National Park After Dark - Trail Tales 94: P***y Poltergeists, Dirtbag Dads & Wholesome Hauntings

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

Today’s stories include pussy poltergeists, wholesome hauntings, cobbler killers and horrible first impressions. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers! For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials: 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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everyone and welcome back to National Park After Dark. My name is Danielle. I'm Cassie. And we're here for another Trail Tales. Here we go. Mine first one is so long. So I feel like I should just get into it. Let's do it.

Why keep the people waiting? You know what I mean? I'm done waiting. I need to know. I've had about enough of sitting here. It's, yeah. Okay, hold on. For this whole 10 seconds, I've had enough get into the story.

Hold on. I don't even know where it is. Hurry up. Oh, my God. Cut what you feel is necessary of that. It all stays in. My first story is titled, an odd occurrence in the dunes. What kind of dunes do you think?

Take your bet. Great Sand Dunes or Indiana Dunes? Indiana Dunes. All right, let's see. Hey, y'all, my name is Catherine, and I'm 44 and living in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. Love the podcast so much and have been enjoying following your journeys and adventures over the last few years. years. I often stockpile episodes until I finally say, okay, I need my girls, then I binge all the episodes I've built up, and it's always exactly the dose of history, education, and humor that I need.

I am so happy for all you two have accomplished for the example you set for other young women out there, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for you both. That's so nice. Did she just call us young women? Am I? Young? Okay. Every summer, my son, Freddie, now 12, but 10 when the story takes place and I go to Colorado for a week together. I was wrong, but that's okay. I'm excited for Colorado. It has been just him and I for the last 11 years, so we are very close and love going on adventures together. During our annual trip, we do all the typical summertime Colorado stuff, hiking, horseback riding, river rafting, soaking in the hot springs, and so forth.

We stay in our family cabin in the San Juan Mountains not far from Great Sand Dunes National Park. As Freddie got older, he started to beg me to rent one of the either sleds or sandboards they offer at the entry to the park. First, we rented the sandboards. To say the least, neither of us were successful with those. The next year, July 4th, 2024, to be exact, we rented the sleds. I feel like the sleds were harder. Were they not when we did them? Did I do the sled? Because we got the boards and then some of the other travelers we were with got the sleds. and I feel like they were harder to move.

Move around and move. Sandboarding's hard too, though. And there's nothing really that holds your feet in place. It was, yeah. Yeah. It's tough. The man that rented the sleds to us gave us very clear safety instructions, namely to keep the nose of the sled up,

that is, hold onto the straps provided while leaning our bodies back when riding. This prevents the nose of the sled from dipping down into the sand, which could cause the rider to lurch forward. and lose control of the sled. And the off chance that did happen, the man advised us to bail out as fast as possible, distancing ourselves from the sled. Yeah, yeah, got it, thanks, we say,

as we excitedly load up the truck. We pull in at the dunes and off we go lugging the heavy sleds through the parking lot across the small creek at the base of the dunes, across the seemingly endless flat stretch, and up the first group of dunes. When I say heavy, these things are solid wood. They seem to be about double the thickness of a snowboard.

We are also hot because we have learned from past tracks on the dunes that if it's a windy day, you want to have long layers on to cover your skin. That sand can sting. Freddy's got a thin hoodie on and I brought a breathable shirt. Freddy wanted to get away from the crowds in the middle of the dunes so we venture off to the far right side where there was no one around. I'm talking not a single soul other than us. No one where we are about one quarter of the way up the dunes.

dunes and no one above us or below us. Empty. We find a nice, fairly steep slope, and I go down first to test it out. Everything goes smoothly. I'm not going at a quick pace by any means, but I get carried steadily down without having to readjust the sled too much. Once I reached the bottom, I carried my sled out of the way, clearing the path for Freddy to make his descent. With his lighter weight, he zips down at full speed, and I am happy that it is actually working for him. Just as I am about ready to celebrate, his awesome run with him, the nose of his sled wedges into the sand and the rear of the board pops up behind him. It all happens way too fast for him to recall the advice to bail out as fast as possible and the edge of the sled lands right on top of his head. I'm already rushing over to him and can see the

