National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 9

Episode Date: June 20, 2022

Today’s stories include guardian spirits, trail stalkers, and the elusive Washington pineapple. 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!   Apostrophe: Save $15 off your first visit with code NPAD Microdose: Use code NPAD to get free shipping and 30% off your first order. BetterHelp: Get 10% off your first month of online therapy by using our link Athletic Greens: Get a 1 year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase by using our link Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope? It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Hey everybody, welcome back to National Park After Dark.

Another Trail Tales episode, I feel like it's been a really long time, but that just means that we have a ton of stories to choose from. We have a lot. And these are some of our favorite episodes to do. So we're stoked. We have compiled a few together. We have a lot more than to tell. So we have quite a few.

But if you want to write us in any of your own Trail Tales, you can go to our website, mpadepodcast.com. And you can fill out the little submission form. we love to hear from you guys. Okay, do you want to go first or do you want me to go first? I can go first. Okay. I have a fun one and it ties into one of our old episodes that I did the haunted hiker one.

Someone wrote in a trail tale, their own trail tale, about Tiana of the Dunes. Oh, okay. For some reason I was thinking of the haunted hikes one, the Channel Islands was it that you did? That was one of the ones in the haunted hikes episode. There was a bunch of them. And this one was in Indiana Dunes. National Park, and they titled this one, My Experience with Diana of the Dunes. Hello, Cassie and Danielle. I am an avid enjoyer of the podcast, and when I heard the episode of

Diana, I thought I should share my experience with her. It was late April of 2016, and I was on a trip up to the Dunes with some classmates of mine for competition. The weather was pretty crappy and the water was very cold, so I, along with my brother, decided we would sled down the dunes with some toboggans we bought. As we began to climb a decently tall one, marked with cottonwood trees and shrubs, we noticed some light fog rolling in and thought nothing of it. By the time we got to the top, you couldn't see more than 10 to 15 feet in front of you. My brother decided that he didn't want to risk it, so he began to walk back down, but I didn't want to waste the trip, so I hopped up on my toboggan and began speeding down the north side

of the dune towards the lake. After about 10 seconds of sliding, I noticed a looming shape quickly barreling towards me, and that's when I remembered the cottonwood trees. It was too late, though. I was 10 feet from one and couldn't turn in time. I put up my arms in front of my face to protect it and promptly slammed into the tree. Feeling the breath forced from my lungs and something crack in my chest. I toppled to the bottom of the dune and lay there. My chest burning in every movement causing a sharp searing pain in the right side just below my armpit. As I lay there in the fog, I see someone walking towards me.

It's a woman I don't recognize. She was shockingly not wearing any clothes and said, your family is that way. I painfully turned the direction she was pointing, but when I turned back to ask her how she knew, she was gone just as quickly as she appeared. With a growing thought that I had broke at least one rib and had a concussion, I hobbled in one direction she pointed, using the sound of the waves to my left to guide me. After about 15 minutes of my trip, I heard someone talking and calling out if someone was there. My classmates and father, who was a chaperone for the trip, came running asking if I was okay,

and that they got worried when my brother returned without me. I told them what happened and that a nice pale nude lady told me which way to get back here. After going to the hospital, it was confirmed that I had a concussion and fractured two ribs on my right side. A week or so later, I was curious about the woman I saw and did some research. That's when I learned about Diana of the Dunes. And that's when I learned who had helped me. I should note that I'm not a big believer in the paranormal. I believe that a lot of things can be chalked up to science or coincidence.

However, this is something that I always thought was fast. fascinating. Thank you so much for the wonderful podcast. It's been a joy to listen to. Sincerely, a humble listener. That is so creepy because my first story is kind of like that. Is it? Yes. We just were on the same page with what we wanted to talk about. Wow. I mean, what other, what that could that be? A naked woman. It's Diana. Guardian Diana. Diana, the Dunes is like one of my favorite ghost stories that we've told. She's like one of the only ghost stories. I guess we've told that I would be cool with being haunted by. Another bellman.

And the bellman. The two nicest ghosts that we've ever talked about. Yeah. Well, okay, so I have something similar-ish, and it happens to take place in my favorite park. Hey, you ladies, I've loved your show and spread the love wearing my NPA-D sweatshirt around telling everyone that inquires all about your show. I love that. Free advertisement, thank you. I wanted to share this experience that happened to my family at Yellowstone National Park.

When I was around six years old, sometime in the early 80s, back when parents didn't think twice about throwing their kids in the bed of a pickup truck with some blankets with a shell, and driving halfway across the nation, we took a family trip to Yellowstone. Myself and two of my brothers, four and seven years old, rode from Southern California to Yellowstone. My baby brother, mom, and dad rode in the cab of the truck. This does not pertain to the story at all. It just blows my mind that it was acceptable back then. Okay, this is a total sign. A repressed memory that just came up. So I didn't go cross country in the back of a car, but I remember.

So my dad lived in like an apartment complex and there was a convenience store on the other side of the complex. And when I was young, he had a pickup truck. And when I was, I must have been probably 12 or 13, maybe a little younger. He would like give me the keys to the truck and be like, we need something. Like at the key new truck, I would just drive the truck. Like it was just through the apartment complex. It wasn't on any road roads. But still, it's a vehicle. But still, it's like not a good idea. I don't know why this reminds me of just the bed of the truck and everything. My mom used to have one of those old station wagons where you sit in the back and you face the opposite side.

