National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 61

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

Today’s stories include boat explosions, unexpected friends, questionable decisions doggie miracles, rescue attempts and almost being killed by a hot air balloon. 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!MasterClass: Use our link to access the current offer. Prose: Use our link for a free in-depth hair consultation and 50% off your first subscription order.Rocket Money: Use our link to get started saving. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Work your magic Hello everyone and welcome back to National Park After Dark, Trail Tales Yes, we're here for another Trail Tales this week Thank you as always everyone for writing into us If you have a story that you want to share You can go on to our website NPAD Podcast.com and there's a submission link right on there. Shoot us an email, tell us your stories, outdoor-based,

or just something that you think we would like, and it'll pop up on here maybe at some point. We have a backlog of a lot right now, which is really exciting and it's really cool because then we get to put them out for so long, so we really appreciate it. And today we have a lot of exciting stories that you all wrote in as well.

Yeah, so do you want to go first? No. Okay. Yes. Take the least. Tell me what to do. Actually, don't. I saw a TikTok the other day. It was so funny, or a real, I guess. And it was like about being the first born daughter, niece and granddaughter, like, in the family and how that affects you. And it basically is like, don't ever try and tell that person what to do. And that person is me. So I guess I'll go first. I'm the first born daughter, but only by seven minutes, so I'm not sure I know that counts. But are you also the first born granddaughter and niece and everything? Are you the first girl in your family?

Well, I'm the only girl in my family besides my aunts and mom and stuff. So yes, you fall into this category. Yeah, I have all boy cousins and I'm literally the only girl. Yeah, so we're in this battle together. I guess I do have girl cousins and stuff, but they don't, I should say in my region that I saw like frequently. No, I'm saying, okay. But are you the oldest of them? No.

Okay, so we're not the same. Okay, all right. So in that case, don't tell me what to do. But you can tell me what to do. Okay, so I guess I'll go first, I guess. We just made that way more complicated than it was than needed. But okay. But I'm excited to hear your story first.

Okay, great. So it is titled from Defender to Detainee, sort of, my kayaking rescue story. We did ask for rescue stories, by the way. I do love a rescue story. Yeah. And then we were also kind of dumb. We're like, where can you get rescued from that's not inside? We said that. Wait, what did we say? We said something like that. We're like, where does somebody get rescued if it's not inside? Do you mean if it's not outside? I don't know. We said one of the things. that was kind of stupid. Because we definitely know. Yeah.

Or maybe it was. Okay, yeah, you're right. We're like, where can you get rescued from if you're not? I don't know. Does somebody get rescued from a burning building, though? People are going to know what I'm talking about because it was now that I'm like, I was a different person. It was a different episode.

And that wasn't even me. Yeah. I don't know what you're talking about. Okay. Great. So let's move on. Hi, Cassie, Antonio. My name is Mallory.

And I live in central Florida, just south. of Orlando. I'm excited to be finally writing this to y'all after telling myself for a year now. I've been a listener for the pod for almost three years and thoroughly enjoy the escape it gives me on my commute to work every Monday and Thursday morning. While Florida may be known as the sunshine state and is in fact hot as hell 95% of the year, we do get a cold week or two in the winter. And while you think we may get used to it after a few years, we don't. So when that little period of 50 degrees does come around, my husband and I always try to make the most of it. it cold at 50 degrees floridians it's so cold before this recording we were just talking about how

like pipes were bursting and things in the 20s and yeah yeah to add a little context at the ripe old age of 27 and much to the chargon of my husband i've hit my birding era same the thrill i get every time i log a bird on my merlin app is like my ultimate high so when it was discovered that wild American flamingos were back in central Florida after Hurricane Idalia in 2022. I knew I couldn't miss the opportunity to lay my own eyes on them. You may remember around this time that the 125 mile per hour winds were sending the birds as far north as Wisconsin. Crazy. Wait, the flamingos? The hurricane was whipping the flamingos to Wisconsin. I need a fact check on that. Mallory. Well, she said the birds, but.

I feel like that reference is in reference to the American flaminga. You should Google that while I'm... The American flamingas. The flamingos I had my heart set on were, and I'm so happy to say, still are today at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is right next door to Cape Canaveral National Seashore. The only problem was that they were on a little island lovingly dead. What? In 2023, American flamingos were spotted in Wisconsin for the first time in state history on

September 25th, 2003, five flamingos were spotted on Lake Michigan and Port Washington, Wisconsin. The group included three adults and two juveniles. The flamingos drew a crowd of about 100 people to the beach. Wow. What a sight. Wow. And it says they were blown north by Hurricane Adalia's strong winds in late August. They were likely flying between Cuba and Yucatan where they were diverted. I wonder what they did. They were probably pissed. They're like, why is this? it's so cold up here. They have gone where no flamingo has ever gone before, I'm sure. 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, anyway, da-da-da, back to Cape Canaveral National Seashore. The only problem was that they were on a little island, lovingly dubbed Bird Island in the middle of Indian River Lagoon, about a half mile from where you can park and launch boats. Okay, I thought, that's no problem. Next time I make my way out there, I'll check it out. After a few weeks, I found myself in the area and stopped at the nearby Halver Canal, which is the closest point you can park at when trying to see the flamingos. When I arrived, there were already

