National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 8

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

Today’s stories include feisty goats, spooky skeptics, haunted trails, guardian angels and surviving a serial killer. (Outsiders – two bonus stories can be found on Patreon!) All stories shared with consent.We love our National Parks and we know you do too but when you're out there, remember to enjoy the view but watch your back. Please take a moment to rate and subscribe from wherever you’re listening to NPAD! Become part of our Outsider family on Patreon to gain access to ad-free episode, bonus content and more. Follow our socials Instagram, Facebook , and Twitter. To share a Trail Tale, suggest a story, access merch and browse our book recommendations - head over to our website.   Thank you so much to our partners, check them out!   Olive & June: Use our link for 20% off your first mani system  Reel: Now available in most Target stores nationwide, online & through the Target app Rumple: Save 15% off on your next order by using our link and offer code NPAD Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. everyone, welcome back to National Park After Dark, a trail tales edition. One of our favorite editions. I love doing the trail tales. They're probably one of my favorites. One, because we don't have to do research for them, but also because we get to hear all of your stories and they're just so interesting and they're from all over the country. I mean, they're from different countries sometimes. It's just, it's so cool to really hear from you and I feel very connected to a lot of your stories. So I love reading them. Yeah, thanks for sending

them in as always. If you're new to Trail Tales, we just kind of started doing this and it's something we're going to stick to. So if you are a Patreon member and you listen to our episodes over on Patreon, you get to it two additional stories. Yeah. And they'll be at the very end. And if you do have a trail tale, you can go onto our website and it'll have a little thing on there where you can submit your own trail tale if you have your own story. Our website is npaddpodcast.com. Yeah. All right, I'm going to go first. Cool. I'm ready. All right, perfect. Hello, ladies. My name is Allison. I live in Washington State, and I found your podcast last week. I've already listened to over half the episodes, join the Patreon, and ordered some merch. All right. Welcome. She's on it. Hello. Hello. Our people. Needless to say, I'm a new big fan. Anyways, I have been debating on sharing the story for a few days, but feel like it fits in perfectly with the things you share, and it's about time I get it out, since up until now, I've not.

never told anyone except the person who was with me about this experience, even though it changed my entire life. Well, it's about to get out to a lot of people. A lot of people. Background. This is a story for another day, but my dad was in a cult in Australia and he since passed away, but needless to say, I had trauma from that and it made me a highly skeptical person. I was quick to use my E-N-T-P personality to explain away any paranormal or even religious

stories or claims with logical explanations. I even have a cat named Science. I love that. That's actually really cute. It is very cute. Anyways, back in April of 2015, I decided to start making a point to explore the hikes around the area. I had graduated a few years prior and finally had the time and energy to start getting to know the hikes in the area a bit better. My best friend of the time, Matt, told me he was going out on a hike to the Iron Goat Trail off of Highway 2. With sprawling, views of the Cascade Mountains and endless evergreen trees, I was on board from the start, not knowing anything about the location. He told me there was also an abandoned mining town on that hike, and being a history buff, I was so excited to check it out. We hiked for about an hour up

from the trailhead, and eventually we got to the old miners town. There was a few shacks, an old welcome sign, and some park benches. Pretty cool stuff, but Matt wasn't as into the old town as I was, and wanted to move along to the tunnels. The Iron Goat was a nickname for the railroad. This abandoned railway track was full of long tunnels stretching along the side of the mountain that while they warned not to enter them, a lot of people, of course, do.

Some were caved in on one side, making them really dark, which was fun, but a little bit scary, since you could easily imagine a bear or a mountain lion hiding in there. This is why we didn't really spend a lot of time in any of the tunnels that looked to be damaged or long. Being a couple of dumb kids, we decided for some reason that it would be a good idea to enter one tunnel that was partially caved in anyways because the long sprawling emptiness was lined with beams of light, making for cool photo opportunities.

And those days, it was all about getting the best Instagram picks. Isn't it still? I think. Yeah, definitely. This was both the best and worst decision we made, and you'll see why. Literally, I have photos. Okay, so entering the cave was fine. But suddenly, I was feeling so cold and so tired that I didn't want to go in for long.

So we just took a couple of pictures and then decided to get out. In these pictures, you can see the way the light on my phone captured the full empty cave. The way it lights people up inside clearly. And then, just wait, as we were climbing out of the tunnel, I felt a strange surge of panic. Like I had to get out immediately and began to wonder if something else was in the tunnel. Matt commented that he thought he heard something, so I decided to take a picture of the tunnel to make the flash light up the inside and hopefully reflect any eyes of anything that was inside. I did this and we were both comforted to see that the tunnel was completely empty behind us. If only, I thought to check the photos then.

