National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 48

Episode Date: May 23, 2024

Today’s stories include scared ceremonies, being petrified in the petrified forest, ghost cowboys, airline premonitions, shadow people, bear sleepovers and embarrassing moments. 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!.IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping.Mad Rabbit:  For 25% off your order, head to MadRabbit.com/NPAD25 and use code NPAD25.Last Seen Alive: Listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress.

Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Everyone, welcome back to National Park After Dark. We have another Trail Tales edition for you all today. We do. And someone answered the call for an embarrassing story. I'm just going to say that right now because I have one.

I love that. I love the embarrassing stories. I think that they're the best. I will say the call was not, not everyone rushed to it, I'll just say. But a few brave ones did. Well, I love that because I feel like we've all had really embarrassing moments. So it's nice to feel together with. others and they're just hilarious too yeah okay well is your first one an embarrassing story yes so do you want to go first i don't know do i guess i will you just hyped it up a little bit so i feel like and to be honest i haven't it's i know right from the title because it's the subject line is enjoy the view but check your pants is it the frothing pants again who no it's not okay like that would be funny i don't think like just a series of frothing pants, trail tails. We've only had two of those, and the first will never be topped.

That is true. Okay, so I'll go. Hi, ladies, hope you enjoy the attached tail. Your podcast has changed my life for the better. Thank you so much for all you do. The world and the outdoor community is so lucky to have you both. I was feeling very static going through the day to day of modern life and needing new experiences, so naturally I planned a road trip to visit national and state parks this past summer. This was something I wanted to do so badly it hurt my bones to think about it. I wanted to experience the freedom and lessons the open road and wild spaces gives you. After a ton of planning, I packed my car, bought a tiny A-frame pop-up camper, and off me and my dog went. I was terrified. Driving across the country and camping by myself as a barely 100-pound, five-foot-tall young female

who trusts anyone I meet, my family and friends were convinced I wasn't coming home alive. The inspiration from you ladies coupled with the fact that I am a Sagittarius through and through, I said, screw it and off we went, me and my sweet, gentle, teddy bear looking attack dog. I visited 14 national parks in the span of four weeks. It was incredible and just what my soul needed. I attached a picture of Howie and I on the trip. But of course, there were bad times too, and this is where I completely embarrassed myself in front of all the people that listen.

Buckle up because it's about to get messy. Oh, no. Here we go. The moment I want to focus on from my trip of a lifetime takes place about halfway through when I was visiting Zion National Park. I got an Airbnb for my stop at Zion so my dog could have a safe place to stay with the host while I experienced the park. It was also a plus to get a break from camping. It felt like fate that I was getting to do Angels Landing because I had won the permit through the lottery system the day before. I hiked Angels Landing and it was surreal and it felt like a huge accomplishment.

I was all smiles and feeling so grateful that I was able to embark on this adventure. After the hike, I drove back to the Airbnb to see my pup who was very upset that I had left them behind while I had all the fun. It was a blazing hot day, so I decided to make up for my treason by taking him to a nearby lake so we could swim. After a day of hiking and swimming, I was starving. All I had in my stomach was a banana and some trail mix and granola bars I ate the summit of Angels Landing. I pulled out my phone to see what was around for food. Being vegan is challenging to eat out, especially when you're on the road in unfamiliar places. I found this little drive-through shack of a Mexican place, which are always the best ones, am I right? Yes, you are right,

actually. It's always Ian's favorite Mexican place was inside a gas station in Washington. That's so funny. Yeah. We used to go to this, when I worked down south, there was this Mexican place that we would always go to, and it was like this rundown. It wasn't a shack, but it was this run-down building that you walked in and it was like the really old black and white tile floors in there and it was like just it didn't look new or like that nice and it was pretty small and then they had an outdoor seating area and the best Mexican food ever. It usually comes from a little yeah like a truck or just an unassuming store shopfront you know like nice Mexican places with like fancy restaurants and good cocktails and stuff are fun but generally it's always authentic too

right exactly not like some like random person like it's actually i'm mexican family owns it and they have like these amazing recipes and yeah it's not an americanized no version right no okay it's not a taco bell all right well she continues on about mexican food mexican food is always a go-to for me because rice and beans are a complete protein, so I sent it without caution and downed a much-needed burrito for dinner. The next morning, I immediately fell unwell. Some dry heaving and sounds that should not have been coming from my stomach. But I had to stay on my tight schedule, so I pushed through. I had a five-hour drive to our next destination, which was Moab. I'm about two hours into the drive. Okay, it's about to get my eyes just saw before my brain processed. Um, okay. So,

Just if you're squeamish about like poop things, maybe don't listen anymore. Okay. It's a very nice warning to give. I know. It has been like halfway through the story. Okay. I was about two hours into the drive when I farted. I thought, that's not normal.

