National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 85

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

Today’s stories include prank fails, questionable evidence, bear saviors, damned girls trips, and mountain flavored Disneyworlds. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers! For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at: Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark Support 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!Ollie: Cozy up with your pup this season! Go to ollie.com/npad and use code npad to get 60% off your first box!Coyuchi: Get 15% off your first order when you visit Coyuchi.com/npad.Soul:  For 30% off your order, head to GetSoul.com and use code NPAD.Fora Travel: Become a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/NPAD Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Plan your Scottish escape today at Expedia.com slash Visit Scotland. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to National Park after dark. Happy New Year. It's our first trailtales episode of 20206 and we have a lot for you today. That's false. It is? Yeah. Our first episode. Oh, we had one January 1st. Yeah. That feels like it didn't exist or happen. So yeah. Totally understand. This is our first one we've recorded in 26. There it is. Yeah. That is true. I know behind me. It's my first trail tales of 2020. Right. Yeah, it feels that way. Behind me is where like my Christmas tree and stuff was and I just took it down and I feel. I actually had it up longer than I'm usually that person within a day or two of Christmas. Like, let's get this out of here. You know, let's move on. Yeah. With our lives. But yeah, I had all my Christmas stuff up into the new year. Well into the new year. But it had to go. And so now it just feels really sad and bare. It's like you're naked. I know. It's like those reoccurring dreams. I have when I'm naked. It's a stress stream. Yeah. Um, most the time. Okay. So, do you want to kick us off or do you want me to? Sure. I'll go first because the title of mine is very interesting. Okay. Mine is titled Prank Fails. The time I accidentally killed my friend. This is, I mean, I don't know how the story's going to go because I forget. It's been a while, but the prank stories are coming back around. I do ask prank stories, but I hope you didn't really

kill your friend. It feels like a very nonchalant title to actually have killed your friend. Yeah. So, well, let's get into it. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. I love the podcast. YouTube brings such a fun, positive energy to the world, and anyone who listens is lucky to experience it. I am an avid hiker and have recently passed this joy to my wife and kids. The whole family made an epic trip to badlands, awesome. Mount Rushmore. Me. Devil Towers. Awesome. But night mosquitoes are no joke. Grand Teton's favorite U.S. one so far and Yellowstone, amazing too. This past summer, my wife and I made it to Banff, and I still can't believe that place is real. Based on the title of this, let me start by saying, this friend of mine is alive and well, oh, thank God. Well, I learned my lesson quickly, and I'm not really the worst human out there. Okay, the title did feel, I knew it. The title thought a little nonchalant for it to, I'm glad they're alive. Okay. This podcast, This podcast. This podcast is brought to you by National Park After Dark. This took place around the summer of 1994. The timing is a little hazy because I was 13 or 14 at the time, but baseball practice was scheduled for that night.

My friend will call him John, called to invite me over, but I told him no because of said practice. Fast forward about 30 minutes and a thunderstorm rolled in with pretty intense lightning and thunder. Practice was canceled, so I called John back. and told him, hey, I'm back if you want to hang out. Practice was canceled and you're not going to believe it. Mark H died. He got hit by lightning. I'm not proud of how deadpan I was in the moment. My friends all knew me as extremely sarcastic, but John did not catch this sarcasm. He told me he picked up a shift at work and had to leave shortly and we hung up. 10, 15 minutes later, my conscience got the best of me and I called John back, letting him know Mark H was just fine. It did not get struck by

lightning at practice. John laughed a little, commented on my six sense of humor, and I asked him, did you tell anyone? Of course he did, but just one person, his next door neighbor who played on a baseball team in our league. Just to pause there and recap, this is the mid-90s. No social media, no cell phones, pagers weren't even around yet. It was the best of times. Also, Mark H was the son of a prominent figure in our community, an elected judge. Also, we were on summer vacation, so Mark H couldn't just show up to quell the vicious rumor. The moment where I really knew it was beyond out of control was after our next game. My stepmother and I were in the local grocery store immediately following.

I was in my uniform and I see a mom and player from our arrival team. We did not play that day walking towards us. Time slowed down. The other mother stopped us. We're so sorry to hear about Mark H. Such a tragedy. You'd think I blushed and owned this, but no. My sick sense of human.

had me biting my cheeks to keep me from bursting out into laughter. The mom continued, we had a moment of silence for him at our game today. Oh, no. There may have been blood in my mouth. I walked away into a different aisle and cannot hold my laughter in. What the fuck? All this took was 15 minutes. Lesson learned, but damn, if this isn't a bit hilarious now. You'd think this was as far as the rumor could have gone? No, of course not. Our tiny local newspaper had a story about it. Fast forward to practice early in the next week and I'm tossing baseball and talking to Mark H about the situation. He was laughing a little about it and mentioned aunts and uncles calling in tears. At this point, I caught the ball, looked at him and said, this is all my fault and owned

the situation. He burst out laughing after hearing how it spread and we both agreed, no telling our parents or anyone outside our friend circle. This mostly holds true. I did tell my parents two years ago when I was 42. My stepmother laughed. Like, I can finally. I have to clean the air. It's been 30 years or however long. It's really been weighing on me. I can finally own up to it. I learned my lesson for all future pranks and sarcasm, no death. I will add I have many successful lighthearted pranks. I've changed the names of those involved to protect their identities, but if they hear it, they will know and hopefully chuckle like I still do. Enjoy the view,

but watch your sarcasm. It can kill S. That's so funny. Why would you joke? It's just so funny. Why did that joke like, practice is canceled. Mark got struck by lightning. Like, oh, okay.