We carried on with our hike, but started to head back, both feeling cold and tired and just pretty much done with the day. The walk back to the car was exhausting and I was ready to go home and get to bed. When I woke up the next day, having slept for 14 hours. I've been there. Sam, no genuine. I've totally been there. I was surprised, but not really concerned. I dealt with a lot of insomnia back then and would rarely sleep longer than five hours a night,

so occasionally I would get a long catch-up night of sleep. Anyways, a few days pass, and I decided to go back through my photos from the hike. This is when I noticed something. The photo I had taken of the tunnel, that empty tunnel, had a ghostly light figure of a man holding a shovel in the center of the cave. When I tell you I was shaken, I mean it. I had chills. I felt scared.

I couldn't come up with any reason for this being there. I'll attach the photo so you can see how clear it is. I decided to try to make light of it and send it to my friend who had gone with me and his response was terrifying and blunt. I asked, did I get a picture of a ghost? And he just said, yes. And sent me a screenshot of a Google search about the hike we were just on. with titles like,

The Iron Goat Trail is the scariest haunted hiking trail in Washington, or this haunted hike in Washington leads you to a railroad disaster. I was feeling a flood of emotions as I began to read article after article, saying things like, quote, this 5.7 mile loop trail is located in Stevens Pass in the Cascades. It is the location of what was one of the worst railroad accidents in the history of our country. An avalanche swept two trains off the track and nearly 100 people died. It is sad that the spirits of the unlucky passengers are still trapped in the tunnels trying to escape their tomb.

An article from the Seattle Times that I'll also link even mentions men with shovels, just like the photo I took. Quote, in late February 1910, heavy snow hindered the progress of both mechanical plows and men with shovels, stalling the two trains at Wellington for a week. Early on March 1st, the thick, wet snow on windy mountain gave way, barely missing the town, but sweeping away the trains, passengers, and crews on board. The last body wasn't recovered until late July. After this rabbit hole, I had convinced myself I truly had captured a picture of a ghost. Still, to this day, I hate to say I doubt most people's ghost stories,

and I think that's why I haven't ever wanted to share this before. But you know what? People will believe what they want to believe, and this experience changed my life. And I want to share it, or rather have you share it for me. I'd love to hear other explanations for what's in this photo. Cheers. And as you say, enjoy the view, but watch your back, Allison. Wow.

And of course, I'll post the picture. That's so interesting. And it's so interesting, one, because of the photo that she took. But two, because I know the story. I've actually looked up this story before as like a possible podcast story. So I haven't done a deep dive into it, but I've done enough of research into it where I know what happened and I know exactly what she's talking about. So as soon as she brought that up, I'm like, oh, my God, I know where she's talking about and what she's talking about. That's just, oh, my God.

Wow. So Allison sent this in, I think like a month ago or so. And I almost went up there to do this just because it's been on my radar. It's on like my all trails that I really want to go up there. But after getting this email, I was like, oh, I'm definitely doing this. But with the snow mountain, like the avalanche situation up there, I kind of was like, maybe I'll wait. Especially given the disaster that initially happened there. So I'm definitely going to hold off until later this spring or early summer to do it.

But it's definitely on my bucket list of Washington hikes this year. Well, you'll have to take some pictures. I know you will. Take some pictures in a tunnel and let me know. Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure. Oh, that's so creepy, though. She wrote, if only I had looked at those photos before, that is a blessing that you did not look at those photos while you were in the tunnel.

Because when you looked back and she says, we saw the light in the tunnel, everything was clear and we were like, okay, this is fine. If you had looked at that photo and seen it in that moment, that's when you get into those like, you know in the horror movies where you're running, but suddenly you're running wicked slow. and then you trip and you fall and you're looking behind you and it's there but it's not there. You know, I feel like that would have happened if they looked at the photo in that moment. Yeah. Well, so you've inspired my next bigger hike because it's also like three hours from me. So it's like a definitely like I have to commit an entire day or weekend to it. Yeah.

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and I also have a very, very scary story. Oh, okay. This is like my nightmare. I think that this is a lot of women's nightmares, actually. So I'm going to tell this. Beware, it's very scary. I was living on the edge of land between the lakes park in Harding, Kentucky, a remote and unpopulated area.

