National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 60

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Today’s stories include cursed stories, near death experiences, whistles in the forest, haunted babies and dead uncles. 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 the week’s partners!BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.Lume Deodorant: Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with@lumedeodorant and get 15% off with promo code NPAD at LumeDeodorant.com! #lumepodLumen.me: Head to lumen.me/NPAD for 15% off your purchase.Skylight Frame:  Get $20 off a Skylight Frame at SkylightFrame.com/PARKFor a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodes  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope? It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Hey everyone, welcome back to National Park After Dark. This is our Trail Tales episode, if you're not familiar.

Today, we tell stories from listeners of all different things, mostly outdoor related, but all interesting stories. And we have a lot of them today. All right. I'm going to go first. Okay. I'm taking charge today. I'm taking charge today. All right. My first story is titled, I should never tell this story out loud again. Oh, here we are. She or they are, I don't know who wrote this in, but they're not telling it aloud. You are, so. Yeah, so it doesn't count. Yeah. Hello, Cassie and Danielle.

I am a little afraid to tell this story again because the last time I did, something bad happened to me the next day. For that reason, I wish to remain anonymous to help ward off some of the bad juju. Bucle up chicas. I just wanted to get it out of the way is why I wanted to go first. Okay. Okay. buckle up chicas because this is a long one it all started with me recalling to my sister-in-law Mindy and my partner Tom the frightening encounter I had with a strange being out in California

Mindy had come down to hang out a few days before a planned family hiking and kayaking trip her first night there we were all sharing our wildest stories and so I shared the story of the strange being I had encountered in California and the horrible emotional stain it had left on me The next day at work, literally the day before a much-needed vacation, hashtag VetMedLife, LOL. I was sitting crisscross applesauce on my high top bar-style chair at my desk. And when I got up to see my next patient, I stood up too quickly and my foot that had fallen asleep misjudged the distance to the ground, causing my ankle to roll and sprain. And I heard a loud snap. I had just broken my left fifth metatarsal, aka footbone.

It was not a coincidence. I spent my quote-unquote vacation in pain and having to relearn how to navigate my entire life on crutches. Cue the embarrassing memory of me sitting on one of those sexy old lady shower chairs looking like a fat, angry sphinx while my partner bathed me. Definitely knocked me down a few pegs and I struggled with depression during my recovery. I vowed never to speak that story out loud ever again. So why am I sharing it now? Mainly as a warning. But also, I am typing this time, not speaking, so maybe nothing bad will happen.

Fingers crossed. So now you're putting it on me. Now you spoke it out loud. So we'll see. Let's see how the next 24 hours goes for you. Yeah. I'm a little worried now. And I don't even know what this is about.

It all started in, like, I'm getting asked of myself. Actually, we're not reading this one next. Actually, I need to find another one. It all started in undergrad when I was hired to do research on a lizard. species in Carrizo Plain National Monument in California during summer break. I was thrown together with seven other biologists in a remote ranch two and a half hours from the closest town. No TV, no cell reception, and internet that never worked. Picture of the real world, but with young scientists set at an old ranch and way less drama. One day, halfway through my time there, I spotted

something behind the gated entrance to the ranch as we were driving in. In broad daylight, I saw this being that was a mixture of creatures. Body parts of different animals strewn together resulting in a disgusting mess. And with the blink of an eye, it was gone. I looked around, but no one else seemed to have noticed it, except for our boss Ross, who was driving. Ross asked me what I saw, and at first I played it off like, some weird shadow. Must have been the hot day playing with me, because I didn't want people to call me weird or crazy. He said, no, what did you see because I just saw it too? After giving a description, the remainder of people in our group started paying attention to our conversation. Ross, with a concerned face, said to me, I know what it was. He's a skinwalker that has been

following me around for a while now, and I guess he just found me here. He went on to tell me how he came across this skinwalker in Arizona, and how he accidentally helped someone find and fix a curse that the skinwalker had placed on them. And since then, the skinwalker taunted and chased Ross wherever he went. Now, being from the Midwest, I had never heard of Skinwalkers growing up, but sure enough, the legend's description fits exactly what I saw. That day, we had so many things happen. Like on the back porch, right after someone just walked across it to go inside, when they returned less than 10 seconds later, they found a dead squirrel that was actively bleeding

out with no predator in sight. Keep in mind, this is an open plane with no bushes or shrubs around the house and no birds flying over at the time. We started hearing odd banging in different parts of the house with no one doing any activity. Sounds that we had not heard in the six weeks prior that we were there. You would feel or see someone watching you out of the corner of your eye, but you would turn and no one would be there. Things of that nature. We could all also feel a heavy, daunting presence.

Even people who were not typically sensitive to supernatural things felt it. We all got so spooked and decided to sleep together in the main living room of the old ranch that even. I am particularly sensitive to emotions and spirits, always have been since I was little, and that night as I drifted into those first hazy moments of sleep, I suddenly snapped into an extremely vivid dream that was so real I didn't know it was a dream until later on. In that dream, I was in the same spot on the sofa surrounded by my seven colleagues, all in the same positions that we had actually fallen asleep in. The skin walker appeared in human form in the corner of the room around 15 feet away, staring me dead in the eyes. He had on a yellow native design poncho and the skull of an animal covering his face and at first the only part of his face I could see were his eyes through the sockets of the skull until until he smiled and I could see his wide horrible grin with black teeth. Black teeth. This is very detailed. In a split second he zipped across the room to directly beside me all the while laughing maniacly. He leaned in and touched my rib cage causing a severe stabbing pain.

It felt like a knife to the chest. In that touch, I felt and saw so much darkness, evil, and pain within milliseconds. I woke up screaming, clutching my side as my colleague scrambled to turn on the lights. I was struggling to catch my breath as my lungs were on fire. And when I lifted my shirt, on my side was a giant red mark that still ached. But honestly, the emotional pain from the visions he gave me hurt so much more. The pain he has caused in the world is unimaginable. I can't put it into words because it's downright disgusting and disturbing. He wanted me to know that he could touch me and he could hurt me just like the others. When I explained what he looked like, one of my colleagues, Alan, went wide-eyed.

