for about a week. After we ate, we all headed back onto the bus to make a straight shot back to the main camp since our parents would be there to pick us up. Everything was going great until about 15 minutes into our bus ride. and my stomach started to cramp. I was gripping the sea in front of me because I was in so much pain. Before I knew it, I started to feel a warm sensation in my shorts. I'm thinking I must have sat in water, but then a smell started to linger from my direction. And then suddenly, I've realized what it was.

There was watery diarrhea coming out of me, and I had absolutely no control of my bowels. I tried so hard to clinch my butt, but it didn't work. So yes, I was pooping myself uncontrollably on the bus around all of my campmates with my crush sitting directly across from me. Embarrassment is a complete understatement for what I was going through. I told the camp counselor what was happening who told the bus driver that we needed to pull off to the next exit so I could use the restroom. He had an irritated look on his face because we literally just left the pizza parlor. Apparently, the smell didn't hit his nose quite yet. Thankfully, there was a campmate who was kind enough to give me her bed sheet, which, by the way, was white so I could wrap it around my waist.

I didn't need people seeing my poop-stained shorts as I'm wobbling into the Wendy's restaurant our bus driver pulled into. Oh, but wait, the embarrassing moment isn't over yet. Nay, nay. Not only were we in the middle of nowhere with very few restaurants to choose from, but everyone and their brother was at this Wendy's. With my luck, it was lunch hour, and it was packed. I wobbled my way into the two-stall restroom where the line quickly formed out of the door. So here I am in this small two-stall restroom, shitting my brains out with my camp counselor waiting for me inside of the restroom. Not sure why she didn't wait outside to prevent torturing her nose like that.

But, okay, be my guest. It's not like I was lacking an audience. There were people walking in, making comments about how bad the bathroom smelled. I was in so much pain at the time that I wasn't embarrassed by those comments. I just wanted to clear my bowels, get out of that Wendy's, and back into the bus, putting this embarrassing moment behind me. Jokes on me because I'm still embarrassed about it to this day. Oh, no. Thankfully, when I got back to the bus, no one said anything about it.

Well, to my face, that is. I mean, we were all 15 to 17-year-olds and you know how mean kids can be. They asked me if I was okay and I told them, yes, I'm fine now. it must have been from the unpurified water I drank mixed with the pizza. I made it through the rest of the trip back to the main camp with no more unexpected surprises and poop-free. I put my poopy clothes in a plastic bag and shoved it in my suitcase. Why would you put it at your shoe? Why wouldn't you just throw them out?

There's no saving those. I bet my mom had fun cleaning that out. Oh, because you didn't have to clean them. That's why. Because of mom, yeah. I can't remember what happened to that bed sheet. I used her on my waist, but I really hope she threw it away. I hope you didn't give it back.

Yeah, it's like, thank you for this. Like, you just hand it back to her after you get off the bus. Like, thank you. It's kind of like when people, when we worked at the animal hospital, a lot of people would bring, like, urine or fecal samples in in, like, Tupperware, like, clearly used for home, like, leftovers. And they'd be like, don't worry, I don't want it back. It's like, I would fucking hope not. Like, there's a puddle of diarrhea in this.

Like, I hope you're not. to put your lasagna in this tonight. Right. It's like, okay, great. Anyways, and that's my story. Fortunately, my uncontrollable diarrhea didn't scare my crush away because he still wanted to hang out with me outside of camp. Wow. That's a green flag. That's sweet. Thanks for reading. I hope this makes it on the podcast. If not, I hope you had a good chuckle and keep my story in mind whenever you are tempted to drink stream water before allowing the purifying tablets to dissolve. All right, my loves, enjoy the view, but watch your back. Literally, watch your back. You might have uncontrollable diarrhea when drinking unpurified water. Much love, Carissa.

Thank you for using your most embarrassing story for you as a life lesson for the rest of us. So hopefully we can avoid that. I feel like it's a very kind to gesture for everybody listening. Yeah, you just like made a sacrifice for everyone else. Like everyone's going to look at their water and be like, what would Carissa do? Yeah. Don't be like Carissa. this moment. Yep. You just saved a lot of people some dirty shorts. You sure did. All right. My next story is titled, What's My Sign? I'm a Gemini. I love, I'm just going to say, every, I have a

pattern. And every, like, close, with the exception of one, most of my closest female friendships are Gemini's. And all of my, like, best, like, greatest relationships with men are. And I'm, Aries. Very interesting that you gravitate towards like specific. Yeah. Do you? Do you know? Like what's, well, Al is a. He's a Leo. Leo. Yeah. He's a Leo. And then I have a lot of friends. Actually, I have a lot of friends who are Aries, too. Aries are the best. I mean, at least in men, I haven't, I don't really know many Aries women, but I just love an Ares man. They're so funny in the best. I dated one Aries. man and it was not my favorite but that's okay that's okay they're not for everyone but I think that he like had some other signs going on that interfered with the good parts of aries because when you read

the description of an aries and then compared it to him they were not the same they were not the same yeah and not to say that like in a good or bad way it just like wasn't a fit for me um but I feel like maybe if he was on because I have a lot of good friends that are aries I feel like maybe if he had been more consistent with his sign than things might have worked out differently. But, well, me and Elle are both fire signs, which means that you generally get along with them. Yeah. So something was wrong with him, I guess. Yeah.