I moved there because of the natural beauty of the area, and I was also kayaker. So living by the two beautiful lakes seem like a dream come true. The population of Hardin was probably about, 400 at the time in 1993 and I loved the solitude and silence. One day I was in the front yard with my two children who were two and nine months. A car pulled into my driveway which was unusual as I hadn't lived there very long and didn't know anyone. Also the driveway was a half mile long and not right off the road. A man pulled up and he said that he was a photographer and he was on his way to a wedding

but he was lost. To make a long story short, he kept trying to get me to invite him into my house for a glass of water, was asking me about my neighbors, there were none, wanted to take my picture, he even got out of his car and tried to get me to let him into my house to show him photos that I had taken in the past. Asked me if I liked living alone, asked me question after question after question, and this went on and on. I knew that I was probably in some kind of danger, but somehow I knew it was more important for me to play dumb, even though it was obvious that his behavior was not normal. Up to a certain point he was friendly and flirty, but then his entire demeanor changed and he pulled out an old duffel bag from his car, which did not look like something you would have photography equipment in. And then he demanded that I follow him into the woods where he was going to take my picture. He even put his hand on my arm and started pushing me towards the trees. I was holding my baby while my two-year-old was running around the yard. I knew right then I had to think of something. I said, sure, just let me tell me. my husband so he doesn't wonder what's going on. And he said, your husband? I thought you were here

by yourself. I then acted very casual and said, he's asleep. He works night shift. But just in case he wakes up and looks out the window, I want to let him know what's going on. He stared at me, then back at the house, and he didn't say anything for what seemed like a long time. He kept staring at me as if he was trying to read my face. I acted completely natural, even though I knew something terrible. was probably about to happen. I could feel the sweat running down my face and hoped he would think it was from the heat. Finally, he said, well, maybe it's not a good idea. He put the bag back in his car, but kept standing there as if he was deciding something.

Then he got back in the car and drove very slowly down my driveway, and I could see that he was watching me in the rear view mirror. I didn't move or run to the house. I just kept standing in my yard as if everything was fine. As soon as he was completely out of sight, I rushed inside with my children and I called the police. I gave them a full report and his license plate, which I had memorized. They said they'd send someone out to the area to look for him, and they told me to lock all my doors and call them if he came back. A month later, I had to go into the next town to renew my car tags, and I was in line when I noticed a large bulletin board covered with pictures of wanted individuals.

My eye kept running to one picture. It wasn't a photograph, but an artist's drawing. I got out of the line and I walked over and read it. Even though it was a drawing, I could tell immediately it was the same man that was at my house the previous month. He was wanted for rapes and murders of seven different women in Kentucky, Indiana area. He would find women in remote areas, pretend to be a photographer or a salesperson who was lost. He would then rape them and shoot them in the head.

I nearly passed out when I read it. I walked down the hall and found a policeman and told him about my encounter, the previous month, and that I had reported the incident as well. So after giving another report, I went home. I couldn't sleep that night. I literally felt sick with fear. At 10 a.m. the next morning, I heard someone knocking on my front door. It was two FBI agents, and they asked me questions for a really long time, for every detail that I could remember. Before they left, the one agent looked at me and said, You're very lucky. As far as we know, you're the only person who was able to avert being attacked after being confronted by this man.

I moved within the month. I don't know if this man was ever captured or if he's still out there. I'm going to go online and see if I can find out somehow. Just thought I'd share this story since it took place right out by the land between the lakes, which is a gorgeous area, one of the reasons I moved there. As a hiker and a kayaker, it seemed like the perfect place to raise children. Unfortunately, I never felt comfortable there again and have moved to another state since. Thank you for listening.

Holy shit. Isn't that like the scariest thing you've ever heard? Yeah, one of the scariest things I've ever heard. Yeah, for sure. When I read it, my hair on my neck was like standing up the whole time. With just the composure that she had to have to stay calm and collected, at least appearance wise in that situation is so commendable. Like I, you never know how you're going to react in a situation like that. And I've been in a very scary situation and I froze. Like I did not play it off like that. Like I was, what is it? Like freeze, flight or fight? Fight or flight? But I thought there was a freeze in there too. Or am I making that up?