other birders there who told me they came out regularly with their scopes to keep count of the number of flamingos. One man kindly let me look through his scope and I could just barely make out one of them. Its head seemed to stretch just a bit more from the surrounding rosette spoonbills, but with the same pink coloring. It was still hard for me to tell. The water was particularly calm that day and being that I had previously kayaked in many other parts of it, even at night in pitch black, to see the bioluminescence, it didn't seem like a difficult task to get out there. At this point, too, I had been kayaking for years and was comfortable with my strength to get there and back. So knowing that I just had to get a closer look at the flamingos, I made plans to bring my husband and our

kayaks back the next weekend. To explain the water we were in a bit, Indian River Lagoon is a 156 mile long brackish stretch made up of three smaller lagoons and fed by the Atlantic Ocean. It's home to over 4,000 species, including some of our favorites, from dolphins to manatees, alligators, and sharks. Even with its expansiveness, it has an average depth of only four feet. But looking at the murkiness of the water, you would never know it. The day started out great. It was January. We were in one of our few cool winter weeks, and the water looked as calm as it did the weekend before. We started out. about 1 p.m. so we could get some warmth from the sun and set off like we normally do with our

phones, binoculars, and about two towels each, just in case we splashed ourselves a bit. We may have had a few more things, as I certainly would like to hope I was smart enough to bring some water with me, but it was almost a year ago now, so I don't really remember. Nevertheless, it was only a half a mile away, and I could see it, so this would be a quick trip, right? As we got about 30 feet from the shore, we were quickly surrounded by a pot of dolphins that seemed to ride along with us and breach every now and again. After watching them momentarily, we continued on with me gingerly pointing out different goals and pelicans to my husband. There were a few other boats in the water, but all were far away and seemed to be larger with motors. Definitely no other kayakers were out that day. Once we are a little

over halfway there, things started to change. To our right, we reached the end of the peninsula that is attached to the same area we parked our vehicle. To the south, left, yet still pretty far away, was the opening to the ocean. What we didn't realize is that the peninsula was blocking the extremely strong current that pushes water in and out of the lagoon from where it connects to the ocean. Within a matter of seconds, the water became choppy, but we weren't in a panic just yet. We paddled on towards Bird Island, albeit having to really put in our upper body strength into it, but the land was getting closer and closer. Now we knew we wouldn't be able to actually get out onto the island as it is a protected area due to the sheer number of nesting birds there.

But our thought was that as the closer we got, we could position the island to our right, and it would block the current that we were now in a fight with. And the plan was once we were in position, we could get out our binoculars and take some photos. About 30 minutes of fighting the current, we were there. And there they were. My four beautiful American flamingos, all in their full pink glory. Unfortunately, the current hadn't been blocked as we had hoped for, but my husband, being a bit stronger, was able to position his kayak better for longer,

so I had him take some photos for us, while I continued to struggle against the current just to stay in one spot. After about another 10 to 15 minutes, I thought, surely, there has to be a better way. About 35 feet away from me, sticking out of the water, stood a barnacle-ridden wooden post. Although I didn't have a rope, I thought if I could push the side of my kayak up against it, it may offer some stability so I could watch the flamingos for longer. I told my husband what I was doing and I continued on my way over to it. Now this was back in the direction that we had come. And in hindsight, I should have realized that this was not going to work.

Nevertheless, over I went back to where the current was even worse. And lo and behold, my plan did not work. My kayak slammed up against the post, flinging water everywhere and turning me around. That was about enough for me. And as my husband joined me, we decided it was time to have. head back. Keep in mind at this point, it's around 2.30 p.m. It's January, so the sun was starting to set here around five. And while we figured we had time, we didn't anticipate the wind kicking up further and the temperature dropping, and the current becoming even stronger. So yeah, triple whammy. Although my husband

didn't struggle nearly as bad, I paddled and paddled and paddled and stayed in the same spot for about an hour. All the time, not realizing just how drenched in water I had become and how exhausted I was getting. We tried to tie the handles of our kayaks together so my husband could lead me back, but every time a big wave would come and it would knock them apart again. The struggle is so real, because kayaking is so difficult. Against a current, especially, and also immediately want to take back my comment about 50 degrees not being cold because with the temperature dropping, you're soaked. You can get hypothermia at 50 degrees. So yeah, in the sunsetting. And the sun setting. I guess it's all about context of truly yeah truly is the sound sorry we apologize we apologize for judging way too early i knew

no matter what i did at that point i was not making it back to our vehicle before dark so i let myself go through the stages of grief as i gave up and decided to float wherever this kayak was going to take me i was embarrassed angry crying and then finally i just accepted it because i didn't know exactly where we would end up but knowing it would likely be miles from our vehicle i figured it would be best to call some sort of emergency service to see what my options were. I will also note here that I immediately purchased a garment in reach after this ordeal, which I highly recommend. Despite me not having any signal, my call to 911 went through.

After losing them and having to call back a few times, I was put in touch with the Coast Guard. I was able to let them know where we launched from and after some back and forth about them trying to find someone to send out, we finally got word that a boat was on its way. While we waited, I covered myself with whatever small bits of dry towel, I had left and hunkered down lower to block as much wind as I could. All the while, my poor husband floated along next to me, feeling utterly helpless. During this time, I thought for sure, someone from shore would see our bright blue kayaks floating away. I also thought, certainly, it wouldn't be hard to find us by boat because at this point, we appeared to be the only ones

out in the water. But I was wrong, and before we knew it, minutes turned to over an hour, and we watched the sun begin to set. I'd received calls every now and again from the Coast Guard as I was trying to preserve my battery. Each time they would say they were out in the water looking, but they couldn't find us. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, we hit land on the other side of the lagoon. We climbed up on some big large rocks and used the last of our strength to pull the kayaks up onto them. I called the Coast Guard number again to let them know that we made it to land, which is when they proceeded to tell me it was no longer in their jurisdiction and they couldn't help us. Problem was, we were about a 10 mile walk from our truck. We were soaked, ship, ship, and

with about 30 minutes until complete darkness. No. Oh my gosh. It's like, oh, sorry. You're on your own. You're on land now. We can't help you. I'd be like, I'm getting back in the water.