Like you're sick even thinking of that. I just remember being a little kid and my mom's driving. I'm like making faces at whoever's behind me and like just being like a wild child. And you know the people behind are like this lady, this poor woman. How do you think they discontinued those because like if you're rear-ended, you're toast. Yeah, you're facing the, why, why did they ever face seats in the opposite direction? So that parents didn't have to like deal with their children. It's like you're banished to the trunk. We have put a seat in the trunk so you don't have to deal with your kids.

Yes. Okay, back to the story. Anyway, we went to Yellowstone, camped eight PeeB&Js on the side of the road and looked at so much scenery. The thing is, I was a California city kid. I didn't care one bit for any of this. I wanted to go home and to have a cappuccino on the pier with my grandparents. What age are you? Capacino. A cappuccino. City kids start drinking caffeine younger. Yeah, that's true. I wasn't quiet about that feeling either. After days of cliffs, trees, meadows, mountains, I felt like I had seen it all. On day four or five, my parents pulled into yet another pull-off to look at yet another scenic outlook. And I had had enough. My mom got out, put my baby brother on her shoulders, and beckoned for us to follow. My other two brothers obediently followed her. I did not.

I stayed in the bed of the truck while my dad tried to convince me to get out for maybe five minutes, telling me what a cool cliff it was. I refused. I had seen enough cliffs. What more could this one offer me? I was a really snotty little brat. This just reminds me of the book that's totally written about like all the national parks that's like, this is disgusting.

I hate it. Oh, one star reviews. of yeah one serve yeah it's like wow another scene ago look like it was just mountains trees were in the way it's like okay that's the point though anyway my dad continued to attempt to convince me to enjoy the stupid family vacation and i resolutely continued to refuse shattering our argument a heart stopping and gut-wrenching cry came from my mother oh my god he fell my dad went running and i huddled into a corner in the truck bed sure that one of my brothers was dead maybe the baby he was on my mom's shoulders and let's face it my mom was a bit of a clutz the thoughts kept racing through my head

i never got out to see the scene unfold my six-year-old self was terrified and paralyzed with fear i don't know how long it took for my dad to come back i heard noises i heard screaming i heard grunts and talking from other vacationers i waited for what felt like far too long and not nearly long enough but finally my dad came back and screamed his fear and frustration out at me my brother had almost died it was my fault if my dad me out of the truck, he would have been there to tell my four-year-old brother to not chase that squirrel. It was my fault that he wasn't there to catch my brother as he tripped. It was my fault that he wasn't there to catch him and to stop him from tumbling 15 feet down a vertical 80-foot cliff. Now I know that my dad was wrong. I think six-year-old me a little bit knew that my dad was wrong

too. But when nerves calmed and we all got to talking again and my brother told me what happened to him, we were all left with more shock. My four-year-old brother had tumbled 15 feet down, and a straight cliff and somehow grabbed onto some vegetation before he fell the rest of the way off and into a gorge. When my dad came running over, he had two other onlookers help lower him down the cliff to my brother who promptly climbed over him and back up to safety into my mother's arms. But then my dad was stuck on the other side of the cliff. The fucker, he probably deserved that for the bed of the truck road trip and emotionally scarring a six-year-old with the incident, but that is neither here nor there. More onlookers had to help get him back up off the cliff. Back in the truck,

when we asked my tiny four-year-old brother how he was able to catch himself, hold on to, and then climb back up the vertical cliff face. His answer was, the man helped me. You know, the man in the lifeboat, in the orange life jacket with the kids with him. He said it so matter of fact, like why were we even asking? It was obvious. I remember the silence and the chills that settled over the truck. The party was over. Much to my pleasure, we were going home. Now they had seen enough cliffs too. My brother will be 40 in December. He still remembers the man in the orange life jacket with the kids with him. I've learned to love the outdoors, the sun on my face, the smell of the warm grass and the chill of granite, and the piece that only can be found away from cars, malls, and sidewalks. I've also been

back to Yellowstone probably 10 times since that trip. I've read all the gift shop Yellowstone go story books. I've never read or heard of another experience with a man in the orange life jacket. I imagine there has got to be more, though. I'm sure that my brother is not the only one that he saved. So no to watch your back, but in Yellowstone, if you're lucky, someone else is watching it too. Love you guys. H. What a cool story. Kids have got it, have some sort of connection to the spirit world, you know, and I just think that that was such a cool. I just loved it for a lot of reasons first, I can totally relate to their sentiment about not really giving a shit, really about family vacations and nature and stuff as a kid. Oh, yeah. I have so many family vacations where we were like camping or something. And I'm like, ew.

Like, I don't want to be here. And it's like, why are we? My dad used to have to carry me up a mountain because I didn't want to. Now I hike. But as a kid, like, he would literally have to drag me like kicking and screaming up a mountain. Oh, my God. Well, when we did those interviews. with the hikes for her Instagram and she had asked me, you know, about a memorable hike. And although I've gone on many, the one that came to mind first or one that I want to do, it was sleeping giant in Connecticut because that was the first hike I remember being on as a child with my dad. And I flat out refused like maybe 10 to 15 minutes from the top to keep going. Like I did full on temper tantrum, threw myself on the ground. I'm like, I'm not going. He's like, fine, bye. And just left me.