blood spurting out of his head. I'm trying to stay calm and think about how we can keep sand from getting into the wound, how I can carry both sleds all the way back to the truck, where the nearest hospital is, how I'm going to do all of this on my own, and so forth. I know there's a clinic about 30 minutes away, but the closest ER is about 45 minutes away. And this is only once we start driving. We still have to trek all the way back to the truck. With it being 4th of July, I didn't know what to expect either. Right when I reach Freddie, a young man appears about 15 feet away out of nowhere. I am telling y'all, there has been no one around this entire time. He is by himself and is carrying one normal 16 ounce unopened water bottle

and is wearing a black long sleeve shirt and black jeans. Without saying anything, he hands me his water bottle and I immediately rinse the sand and blood off of Freddy's head. After I do this, we carefully remove Freddy's outer layer to avoid getting more sand in the wound, and I have him apply pressure to his head with it. The young man grabs one of the sleds, I grab the other, and we all walk back up and over the dunes

across the long stretch and over the small creek. The whole time we are walking, the young man is looking all around us as though he is lost and is trying to orient himself. We had been making small talk the entire time. He is about my height, 5'6, looks to be Hispanic, Mexican, and Native American, between 15 and 17 years old, and speaks very little English. I speak a little Spanish, so we got by. I asked if he was alone and he said he was not, that his family is there,

and points to the top of the dunes, but I see no one the way he is pointing. I ask where he is from. He asked me if Texas is near Mexico, and I say yes, that they share a border. He says he is from around there somewhere. I'm not sure what to make of all of this. Did he just come over the border and doesn't want to let me know he isn't from the U.S.? Where is his family? Why is he looking all around?

Why wasn't his water bottle open if he had been all the way at the top of the dunes. Why didn't he know where he was from? How did he appear out of nowhere right when I needed somebody? He hands the second slide back to me and we keep walking towards the parking lot. Between the creek and the parking lot, there's a small area with showers out in the open so people can wash their feet and things off before getting back into their vehicles. We all walk into the shower area making our way towards the parking lot. Before stepping into the parking lot, I turned to thank him for the water, for the help, for the company, and for the distraction. He was truly a lifesaver.

He made me feel so safe and calm. I turned to tell him all of this, and he is gone. I mean, gone, gone. He handed me the sled, was right behind us, and then had disappeared. I took about a minute to look for him before we had to continue onto the truck. We ended up going all the way to the ER. The bleeding had stopped. He had no symptoms of a concussion, and I felt as though it was safe to spend

the time getting there. The ER was empty and we were seen right away. They felt like he was okay and didn't need a single staple or stitch. They gave us some packs of gauze, told us we should cancel the horseback riding for the next day and sent us on our way. Once we got back to the cabin and were able to sit in process, I was finally able to reflect on the entire experience. That's when I remembered that the young man had a really interesting name. He said his name was Uriel. The name sounded almost biblical, so I decided to Google it. It turns out that Uriel is the name of an archangel. He is the angel of wisdom, prophecy, and illumination.

He is believed to help people find divine guidance, solve problems, and let go of destructive emotions like fear or anger. According to NPAD law, we know there is no such thing as a coincidence. And that's when it really hit me, and I felt the true weight of what happened. The unlikelyhood of him coming out of nowhere, the unopened water bottle we used to to wash away the blood and sand, his help and calmness as he led us to safety and his name. I truly feel like an angel was sent to guide us in our time of need. What is the angel equivalent to you got haunted?

Maybe you got guided? What do y'all think? Was Uriel an angel? The rest of the trip went smoothly. And though we have since returned to the great sand dunes without further incident, we are always scanning sand, enjoying the view, and watching our backs in case we might spot our angel again. Thank you for all you do to bring light to the stories of national parks and beyond. Thank you for the levity and the heart with which you share those stories, events, and tales.

And thank you so much for sharing ours, all our love, Catherine and Freddie. I think that the universe sends us angels all the time. And they come in all different forms. And I think that you certainly got an angel that day that helped you get out of a sticky situation. Mm-hmm. I loved that one. Yeah, that's a good one. And I could picture the whole thing because we have also been sandboarding, sledding, in the sand dunes. And we also know it's, even though the sand dunes, it doesn't look like you're venturing that far from the parking lot because you can see it. It takes so long. And walking through sand is really difficult. It just makes everything so much harder. So even when you feel like you're close, it takes so much longer than you think once you're out there. Yeah, it's very disorienting and it can be deceptive as far as how far, because you're always like, oh, I want to go one more dune or just, it's right over there.