Okay. Immediately I'm going to tell everyone I own. The fact that the mom was like, we had a moment of silence at our baseball practice for him today. You just know that it was like the solemn moment and everyone was like, oh. Pour one out for Mark H. Yeah. Not Mark. Not Mark.

Mark was such a good player. Even though he was an arrival team, we could tell he was such a good sport. Oh, that is so good. And I also love the little mention of being like, I finally told my parents decades later because I just saw a TikTok about that. Like over the holidays, somebody was like, I finally got to tell my parents the bad thing I did as an adult because now I can't be punished. Yeah.

And I feel like we all have those things. It's like, God, I'm just dying to tell you this, but I would have never told you before when you had power over me in my life. Have you confessed to anything to your parents after? Oh, yeah. One thing. What was it? Actually, have I?

I don't know if I directly did this, but the person I was involved with told her mom, who is my aunt. I feel like I've told this on the show before, at least to you. I don't know. Once again, my memory is bad. But when I was in high school, there was my cousin, Molly and I who basically grew up together were six months apart. She lived in Massachusetts.

But for most of the summers growing up, we would spend significant amounts of time either in Massachusetts at her family's house or up here, New Hampshire, with mine. And in high school, I think it was the... I had my license because I had a car. So it was either, I was either 16 or 17, and we had this plan to go to Hampton Beach for a week and with a bunch of girlfriends. Oh, you have mentioned this before, but say it again. Okay. I do remember it. Yeah, we had a plan to go to Hampton Beach with a bunch of girlfriends for a week. And for whatever reason, we literally went there. We had all of our stuff packed in my car. Like we were ready to go for the week. And something fell through with the hotel or whatever we were staying at. So we were turned away and we're like, well, what do we do now? And all the other girls that we were with were like, oh, well, let's call it. And like, just go home. And me and Molly looked at each other and we're like, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. We, our parents think that. We can do whatever we want. Our parents think we're gone. Yeah. And again, like we had cell phones and stuff. I mean, this was 2000. But fine, my friends wasn't part of it. They could have your location. Oh, yeah. No. This is like I had a. There was no GPS situation going on. This was probably 2007. So we took the opportunity for the week to go. We went back to my town, but we just went from party to party, house to house. We had a huge tent. We bought a tent, an eight-person tent at Walmart and just literally camped out in people's yards going from like rager to rager. For a week. For a week living out of the car, living out of the tent, whatever. And it was so scary because we

We were driving around my town. My mom could see me at any moment. Yeah. Like going to get gas? Super scary. Yeah. Center of town. But yeah, we never said anything.

And we sold the lie for, because of course they're going to ask, oh, how was Hampton? It was great. It was warm. The beach was great. Yeah. We like made up things or whatever. And we dared not say anything. Not that we were doing anything super wrong other than underage drinking and lying.

And partying and... And partying? Yeah. Et cetera. I mean, it is a little wrong. But it's like, would we be doing that in Hampton, too? Yeah, totally. Perhaps.

You know, so it's just kind of like whatever. But anyway, yeah, so it was years before either of us said anything. I'm pretty sure Molly said something to her mom first and then... She cracked first. My mom. Yeah. But anyway, yeah. So that was like the biggest thing, I think, that I've held on to.

for a significant amount of time. Mine, I mean, I think I'm still holding onto some things. Not that I wouldn't say them. It just feels like unnecessary at this point. But one of the things that I felt bad about confessing to my mom was I used to sneak out of my house a lot in high school, like multiple times a week a lot. And my mom genuinely had no idea. And I told her eventually, and she was like,

like a little upset that she didn't know that her daughter was like off gallivanting. I mean, I wouldn't come back until like she would wake up around 6 a 6.30 in the morning every day. So I would make sure I was home by 6 and like in bed. See, I never did that. I was too. I probably just didn't want to go anywhere, honestly. But I just, I never. I was the person when I was in Massachusetts with Motley.

She lived on the second floor and she would jump out of her window. And I would hold down the fore. I'm like, I'm not going. You know, I'm good here, you know. And so I would stay behind, but she would do the same thing. She would go out. And then I would have to let her in. I would be there to let her in. We'd set a predetermined time. That's nice. Yeah. So. And of course, like, I would have to cover for her if my aunt or uncle wanted to talk to her for some reason. See, I would always leave after bed. And I had a doll that had the same color hair. is me and I would stuff pillows in the doll under my blanket. I would face my hair to the wall. So if my mom ever came in, it looked like I was in bed sleeping. You had a life size doll with a head? My mom bought me. It wasn't life size, but it was pretty big. It was probably like three feet tall. This doll and it was it was like a stuffed doll. It wasn't like a plastic one. Yeah. And I would put pillows to make it look a little bigger underneath and I would just stick my hair out the back. So if she came in, it just looked like I was sleeping facing the wall.