Oh my God. And I never finished it. Like, I never went back and did it. So you still to the stay? Still to this day. And I don't even think it was a hike. Like, I think maybe there's like 50 foot elevation. Like if you went back now, it would be a walk.

A walk in the park. Yeah, but for me, I just, yeah, it would be cool to go and finish it. But I just remember him being like, all right, later. By myself. It's like, good thing I was still there, you know. Yeah, like, no one like snatched. you up. This episode is brought to you by Prime.

Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more.

Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Well, my next story is not paranormal. You're getting into the creepier side of things. This one is the Camino de Santiago trip, and that's in Spain for people. They said, I've been listening to you guys for a few weeks and love the Trail series.

I'm originally from Spain, and this took place back home when I took a five-week holiday with the intention of walking the Camino de Santiago. As a single man, I felt safe. I'm six foot four in athletic, so aside from my bush knife, I did not feel like I needed much else for protection. The four to five days were wonderful. I started in the village of St. Jean P. Deport and the French side of Yuscati and walked down the Pyrenees towards Dino St.i and the coast to take the Ruta del Norte. People who actually speak Spanish are like, this is horrible. I super apologize. We're trying to get better, okay?

Yeah. Uasky is a beautiful place with beautiful green hills and forests, much like the PNW, dotted with old medieval villages. Elderly people in these villages are particularly kind to pilgrims, and many open their homes for me in the night for a hot shower and a chance to tend to my blisters. Side note, no one should walk on the Camino with brand new boots. It was one of these villages where things started to get weird. On the outskirts of Gornica, same town Picasso painted, I came across one of these. inns for pilgrims. As I chatted with the woman who cared for the inn and brought sandwiches for the pilgrims, she asked me if I wanted a couple extras for my friend. I was really confused because I was by myself, but she insisted that she had driven by me and there was someone following just a few meters

behind me on the trail, taking pictures of me walking. At that point, she shook her head and said, never mind that she must have been confused. But I was on edge. The next day, I walked into town and found a hostel for the night. I decided to go get a drink with some American girls I met in the hostel that were biking the trail. It was when I came back, the guy in charge of the hostel apologized that he didn't have a room for my friend and that my friend had asked if he could grab his wallet from my backpack and he had allowed him because the guy knew my name and where I was from. Again, I was very confused and couldn't figure out who he was talking about and he said the same thing as the old lady. The next few days were through some more populated areas and it was without

incident. Once I was past the Bilbao and on the way to Santander, things ramped up. On my first night camping by the coast, I was woken up by a car honking its horn and flashing their lights. When I emerged from my tent, a man asked me if I was okay. Apparently, he was driving home and saw someone creeping around my camp as if he was looking for something. He offered me a place to stay with him and his wife, which I gladly took him up on, but asked if I could stay in their barn as I wanted to get out early and outpace whoever was following me. At this point, I wasn't even enjoying the walk. I was moving as fast as I could and not taking time to enjoy the beauty around me. I just wanted to get to San Tanner and shake whoever was following me. That night I was able to sleep well.

The next morning, I woke up and someone had taped a blurry, poorly developed picture that looked like was me walking to my pack. This was when I was in full panic. I asked around if anyone who had seen who had done it and no one could say. I grabbed my bag, accidentally leaving my toiletry pouch and a towel and some socks I'd hung up to dry and got out of there as fast as I could. I tried to take a bus to Santander, but there wouldn't be any until the next day, and I did not want to stay there. I booked it down the road and walked until it almost got dark to set up camp. Fortunately, I did not have any other issues, but when I reached Santander, I rented a hotel room and I called my parents and had them book me a new flight home. There was no way in hell I was staying on that trail.

It was too many encounters for it all to be coincidence or a friendly prank. I don't. I don't don't know who was following me and I never heard anything more, nor received any more pictures. I still need to do the back half of the Camino, but I sure as hell won't be doing it alone. Okay, that's not a prank or coincidence. No, someone was definitely following him. Somebody was messing with them and like in a really scary way, not just like, oh, this is funny and I'm creepy. Like, it's funny.

It's not funny. Like, I'm taking pictures of you. I'm taping it to your tent. I'm following you. Whoever it was was clearly following them in such proximity that other people noticed. Yeah. That is so creepy. It's so scary.

And that hike is supposed to be so beautiful and such a cool adventure. So that really is awful that someone took that away from this person. Yeah. I know. And it's like, yeah, now I have to go back and do it. And they were already right there. Yeah. And now the experience has changed.

And they were doing it solo and now they're like, I won't be doing it alone, which I don't blame them. I wouldn't either. I like, absolutely not. But it just sucks that you went to do this exciting solo trip and then someone took that away from you. Yeah. I'm glad nothing happened, obviously, further than that. But yeah, it's still. It's scary. Okay, so mine's more lighter-hearted. Nice. So we were down. Let's go up. So the title of this is The Time I Was Being Hunted slash Pineapples Don't Be Like That. I like the title already. Good morning. I have a fun, lighthearted story for you both on something that happened to meet in the wilderness out of Spokane, Washington.