No, maybe you're right. I know that that's a common response to things is to freeze. It's like a survival mechanism. Yeah. And there's also the added. layer like she had her children with her. So she had that like I need to get my shit together for my kids, if anything, you know? Yeah. Just like that is so nuts. I really am curious if that person was ever captured. Me too. I would really love to know. I mean, that is so scary. And especially she said

she was holding her two month old child and he was pushing her into the woods. The way she described it, she was just acting like everything that was happening was normal, not to tip him off that she was afraid or that she knew that something very serious was wrong, which like you said, like, how do you know to react like that? I mean, you don't. You don't know what their reaction is going to be. It's so unpredictable. But to be that composed during that. And what she did, it saved her life 100%. Oh, no doubt about it. Yeah. Oh, it still gives me chills just like, thinking about that. It's just, oh, it's so scary. Okay, I'm going to move on to something a little brighter. It's quite short, but I really enjoyed it. The title of this is caught on camera,

and it begins, hey ladies, love your podcast and have been binging it as I crochet for the last few weeks. I have a super short story for you and a picture to share. My mom loves this picture and listens to the podcast, so shout out to Nancy if she hears you share this. Hi, Nancy. For context, I live in central New Jersey and I was convinced I was in the middle of nowhere when this happened, but was really about one mile away from the nearest turnpike exit. When my sister and I were little, my parents would take us to a local nature preserve slash garden research center. There was a trail there through the woods that we would take regularly. At the start of the trail near the parking lot was a small cabin slash event area that the place would use for weddings, etc. This story is from the summer of

2000. Being five years old, I was very familiar with the bathroom in this cabin. Why do little kids always wait to pee after they leave the house? Anyways, one day my mom took myself, five, and my nine-year-old sister out for the day on this trail, and upon returning to the car area, we used the cabin's bathroom and rested on the steps outside of the cabin. My mom snapped the attached picture as we rested in ate some energy restoring lollipops. Since this was pre-smartphone and pre-digital camera in our family, my mom had to take the film to get it developed, which she did a few weeks later, and upon flipping through the pictures, she was shocked to see this one from our day at the gardens. None of the others are like it, and we've never seen one like it, despite the thousands of

pictures my mom took of us as kids. My mom calls it our guardian angel. Just a few months prior, my father's parents both passed away within a few days of each other. We are convinced that one of them was with us, making sure my mom was taking good care of their grandchildren, and ensuring that nothing would happen to us out there in the big wilderness of central Jersey. Stay adventurous, Megan. And I'll again post the picture, but it's very, very sweet. And it's just like she described her and her sister sitting on the steps, and it literally looks like there's giant angel wings behind them. That's really cool. Yeah. That's very special. So I really loved that. Yeah. That's much lighter than my

when I read. Yes. I know. I chose to say it then because I needed to counterbalance that other terrifying story. Yeah. Okay.

I have my story next. Well, it's not my story, but I'll read a story next. And they titled it, That time Royce almost killed us. Hi, ladies. My name is Annie, and I love your podcast

and listen to it religiously while I'm at work. I'm sending in the story to remind listeners to be aware of all wildlife that they encounter, not just the lions and tigers and bears. A little background before I get into my story, I was born and raised in Utah, just three or four hours away from the Big Five. I grew up going to National Parks. During college, my best friend Katie and I decided we needed to do something fun during our spring break, and somehow we decided on National Park

Road trips. The first one we ever went on together was Zion, and while there, we decided to get our Junior Ranger badges for fun. Long story short, we became obsessed with collecting the badges and continued the trips all throughout our college years. Even today, six years out of college, we try to get at least one trip in a year. We each have a total of roughly 50 badges from various national and state parks. That being said, we aren't the most outdoorsy or athletic, which becomes a very important factor in the story I'm about to relay.

In May 2007, we decided to visit Timpahogus Cave National Monument. as part of our road trip. The cave system is located within American Fork Canyon, which is roughly 40 miles south of Salt Lake City. The caves are viewable only by Ranger-led tours and are located about a mile and a half up steep switchbacks where you gain about 1,100 feet in elevation. Our trip followed its normal pattern and all was going well. We finished the cave tour and Katie mentioned that she had to pee. We had two options. Walk up the switchbacks to the last chance bathroom or head back down to the visitor center, which was about an hour hike due to the strenuous conditions. The choice was obvious and we began to climb back up the mountain. As we were walking up

the trail, carefree and discussing our tour, we heard a ranger that we could not see yell, girls, I need you to turn around and walk back down the mountain. We were the only ones on the trail that we could see and the switchbacks are so steep that you can't see anything above or below you. Having no idea what was going on or if we were doing something wrong or even if he was talking to us, we slowly turned around and began walking back, with Katie mentioning how badly she had to pee and grumbling that they were sending us back down. I turned around to see what was happening and noticed a mountain goat was nonchalantly following us down the trail. I grabbed Katie by the arm and told her what was happening. Our hearts were pounding and we continued to slowly walk away.