And then suddenly you're so far away. And you can't sandboard back because sandboarding is hard and there's also like a long flat stretch as well. You know, every time I think of the sand dunes, great sand dunes National Park, I think of my favorite. fact. What's your favorite fact? I will tell you right now. So I'm pretty sure I heard this from Neil deGrasse Tyson. I'm not sure if he is the original creator of this fact. I don't know. He's really smart. Can you create a fact? If you discover something, he didn't discover it. Never mind. So he's definitely, I heard it from his mouth though. Okay. And I trust him a lot. So So there are more, according to Neil DeKrasse Tyson, so what's wrong?

Don't get mad of me. You know who to go for. There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on planet Earth. Interesting. How many Titanic's is that? I don't even, don't get me started. I don't know. I can't take the shit right now.

That would be my favorite fact. You figured out and tell me. I'll go back to you on that one. Okay. That's my favorite fact. Interesting. The universe is really cool. The universe is cool.

It's nice to be here. Yeah. Sometimes. Occasionally. Anyway, we'll get into my next story, which is titled Dirtbag Dad Animal Encounter 2 for 1. Hi, Danielle and Cassie. I recently listened to the Trail Tales episode where you requested Dirtbag, Dad, and Animal Encounter stories.

And I have a wonderful two-fur for you. It doesn't really have anything to do with the outdoors, but I hope it makes you laugh. Last year, my husband Eric, my sister Katie, and her two young kids were staying at my parents' house. We were planning on going to our cousin's wedding the next day. At some point that evening, Katie made an offhand comment that the basement smelled like skunk, and after my dad heard that, he disappeared outside for a second. He came back in and said there had been a skunk living under the shed next to the house, but he had just put a smoke bomb under the shed to smoke it out.

We didn't think anything of it and continued on with our evening. That was a mistake. Dad, Katie, Eric, and I settled in to watch TV, and my mom took the boys upstairs for bed. After a few minutes, my sister said, does it smell like smoke in here? Dad said, well, yeah, it was a smoke bomb and got up and went outside. This is so funny already. Like a smoke bomb, you're smoking weed. You're smoking the gonja, dad.

Okay, we figured he was just going up to smoke and thought nothing of it. A few minutes later, the cable went out. Dad was still outside, and at this point, I am concerned. I went outside into the backyard, and there were flames shooting out the door of the shed. Oh, my God, he actually wasn't. He actually did have bombs. I thought he was also partaking, yeah, in the devil's lettuce, but I guess not. Dad had all of his fire extinguishers on the ground next to him, trying to put the fire out and flailing.

I yelled at him to call the fire department. and he said very calmly, nah, I've got it. There were flames violently shooting out of the shed, and he was out of fire extinguishers. He clearly didn't have it. I ran around the house and dragged the giant hose around to start trying to put the fire out. And at this point, my husband and sister had both made their way outside. What were they doing, you might ask? Eric was looking at his phone, probably asking ChatGBT how to deal with the fire,

and Katie was filming a fucking TikTok. She's 32, by the way. I screamed, call the fucking fire department, and started hosing down the fire. Everyone ignored me. Gotta get your TikTok video. The hose was a good idea because we got the fire mostly out.

At that point, my dad started dragging all of his destroyed stuff out of the shed. That included several gallons of gasoline. Fertilizer, my nephews destroyed toys, and his brand new lawnmower, which is featured in the attached video. Katie sent one of her videos to a friend whose husband is a fire chief in the nearby city. The friend told her that she should have called the fire department 20 minutes ago, so my husband finally called.

The fire chief, who knows both my dad and Katie, showed up and says, wow, this is a lot worse than I thought it was going to be. After the fire department pulled up the floor of the shed to make sure the fire was out, We didn't find a skunk. So I guess the smoke bomb worked, question mark. Yeah, I don't think a skunk is going to hang for that. Either way, everyone was unharmed. The house is still standing.