To be honest, I don't know if it was in a national park or forest or frankly where I was at all, but the scenery and views were beautiful and it was one of the most favorite weeks of my life, despite the fact that I was being actively hunted. But first, some backstory. I grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota and spent a bit of my time hiking and enjoying the woods around my hometown. Unfortunately, my wanderlust could not be satiated in South Dakota, so I eventually signed up to join the U.S. Air Force. Part of the training you get as an air crew member of the U.S. Air Force is the survival, evasion, resistance, and escape, a CRE school.

The purpose of this training is to teach us what to do in the event that our aircraft crashes into hostile territory, be it mountains, forests, desert, the middle of the ocean, or in the Arctic. The course has a few different phases. Winter survival, where you get dropped into a pool with wave machines that turn the pool into a full-blown storm, Wilderness Survival, where you learn how to survive off of the land, find food, water, shelter, how to make yourself visible for resource aircraft, and how to make yourself invisible to everybody else. And finally, Happy Camp, which covers the resistance and escape portions. My story takes place during the wilderness survival and evasion phase.

My team consisted of five people and a Seer instructor. We were dropped off in the middle of the wilderness with nothing but our uniforms, a backpack, and some survival gear. anything else we'd have on our person during a typical flight and a single rabbit that we affectionately named dinner. We spent the first couple of days trying to build makeshift's shelters to stay dry from the rain while the same time blending in with our environment. We learned how to build small survival fires and snares, how to butcher an animal, RIP dinner, you will be missed. Learned what plants were good to eat, which ones would kill you, and which ones you really didn't want to touch. We also had to learn to eat things to survive that normal people would avoid. My favorite insects are black ants.

They taste like lemon drops. Oh. Can someone verify that? Because I'm not going to find out on my own. But I would like to know if that's true. After the first days of what felt like the Boy Scouts enjoying the woods and everything that it provided came the hunt. Our mission was to get from point A to point B within a certain amount of time,

all while being literally hunted by professional Sierra instructors. who knew the woods like the back of their hands. After our grueling 16 hours, we had only made it about two miles, but we managed to remain undetected with a few close calls, some poison ivy mishaps, and a very typically lost lieutenant. The next morning, our Sear instructor wakes us up before dawn. We were all exhausted, damp, itchy, sore, and very hungry. In a very hushed tone, our instructor tells us he found something near our hiding spot

and that we all needed to come quick. Thinking it was part of the hunt scenario, we quietly crept along until we got to the spot to see a strange shrub in the dirt. This is very cool and very rare. Take a look, he says, as he starts carefully digging around the shrub. After a while, he grabs the top of it and pulls a whole ass pineapple out of the ground. Pineapples are not native to Washington, but hikers will sometimes discard seeds of their meals, and it causes strange fruits to grow in strange places. Our last full meal was three days ago, so we were very excited to eat our pineapple and washed it down with some boiled beef bouillon cubes.

Someone was smart enough to pack. The entire rest of the day as we hiked, crawled, and hid in the wilderness, we kept our eyes on the ground searching for more elusive pineapples. It took us way too long to realize that our instructor pulled a prank on us. Pineapples don't be like that, but this goes to show that after just one week with minimal calories, in the woods, mental fatigue starts to kick in, and decision-making, logic, and reasoning all start to deteriorate. Eventually, we made it to our destination just to be captured and sent off to Happy Camp, which despite its name, is not a fun place to be. The moral of the story is if you are going to spend a week in the wilderness, take the time to research what kind of berries, fruits,

and plants actually grow in the area. While it is important to follow the Leave No Trace principle, especially when hiding from professional Sierra instructors, you never never know when your recreational hike can turn into a survival situation. And knowing not to waste your time searching for buried pineapples, but rather slurping down some ants instead may just save your life. I heard about your podcast while listening to it on the red-handed podcast and it quickly became one of my favorites and I have binged every episode so far. Several of your stories of people trying to survive in the wilderness has given me a renewed respect for the things I learned at Sear and it has also motivated me to plan out more trips to our national parks.

Keep up the good work, technical sergeant Smith. I love that. That's such a good story. It just had such a good moral to it and it was also funny because I can just envision like all of these like badass like military personnel like crawling through the forests around Spokane looking for pineapples. Well, when you were reading the story too, I was like, pineapples don't grow out of the ground like that. Yeah. Right. And it's like he knows that. logically. Yeah. But mental fatigue, you're just like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. Like, there's pineapples buried around here and they're really good. And I haven't eaten, but they're elusive pineapples. The elusive Washington pineapple. Yeah, very rare indeed. That is so funny. I love that. It's such a cool lesson in a, in such a memorable way. Like, he will never forget that.

Yeah. And neither will anybody that he was with, you know. Or any of us who are listening to the story now. I love that. Well, I have. Well, I have. a less light-hearted story for my next one. Okay. I'm kind of on a stalker theme. Oh, good. This one was labeled or titled Samson the Stalker. Hello. First, I want to say that I appreciate that you both include stories from diverse people. As an Ojibwe person, it's not often that we hear stories from or about our own people that aren't stereotypical or hurtful. So I really appreciate the care you take to tell these stories in a good way. I want to share my trail story with you. This is about Samson the Stocker. The college I went to, Northland College, didn't have a normal freshman orientation.