Just get over here. Yeah. I'm sorry, I'm actually in the water struggling. Yeah. There was a nearby unpaved road that seemed like the best option to follow since we weren't going to have any other choice. And as we mentally prepared to begin this trek and tried to determine if the road led us in the right direction, we saw a police cruiser in the way.

the distance. It seemed to be coming down the road we planned on following, but with the curves around the lagoon's edge, we couldn't exactly tell. We watched it disappear and reappear for about five minutes before we finally realized it was coming our way. We both side the biggest breaths of relief that we wouldn't have to walk through those wetlands in the dark back to our truck. When the officer arrived, he said he had been looking out from the shore near our vehicle for quite some time with binoculars and never saw us. For the first time in our lives, we laughed to ourselves as we were grateful to climb into the back of a police pleaser. Now, there is one more important thing to note I have to include in all of this. The real irony is that my husband and I are

both criminal defense attorneys and neither of us ever imagined having to sit in the same seat we find almost all of our clients in on a daily basis. We turned up the heat. New perspective. Yeah. We turned up the heat, snapped some pictures to show our co-workers where we ended up and gladly made our way back to the vehicle. The officer was even nice enough to escort us back to the private road to pick up our kayaks. We got some celebratory coffee to continue heating up and headed home. On the ride, I proceeded to send a screenshot of my 14 in-and-out calls with emergency services to my friends telling them they would never believe what happened. My favorite response was from my best friend, Macy, who is an avid listener of NPAD, as she exclaimed,

at least this is going to make a great trail tale. Sure does. Hope you guys got a laugh out of this one. And thanks for all the joy you both bring to so many of us. I promise I'm way more prepared now when I do any sort of outdoor activity, Mallory. Wow. That's a crazy story. Water is something that really scares me too, especially in such an open capacity with weather that's coming in and the current.

And it's just like with the waves. I mean, maybe not like so much weather, but just like the wind and waves that are happening. The elements that you're in. And to me, the biggest thing that stood out to this story was how she repeatedly was like, we were really close. I could see it. It's an eye shot. Like, it's not like we're going on at this huge excursion.

And not only did the police officer not be able to see it. The Coast Guard couldn't see them. They're like, we're the only ones out here. We're right here. and you still can't locate us. Yeah. Like that to me was really telling of just how dicey things can get. And you just never.

No. Yeah. Yeah. Well, glad you're okay. And it does make for cool trail tales, but very happy that it ended all just fine. And I also liked the tidbit about being the back of the police cruiser. Have you ever been in the back of the police cruiser? Oh, yeah.

Sure have. Oh, yeah. You know this. I got arrested at school. Oh, right, right. Right. And they put me in a police cruiser to go across the street. I could have probably thrown a football and hit the freaking police station.

And yet they put me in the back to like make a show. Yeah. I got I, yeah. I mean, I guess they could have handcuffed you and slowly walked you across the street. Yeah. It's like walk of shame or ride of shame. Yeah, which one do you want. Pick your poison.

Yeah. All for two bud lights. Just. I really paid the price on that one. Honestly, it's such a good story now. I feel like it's fun. Yeah, it's a good story and you're not a criminal now. Yeah.

I just remember like, oh, my God, my stepdad was so bad because it's right before I was, it's kind of like, you know, that point in high school when you're starting to seriously look at colleges. And I was heavily considering going into criminal justice, forensics avenue. Getting arrested. And he's like, oh, my God, you're never going to be. Your life's career is ruined. It's like, little do you know, I'm going to be a podcaster.

So it doesn't matter. I can get arrested as many times as I want. All right. My story is titled, I survived a boat explosion. We're back in the water. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. My name is Tara, pronounced like Sarah, but with a tea. I've listened to you guys for about a year now and recently caught up about a month or so ago.

I grew up going camping, hiking, boating, and off-roading. And as an adult, I got into climbing and backpacking. I'm actually currently riding this from the bottom of the Grand Canyon on my rim-to-rimm trip. That's really cool. I hope you're having a great time. I'm from Anaheim, California, but I'm now based in Arizona. Living a life so based on the outdoors, I've had a lot of crazy and exciting experiences, like falling off a cliff last year, but never felt like I had anything too cool to ride in.