Suddenly, the ranger began hysterically yelling, girls, you need to start running. You need to start running. right now, run as fast as you can. The mountain goat was charging us at full speed with the determination to butt us. Now, as I mentioned before, we are not athletic. I have always said, I only run if something is chasing me and now was my time to shine. Oh my God. We begin to sprint as fast as we can trying to outrun the mountain goat, which can reach top speeds of 15 miles per hour, whereas humans can run about eight miles per hour. The ranger was yelling louder and louder to run, cheering us on as we're winding down these steep switchbacks. The mountain goats hooves were clomping behind us, getting louder and louder as he got closer. I don't think I've ever run so fast

or been so scared in my entire life. We got to the point where the cave tour trail and switchbacks merged and we began running back down towards the cave. The trail went uphill, the opposite way of the switchbacks, which luckily deterred the goat momentarily. We met up with a group that had just exited the cave tour. They were lined up in a clump, instructed to clap, and make as much noise as they could to get the goat to stop following us. We joined in as soon as we reached them. The goat stopped in his tracks, turned around, and began to climb on the terrain between the switchbacks moving away from us. About 20 minutes later, the ranger that was yelling at us originally came down to where we were and instructed everyone to follow him down the trail. He walked to

down creating a barrier between us and the goat and we all safely got away. When we reached the visitor center below, we were in disbelief as to what had just happened and we were trying to calm down and catch our breath. We mentioned our adventure to the Rangers and one said, oh, that was Royce. He does that. Never in my life would I have imagined that I would be almost killed by Royce, the mountain goat. Oh my God. Well, okay, you know what this reminds me of?

I'm pretty sure, pretty sure. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. But I'm almost positive. The only fatality attributed to an animal in Olympic National Park was a mountain goat. Really? I'm pretty sure it was Olympic National Park. Interesting. I want to say maybe even North Cascades, but I want to say it was Olympic. Yeah, they're fucking, they mean business sometimes. And I think. think there's a big concern about them with them being attracted to the salt in people's urine out on the trails and stuff. So they're like, don't camp or don't pee anywhere near your camp or anywhere where you're going to be because it attracts the goats. I'm not, I knew you're looking at me like, I have two heads, but I swear to God, it's a thing. It's just so interesting because like in not wildlife, goats are so cute and you like don't think of them as a threat. but mountain goats are huge and they have the really big horns and remember when we saw that one

in South Dakota? We saw a ram. It was a big horn. A big horn sheep. Big horn sheep. Mountain goats have the little spiky horns. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like white.

I'm describing this very bad, but I can envision it because I saw them at Mount St. Helens like pretty much everywhere. They were really cool to watch like scaling the rocks and they had like their little babies in tow and but yeah they're very frightening and I have been head-budded by like a farm animal goat so I can't even imagine what a rampaging mountain goat named Royce would do to you that's like charging from a ways away and like unrelenting that's scary that was that was super scary and the way that they wrote it was really funny too it's like remember we're not in shape here and we're running yeah like I I can't stress this enough.

We're not athletic. And I'm sure that Ranger was concerned for you, but I also feel like they may have been. Like they went home and they all kind of laughed. Kind of laughed at it. All right. My last one, well, second and last, Patreon, you'll get another one. But let's see. My last one for here is titled Disembodied Voices on Mission Hill.

Hi, Cassie and Danielle. My name is Hannah. feel free to use it on the pod, and I'm a fairly new listener. I stumbled across your podcast about a month ago when I was trying to pass time between episode releases of another podcast I listened to and I've been hooked ever since. After I listened to your first Trail Tales episode, I knew I had to write in and tell you about one of my creepy hiking experiences. I've attached a double-spaced PDF of my story to the email. Hopefully that makes it easier to read. That does.