The old Ferris Bueller. Yeah. Yeah. Well, sorry to both our families. We apologize if you're re-listening to this and re-upset. But I did confess eventually. All right. Yeah, I mean. Okay. All right. Yeah, we'll move on. Before anything else comes out.

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looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry, eyes, your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Mine is titled Glacier Grizzly Fight. Oh, hi ladies, love you both. I live in Montana and have for the past five years or so, but just recently took my first trip to Glacier National Park in August of 2025. It was a quick two-night backpacking trip to Otocomi Lake with my boyfriend,

two of his friends, and one of their girlfriends, and one of their moms, so six of us total. We entered the lottery for permits in 2024, and we're so lucky that two of us got them. We departed the trailhead around 10 a.m. And after two and a half hours, we all made it safely to camp. It was incredibly windy and the weather started to take a turn for the worst, so we spent a majority of the time napping in our tents. The following day, half of the group was determined to summit nearby Goat Mountain. That's not really my vibe, so I opted to hang back with my boyfriend. I decided to nap. Again, the weather was bad, so please don't judge me. And my boyfriend rushed back to wake me up to tell me there was a grizzly about 100 yards away from our camp. By the time I got there,

the bear was gone, and the day hikers had said they watched it wander off into the woods. heading right towards our camp kitchen. We were a little apprehensive, but wandered around camp with our bear spray while yelling to try and deter the bear from coming into our camp. We didn't know it at the time, but our friends who were summiting Goat Mountain were caught in a nasty storm. Three of them decided to stay a little further down on a lower ledge, while our brave friend ventured up to the peak.

When he was out of sight of the others, a mother grizzly and two cubs appeared out of the fog and rain dangerously close to him. He reached for his bear spray only to discover he had left it in his pack, which was down with the others. He had nothing. At this point, he said his mind is running through every scenario, including what we would do if he didn't make it and we didn't know where he was. Then, right as the mother is inching her way closer to him, a grizzly boar emerges from the fog and charged directly at the sow and cubs. All four grizzlies ran off and he stood for three or so minutes before sprinting down the mountain. The weather continued to be incredibly rainy with harsh winds, and we all eventually decided to pack up and head out one day early.

We made it back to the trailhead around 15 minutes after dark, drove back to my friend's seasonal housing, and ate jalapeno cheese brought worst at midnight before heading to sleep in our cars. Definitely an eventful trip and an awesome experience for my first time in glacier, although I would rather see no grizzlies at all than see them that close. To top it off, I started my period on the first morning and had no period products with me. So you can imagine my discomfort. My boyfriend's response when I told him was, well, that's not very bare aware of you. He was joking, of course.

I love him. Lesson learned on that one. Thanks for being my favorite podcasters, Sarah. Wow. What a cool experience to see that. It feels like that Grizzly just came out and protected you. The male one. Yeah.

It's like this mother. It's inching closer to you. You have nothing. You're just standing there frozen. She has cubs. You don't know what's about to happen to you. He's like, not my human. This other one just comes and fucking, yeah.

I mean, that's very Jurassic Park. It does. And the fog adds to it. Yeah. You know, it just comes out. Less visibility. There's music playing. A hero.

There goes my hero. Oh. Different songs. It's okay. What was I singing? I think it's Mariah Carey. A hero comes along. A hero lies in you or something like that.

Feels like move on. No. It is Mariah Carey. That's for sure. Yeah. Like a book you don't know the end and it scares you what life does to it. That's how it starts. Okay, anyway.

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That's C-O-Y-U-C-H-I-com slash N-P-A-D. Well, my next story is titled Gettysburg Trail. Hello, ladies. First of all, I just want to say that I love your podcast. I have pretty bad ADHD, so listening to podcasts can be a struggle, but your stories and personalities keep me captivated and coming back each week to listen to new episodes. I used to have a 45-minute commute and listening to N-P-A-D kept me sane and awake during my

long car trips. I even got my son hooked and we listen every time we are in the car together. I love that. I've been wanting to ride in for a while and since I'm on a winter break, I figured it was finally time to sit down and share my tale. Back in 2017, my aunt, uncle and two cousins, Michael and Brett, decided to come to Pennsylvania for a visit. They really wanted to take a trip to Gettysburg since they had never been before and

particularly wanted to go on a ghost tour. Being only half an hour away, I am a frequent visitor to Gettysburg. My grandparents would take my brother and I camping there every summer. We loved visiting the unique shops downtown and learning about the history of the battlegrounds. When my family arrived, I had planned our visit to Gettysburg into two parts. One during the day with my two oldest children, who at the time were about seven and five, and one in the evening where my mom would watch the kids so we could do a proper ghost tour. It was a chilly October day when my family and I drove to Gettysburg.