That was until your most recent trail tales called for survival plus rescue stories. I wasn't even sure if this counted until you said anything. outside counts. All right. So as the title suggests, I survived a boat explosion. This happened on October 13th and my family and I had got our boat back from repairs a few days earlier and needed to give the boat a test run to make sure everything ran smoothly before our trip for Thanksgiving. My family, including my mom, stepdad, nine-year-old brother and six-year-old sister, decided to head to Sawaro Lake in Tonto National Forest. We launched around 8.30 in the morning and everything was running smooth. The boat was running beautifully and it was nice out. It was a little warm out,

but I had a sun hoodie on since I had a tattoo that was three weeks old and I wanted to be cautious. I was also sitting in the back of the boat where the bimni, I don't know what a bimni is because I'm not a boat person, but I think it's like a, like a shade cover maybe. Maybe. I was also sitting in the back of the boat where the bimni covered because of this. Oh yeah, that makes sense because they're wearing a sun hoodie to stay out of the sun and they're under a cover got it okay i'm learning about boats today it just reminded me of when ian worked on yachts oh yeah but i'm thinking of the island of bimini he was so excited he's like we get to go to bimini which i think is in the caribbean somewhere never heard of it it's like because he was based in fort lauderdale so he went into the like

the caribbean a lot or the bahamas maybe i don't know no not a lot it was one time oh and he was so excited he's like oh like babe i'm like this is my career is taking off because like he started to work on yachts but then realized that like he was just working on someone's yacht that was just kind of like in a slip at the whatever it's called like the yacht garage type of thing yeah he just stayed in port the whole time yeah like he didn't go anywhere so he was like oh this is our first i'm like okay like how a great time it's going to be so exciting he got violently seasick it's so bad had a terrible time and then they just went there really quick and came back for something. I don't know. He was gone for like two days and that was like it. That was it. He's like, maybe I'm not about

person. Yeah. He's like, okay, let's move to Washington. Like, sounds good. He's like, that was cool, but I'm over it. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so they're under this Bimni cover. Uh, and going back to the story. Right. We headed towards the back of the lake, which was around two big bends and decided to float. We started having some troubles with turning the boat back on, but it came back on and we thought it may have been an issue related to the battery. We drove around, floated, and fiddled with the boat as it continued to struggle turning back on. I thought the smell of gas was stronger than normal, so we peeked into the engine hatch to see if we noticed anything, but nothing seemed concerning. Finally, around 1115, we decided to make our way back to the front of the lake to take the boat out and head home.

We were cruising around 20 miles per hour, and then I heard the loudest. noise of my life. I saw a giant ball of fire and then felt the fire. It happened so fast, I yelled that I was on fire and I ran to the front of the boat and remember jumping over the ski locker, which is the floor compartment between the driver and passenger seat because the lid had exploded off. Everything happened so fast and I could barely hear as I stood at the bow of the boat and hesitated to jump in since we were still moving and I thought my mom had told me not to jump. I jump slash got pushed in by my mom. So much for protecting that tattoo. When I came up, all I felt was burning. My face felt like it was on fire. And when I looked at my leg, I was missing a large flap of

skin around my knee. My family had extinguished the fire that was coming out of the ski locker. And I was trying to swim towards them. They were maybe 10 feet away, but it felt like forever. I finally reached the boat and had to lift myself up onto the front of the boat, which sticks out far from the water. Thank you climbing for that and made it back onto the boat. My younger siblings were freaking out and I had to do my best to keep it together to keep them calm. Unfortunately, there was no one around. We didn't want to turn the boat back on since it had literally just exploded. And my stepdad was trying to call 911 but got disconnected a few times. Finally, a pontoon drove past us and we were able to flag them down and they started towing us.

While being towed, my stepdad was able to contact 911 and pretty, soon we saw sheriff boat hauling ass towards us. Thank God because I was being waterboarded by the wake of other boats. The cops attached their boat to ours and helped transfer me onto their boat. I had to be carried into a sitting position by one of the officers because I couldn't bend my leg or put any weight on it. They thought I was 16 so they had my mom come on the boat with me. I'm 23 and they booked it back to the docks where an ambulance was already waiting. Despite my immense pain, it was a very fast, fun boat ride. I got help getting out of the boat and onto the rolling bed thing to go into the ambulance, and the sun on my burn was a horrible feeling. I got transferred to a burn center ER all by myself with no phone and was on my own for hours, with no idea where I was. I got to go home later that day, wrapped like a mummy. I have second degree burns on my legs.

It runs up my left leg to my mid thigh and on top of my foot, on the inside of my right ankle and knee, the top of my left hand, and some first degree burns to my nose and lips. I also unfortunately lost a decent chunk of hair on the front of my head. I'm most upset about this. We still don't officially know why it exploded, but we think there was a gas leak which caused fumes to fill up in the hole of the boat and something caused a spark which made the ski locker blow up.

I was in mummy-like bandages that took about 45 minutes to put on for a week and a half when I transitioned to lotion and compression stuff, which is my life for four months now. I went back for my final follow-up on November 6th, and they are super impressed with the speed of my healing, which has been great to allow me to get back to climbing about two weeks after the accident and now this backpacking trip I'm on a month after. This has been one of the craziest experiences of my life so far. Thank you for listening to my story and thank you for all that you do, Tara. And Tara sent it. I won't post them because I don't know, some people are like squeamish about this, but like I'll post the picture of them all wrapped up. But she did

send in some pictures of the burns themselves and they're pretty gnarly yeah i mean it sounds intense an explosion that goes all the way and you said up the up your leg and even onto your face and your hair and i mean that's a pretty significant explosion and that's really scary yeah and burns are notoriously painful and difficult for healing so it's awesome that your body has taken charge and really just like healed you up fast because you're obviously onto your next adventure. Yeah, yeah, good for you. I love that. At the beginning, you said you were hanging out in the Grand Canyon on a rim-to-room trip, but we didn't know that it was after the significant explosion you survived. So badass. Good on you. Good on you. Keep doing what you're doing and glad you're