And we had a good story for the wedding the next day. Feel free to use our names. Everyone in the story deserves to be shamed. I've attached one of my sister's videos and a picture of all the gasoline for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to share, Sam. Oh, we get the TikTok too. Amazing. Hell yeah.

We're here for it. That's so funny. Call the fire department. Stop filming a video. Stop asking chat GBT or whatever. For advice. Yeah. For life advice.

For so long, I thought people were saying, I didn't know what chat GBT was for a little while when it first came on the scene. And for some reason, I kept thinking people were saying, Chad, like I'm going to ask Chad. I'm like, what the fuck is this? You're the one who told me what Chad GBT was. What? I figured out. It wasn't a person named Chad or something.

You knew someone who was using it and you mentioned it. And I was like, what are you talking about? Oh, what even is that? And then you had to explain it to me. And I was like, oh. And then shortly after AI like blew up. Yeah. Yeah.

And now there's like a new thing that I actually just saw last night. This is so timely for the first time. I think it's very similar. I did zero background research clearly, but I'm pretty sure it's very similar to chat GBT, maybe some sort of competitor. But I think it's called grok or gronk or something. Yeah, it's Elon Musk's thing.

Okay, well, I didn't know. Like, I was researching stuff, and it came up as a result, almost like tucked in with different articles and web pages. Oh, like the Google. Like you Google something and then it pops up as... It looks like an article. I'm like, what the heck is Grock?

Like, what is this from? Because I need to know the source. Yeah. And I see that it's from Grock. And I'm like, what the fuck is Grock? I'm like, oh my God, it's AI. Yeah, I have a big grape with Google when you Google something and an AI response comes up at first to summarize whatever you were Googling. And there's like a 50-50 chance.

It's true. Well, it's because they pull. it pulls from a multiple different sources that may be legit and also not legit and then makes it one answer that might be partially true but also false. Yeah. It's very misleading. I hate it. Anyway, that reminds me the same person that you just mentioned about them using chat GPT and that's how I figured it out.

Yeah. That same person used to always relating to the story you just told, something that pissed me. me off so bad that they do all the time. And it's just like an annoying, it's really not that deep, but it really annoys me. Anytime we're driving and there is the smell of a skunk. I mean, we're in New England. I feel like you smell them a lot driving through the backwoods and back roads and things. They're always like, smells like weed. It's like, are we 15 years old? like to make a point of that and like stop mid-conversation to say that it's like it's not but it's not and even if it was okay like what am i supposed to say to that anyway this is reminding me of

like this is i think a little bit more common but whatever you drive past a farm and someone in the cow someone in the car is always like ah cows yeah and everyone's like oh yeah and everyone's like Oh, yeah, go. Yeah. Anyway. That's what it's, that's the energy it's giving. Okay. My second story is titled Asked and Answered.

Hi, Danielle and Cassie. My name is Jolena. Obligatory opening line about how F& Awesome you two are and how I love NPAD. I've been wondering when the right time would be to share this trail tale. And this month's newsletter, mention of Ian's birthday, told me that this is the right time. Okay. So this was from April then, because Ian's birthday is April 13th. Danielle, a thank you as well, as your own sharing about asking for signs is what made this story possible.

My mom died eight years ago after I spent a year caring for her. She was hilarious, my best friend, and there's just too much to say about how awesome she was slash is to even try to summarize. She also promised she would haunt me. A woman after my own heart. About a year or so ago, some weird things started happening at my house. I live alone. The power would flicker. Okay, I live in the hills.

It happens, I thought. Then my laptop started losing time. The clock would show a time 15 minutes earlier than it actually was or two hours earlier. I would reset the clock, but it would keep happening and only happened when I was at home. Then one day, the TV turned on without me turning it on. What made that extra weird? Well, that particular TV was broken. It had stopped working months before out of the blue would not turn on with the remote or manually no matter what I did, even when I tried plugging it into a different outlet.

So when one day all of the sudden this TV turned on out of the blue, I was like, what the actual fuck? And I had this feeling because all of those things felt playful and not scary. I had a feeling it was my mom playing with me from wherever she is. So Danielle, I remembered you saying that if you want to sign, ask for it directly and specifically. So I did. Mom, if this is you, I want to see three pink things all together at the same time very soon. My mom loved the color pink. 90% of my wardrobe is black and there's nothing pink in my household.

