National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 58

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

Today’s stories include confession notes, quicksand escapes, mama grizzlies, spider pets, finding kittens, frog watching,  trail tales within trail tales and proof that all dogs go to heaven. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTwitter/X: @‌npadpodcastTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Ollie: Use NPAD to get 60% off your first box of meals when you subscribe today.Laundry Sauce: For 15% off your order, head to LaundrySauce.com/NPAD and use code NPAD.IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping.‌Jack Black: For 10% off your order & FREE Shipping, head to JackBlack.com/NPAD and use code NPAD. 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 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. And welcome back to National Park After Dark. Today we have a bunch of trail tales for you that we're very excited to read. Yes. And we have a small quick thing. We have merch dropping tomorrow if you're listening to this in real time when it actually drops. So this comes out November 7th, November 8th, we have a merch drop. And it's kind of like our holiday collection. So if you're wanting something to gift someone or yourself and you want it in.

time for Christmas. The doors are open. Yes, now's the time. Go grab some stuff. We have a couple new designs. We have a couple new accessory type items that are on there. So go check it out. It's our shop you can find from our website, M-PADD podcast.com or the links in our Instagram or anywhere on there. Yeah, I think that's it for business stuff, quick and easy. Business. And on to further, more important business, not more important, but also important, is we have a business. We have a a lot of trail tales today. Would you like to go first or second? Second, please. Second. Okay. I wasn't expecting that. Okay. I'm ready. Surprise. Surprise. Okay. Mine is titled. My first one is titled. I found a confession note. Hello to my mountain mama besties who had no idea I existed until now, smiley face.

My name is Jordan and I have changed the other names in this story. So read away. Sorry in advance for the length, but I think it's worth the read. You like long stories. For some brief backstory, my ex-Shan and I worked for two summers working for an outdoor magazine. We did two laps around the country making photo and video content about the amazing areas we were in, with the gear we were using, and tons of educational and safety tips and tricks about being outdoors. On paper, I know this sounds like a dream job, but in reality, it was one of the most challenging and difficult seasons of my life, for reasons we don't have time to get into. Nevertheless, I got to see and experience an absolutely incredible thing.

things that year and a half. And I have a ton of stories I could write to you guys. But I decided to tell this one first because it's the one that gives people the bug-eye mouth open look when I tell them. So let's jump in. While bopping around the beautiful northeast at the start of our first lap around the country, Sean and I decided we wanted to do a backpacking trip in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. That's so crazy because I'm going to Adirondacks this weekend. Oh God, I'm going to the Adirondacks this weekend. Are you going to scare me? No, I don't think so. Having roughly 24 hours of downtime before needing to be on the trail, we went to nearby brewery to plan out the logistics of our trip and decide what kind of creative content we wanted to capture. This is where we met Ranger James.

We all really hit it off and after about four or so beers, we walked away with a healthy buzz, a new friend, and all kinds of insider knowledge of the area that we were about to embark on. We couldn't have known this at the time, but befriending James was going to be very helpful in just about 48 hours. The next day we set out on our trip. The plan was to hike up to Mount Colden for dinner and sunset, camp in one of the designated spots at the bottom of the mountain, and then head back to our car the next day. The first day went great overall. The hike up to Mount Colden was harder than I expected, but the sunset at the top was spectacular.

Just as we planned, we woke up the next day, ate breakfast, and packed up our year, then started the trek to the car. We had been walking among the trees in silence for a while, likely deep in our own worlds, enjoying the soft sounds of the forest or the patterns of our own footsteps. Sean was a little ahead of me on the trail just out of sight, when all of the sudden the trees opened up to a beautiful creek with a little waterfall. I stopped for a minute to admire the stark change in scenery after miles of nothing but trees when I saw it. On the ground was a perfectly placed large piece of birch bark about the length of my arm. I had never seen a piece of birch bark that big.

And I'm definitely the, look at this cool thing I found, girl. So I bent down and picked it up. As I grabbed the bark, I saw it very clear. Blue ink, a handwritten note that said, The body is in the lake. I felt chills run up my body and the blood drained from my face as I registered what I was reading. Surely this was just some silly teenager's idea of a prank, right? I was almost able to convince myself of that idea, except for one thing.

There was a phone number under the confession, which made the idea of a prank seem unlikely. I whipped my head around like a wild woman, eyes wide and scanning the forest for any sign of movement. Nothing. I called out to Sean and he hurried over to me with our two German shepherds and I immediately felt a little safer in their presence. We both stood staring at the note and we decided to take pictures of where we found it and pinpoint on the map exactly where we were. Then, since my fingerprints were already on it, I carefully folded it in half. and tucked it under the lid of my backpack, but not actually in my backpack, if that makes sense. In hindsight, I probably should have left it where I found it, but I was in shock and not really

thinking straight. Whoever put that note there wanted it to be found. They wanted to come clean about something they did or witnessed. I figured the note must have been put there somewhat recently because there wasn't a rock or anything on top of it to secure it from being blown away. And there weren't any ink blotches that would suggest it had been there during a recent rainstorm. My mind was spinning, but we had roughly six miles back to the car and nighttime was approaching. We had no choice but to keep walking, but I was terrified. I convinced myself that every snap of a twig or rustled the leaves was the murderer hiding just around the corner or behind a tree, waiting for the perfect opportunity to make his move.

About a mile or so down the trail, we saw something else. We crossed another smaller creek where there was a bright pink t-shirt perfectly laid out on a large rock, When we got closer to it, we saw that it had a picture of a girl and it said missing right above it. Who knows if these two things were related or not, but it sure seemed to like they were. Again, we felt chills and took pictures, but this time we left the evidence where it was and kept going. We did not want to be walking in these woods in the dark. I don't remember much of the hike after that, but we finally got back to the car around dusk and immediately called our new ranger friend, James. We arrived at his house about an hour later to show him what we had found.

found. I pulled out the note and handed it to him, partially expecting him to laugh and say something like, oh, I'm sure it's just some local kids trying to spook hikers. Part of me was honestly hoping for a lighthearted response from him to ease the fear I had experienced the last few hours, but he took this very, very seriously. He studied the note and had us send him all the pictures we took as well as the coordinates on the map where we found it. We camped in his backyard that night, and in the morning we set our goodbyes and set out for our next destination. Unfortunately, I have no idea what happened after that. Sean and I split over two years ago, and I don't have any contact with the Ranger.