Thank you. Hannah, God, bless you. It really does help. I will say that. I've questioned my ability to read after beginning a podcast and the PDF double spaced certainly helps. In June of 2021, me and 11 of my friends went camping in Brimley, Michigan, which is near the Solox in the Upper Peninsula. We had been there the year previous for some pandemic fun, and we're all excited to be back in spending time together. On the second day of our trip, I was feeling ready to do some hiking. It was a newfound path. I had discovered in 2020 during the middle of the pandemic when I was trying out different outdoor activities. The year before, I had found a trailhead in Mission Hill, about 15 minutes away from our

campsite, and I planned on going there. I am not one to hike alone, so three of my friends agreed to go hike a trail in Mission Hill with me. The rest of our group declined the offer to go hiking. We did a group hike in Mission Hill the year before, and it was kind of a shit show. It was thunderstorming and pouring rain throughout most of our hike. Anyways, my three friends and I set off in one car and drove to the Mission Hill Trailhead. As a side note, the trailhead is basically an overlook where you can see lots of forest, lake superior in the distance, and two other smaller lakes within the forest, monocle and spectacle lake. Directly behind the overlook is the entrance to Mission Hill Cemetery, which is, admittedly, a creepy one. The year before, we had hiked through the forest

to the closer end of Spectacle Lake. This year, we decided to hike a bit further to the opposite end of the lake. We had packed sandwiches, a few snacks, and water, so we figured we could eat lunch by the lake and then hike back to the car. No less than five minutes into our hike, we came across what was probably bear poop. There are black bears in northern Michigan, but we were a little put off because none of us had bear spray. We just had to hope that if we came across one, it wouldn't be a mama with her cub. As long as that wasn't the case, we felt confident we could scare off a bear between the four of us. Shortly after coming across the probably bear poop, we then spotted an old rusted bed frame off the trail in a clearing.

It was a weird sight and one that gave us the hebe-jeebies. I've never heard anybody say the hebe-jeebies other than my family. Really? Do you say that? Yeah. The hebe-jee-jibis? I feel like the hebe-jibis is a thing. Okay.

I've just never heard anybody else say it. Looking back, I can't help but wonder if the bear poop and weird bedframe was some kind of warning. Nevertheless, after passing that weird rusted bedframe, we made it to Spectacle Lake without an issue. There aren't any trail maps in Mission Hill as far as I know, but we navigated the forks in our path pretty well and noted which turns to take on the hike back. We rested at Spectacle Lakes Beach for a little while and ate to refuel. The cold breeze started to pick up and that's when we noticed big, almost black storm clouds creeping in across the sky. Unfortunately, they were coming right for us. All four of us were bewildered. It was sunny without a cloud in the sky when we left. We

checked the forecast and there was no rain predicted for that day. Storms can pop up pretty quickly in Michigan summers, but considering the storm we found ourselves in the last time, we were in Mission Hill. We felt like we were cursed to get rained upon every time we visited this forest. We had spent about 45 minutes to an hour walking downhill to Spectacle Lake. It was a fairly short hike, but we had to walk back uphill and I felt that there was no way we were going to make it to the trailhead before the storm. But we had to try. Once we insured we were all packed up and our garbage was cleared out. We hustled back up the trail we came down, huffing and puffing with the extra effort we were putting in.

It wasn't long before I started hearing things. Hoots, hollers, yells, laughs, and snippets of different conversations sounded as if they were coming from up the hill. It sounded like there was a group of people walking directly towards us down the hill. The people sounded like they were still a little off ways off of the trail, but as we walked further and further, I wondered when we would cross paths with these other hikers. I also wondered why these people were still hiking and hadn't turned back. The wind had gone cold and it was blowing so forcefully, you could hear it rattling throughout the woods. Plus, the sky and the woods kept getting darker and darker.

My prediction that we wouldn't be able to outrun the storm came true. We had only made it about halfway back when the sky broke open and started pouring cold sheets of rain. Those of us who had raincoats stopped for a moment to put them on before we took off up the trail again. At least half of the way back to the trailhead, I was still here. voices. Nothing coherent, but I could still hear the laughing and yelling and other group of people like noises. And it didn't sound like the sounds were any closer to us than when I had first heard them at the beginning of our hike. Soon, these noises were drowned out from another noise I was hearing in my head. It's very hard to describe, but all of a sudden, this low humming alto choir fog

horn sound started emitting itself from inside of my head. It was like a chant, but unending with no words. I was hearing it from within my own head, kind of like when you talk to yourself. A little scared and worried at this point, I tried to pick up my pace. I was already the caboose of the group, as I was walking slow because I am accident prone and didn't want to fall in wet conditions. And even though I tried to pick up my pace, my friends hiked further and further away from me. All the while, the low humming sound continued in my head. It seemed like an eternity of this, hiking without getting faster, with my head tucked against my chest to deflect the rain. But eventually, the rusted bed frame and the probably bear poop and saw the car.