okay because it seems like that could have gone a lot worse potentially. So glad that you are okay. Yeah. Well, I have another survival-ish story. Okay. Although it's kind of prefaced as an embarrassing one. But okay. We're on a theme here so far. Okay. It's titled, I almost got turned into a bunch of little cheese cubes adjacent to Grand Teton National Park. I do like cheese cubes, but not in human form. That's right. Hello and welcome to my embarrassing tale. This story is one of the ones that my brain tortures me with while I try to fall asleep. You know, like the you're about to peacefully drift off to sleep, then suddenly you think about that time your pants ripped in the seventh grade kind of scenario. I digress. One of my greatest pleasures in life is visiting my incredible friends who live in the

in amazing places. And this time I was visiting my college best friend, Elle, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I owe my love of national parks to her and she's also a listener. She worked for her cousin's hot air balloon company managing the ground crew who did all of the setup and tear down for the balloon pilots. Every year when she lived there, I would visit her for a week and work on the ground crew so I could spend some extra time with her and gain a fun experience. This day started out much like any other, except that some of the balloon ride clientele seemed a bit more high class than others. They showed up with a hired driver in a black escalade to the launch site rather than in the company vans, kept to themselves, and requested to ride in their own smaller balloon rather than the larger one that included other people. Elle and I were the only two ground crew workers assigned to their balloon since it was smaller, and their launch went off without a hitch.

Unfortunately, it was the landing where things went a little sideways for me. If you don't know much about hot air balloons, here are a couple of key. key points. The pilot controls the direction of the balloon by increasing or decreasing elevation with a propane burner to catch wind currents. Being controlled by the wind naturally means sometimes they land in unexpected places. Elle's company had permission from local ranchers to land in their fields so that the ground crew trucks could easily navigate to the landing site and pack everything up after the ride was over. When a balloon lands in an area that's hard for the truck to get to, the pilot will throw down a tow line for the crew to grab and pull the

balloon to a better spot while the balloon hovers about 10 feet or so off the ground. The pilot landed in a bad area that day, so the tow line was tossed down and L and I started to pull the balloon through the cow poop littered field to a better spot for the truck. We got to a point where barbed wire fencing separated two different fields, so the pilot hit the gas and shot the balloon up and over the line of fencing while we went through the gate. After the balloon was over the fence, we repeated the process to clear the second section of fencing. However, this time I neglected to notice that the toe line had wrapped around my ankle. The pilot hit the gas again to clear the fence and I had only a fraction of a second to whisper,

Oh fuck. Before I was cartoonishly ripped off of my feet. I was then dragged across the small section of field on my back through multiple piles of cow poop. One leg yanked high up in the air. I scrambled to get my leg free while Elle chased after me, grabbing the length of toe line that dragged behind me. and dug in her heels to try and stop the balloon because shit, shit, shit, I was heading directly straight for the second set of barbed wire. I started to panic thinking I was about to either be turned into a bunch of human cheese cubes or, more likely, get tetanus from my cook. I'm sorry.

Okay, sorry. This is funny. Sorry. Or more likely to get tetanus in my kuchi, considering my trajectory. because her legs are... I'm sorry, I didn't see that coming. Luckily for me and my lady bits, I was dragged into a ditch right before the barbed wire, which allowed me to brace my feet against the upward slope of the ground and slow the balloon

down enough for Elle to reach around me, grab the rope, and throw all her weight against it. I ended up about six inches from the fencing and was a bit dazed when I heard one of the men from the from 10 feet in the air say, that was badass, followed by some weak clapping from the other members of the group. Somehow that made it worse, question mark. With my face burning for the rest of the morning, we packed up the balloon while the patrons drank mimoses and watched us work. Gee, I hope they tip well, I said to Elle. They did not, not a penny. And there I was smeared from ascrack to neck and cow dung with nothing to show for it. I'll never know who they were, but they sure did get a show. Anyways, that's the story of the 10 most embarrassing seconds of my life.

Thanks for reading and thank you for creating such an enjoyable community and podcast. You too keep me company while I work in a genetics lab and help me pretend I'm outside rather than in a windowless cement room. Enjoy the view, but watch your leg, H. Man. So what a funny story that. It definitely straddles the line of embarrassing and survival requests. Definitely a survival. I mean, if you had hit the fence and were dragged through it, I mean, you would have been injured for sure.

Definitely. In some capacity. I can't imagine really the cheese cube thing, but who knows? Like you would have had to be going at a higher rate of speed, I think. for that to happen. But who really knows? Who really knows? Thankfully not you because you braced for impact and were saved.

And I'm sure that shower later that day was the best shower you've ever had. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for writing in and telling thousands of people your most embarrassing story. We won't tell you how many thousands, but it's a lot. But it's significant. A lot of people know now. Okay, my next story is titled, Sometimes Miracles Do Happen. Hello, fellow dog and trail lovers.

It was February 2020. I had just lost my grandma, Carol, making it the third family member to pass away in three years. I lost my papa, my uncle, and now my grandma. It got to the point where I would hold my breath every time the phone rang. We already had my very best friend, Roscoe. At this time, he was a 12-year-old Golden Lab Retriever Mix. golden retriever lab mix. I read that in a mixed format, but you know what I mean. We get it. My dad had just lost his mom and confided in me and how awful it was going to be to lose Roscoe.

My dad is retired and Roscoe is his world. It is always very hard to lose a dog and I knew that pain would stop my dad from getting another dog. I didn't want him to be lonely so I decided we needed another dog before Roscoe passed. Also in general, our family needed some new life in it. Roscoe would have a playmate, so I got on a rescue website and started scrolling. A picture of a little tan puppy with white paws popped up and something told me that she was the one. I clicked and was suddenly frozen. She was born on my grandma's last living birthday, 12, 12, 19. No other pup even had their exact birthday listed.

This was a sign, maybe even from my grandma. We adopted Holly and the next week, the COVID shutdown happened. She brought so much love and happiness into her home in such an uncertain time. A year and a half later, my brother found Holly curled up in a corner, shaking, and she wouldn't move. We took her to the vet hospital, and they said they didn't know if she would survive the night. It was the worst night ever. The next morning, she was still with us, but after running tests, they couldn't find anything wrong. They advised us to get ready to put her down, but they had one more specialist that would look at her records.

It was a neurologist, and he found out that she had a very rare brain. abnormality called intracranial subarcha I've never seen this before. Hold on. Let me look. Sub arachnoid arcnoid. Sub arcanoid. Erichenoid. We used to work in the field. We should know.

I've never seen this word. If it's a really rare abnormality, let's see. Intercranial subarachnoid diverticulu. I've never heard of that. Damn. That's a mouthful. That is. Well, you got the second word that I couldn't get past. So I don't know. All the doctors are like screaming at us right now. But whatever. We apologize. It's been a while. It makes me feel better that the next sentence is none of them had ever seen a case before. So. Okay. So that makes me feel better. And you know what? We don't apologize. We've literally never heard of this. And we aren't. I don't know. We didn't get paid enough to know words like this. So that's true. We got paid less than you make a target. So. which we were reminded of every day because we worked next to a target that was hiring and posted how much they paid their employees.

Okay. That was true. Oh my God. Flashbacks. Anyway, and back to the story. A little flap of skin thinner than saran wrap was blocking fluid in a pocket of her brain from draining. The vets couldn't find a successful method of treatment in their research. Only four dogs had been mentioned in research.

It was that rare. All of those dogs died after surgery. But there was medicine that could keep her alive for maybe days. or months. The medicine would relieve swelling, but the side effects would slowly kill her. We were so thankful to take our baby girl home, and it's a moment that I cry thinking about. We thought of each day with her as a bonus day. My brother wouldn't accept this, so he contacted a research hospital, WSU. Miraculously, the United States only specialists that researches the affected part of Holly's brain worked there. We live six hours away, and we happily made the drive

to save our baby girl. The doctor's name is Annie, and she said that she could operate, but nothing was guaranteed. There was a big chance it would grow back. Holly came out of the brain surgery doing well, but she caught pneumonia. A fourth year vet student went above and beyond and slept by Holly in the hospital all night. This is how he caught the pneumonia in her lungs before it got really bad, but they still didn't think that she would survive the night. I can still hear them saying, we are so, so sorry on repeat. Again, the worst night ever. Holly is my little fighter, and she survived. She was on a feeding tube for months, lost her gag reflex, and couldn't walk. Over and over again, the doctor said, we don't know how she's alive.

I know why, because Holly is stubborn and she's clever. She would find new ways to do things. Every week, we would see improvements. After about six months of driving back and forth, we had our last MRI to see if the skin flap was growing back. And we were so nervous. The results came back that it had not, and hopefully still hasn't knock on wood. We were so happy. Two days later, Rasko had trouble breathing.

We took him to the vet and they said he probably had cancer. and the best thing to do was to say goodbye. It was devastating. To go from such a high to such a devastating low. There is still a hole in my heart. He was right by my side starting in fifth grade all the way through middle school, high school, college, and my master's, and my first year teaching fifth grade. The timing of this somehow in a weird way brings me comfort.

He waited until he knew Holly would be okay and that we wouldn't be alone. I like to think he told her, it's your time now to watch over them. This was also the same week Collie's story was featured on the front page of our local Sunday newspaper. A picture of Holly and Roscoe featured together spread across the page. For years now, she has been the longest living dog known with her condition. Today, four years later, she is happy and healthy and 95% recovered, which is a miracle. I often find myself thinking about how close we were to a different ending. It was a miracle that we adopted her and we were able to get her the medical care that she needed. It was a miracle that the doctors had one more person to look up before

giving up. It was a miracle that the only hospital that could help her was in our state. It was a miracle that a vet student caught the pneumonia and stayed up with her all night. I could go on. She is a miracle. And because of this, she gets spoiled and snuggled every day. I don't know who to thank. For sure, all the awesome vets and vet techs that helped her. Even Holly fought so hard to stay with me. She inspires me. But also, I feel the need to thank the universe and maybe even my loved ones watching from above. All I know is that I'm filled with gratitude every time I see her smiling face and wagging tail. Callie.