The week prior, Alan had woken up in the middle of the night and saw a fuzzy outline of a man, wearing yellow, standing in the men's bedroom. His brain had rationalized that it was one of the guys coming from the shower in the middle of the night in his yellow towel. When he said this, the other guys in the group all said they had never showered past 10 p.m. And no one had a yellow towel that slept in that room. Alan had seen the Skinwalker too, without even realizing it. And poor Ross had been terrorized by him for the past few years of his life. To this day, it is still one of the most evil spirits I have ever encountered and I can still point to the exact spot that he touched me on my side.

I felt like it left a permanent stain on my soul. And as quickly as his ominous presence came, it left. And the next day, the ranch felt normal again. So when I told my sister-in-law and my partner this story after keeping it to myself for years, the next day I break my foot, it was not a coincidence. I have another trail tale where I almost died in the desert that same summer. And my experience with the Skinwalker still beats that story as one of the worst things to have ever happened to me. So enjoy the view, my friends.

but take my advice and don't ever fuck with a skinwalker. They are pure evil. Anonymous. Wow. That just gave me chills. I don't like that. I feel like we have to cleanse now. Yeah.

We need like a sage cleanse. Yeah. Like I feel like I need to like shake something off of me. You know, like, I don't know. I just feel like that was really. Now you just told that. I chose that. You also need to cleanse.

Yeah. Sorry, everybody. Wow. I actually do apologize. I was best up anonymous. Well, that's the end of trail tales for today. See you next week. All right.

Well, I don't want to say that this is an uplifting one because it's definitely not. Oh, wait, sorry, there's a PS. Oh, no. It's not bad. It's actually nice. So let's uplift things here. P.S. To the amazing humans I spent that summer with, if you're listening to this, I will always

treasure the memories we created together. and though life has scattered us across the country, I still consider y'all some of my dearest friends. That is nice. Okay. There we are. It's like a little sorry for traumatizing everyone. Yeah. This episode is brought to you by Prime.

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All right, my story is titled Near Death Experience slash Survival. Hey there, ladies. As most do, I will say how much I love listening to your voices and enjoy laughing and crying to your stories. You have fueled my love for nature, camping and hiking and even more. I'm writing to tell you, even though you both already certainly. know this and hopefully give advice to all your listeners about how your animal loving heart should never change but you should always put yourself first this is a hard story to write it happened in august of 2021 and i'm still working through the lasting fear of some of these moments i'm going to give a trigger warning

this involves a near-death experience by an animal back in august of 2021 my husband was away with the military and me and my two dogs decided to grab life by the balls and move to a remote caribbean island for a few months. I had a fantastic time and was living on this island for most of three months when this event occurred. I happened to live at the top of a huge hill, no mountains in the Caribbean, but a hill, if you will, and had the ability to run the hills each morning with my dogs. On this day, I was doing our usual route and running a close by hill from my house when I heard a dog crying out and panic. My two dogs started to react as well and we followed the sound to an abandoned farmhouse. It had a huge farm gate over the driveway, but I said, fuck it, and ducked under the fence with my dogs and trench forward to find this puppet need.

Side note, there are loose dogs on this island that are called Satoos, as they are just wild dogs. I happened upon the scene, and it was a medium-sized dog standing in a 50-gallon barrel drowning. This poor dog was gasping and couldn't escape. While holding my dog's leashes, I tried to push the barrel over, but it was filled with water and wouldn't move. I didn't think and I reached down into the barrel grabbing the dog. That's when I felt it. Pain searing into my body, but my brain wasn't able to compute where it was coming from. I thought it was my arm.

It made the most sense. It was the closest thing to this dog, but no. The dog had latched on, locked jawed onto my neck. I panicked and was drug under the water with it briefly before grabbing it by its underarms and yanking it out of the water and holding it so it didn't rip my throat out with its weight. All I could think was why? Is this how I'm going to die? Who would find me?

How would my husband and parents find out I died? Will my dogs be okay and get away? The flashes were awful. By all that is badass, my 50-pound dog jumped onto this dog's legs and got it off of me. Just as I stopped and released my neck, I turned to see another dog coming up from the hill, and my 80-pound dog, squaring off, haunches up to defend and protect us. The rest is a blur, but I lost my shoes in the attack and slowly walked off the farm property with my phone in hand and loyal dogs by my side.

I managed to call for help, and by every miracle and grace there is, my main blood vessels in both sides of my neck were missed by centimeters. I was on a remote island and had no hospital available to me unless I got airlifted, which they hardly ever do because of limited availability, which meant I had to be stitched up in a tent by one of the few doctors on the island, while a nurse held me down in place with no numbing agents to help. That is like, I mean, so scary. That's traumatizing. And yes, both of my incredible dogs were perfectly fine while only missing some fur and got a lot of good food and snuggles following this event. The moral of the story is, I would have still done everything

I could have to save that dog, but wish I had literally not stuck my neck out. You watch those animal rescue videos online and think all will go well, but the reality is that it could not. While I always want animals to be saved. I want to remind everyone an animal in distress does not know you are trying to save it. Always walk with your phone, seek out therapy after traumas, put your own safety above all, and understand that you survived for a reason. Mary Kate. Wow. That's so scary. And that could happen to so many of us. I mean, we would do the same thing. You don't stop and think of that potential. You see that? The first thing you're going to react, especially you see a dog in a dire situation like that. And, yeah.

Yikes. But I just like the perfect storm of just being so remote and then the limited access to health care and emergency services and all that. And then. Yeah. And then of course to this dog, I mean, they're terrified. They're dying. And they, I assume this dog just was like, oh, my God, something to grab me or something

to grab onto finally as I'm drowning in this bucket. Well, that's, I mean, people. warn of that with other humans if you're trying to rescue someone who's actively drowning. Yeah. They're going to clammer onto you. Yeah. It's like a survival instinct. Yeah.