Maybe I peed a little on that one. I was driving on a highway across Utah with exits that are miles and miles apart. The next one I saw was about 30 minutes after said questionable fart. So I stopped to fuel up and use the bathroom. I parked way far away to keep the car in the shade for my dog and made the trek across the parking lot. Walking by people just going about my day. It wasn't until I got into the bathroom that I realized I had actually shit my pants. And I just have to say, I was wearing light gray shorts.

Everyone I walked by knew before I did and I was traumatized. The worst part was that I had to walk all the way back to my car to get a change of clothing because I had no idea of the situation I was actually in. Three times I walked through that parking lot. Three times. After I fixed myself, baby wipes are godsend on a road trip, by the way. I was mortified, embarrassed, confused. But I was like, hey, you know what?

It happens. And if you say it's never happened to you, you're lying. I got through the rest of my drive, thankfully shit-free, and I was never happier to take a shower at camp. You have to laugh at yourself sometimes and just roll with you. the punches. Sometimes food does not agree with you and after an adventurous day, you make poor decisions on what you eat. On my first day back to work after the trip, my boss asked me how it was. The first thing that came out of my mouth without a second thought was, well, I shit my pants,

and he slowly backed away. Anyways, I hope you all got a laugh out of it. Enjoy the review, but check your pants, Chelsea. Chelsea, brave. Thank you for sharing. I think she's also right that every single person has. had a situation at least similar. It's just so funny because, again, like, my mind goes to Ian because, like, I just remember this time, like a period of time, like a two months span where he either shit his pants or like one of his friends would shit his pants their pants and like tell him about it and then he'd tell me. And he's like, see, like, people do that. I'm like, why is everyone out here shitting their pants? Like, this is not a normal. This is not a normal.

This is not a normal thing. Like, are you okay? Like, are you well? You know? And like, are your friends? Okay? And they're like, well, you know, like when you're hung over, it just sometimes happens. I'm like, that is legit, never been a thing that's happened to me when I've been hung over.

Like, I throw up occasionally when I'm hung over. But I don't occasionally shit myself when I'm hung over. I know. I'm like, I feel like that's like a gastrointestinal issue that needs to be further examined if that's normal. Like something's wrong. And he's like, no, this is normal. Everyone does. Yeah, he literally was gaslighting me.

He's like, Danielle, everyone shits their pants often. He's like, there might be something wrong with you, actually. Like, oh, should I be shitting myself more often? Am I making it to the bathroom on time too often? Yeah, it was so funny. I'm like, you're gaslighting me right now. That's hilarious. But anyway, yeah, everyone does have a story like that.

you have to share it. Like we can widen the gates of embarrassing stories. It doesn't have to be about it. Yeah, there's lots of ways to be embarrassed and it's not just shitting your pants. But if it happens to be shitting your pants, that's very funny. And fair. 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 first story is called

Waimanola Bay Burial slash Hawaiian Nightwalkers. Hey there, or Aloha. My name is Carly, and I've just listened to your podcast about the Dia de los Muerrethos traditions. In the podcast, you had mentioned not knowing if there are any cool American funeral traditions. Technically, Hawaii used to be its own monarchy, so this piece of

information I'll be sending to you is part of the traditional Hawaiian culture for burying lost loved ones. I'm going to also try and send a video of the moment captured on the day we had this ceremony for my grandfather. It's quite long, but it does capture the beauty of the moment if you are interested in watching. So the night prior to the ceremony, my tutu, grandma, and I wrapped his ashes in tea. Thank you. You put the pronunciations for me. Pronounced tea. leaves. This represents the binding of the tomb. We then place photos near the ashes for pictures to keep his memories. The next day consisted of us getting up before sunrise, I believe you can bury during sunrise or sunset according to the tradition. In our case, Pops, our grandfather,

really enjoyed the sunrise at Waimunola Bay in Onahu. We set up a ceremony to sing and play the ukulele for some of his favorite songs as the sun slowly began to rise. We also spoke of memories about him and so forth. Afterwards, we would hop on a small fishing boat to carry his ashes out to sea. Since this was my first time in Hawaii, I was considered the virgin to the islands. So therefore, I was provided a Hawaiian, oh, sorry if I pronounce this wrong, Awapu-hai, Ginger, which is Ginger, Lay, upon landing from my flight in Hawaii. I requested to be on the boat during the ceremony to give life to my pops. The lay represents so many things, but in this situation, it represents the circle of life or continuation of life

thereafter. The ashes are then poured into the center of the lay as best as possible to represent a life well lived and one that continues on. We say, again, I hope I pronounce this right, a huai who, often, which means until we meet again. This is not said in the video, but just as a phrase that's common to the islands. It is at this point that we take apart the lay to get the string that connects the lay together, which is semi leave no trace. I say semi because the ginger plant is tossed into the ocean. It is safe for the wildlife there. We also spread tea leaf handcrafted flowers and bloomed awapuai to the water as a gift to him to bring into the afterlife. In this culture, each family has what is called a amakua, which is a spirit animal. Before I even got

to meet my ohana, I got a tribal tattoo of a Hanu, a sea turtle. Come to find out the Hanu is our Maine amakua. We have four. Hanu, Mano, the moa, a gecko, a manu, which is a bird. In our family, the Manu is a seagal, red cardinal, and an owl. They all represent someone of importance that has passed. Pops is the red cardinal. In the ceremony, I wish I caught it on camera, a Hanu passed underneath the boat away from the sun, symbolizing a life lived. And after the ceremony, on our way back to shore, there were birds flying towards the sun. This symbolizes the life of a loved one has finally reached the afterlife. It is at this point that we have a luau in honor of pops and all his memories.