I hate that I can't remember the name of the girl who was on that pink t-shirt, but to this day, I occasionally search online about bodies found in lakes in the Adirondack Mountains. I think about that note a lot, but more often I think about the victim whose body was hidden in a lake in the mountains of New York, possibly still out there and begging to be found and put to rest. I'd like to believe that the note was the missing piece of the puzzle that led to a break in the case and helped a family find some semblance of closure. But the truth is, I don't think I will ever know what came of that note and the body in the lake. If you two ever find yourselves in Western North Carolina, I live five minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway and 20 minutes from the Smokies, and I would be honored to get on a trail with y'all. Thanks for everything you do.

I hope you know how much of the positive impact you are making through this podcast. Enjoy the view, but watch you're back. Happy trails. That's a tough one. No resolution is really difficult. Yes, that's so scary. It's scary to be in the woods when you find something like that because it's like, did this person just put the snow down? What does this mean?

Who is this person talking about? But then to not have closure of like, what did we find? What is this? Yeah, I know. I don't know. I would be doing the same thing along the same lines, like constantly just monitoring the news cycle to see if anything. anything ever came of that. When did you say this was? A couple years ago. Did you say? I don't even, I don't know. I don't know if they set a date. Oh, okay. Well, when you're out there in a couple days, do some research.

I know. Now I am scared. Don't be scared. I'm not scared, but just, I'll be thinking about it. If I'm near a lake, I'll be like, is this the one? Is this it? Yeah. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Okay, my first story is titled Wildlife Biologists Stopped by Cops in Urban National Park.

Hi, Cassie and Danielle. my name is Nicole. My trail tale occurred in a pretty unique place, which is Ojibway Prairie Nature Reserve in Windsor, Ontario, which is in the process of transitioning into Canada's second only national urban park. This area is extremely biologically significant, holding some of the largest remaining oak savannah and tall grass prairie habitat in the middle of a city, which also happens to be right across a river from Detroit, Michigan. Okay, now I'll get into the story. In March of 2019, literally just before the world shut down, I was finishing up my undergraduate degree in environmental science and starting my master's degree in biology, studying amphibians.

I was asked to help out with a project monitoring chorus frogs around my area. It included recording their calls and taking DNA samples, all with the proper permits of course. One of our spots was Ojibway Park, and we arrived fairly late at 10 p.m. to catch them calling. Me and two other grad students geared up with our headlamps, super sexy camouflage waiters, and footlong shotgun microphone. Ooh, the foreshadowing. We followed the sounds of their calls around the park, and of course they preferred not to live in the beautiful, idyllic ephemeral pools, but the ditches along the side of the road, which unfortunately contain lots of roadkill, including a fresh deer carcass. Side note, they have since cracked down on speeding down this road to prevent collisions, thankfully. Anyways, we're walking along the ditch, recording lots of calls and collecting our samples.

I'll attach photos of these little cuties, when we notice some lights flashing down both sides of the road. At this point, it's around 11 p.m. and pitch black. Considering both sides of the road are dark, forest habitat, the three of us watch as from the distance, police cars start rapidly approaching from each direction. We were joking around with each other like, ooh, they're coming for us, and better hide. never in a million years thinking they'd actually be coming for us. And boy, were we wrong. About nine or ten cruisers skirted up and flanked us on either side of the road. A few officers step out and the next thing we know, we're having guns pointed at us asking what we're doing.

It turns out that someone driving past us called the police thinking that we were poachers in the park with a shotgun. The three of us were stunned with our hands up, shakily explaining we were just biologists monitoring frogs. I'm sure one of us exclaimed, we're scientists. We have the proper permits, I swear. As soon as we explained the situation, it immediately de-escalated and we all had a chuckle about how much of a misunderstanding it all was, us a bit more nervously than them. I think after everyone left and our heart rate stabilized, the three of us decided to call it a night. I attached a photo of one of my colleagues from that night, Lincoln, with our shotgun, quote-unquote. My friends and I still laugh about it to this day, but looking back, part of me was glad that the people

in my community care so much about Ojibway to try and protect it from poaching. Well, that's my story. Thanks for listening and doing what you do. If you ever find yourself in the area, do yourself a favor and visit Ojibway Park. It truly is a hidden gem of endangered habitat, which you're unlikely to see in the rest of Canada. Tudaloo, Nicole. Wow. I mean, it is nice to know that people care that much and call but. Oh, that would be so intimidating to be surrounded by police with their guns drawn at you. And I'm just a scientist. Like, I'm not doing anything. What is going on? I'm here for the frogs. I'm here for the frogs. I just imagine. That is so scary. That is terrifying. It's just kind of funny. I mean, it is, I'm sure, pretty scary. But especially the lead up to you of like, yeah, wonder where they're going. Yeah. Like, oh, someone's in trouble. And it's you. Yeah. Yeah. I had, this isn't even close to that experience, but just reminds me of it. Because I used to live in a condo and I had a, there was like, I think there's like 12 condos or something like that. And we were like pretty much in the center of them. And one day I'm sitting working and suddenly the whole condo gets surrounded by state troopers and they're all outside. I don't think they definitely didn't have their guns drawn. But they were just like, there was like six or seven. And they're like walking in the backyard. They're walking around the front. And I'm like, what's going on? And me, I'm like, well, just knows the old me. I'm like, well, the dog should probably go for a walk right now.