Oh my goodness. That was so sweet. It was a really sweet one. And you're so right, everything just aligned perfectly because, I mean, we've seen it repeatedly in circumstances that don't involve such a rare condition that's so difficult to diagnose and treat and has such a high mortality rate. Even things that are much less serious and much more. common, a lot of people aren't prepared to, to tackle that and treat their animals for whatever

reason. And, you know, because of that, a lot of, we've been a part of a lot of goodbyes, you know, that revolve around that. So the fact that you were brought to her and she was brought to you, it just seems very cosmic to me. Yes. And just everything, all the work that was done to keep her alive. You know, I worked in a hospital that had internal medicine in a lot of really sad cases and a lot of dogs and cats and whatever that were in the hospital for that length or for a long time. I had never seen one that was for the length that you described. But the longer the stay sometimes meant less likelihood of surviving, unfortunately. And to hear such a such an exciting, happy story. I would bet anything that every single vet tech and doctor,

remembers that story like it was yesterday. Yeah, and I look up because she attached some articles just because this story was, especially in the medical field, you know, it's a big thing. You know, like the veterinary world wants to know about cases like this, you know, and there's a couple articles there. And it's based out of Olympia, Washington, and that's where I live during that time. Look at that. So it was just so. Yeah, nearby. So I wonder if any of the, I don't remember hearing this. I didn't work at that hospital that she was treated at or anything. But, you know, just word travels, and especially in the vet community.

And I just wonder if any of the doctors I worked with were aware of that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. My last story is titled, The Time I Was Led to a Bear Cave in Yellowstone National Park. That sounds fun and scary. Sounds a little dangerous. Oh, walk on the wild side.

It's Sagittarius season. Welcome to. The dark, dangerous side of life. Okay. I recently became addicted to your podcast when I was road-tripping from SoCal to Lake Tahoe. I've been pitching episodes and can't get enough. I was listening to one of your Trail episodes and was trying to decide which story I wanted to share. For some context, I got a job working in Yellowstone National Park in 2018 and have been working seasonal jobs ever since.

I've worked in Glacier National Park, as well as this winter, I found a job working near Lake Tahoe. It's my wondrous and beautiful life, and I couldn't be more lucky to be homesick no matter where I am because I've left pieces of my heart in so many different places. In 2020, my boyfriend and I were waiting tables in Yellowstone, and at this point, I'd spent three summers working there. I had made friends with one of the interpretive rangers in the area. He would always come into the restaurant I worked at to see how I was doing. One day, he came in to order some food and under his breath whispered, can you and Brian keep a secret? And Brian is the boyfriend, just for context.

I don't know about you guys, but when a ranger secretly asks if I can keep a secret, you just know he's about to show you something cool. I nodded vigorously and swore we wouldn't tell a soul. He told us to meet him after his lunch break and he'd take us somewhere amazing. We immediately did just that. Our curiosity peaked. He had us drive to a random pullout on the side of the road and triple checked that we had bear spray. Once we were all ready to go, he led us directly into the woods with no trail whatsoever.

At this point, Brian and I were realizing that this man could be leading us out here to kill us. It was an irrational thought, but a thought nonetheless. At every cracked twig, our ranger friend would freeze and grab his bear spray before carrying on, which we found strange and quite unnerving. After about a mile of walking, we came across a cave. Our ranger friend turns to us and cheerfully says, welcome to one of the park's bear dens. My boyfriend and I instinctively and immediately begin rapidly retreating and calling him crazy. He insists that there are no bears in there and wouldn't be

for another six weeks, as it was only mid-September and they wouldn't be hibernating just yet. We hesitantly approached the cave and find animal bones scattered everywhere around the entrance. We slowly walked inside and got to see the wallows in the ground where the bears hibernate every winter and give birth. It was the absolute coolest thing I had ever seen. According to our ranger friend, this den has been used by bears for hundreds of thousands of years. After checking it out and learning more about the cave, we headed back to the car. You would think that would be the end of the craziness, right? Wrong.

Once safely in the car, our ranger friend turns and says, So, I didn't tell you guys in the woods because I didn't want to freak you out, but we were about a half a mile away from the carcass dump. I almost slammed on my brakes to give him a peace of my mind. For context, if a car hits something like an elk or a bison or the animal just dies too close to the road or trail, Rangers will remove the carcass to limit interactions between humans and bears. They take the carcass to the appropriately named carcass dump and leave it there. The dump is on a restricted road and only a handful of rangers have access to it.

Since the biggest, baddest grizzly bears go there for an easy meal, each ranger must be accompanied by another ranger with a shotgun. And we were just lollygagging through the woods less than a mile from it. Needless to say, it was the coolest and creepiest thing I ever did during the three summers in one of America's best national parks. Thanks for listening and I hope you guys found it to be a fun and interesting read, all the best, Kelsey. Wow. That is a fact that you want to know after, not during. Preferably before if I had a choice.

Not during. Would you still go if you knew beforehand? Uh, yeah, probably not. See, so after. It's so dangerous. So dangerous. A carcass dump in Yellowstone? No.

And all you have is bear spray on you? Yeah, no. The answer is no. For me. Yeah, it seemed a little risky. But, okay, I just realized, hold on a minute. I didn't do this intentionally, but these are all kind of like survival stories. Yeah.

Right? Holly survived. This is a near, I mean, I guess it's not a survival story. I could. No, that one's not a survival story, I wouldn't say. I don't know. It just seems like there's like a theme of some kind here. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe.