I sadly only knew my pops for two weeks before his passing, but I wanted to share this moment with you guys because of how strong the culture is and how need it was to be a part of such a big ceremony. The Nightwalker portion of the subject matter is just something I've heard many stories of. Maybe it's something you two could look more into. The Nightwalkers, according to my family, do exist. Anyhow, I hope this finds you both well. I love your podcast.

Hopefully you can get the video. Sincerely, Carly. I love hearing about funerary traditions anywhere. I think it's so interesting. And I also think it's so special. I mean, all of the thought that they described going into the ceremony and the symbolization for everything, it's just so special and thought out. And it's just, I agree.

I think it's really interesting to learn about. And I think that it's just such a beautiful way to honor the people in your life that you've loved. Mm-hmm. I agree. My next story is titled Air Crash Premonitions. Oh, no. This one's for you, Kat. I'm afraid of flying.

I know. Hi, my name is Rob. I just got done with the Air Florida 90 Crash episode and it reminded me of an unsettling experience a number of years ago. In 1997, I was on a flight back to Florida where I was living at the time. The plane was bouncing around in a lot of turbulence as it skirted major thunderstorms. Then, the plane hit a wind shear that caused it to plummet suddenly. The pilots recovered just fine, but it was a terrifying experience. By the time we landed in Florida, people were crying and praying.

That's how rough the flight was. It caused me to have a pretty strong phobia of flying that I have to this day. I fly, but I hate it. Fast forward a number of years, and I was living in Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac from D.C. We lived a few minutes from Washington National Airport because my significant other traveled for work. I'd watch the planes come in over the river and they would be eye-level with the balcony of my apartment. From time to time, I'd get online and research the history of the D.C. area as I hadn't been living there very long and wanted to learn more about the region. I also would occasionally read or watch TV shows about air disasters as a weird way to cope with my flying phobia.

So one night, I ended up learning about the Air Florida 90 crash on the 14th Street Bridge. I'd never heard of it, and I traveled over that bridge every week. I obsessively read about it for a couple of hours. I ended up calling a friend that lives in the D.C. area that was an airline attendant at the time to tell him about this Air Florida crash. He usually got a chuckle out of my fixation on air crashes as a way of co-examble. hoping with my phobia of flying. He was more somber on this call, as I remember he hadn't heard of the crash either. We eventually wrapped up the call and I went to bed. Well, I had trouble getting to

sleep as the thoughts of the Air Florida 90 crash really upset me. I couldn't figure out why. I felt almost frantic about this crash that had happened years prior. That night happened to be September 10th, 2001. The next day was chaos as locally we didn't know what was happening at first when the Pentagon was struck. There was quite a bit of panic because people were literally screaming that we were being bombed. I vividly remember that I thought it was bonkers that I'd been so obsessed with reading about a local air crash the very night before. I also remember I couldn't immediately find my shoes if I needed to evacuate and wouldn't be

able to save my cats because I didn't have their cat carriers handy. Cell service was spotty for hours. I eventually got a hold of my husband and he was fine in his office in Maryland. Later that evening, I got a hold of my airline attendant friend. The first thing he said was, I cannot believe you were talking about what you were talking about last night. He then said, I was never allowed to talk about air crashes, sort of joking, sort of not. I actually didn't read, watch TV shows, or speak about air crashes again for a number of years. To be honest, I couldn't talk about 9-11 for years because it was just too difficult.

I did keep my shoes by my bed where I checked them every night and kept our cat carriers assembled and within quick reach. My husband and I came up with a plan to reunite at a specific place if we were ever separated in a disaster or an attack in the future. Honestly, it's a good idea to have a basic family plan for anyone in case of an emergency, which side note I totally agree with. And I worked for a very brief period of time a number of years ago as the community animal response team coordinator for a local animal shelter in Colorado Springs. So basically, if there was some sort of, generally fires are big, you know, down there. But if it was a fire or a flood or some sort of natural disaster, we would, I would coordinate this team of volunteers that kind of got dispatch, kind of like how the Red Cross does for people, setting up temporary shelters that supply aid and food and water and things like that for people. We would do that for animals. Oh, okay.