So it's about that time. Yeah. So I like take the dog out to go for a walk and I'm like, oh, hey, like, how are you guys? And they're like, hi. And they say someone's name. And I had just moved in. So I didn't know anyone. And they're like, do you know where so and so lives? And I was like, I'm sorry. Like, I just moved in. I don't know. And then they were at a certain door. And then they showed. me a mugshot and I was like, oh, like I have seen that person before and they're not, they don't live at the place that you're knocking on right now. Like they're at a totally different one and I don't know whatever happened. I have since know the guy that they were like pulling the picture up and I can't imagine what they wanted him for because he's like very, very nice. That's what they all say. That's what they all say. Yeah. So I don't know. I still to this day, I have no idea what happened. They ended up leaving after I. said that they were rocking they were knocking on the wrong door they ended up leaving after that and then

i never saw him again so but you saw that guy after yeah i've seen him many times i've like i was at a brewery the other day and got a drink with him like he's very nice yeah he's very nice i i have no idea you should ask him next time you see him well even my memory like questions i'm like was that him because I had only met him one time before that. I saw the mugshot like really quickly. It was like a generic photo. I'm like, was that even the person I saw? I don't know.

You could have just totally misled entire operation. Yeah, I could have. I really honestly could have. And I, it was unintentional if I did. Okay. Well, someone might be owing a lot to you. I'm like, no, they don't live here. I don't know.

They're like, okay, great. Bye. while they're like hiding in the bathroom. My next one is titled Swallowed by the Short. Hello, Cassie and Danielle. I know everyone says this, but the community and content that you have both created is mind-blowing. I and others are so thankful for the stories, lessons, and energy you put into the worlds. Thank you.

That's so nice. So my story. It happened a few years ago. Myself and three of my sister-in-laws, yes, three, decided to go on a girl's baby moon trip. Two of my quote-unquote sisters were in their third trimester of pregnancy and I just wanted any excuse for a girl's trip. We live in North Carolina and decided to travel to Atlantic Beach, which is only a couple hours from where we live. Oh, I've been there before. This is a small local beach that we knew would be low-key and peaceful. Personally, I'm not much of a beach person, but the idea

of this trip had me dreaming of peaceful morning walks looking for cool shells and shark teeth to bring home to my five-year-old son. The trip started out smoothly and the first evening we arrived we had a fun girls night and doing face masks, watching movies, and eating snacks. We went to bed early and decided to all take our time in the morning with no set plans for the next day, all of us looking forward to sleeping in. Plans be damned, my internal alarm clock woke me up bright and early at 7 a.m. Wide awake, I knew that the others wouldn't be up for a long while. I put on my workout clothes and sneakers and set out to the shore to go on an early morning walk to start scoping out treasures. The weather was perfect with skies clear and a gentle breeze. I was the only

person on the beach for miles and the sun had just come up. This beach ended up having very colorful, perfectly round large pebbles. Having grown up in North Carolina beaches, I have never seen anything like this before and I excitedly started collecting the most interesting ones in my pockets to bring home to my son. About 15 minutes into my walk, I came upon multiple dead jellyfish. This is not super uncommon, but I remember thinking it was odd that there were so many. Determined to keep attempting my first hot mom walk and not letting anything negative get in my way, I kept on. But to my surprise, a few minutes later, I walked by a very large dead cow. I hesitated a little bit thinking, is this an omen? How creepy. But no, I would not be deterred. I kept going. I still had a

shark tooth to find. I got to a point on the beach where a sand ledge had started to form from the waves and was just about two feet high separating the soft sand up top to the hard pack sand at the bottom near the waves. Since I had tennis shoes on, I decided to step off the ledge onto the hard pack sand so it was easier to walk on, and I would be closer to the waves. You know that feeling where you miscalculate the distance of a step and your heart stops a little bit, but you find your footing and everything is okay? Well, that happened, but I never found my footing. I stepped down from the ledge and dropped all the way to my waist, and you guessed it, quicksand. It was probably five whole seconds my entire life flashed before my eyes. I proceeded to reach with my arms to try to get out and my hands hit mushy sand and drop through all the way to my shoulders.

I flailed and did this again, but this time my hands hit hard pack sand. I was able to crawl onto the hard pack sand and pull myself out. I scrambled as far away as possible, breathing heavily and adrenaline pumping. I sat there wet, sandy, and in disbelief. I looked around still completely alone for miles on the beach, hysterically laughing like a madwoman. Once the adrenaline rush wore off, I high-tailed it back towards the beach house now wet, sandy, and freezing. Thankfully, my phone worked despite being submerged and I was able to call one of my sisters

so they were there waiting for me with towels. When I got to the beach house, I rinsed off and then, called the police. Surprisingly, they did not sound alarmed at all, and the call was very quick. Weird, I thought. You do realize I just had a near-death experience. Next, I called my husband, and like any loving, caring husband who worries for the safety of his beloved, he said in a flat tone, after I summarized my tail, that is not what you're supposed to do in quicksand. Do you not remember any of the safety skills you were taught as a kid? Um, no, I do not, and I almost died you Butthole.

QuickSand was only supposed to exist in jungles or Jamongi, okay, not on a peaceful beach. To this day, he brings this up to our friends and somehow I am the only person in the world who does not remember these childhood lessons. Later on that night, as a group, I was thankful to see they had remedied the situation so that no one else was in danger. I've always wanted to be able to share a story and when your guide to surviving quicksand in Zion National Park episode came out, I took it as a sign and a lesson. And if you're wondering if I ever found that shark tooth, the answer is no. But that's what gift shops are for,

smiley face. Hoping you all found my story entertaining. And for any of you that like long walks on the beach, enjoy the view, but maybe turn around if you see a dead crow. Thanks, Sarah. Okay, it was a crow. I said cow earlier. Did you see my face? I was like, what? Yeah. It's like, yeah, that's a bad omen. I swear. It says a cow. Okay, I have to look back. Because you just like kept going and so I didn't interrupt you, but I was like, that feels like a very bad omen. If you saw a dead cow on the beach.

Oh, it does say a crow. It says a very large dead cow. I just changed the whole narrative of that story. All right. I have a different vision in my mind now. That's so funny. Okay, so no cow. But still, yeah, dead crow is.

are bad omens, I hear. But yeah, I mean, that's really frightening with just like sinking directly almost up to your shoulders and you're the only one out there. That's really frightening. I definitely do relate, though, to just cracking up after something scary happens. It's my first. I just laugh. I just giggle at really embarrassing things or awkward like interactions or scary things or like a near like one time I almost flipped my car over in high school it wasn't like it's super close but it felt like you know when you're going you're taking an exit and there's a really long curvature in the road like a big yeah and you feel like you're on like two wheels going on the corner I almost legit was I was in my first first car I had just got my

license and I took that exit going fast. And I was with a high school friend. Yeah. And we were mid talking. And as I was going around the corner that it just kept going, I underestimated how long it was going to be. So I just to like go super fast. Just had to ride it out. We were dead silent while it was happening. Like it was actually really scary. And then as soon as I straightened back out, we could kind of just like breathed for a second and then just kept talking to finish the story. And then maybe 10, 15 minutes later when we were finished, we kind of just, there was a beat of silence. And then she was just like, that was like pretty scary. I'm like, yeah, I know. We almost like flip this car. Yeah, we almost died, maybe. And I just could not stop laughing. That's so funny. I will say like,

I have kind of a similar story to that, except that we actually did flip the car. And once we were like laying on her side. I was in the car. It was my friend's Jeep and jeeps are known to flip over. Yeah, do that. It was a day where it had snowed a little bit in the morning. And my friend and I were like, she had a Jeep and we're like, oh, we know these like off-road trails. We can take your Jeep on. There was a two-hour delay. So we didn't want to tell our parents that. So we're like, oh, we're going to go get breakfast before school this morning. So that's why she's picking me up. And so she like came and picked me up and then we left. And not even five minutes later, I live on a windy road.

And growing up I did. And she's going around a corner and it's just a little slippery because it was like one of the first snows of the year. And we slide and the whole Jeep just flips over on its side. And I was in the passenger side and it flipped over on that side. So I'm lying on the ground. She's above me. And then we're just like sitting there and we just look at each other and we just start laughing. And we're like, what are we doing? Like, what do we do now? We were both looked at each other.

We were like, are you okay? Yeah, are you okay? And then just like burst out laughing. Were you going fast? We were going like 35 probably. So I mean, not fast, but not 35 is like pretty fast for. Yeah, it's pretty fast. Yeah. Luckily, the car was fine. And so were we, there was like a couple of dents and scratches and stuff. But we had to, I remember it was becoming school hours. So we. started seeing our classmates like driving by us and we had like some of our classmates were like volunteer seven were like oh no they're going to see us and we're like hiding under the steering wheel pretending we're not there because we didn't want like our classmates to see that we were crashed on the side of the road and then of course well eventually we couldn't we were on a road that I live in a small town you know everyone you drive by knows you and eventually not very long after one of the curls stopped and she's like what are you guys doing and she like called

the police for us and helped us out. And she was older than us. She was like two grades older than us. And we're like, sorry. That's so funny. I've never, I could have sworn. I mean, I had a two-door Jeep wringler for like a deck, literally almost a decade or just over. That's what hers was.

Was a two-dry brinkler. And I always thought that that thing was going to just tip over like a small breeze. And I thought, they sure be doing that. That's why they have those stickers that are like, if you can read this, I'm in trouble. Or upside down sticker on the front. Yeah. Well, knock on wood, that does not happen to us. And also not to go back to the story, not quicksand.

But I like that you referenced on Patreon for people who are listening that are on Patreon. I did an episode about quicksand. And I researched how to survive quicksand. And I researched a story of someone who actually had to be rescued from quicksand inside of Zion National Park. Yeah. That was a fun one. It was a fun one. It was a fun one because it was really scary, I think, for the person, because it was a pretty serious rescue that happened, but everyone was okay. And then it was fun to learn about how to prepare yourself if you find yourself in quick stand, which is, I go into statistics of how not uncommon it actually is, which weirdly enough, it's like pretty popular in like weird places. So yeah, not just chimanji in the jungle. Yeah, it's like kind of everywhere, actually. Yeah. It's weird.

I do remember that. My next story is titled, Never Trust a Kitten in a National Park. What? I would always trust a kitten in a national park, especially. If anywhere, it's there. If anywhere, I would trust one, it would be right there. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. I moved to Arizona earlier this year, and I loved listening to your podcast while I've been

exploring all the national parks in the area. I really appreciate how your show is so entertaining, but also informative and also inspires me to get outside and enjoy the view while watching my back. When I was 12, my family did a huge National Park trip all around the west for about a month. We saw a lot of cool animals like mountain goats and Zion, prairie dogs and Bryce, and a mama bear with her cubs in Yosemite. On our last night at Yosemite National Park, we headed to the lodge like we normally would for dinner. We saw a cluster of people all standing in a circle. And when we walked over, we realized they were all staring at a kitten. My sisters and I crouched down and

the tiny kitten walked over to us and started meowing. It was so small that it had to have only been about a month or too old. It had huge, bright blue eyes and brown and gray fur, and was one of the cutest things I had ever seen. Everyone around us was wondering if someone had lost their cat, and if we should find a park ranger to help get it back to its owner. We put the kitten's head, and it hissed violently, showing way sharper teeth than I had ever seen on a cat. My family decided that we should just walk away, and we headed to the lodge to wait on our dinner reservation. While we were waiting, we went to the gift shop and opened up a book about the animals of Yosemite. We came upon a page about bobcats, and I immediately recognized and realized that we had not been

petting a cat. It had been a baby bobcat. The picture was nearly identical, and my whole family was shocked. The bobcat's mom had surely been nearby and probably was not happy about humans surrounding her new little kitten. We ran outside to tell the group, but everyone was gone, including the bobcat. I hope that the baby bobcat was able to find its family, and now I can technically say that I pet a bobcat and survived. The lesson I learned was, watch your back and don't pet random kittens that you find in national parks. Thanks again for everything that you do, Issa.

I was petting a baby bobcat. It reminds me of the viral video that when. viral. Yeah. Yeah, right. The video that went viral a couple of years ago with the guy jogging in a canyon in Utah and he's filming and he sees some kittens come out onto the trail and he immediately clicked. He's like, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

And he starts backing up and a mother mountain lion comes out after him and is basically charging him for almost a mile back up the canyon and he's throwing rocks at it. and it's like kind of like a back and forth thing. It just reminds me of like as soon as I see a kitten in the wilderness, I am so far gone from that situation. I don't want anything to do with it. After seeing that video, it scarred me. No. It's not somebody's kitten.

No one's bringing a newborn kitten to a national park. And if you are, you shouldn't be. What if? And how do you lose it? I've never seen a kitten in a national park. but if I saw a kitten in a relatively populated area or even a national park, I would at least investigate and make sure. No.

What if it was a kid that needed a house and a home? That's not. I don't think so. If there's a road and people are dumping pets, if it's near a road in a national park, I'm checking to see if it's a kitten. No. I'm risking it all. I'm risking it all.

Okay. I do. Actually, anytime there's a box on the side of the road. road. I always check it. Have you ever found anything? No. But did I tell you about June ever? No, I don't know. My sister and her friend when she was in high school. Oh, yes, you have. Yeah. Still tell me the story. Okay. When she was in high school, I was still, I was living at home. I think before I went to, after I graduated college and right before I was leaving Colorado to work in the Wolf Center, she came back with It was the summer of the kittens or the summer of the cats because she found so many cats that summer.

But either way, her and her friend found this little kitten sitting on the double yellow line while they were driving around. It was at night on this back road in New Hampshire. And it was just this tiny, it barely had its eyes open. And it was sitting on the double yellow line. And they went out and got it. They looked for other kittens, but they couldn't find any. I mean, it was pitch black and they didn't hear anything. A double yellow line? Like, thankfully, they didn't not see it. I know. It was so small. It was so small. And they found it in the month of June. So they named it June. So she brings back being like, oh my God, this is like so cute and whatever, you know, and then immediately she's just like, this thing's annoying and it has to eat all the time. And, you know, whatever. I don't want to take care of it. Yeah. I ended up, you know, baby bottle feeding it. And until we found it a like a home new home. I actually kind of blacked out what happened to that cat. But.

somebody took it because our dog at the time was not a fan. Yeah. I just had to like lock it in my room and lock him out. But yeah, anyway, so people find kittens all the time. I just have not been blessed in that aspect. One day. You found a cat. You found milkshake. Yeah, I found a couple of cats. I've had like six cats or something like that in my in my lifetime of rescuing kittens. Actually way more than that because I rescued a whole litter of kittens. one time and a mom. Like you found them outside. I didn't find them outside now. They had a bad home. It was one of my friends in high school. Her dad was threatening to put them in a box on the side of the road because he didn't want them anymore.

So I said, no, they can come live with me without asking my mom because they knew she would say no. So I hit them in my closet for like three days, like feeding them and doing everything. And I had a CD player that I would have on repeat play. music all day because they're little meows when I was, you're trying to muffle the noise. Yeah, I was trying to muffle the noise. And then it was like three days in and my mom walks into my room and I have a cat litter box in my closet, everything. And she goes, she comes in and she smells my room. And she's like, do you have cats in here? It's like, no. I was like, yes, I do. Please help me. I had like six kittens

and a mom. And I was like, please help me. I'm so over my head. these and she just like looked at me and she got so mad like her face was bright red and she's like show me where they are like she was so mad i brought home all these cats and i'm like okay like i had no choice at this point yeah i'm like they're in the closet and i just like point to my closet she like looks at me like gives me like the death stare like god what did you do and she opens the door and then she like looks at me and she melts and she goes oh my god there's kittens in here and she just like was not mad for a single second after that. And she's like, okay. And then she's like, there's a mom in here. And she like totally takes over, starts helping me take care of the kittens,

take care of the mom. We ended up having, this was in high school. So we ended up having the mom for the rest of her life. And then that litter, we found homes for all the kittens. And then she had an appointment to be spayed. And she got out. And she got pregnant again. So she had a second litter with us unfortunately, but not unfortunately, because we ended up keeping two of the kittens from that litter. And then we found homes for the rest of them. And then we had three cats for the whole duration of their lives. But that's how. And that's how that was my first rest of cats. Cat experience. And then it just kind of like blossomed from there. And now I just spiraled in there. Yeah. Spirled, blossomed, however you want to look at it, but it was a good time.

Well, I'm always just on the lookout. Just I'm scanning. I am. Always scanning the sides. I'm ready. I'm ready to take one home. I literally have a, I drive with a empty cardboard box with, so it's kind of dual purpose because it started as I wanted to collect roadkill when I had the dermested beetles. Right, of course. As one does. Yeah, when you have beetles, that needs to eat on dead carcasses at your house as one does.

Yes. And you would have a box in your car for that. For that, of course. Right. And then once like that hobby was dissipated, I transformed the purpose of the box. I outfitted it with like nice little towels and just like a bunch of like a little water thing and like a water bottle and a little dish. And I have work gloves and it just hangs out in the trunk of my car in case I come across an animal that needs help. It's so sweet.

Yeah. I haven't used it yet. But it's right. We want to add another helping animal story onto our trail tales, I guess, is recently I saved a bowl at my house. Right. Yes. So we were all outside. We were stacking a bunch of wood. It's the season, you know, we had the dogs outside. And Al turns and he sees Ember, our puppy, throw something into the air and then catch it in her mouth. And he goes, oh my God, she has a, she has a mouse. I was like, what? And I turn and I run. I'm like, like, drop it and running at her. She's like looking at me like, I'm a psycho and she like just has her mouth like closed completely. And she's just looking at me like, why is this crazy lady screaming at me and running at me?

So I run at her. I grab her mouth. She like has it shut as hard as she can. And I finally pry it open. And she just like, collapse this little vole. Eyes aren't even open yet on the ground. I'm like, no, it's dead. And Al comes over and he's like, no, it's stuff.

alive, it's still alive. So I was like, oh, okay. So then I'm looking for the nest everywhere to find it because I'm like, if I can put it back in the nest, then the mom will come, and it'll be okay. And I can't find the nest anywhere. I don't know where it is. I don't know where she got it. And I'm looking like right where she was in the yard, cannot find it anywhere. So then I call a rehabilitation member, that woman. It's not the first time I did this either. We did it for a squirrel a few months ago, but I call and there's this woman an hour away from me. And she's like, yep, I can take it. That's totally fine. But she had some other things that had to be fed every hour. And she was like, I can't leave my house right now. So you have to come to me. So I take this

little vol, wrap it up in like a towel. And then I'm like, okay, I have to go. And we had like, we had plans. We had visitors over. We had things that we were doing. And I was like, all right, I have to go and I just like pack up and go and bring. I thought it was a mouse at the time because it was totally covered in slobber and it looked like it was gray. But then as it dried on the ride there, it turned into like this brownish red color. And I got it to this rehabilitation woman and she goes, oh, by the way, this is a vole that you found. And she was like, I don't think it's, she's like, I'm going to try.

I'm going to try and help it. But I'm not sure it's going to survive. It's very lethargic. It's not moving. And I just, you should be prepared that this might not go well. I'm like, okay, well, thank you for letting me know that. I just, I had to try. I can't just let it like sit and die in the yard now that I rescued it, you know,

from being eaten by my dog. And so she's like, okay. And I was like, please text me and let me know, like, how. And so she texts me like an hour later. And she's like, well, good sign. It ate. So that's a promising sign, but still really lethargic. I have no idea what's going to happen.

She texts me the following after. noon and she was like the vol's going to live doing great eating very like up and about everything's fine and i was like okay the two hour drive like round trip it was worth saving this little this little guy this yeah this lg this little guy and then i was like well you just saved it to for it to be let go and then eaten by an owl but okay i was just about to say that i was just about to say it's like I just envision this like the doors are opening the bowl is going back out into the wild and just gets immediately scooped up by a bird of prey like that's what I just had I mean you it's got to eat too you know where it's got to eat and your conscience has to be relieved you know you just

I feel the same way I wouldn't have been able to be like what well well I guess I hope it lives this baby it didn't even have its eyes open I couldn't just leave it on the ground it would have died in a few Like it was too cold and you gave it another day, you know, at least. At least. I mean, it wasn't going to be out and about walking around where predators are for a little while. So probably gave it a couple weeks at least. Well, the world needs hearts like yours. So.

Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, my last story. Is it your turn or is it my turn? I'm not sure. Did you just tell me a story? I'm sorry. I'm lost.

I think you just told me a story. Oh, about the kitten. Oh, yeah. You're right. Sorry. Okay. Okay. Crispy chicken sandwich from 7-Eleven.

People always call me loud. And I'm like, yeah, I know. I'm crispy. Did you expect me to whisper? If you want quiet, go eat some soup and reflect. Like, I know I'm a handful. I'm bold. I'm juicy.

Throw some pickles and barbecue sauce on me. And baby, I'm a whole meal. And with seven rewards, I'm just $4. Quiet? No. Crispy sauce. and $4. Very only at 711.

Valley through 62326 participating stores only while supplies last see out for full terms. My last story before we get on to the bonus stories that are available on Patreon is titled Mama Bear Grizzly Story. More animals. Hi. So I spent the summer like I usually do in Denali National Park in Alaska and was catching up on your shows and listened to the recent one you did with Kevin Grange, Grizzly Confidential. It made me think.

of what happened on my last day in the park. I have been a naturalist hiking guide four seasons in Denali and have over five seasons of experience running in grizzly country. I've always known that running is a particular risky activity in bear country as it is easy to spook an animal running compared to walking or hiking. On my last day in the park this season, my friend Ellie and I decided to run a marathon on the park road. The fly and lodge we work at is cut off from the rest of the park due to the pretty rocks landslide so we knew we wouldn't be seeing any buses or probably any other people on our run. At mile 14, we were pacing well with each other and feeling great. It was a foggy morning with light rain, and I remember at a time I had been stranded

on this very road in the rain because of a mom grizzly and two-yearling cubs occupying the roadway. Descending the downhill portion, a growl broke the silence of our breathing and soft footfalls and a willow shrub lining the gravel road rustled and shook. Before I could register what the sound was, my friend started screaming and a small grizzly cub ran out directly in front of us, and I knew immediately we were in huge trouble. It felt like we could have run the little guy over. I was expecting another cub and of course, the mom. I felt like when you're walking a dog and all of a sudden you get tangled up with a bunch of dogs that sprung out of nowhere and tangled up in your feet and your leash. The next moment, the mom burst from the shrubby ditch and she was not happy.

Teeth showing, the mom charged us. Did I mention she was less than 10 feet away? Within the next second or so, she was almost within arm's reach, and I felt like a mauling was inevitable. Because we were running downhill and everything happened so quickly, it was very hard to stop running. My friend and I swerved into the opposite ditch of one of the open lane gravel road, and we were pinned between the angry roaring bear and a steep shrub-covered embankment. Without thinking, I pivoted to get back up on the road and retreat back up the hill for where we came, but the words I always tell my clients came to mind. Never run away from a bear.

As I stepped back up onto the road, I reached into the chest pouch of my running vest for my bear spray. I quickly slid back the safety, squared up to the bear, held down the button, released the entire can of bear spray at point blank, and braced for impact. Did I mention I've never deployed bear spray before? Ever? The bear disappeared behind the opaque cloud of intense pepper spray, and I took a few steps backward to avoid getting the spray in my eyes and on my skin. As the cloud dispersed, the bear, who had stopped charging me, paused. Then she started to charge again. In my backpedaling, I had increased the space between us by about 15 to 20 feet, still way too close. And in that moment, I knew I needed to bluff so hard to avoid another charge.

Taking a big step forward, I threw up my hands and started yelling as loudly as I probably ever have in my whole life. And my friend, who was just behind me, did the same. I took a few more steps closer, knowing this was my last defense as the bear spray can was now empty and useless. Finally, she stopped coming closer and ran away down the road in the direction that her cup had gone. Relieved, Ellie and I faced each other and laughed. I knew I was either going to laugh or start bawling, and laughter was better. We expressed our gratitude, composed ourselves, and when we were about to start running again, Ellie grabbed a bunch of leaves out of the side of her shorts.