I went about the rest of my week and the three pink things were fell out of my mind. About a week after this, I headed up to one of my favorite spots in the world, and off-the-grid Hot Springs retreat, I rent a cabinet a couple of times a year. I've been going to this property for over 15 years, and I've been there dozens of times. I know the property very well. This trip, I was staying in cabin eight, which is all the way at the rear, far end of the property, which meant I had to walk the entire length of the retreat to get to the cabin. As I walked up to the cabin, I stopped dead in my tracks. There, at the foot of the steps to my specific cabin and my cabin only, were three pink flowers in a group together. I have never seen pink flowers at this

retreat in all the years I have been going there. Purple flowers, yellow flowers, all sorts of other things growing, yes, but never pink. I walked back to my car to grab the last of my things and paid attention as I walked through the property again. There were no pink flowers anywhere else on this entire property. And I've been there multiple times since this happened. I've never again seen a single pink flower. I'm sure this was my mom saying hi. I'm sure my mom was haunting me playfully in my house just as she had promised she would. So thank you, Danielle, for teaching me how to enjoy the view and to ask for what you want from the people you love wherever they may be. I love that. It's just such a nice, wholesome haunting. And that's really all we want. That's the only one I

accept and just to have such a wholesome haunts yeah and to have it from someone that's so important to you is just really special too yeah and i resonate with that if i die i would totally haunt you for sure you wouldn't send me pink flowers i wouldn't ask okay let me specify i wouldn't ask for pink i would send them anyway because i like pink i know we'll come up with a we got to come up with the plan. You know how you estate plan and things? Like we have plans for our business if like something is to happen. Yeah. Haunting plans. We need haunting plans. Yeah. That's a good idea. But we can't talk about it on air because then like we can't, it has to be private and personal so that when it does happen or if no one else knows. Sorry. If it happens, no one else will know. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. We'll figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, moving on. My story is titled The Pussy Poultergeist. Oh, yeah. Is this going to be a cat or something else? Either way, I'm here for it. Okay. Starts off Strong says names were changed in this story. You can call me Lenny.

I grew up just outside Detroit in the early 2000s when abandoned buildings were basically our playground. My friends and I were adventurous, beers at sunset on rooftops, urban, exploring to scare our suburban boyfriends, always looking for a cheap thrill. One night, bored, we brought a Ouija board into an old cemetery just after midnight. Candles, a blanket, tarot cards, the whole setup. Our friend Mahala refused to enter the cemetery. Correct. That would be you.

Correct choice. I'm like, I'm not doing this. Do not bring me in a cemetery at night with a Ouija board. I've been at plenty of cemeteries at night, but Saan's Ouija board. board. Yeah. None of that. I've never even touched a Ouija board. I have. But I was a child. I didn't know.

I didn't know any better. Right. She does not mess with anything paranormal. Mahala stayed in the car, doors locked, engine running on the phone with her stupid boyfriend. That would be you. Be like, Al, I just love the added stupid part. Al, they're doing something that's making me uncomfortable.

Underball. Inside, nothing much happened. We messed around with the Ouija board and argued over who was moving it. Then a loud branch snap behind us. We all jumped. The energy changed instantly and we were all commenting on how badly we had to pee. Back to the car we went. The next day, the pussy poltergeist started.

Vivian was first. She slipped getting onto her dad's tall bicycle and came down, hard on the crossbars, splitting her labia open with a one inch gash. Oh, it's that kind of pussy. Okay, I take it back. I am not dead for this. Okay. Insane.

There was blood everywhere. She needed over 15 stitches and could not go swimming for weeks. God, that's a hard fall. That's like worse than giving birth. Okay. Take that back immediately. You're going to, I don't want your head on a spike somewhere. I mean the stitches, the stitches.

Okay. I don't know. What's that thing called? Where they, like, from your. Oh, when you tear all the way. Yeah. Sometimes they just cut it. What do you mean?

Just cut it. Sometimes they do that. And leave one hole. Because they're like, you're going to tear and it's going to be an easier thing to. Oh, you mean before they give birth? Yeah. Oh. God.

That. I don't know much about childbirth, but from what I do know, I know. We need to get out of, we need to get out of the ancient. Incheant times, yeah. Yeah. It's horrific what they do to women and we need to study women's health a little bit better. Anyway, two days later, it was my turn. I developed a massive bartholen cyst that was on the verge of rupturing painful enough to need a procedure and stitches to fix it. That same day, Audra had a severe UTI that sent her to the hospital. Then Georgia had a pregnancy scare, Again. Oh, like, you're ruthless to your friends, by the way. Again. You don't have to say the again part was unnecessary.

Or the stupid boyfriend. It's just so funny. Then it was Jess's turn. She got a yeast infection so bad that she had to postpone losing her virginity to her Macedonian boyfriend before he moved back overseas. You're just dropping the tea. I see why all the names were changed. She had to postpone her virginity. Hats fucked up. Yeah, serious. I mean, you don't want to lose your virginity with a yeast infection.

This poltergeist is coming for the... You weren't kidding. I thought this might be about cats, but it is not. Same week, same part of the body, every one of us who went into that cemetery except Mahala. The only one who stayed in the car, the only one who refused to enter the cemetery, she was completely fine. Maybe it was a coincidence. No, it wasn't. Maybe it was bad luck or just a string of unfortunate medical issues that can impact teenage girls. But we still firmly believe it was the pussy poltergeist. That's like final destination for your vaginas.

Yeah. I'm in pain just thinking about it. That first one really set the tone. And that's why you don't bring wiki boards to set to cemetery. This is what you conjure up. I didn't even consider. I didn't even consider this as a possibility. I know.

New fear unlocked. But it is. This is not a wholesome haunting. No, this is the opposite. Yeah. This is actually one of the worst I've ever heard. Okay. Moving on.

I don't want anything. And that's why I'll never play with a Ouija board. Yeah. She deserves to be safe. Let's get this energy out of here because we can't summon. Yeah. This to. any of our listeners or ourselves.

Yeah. Okay. Stay safe, everybody. Stay safe. My last story is titled A Family Tale of Dogs, Trees, and One Very Unfortunate First Impression. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. First off, I love the podcast. You are both fantastic.

Thank you. I've gotten a little behind lately, so I've been playing Catchup, and I recently listened to a Trail episode that had Dog Psychics and Family Lour. It immediately reminded me of a story from my own family that felt oddly on brand. It's not exactly a trail tale, but it is a multi-generation story involving dogs, the outdoors, and one moment that still haunts my husband to this very day. We're all about the haunts today. And it all starts with my grandpa.

He was a lifelong farmer with a deep love for the outdoors, especially trees and dogs. Border collies, in particular, were his thing. Over the years he raised and rescued more dogs than I could ever count. They weren't just animals to him, they were everything. One of the stories he told me goes back to the 1960s. A tornado hit the farm and my grandpa rushed to get all of the dogs to safety. He managed to get every single one inside except for one. The tornado tore through, ripping part of the roof off of a shed and taking the missing dog with it.

About an hour later, while he was assessing the damage, my grandpa was. Grandpa got a phone call, the dog had been found alive, completely fine, just very confused, as it had landed over six miles away on the edge of town. Was picked up and by this tornado. Tornado and thrown six miles. The hands of God. Yes. That's the ultimate, like, surviving the, yeah, yeated six miles. Not the cow spinning, but a little poor dog.

That's so sad. No, Lassie. No. That's a collie. Oh, are they? No, I'm thinking of something else. I'm thinking of like a black and white dog that hurt sheep. Also a collie.

Are they then not the same thing? They're different. There's like the border collies and then the other collies. What is Lassie? A collie. You're right. Yeah. I think they're just different types of collies.

I guess it doesn't matter. Okay. He went and picked it up and the dog went on to live a long happy life. But I've always wondered what that dog would have said to a psychic, probably something along the lines of, I went to Oz and Back, do not recommend. Fast forward a few days. Imagine you're a dog psychic and you're like, I have no idea what this is. It's like, you won't believe this, but I'm seeing a tornado. Did this dog survive a tornado?