And we did a lot of education about how to have like an emergency. bag for your pets and how to make sure to just like grab and go things really quickly in case of an emergency or have some sort of plan in place so that everyone, people and pets alike, can be safe during times like that, or at least you can do your best. So I totally, make sense. Totally agree with that. It's something like I never really thought about before, especially growing up in New England where natural disasters aren't really top of mind. Sure. Yeah. But you never know. And not even just natural disasters, but any especially if you live in cities or something where there could be some type of attack or just some, I mean, in the U.S., you're living in a, unfortunately, we have a lot of shootings that happen if you're ever in a situation like that or there's just so many different scenarios that can happen that it's good to have some type of plan.

And I think people who especially live in, like, Tornado Alley are really familiar with this. Like you have your shelter and you make sure every few months you go down there and be like, are my supplies fresh? Do I have what I need? Like, you know, that's kind of second nature. Stocking up on like medications and anything that you might need if you can't get somewhere in time. Yeah. So same type of thing with like a grab bag for your non-human families. Anyways, I just bring that up because he kept bringing up the cats and being able to evacuate and things like that.

Okay. So back to the story. Fast forward to 2021. and we have been living back in our hometown of Rochester, New York for a number of years. We developed our emergency plan to meet back up in Rochester as our worst-case scenario if something bad happened. One day, in 2005, we decided just to move back to be closer to our family and aging parents. After COVID, I discovered the world of podcasts. I'm a Gen Xer, so I was a bit late to it.

I ended up listening to a podcast about a cursed canyon in Southern California, which included a story about a plane that crashed into it. So that evening, I looked up the story about it. the plane crash. This is something I had not done since September 10th. Other than immediate news stories of a plane crash, such as Flight 3407, which crashed in Buffalo in 2009, it was big news here as I'm only 60 miles away. Anyway, that night, I read about the old plane crash in the cursed canyon. I think it's Turnbull Canyon. That was January 20th, 2021. That night, at about the same time I was obsessively researching it in old plane crash.

A New York Army National Guard helicopter crashed in a suburb a few miles south of our home, killing all three soldiers on board. Needless to say, I haven't looked up an old crash story again. While I listened to the recent Air Florida 90 podcast, I carefully didn't look up old articles about it. I'm very superstitious, and I know this is probably just a wildly weird coincidence, but I worry about even thinking about old air crashes

after two such odd experiences almost 20 years apart. Thank you for the amazing podcast. It's one of my favorites. You two are the best. Take care. Rob. Rob, don't think about even thinking about. Don't even listen to the plane crash up.

I hope you're not even listening to this. Honestly, when you read the part where he said it happened to be September 10th, 2001, I got chills. I know. Yeah. I mean, I know there's something, like, there's a fine line there of, like, it being like a creepy coincidence and, like, kind of obsessively then being like, yeah, because that can be a real thing of like, I don't even want to think about this because I feel like I'm going to cause something by thinking about it. You know, like there's a fine line about that. Like, of course it's not anything to do with you personally. Like, of course, you didn't cause that. Right. But at the same time, it's kind of, I feel like I would feel the same way. It's like every time I research this, something bad happens and I don't want anything bad to happen. So I'm just. going to avoid that even though it's not linked to you or your fault that any of these have happened maybe it is just a weird like premonition like connecting yeah yeah like somehow you can

feel it's going to happen and suddenly you get an urge to look into other things or I don't know yeah or just like a very odd coincidence which we don't believe in usually but maybe we'll make an exception for this one yeah maybe okay my next story is titled petrified in the petrified forest. Hi Cassie and Danielle. Every time I listen to the Trail Tales episode, I try so hard to think about the national parks I've been to, and if anything wild has happened to me there.

Usually I come up empty-handed and think, hmm, I need to go to more parks. Today, I remembered something that actually occurred in one of the parks I've been to a handful of times that's relatively close to where I live. To set the mood, it was my 30th birthday, so I was excited to spend the day outside. It was the first time taking my son to a national park

at the ripe age of eight months old, and I was pretty stoked about that too. The Petrified Forest National Park is about 40 minutes from my home, making it a favorite go-to for field trips and little family outings. This gem in the desert is home to many prehistoric, fallen trees, and a picturesque, colorful drive through what was once millions of years ago, a flowing river system. I was taken aback by the huge now crystallized log that you come to while walking the trail outside of the visitor center and couldn't wait to get on the road to drive the rest of the park. My then husband and I loaded our baby in the car and hit the road, stopping at most of the pull-offs

to see the sites and learn about the park. It was such a fun day, just taking our time, taking it all in, and sharing one of our passions with our infant son. I'm going to take this out of the park for just a moment. A couple weeks prior to this, we were out of a friend's house who told us they knew of some private land where the owners didn't mind if you took a few pieces of the petrified wood they had on their property. I'm very into rocks and I'm very into crafting, so I jumped on the opportunity to get some petrified wood. I had a sand bucket, the kind you used to make sandcastles, in the back of my car, so I put my new treasures in it, threw it in the back of my car, and proceeded with my life. Being a new mom, it's safe to say I had forgotten all about the bucket by the time we got home,

so there it lived for a few weeks until we went to the petrified forest National Park. Given that I had not been to the park since I was probably around seven years old, I had forgotten a lot of details about the park, like the checkpoint you get to at the end of the road we were driving. We all know that taking anything from a national park is definitely frowned upon, and in the petrified forest, damage or removal of petrified wood in the park could result in some pretty hefty finds. When I saw the checkpoint, I suddenly remembered the bucket of petrified wood in the back of my car. Oh no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Tons of horrible thoughts went racing through my head and my anxiety was at an all-time high.