We had outdoor orientation trips, O-O trips, that every new student would go on before classes started in the fall. The trips were a great chance to get to know a small group of people in a low-pressure setting while also learning about the college in general. Trips ranged from five to 14 days and covered everything from backpacking and rock climbing to sailing and kayaking slash canoeing, or really anything you can think of in the outdoors. The trips also usually had a fun theme that all trip activities were based on. The trips were planned and led by older students at Northland. I was going to school for outdoor education, so it only made sense that I became an outdoor orientation leader, an OO leader. The previous trip I led as an OO leader went off without a hitch, so I had no reason to suspect that

this upcoming trip would be any different. It was my junior year, my co-leader, Alec, was a sophomore. We had planned this awesome trip hiking on a small part of the Superior Hiking Trail up near Gooseberry Falls in Minnesota. We had originally planned to hike five to seven miles a day, but right before the trip, we found out that one of the participants was recovering from a torn ACL. So we modified the trip to only take three miles in from the Gooseberry Falls visitor center to a group site along the river where we would just base camp for five days. This was totally fine because it gave us plenty of time to get to know each other. Answer all the questions of the new students and do lots of whittling and wood carving,

which was the theme of our trip. While our students arrive, we teach them the ABCs of packing in their backpacks. We help get their backpacks all fitted properly. We check and make sure that they have the proper gear for the trip and everything like that. Finally, after all of that, we are ready to leave in the morning for the trailhead. We left bright and early in the morning for about a two-hour drive. Everything is going great. we head to the trailhead, hike to our group site, get all set up and chill around the fire the first night, sharing great food and stories.

The next four days were great, and it was our last night on the trail that things got a little sketchy. So you need to know a little more info about our group site we were set up on. The group sites limit the number of people and tents that were allowed at each group site. You were only allowed to have three tents and a max of eight people, which we met those limits exactly. Even if we wanted to set up another tent in this spot and have more people at that site, we could. We would have had to trample a bunch of vegetation to do so. Anyway, back to the story. We were making dinner on our last night of the trail when this random guy walks right into our campsite

without saying a word and proceeds to trample a whole bunch of wildlife and vegetation to set up a tent. He then starts asking us for food because we were still cooking our dinner. We were happy to share because we had plenty, but we were still weirded out by this random guy that just showed up in the middle of our campsite. While we were eating dinner together, to break the awkwardly, silence, this random guy, whose name was Samson, starts to tell us his entire life story. Apparently, he was a hitchhiker from New York, has been living off the land and handouts from other people, and purifying his water with bleach, which I later noted he was using way too much bleach in his water.

He then started trying to flirt with the girls on our trip and teaching them different ways to get people's attention while hitchhiking. At this point, Alec and I were really sketched out. So when it came time to hang the bear bag, instead of only a couple of us going to hang it, Alec and I made the whole group come with us, leaving Samson by the fire. At the spot where we were hanging the bear bag, Alec and I devised a plan to take the shifts checking on our campers throughout the night and that we would hike out extra early in the morning without waking Samson. With our food hung and our plan concocted, we headed back to the fire. The night went on with Samson telling super weird stories and asking two personal of questions to many of the girls on the trip. He also

kept preventing us from going to sleep as it got later in the night. Finally, Alec and I shoot our campers off to bed and eventually convinced Samson to go to bed as well. I took the first watch and the night went on without anything else happening. But we woke up three hours earlier than we planned to, packed up super quietly and hiked back out to the visitor center where we were safe from Samson. According to Samson, he was supposed to be hiking further up the trail because he had just come from the visitor center the day before. Well, because we hiked out earlier than planned, we now had over three hours to wait for our ride to pick us up and bring us back to our campsite. So we were just chilling on the rocks along the waterfall. We checked out the visitor center and just hung out trying to pass the time. Well,

all of the sudden, while we were sitting by the falls, we see Sampson looking down the trail back to the visitor center, swinging his head every which way, clearly looking for us. Alec and I were freaked out so we gathered everyone up and hid in the little caves at the edge of the Falls. We were close enough to the walking pass that we could hear Samson asking other people that were enjoying the falls if they had seen a group of kids with hiking backpacks. He claimed that he was our trip leader and we had left without him this morning and he really needed to find us. Thankfully, Samson didn't camp out at the visitor center and wait for us to show up again, but we did end up hiding in the little cave until our ride texted us saying that he was here to pick us up.

In all my years of backpacking, I have encountered many people, some strange, but never once that actively tried to stalk me or the people I was with. Definitely something I am always aware of when I go back to Gooseberry Falls. I am always on the lookout for Samson, the stalker. It's just like very well known. I think that's just like the name that they gave. Okay, because I was like, well, well, you said that he had made his living just like kind of mooching off of people. So maybe he's in that area. Yeah. I don't know. Who knows? Yeah. Or if he's a hitchhiker. Because you said, he's from New York. New York. What a way to make a life. Like making people wildly uncomfortable. interval and asking for handouts and just hitchhiking. How do people do that anymore? I don't know.

Who picks up hitchhikers? I need to know. It's a big thing, especially if you're on the AT. I'm talking about like, I was thinking of like hitching a ride, like just generally. Well, that's what I mean. Like on the AT, people hitchhike all the time to like other trailheads and stuff like that. But I feel like that's kind of like the culture of like, you know many of those people are AT hikers. Yeah. I'm talking about like randomly. somewhere in New York trying to get over to Minnesota. I personally would never pick up a hitchhiker. Never.