Like, this dog can fly. Talking to the real deal. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's how you test them. Fast forward a few decades to the first time my now husband met my grandpa. We were out at the farm with my sister clearing invasive cedar trees in the pasture and working on the garden. It was also the first time my husband met my sole dog, Sandy, who had come from my grandpa's last litter. My grandpa had kept Sandy for me for two years until I graduated college.

At this point, my grandpa was still living on the farm, though his health wasn't great. He had become more emotional and sentimental over time. there we are deep in chainsaw mode clearing did I mention invasive cedars near the garden. My grandpa is about 5'1 and my husband is 6'6. This is their very first day meeting. I point to a cedar tree near the garden and with full confidence tell my husband, cut that bitch down. He starts cutting. From across the yard, my grandpa suddenly yells, no, no, no, no, don't cut that tree down. Too late. The tree comes down quickly. My husband turns off the chainsaw, turns around, and sees my grandpa standing there, head drooped, visibly emotional. That's the tree all my dogs are buried under, he said.

Cue, absolute silence. Now, to be fair, this was not clearly marked. We have had hundreds of dogs over the years, and they are buried all over the farm. I knew one was buried somewhere near the garden, but I had no idea it was near that tree. Also worth noting, the dog buried there had passed about 10 years earlier and wasn't even one of my grandpa's personal dogs. It was my sister and my dog. Still, in that moment, it clearly was a big deal. My sister is trying not to laugh while comforting my grandpa. Meanwhile, my poor husband, who had literally just met my family that day, was completely mortified. He couldn't believe I had told him to cut down a tree that turned out to be a dog's grave marker. Yeah, that, it's like, have you heard the thing? It's like, you're right. It's not my fault.

It's your fault. You told me to do this. And the whole time, Sandy is just watching this unfold, watching his future dad unknowingly cut down the resting place of one of his ancestors. Honestly, I would pay good money to hear what Sandy was thinking in that moment. I guess I'm going to have to get a dog psychic. My grandpa has since passed away and every time we go back home, Sandy still runs straight into his bedroom to look for him. Oh, God. This story is so sad, like all of it.

It absolutely wrecks me every time. Me too. Like, I don't want to hear this again, actually. Looking back now, the story has become one of those things that we laugh about. constantly as my grandpa ended up loving my husband. It gets told far and wide, mostly just to tease him. At the time, though, he was convinced he had completely ruined his chances with my family in under five minutes. For the record, I fully take the blame. I was the one who told him to cut the tree down. More than anything, this whole story reminds me how much my grandpa shaped who I am.

He gave me my love of dogs, the outdoors, and conservation. He was always ahead of his time when it came to sustainable and conservation-focused agriculture, and that's influenced my entire path in agriculture today. He may not have visited any national parks in his 86 years of life, but he had a deep respect for nature in all living things. He was always rescuing animals, caring for the land, and making sure the farm would be better for the next generation. And of course, he made sure we were never short on dogs. Thank you for all the work you do on the podcast. I hope you enjoyed the slightly chaotic family tale. I've attached a picture of my husband and grandpa about a year after the story, as well as a picture of my dad with Sandy and Willow. Enjoy the view, but make sure you check the tree

before you cut it down. It might just be a grave marker. Isabel. I had a happy ending. It did, but I just can't get your sweet little five foot one grandpas. I don't even know what he looks like, but I see him just like drooped and sad after seeing that like he wasn't, he'd have. He didn't. He can get there in time to say not to cut it. And that hurts my heart. Yeah, it does hurt. I wonder if you guys planted another tree there. I feel like that would have been in detail they would have included if they did.

So if you didn't, maybe that's a good idea to do, like, in memory, like, maybe for your grandpa's, like, birthday or celebration of him in some way. Just a thought. Just a thought. We're not here to. Knowing this very, very limited. Here is our advice on your farm and life. Replant an invasive cedar tree. Yeah.

It's what we're trying to say. And that's conservation. We're just kidding. Okay. My next story is titled, Maybe It Isn't the Time to Ask Google. Hey, ladies, thank you for this amazing podcast and keeping us all informed and educated about our national parks. You have accompanied me to work for a while now, and I have gained a deeper appreciation for

nature since listening to your podcast. Keep up the great work. I wanted to start this off by saying I am fully aware of the flack I am going to receive from this story as it is not my finest moment. I was recently telling my mom about how so many people misidentify a mountain lion and she agreed that people should be informed about these animals and what they look like in order to stay safe and prevent unnecessary panic. This brings me to a memory I and two others on this trip have hidden away for years. In 2023, me and my uncle and aunt were on our first hike of the year. We had decided to become more outdoorsy and decided to hike this trail in Northern California. The whole drive there, 16-year-old me, was giddy with excitement for this hike as it would be my first moderate hike

that wasn't as well known. As we got to the trailhead, we had to stop the car as the potholes and the road were too deep for us to drive through, so we ended up walking about half a mile to get to the actual trail. As we were approaching the actual trail, we saw camp trailers parked nearby that were weirding us out because they looked like they had been living there. It was as if the universe was telling us to turn around now. Everyone's guard was up and being young and oblivious, I shouted, What if we see a bear? And while I was quickly reassured that we wouldn't see one, it only raised my uncle and aunt's worries. The trail was supposed to take us roughly a couple hours and loop us right back to the car. About halfway through, our tensions had eased, and we were thoroughly enjoying

the heck out of this beautiful trail. We were nearing the last quarter of the trail and all seemed fine with me in front of the group. We had been staring in awe at the tall trees when I swept my eyes to the path in front of me. It took me a second to understand what I was looking at, a big dog. My brain thought first, nope, bear, I shouted and pointed ahead before I even knew what was happening. my aunt and uncle both looked ahead as we all stood frozen staring at this brown bear who was also frozen. Now here is where my lack of awareness and common sense stepped in. Instead of following any instructions I had heard in school or on class camping trips, I instead pulled out my phone and Googled,

What do you do when you see a bear? Mind you, we were in middle school. This is like linking all back to the chat, GBT. What do I do for a fire? mind you we were all in the middle of the woods so i didn't exactly have service we all waited patiently for my phone to load that's not the problem that's not what it's like mind you i didn't have service so silly but that's not the problem it's just like this visual is so funny it's like we can it's like we all waited patiently for my phone to load it's like no no no it's just there's a bear's embarrassing

you're both staring at each other. It's like, please hold. Where is this taking place again? It's in Northern California. Okay. So it must have been a black bear. Yeah. They're waiting for a few seconds, but within seconds of me looking up what to do,

the bear made its way off the trail and down the embankment. We continued our hike on high alert and safely made it back to our car. More of the story, maybe Googling what to do when you see a bear is not the best time when you're actively seeing a bear. We have not spoken about this incident since that car. trip home, Rihanna. Okay, yeah. Between... I bet you know what to do now, though.

I would hope. Did it ever load? I don't know. Google it now. Just Google it now. Everyone who is not in front of a bear right now, if you are not sure what to do. Now's the time. You're safe. Are you friends? We're not judging.

This is a safe place unless you're listening to this and there's a bear in front of you. Right, which then you're too big. I'm judging you. Okay. Great. Well, we each have another bonus story for you, or a bonus story, not another. We only have one each. Mine is titled Jeffrey the Cobbler Killer of Cades Cove.

Oh, shit. Sounds dangerous. Mine is, I found my doppelganger in the haunted courthouse on Route 66. God, I was on one when I was putting this together however long ago. I feel proud of myself. Yeah, I'm intrigued by all of these. Yeah, me too. Great job.

Not to say I'm never. You know what I'm saying. It's just to find the way they've come together with all the hauntings and signs and Googling and chat chibi-T. It all kind of came together in this one. All going together. Yeah. And if you would like to close the loop on this whole circle and find out what happens next,

join our subscriptions on Patreon or on Apple subscriptions. You can hang out with us there. All righty. And everyone else, we will see you next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Bye.

Thanks for joining us for another episode. We hope you learn something new and have another location to put on your list. If you want more MPAD content, make sure to follow along with our adventures on all socials at National Park After Dark. For more stories just like this one, with the added bonus of exclusive content, you can join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. If you prefer to watch our episodes, head over to our YouTube channel. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening class. platform.