And just they're in a panic and freaking out. And I mean, not to bring up Titanic again, but. There's always a reason to bring up Titanic. And that happens in that movie. You can see it. Right. Okay. We have drowns.

No, he doesn't try and pull Rose down, though. He saves Rose from someone who is actively pulling her down. I guess he doesn't drown. He freezes to death. Right. And I don't want to talk about it. Spoilers ahead. It's a trauma I've never gotten past.

There was room on that door. It wasn't even a door. I don't know if there was room. I think they would have both died. It's a hot take. But it had to happen that way, I guess. Yeah. How else would she have known that he loved her?

What do you mean? That's the ultimate sacrifice for the. love. Dying? To freeze and die in the ocean. Right. Yeah. It doesn't happen enough, honestly. What? More men need to step up to the way. Save their women. Profound acts of love. That's what I want to hear. Not dying. That's, that was too much. That's a little far. But profound acts of love stories, I would love to hear that. Okay. So, Somebody write in about that. Okay, anyway, my next story is like a whole trauma opening. My second story is titled, Spooky. Hello, fellow adventurers. I was told about your podcast by my wife's daughter, Keanna. I have since listened to every episode and thoroughly enjoyed everyone. I listened to your spooky trail tales today. And while it's not on a trail, I hope you enjoy hearing of my experience because I still can't explain it. I live in Klamath Falls, or.

Crater Lake is practically my backyard. Quick back slash side story. When I was in fifth grade, our teacher had a palm reader come to class, and she looked at each of our palms. I patiently waited for mine to be read. Finally, it was my turn. She gently grabs my hands and turns them over as she exclaims, well, that's odd. I start panicking. She points to my lifelines.

Yeah, it's like, okay, you're in, what did I just say, fifth grade? Yeah. Is that what it's? Oh, no. Yeah, fifth grade. Like, you don't say, oh, no, to a fifth grader while you're reading their Pons. When reading their lifeline. Right.

Okay. Where are we? Okay. Yeah. Well, that's odd. I start panicking. She points to my lifelines and shows me that both of them don't connect to the other side. She explains that it either means I'll die young or I have a decision that shifts my life drastically.

She stopped reading everyone's palms after mine. That is. Okay. Okay, one year did this happen. First of all. To say to someone, you're going to die young or you're going to have a big decision that will change your life. We all have decisions in our life that changed the course of our life. But like, those are two very contrasting things to.

Yeah. Like, I guess we'll find out. Yeah. We'll see where this is going. Yeah. They're clearly writing a story, so they didn't die young. Hopefully. I don't even know what year this takes place.

Maybe they'll tell us. Okay. Fast forward to me being about 16. We lived right by a cemetery. and I'll be fully honest here, I'm a giant chicken. But my sister is a photographer and wanted to take photos in said cemetery. We had a friend taking photos with us. After a while, I got bored taking pictures, so I started reading the headstones.

I went through about 50 until I landed on one that made me freeze in my tracks. The name read Tanya D.S. I can't remember the last name exactly. Born February 25th, 1890, died June of 1914. At the time, my name was Tanya D. Snook. I was born February 25th, 1990. My sister and my friend came up, read the stone, and froze too. It was getting dark and it was getting crazy creepy in the cemetery. My sister went to take a photo of the headstone and her camera died. We went back the next day and I couldn't find it. And still, to this day, I am now 34 years old. I cannot find this headstone.

We have searched every time we've gone there. I would have thought I was crazy if I didn't have witnesses. I was convinced that at 24, I would die. Between the palm reader and the headstone, I thought they were omens. As you can tell, I didn't die. I transitioned at 24. So Tanya is no longer living. So in a sense, it was all true. Hope you enjoyed reading what has perplexed my brain for almost 20 years. Enjoy the view, but watch your back. Tevin D. Snuck. Ah, that is a way better conclusion than what we were guessing. Yes. We're like, something bad's going to happen. And no, that is, that is so telling. I feel like that is exactly what she was saying. It was like kind of like a death of a different person and a new life.

And a drastic change. And that's really. Yeah. That was way happier than I thought that was going. We started one way. We ended up another. Loved it. Thank you. Breath of fresh air. Amazing. My next story is titled, That Time My Baby Got Haunted. No, not babies too. Not the children. Not the children. Babies being haunted is extra creepy also. It's just something about it.

Like haunted babies, not a baby being haunted, I should say. Yeah, but that... What? We'll see if your baby's creepy. Okay. That's your story. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. My whole family loves NPAD, and it's our main source of entertainment on Road

trips. As Albertans, we especially love the CanCon episodes, Canadian content. And honestly, I think we all have learned more about geography and history than we ever learned in school. I know the podcast has helped my oldest when geography trivia in her social studies class. We even became outsiders as a family Christmas gift a couple of years ago. Oh, I love that we're helping with trivia. Someone who has historically been very bad at trivia. I love that other people are thriving. We love the trail tales episodes and I'm always trying to think if I have one to share. As a kid, my family spent all of our vacations doing camping trips in B.C. and Alberta and most of them in national or provincial parks and now that I have my own family, we like to get out an adventure too. And one day it hit

me that I do have a story. One of the weirdest experiences of my life took place just inside a provincial park. My story takes place at Big Island Cove Resort, which is just inside Meadow Lake provincial park in Saskatchewan and is on the shore of Lock de Isles. My family has always pronounced this as Lock De Isle, but that's probably not the correct French pronunciation. Well, that's how I said it too, so I appreciate you. That was a journey. That whole thing. That entire thing. I apologize. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. This resort was owned by some distant family members in the 90s and became a place where my mom's family held several reunion-type vacations when I was a kid. My family is huge and loud and very fun. Big Island Cove managed to carve out a special place

in our hearts because of all the fun memories there. Think making the five-hour drive in a caravan of all your cousins and switching kids and vehicles to make the drive more exciting, searching for shells on a little white sand beach, playing in the beautiful lake, big family meals, and one of the funniest straight out of the movie you've seen moments happening one night when all of the adults were in the owner's residence playing cards and having drinks. Someone noticed the dogs outside the patio door waiting like very good boys to be let back inside. The doors opened, the dogs bolted inside running laps around the dining room and all the people in it. Within seconds, everyone realized the dogs had just freshly been sprayed by a skunk. Chaos ensued. I believe there was even vomiting.