How did those get there? I asked. Oh, that must have happened when I fell. You what? When did you fall? I asked confused. I fell in the ditch right when we were getting charged, she replied. In that moment, I guess we both thought we were going to die. I was so focused on the bear, I didn't even notice when she fell. We hugged and continued running to complete our 26.2 miles. This is actually not the end of the story, though.

See, the bears had run off down the road in the direction of our lodge, and there was no way in hell I was running back that way. I knew of a hut that was 12 miles down the road in the opposite direction. There was only one road out there and was pretty sure that the hydrologist was going to be there doing field work. I had met her the summer before and had seen some of her equipment at the airstrip a few days prior. Neither Ellie or I had a sat phone, but we did tell our friends to come looking for us in a vehicle if we weren't back at the lodge in four hours. There's no service in the wilderness.

After 12 miles of running, we reached the hut and started making a big arrow in the road out of the fireweed flowers so that our friends would know to pull over and find us. I wrapped myself in an emergency blanket as it was drizzling in about 45 degrees out and we were both only wearing shorts. A man emerged from the mist from the hut and I recognized him as a man. Tobias, the hydrologist brother who had helped with her field work the year prior. He invited us into the hut, stoke the fire, and offered us snacks and hot water. And I huddled in my emergency blanket by the fire like some sort of discarded burrito wrapper. I was shivering from the cold pretty uncontrollably at that point. Our friends eventually picked us up and dropped Johanna and Tobias

a little closer to the area where they needed to do their field work. And I was so grateful to finally get back to the lodge and properly wash off the bear spray, which had covered my body and had only started to burn once I stopped sweating. To conclude, if you're in bear country, keep your bear spray somewhere you can reach to deploy within seconds. Seconds is all we had. Also, that experience would have been so scary alone. Thanks for running with me, Ellie. My final thoughts, the grizzly wasn't being aggressive. She was merely trying to defend her cub and was probably just as surprised as we were. I'm so grateful that nobody got hurt. Never run from a bear. Thanks for making a great podcast, Adelaie. I mean, that's scary as hell.

Yeah. Ten feet away from a angry, same type of thing. The baby pops out and you just have an oh shit moment. A kitten, a cub, whatever it is. I just my stomach would drop out of my butt. Yeah. And to have to make those decisions, I think we hear a lot with bear stories or any type of animal stories where we have the set of rules that. I like, and I say rules, but I mean more guidelines of when you have one of these encounters, but that can all go out the window in the moment. I mean, for her, she had to basically bluff charge the bear back where that is something they say with Grizzlies, like to avoid to like stay away from Grizzlies. And that's more of something you do with black bears. But when you're in that moment, you're at a bear spray.

You're being charged. You have nowhere to go. Like that was the only option. And that's what saved your life. So you can read as much as you want in a book and be prepared. But once you're actually in that situation, things can change. Yeah, it's completely different. Yeah, that's really terrifying.

Glad everyone's okay. Yeah, for real. And it reminded me when I was in Denali, we were in a car. We were not running, but we were on the road and a huge grizzly was approaching us when we were. We had stopped on the side of the road and just, it was actually during COVID. So there was no one there. And we just set up a hammock. And we had been out all day and we're like, let's just like,

hang out here. It's really nice. We'll take some pictures, set up a hammock. And while we were sitting in the hammock, we saw this huge grizzly walking down the road. And we were like, oh, shit, we should get in our car. And we should leave. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's crazy because they also described in that where they just come out of the brush. And it was the same thing. We saw this grizzly coming down. We're in Denali. They're walking down the road. You can see it's massive. And then it decides to take a step off the road, it steps off into this brush and it's completely gone. I know it's still there. Yeah. Because it wasn't moving fast. It wasn't running. But it's completely concealed. And that made me look at the whole park different. I'm like, how many grizzlies are right around me right now and I have no

idea? Yeah. When we were hiking in Alaska on one of our group trips, that's all I could think of. When we did, remember, we split up into two groups. You were, we were in a Denali State Park, I think, is when this happened. And I wish, that's all. I could think of it. And I didn't want to be nervous outwardly and like freak anybody else out in the group. Not that that would come as a surprise. Like people are probably thinking along the same lines. They know they're in their country. Yeah. Yeah. It was just a little freaky. Now, for real, I'm going to tell you my last story. And it is titled, No Coincidences, No Really. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. I wanted to share a story about my mother following the days of my father's

passing. For starters, NPAD is my absolute favorite podcast. I am currently a full time wildland firefighter for the National Park Service based out of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I've worked for the National Park Service for years, but have also worked for many years for the Forest Service and Washington DNR. I say all of that to say I have a handful of stories that I've always wanted to and maybe will share one day. However, the story I want to share today is about my father's passing. On August 5th of this year, I got a gut-wrenching call for my mother. I was at a hotel in Portland, Oregon, after two weeks of assisting Crater Lake National Park with several large fires. Around 11 p.m., I got a call from my mother.

Not unusual, but my mother had just moved back to Indiana, which is three hours behind Pacific Standard Time. My intuition knew something was wrong. She proceeded to tell me that she just received the worst phone call of our life. My mom immediately began sobbing on the phone with me, and I asked, what? What happened? Brandon, my father, had passed away unexpectedly. He had been on a cruise ship with his first.