The city was extremely busy and gets a lot of toys. tourists in the fall, so being able to park at the monument was tricky. We started out the day by heading to Gettysburg Military Park and Museum Visitor Centers, where we went to the cyclorama, a 360-degree mural rendition of Pickett's Charge, a battle on July 3rd that became a pivotal turning point of the war with General Lee's retreat. Afterwards, we drove all over from Devil's Den to Peach Orchard. As much as I love talking about the different areas, my story really begins on our night adventure, so we're going to jump right into it. Gettysburg has many ghost tours. I have been on a few walking tours around town that show you different places where hauntings have occurred. Since my family

was visiting, I wanted to try something different. I ordered tickets for a nighttime ghost tour where two guides would take us to two different locations and quote, hunt for ghosts. The tour started at 11 p.m. So we had a late dinner at the Dobbin House, my favorite restaurant. It is haunted and was used as part of the Underground Railroad, but that's a story for another time. After dinner, we decided to go on a walk on the battlefields at night to see if we could see anything while we waited for our tour. It was dark, and I picked a place at random to park. The battlefield is open until 10 p.m., and we got there at about 9.45 p.m. We all scrambled out of the dark and crossed the road to a wooded area. This particular spot was where General Reynolds was shot in the back of the head in the Battle of Gettysburg initial phase.

We started walking up to Reynolds Monument when out of nowhere a cannon went off in the distance. I had heard about people hearing cannons and guns going off in Gettysburg, but I never thought I would be one of them. As the cannon went off, I felt myself jump into air in shock. I looked into the darkness at my cousin Brett standing next to me. He heard it. Everyone heard it. A ghost cannon fire into the night. We continued to walk to the monument and my cousin took a photo.

There, in the middle of the picture, standing. in front of the memorial is an image of a man. When we look very closely and maximize the photo, we could see the man's features, even his long beard. We pulled up a photo of General Reynolds, and the figures standing in the photo matched exactly. My cousin sent me the photo many times, and every time it would get lost on my phone. I cannot find the very detailed photo, but I have included another photo we took of what we believe is General Reynolds standing in front of his own monument. Please let me know your thoughts. Enjoy the view, but watch your back because you never know when a ghost canon will go off in the dark. Barber. Oh my God, I wish that

photo freaking exists. I'm sending you this one. Oh, there is one. Because I have it. Okay. Yeah. So not the, obviously, the one that got deleted all the time. But so I just sent you the one that they attached to the email, which we'll post on socials too. And I want to know your thoughts because I feel like I can see it, but I don't know if I'm seeing it because it was described to me, like what I should be seeing. I don't see anything. Okay. Zoom in and on the right sitting, like it looks like somebody sitting against the monument and leaning back.

And there's like a person with like a hat on, but he looks so small. Like I don't know how big that monument is. I literally don't see a single thing. What? Really? Are we looking at the same photo? Maybe my phone doesn't accept apparitions because there's nothing in this photo. There's literally nothing in this photo.

No, I feel like I see it. It looks like a nighttime photo of a monument. Yeah, but, okay, zoom in on the monument. The bottom right hand corner, you don't think you see somebody sitting against it. I know. I don't see anything. I feel like I see... I feel like I want to see something.

I see like a slightly darker area in the right hand corner, but it looks like it's part of the monument and then a patch of grass that's slightly darker. I know. There's nothing there. That's my opinion. I'm sorry. I would love to see the other photo because if you got a photo and you can match it up directly with and see that it was him, I think that that's really cool. But this, I'm sorry. Okay, first of all, this would never fly.

ghost hunters ever. No. I just feel like, Barbara, I want to believe you so bad. You know what I mean? I believe you, Barbara. I just don't believe this photo. It's like I can see a little bit of what they're saying, but this person is, if this is a thing, it's so tiny. It's like a little leprechaun.

I still don't see a person. I just see a slightly darker patch and like a chip in the. monument. Okay, you guys will have to, we'll post it and you can argue amongst one another about it. Yeah. I don't know. It's definitely a stretch. It's certainly a stretch. I'll say that. Like, if I was trying to convince someone of the existence of the paranormal, I would never show them this photo. No. You know what I mean? But I just, I want it to be real. I can't even keep looking at this photo because it's, there's nothing in it. You're upsetting Barbara. Okay.

I believe Barbara. I think that the other, I believe Barbara. I think that they definitely had an experience. And I believe that having a photo that gets lost on your phone is very paranormal activity. I just think that the photo that you have sent us doesn't have anything in it. Okay. Okay. Let's move on.

Sorry. Okay. Basin of the damned. Yeah. Believe Barbara, okay? I do believe Barbara. It's fine. It's January and that time has come again, the infamous dry January.

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Every one of their products is made with wellness in mind. Organically farmed, USA-grown hemp, vegan, gluten-free, low sugar, and federally legal. So you can feel good about what you're putting in your body and how you feel after. Give yourself the gift of a healthier unwind. Right now, Soul is offering our audience 30% off of it. your entire order. Go to getsole.com and use the code N-P-A-D. That's getsole.com promo code N-P-A-D for 30% off. Okay, Basin of the Damned. Danielle and Cassie, I am not the first and surely won't be the last to say how much I appreciate your thoughtful take on three of my

favorite topics, history, the outdoors, and true crime. Thank you for all you do. Did you just say same? Yeah. I also appreciate my take on this. the outdoors and you know I meant same those are my favorite topics oh okay thank you for all that you do to give us these weekly listens I feel like the snoop dog thing where it's like first of all I want to thank me you know I am fantastic I am fortunate enough to have my own real life Danielle and Cassie in the form of two of my very best friends who also enjoy a good time in the outdoors

we've been friends for nearly two decades now as we've seen each other go through those over partying 20s finally growing 30s and now approaching our who gives a fuck 40s. Is that a thing? Well, it should be. Anyway, life gets hectic, but we try to get together for an outing adventure once a year. Can't recommend this enough, whether backpacking or campground hopping to explore new parks across the country. Pro tip, spend that last night in a bougie Airbnb, if only to wash some clothes and get a nice shower before the flight home.