I had been here a few times as a kid, but realized when I was there as an adult that maybe, just maybe, my childhood brain had highly romanticized this place. The drive is very long, very flat, very boring, and not even all the roads are paved on the main route to get there. I've been to Big Island Cove twice as an adult. The first time was immediately after my honeymoon in 2007. My husband and I literally got off the plane from Mexico and drove five hours through the night with our printed off MapQuest pages. Oh, MapQuest. I remember those days.

in the dark to get there. Although I will admit the drive that night was spectacular because we watched a thunderstorm roll across the prairies in front of us for hours. The second time is when my story happened. My mom's side of the family had decided to have a reunion weekend at Big Island Cove to celebrate some milestone anniversaries that were happening in the family that year. So we all booked our cabins and made our way there. It was the year 2017.

And I know this for sure because all 16. plus family members that were there received matching t-shirts, which have the year printed on it. And yes, we all wore these shirts with pride wandering the resort all weekend, confusing other guests. At this time, my kids were really little and adorable. Our youngest, Jonas, was just over a year old, and our girls, Isla and Flora, would have been about five and three. At the resort, my husband, Lance, our kids, and I ended up sharing a cabin with my parents. Now, you might hear the word resort and cabin and be thinking luxury.

think again the cabins are very rustic but they did have solid walls bedrooms a kitchen and plumbing my parents had one bedroom lance and i had the other bedroom with jonas in a cot beside our bed and our girls were on the pull-out couch in the main room the kids were having so much fun that weekend even though jonas was teething i don't know if you know this about teething toddlers but they're cranky and after supper the night of the big celebration jonas turned the crank all the way up to eleven lance and i accepted defeat, left the party, and took our kids back to our cabin to put them to bed. We got the girls, put to bed no problem, then turned our focus to Jonas. He wasn't settling and was having lots of teething pain, so we gave him the prescribed amount of baby Tylenol. Then we all got ready for bed and laid down. Jonas's cot was right next to Lance's side of the bed and I was next to the window which was closed because it wasn't really all that late and the party was still raging a few cabins away. Shortly after we had all laid down and everything was quiet in the cabin, loud, crystal clear, hauntingly beautiful humming filled our room. Our eyes flew open and Lance and I shot a handout at each other

and I whisper yelled, Lance checked Jonas. And he whispered yelled back, I am not looking over there. You check on him. I did not. This is one of those moments that could have lasted 10 seconds or 3 minutes. I don't know, but we laid in bed staring at the ceiling, holding hands, and listening to this humming that seemed to be emanating from where Jonas was and filling the room. When the humming was over, we mustered up the courage and peeked over the edge of the bed together to ensure he was okay. And he was. He was at last peaceful, fast sleep. With his hands resting on Jonas's tummy, Lance and I looked at each other like, what the fuck just happened and went through the list of possibilities. I knew for sure it wasn't me. And I knew it was a lot.

Lance because aside from him being scared as I was, he just didn't, he just doesn't have a beautiful woman's singing voice. It also made no sense that it could have actually been Jonas doing this as it was not a toddler's voice that we heard. It wasn't coming in the window because the window was closed and too high up for anything outside of it to reach it. It wasn't coming from the party because we could still hear the muffled sounds of that party. My parents weren't in the cabin. The girls were fast to sleep in another room and alas, it was not our phone. They were on the nightstand and turned off because there was no service or Wi-Fi available and no reason to set an alarm for the morning. And remember, these are rustic cabins, no Bluetooth or wireless or anything like that.

So what does this mean? What was it? Who was it? Was our baby just possessed? Did a ghost gently and lovingly hum him to sleep? Or maybe it was just tired of listening to a cranky, teething baby and took pity on us? The next morning we may have handled Jonas a little cocky. cautiously and suspiciously at first, but after a while we felt assured he was 100% himself.

He's nine now and has never had that happen again, but he does love a good spooky story and is a huge NPAD fan. His favorite shirt is his NPAD t-shirt. Amazing. I have never been able to explain this experience or place this melody that was hummed, but thinking back on it now, it definitely had a lullaby sound and as freaky as the experience was, I have to admit that the humming was really beautiful. Well, that's my trail tale. I might write another in the future, but for now, take care of yourselves and we look forward to many, many, many more episodes, Jenna. Well, there's only one explanation in my mind. What's that? She listed it that something was beautifully and lovingly rocking her baby to sleep. Yeah, and at the beginning of this,

I was wondering if your baby was going to be creepy and Jonas is not creepy. So that was a nice Yeah, Jonas, you're good. Yeah, you're cool. Sorry for passing judgment too early on you. I do think it was some ghost was probably, I don't know, I think of like ghosts in their past life and maybe it was the mom that you met that or a grandmother. It feels like very grandmothery vibes of like, oh my like my kids overwhelmed with their kid. Let me step in and take over and go to bed. Like that's kind of the vibe that I got there.

That's a good point. coming in and helping. This reminds me a little bit, a little bit. It's much creepier of, so I don't, I don't know if I like can say her name or not. Our friend, I don't know, this is hard to make up stuff. Our friend Tina that we used to work with, who used to like exploring abandoning, abandoned places. Yes, Tina. Tina, yes, we know well. she sent me a video that she took in one of these abandoned. She was in a morgue and she had a bunch of recordings, but essentially so her and her boyfriend at the time would go alone and split up.

And she was by herself and she was using her phone as a flashlight and she was also actively recording. And you could tell she was using it as a flashlight. She was just kind of like scanning around. It was just like a lot of empty cupboards and I don't know, look like a storage room. And then she like, it just cuts. It's not filming anything. But I guess when she reviewed it, she sent it to me because she's like, this is crazy and you would enjoy it.

You can hear very briefly and very faintly someone going, like a little hum like that. Oh. Oh, that's creepy. And I still have it because I thought it was so interesting. Yeah. But it was just like a very, and she said, and she said she didn't hear it in real time. She only heard it when listening back on. And she was reviewing it to see if she had caught any visual phenomenon.

So she was surprised. Yeah, when she heard it. But it was a hum. It was a little hum. I imagine that was like maybe the autopsy tech when they're working just to like alone. Like, just like working. Brilliant. Yes. I mean, who else would be humming? It's not the dead people. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't even really think about it, honestly. But that makes a lot of sense. Okay. My last story is titled A Horrible Impression of an Owl. Oh, okay. Hi, guys. I became a huge fan of your podcast over the past six months. About a year ago, my girlfriend got me into it. And as I have been having a lot of late night trips from my hometown to college, your podcast has become one of my go-to, spooky comfort. listens. My love for hiking originated with my dad as a sort of bonding experience between us.

We would pack snacks and water, dress up in our favorite hiking gear, and go on a bike ride or hike through our local parks. Now, as I'm getting older, I like to seek out more hiking locations for me and my friends. One of these locations was close to my Pennsylvanian home. Dead Man's Hollow was set to be the perfect location for my friends and I to have a ghost hunting hiking experience. We left after I got off of work and drove two hours to the the small park tucked behind an even smaller neighborhood. We all got out of the car and turned on our flashlights and made our way through the entrance. When I researched the park, I discovered that there were old, decrepit buildings at the bottom

of a very steep valley that we would climb down. What I thought would be a quick venture into the woods to find the buildings became an hour and a half hike weaving back and forth through the paths going down the valley. All was well for the first hour. With only a few direction-based mishaps, we felt fairly confident in our ability to continue down the valley. That was until I heard something that still strikes fear in me to this day. As we came up to a turn in the path, I heard one of my friends in front of me say, a comment which I dispelled as a joke from our friend who had previously joked that he was

holding in a fart and his stomach hurt. That friend and I laughed it over, but we were quickly silenced by my second friend who then snapped. No, seriously, shut the fuck up and listen. I quieted down and stared off into the abyss that was the valley. Sure enough, all three of us heard a whistle coming from the bottom of the valley. The sound we heard was something indescribable. Even growing up in the country where bird chirps and whistles were as common as seeing grass, I had never heard a sound like that. The hooting we heard sounded so unique in a way that I can only describe as someone, or something,

doing a cheap impression of an owl. We all stood there silently, staring down at the edge of the valley. We could hear the whistling get closer, and then, further off. Like whatever it was was messing with us. For a moment, the noises ceased, and we all looked at each other and began to strategize our next move. Of course, the friend that heard it first was the most shaken up and refused to believe that it was any sort of harmless animal. However, as we hadn't even reached the buildings yet, my other friend and I tried to convince him that it was nothing. I told him and myself that it was no more than a bird with a messed up beak, but then I

looked at my other friend, someone who I had known since preschool as a confident, not easily shaken, brute of a man. I saw fear in his eyes as he showed me the word he had typed out on his phone out of fear of saying it aloud. Windigo. This made our other friend turn around and wish to go back to the car, but we persisted and tried our best to convince him that it was nothing more than a scary thought. Finally, we convinced him enough to continue on and we heard the whistles follow us around the turn. almost becoming worse of an impression. As we walked further down the path, we heard steps behind us, leaves and twigs breaking, and our scared friend aiming his flashlight off into the woods that lined the path, only to be stopped by our other friend who uttered, I know, I heard it too, don't give it any attention,

I'm right behind you, and we're okay. Eventually, we made it down to the valley and came across a bridge and a few other landmarks. However, it was getting late. It was starting to rain, and the buildings were most like, likely still further into the valley, so we decided to turn back and come exploring again during the day. As we walked back towards the path up the valley, we rediscovered a sign that mentioned something about bird habitat. But now there was the word scary, written in red spray paint that was not present when we first noticed the sign. Okay, this feels like a person, not a windigo now. Yeah. Quickly, we gathered our things and began our hike back up the cliff. The Three of us ran back up the path, hearing crunching behind us and all around us.

We tired ourselves out, now sprinting up the steep paths. Cut to another hour later, we made it out of the park and found ourselves joking around as we saw the light at the edge of the woods, joking that soon turned to terror as we saw headlights and cigarettes next to our car. At first, we decided to cut our flashlights and wait them out as we feared they were park rangers coming to tell us that we shouldn't be in the park after dark. but we soon realized that we had to move as the headlights turned around revealing itself to be a tow truck. We ran out of the woods as it drove away and we found our car sitting safely in the parking lot. As for the cigarettes, they were two people who had decided to go hiking after dark but had gotten lost and to make matters worse for them. The tow truck was actually AAA there to jumpstart her vehicle, which had died during their walk.