friends who all shared a birthday just days apart. At dinner, they were all celebrating one friend's birthday when he had suddenly fallen over and stopped breathing. I don't exactly have all of the words to illustrate how I feel since this is so recent, but I can say that his passing is a monumental challenge for all of my family to grieve. To give some context in the story, my mother had just moved back to her home in West Baden Springs, Indiana, after living in Van Horn, Texas with my father. The intent for her move was to be closer to my aging grandmother. It was a really tough decision for my mother to make, as this move meant leaving my father behind until he found a job that brought him closer to home. She knew her time with my grandmother was limited, but her time with my

father, they had forever, right? Fortunately, at the last moment, my father offered to take time off work to help her drive the U-Haul back to Indiana and spend time visiting with the family. While back home, just days before his cruise, my mom noticed something different. about him. He had always been a busy man, but this change was noticeable enough for my mom to tell me over the phone during our many phone calls. Only in Indiana for two days, my father asked that they should stop to see my grandmother. My mother told him that since this may be the last few days they have together, she would prefer to just spend it with him. He argued, and my mother asked if it really was that important to him to see her. I don't know, he replied. They stopped to see my grandmother,

and the visit went well. Upon leaving, my father began to cry. which is slightly out of character for him, and proceeded to tell my mother that them stopping was very important to him. He couldn't explain why, but he just felt that it was. Following his death, I told my mother I would come home and support her and my siblings in any way that I could. After an early flight from Oregon, my partner and I immediately drove from my home in Virginia to my mother's house in Indiana. When I pulled up to the house, my 15-year-old sister grabbed me and began sobbing in my arms. I can't fathom what it must have felt like for her, especially being his. his only daughter, daddy's little girl. After days and weeks of traveling and firefighting, my brain

was already a jumbled mess, but the emotions really hit when I met my mother's eyes. A few days later, my mother and I found ourselves on a flight back to Texas to begin the tragic overhaul of all of my father's possessions. On the plane, my mother began to cry and told me that just a week before they had left for Indiana, she spontaneously ran inside to write a cute note from my father on the mirror. That was their thing. Even as a young child, I remember getting ready for school in our shared bathroom and would see their love notes written on the mirror with a dry erase marker. Little notes for each other, unapologetically in love. My mother tells me it reads, my love, this is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I love you, the best ever. And that broke my heart, knowing that he would never get to read it. My mother then asked if I had any podcasts on my phone. Sh, do I have podcasts? I checked, knowing full well, I have some National Park After Dark podcast downloaded to my phone. I only see one downloaded, actually, and it's Trail Tales episode 42. I decided to put it on and we split a pair of AirPods for the last half hour of our flight. In the podcast, a woman who worked at a university shared that she was crying during a long drive and asked the universe to give her a sign. Okay, universe, I really need a sign that everything is going to be okay. Later in the story, she's trying to figure out, what exactly is damaging some plant she's studying and proceeds to look under each one. After finding what she's looking for, she almost doesn't look under the last plant.

But when she does, right under the last plant was a yellow post-it note with her sign. On that posted note was written, you got this. So we listened to her talk about how her sign from the universe was so clear. Towards the end of the story, she shared with us that she encounters another person who's upset and proceeds to pull out the same sticky note and gives it to them. A sign that they got this. She finished up the story by telling us to keep your eyes out for signs from the universe. So we finished the entire episode just before landing.

And upon exiting the plane, my mother says that she needs to use the bathroom. My mother chose a bathroom. And when she came out, her eyes were filled with tears. She showed me a photo of the mirror in the bathroom. Someone had written, you got this on the bathroom mirror. His last note to my mom. It's, is that? Okay, hold on.

It's almost done. before I start talking about it. Okay. Okay. There have been so many other personally obvious signs that my father is still with us, but this one absolutely shook me to my core. I hope y'all enjoyed the story and I wanted to thank you so much for all that you both do. Also, on behalf of my mother and I, thank you to the person who initially shared that tale. Enjoy the view and hug your loved ones, signed Jay. I love that story. That is absolutely a sign. There's no coincidence in that that is your sign for sure. And it's happened to be written on a mirror, which was their way of expressing love to one another. And just like the alignment of hearing the story and then recognizing that. And it just adds layers to the profound nature of that particular sign.

And I think that is so incredibly special. And I would keep that to share at every Thanksgiving dinner for the rest of time. That's amazing. It really is. And the fact that it was on a mirror is like that is the point where it's not, is this a sign. Could it be a sign? It's solidifies. This is your sign and that is your dad.

Yeah. And to say, oh my God, it's just like, it's perfect. Anyways, thank you for sending that in. Yeah. Yeah, cool. Thank you so much for writing that in. Thank you everyone for writing into us. If you have a story yourself, please go and submit it on our website, NPADpodcast.com.

There's a submission link there where you can write and write. to us if you have any stories. Yeah. I've been actually thinking of requests. I know sometimes we just throw out things such as if you have this type of story, like a theme. Yeah. But this one had a, the theme, it really wasn't a theme. And it wasn't intentional, but there was a lot of like baby animal stories. And then I know a previous one we asked for near death experience stories. So I don't know. I just feel like request. I like requesting specific thing. I'd like so survive. stories. I'd like some cool survival stories. Yeah. They don't have to be super intense, like some of the ones we tell, but like some near like survival stories. If you've had to be rescued before. Okay. That would be cool. All outdoor based or are we being lenient? No. If you had to be rescued from, I don't know. I don't know. Where else are you rescued? People are rescued from places all the time that aren't outside. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like where?

Okay. Like a burning building. Okay. I guess. I actually can't think of anywhere else. But you know what I'm saying. It happened to any way. Yeah.

Yeah. It doesn't have to be a national park. Okay. Right. There you go. Or I would decide. You want it outside. That's just sorry.

Okay. If you have a story of being rescued that has nothing to do with being outside physically, then I would love to hear it because I cannot. think of a single occurrence where you would not be. Even a car accident, if you're being rescued from a car accident, you're outside. Okay, I guess that's fair. I don't know. I just feel like, prove us like help us. Yeah. You're in a cave. That's, I guess. That's outside. That's outside. Yeah. That's outside for sure. A basement. An elevator. An elevator is inside. If you had to be rescued from an elevator, please write it to us. Okay.

Great. All one of you, please. We'll have an entire Trail Tales episode on that next time. Right. Okay. Well, for subscribers, both on Apple and Patreon, we have two bonus stories for you. We'll see you there. Everybody else. Enjoy the view. Go 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 N-Pad-D-Podcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Join our Outsiders only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock monthly bonus episodes, and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show.

For our exclusive discount codes and source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For more information on our show, our book recommendations, merch updates, and more. visit our website at npaddpodcast.com. And please rate, review, and subscribe from wherever you listen to podcasts. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressives save over $900 on average. Pop over to progressive.com, answer some questions,

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