No, no. I don't know. You still want to go. It is a stretch, but it just feels like maybe it could happen. Okay. Maybe I'll eat my words at your last story. Well, my last story is titled No Coincidences. Hi ladies, I want to first say how much I love the show. You have also helped me find one of my other favorite podcasts, tooth and claw. I've been lucky enough to be able to do a lot of cross-country driving over the years, which has given me the chance to stop and spend time in a lot of places

I otherwise wouldn't have been able to. A few years ago, I was living out in Washington State, a bit outside of Seattle, nannying for a family that I had known and worked for back in Minnesota. I took a long weekend to drive up to the Cascades and stay with some friends in what was essentially an anarchist homestead. I was really excited and decided to head up early to get some hiking on a trail that I had found where we'd been staying. It was a very secluded area and I didn't have and I didn't see any other cars when I, once I was off the main road or in the parking lot of the trailhead. I got ready and started on my way. I was younger and not as experienced, especially not on such secluded trails and I didn't have any barebells or spray, which is something I've

changed since then. I made it about a quarter mile. I made it about a quarter mile. into the trail before I started feeling uneasy. I stopped for a minute to try to assess what I was feeling. It was too quiet and my gut was sounding alarms like crazy. I didn't hear anything, not even the wind. I told myself it was just my anxiety and being on a trail alone like this for the first time. I started moving again and after about 15 steps I stopped. There was fresh. I could still feel the warmth coming off of it from about an inch away, scat in the middle of the trail and a tree. right on the trail edge had fresh scratches on it. Again, I was really new to solo hiking, so I didn't know enough to be more prepared for possible animal encounters. But I knew enough

from scouting and some personal research to know that what I was looking at meant that there was a bear nearby. Was it a black bear? A grizzly. Did it hear me coming and move away? Was it just up the trail? Who could know? What I did know was that I was done with this hike. I was not interested in a potential mauling. I turned around. and quickly made my way back to the car. I packed up and started my car, disappointed, but already thinking about some busier areas I had seen my way up that I could maybe check out instead. I started driving down the mountain a bit, taking it slow because I like to look out for animals, plus it was a narrow and curvy road. I saw a man and his dog walking up the middle of the road

and made some more room for them, but he moved in front of my car and started waving me down. Now, this guy had a little French bulldog with him, but I was still a solo female traveler, and I had listened to 16 hours of podcasts about serial killers just a week ago before my drive from Minnesota to Washington. So I was more than a little uneasy about being basically forced to stop for a stranger in the middle of the mountains where I hadn't seen another car or person in over an hour. He made his way to the passenger side of my car, and I rolled the window down just an inch or so and said hi he told me he was sorry to stop me but he was lost he and his family were staying somewhere nearby the rest of the family had gone into town and he had decided to go for a short walk

but had gotten turned around and lost the markers he had left for himself he had had an accident several years ago at work where he took a log to the head thankfully his hard hat had saved his life but he'd been left with some memory issues he especially had trouble with developing new short-term memories He had been wandering around for hours trying to find his way back with no success and was hoping that I could give him a ride to where he could find service to contact his wife. He was so aware of how scary it could be for a solo female to be asked for a ride by a strange man. He tried to make me comfortable by being open with me. He showed me tattoos he'd gotten for his kids, told me his name, his wife's name, all about his kids, that he had a pocket knife with him, which he dropped through the crack of the window and asked me to hold on to so I would feel more comfortable.

It was very sweet and all of those alarm bells I had felt on my very short hike were nowhere to be found. So I agreed to give him a ride. I let him and his sweet pup get into the car and offered them water and some food, which he happily accepted. He thanked me and I told him I thought I had seen a turn off for a campground a few miles down the main road, and I wondered if maybe that is where he and his family were staying. I had found him about a mile up the side of the road I was on. We made the drive down to the main road and had a lovely chat. About 10 minutes later, we saw a car coming up the road.

When they got closer, I could see two terrified-looking women in the front seats. One had tears streaming down her face. My new friend excitedly shouted, That's my wife and my mom. At almost the same time, I saw both women see him, shout their own recognition, and stop the car. I stopped. He and his wife jumped out of the cars and ran to each other.

After a hug and something along the lines of, Don't you ever do this to me again? She came over to the window and thanked me for, finding him. They had gotten back to their camper to find him and the dog gone and panicked knowing that they had no way to get a hold of him and that he would very likely not remember how to get back if he wasn't back already. They had been driving up and down the main and side roads for almost an hour looking for him and were getting ready to call the police to report him missing when we came by. I gave him back his pocket knife. They all thanked me again. We said our goodbyes. They got into

their car and then we all drove off. I found another trail to hike. and spend the weekend camping with some amazing people. I've never been happier that a hike didn't work out as planned. Remember to always enjoy the view, watch your back, and listen to your gut. Megan. That's very sweet. Turned out good. Yes.

And I totally felt for you with just like, I listened to so many serial killer podcasts. I know that this man is stopping me in the middle of nowhere in the woods to get in my car asking for a ride. can be scary, but also, like, it turned out really well. And I'm sure for that man, too, like you've mentioned in the story, you had not seen another car or person in hours. And this person's stuck out here walking and terrified. So it's really nice that you gave him a chance and things worked out. And he was reunited with his family. Yeah, sweet. Okay. Well, that's that on that. Except for that we have two more stories for if you are an outsider on Apple or Patreon. Yeah, and mine is

titled Rocky Mountain Amish Rum Springer. Oh, it's a Rum Springer. We're going to find out. Do you know? Okay. Yeah, I guess we will. And mine is titled Wilderness First Responder's Story, kind of, and Signs from Beyond.

All right. Well, we will see outsiders over on your subscription platforms. Everyone else, I guess we'll see you next time. And in the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you back. Bye, everyone. See ya.

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 npaddpodcast.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,

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