The five of us stood there discussing our experiences of the night and what all had happened. Soon, we all turned around to the sound of an old man across the street who was now standing in his yard, pointing to us, and asking what was going on. I walked over to explain that we were wondering if the park was open after dark, or if we should just leave, to which he responded, what? I took this as an invitation to speak louder so he could hear me, so I took another step to get closer to him, and he screamed, you stay where you're at. When I say I have never felt so much real fear from someone, I mean it. Based on the houses and the trailers that we passed on our way to the park,

I was sure that this was it, that this old man was ready to aim a 12-gauge directly at me without warning. I, being the diplomatic person I am, raised my hands above my head and backed away, reassuring him that we would leave. My friends and I gathered ourselves and drove the two-hour trip back to my house to settle down for the night. To this day, I have no idea. what that haunting whistling sound was. Who had spray painted the sign, or if that old man had any ill intentions when speaking to us? All I know is that we were lucky to receive no more than some scratches from thorn bushes that evening,

and that the next time we visited the park, we would be hiking during the day. Enjoy the view, but watch your back. It's not just other hikers out there, even if they sound like that's all they may be. Jake. Interesting. I mean, that was such a recipe for something. for he to happen, you know, like just at night, you're hearing something, but you keep walking on. And I feel like there could have been an added element of already being freaked out that could

have, like, heightened a lot of things. But then to meet someone who's also on edge, like, it sounds like the old guy that was there was like maybe used to having some scary people in that area and was like, get away from me. Like, I don't trust you. So, like, not to say what they saw in the woods wasn't there or hurt in the woods but the spray paint and stuff not to say that wasn't something but I feel like with the added at nighttime you're already freaked out kind of heightens that and then you meet someone who is also fearful it's like something something goes on there that you narrowly did not escape yeah yeah yeah I don't know I don't I don't mess with the whole uh at night abandoned buildings type of like kind of even circling back to Tina um our good friend, Tina. I don't, it's just not for me. I don't like the thought of being in, I love old buildings, but especially in places where other people are probably hanging around and not doing the greatest of things.

And it just seems really, instead of feeling spooky, it just feels dangerous to me in a very real way. And I just, anytime I hear of them or anybody else, doing any explorations like that, which I know is a big thing and people really enjoy. Not only is it usually illegal, which I am a law-abiding citizen, I feel like now, I just can't do it. I can't bring myself to do it. Yeah, I think as a teenager, I probably would have, and I probably would have I went into abanding buildings, not for the creepy vibe just to go places I wasn't allowed to be in.

But, yeah, as an adult, just knowing, especially like in any type of city area where there's populations of people who don't have homes, you know, that and drug problems that are going on and just things that could lead to dangerous situations, I just wouldn't. Or in the woods where they want to be away from others. Where they're specifically leaving people, like they're specifically being away from society and then you're walking into this abandoned building in the woods where they thought they would be alone. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't mess with that stuff. I mean, I don't even go into you take me in spooky buildings. I don't go in that. Not abandoned. Not abandoned. But that's what I mean. Like the spooky buildings I go into are like the ones that you take me in.

Yeah. And I like to think they're nice. They're a lot of times they're very nice. Expensive. Yeah. A lot of times they're very nice. They're filled with people. They feed me, house me.

There's beds. There's beds. Yeah. I have not been haunted yet. So that's always appreciated. I have something in my eyeball right now. Okay. I was like, do you have another story for me?

I do. But if I have an eyelash on my eye and it's interrupting my ability to perform. Okay. My last episode is titled, What? My last. Get it? What day is it? What time?

is it? It's about to be the holidays in a couple days. My brain has turned to mush. My next story. Don't blame Thanksgiving on this or for this. What else am I supposed to blame myself? I'm not too sure. Maybe the moon. Yeah. Is Mercury in retrograde because that could. That is something else entirely, but I don't know actually. Oh, I know what you could blame it on. What? Aunt flow. Aunt flow. Yeah.

I could definitely blame it on that. Yeah. I've been struggling all day today. Let's go for that. Okay. That fits. There we go. And mercury in retrograde.

Anyway, my next story is... It's titled, I flew on lifelight and survived. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. Let's get the pleasantries out of the way. My wife and I love the pod. We have been listening since 2021. This podcast helped me get through some tough times. in my recent past help me find myself and help my wife and me find our happy place outside camping.

Now for the story. I am finishing listening to Trail Tales 58 as I type and Cassie just asked for survival stories so I asked my wife if I could write her story in and she said go for it. Let me say it is not a national park and it's not a national park related, but I will bring it back to them on the back end so bear with me. This story does have some sensitive subject matter like an accident, drugs, and mentions of domestic violence. My wife Erica was a wild child in her pre-wreck days as we face it. She has told me several times that she doesn't think I would have liked pre-wreck Erica because she was an asshole. I didn't meet her till I was turning 26 and she was turning 22. Our love story started on Tinder where all great love stories begin. I mean,

I'm engaged from a Tinder. There you go. I was just going to say. Yeah. Cassie and Al, Forever. Yeah. Via Tinder. Use our code NPAD to find your match. Don't. Save yourself. Don't do it. Not that I know. I couldn't. I'm just, yeah. Have you ever been on Tinder? I think I downloaded it. Like, this is the first time I lived in Colorado, like back in 2014-15 time frame. And I downloaded. it and oh my god yes i've just had like it's all coming back oh my god i have goosebumps okay definitely don't use tinder because we are we're on two ends of the spectrum here so you have this great love story yeah i had one of the worst relationships i've ever had it was so short it was it was less than it was far less than a year i want to say it was around six months but it's the same relationship that remember during the instagram instagram what the hell going on. You're rubbing off on me.

MySpace. No. I'm just kidding. Our live stream that we did from the Mount Washington Hotel. Our live stream is what I'm trying to say. Remember the story I told of the poltergeist kind of activity that threw the thing against the wall when I was arguing with that boyfriend. That was that boyfriend. Okay. I met him on Tinder. Oh, okay. I kind of had a feeling the second you said, worst relationship, I already knew who you're. Yeah. So I, I didn't. I'm just like such a, I'm not meant. for the apps, I feel like. And that was my only experience with them. But I just, I know they're kind of meant to and correct me if I'm wrong, because you have more experience with this than me, I think. But like, yeah, like playing the field more like going on dates, like several dates and getting to know like a

wider amount of people. Like I basically was like, oh, I matched with this person and there it is. Oh, you would only talk to one person? Yes. Oh, such a new. I apologize. to pass me. Not meant for monogamy at first. Like, you download, you swipe right on anyone that you find attractive. Doesn't matter anything else. And then you narrow it down after that. Well, not only was it just I talked to one person.

I deleted the app immediately after and moved in with him. Oh, my God. And it took care of his two kids. I mean, like this girl, she is moving too fast for me. Well, I'm the one who was like. I was kidding. I definitely was like, realize my mistake. Yeah.

Oh my God. Yes. Into it. Yeah. Realized my mistake pretty much immediately. And then I was like, I don't know what to do because I'm literally like, have nowhere to go now. Yeah. And I moved in with him because I didn't have a lot of options at the time.

And the person I was renting my room from because I was renting a room in someone's home. And they were selling the house. Oh. So you like kind of had to get out quick. So I had to get out quick. and he was like, wouldn't you know it? I happen to have a house. I can keep you in.

Correct. So I was like, oh, great. And so I did that, whatever. And pretty immediately realized my misstep. And I didn't have any other option. So I literally was just like, hey, so I'm actually going to move across the country in a couple days. so I got to go. I got to go.

And he's like, oh, really? And I was like, yeah, yeah. And like, no, it's going to, it'll be fine. We'll worry about it. We'll still be together. Literally. I was like, okay, bye. As I was like, driving away.

I'm like, I'm never going to see you again. And yeah. And then like, so we broke up because I just physically left. Yeah, that happens. Yeah, it does happen. I just didn't have the balls to be like, hey, this isn't work. and I'm going to go. There was also some concerns for like my well-being also that like I don't want to get too deep into. But just like not get into it in person and to end it from afar.

Yeah. Because I was like I need to like not physically be here when that happens because I felt unsafe. But yeah. So anyway, long winded way of saying just be careful on Tinder. Is Tinder the best thing? Yeah. I don't know. Honestly, I have to advocate for dating. apps because I think that they are in a time where we're kind of shut off from a lot of the community and we're not like out as much and there's so much social media. It's ways to meet people that you wouldn't necessarily ever run into in the real worlds. And I think it opens up doors to meet a lot more people. I do think like with anything, especially as women, you have to be careful and like bad, like what happened to you can happen and does happen to women all the time. But there's also really

good stuff that comes out of it and you just have to be really careful and and there is something to be said so when I was again I'll I'll stop soon but this is relevant so when Ian passed away I had the like he gave me the passport solid stuff and vice versa we just yeah yeah um so anyway I was like going through all of his accounts to like shut everything down and you know bank accounts and this that whatever and he had a his old laptop and I was going through some of the pictures and stuff because he had a lot of pictures archived of us. And this is like an ancient Mac, like probably the first Mac that ever was to be. And so it was taking me so long to go through everything because it took forever to load.

And I was like, God, what is this? And I almost stopped because I'm like, I don't know. He had every picture from like high school on. I'm like, there's a line. I don't need to be watching. Yeah, I don't need to be seeing like a lot of this. But whatever. Like we were both really opening each other.

So I was like, who cares? So one of the, he had a screenshot of his Tinder profile from years before. Oh. And it was so funny. Like it was so. It wasn't Tinder or one that like had. Or like Bumble or something. I don't know what it.

I can't really be sure. But there was like prompts. Does Tinder have prompts and you answer them or something? Hinge. Okay. Whatever it was. It has prompts. Like it asks you a question, like, what's your ideal date or something?

And then you, like, give a response. It must have been that. Yeah. It must have been that. But anyways, I, it just gave me such a good laugh because I was reading it. And it just spoke to his personality. Like, I just could picture him. Like, it was just the perfect profile for Ian.

And he just really marketed himself so well and so accurately. Do you remember what it said? No. I don't. And I would, I mean, it is on that Mac somewhere. Like, I would take me a long time to get there. It would take me, you know, five to nine business weeks to get to it. But it was just so funny. And it just like, there are people out there. Like, I just thought of, you know, this was him like trying to get out there and meet somebody and showcase who he was. And like how lucky. I don't know. It just kind of brought me full circle of like how lucky I was to. even though I didn't meet him in that way. Yeah. You know, there are people like him out there who are trying to find people. For sure.

And, you know, it doesn't mean that being on the apps is like a second right way of trying to do that. Like, it's just the way of the world now. And it really is. I just thought that it was just so funny. And it just gave me like a smile in a really hard time because that was like pretty immediately after he passed away. And oh my God. There's just like good people out there.

You know, that's all I'm trying to say. And we'll say that Hinge is kind of like the app. I feel like that is for more serious, like people who are like more genuine and serious. Because like Tinder, you can just put a couple photos of yourself and not even write a profile. You know, Hinge, you actually have to go through and write things about yourself and add a bunch of different photos. And like, yeah, it feels a little bit more genuine when you're on Hinge versus some of the other ones. I've never been on Hinge because I was not looking for anything genuine. But it took me a second for that to land.

The only time I've seen Hinge is when she, I can say her name, she doesn't care, Nitea. She was on it like years and years ago before she met her now husband and all that. And she showed me her profile and she's like, tell me if this is weird or it was kind of like, is this weird or is this cool? Or is it funny? Right. Yeah. And she had a slow-mo video of her sneezing. And it was so funny. It was so funny. Just like the way that it was like there was like music in the background that was kind of slow-mo. And it just like was kind of funny. And I'm like, keep it. Because this is your personality. If they don't like this. You're going to only attract the right people that you want in your life with something like that. You know. So she kept it. And it was part of her hinge profile. This like really weird. Slow-mo. sneezing. Okay. We're in the middle of a story. I'm so sorry. Yeah. We're in the middle of a story. Thank you for taking us down memory lane with dating profiles. And I guess what sparked this said,