Especially just as a woman, I wouldn't do it. But yeah. Well, that's why I wonder, like, who is just like, yeah, this seems like something I'm good with. And he's obviously scary, too. Right. Oh, God. And then they're like, we have to hide in a cave until I ride came. Like, that is so sad.

I'd imagine that he's just like, I'm their trip leader and you can hear him saying that. And you're just like, what the? is going on. Yeah. No. And these are college kids, right? Yeah. Yeah.

No. That's so uncomfortable. It's very scary. Well, mine, it's short, but it's sad. Great. Even on a sad note. Like I need any more sadness. Okay.

Magic for the soul may be a little sad in parentheses. Thanks for the heads up. Hello, Lovelies. I just found your podcast a couple of weeks ago and I've been obsessed. I've been listening to it all day, every day at work, and all the small moments in between. I had to skip over your forest fend episode because it hit a little too hard for me, so I figured I'd share my story with you. Six years ago, I got my own first dog. A little black lab puppy sitting shy in a corner, something told me to bring her home, so I did. I named her Bailey Joe

the second we got into the car. She was always attached to me at the hip. A few months later, my brother told me about the forest fend poem. I sat there trying to figure it out. One day, in my mind, of course, I thought I knew where the treasure was and I was going to go and I was going to take my baby dog with me. My boyfriend and my brother said I was crazy, so I didn't go. Fast forward a few months to my boyfriend and I and we broke up. My brother that was living with us became physically and mentally abusive and my dog was the only reason I wanted to stay alive. Then one day she started limping. I figured it was her just being a crazy puppy and that she had hurt herself.

After the first x-ray, I knew something was wrong. After months of vet visits and trying different things, she went in for a biopsy, she had bone cancer. Two days after I got her diagnosis, I woke up to her coughing blood. Fast forward a few more months, and I decided it was time. I was going to take her on that trip. I only had her ashes, but I had her heart and her love with me too. I drove 10 hours from where I live to where I believed the treasure was. I didn't find it, of course, but I was able to spread some of her ashes where I thought the treasure was,

and I take her collar and pendant of ashes on every trip with me now. The true treasure was the trip. I found a love for the road and every year I take a trip in memory of her. Thank you so much for all of your amazing podcasts. I think it's closer to all of our hearts than you know. I attached a couple of pictures, one of Bailey, and one where her ashes were spread. God. That tags at the heartstring so hard.

Oh my God. You know, that like real or the thing, it's like, am I going to cry? Am I going to cry? Am I going to cry? Yes. To me right now, I'm like, Okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. Oh my gosh.

It's just, I love that. Memorial trips are ones that are really special. And whether it's for a person or an animal or whoever's close to your heart, I think it's really special. And I think that the treasure is in the trips. Definitely. Yeah, definitely. And it makes it, it makes something sad, but your.

turning it into something that's so memorable for yourself too and so meaningful and just yeah. Yeah. Everyone go hug your dogs. Go hug your dogs, please. Yeah. Well, I'm doing one. It is titled Stuck in the Adirondacks overnight.

Hey there. I'm a newer listener and actually found out about your podcast from a random comment on a Reddit on another podcast thread. I immediately downloaded it and binged all but two episodes. My story doesn't involve a national park, but I live in the the Adirondacks in New York, and sometimes the Adirondacks feels like it should be. Anyway, my story is about a hike I did last summer and ended up with nine strangers, mostly sleeping in a lean-to, totally unprepared.

The Adirondack 46 or challenge is a challenge that involves hiking the 46 high peaks of the Adirondacks. It has taken me years to finish, and I set out to complete my 45th and 46 hike together in July 2020 with my boyfriend and two of my very best friends. We left very early in the morning because the hike is about 19 miles, give or take, in the Adirondack Park, which is not easy. Now, we are all experienced hikers and always have our bags packed with plenty of water, extra clothes, food, first aid, headlamps, etc. When packing for this hike, I decided that it was going to be a fun, easy day in the woods and only brought water food and a headlamp. I know my boyfriend always brings a full emergency shelter and I wanted a lighter pack, so I left most of the usual things out.

Big mistake. We spent an amazing day in the woods, hiked up haystack, ventured down, and up to basin where I was finished. Finally, a 46er. Time to celebrate. Well, we noticed a rumbling in the distance and saw darkness coming. We decided it was time to get moving, down and out, which would take up hours. On our way in and out of the tree line, it started to rain, thunder and lightning. We all put on some rain gear. Luckily, my boyfriend had an extra jacket for me. I didn't even have a rainfly for my bag. After a few hours of this and having to wait in the woods for the lightning to pass, we started to book it down. It was getting late and we did not want to be stuck in the dark. Hours later, with our headlamps on, pitch black and soaking wet. One thing I didn't mention in the beginning

is to get to these mountains, you have to cross over John's Brook. There used to be a bridge, but it got washed out years ago when Hurricane Irene hit the area and it hasn't been replaced. So to cross, you have to take your shoes off, get your hiking poles out, and wade through the water slash rocks. Fast forward to us, pitch black, standing in disbelief at Johns Brook, which at this time is raging with water. We can't see the rocks anymore, and we sat there in silence for a solid minute. My boyfriend and my friend Ben agreed, we can't get across and we have to stay the night. I almost cried. I was wet, freezing, cold, hungry, and tired. We all were. We ventured about a half mile up the giant hill to the nearest lean to where five people we had met earlier on the trail were