Are they going to arrest me? How am I going to prove I acquired it legally? No matter how much the fine is, we cannot afford it. I thought, trying to keep my cool in front of my husband. We approached a checkpoint and I held my breath. No one was there. They weren't checking cars. A sign of relief.

Happy birthday to me. Thank you for all you do and for reading my story. I hope you got a good laugh out of this. You got lucky. I'll tell you that. You did get lucky. And you know what this reminds me of too? Is that episode that you did, it's an outsider's only, so it's only on Patreon. And this was a while ago. But the petrified forest has an alleged curse there where if you take things. And I know in this instance, it wasn't from the park. It was from a property outside of it. But the park itself, there's like this alleged curse that if you take things from the park, you have bad luck for life until you return it, which is not true. We also learned because. you can't take things and return them to the park. It's actually kind of detrimental to the environment, but they won't put it back. They won't put it back because they don't know where it's been. You could be

bringing in bugs and like weird shit into the park. And so you just can't take it. But people reported having a lot of really bad experiences after taking things from the park. And that's what this whole episode kind of reminded me of. Yeah, that episode was so long ago, but it was really, I like, I would like to revisit it a little bit just because it's so interesting. I mean, people would write letters like years later to the park or to who are, you know, just putting it out into the universe. Like, I'm so sorry my life is like falling apart after I took this rock. Like take it back and give me back my luck.

Yeah. But anyways, yeah. That story reminded me of when I came, I went to Canada when I was 18 because obviously you can drink there at that age. Yep. And I went with like four or five girlfriends. and whatever, like have a good time. And then on the way back, I remember we had all tried to, because you can purchase alcohol. You just can't bring it back with you. You know, if you're underage. And we had rolled, I remember so clearly it was, it was Smearnoff. And we had. Classic. Classic. And rolled it into, so they didn't like bang around and stuff. We rolled it in our clothing and put it in our suitcases. Also classic. Right. And I would just, I was driving.

And I just remember, like, being at the, at customs, like, just to go back into the U.S. And just seeing all the German Shepherds go to every car, like circle the car. Some of them would go right through. Others would be, you know, whatever. And then, of course, because, of course, I get a car full of underage, or, you know, 18, 19, year old girls coming back to the U.S. from Canada. They're like, pull over. Like, oh, no. I was like, oh, my God.

No, like my life's over. My life is over. And I didn't like, like, I knew that it's kind of like that thing when you go, you're going through TSA, you know you're good. But then you have this feeling. You're like, do I accidentally have a kilo of cocaine on me? Like it's like, yeah. Am I? Like, am I suddenly carrying a machete with me that I don't own?

Right. Could be in the car. Yeah. It's like I knew I had alcohol and that's whatever. I was obviously nervous about that. But then I was like, what does everybody else have? here. Like, did anyone else get anything? You know what I mean? Because I didn't know. Yeah. But yeah, I was so worried. And of course, they have their shepherds like everywhere.

Like, they're like open your trunk. Like, okay. You can have all the smear enough you want. I don't even like it. So yeah, that's what that reminded me of. And nothing happened. Did they take your alcohol? No. I think they were looking for like, I don't know what they were looking for. I don't know what they were looking for. Probably like actually drugs. I guess. Yeah. They probably don't care about legally bought alcohol. Yeah, exactly. My last story is titled Cowboy at the Crescent Hotel. Hello, my husband and our three rambunctious boys started listening to your show on our way to California from Arkansas. Your show has encouraged us to take many more trips to natural parks and now hoping to buy a map and tackle everyone with our boys.

To begin with, we moved to Arkansas seven years ago. I left L.A. to rekindle with my high school boyfriend who was running a surveying company with his dad. Ghost and scary movies have always been a favorite of ours. So I guess when it came time for my husband to finally propose to me on my birthday weekend, The Crescent, in his mind, was the best choice. The whole trip was to surprise me. It will be the first time we had both ever seen Eureka Springs. Seeing the scenery of the area takes you a step back in time.