our love story started on Tinder where all great love stories begin. So this is a happy ending Tinder story, which do exist. I can attest to that as well. Okay. When her accident happened, she had turned 20 about three weeks before. She was out at a bar with her friends using one of her fake IDs. It was about 2 a.m. Everyone was calling it a night, but she decided to go to her friend's brother's apartment to continue to drink and to get high. As he was driving them, he decided that he wanted to light up a joint. She grabbed it from his hand and said, we are already drunk, we should wait to get high till we're at your place. Well, he didn't like that very much and drove the car off of the highway that was in an underdeveloped area in Houston at the time. When he did that,

the car rolled a few times. Her seatbelt snapped and she went through the windshield. Once the dust settled, he got out of the car and called his dad. He told him everything that had happened that he thought she, Erica, was dead and he didn't know how he was going to get to work the next day because his car was totaled and asked for his dad to come get him. What a guy. His dad said, I will not come get you. You need to get off the phone and call 911 right now. They got off the phone and he called his friend who lived a few minutes away and he got him and they left. At this point, Erica is still lying on the side of the road. It was estimated that about 10 minutes after the wreck, an off-duty police officer was driving home and took away that he normally does not take. He saw the wreck and pulled over to check it out, and that is when he saw Erica lying there covered in blood, barely breathing.

He called it in and Erica was life-flighted to a trauma hospital in Houston. The hospital didn't know what her name was or her address because she had fake IDs, and her real one was in her wallet. So they couldn't find a way to get a hold of her family. her parents were getting worried because even though she was wild it wasn't like her not to check in at some point at the day they felt like something was wrong so they called her friends and no one had heard from her since the night before they started calling hospitals in houston which there are a lot of my wife has a massive peacock tattoo that goes from the top of her back down one of her butt cheeks to her calf and that is how they were able to find out she was at a hospital when her parents got there they were told that she was in a coma with a brain injury as well as a lacerated liver, shattered ankle, broken hip, a few broken vertebrae, and cuts and bruises everywhere. The doctors told them that they would not know the extent of the brain injury till she woke up, and they didn't know how long that would take. Well, the guy she was with reported that Erica stole his car, and he had no idea what had happened. The police quickly found

out that he was lying because, one, his blood was in the car, and two, his dad called the police the next day to tell them everything his son had told him. His dad, Dad is the only reason why we knew the whole story because Erica doesn't remember anything. His dad had terminal cancer and told his son that he was not going out like that. He passed away two months after the accident. The guy was arrested, but let out on bond. Later, to get arrested again because he skipped his hearing, disappeared, and got taken back in because he beat up his pregnant girlfriend. Well, Erica finally woke up after being in a coma for three months and the doctors were preparing her parents for the worst.

When she woke up, she was 83 pounds. She was 120 pounds before the wreck. She had to relearn how to be a human again. She had to learn how to walk, eat, dress herself, everything. I met her a few months after she got out of her inpatient therapy, which was a little over a year from her accident. For the first two years of our relationship, she was still an outpatient therapy. She is now 11 years from her wreck.

She got her driver's license back three years after it happened. She was bipolar before the accident. And with her brain injury, her brain rewired at and she is not bipolar anymore. Besides her voice being a little monotone due to the scarring in her throat from the breathing tubes, a little Swiss cheese with her memories, there are some holes in it and her left side being a little slower, as she said, no one would know just how much she has survived. Ask anyone who knows her and they'll say she's one of the most positive, kindest, except when she's mad at me. Genuine people anyone will meet. She amazes me to this day after being

with her for coming up to 10 years and married for six and a half. Looping back around, no one ever thought she would be able to live a normal life ever again, but she is. When we got married, we always talked about visiting national parks. Well, a couple of years back when I was in the middle of a career change and I was out of the job, we said, well, no better time than now, and we started what is now a three-year tradition of going on at least a week-long camping trip to a different national park in the southwest region where we currently live. When her old doctors, nurses, and therapists, sees the things she's doing now. They are amazed. The guy who left her to die is a convicted felon now. She told him in her victim impact speech that she is making the most out of her life, but she has to live with the injuries he left her for the rest of her. And the least he could have to do is register as a felon for the rest of his. He got five years in prison, but got out after two. I have attached a photo of us and our two dogs, Aqua and Hazelnut on our camping trip and a photo of her with her. I flew, in a life flight shirt she got when she woke up from the hospital.

Cammy. Wow. Three months in a coma. Yeah. And being 83 pounds is insane. And that guy, like, excuse my French, but what a piece of shit. I know. To leave someone, even if you know you're in the wrong, like, even if you know you're

drunk, you know you're going to get in trouble to leave someone dying on the side of the road. Without calling emergency services. Not even calling, not even anonymous sleeping. Like, I just drove by this accident. Like, if you're going to flee, at least, you know, which is messed up on a lot of levels. But without even notifying emergency services first and then dipping out, like, if that was your plan, that's the very least you could do. I mean. Well, his father was clearly a better man than he was because the fact that his father wasn't even there, but called 911 to make sure his son actually did the right thing.

It sounds like the next day was. like, hey, did this call ever come in? My son called me last night. Yeah. I need to make sure that. Yeah, it sounds like the dad was maybe a little aware of his son. Being shady. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Well, I hope he's having a really bad day. And I hope you guys are having a nice day. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's it for our regular scheduled episodes. Okay. We need to that.

It's a holiday. I'm telling you. No, you know what it was? What? It was that first story. Oh my God. It's already coming to. It was pretty immediate. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I feel like I need to do some sort of realignment cleansing thing here because what I was trying to say is that is the end of our regular stories. We have two bonus stories for outsiders on both Apple subscription and Patreon. And mine is titled The Man on the Side of Halfdome. And mine is titled, I Thought This Was a Two-Person McCabin. Okay.

Well, if you are an outsider on either subscription service, first of all, thank you. And second of all, we'll see you in a few seconds. Everyone else, we will see you next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. 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-P-A-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

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