Just kidding. I think that you're my only, like, that I can think of offhand. You're my only Sagittarius, like, friend ever. Like, I can't think of another one. I feel honored. Thank you. Yeah. It's not that I've been.

I'm avoiding them. Like, I clearly enjoy Sagittarius's very much, but I just you're the only one I know. I like the one and only. Yeah. No other ones. Yeah. All right. Anyway, my story is titled, What's My Sign? Hi, Akassi and Danielle. My name is Jake and I've been listening to NPAD for almost exactly two years now and loved every single episode. The Night of the Grizzlies saga had me hooked and I began thinking if I had any trail tales that would be worthy of sharing when I got the call for stories. about special signs. I will do my best to keep this brief, but no promises. I have always had a close connection to nature and animals, and I swear I have a new favorite animal every week since I was little, sharks, octopus, tigers, whales, but living in Michigan running into one of these animals is very unlikely. I've been thinking back in my life trying to see if there's

been any signs that I have overlooked or ignored, and I realize it's not been one solid sign, but a little puzzle put together. To start, I'll mention my grandpa. He passed away, when I was two and only really have stories about him no concrete memories. I think I remember being at a cracker barrel with him and family, but who knows? My mom said that he was always outdoors growing up in the deep woods of Arkansas and going hunting whenever he could. If he killed an animal, he would meditate over it and thank it for the sustenance it would provide. Even when he would cut down a tree, he would thank it and plant its seeds around it, use the wood for things that would honor the tree. He wasted nothing. It was part of his own

morals and growing up during the Great Depression, extremely poor, that made him use every little bit of animal and tree. One day he was hunting when my mom was little. All he had was a coffee thermos and his gun, no camouflage or tree blind. He sat on a stump and sat stock still, absolutely no movement. Animals would get super close and sniff around, but because he wasn't moving, the animals couldn't quite see him. While there, he felt every hair on his neck, stand on end, feeling that something was wrong, then he heard a scream. It sounded like an absolute demon and it was only a few feet behind him and he felt its breath. Then a bobcat ran around him and off into the woods. It tried to scare him into moving but he wouldn't budge. Being that close to nature and with animals

has always made me admire him and that is my favorite story of him. But where's the sign and what does it have to do with me? Well, I had my own unique bobcat encounter. While cross-country skiing with a school group when I was 11 and I was in the middle of the pack on the trail, not the fastest or the slowest, so I had some alone time in the snow in the woods with my thoughts until I tripped and fell down a hill. I landed on something soft and it moved. I fell on a damn bobcat. It screamed right in my face and it took off. I sat there stunned and thought of my grandpa's story and realized I had peed my pants. Oops. God, the pee and the poop. I know. Yeah. The The best of the group saw me fall off the trail and help me back up, but not everyone believed my bobcat story until they saw the tracks.

Fast forward to this past summer, I was getting the finishing touches on a tattoo sleeve of different cryptids, and it included animal tracks. I told the artist to just use random tracks, and she happened to use bobcat tracks in the tattoo. I had not told her of my bobcat encounter or my grandpa's story, so this was a pretty near coincidence. The last piece of my animal sign puzzle appeared at Christmas this year. I was talking with my family about their current sailboat, Northern Lights the second, and their old boat, Northern Lights I was born, and revealed to me I was almost born on this boat if my mother's water broke an hour earlier. My parents, Bob and Kathy, had always joke that Northern Lights the first wasn't going to be the original name of the boat

until my older siblings vetoed it. It was going to be named after my parents, the Bob Kemp. All of this flew around in my head and I put it all together. A bobcat is my animal sign and the thing I was looking for. Representing the person I most emulate, my grandpa, a pivotal time in my life being out in nature, the skiing incident, and the place I was almost born. Now all I have to do is get back out into the woods and wait for a bobcat to show itself and hopefully it will guide me to my next checkpoint in life.

Thanks for listening for all the hard work y'all do. And remember to enjoy the view. But watch your back because there might be a bobcat behind. mind you, Jake. Wow, I love that. I haven't, I think I've only seen one bobcat, or in person, in the wild. I think I've only seen it once. And it wasn't even in the wild. It was crossing the road. That's so funny. I've actually seen bobcats a lot. And it's because my mom on her property, she has a bobcat that hangs in her yard and it must live in the area. But I would look out my bedroom window and there's this huge bobcat that just, and it's massive. And it will just sit in the

grass and watch the birds and the things hanging out. That's sweet. It is, it's cool. And you just see it. And it's not hunting or anything. It's literally just watching. And it's funny because you see birds that would normally be in the area or squirrels or activity that would be going on.

It all kind of scatters when it sits down. But there's still some little things going on. Well, the only, the most recent Bobcat thing that comes to mind for me, I obviously wasn't there. But my parent, my mom and my stepdad sent me a very. video. So in our backyard, my family childhood home backyard, there's a ton of rabbits, like so many overpopulation of them. Oh, wow. And my mom has like a lot of gardens and stuff. And instead of killing them, like they're trying to trap them. And I mean, obviously it's not the most efficient way. But

they had a couple like have a heart traps out for them. And they send me this video from my kitchen window overlooking the backyard and my mom's like oh my god oh my god and like you could hear them like chattering about it and she's zooming in and this there's a rabbit in the trap and there's a bobcat circling it and trying to grab it out and like the poor rabbit i can't i don't even know if it was if it lived if it because you know how little animals like that can just they can die of stress you know and it was just this bobcat was trying to reach in and grab its legs and it was just circling it and trying to get into the trap. And they eventually scared it away. And I don't know what happened. I'm pretty sure that rabbit was probably not long for this world after that. But yeah, like let it out and

then it went and had a heart attack in a bush somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Literally. So I don't know. Anyway, it was so it was cool to see that. And you know they're around everywhere in New Hampshire. But I've never seen one in New Hampshire. It was in Colorado when I saw it. That's so funny. Well, maybe you'll see some when you get back because I know there are a lot I you know what I've never seen in New Hampshire oh besides Moose um I've never seen coyotes in New Hampshire I've seen them at last but never never I've seen them quite often and because again my childhood home it um it borders it's only about two or three houses down from on a dead end road that borders a huge swath of conservation land so every night in the summer we would hear them especially growing up I

I've heard them many times in New England but never seen them. Well, when we are hiking a lot in that conservation area, just because it's at the end of the road, we would take our dogs growing up there. And I remember this one time. I was visiting back from Colorado. And when I worked at the Wolf Center and just someone who was out biking stopped me and was like, just so you know, like, just be careful there was a wolf up there, like around the corner. Yeah. I'm like, do you mean a coyote? Or just going to want to clarify that.

You turn the corner and it's a husky that like got out of his yard. Yeah. But I was just like, okay. So I'm like, oh, do you meet a coyote? And he's like, I don't know that it was big. And I think it's a wolf. I'm like, okay. Well, we don't have wolves here.

But thanks for the heads up. Like try and gently correct. Did you say that? Yeah. I'm like, oh, well, that would be really surprising since we don't have wolves here in southern New Hampshire, in the middle of the suburbs. But thank you. Thank you. I'll really keep my eye out. Like, not to be a bitch or anything, but anyway, okay, great. We have two more. Mine's called Mesa Verde Madness. Oh, I like Mesa Verde. I've never been to Mesa Verde,

but it is a place where I think is really interesting. So I'm excited to hear that one. And mine has a funny title. Mine is titled, Babies are friends, not food. Which I didn't think that we should clarify that, but I agree. Babies are friends, not food. All right, well,

we'll share those for Apple subscribers and Patreon members. If you are interested in signing up, we do this every time. We do two bonus stories for subscription members. It's available. Bonus stories and it's ad-free every time for them over on those platforms. So if you're

interested, you can go to our Patreon or Apple and check it out. Apple even offers a couple day free trial. So if you want to get bonus episodes every month, add free episodes, head on over and check it out. Yeah. And thank you again, everyone, for writing and your stories. It's a pleasure reading them and we love hearing them and telling them. And Carissa really, I will say, set the bar for embarrassing stories because she's right. I don't think we've had too many. No one's really ready to. I would love a whole episode of embarrassing stories. You want that? Yes. Okay. Like let's stop being embarrassed about them and just because we all have really embarrassing stories to share. So I feel like it would be fun if everyone and you can be anonymous. We don't have to say your name. You don't even have to put your name. I mean, I think if you put it in the

submission link, we don't see your name anyway unless you say it. So I mean, whatever embarrassing stories you have. That would be a fun episode. If people write in enough embarrassing stories that they want read publicly on a podcast. And we'll even, I guess, like, open it up a little bit, like, because I feel like it's really unique to have your most embarrassing story on a trail. You know what I mean? Yeah, like it could be anywhere. Yeah, it can be anywhere. Okay. And we'll think about ours, too. I already know mine. Do you? I don't know what mine is. At least, I don't know if it's my most embarrassing, but it's definitely up there. But anyway, maybe we'll save that for that episode.

Yeah. And I'll think on mine. Okay. All right. Well, everyone, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Bye.

Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at NPADpodcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Join our outsider's 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

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