My friends were taking their boots off, but I just launched myself into the car, willing the sound of my head to stop. My friends took it the hint and we noped the hell out of the woods away from Mission Hill and the cemetery. The sound of my head faded as we drove away and stopped completely by the time we were completely out of the forest of Mission Hill. That's when I realized we never saw the group of people that I swear I heard walking towards us.

Hey guys, did you hear anything in the woods on our hike back? I asked the group. And suddenly, it was like they released a collective breath they were all holding. Oh my gosh, yes. I thought I heard a group of people. I thought it was just me hearing things. Basically, we had all experienced the same exact thing. We all heard what we thought was a group of people, but never actually saw them. When I asked about the alto choir sound that I had also heard in my head, that's when everyone really looked at me like I was a lunatic. When we met our friends back at our campsite, we told them what happened on our hike. One of them looked up something about Mission Hill on our phone and told us that, apparently, Mission Hill is known for being haunted by disembodied voices.

Disembodied voices. A fact we did not know about prior. That was probably what we were hearing in the woods. We couldn't find anything to explain the weird noises I was hearing in my head, though. I think it might simply have something to do with the history of the area around Brimley. Much of the land in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is historically Chippewa and Ojibway land. This includes the land in and around Brimley. There's a lighthouse nearby that marks the spot where a fight between the Ojibway and invading Iroquois took place.

In the sea near this lighthouse, a ship named the steamer Myron sank. Only the captain survived, but the sailors whose bodies were recovered are buried in the Mission Hill Cemetery, right across from where we began our hike. I don't know what we heard in the woods that day, but Brimley and the surrounding area has a rich history and I wouldn't be surprised if there are spears in the woods that like to play tricks on hikers that come through the area. Thank you for reading my stories, ladies. I hope it wasn't too long. Keep up the good work on the podcast. Best Hannah. That's super interesting. I mean, it sounds like there's a lot of crazy history that happened there and a lot of

death and it doesn't surprise me at all that there was some kind of haunting going on and it's super eerie and weird though. Yeah, it is weird. And I did this. And I did this. This is unrelated. Well, I can't say it's unrelated because it is related. But when I read this story, I remembered someone wrote in a story to us that was familiar in the sense that they heard music in a really weird place in the woods and voices. And they attached like a video and everything with the sound. And for the life of me, I cannot find it. And I really wanted to kind of combine the tune, like read both of them today. But I can't find the other one. So I'm really, really sorry. If you're listening and you're like, hey, that's my story. You can resend it. Yeah. Please resend it because I don't know where the heck it went.

But yeah, as soon as I read this one, it brought me back to that other story too. And I think there is something to be said about hearing disembodied voices or disembodied sounds. This is not uncommon. I mean, we've read a few stories like this when people hear something and then later on realize the historically significant area that they were in and they kind of like connect the dog. a little bit and I just think it's really interesting. Spooky but interesting. Same. It was a cool story.

Okay, well, I have my last one. It is titled Trapped in a Forest Fire. Hello. My name is Abby and I absolutely love your podcast. It's my go-to podcast every Monday on my way to work. Here's my story. I recently moved to the Denver area. One of my first weekends I was here,

I decided to head up to Boulder to hike Bear Peak. It was supposed to be a five-mile hike. I was by myself and I had just moved. tear a few weeks prior so I didn't really know anyone. I started the hike in the afternoon and reached the saddle around 1 p.m. As I started the steep section to the peak, a man passed me and told me that there was a fire and then continued heading down the trail. A little confused, I continued up to get a better look. I peered out and from what I could tell, the trail that I had hiked on and also had returned on was on fire. I saw flames engulfing the trees that I had walked by

and it was the most depressing and terrifying sight I had seen in a long time. Slightly panicked, but trying to keep it together, I started talking to other confused hikers. Myself and another girl decided to call the police non-emergency line, grateful I had service on the trail for this one instance. The operator told me that she was not sure what to do and she would have a ranger call me back. A few minutes later, a frantic ranger called and told me to tell as many people as I could to not return down the trail and to actually hike to the peak and then take the trail off the backside of the mountain, which is West Ridge Trail. Myself and my new friend ran back to the saddle area where most of the hikers turn around instead of doing the peak. We told everyone that we could find, including a guy who was passed out in a hammock. I started to panic more when I realized the sweet older couple that I had spoken to earlier

had turned around and headed back down the way that we came. I ran down the trail a little ways, but I could not find them, and at that point I had to turn around and take care of myself. After telling as many people as we could find, we started the icy climb to the peak. It was a tough hike as the trail was covered in slush and ice, but we made it to the peak. The air was filled with smoke, and we watched down below as more and more trees became engulfed in flames. Along the way, we picked up a few new friends and formed a little group of six. One of the guys was extremely dehydrated and very pale, dizzy and fatigued. It was a bit

concerning as we had a pretty long hike ahead of us. One of the other guys took his backpack from him and we frequently made stops to let him rest, drink water, and eat some protein bars, and Swedish fish, my favorite trail snack of choice. We started descending down the West Ridge Trail but got turned around a few times. Once we finally got on the right trail, we met up with a few other hikers. Everyone was honestly in pretty high spirits for the situation that we were in. We even ran into the older couple that I was concerned about. They said that they had to turn back around after the smoke was becoming too much, and other hikers told them to head to the peak. When we finished descending the mountain to the ridge below, we ran into one of the park rangers. He

checked in on all of us and was keeping track of how many of us were stranded. He told us if we were able to, to keep hiking out to a road a couple miles away in the mountains, and that our loved ones as well as locals would be there waiting to get us back to Boulder. We continued hiking and ran into another ranger about two miles away who served as another checkpoint. A few more miles after that, we finally made it up to the road. It was dusk and we had a long journey. Everyone had made it out safely and we were greeted by family, friends, and strangers with coolers of beer, water, and snacks.

As I had just moved to the area, I did not know anyone, but people were so kind and caring. Being trapped in a forest fire is not ideal and honestly very scary, but some positives to my story is that I made some pretty great friends and saw a community come together and help another out. There is some good news in this crazy world that we live in. Another tidbit, this five-mile hike turned into 11 miles. Be prepared, bring extra water, snacks, layers, etc. You never know what could happen on the trail, even when it's a popular trail near a developed area. And as for the fire, it's called the N-C-A-R fire, and it's fully contained now.

It was human-caused, but they are unsure who and exactly how it started. Remember, every action has a consequence, and sometimes the consequences can put others in danger and ruin our beautiful landscapes. Sorry for the long story, but I hope you enjoyed. Cheers, Abby. That is so scary. I feel like I picked all the scary stories today. You did.

I'm like, God, are you going to give me a break? Just like, here's anxiety. I'm just throwing anxiety. everyone. God. I mean, total, total new respect for anyone in, I mean, obviously, like, Al, like any firefighter or wildland firefighter, anyone combating fire in that world. I always obviously knew it was scary, but after your episode on the Idaho Panhandle, that fire situation, and then what was that documentary I watched about the fire in California and just like Paradise.

Yes. Yes. And seeing just people driving and all of the fires engulfing them and especially all the fires that were out in Colorado. You know, over the last year and seeing people's footage of it. It's just something that I've never really envisioned myself having to deal with or being a part of. Growing up in Southern New Hampshire, you don't think of wildfire. Yeah. You know.

So ever since just broadening my scope and really understanding how. how frightening a situation that can be is terrifying. Yeah, fires are really scary. And they get scarier every year. I mean, fire season is coming up too. It's right around the corner. There was already a big fire in Arizona and people were evacuated and things like that. So I say it's coming up, but it's really, it's starting fire seasons here.

Well, with the big fires that just broke out in Colorado, like what, two months ago, month or two months ago. It might be the same one because my Ian's friends that live out in Colorado in a suburb of Denver, they had to be evacuated from their house. Like, they ended up being fine. Oh, yeah, this was on March 26th was this fire that Abby's talking about. Oh, wow. So this was so recently. Yeah, there's photos of it and everything. I know she said it was recently at the beginning of her story, but sometimes we don't see these emails right away. But wow, yeah, so this was just happening. Yeah, so there's fire seasons here. Be safe, everyone. Be careful about what you do out there, practice safe fire practices, and pay attention to fire bans. Because like Abby said so nicely, you don't know what your actions might cause. You might have someone trapped on top of a mountain. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Thank you, everyone for sending in your emails as always. Keep them coming. We love to read them. We'd love to eventually do more trail tales. But we can't do them without your story. So send them. If you're a Patreon member, we'll see you for a couple more.

Otherwise, we'll see you next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale you'd like to share, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast.

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