We've been saying that this whole time. Yeah. We've done our time of especially group trips of. being like your camping day one all the way out until two hours before your flight and we're really sorry for everyone sitting next to you on the plane and discomfort. Yeah, but we're trying to change that. Okay. Our most recent adventure took us southwest to Santa Fe, Mesa Verde, and then up to Colorado. We couldn't wait to hop aboard the Old Durango and Silverton Narrow Gage Railroad and head up into the San Juan Mountains via the Chicago Basin, hereby known as Basin of the Damned. I do believe that

leave I've heard a trail or two about this area, pee-licking goats, but essentially the train drops off backpackers into the wilderness once a day to hike up a few miles and a few thousand feet in elevation to the Chicago basin. People generally go on to tackle one or more of the 14ers available from this area. This area is absolutely stunning. This is part of the trip I organized for my parents. Their first day or second day was a trip on this railroad up through mountains. A few important things to note, we live in the Midwest, like painfully flat, cornfield Midwest. While we hop around the country on all of our trips and are certainly not newbies when it comes to the outdoors, the fact that my BFF's house is exactly 420 feet above sea

level should tell you our quick trip to some Colorado 14ers would be an endeavor to say the least. Knowing this is more of a challenging hike than our local trails afford, we split the gear between the three of us, avoiding redundancies and weight where we could. One jet boil, one bare canister, one filtration system, etc. The one redundancy I wish in hindsight we would have shared was a tent, but instead each packed an ultra-light one person for our own little space. Grown women and all. Also worth noting, when you're dropped off from the train, it's kind of like a point of no return. There's really no camping until you've reached the basin and the train only stops once a day. So begins the basin of the damned.

Everything that could go wrong felt like it did. From the blazing hot, hot sun to pouring rain to hail to early signs of elevation sickness, all within the first thousand feet of elevation, this was setting up to be a challenge. Knowing the train would not be back and nowhere really to go but up, we made the questionable decision to carry on, splitting up at several points as we'd all reach the exact same destination on this well-marked trail. Not really a best practice, but not our first trip together either. I reached the basin and grabbed the very first back country spot right at the beginning of the basin.

While this area is a relatively popular destination, it's nice insofar as you can still feel relatively wild and alone, with no other campsites within eyesight. I got set up, one friend followed, and then the next before sundown, and our cozy little tents formed a triangle of seclusion with doors opening inward primed for group hangs and conversation. Hold and wet, we reached for the bear canister to get dinner going and refill our spirits. Naturally, our jet boil did not work, and our exhaustive selves stared at each other, feeling hopeless until maybe forcing the most sociable introvert among us to find another camp to borrow a lighter. It's like, yeah, you go do it. No, you go do it. I don't want to ask. I don't want to fucking ask anybody. How did we forget a lighter or not think to bring a backup solution? We lucked out and found

someone headed home in the morning offering to part with their lighter. We ate, we crashed. My friends made it known they would not be moving on up to the 14ers the next day. In fact, would not be leaving their tents at all. Sometimes elevation is a bitch for us flatlanders. Elevation sickness is no joke. And I feel like I never really got a taste of it just because I had lived at elevation for so long and I traveled to elevation places all the time. But man, it's not. It's not. In Peru, that hike, I was reminded of the other day. That was tough. And I felt not only exhausted because it was a tough hike, but like I feel like the altitude

had a lot to do with that. Yeah. It was really high altitude. So wiped. I was first up with hopes of a nice hike, some wildlife, maybe even the easiest peak. At this alpine elevation, I knew enough to know I needed an early start before the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in. While I don't love hiking alone, my sense of direction sucks.

I didn't come all this way to not give it a go. All I needed was a little coffee and breakfast, at least coffee, and I'd be on my way. The bear can would not give. After rolling it between the three of us to each attempt to crack it for what seemed like hours, but was maybe only one hour, my friend got it open after breaking a knife, maybe a tent stake, and permanently bending the lid. Like, please open. I'm desperate. But it was too. It was too. It was too. Too late to wait around to heat anything up. I knew a summit was out, but I still wanted time to explore. I hike out and don't see another soul for a while.

The diehards are already up before dawn, trying to bag a couple peaks before the storms hit. I'm lucky to see a bunch of marmits, deer, some questionably aggressive mountain goats, and overall had a good time. And then the diarrhea strikes. No. God. I didn't know this was a poop story. Me neither. She buried the lead.

Oh, God. In a relatively open area, I make the choice to run back the extra 1,500 feet elevation for a little privacy. Something about the risk of being caught so vulnerable by those Summators on their way back down was just enough to get me back to the relative privacy of our camp. And oh, what fun. Running when you know you have diarrhea is also at risk. That is true. Also, what fun in a pack out or bury your waste situation. Did I mention I was always. also on my period. The hits just keep coming. Basin of the Damned. So three sick women spend the afternoon in their tents before somehow rallying for a nice late afternoon slash evening hang together. Writing our attitudes were back to making the most of our trip, telling great stories, laughing about our situation, headed down to the crystal clear stream, enjoyed beautiful

views, you know, the kind of stuff us type two fun people live for. It's at this point in time do we see a few people, some stragglers up from the train looking for campsites. Some folks from camps further up exploring, not a lot, maybe a dozen over the span of hours. As the first camp within the basin, we did feel a little vulnerable, much like we often do as women alone in the great outdoors. It felt like everyone noticed us as they were looking to see if they'd actually ended their climb and reached the basin. While eating dinner, there was a man who we presumed was from the closest site, just kind of looking our way. Not close enough to talk to, not far enough to not notice a bit of a stare for longer than we would have liked.

Enough for more than one of us to comment that it was a little uncomfortable at separate occasions. But maybe we were too loud, having so much fun in our little closed-off triangle of tents with our cute little lights. After a few minutes, we saw him walk off back to where we assumed the next group site lay. Cool. Not too much later, getting dark now, we see a lone dude with his headlamp bouncing along the trail back down toward the basin entrance, passing us along the way. Strange because nowhere to go,

we were the first sight. No way someone is hiking back down the trail in the pitch dark with no train or campsites waiting at the bottom, right? We were up for a while yet, but never saw that light bounce back. Also strange. We finally had to bed. I read for a while before clicking off my light and bundling up, but before too long, I heard something. Now, the previous night some animal had been mezzling at the edge of my tent, no doubt looking to lick my sweaty bag or socks, and I assumed as much tonight. But it didn't sound like an animal. Footsteps sounded larger, distinct steps. That's when through my nearly translucent backpacking tent, I saw a red light floating. Hello? Who's there? Hello? While calling my friend's names to see if they had stepped out to pee,

the light went from static to flashing as if someone was quickly trying to turn off their headlamp while I heard steps recede. Just then, I yelled to one of my friends to wake up. There was somebody outside of our tent. Grogly, she responded in a confused manner, said she didn't get up or see anything, unzipped the tent to look out, and then just went back to bed. One thing about my friends, they can sleep. I did not sleep, but kept my ear sharp and occasionally stated in a meek, but trying to sound tough voice, I have a knife. Every once in a while just intermittently. I have a knife. As dawn approached, I could see a few white headlamps in the distance, those diehards,

and felt safe enough to get an hour or two of sleep. That morning, had my mind been a little more rested, I would have thought to look for footprints or any additional towels around our campsite for a potential visit. Instead, you've never seen a girl pack up and rally friends to head down a mountain so fast. I've tried to rationalize it in a few different ways, overtired mind with the strange man discussion before bed, eyes searching for light in the pitch dark, just seeing a reddish color, but I'm fairly certain someone visited our campsite, someone being some person. As always, man or bear comes to mind, while nothing more came of it, and my love for these

trips remains, enjoy the view, but watch your back has never felt so apt. Well, I'm glad you're okay, and I think that's always unnerving to have that. And I think as women in the outdoors, a lot of times were on edge. And I think just knowing that there was a weird guy walking around and that maybe he was in your campsite, I would have, I totally get. Well, and like, I can totally envision, you know, like when you're trying to turn your head lamp off really quick. And it's on the red, like just the lowest little red setting, and then having to click it through to turn off. Yeah. I mean, what else could that have been? Yeah. It sounds like it was. It's so funny. I'm your friends, though. I have to admit, I'm the nonchalant friend. I had an experience kind of similar to this when I was

camping in the teetons with a friend and they woke me up because there were footsteps outside our tent and she thought it was a person and I thought she was telling me there was a bear outside and when I noticed that the footsteps were a lot lighter than a bear, I was like, it's not a bear and I rolled over and went back to bed and she just laid there all night because she thought there was a man walking around our tent but she was like, oh, okay, she doesn't care. Yeah, just stressed all night. So she laid awake all night, stressed, like, on the defense. So we weren't going to get murdered. And I was just like, I don't even think I said it's not a bear. I think I just was like, oh, it's fine. And I rolled over and went back to bed. And she was just like, what?

You're such an enigma, honestly, because for how wary you are, I don't know. I feel like it's kind of opposite for us. So you're just always head on a swivel, always like what's going on with that situation? That feels weird. Why is that person doing that? like this is creeping me out. That comment made me like wary, just always really observing. I notice that. Yeah. I try it. Super. Always. But then when it comes to something like that, you're like, whatever, I got to go into the dream world. And it's like, okay, this is actually, that can't be misconstrued. Like, I feel like something's happening outside of the tent that could potentially put us in immediate danger, not just, oh, that. vibe fell off in that conversation, you know. But for me, not that like I'm not observant, but I just, I give things more of a benefit of the doubt than you do of like, oh, whatever.

But I would be the person being like, I have a knife while your ear plugs in, eye thing over your face. You need both. You need both. Just like in this story. You need you need both. You need someone who's going to be like protecting. you need someone who's going to be chill and you need an observant one and a non-observant. It's just like it's a balance. Yeah. It's a balance. And that's what makes the world go around. Yeah. And that's what being a girl is all about.

That's why we need girlfriends. There is always that one person in the friend group that is planning the entire group trip. They've got the Excel spreadsheets. They've organized the Google forums. They've got everyone on a group chat. There's color coding involved. They've organized activities. You know what I mean.

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Not Kevin. Please. Mark Agent Kevin. Hey, ladies. My name is Anna, and I just discovered NPAD this year, 2025, and I am hooked. Welcome. I commute an hour each way for work, and your podcast has kept me entertained. each and every week. I've been debating sharing this story since it happened in August of this year,

but when Danielle asked for pranks gone wrong during the last Trail Tales episode, I knew it was finally my moment. It's happening. Thank you. The pranks are coming in. I volunteer with my church youth group and each summer we take the kids on a pretty intense backpacking canoe trip. Think 50 kilometer paddling days, running rapids, and several portages over a mile long. This past August, our trip was to an area in northern Ontario, Canada called Timagami. Temagami. The name means deep water in Ojibwe. It is an absolute beautiful area with lots of large lakes and rivers, moose, black bears, beavers,

and so many other wildlife. If you ever find yourself in Canada, I highly recommend you take a canoe trip here. Me and the other leaders of this canoe trip are known for pranking the kids each year, and each year has gotten better and more elaborate than the last, so we know our prank this year was going to have to be. be outrageous. We were on our final night of the canoe trip and camped at an amazing site with space for cliff jumping, stargazing, and swimming. Camp pranks on kids.

Never gets old. That's peak. It is peak thriving. I always remember one that someone, when we did outdoor education, we would do a tracking class and we would track like tracks and scat and see like, oh, what was here? And one time we made brownies and rolled them up into like little poop looking things and threw it on the ground and gathered the kids around and it was like, so what do you think? Like what could this be? And all the kids are like saying their guesses of what this poop could be.

And you're like, well, you know, the only way to know is to taste it and grab it and throw it in your mouth. That's good. Yeah, that's good. That's like a pretty immediate though. Like it's shock for like there. Oh, ew, what? Yeah. Yeah.

But then very quickly, yeah. Unless you sell it. This sounds like it's going to go a little more serious. The bear has Kevin. I had been on the kids all week about bear safety and lecturing them about not leaving snacks in their tents overnight and making sure to clean up the cooking area before going to bed each night. So we figured the idea of a bear siding would be on the kids' minds. So before the kids went to bed that night, I did what I always did. and asked them all to double and triple check that there were no snacks in their tents or bags.

Of course, they all rolled their eyes at me and said they obviously had no snacks left out. For good measure, one of the leaders named Jason told them a story of his friend, who, while tree planting several years ago, had a bare bite a hole through his tent to get at his sandwich. Again, the kids rolled their eyes. At this point, it was around 11 p.m., and we sent all the kids to their tents with a reminder that they had a really long day of paddling ahead of us the next day, and they needed the rest. All of the leaders acted as though they were sleeping too, but we were waiting to strike at midnight. Oh, the sleep they need, and you're striking at midnight.

Keep in mind, this was just our decoy prank, so we weren't taking it nearly as seriously as we were planning for our real prank. Oh, we're in prank within a prank. We're in a prank. We're strategic. Yeah, I like it. Midnight hit and Jason headed off for a poop in the woods. Within two minutes, we'll hear him yelling, hey, bear, loudly and repeatedly. This was the signal to another leader, Spencer and I, to go to the kids' tents and alert them that we had seen a bear, but to stay in their tents. I headed over to the girls' tent and heard them awake already, asking me what was going on. I calmly explained to them through the tent wall that Jason had seen a bear, and it didn't seem to be backing down, but they needed to stay in their tents while the rest of the little.

leaders went to help Jason scare it off. Immediately, they started confessing to still having snacks in their tents. I knew it. But because I was a super nice leader, I took their snacks and put them in our bear barrels and told them not to worry and that the leaders were going to scare the bear away. Once Spencer and I had alerted the kids to stand their tents, we met up in the woods about 200 feet from the tents where the rest of the leaders were getting ready to, quote, fight the bear. This was going to be a relatively simple prank. Just make a lot of noise. pretend we scare the bear off, and then head back to the tents and confess that it was all a prank. However, one of the other leaders, Kevin, went rogue.

After about five minutes of yelling, banging canoe paddles, and attempting to scare off the bear, Kevin, who for context is six feet tall and gives off major lumberjack outdoorsman vibes, drops to the ground and starts rolling around and screaming, help, the bear's got me. Help! At this point, none of the leaders can hold their composure anymore, and we all burst out laughing and headed back towards the tents. To our surprise, when we got back to the tent area, nearly all of the kids were out of their tents. They are completely dressed, their packs are on, and they're getting ready to jump in the canoes and flee the bear. Kids were crying, panicking, and some were praying.