No matter where he was taking me, I was already in love. Finally, we drove up the driveway and it was breathtaking to look at her, the Crescent Hotel. This man came up with the most perfect birth. birthday surprise. We checked into our room and got settled. Once settled, we toured around the hotel hoping for a glimpse of our own ghost, but no luck after a few drinks and a delicious pizza, we headed back to our room. Isn't that exactly what we did? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. We even had pizza at the restaurant. Every single hotel guest does that. I know, Twinsies. It was close to midnight when I wanted to look out of one of the windows one last time before bed and wanderless the beauty

of this hotel when suddenly I saw him. I had to blink. a few times, but there he was clear his day. A lonesome cowboy sitting in a rocking chair on the balcony. I couldn't believe it. Am I seeing a real ghost? He was wearing a cowboy hat, dark colored pants, and a jacket. I had to call over my now husband so he could tell me if this was real or not. But I was too late. By the time we walked past the same balcony, we saw no one sitting there. He was almost like a dark mist than a solid being. My husband and I both agreed that we saw a ghost. The next Next morning, we headed downstairs into the parlor room where they have a book of ghost stories that other people can also write about their experiences in.

There were others who claimed to have seen this exact cowboy. The Crescent is always a place of happiness to us and definitely feels like a place worth seeing if you're ever in Arkansas. Thank you, ladies, for telling these campfire stories and encouraging some of us to get out into nature, the Turner family. And I just loved that because, I mean, that's really cool to see a cowboy ghost. But also just because I can envision it, because we've been there. Yes.

And it's definitely haunted too. So I totally believe you saw some type of apparition, cowboy. And same thing. Like we can picture it. And the Crescent Hotel is really cool. It's very interesting. It's so beautiful. And I don't know.

Like, it's so funny that you say, you know, like it's always a happy place for us. But like if I do recall, history is really bad. Yeah. I was going to say we did a live show. show from there. We did a virtual live show for those of you who may not know or may be new to the show. Cassie and I stayed in the hotel. We stayed in that doctor's old room. Yeah. It used to be an old hospital. Yeah. And this one very sketchy doctor ran it and lived there and we stayed in his room. Yeah, we stayed in his room and then we did a live stream live show from that room. But beforehand, we did like everything you just described.

We had the pizza. We toured the hotel. We had an official ghost tour before everything. And it's just so funny because I think some people get really weird or scary or strange vibes from the Stanley Hotel. And I have never once. To me, it's like the warmest. I just feel so warm and happy when I'm there. It's like one of the few places in the world that I am like, I love being. But some people are like, yeah, absolutely not. I'm scared. So maybe you feel that way about the Crescent. Everyone has their place. And I mean, I think a lot of people are making good memories at the Crescent now and its history is kind of, it's not fading because we remember it. But just like the bad vibes are still there, but there's some good vibes that are happening too. Yeah. I agree.

Cool. Well, my last story, right? This is my last story. Yeah, we have the bonus ones after this. But yeah. Yes. So my last one before we get to the outsider only episode or episodes. stories. This one is titled Bear Sleepover in a Free

Pair of Blundstones. Those are like the shoes that everyone in Vermont wears. There's like memes where it's like how you know you're out of Vermont party and it's just a bunch of blundstones in the doorway. Are they the ones that you slip on? Yeah, kind of and they're like little brown boots. Yeah, there's like a little loop on the back that you can like slip them on with. Yeah. Okay, I know what you. I personally don't own any yet but I am officially a Vermonter so maybe I'll get some. Okay. Hi, Danielle and Cassie.

My name is Celine and I am a conservation biologist or West Larson wannabe, based in Calgary, Alberta. I have spent many seasons working for Parks Canada in parks such as Banff National Park and Grossemore National Park. Most recently, I was working for Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, which is where my story takes place. I'm actually the one who recommended the Crip Lake story about Patricia Van Teaguem. Oh, yeah. Her story touched me immensely as I also used. deal with PTSD. I've had the story saved in my drafts for nearly a year. I didn't revisit it until you shared her story on the pod, as I find it triggering to write about. On June 1st, 2022,

my friend Elish and I decided to go for our first camping trip of the summer. With us was my two-year-old flat-coated retriever, Finch. We went on a beautiful hike in the mountains before driving to our campsite, which is in a very secluded part of the park, Belly River Campground. Not so surprisingly, since the nights were still quite cold, there was only one other tent in the campground, and we were happy to have the place nearly all to ourselves. We decided to set up our tents as far away from the other campers as possible. After setting up, we had a couple of beers and some snacks. Eelish went to the outhouse, which was only about 100 meters away.

Suddenly, I see a black figure move through the woods right behind our tents. It was a large black bear. As a biologist working in bear country, I have had many bear encounters, and have received bear safety training. I talked to the bears so he would know I was there and yelled out to Elish to be careful when coming out of the outhouse. Once the bear saw me, he scurried back into the woods as I had expected. We had a quick chat about the situation,

but there wasn't much we could do as we had had a few drinks already and neither of us could drive back to town. We also didn't have cell service to ask anyone to pick us up. We locked all of our smelly stuff in bear bins, had a nice campfire and relaxed. I grew up camping with my family, and it's probably my favorite activity. I was at peace and content.

Finally, we got into our tents for the night. In the front country, I usually leave my dog in the car overnight, as he can be pretty annoying to sleep with in a small tent. However, I thought I'd feel safer with him in my tent in case the bear decided to come back. I put my bear spray next to me and was fast asleep. I woke up all of the sudden to Finch barking and growling. It could be anything, I thought,

since Finch will bark at anything that moves. I got him to quiet down, and that's when I heard it. Low grunts, huffing and puffing. The bear was back. Hey, bear, I started to say, not too loud. Hey, bear, I said louder, clapping my hands now. Elish, are you awake? I half yelled.

Eelish woke up, startled. I told her the bear was circling the campsite and to start making noise. To my surprise, the bear did not seem phased by our yelling, clapping, and finches barking. He was just getting closer and closer until his nose was pressed against the thin material of my tent. Oh my gosh, Eelis, I'm really scared now. I said as I grab my bear spray and remove the safety lock. He's pushing my tent. Holy fuck, I'm scared.

I kept yelling at it for what felt like in eternity. Finch was quiet now, whining and trembling next to me. The bear, not discouraged one bit, dug his muzzle underneath the fly of my tent, pushing it over his head. Now there was only the mosquito net between the same. the bear's head and my own. I immediately discharged my bear spray. The bear quickly stumbled back about 10 feet and seemed dazed. Before I could even gather my thoughts, I looked over at Finch who was gasping for air. Suddenly, I was more scared than I've ever been. Although this probably isn't logical thinking, under adrenaline, I thought that Finch, my fur baby whom I love more than anything on this earth,

was going to suffocate. I need to get him out of this tent now. I was trying to unzip the door, facing Elish's tent, but the zipper was stuck. I was panicking. I could not go out the other door as the bear was still there. Eventually, I unzipped the tent, grabbed Finch by the collar, and we, as Elish described it, dramatically came pouring out of the tent, gasping for air like we had both been underwater for far too long. I threw my bear spray to Elish so she could watch our backs. Finch took one look at the bear and said, oh, hell no, well, in his own way, before pulling me straight to the car. Finally, Eelish joined us in the car and we started flashing the high beams and honking. Nothing. Then, as if things couldn't get worse, the bear slowly lifted his paw and reached for my brand new pair of blundstones

sitting at the entrance of my tent. No, absolutely not. I started hitting the horn like crazy and yelled, Don't touch the blunt stones. The bear must have thought, holy fuck lady, calm down as he scurried back into the woods. With the bear finally gone, we took turns keeping watch while the other took sleeping bags, pillows and blankets from our tents to the car, where we would now be sleeping. The adrenaline was wearing off, but now I was deeply aware of how much pain I was in. I was covered in bear spray. It felt like I had burns all over my body. Everything that had been in the tent was contaminated. Every time I would touch my sleeping bag, clothes, or even pet my dog, it would start burning even more. However, it was way too cold to sleep without all of it.

I spent a few hours whimpering and pouring water on my face while Elish slept peacefully. A few hours later, Finch started barking again. We were safe in the car now, so I got him settled down and we went back to sleep. It was only when morning came that we realized why he had been barking. The bear came back, full vengeance, and destroyed all of our stuff. Elish's clothes had bite marks and saliva on them. Both of our tents had been ripped to shreds, and even Elish's why. bottle had punctures from the bare teeth. We packed up what was left of our stuff and got the fuck

out of there. We stopped at the other occupied campsite on our way out to check on them. We saw this lovely couple with their small French bulldog cooking up bacon and coffee on a lovely morning. We looked at each other equally surprised with the state of their party. Did you guys hear anything last night? I asked. They both shook their heads no. You didn't hear yelling, barking, honking. Still, no. We told them about our misadventure and in horror, they started packing their stuff. On the way back to town, we were laughing about our situation and called their families and partners to tell them. It was only a few days later that I started thinking of what could have happened. What could have happened if Finch had slept in the car

and didn't wake me up? What could have happened if I had forgotten my bear spray? I believe I did everything right according to my training. Keep a bearproof campsite check. Know exactly where your bear spray is. Check. Make loud noise to discourage a black bear. Check. But this still happened. This bear wasn't acting normally. It was clearly a habituated bear who had gotten rewards from campsites before. I will wrap this up by saying, Bear safety training might have saved my life. Please educate yourselves and always be bear aware,

but don't let this stop you from going out and enjoying nature. In fact, Elish, Finch and I went camping nearly every single weekend of the summer after that, once we bought new tents. We knew that if we didn't push ourselves, we might get too scared to go again. Though we were terrified at times, I kept telling myself that if the, This was the worst bear human encounter in Waterton Lakes National Park in the last six years. It won't happen to me twice in one summer, right? For the first year following this event, I thought this was a fun story to tell people and didn't

think much of it. However, in the fall of 2003, as you both know, two people were killed by a grizzly bear in Banff National Park while camping. When I heard the news, I broke down. For a whole week, I was getting flashbacks of the bear coming into my tent, and I started having flashbacks of things that didn't actually happen, like actually getting mauled by the bear. I didn't understand what was happening to me, and I didn't actually think my experience was such a big deal. I think I had convinced myself that I had gotten out of it because I did the right thing,

but this couple in Banff also did everything right, and that's what triggered me. I felt a shame for having such personal feelings towards a story that didn't belong to me, but I just felt so much pain for the victims and kept imagining myself in their situation. Since then, I have been going to therapy and it's been helping. I still work in the field in bear country, and I don't want these flashbacks to interfere with my career. I think it's so, so, so important to talk about PTSD and the aftermath of scary situations in nature, even if they were only near misses. Thank you again for sharing Patricia Van Tickam's story with such grace. I think about her often.

Enjoy the view, but make sure to have a watchdog at night, Celine. P.S. Attached is the video of me yelling at the bear, trying to be. to flick my blunt stones. I sent this video to Blundstones and they sent me a brand new pair for free with some other goodies. Wow. That was really nice of them. That's very nice. They're probably like, this is a unique situation. And you deserve another pair. Yes. Wow. I mean, that one was pretty heavy because it is fucking scary. Like that is terrifying. Yeah. That's so scary. Have a bear pushing into your tent and not being deterred with what, like you said, everything that you had been taught to do that would deter a bear. You know, like that is a really scary situation.

And I think that near misses can be just as terrifying as if it actually went a different way, you know. Yeah. Like just because you ended up okay doesn't mean that you're not emotionally traumatized, you know. Yeah. And I mean, there was definitely some things that happened to. you had to deploy bear spray inside of a tent and you and your dog were bear sprayed as well in that and that's traumatizing to see your your dog like you said your baby have to go through that too and I also think with PTSD just talking about that is that it's important to recognize that PTSD is not

always immediate it can happen and it can come on years later and you might not understand why or how that's happening when you felt like you were fine at first but there's no like there's no time limit on trauma and how it can affect you down the line. So the fact that you felt okay for a while and then you had something like someone else having that experience and not surviving being triggering, I think is very normal for someone who has PTSD to have to have to navigate through. I mean, that's very traumatic that that happened to that couple. And it's around, it's in Canada and not exactly the region you were in, but a region that you work in and recreate in. Yeah. And there's enough similarities there for you to draw that that kind of parallel, you know? Yeah. So I don't think that

it's off base at all to be like, I don't know why this affected me. It's like I, it's very clear to me why that affected you that way. And I think it's something that like on the other hand, though, like you said, like you and your friend, you're like, we have to keep going out because we can really get sucked into like being afraid. It's like get back on the horse. You fall off the horse you get back on. Otherwise you'll never get on again kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think this is also a good reminder of that black bears are scary. Yes. Yes. I know like we've been like hammered into our brain for so long that, oh, it's just a black bear. It's fine. And like, yeah, maybe you can feel slightly more comfortable than a grizzly, but not really. You still have to take the same precautions.

You can't like. Yeah. They're still very dangerous and you have to be aware of them. Yeah. And I mean, I know I talk about them all the time. It's like I'm obsessed with them or something. But tooth and claw, I forget whatever. it was one of their recent ones. And they weren't even talking, I don't even believe they were talking about bears. They were just, West just said something in general of, you know, we can have, we do all these studies of animal behavior and we can predict what a normal behavior would be like for a typical animal under typical circumstances. You know, like a grizzly is going to respond in this way, in these conditions, and a hippo was going to do this and a tiger is going to do. Like, We have a basic understanding of animal behavior.

However, we have a basic understanding of human behavior, and yet we still have these, you know, like outliers. And you just can't ever know for sure. And animals are the same way. Like so when people are like, yeah, well, black bears don't do that. That's false. Like, generally speaking, we understand that black bears have a certain set of behaviors that we can expect, but we should never rely on that.

assume on that. Like, they are into every individual is different just like every individual human is different. And we can't assume that they're going to adhere to certain behaviors, you know, especially if there's, you know, like you mentioned or Celine mentioned, you know, this is clearly a habituated bear. There's differences here. So yeah, just so, yeah, another reminder, black bears are still bears. And bears still kill people. And yeah. And this is a good story. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good story to hear right now too because we're ramping up for bear season right now. I mean, they just started getting spotted around my location in Vermont. And I know that all around the country right now, they're starting to wake up. So it's good to have this story kind of at the front

of your minds when everyone's starting to prepare for camping trips. Yeah. All right. Well, that concludes Trail Tales 48. If you are an outsider, either on Apple subscriptions or on Patreon, we will see you for two bonus episodes. Everyone else. Please enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye, everyone. Bye.

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