sleeping. They saw us and were so happy we were safe. Everything in my bag was soaked. I looked at my boyfriend who I knew had dry sacks of clothes and asked to borrow some clothes. His response was, I took everything out because I thought this was going to be a quick in and out. Never before has he done this, and he was so upset with himself. Also, remember how I emptied out my bag? Well, no emergency blankets either. So I took off all my wet clothes, leaving a t-shirt he had and a pair of boxers and we laid down on the cold, hard wooden floor of the lean-to with one emergency mylar blanket for the night between the two of us. We all agreed that we were not calling the Rangers. Picture this. Pouring rain, nine soaking wet people, one lean-to, and my nine milar blankets, which if you don't

know are what those birthday balloons are made of. So crinkly and noisy. We tried to sleep, but I was shivering all night and didn't sleep. Finally, when the morning came, all nine of us, packed up, I put my soaking wet clothes back on and started on the really long checkout. We got back on the brook and we all held onto each other in our poles as we made our way through the brook, which was calmer now, but still scary. I have never been so happy to see my car in my life. This was the end of my 46 high peak journey. 44 peaks with no issues and my last two were a nightmare, but a total learning experience. I went to REI the next week and bought emergency blankets, dry sacks and extra everything. Moral of the story, never, ever, ever underestimate the woods and always be

prepared. Sorry, this is so long and there is a lot. I am leaving out, but I feel it's really important for people to always be prepared. Luckily, it was July, and I knew that we would make it through the night. But there have been a lot of deaths in the Adirondacks because people underestimate the woods. Thanks again for the awesome work you put into this podcast. I thoroughly enjoy listening to it. Thank you. Aw. I'm glad it worked out because... Sounds like a rough night. So rough. And, you know, it's like, you know, sometimes you're like, okay, it was just one night. But if you've ever been in a situation where you're uncomfortable or scared or not prepared, the night is like the longest. It's like, how is this only 12 hours or whatever it is?

You know, it's like this seems to be going on forever. And you're just laying there waiting for light. Yeah. Like, please be morning. Please be morning. Please, please. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if you don't get any sleep. Yeah. Oh, God. I can resonate with that. I mean, not exactly that. but I get it. Okay, so mine is a little more lighter-hearted. The title is I was chased down an active volcano, Gifford Pinshaw National Forest, Mount St. Helens. Helens. Of course, Mount St. Helens. Of course. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. Hope you two are doing well. Just wanted to start off by saying I'm a big fan. I started listening to NPAD a little over a year ago and I've been hooked

ever since. We've actually spoken before in the past. I reached out to you to over Instagram right after you released episode 27, the man who went down with his mountain. because I coincidentally was going to summit Mount St. Helens that following week. I originally didn't share the story with you guys because I figured it wasn't as exciting or as cool as the other trail tales being submitted. However, the latest episode's story about the couple finding the Maui pin really resonated with me because something similar happened to me on this hike. The story also serves as an important cautionary tale about knowing your limit and rather being safe than sorry to both new and experienced hikers.

It's also definitely the weirdest and most unsettling thing that's ever happened to me on a hike. Even if this story doesn't make it on the podcast, I hope you to at least get a kick out of it. Well, here you are. Welcome. You made it. So to preface as a kid, I went through a phase in middle school where I was absolutely enamored by volcanoes. For some reason, in particular, I gravitated towards Mount St. Helens. The moment I found out you could climb to the peak relatively easily, meaning no technical skill or special equipment needed, I was determined to do.

exactly that. It was at the top of my bucket list. I held on to this goal all the way until college, and I had promised myself that when I graduated, I'd take a trip out west and summit that beautiful mountain and take in the glorious Pacific Northwest scenery. And, well, also, I could brag about climbing an active volcano. Unfortunately, by the time I was all set to graduate, it was the spring of 2020. I don't think I need to elaborate how the pandemic swiftly dashed all of my plans to go anywhere that year. Oh well, eventually by the end of summer 2021, the vaccines had already rolled out and I was ready to go on my dream hike. I got together with my good friend and we bought our hiking permits, booked our hotel and flight, and prepared for the wonders journey ahead. Due to some

unfortunate and unforeseen events, we left for the hike much later than I had planned. The hike to the top of the volcano can be broken up into three parts. The tree line, the Boulder field, and the ash field. The last part of the Boulder field and the ash field are by far the most difficult section, with the final 1.2 miles of ascent gaining around 2,000 feet in elevation. Compounding the difficulty is the incredibly sharp ash and volcanic rock. You sink back with every step and your shoes, hiking poles, hands and pants get sliced up as well. It's definitely a rough hike. Even though me and my friend fought our way through the ash and boulders with all our might, it was already late afternoon by the time we reached the end of the boulder field. Before us was the

impressive and daunting final stretch, the ash field. It was here that we had to make the difficult choice. Though we definitely could have pushed through and gotten to the top of the volcano, it meant we would arrive at the caldera's rim in the evening, which meant the descent back would be in the dark. Though I had packed a flashlight the previous thousand feet of ascent made it clear that both hands were needed to use hiking poles to safely navigate the treacherous trail. After a few seemingly internal minutes of debate, it was with a heavy heart that we decided to be safe and instead turn around and begin the trek back. Yes, I did tear up a little bit. I was so frustratingly close to achieving the goal squarely at the top of my bucket list. I could practically hear

the mountain sneer at me as I turned my back to the ashfield and started climbing back down the boulders. It was a quiet, somber descent for the first couple of minutes until it happened. In a sudden rush of wind and dust, I heard it. Behind me, something large, strong and soft had suddenly landed. My blood pressure spiked. I turned around, wondering what could pause. possibly have made such a sound in the middle of a volcanic boulder field, and lo and behold, I saw before me a pigeon. Oh my God, I was waiting. You're like on the edge of your seat.