It was a church youth group after all. Turns out that they had heard Kevin get attacked, but what they didn't hear was all six of us leaders laughing directly after. These kids were fully convinced that their favorite youth group leader had just been mauled by a bear. The praying. So sweet. It's sad. So sweet and sad. As soon as we saw the pandemonium on our campsite, we confessed that it was all a prank.

Instead of laughing along with us like we expected they would, again, these kids are more than used to us pranking them. They were mad. They started yelling at us. Some went to sleep without speaking to us. And the long paddle the next day was very, very quiet, as no teenager wanted to speak to their leaders. Safe to say, we did not carry out our second prank. And now every kid who was on that trip denies ever being scared in the first place. The plus side was that it was a great reminder of how important bear safety is. and I got to educate them on the differences between grizzly bears and black bears and the fact that grizzly bears do not live in the area we were canoeing in. Anyways, hope you ladies enjoyed the story. As always, enjoy the view.

But watch your back because your youth leaders will almost always find a way to prank you. Okay, it's also a great way to discover that no one is going to help you. Every one of those kids. Who's off running? I also love that they're like, there's a bear and everyone. They're like, I have snacks. I have snacks. I have snacks.

I'm like, I killed Kevin. Oh my God. That's a good. That's a good one. You know, they're never going to forget that. And I bet they don't, I bet they don't leave snacks in their bag anymore. But also, you know, kids need a little bit of trauma in their life to become funny later. So we say it all the time, you know.

God, that was a good one. Nothing wrong with a little good old fashion trauma. That's so good. Just the pandemonium. People are crying, praying to God. Fleeing. Jumping in canoes. Fleering.

Not one person. Everyone's like, just leave Kevin. Tease toast. Just saying back. I love, though, the leaving in the canoes. Like, were your leaders also in those canoes? Were you just leaving your leaders behind? Yeah.

They didn't give a fuck about any of the leaders. They're like, let's pray for them, but we're not going to help them. Talks and prayers. Thoughts and prayers. Okay. All right. My last story is titled My Experience with Diana of the Dunes. Cool.

Hello, Cassie and Danielle. I love your show so much. It has fueled the fire of my love for the outdoors and national parks. I've decided in the last year that I want to visit all 63 by the time I'm 63 years old. I'm currently 31. You can do that. Easy. You got this money.

Well, American Samoa might be hard, but you got this. Anyway, this summer I went on a family vacation to Michigan with my in-laws. On this trip was me, my husband Josh, my mother-in-law, Mary Kay, and my father-in-law Craig, my brother-in-law, Chris, my sister-in-law, Danielle, my niece, Macy, and my nephew, Cyrus. I'm going to tell you right now I'm not going to remember that, but thank you for the information. Hi, everybody. Hi, all. We went several places in Michigan, including and chief among them, Mackinaw Island. In planning our trek, we were looking for somewhere to stop to stretch our legs

and eat some lunch. I was quick to jump in with the recommendation of visiting Indiana Dunes National Park. Lucky for me, my in-laws love the outdoors as much as I do, so it was set. We'd be making a pit stop at Indiana Dunes National Park. I was so excited I was doing happy dances for months. I immediately re-listened to y'all's episode on Alice Mabel Gray and promptly ordered the book y'all mentioned in the episode to read in preparation for our trip. Cool. My in-laws tasked me with planning which shelter we'd stop to to eat at and what trail we would take. Of course, I decided we'd hike the Dune Succession Trail, which chronicles Alice's journey in the Dune's. Little did I know that the day of our hike, it would feel like a hundred and six degrees outside, and we'd all actively feel like we were dying at the end of the hike, but boy,

howdy, was it worth it? After our hike, we went to the visitor center so my niece, nephew, and I could collect our Diana's dare stickers. While on our hike, I could feel Alice's presence with us in every step we took. It was so powerful to walk in her footsteps and to get to share her story with my in-laws. I guess for my nephew, it was impactful enough that while on another hike, we were on later in our trip, he proudly declared that he was going to protect nature and the world just like Diana of the dunes. This made my aunt and nature lover's heart smile so big. Enjoy the view, but watch your back and protect like Diana. All my love, Erin. I love that. So sweet. That is really sweet. And I love that you are able to share the story with your family because you heard on the podcast, but then you also read the book.

And it's just, it does make your experience so much more rich when you know the history behind where you are and the people who help shape it. So it's really cool. Yeah, it's like such a big compliment to us. Yeah. It is truly. So it's like why we do this whole show. Yeah. Well, thank you, everyone, for hanging out. Yeah, that was the last one. Unless you are a Patreon member or outsider subscription on Apple, then we have two more. And you can come hang out with us there. Let's see. Mine is titled Blindsided by Gatlinburg. And mine is my only memory of Yellowstone. All right. Well, we'll see you guys over there. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you back. Bye, everyone. See you. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you have a trail of your own you'd like to share, you can write to us at NPAD Stories at gmail.com or visit our website at npaddpodcast.com.

Bonus trail tales and content are available to Patreon members and Apple subscribers. Follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X at National Park After Dark. And if you prefer to watch our episodes, you can find us on YouTube at National Park After Dark. And as always, if you enjoy the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you may not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressives save over $900 on average. Pop over to progressive.com, answer some questions, and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by.

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