I'm like, what is this? Are you confused? Because I definitely was. I beheld before me a common pigeon, most known for populating city sidewalks, instead now here, with me, deep in the Pacific Northwest Wilderness. I stared at the beast, dumbstruck, for a couple of seconds, before my, friend shouted back up at me what the holdup was. It's a fucking pigeon, I yelled, as softly as I could afraid I would startle it into flying away before someone else could witness this oddity. The pigeon

simply stared at me, head bobbing furiously, as if expecting something. I noticed it had a metal band around its leg. Was this someone's pet? A beloved racing pigeon blown off course? Now, I have a strict policy against interacting with wildlife, but seeing as this was a domesticated animal, authors know and fun fact, all pigeons are actually feral pets, as they were domesticated by the Romans and were commonly household pets before they fell out of favor. Interesting. Very interesting. Thank you. That was a fun fact. I decided that this would be the exception. I carefully lowered my backpack and grabbed some loose granola, scattered it on the boulder before me as an offering. The pigeon ignored it and began waddling towards me instead. Maybe it was thirsty. I poured some water into a bottle cap and pushed it towards the bird. Again, it ignored it and only. waddled closer. Was it attracted to my bright blue nail polish? Looking for companionship? Who knows the real answer? I strapped my pack on again, collected my bottle cap, and continued back down with the pigeon hot on our heels. For the next couple of miles down, the pigeon stayed right on our track, hopping down the boulders to follow us. It never strayed too far. It was if the bird was hurrying us off the mountain

like a concerned parent. It was almost cute if it weren't completely and utterly befuddling. Once we passed the last patch of glacier, towards the end of the boulder field and towards the tree line, the pigeon suddenly took flight again. Just like that, our hiking companion was gone. I was sad to see it go, but I hope at least it eventually arrived back to its home where it belonged. And then I immediately lost my footing on loose ash and completely ate shit and slid for four feet shredding my wrists as I brace myself. Though my injuries were minor, it was a sombering experience. If it was this easy to slip and fall on my way down in the daytime, I could only imagine how terrifying and dangerous it would have been to descend at night with limited visibility. So while I didn't accomplish my

goal to make it to the top, I definitely learned an important lesson about knowing your limits when hiking and when to play it safe. As much as I love your podcast, I didn't want to end up becoming a topic of a future episode. Perhaps the pigeon was a wayward guardian spirit, arriving in my weakest moment to let me know I'd make the correct choice in turning around and keeping me safe as I descended. Or maybe I am just irresistibly attractive to pigeons. Who knows? So yeah, that was my trail tale. Hope you two enjoyed it.

And I hope it was a little nice refresher in between the spooky and dark stories. And yes, as I'm sure you've noticed, I've attached a picture of me descending the Boulderfield with a pigeon in hot pursuit. I love that. I love the description in hot pursuit. And I just, that was a thing. We had a theme this week, Guardian Spirits. Yeah.

Didn't even think to really put that together. We do this all the time. I feel like every time we put anything together, it's like, wow, we're on the same page. Yeah, here we go. You know what's funny? This actually reminded me of when I was in the North Cascades a couple days ago. I was up at the top of the trail. And I'm sitting there and I turn around and a huge raven landed like 15 feet from me and was just standing there.

I've never seen a raven in person. Oh, okay. Before. And I didn't realize how huge they were. And it just brought me back to the trail tale that we had about the Raven and Arches. That's like, I would venture to guess, the most memorable trail tale. Trail. Yeah.

As far as like the, what did we call it? As I'm like, the most memorable. It's like what one is that? No, the one, it was like the spirit of the arches. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I think because so many people have come across that.

Yeah, they're like, oh my gosh, I've seen it. I've seen that. Yeah. Yeah. So I just thought of when I was in the North Cascades, I was like, there was a bunch of people up there too. And I was waiting for it to start making noises at someone. But it just stood there and it was just looking around and then it flew away. Yeah.

Isn't that cool just to be like in the presence of something? Like, wow. Yeah. That was awesome. It was so cool. No pigeon, but still a bird. It's no pigeon. But.

Well, thank you, everyone for joining in on our first Trail Tales back in a while. Thank you, as always, for your support and your love. We appreciate it so much. And we will see you next time. And in the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you back. 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. Become an outsider by joining our Patreon. you'll gain access to monthly bonus stories and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our partners, you're supporting our show. To access our special discount codes along with source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For information on the show, to shop our merch store, sign up for our newsletter and more,

visit npaddpodcast.com. And if you're enjoying the show, please 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. In fact, 99% of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit Progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary.