Trail Tales 105: Bear Makeouts, Grizzly Wisdom & Trail Angels

Today’s stories include making out with bears, subway sandwiches, Pigeon Forge street racers, grizzly wisdom, trail angels and Marvin in Newfoundland. 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! Thank you to this week’s partners! AquaOmega: One of the highest-dose omega-3 supplements per serving, no fish burps, and for every bottle sold, removes 1 lb. of plastic and debris from the ocean and coastlines. Use code NATIONALPARK for 20% off at myaquaomega.com/NATIONALPARK. Warby Parker: Our listeners can buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pairs at http://WarbyParker.com/NPAD and using our link helps support the show. #WarbyParker #ad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  Hey everyone, welcome back to National Park After Dark. You are here listening to another Trail Tales episode where we tell you stories that you wrote into us. I'm Cassie.

• 0:27Danielle LaRock?

  I'm Danielle and I themed this Trail Tales episode, I think, pretty much all about bears.

• 0:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Cool.

• 0:36Danielle LaRock?

  So.

• 0:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  We love bears.

• 0:37Danielle LaRock?

  Literally just bears.

• 0:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  We love bears.

• 0:41Danielle LaRock?

  And, or at least bears are at least mentioned in the story at least once. So we'll see what happens. I prepared this a while ago.

• 0:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know the title of my first one is Newfoundland's Dogs and Bears. Oh my. So I know for a fact my first one has bears.

• 0:58Danielle LaRock?

  Well, let's kick it off. Let's, let's get it going.

• 1:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  Would you like to hear mine first?

• 1:03Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I would.

• 1:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  Perfect. All right. Mine, as I said, is titled Newfoundland's Dogs and Bears. Oh my.

• 1:11Danielle LaRock?

  Aren't Newfoundland's dogs?

• 1:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, that's what I thought too. Cause I was like, do they mean like Newfoundland, like the country, but there's an S at the end. So just in case this person doesn't know, a Nufi is a dog.

• 1:26Danielle LaRock?

  I'm sure they know.

• 1:30Danielle LaRock?

  It's yet to be seen.

• 1:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, the first sentence actually clarifies this question. Okay. Hi Danielle and Cassie. Your recent episode about working dogs inspired me to write in about my time as a scat detection dog handler in the wilds of Newfoundland, Newfoundland.

• 1:49Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. So there we go. I don't know why we're, all right. I should just shut the fuck up.

• 1:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yep.

• 1:55Danielle LaRock?

  From here on out. I feel mean.

• 1:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  The episode's silent. We both shut the fuck up.

• 2:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  One hour of silence. Thank you for tuning in. Enjoy the view. Watch your back.

• 2:10Danielle LaRock?

  Bye.

• 2:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  Bye. All right. Well, back in 2011, I had recently graduated with a degree in wildlife biology and was applying for a summer field position. Working as a dog handler felt like the perfect role for me because I had a lot of experience working in animal welfare and with sheltered dogs, but I'd be gaining valuable field experience as well. I'd be working as a field tech for a post grad student who was studying predator populations in Newfoundland by collecting black bear, coyote, and lynx scat. I moved up from Massachusetts where I trained for a couple of months before we headed up north. My new boss had two rescue dogs that he had trained himself for this work, Marvin and Jetson. Marvin was a true professional. He'd

• 2:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  been doing scent detection for years and knew exactly what to do. He would be my dog for the summer. Jetson was a bit of a wild card, young and very enthusiastic and still learning. They were both black lab mixes and very good boys. We had three designated search areas across Newfoundland. Our scat collecting days consisted of either driving along old logging roads and searching for scat in those areas, or getting picked up in the morning by a helicopter and dropped off in a very remote location where we would search for the day. Just me and Marvin, literally in the middle of nowhere. I would carry an elk collar, like what's used to track animals by satellite, so the helicopter could find

• 3:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  me at the end of the day. The dogs loved flying in the helicopter. Marvin was a rock star of a dog. We would spend the day searching and collecting samples. His reward for every successful poop sample was a play session with his rope ball. We had many wildlife encounters, mostly caribou, who always looked absolutely shocked to see us. One was a semi startling encounter with a young bull moose who did a little bluff charge at us when we accidentally got too close. And there were quite a few black bears at a distance. I always carried bear spray, but generally felt pretty safe. One day Marvin had stumbled upon a lovely area that I named shit alley. There were multiple piles of pretty fresh

• 4:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  bear scat and we were both very excited for such a great find. It's literally all we could hope for on search days. I got his ball out to toss around for a bit and in between tosses, started getting my things out to collect and record samples. Even though all the piles were probably from the same bear, we collected from each anyway, just to be thorough. I was probably three samples in when I realized Marvin hadn't come back to me, so I could throw his ball again. I looked up to see where he was and saw him standing about 15 feet away, right at the edge of a dense section of trees and vegetation. He was looking up into this dense area with his back towards me, wagging his tail. I

• 5:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  couldn't see or hear anything, but had an immediate gut reaction that there was something else there. I grabbed all my stuff, threw it in my bag and calmly called Marvin back to me. He was a little hesitant to leave, but followed me as I quickly but calmly got the hell out of there. There was a hill directly across from this little thicket and that was my target. Once we were halfway up the hill and I knew we weren't being followed, I turned back to see if there was anything there, or if I was just being paranoid. As soon as I looked back, I made eye contact with the most giant black bear staring at us through the bushes. I somehow felt calm enough to snap a picture and then we booked

• 5:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  it to the top of the hill and out of the area. I've seen a lot of black bears in my day, but never one this big. And I can confirm by his numerous poop piles that he was not lacking for food. I can only imagine what he thought as we rudely barged into his home and started digging around his shit, literally. This was real backcountry Newfoundland and this bear had likely never seen a person or a dog before and was probably very confused. Was he asleep when we walked up, or was he just watching us the whole time from behind the trees? I'm forever grateful this encounter unfolded the way it did and Marvin very gently alerted me to his hidden friend. If things had gone differently, we wouldn't have been

• 6:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  able to alert anyone or call for help until the helicopter came and found us at the end of the day. I was definitely a little more cautious after this. Anyway, that summer was a once in a lifetime adventure that I'll never forget. If you have the chance to explore Newfoundland, I highly recommend it. It's a beautiful wild country and the people are incredibly kind. I also have to shout out scent dogs because they are amazing and doing really great work in conservation. They can train to detect plants, animals, and scat so much faster than any other methods. Many of these dogs are rescues, as temperament having a high drive is more important than being a certain breed. Just one more way

• 7:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  that rescue dogs are making the world a better place each day. Enjoy the view, but watch your back, or at least have a very good pup nearby to watch it for you. Oh, and PS, Cassie, it's a travesty that you've never heard of Rin Tin Tin. He is a canine icon who deserves all of our respect and love. Susan Orley's book about him is so good. Wow.

• 7:32Danielle LaRock?

  This is, well, you know, now.

• 7:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  I have heard about him now and I have seen pictures of him now and I know who he is. Even my mom gave me shit for it.

• 7:40Danielle LaRock?

  Really?

• 7:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  She was like, you haven't heard of Rin Tin Tin? I was like, no, mom, you never taught me.

• 7:46Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Like that seems like a failing on your part. And I'm just saying, um, I love scent detection stuff. Chaska did it last summer and the summer before we did like a local organization just had classes. Nothing super crazy or involved, although some of the, the trainers and some of the dogs in the class went on to be like higher level scent work dogs or like competing. I don't think anything like this woman and her dogs, but I actually took it up with him because his arthritis was getting really bad and he

• 8:27Danielle LaRock?

  couldn't do like longer walks or hikes like we used to do. So I wanted to still keep him engaged mentally and he nailed it. He loved it so much.

• 8:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  So cute.

• 8:40Danielle LaRock?

  He's just a natural. Like he's just likes to investigate things. Every time I bring anything new home, like a bag, a box or whatever, or when he's in a new place, he'll immediately just like work the perimeter and stick his head in everything and every nook and cranny. And so he was a natural. He loved it so much. And I tried to get him in again this summer, but they weren't running it. So.

• 9:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh no.

• 9:04Danielle LaRock?

  I know.

• 9:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  I remember when you guys did that and it was so cute that he got to. And when, I didn't even know that was a thing, that people did that for dogs. But I think about it and I feel like Amber would really like something like that. Cause she's very, especially in the winter time. And I'm sure she's doing it in the summertime too, but I just noticed in it in the winter is I'll see her and her nose will be down and she will be like out and like after something. And I will follow like where she's going and there's always tracks where she's like heading. So I feel like that would be something that she might like doing.

• 9:43Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. And I know it is a natural like dog instinct to do that, but like Blue was very like, meh, I'm interested, but like whatever. Whereas Chaska's just on it, super investigate investigative and Gator is more, um, like he'll sniff and stuff, but he's more listening for like scurrying or just physical movements of things, like prey driven.

• 10:13Danielle LaRock?

  So I don't know. Anyway, and that scent detection with our animals. But yeah, he really, really enjoyed it.

• 10:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  So cute that you guys did that.

• 10:23Danielle LaRock?

  I have videos and stuff of him like.

• 10:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  You should add a little video of him and his scent detection.

• 10:29Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. Um, okay. Well, my first story is titled Went Looking For Bears, Found Street Racers. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. My name is Sarah. Feel free to use it. And I'm so excited to be writing in my very own trail tale. I had never really had much interest in national parks, but after randomly stumbling upon your podcast, I've gained such an appreciation for our nation's parks and newfound excitement to visit as many as I can. Thank you for spreading that passion to so many of us.

• 10:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  I love that so much.

• 11:02Danielle LaRock?

  We converted somebody.

• 11:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm honored. Truly, truly, I love that. It wasn't on your radar, but we kind of put it there.

• 11:10Danielle LaRock?

  This past fall, when my husband and I were planning a baby moon road trip all the way from Dallas, Texas to Maine and back, I knew I just had to visit as many parks as we could. We planned to hit Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. And after listening to your podcast, I was so excited to see these places in person and hike a stretch of the AT where it runs through the parks. So I could say I did the AT at five and a half months pregnant. I stocked up on bear spray convinced we would end up on Tooth and Claw as a cautionary tale if we didn't carry it and felt ready to tackle the great outdoors with my baby bump and toe. We went up to Niagara Falls, stopped in Stowe for a picture perfect fall experience, had lobster rolls and a boardwalk shack

• 11:54Danielle LaRock?

  in Maine, walked the Freedom Trail in Boston, saw the Lion King on Broadway in New York City, and then started towards the national parks on our itinerary. We drove through Shenandoah and made our way to Gatlinburg to enter the Great Smoky Mountains. On our way, we listened to one of your episodes set in the Smokies to set the mood. We had to stop to gas up our car just outside of the park, and we noticed that it was pretty crowded and that there were quite a few low riding cars that looked like they had been really heavily customized. Think blackout windows, crazy tire rims, super loud engines, massive speakers, the entire works. We thought this was a little odd, but thought there was probably just some little car meetup nearby. We forgot about it and entered the park.

• 12:39Danielle LaRock?

  I was more excited for this than I could explain after learning so much about our parks. As we drove through, we started to hear more and more loud car engines, like earthquake loud. Then at each lookout point, every single parking spot was taken up by these crazy cars and very non outdoorsy looking people filming TikToks of said cars in front of the mountains. Again, we thought, huh, there must be a car show in town and these people must just be enjoying the nature between events. It's good that they're appreciating our parks. Look at you. You're like a park like advocate now. You're like, I want to see parks. I love parks. I'm glad everybody else is enjoying parks. I didn't know about parks, but now I love parks.

• 13:26Danielle LaRock?

  I love it.

• 13:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  An evolution.

• 13:29Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. But I have to admit, I was a bit bummed that all the loud cars probably meant that I wouldn't get to see as much wildlife as I would have hoped. Despite the noise and the unusual crowds, we moved through the park and made the best of it. We did get to hike a portion of the AT where I saw someone wearing an NPAD shirt and we briefly bonded.

• 13:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  No way. I still have yet to see anyone in the wild in a national park wearing our stuff, but I, I hope.

• 13:58Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, in a park. Yeah. I saw, uh, Jordan in Mesa Verde.

• 14:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's so cool.

• 14:05Danielle LaRock?

  I mean, I know him now. I didn't know him before.

• 14:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  And then I got to meet Jordan. Hi, Jordan, if you're listening.

• 14:11Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, he's listening. Jordan never misses an episode.

• 14:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, hi, Jordan. So nice meeting you.

• 14:17Danielle LaRock?

  Allegedly, this is your test, Jordan. Okay. Okay. And saw the most beautiful sunset ever. This was the most physically demanding day of my entire pregnancy, and I was so proud of what my body could do while growing a human. I also felt such a sense of wonder and magic being in the park that I had only heard of for so long. But as the sunset, it was time for us to leave the park and make our way to our next hotel by going through Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. And no, I was not prepared for the absolute insanity that these towns entail. Danielle, you are not alone in being totally shocked by this. Thank you. I stand supported. As we got onto the main road out of town, we noticed that we

• 15:01Danielle LaRock?

  were suddenly surrounded by the same cars that were all over the park. We thought that maybe the event that brought them into town was just ending, and that was why there was so much traffic leaving town. But slowly, there were fewer and fewer normal looking family cars around us, and the hour long drive stretched to an hour and a half, and then two, and continued to get longer and longer on our map. Needless to say, we were not making much progress down the road as it got later and later. We started Googling to see what in the world was going on and found that this event that we had stumbled upon was a car show called Slammed Enough. Yes, that's right, spelled E N U F F. And

• 15:43Danielle LaRock?

  it had been banned the previous year from Gatlinburg due to street racing, fighting, and other public safety issues. This year, it was back in a neighboring town on the exact weekend that we were in the Smokies. As we realized what we were in the middle of, we couldn't do much but laugh deliriously as our little Honda CRV sat in nearly stand still traffic in a sea of crazy modified cars in the middle of the night. Finally, we came to a tunnel. Yay, progress. But our new friends around us realized quickly that this tunnel had excellent acoustics and started revving their engines like crazy. Then the cars on either side of us got into a honking battle with their train style horns.

• 16:25Danielle LaRock?

  We alternated between laughing and crying as we contemplated how we, a mild mannered Texas couple, ended up in this situation. The time dragged on, but we figured that the traffic couldn't last forever. As we emerged from the tunnel into Pigeon Forge, we realized we were very, very wrong. People lined the streets and lawn chairs, filling up every single parking lot on the sides of the road for as far as the eye could see.

• 16:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  People love parks.

• 16:56Danielle LaRock?

  We were in some kind of unofficial modified car parade in our CRV. At this point, we didn't know if we were imagining all this because we were so tired, but all we could do was push through the traffic and try to get to the other side. Massive speakers blared crazy music, honking battles continued, and engines revved all around us. Eventually, we realized that the road ahead looked like it was blocked off on our map. From far away, we found out that it was not a construction or police closure, but that the main road through Pigeon Forge had been closed by these cars for a massive illegal street race.

• 17:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Illegal, but still closed?

• 17:36Danielle LaRock?

  I mean, it sounds like they just like closed it down themselves.

• 17:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. I've seen that. The only time I've ever seen that was in Daytona. It was another car show. It's an antique car show. It's called like the Turkey Rod Run. And the whole Daytona Strip was all antique, very loud cars that were all souped up.

• 18:00Danielle LaRock?

  There's something about, I know you don't like the sound of bass.

• 18:06Danielle LaRock?

  There's something about the sudden revving of engines like that, or even motorcycles, like revving by, just that really loud disruptive sound. It really bothers me. Yeah.

• 18:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't know what is my problem. I know I have things going on that are weird. I do not like bass. It bothers me to no end. I love car races. I really like the loud motorcycle rallies. I like going to like a NASCAR race. I like the car shows. Don't know why certain sounds really grind my gears, but not this.

• 18:56Danielle LaRock?

  I would hate this so much. After realizing this, we decided we were in way over our heads and called the police department to help us navigate out of town so we could finally get to a hotel and get far away from this crazy event. Like 911.

• 19:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  911, help me. I hate it here.

• 19:18Danielle LaRock?

  It's like, is it emergency? Yeah. Yeah, it is.

• 19:23Danielle LaRock?

  Once we were finally out of town, we started seeing one police car after another racing back towards Pigeon Forge from neighboring towns and counties and figured that some crazy stuff must have been going down. We eventually made it to a hotel and crashed hard. The next morning, we scoured the internet to see what news and social media were saying about the events from last night, only to find that the entire event had been canceled for the next day and would likely be banned from the area for good because of how dangerous it had escalated. Apparently, there had been 1,400 police cars, 38 car crashes, 482 tickets written, and 40 arrests in Pigeon Forge over that weekend.

• 20:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  Damn, Pigeon Forge is wildin'.

• 20:11Danielle LaRock?

  And an additional 52 crashes, 70 tickets, and 35 arrests by the county sheriff. I'm telling you, Pigeon Forge is just, we should, why are we, I'm giving Pigeon Forge a lot of publicity over the last year, but it's a different planet.

• 20:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  I mean, the car accidents, obviously not, but it sounds like a crazy rally that I would love to see.

• 20:37Danielle LaRock?

  We watched videos of the crowd overtaking a gas station, fighting, and eventually being dispersed by the police.

• 20:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, maybe not that.

• 20:45Danielle LaRock?

  We could hardly believe Cassie would have been like in the middle of it. You're watching it. You're like, wait, who was the backup?

• 20:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's me and the mosh pit of people.

• 20:57Danielle LaRock?

  We could hardly believe that we were only a few blocks away from all of this. Although I was still a little sad that I didn't get a normal Smoky Mountains experience, I now like to think that we had one of the most memorable experiences possible. After all, a ton of people get to see black bears in the park. Very few get to accidentally be part of an illegal custom car parade. Now, we laugh a lot about this experience and overall had the most amazing trip ever. It was so fun to enjoy some of the last weeks of our dual-income, no-kids life on the road together before welcoming our spunky baby girl into the world. I will attach the obligatory baby picture along with the picture of me and my baby bump on the observation deck. Thanks so much for the many hours of entertainment

• 21:42Danielle LaRock?

  and education, and as always, enjoy the view, but be sure to check your travel itinerary for crazy car shows.

• 21:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Wild story.

• 21:53Danielle LaRock?

  So you didn't see a bear, is what I'm gathering from.

• 21:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't know. It's shocking that a bear wouldn't be around during this chaos.

• 22:03Danielle LaRock?

  God.

• 22:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  The bears are probably like, what the fuck is going on right now?

• 22:08Danielle LaRock?

  It's like, okay, so usually we raid the town of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg for snacks, but we'll wait.

• 22:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  We'll wait till whatever this is, is done. Well, thank you for writing that in. Glad you enjoyed Pigeon Forge.

• 22:22Danielle LaRock?

  Glad you can laugh about it. Yeah.

• 22:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it is a story. It's quite a story.

• 22:30Danielle LaRock?

  I first learned the importance of omega-3s in college and never forgot how important this group of healthy fats are for your body. From your heart to brain health, they're essential building blocks you need that your body can't make on its own. Even knowing this, I am not always the best about balanced eating, so it's really important to me that I'm taking my Aqua Omega supplement. Aqua Omega was built because most fish oils either cut corners on quality or charge luxury prices, and they believe people shouldn't have to choose. There are so many fish oil products out there, but Aqua Omega is tested for purity, potency, and freshness through one of the world's leading fish oil certification programs, delivers one of the highest concentrations of EPA and DHA per serving, and is Friend of the Sea

• 23:12Danielle LaRock?

  certified. And they have options. They have soft gels, liquid forms with three naturally sweetened flavors, and even a plant-based option. And one of my favorite things about Aqua Omega, every bottle sold removes one pound of plastic and debris from our ocean and coastlines. For your daily dose of omega-3s, go to myaquaomega.com/nationalpark and use code NATIONALPARK for 20% off. That's myaquaomega.com/nationalpark and use code NATIONALPARK for 20% off. In the US, you can also use code NATIONALPARK for 20% off at checkout on amazon.com. Thanks to Aqua Omega for sponsoring this episode. I've been doing a ton of research lately, and most of it has been online, so my eyes

• 23:55Danielle LaRock?

  have been feeling the strain. I've wanted to protect my eyes the best that I could, so I have been living in my Warby Parker Blue Light glasses. They're designed to filter out blue light from digital screens like your laptop or your phone, and I just have the Blue Light glasses only because I don't use a prescription, but if you do, their collection of Blue Light lenses combines advanced filtering technology with precise prescriptions and modern frame styles. I just bought some in the crane style with the eastern bluebird fade color because they remind me so much of Chaska's brown and blue eyes, so you just know they're the cutest. Nothing comes close to Warby Parker's quality, price, and customer service. Their prescription glasses start at $95, so you can actually get quality and stylish frames at an affordable price. And they have everything you need

• 24:39Danielle LaRock?

  for happier eyes, including contacts, online exams, and sunglasses. They have also distributed over 20 million pairs of glasses to people in need with their Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program. Right now, buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pairs at warbyparker.com/NPAD. That's 20% off any additional pairs when you purchase one pair at W A R B Y parker.com/NPAD.

• 25:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  Speaking of stories, my next one is titled, Did My Husband Make Out With a Bear? Ew, let's find out. Hi, Cassie and Danielle. My family and I are on a journey of visiting all the major national parks by the time our youngest graduates high school in 2033. God, that just aged me so bad.

• 25:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's crazy.

• 25:39Danielle LaRock?

  Your kid's gonna graduate in 2020, wait, in 2033?

• 25:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  2033, yeah.

• 25:45Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, that's not that far from now.

• 25:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's not that far from now.

• 25:48Danielle LaRock?

  Why don't you just tell us your kid's age?

• 25:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's very far.

• 25:51Danielle LaRock?

  This is cryptic.

• 25:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's very far from when I graduate high school.

• 25:56Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 25:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  We started this family goal in the summer of 2020, when we did a road trip and visited the Badlands, Wind Cave, Devil's Tower, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. With our trip to Glacier this summer, we have now visited 40. We started listening to your podcast just over a year ago, and we love it. Ever since we started listening, my kids have been lobbying for us to submit a trail tale. We had some contenders. We had considered our story of getting caught out on Rainy Lake during a big storm in Voyagers National Park. Have you done a houseboat trip there? It's amazing. If you do, try to anchor at Blueberry Island for a night. It was crazy, but thankfully, we and our boat survived.

• 26:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  As we were trying to get back to our campsite, we passed a bay and a small boat. We learned over the radio system that the boat we saw sank and the people on board, though safe, had to be rescued by the Coast Guard. Or the time my 12-year-old son rolled down a dune at White Sands, straight into bayonet cactus lodging spines into his arm. Then, there's the story of how my five-year-old daughter brought the Devil's Tower parking lot to a stance to go screaming bloody murder after she somehow sprayed hand sanitizer directly into her eyes. Have you been to Devil's Tower?

• 27:16Danielle LaRock?

  No.

• 27:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  The parking lot there is really small. It's one road that kind of loops at the end and turns back down, and it's very small. The parking lot's very small. It, but there's not a lot of space there, so I can just envision this. If there was a child screaming anywhere in this vicinity, everyone would hear it and know what's going on. This was in the early months of COVID, and before I could even get to her, a stranger flipped her over his leg and flushed her eyes out from his camel back. I have to assume he was a first responder of some sort because of his quick response. My husband, who should have been the one there to help her, was unable to leave the restroom himself as he was dealing

• 28:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  with the very unpleasant effect of forgetting he had chopped peppers for our lunch before going to the bathroom. This left me with three young kids, one of whom I was now worried would get COVID and give it to all of us. She didn't, but as a physician myself, I was very concerned, and a very distressed husband. Even though that was a wild experience, it just didn't quite seem trail-worthy. Now, we've got one. This summer, we took a family trip to Glacier National Park to celebrate my parents' 50th anniversary. They had honeymooned at Many Glacier Hotel back in 1976. It was an amazing trip for so many reasons. Our

• 28:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  trail tale comes from our hike to Iceberg Lake on July 10. This hike has been on my list of dream hikes for a long time, and I was so worried we wouldn't get the chance as the trail had been closed since the flooding at the end of June. Thankfully, the trail opened up on one of our last full days in the park. We headed out bright and early and caught a large bull moose munching at Fisher Cap Lake before hitting the trail. When we made it to Tarmakin Falls, we decided to take a snack break. We crossed the bridge and dropped our backpacks. A couple passed behind us, then quickly turned back and said, "There's a bear." There was a bend in the trail, and we were thinking it was further

• 29:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  down, but no, it was right around the bend and walked out maybe 10 feet from us. We stood up, backed away, and pulled the safety off of our bear spray. Thankfully, the bear was just curious, but I'm so thankful the couple passed us by because we would have been sitting there with our backpacks open and food out when the bear came around the bend in that trail. We left our hiking poles and water bottles on the ground by the log we had been sitting on, and the curious bear decided to give my water bottle some attention. The bear put the bottle between its paws and bit slash licked all over the lid. It batted at the bottle and it slow-rolled towards the waterfall where it thankfully stopped before falling into the water. It's my National Park water bottle. I put the stickers on,

• 30:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  so I would have been so bummed to lose it. Once the bear finally left, I retrieved my water bottle and the top was completely covered in bear slobber. I handed it to my husband and asked him to clip it to the backpack. He didn't immediately do that and was holding it while we retrieved everything to get back to our hike. Apparently, he forgot why he was holding it and took a big drink. We all watched in horror, but it happened so fast. He made quite the face. Apparently, bear slobber tastes and smells terrible. He said the worst part was feeling something thick on his lips, licking it off, but only realizing after he swallowed what it was.

• 30:48Danielle LaRock?

  Licking it off? Why would you do that?

• 30:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  [laughing]

• 30:54Danielle LaRock?

  Wouldn't you like swipe it away with your hand? Like, what is that? He's like, hmm, what is that?

• 31:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  If I have something foreign on my mouth, my first response is not to lick it.

• 31:07Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, same. I also don't know if I would have forgotten why I was holding the water bottle that I just saw a bear deep-throating one minute before. Did you know what I mean? Like, not trying to-

• 31:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  A lot's going on. A lot's going on. They're distracted. But licking the bear slobber off your mouth is, is a choice.

• 31:31Danielle LaRock?

  You know, some things, yeah, that's gross.

• 31:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  On our hike down, a ranger passed us and my husband asked, "So hypothetically, if someone were to ingest bear saliva, would that be a problem?" The ranger replied with, "Well, that is a curious question. Can you tell me more?" Thankfully, he did not get sick. We have a fun family story to tell, and I have bear tooth and claw marks forever on my water bottle. We still, to this day, don't know what type of bear it was, as we got varying answers from rangers. But we sent Wes over at Tooth and Claw a picture to see what he thinks. I've attached a few pictures we captured from our experience. Thanks for

• 32:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  everything. We love the podcast. Enjoy the view, but keep track of your water bottle. You never know who might want to share. The Camrith family.

• 32:25Danielle LaRock?

  Well, I'm gonna look really quick on our email and see if she attached.

• 32:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  I wanna see too.

• 32:32Danielle LaRock?

  It looks like a juvenile, whatever it is.

• 32:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  It is a juvenile.

• 32:35Danielle LaRock?

  And it looks like a grizzly. No? Well, huh, Wes?

• 32:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  I see why it's confusing.

• 32:45Danielle LaRock?

  I think that ears are too big to be a black bear, I think. Does that make sense? I mean, obviously, the color doesn't mean anything, and you can't really, the way its head is positioned, there's, you can't see like that distinct dish shape for a grizzly, and it's, looks like a juvenile, so there's not a pronounced hump either. But I don't know.

• 33:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  I think it's a black bear.

• 33:09Danielle LaRock?

  You think? Okay.

• 33:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, from its nose.

• 33:14Danielle LaRock?

  Hmm.

• 33:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  And its ears are really round.

• 33:18Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 33:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  They're really big and they're really round. And its nose looks blackberry to me, like it's longer. I think it's, I think it's a black bear, but it could be either.

• 33:30Danielle LaRock?

  Yes, it is either, a black bear or a grizzly bear. And we can tell you that for sure.

• 33:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's definitely not a polar bear, and we know that with 100% certainty. It's also not a sun bear.

• 33:45Danielle LaRock?

  Or an Asiatic black bear, or a sloth bear, or a panda bear. We're just gonna list all the other seven spe- or six species of bear, other than grizzly and black bear. I don't know. Yeah, that's a great, you know what I'm gonna do? We'll get some answers in real time. I'm gonna text this to Wes right now.

• 34:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 34:03Danielle LaRock?

  And ask his opinion. And we'll come back at you with an answer. So please hold.

• 34:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  In just a few moments, unless he doesn't answer us.

• 34:13Danielle LaRock?

  No, he loves IDing bears. You kidding me? He lives for this shit. Can I get an ID? Okay, see what he says. But it's funny, because I also, mid-story, when you were saying that, because they said, what, July 10th, I was hiking the iceberg-

• 34:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Were you there at this time?

• 34:31Danielle LaRock?

  Speaking of Wes, yeah, I was with them in Glacier in July, and we hiked that trail. So-

• 34:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  On July 10th?

• 34:39Danielle LaRock?

  Well, I looked, and, uh, July 19th is the day we were there.

• 34:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Just missed him.

• 34:46Danielle LaRock?

  Just missed him.

• 34:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  But you guys saw a bear too, right? You guys saw a grizzly on that trail?

• 34:51Danielle LaRock?

  Uh-

• 34:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Was it that trail?

• 34:52Danielle LaRock?

  We're not sure. It was that trail. It was at Iceberg Lake, and Wes and Jeff's brother had went ahead, I don't know, looking for something. I don't know what he was doing. But he was by himself, and he said he basically ran right into one, had no time to even pull out his bear spray, and it basically just like took off. He's like, I don't know what the fuck that bear was. I don't know. It was so fast. We were so close. I was so scared. But it ran pretty quickly. And I do know, I mean, Wes tried to find it for a little bit. He's like, what way did it go? Let's go find it. I'm like, what are you saying?

• 35:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's like, no one does that.

• 35:30Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Well, we'll see if he gets back to us in the next, I don't know, half hour or whatever we're gonna be here for. Um, okay. Well, my next story is titled Wisdom from Mama Grizzly. "Hey there, Cassie and Danielle. This trail tale may have only happened a month ago, but my writing to you has been a long time coming. I've always felt a particular kinship with you both, as someone raised between seacoast Maine and the White Mountains, who spent the past 10 years living in Vermont."

• 36:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  Very cool.

• 36:02Danielle LaRock?

  "I had hoped to catch you at the BAMP Film Festival last winter, but my gran, the woman who first taught me to love hiking in nature, had just passed away. Interestingly enough, this is also a story about mothers, but of a much more terrifying variety. I have spent the past several months traveling cross-country with my husband, living in a van and exploring new places. We've been to seven national parks so far, including several in Canada. I gotta say that the Tetons will always have a special place in my heart, thanks to an incredible adventure on the Teton Crest Trail last summer. While this story promises, I'll never go back to Yellowstone again. At the end of our time in Yellowstone,

• 36:44Danielle LaRock?

  we had a one-night backpacking trip planned out to Shoshone Lake. We spent the previous week getting up at the crack of dawn to try and beat the crowds of tourists, and we were excited to get off the beaten path. We picked up our permit at Mammoth the afternoon before. We recognized that there had been a lot of bear activity in the news this spring between a mauling in Yellowstone and two separate attacks in Glacier. The ranger suggested we stop by the ranger station near Yellowstone Lake, since he didn't have up-to-date info specific to the area we would be hiking in. By the time we hit the trail, we had talked to no less than three different rangers about our plan and asked specifically about bear activity in the area. The response from one of the rangers was, 'Well, they're out there,'

• 37:29Danielle LaRock?

  but they all seemed generally unconcerned. Now, we have both backpacked and grizzly country before, but I would consider myself somewhat paranoid. I've run through the motions of using bear spray a million times, make tons of noise while hiking, and always keep a clean camp. I've even gone down rabbit holes researching bear behavior so that I would feel more prepared if an encounter ever did happen. Only two miles into the trail, we stopped for a snack at the Lone Star Geyser and waited for it to erupt. There were several other groups of hikers around, and we watched excitedly as it bubbled and spat before erupting in a 20-foot column for several minutes. Great timing on our part so far. My husband

• 38:10Danielle LaRock?

  and I continued on past the geyser, keeping our heads on a swivel and talking loudly. Tips to get a guide to talk out loud in the woods? Ask him to recite the plot of Pulp Fiction from memory, or tell you everything he knows about aliens." I like the second approach. "After another two miles of hiking through lovely pine forests and boardwalks over geothermal activity areas, we turned a corner into a clearing. And that's when I saw her. Scruffy brown fur, powerfully lithe body, and whoelp, definitely a hump. She was running diagonally across the trail in front of us, heading towards the other side of the clearing. A split second later, I saw the tiny, dark cub right at

• 38:54Danielle LaRock?

  her heels. I felt my heart drop out of my body and my chest contract. Pardon my French, but the only thing I could manage to say was, fuck. She was probably about 40 feet in front of us and running in the other direction, but as soon as she looked over her shoulder and saw us, she changed course without missing a beat. The only thing I could think was, I'm dead. I have never seen anything so swift and graceful. She was honestly beautiful, but I didn't have time to think about that. She was charging directly at us, tiny cub still at her heels." They say not to run. Well, you're gonna wanna run.

• 39:36Danielle LaRock?

  My husband was a bit in front of me on the trail and we both backed up to the edge of the clearing when we first saw her. My brain was crashing out, but I managed to think, bear spray. Before I could give it any more conscious thought, we had acted in unison, both pulling out our spray out of the holsters on our backpack straps and removing the safety. At this point, she was probably fifteen to twenty feet from my husband. He let out a burst of spray in her direction. The air between us was suddenly thick and yellow. I wasn't in a great position to use my spray as my husband was now between myself and the bear. She stopped short, likely a bluff charge. As she circled to charge again, I sprayed a short burst as well.

• 40:21Danielle LaRock?

  I do not think the second charge was a bluff charge. She was within ten feet of my husband and I fully believed I was about to watch him be mauled. He let out another longer burst of spray that must have gotten her good in the face. She turned tail and began running into the woods to our left. At that point, we finally let the instinct to run win. We sprinted back down the trail the same way we had come. I continually looked over my shoulder, expecting to see her crashing through the underbrush behind us. After over a quarter mile of running with a full backpacking bag, hiking poles dragging at my wrists and a finger still on the trigger of my bear spray, I was ready to give up. My husband kept encouraging and urging me onward and after another quarter of mile or so,

• 41:06Danielle LaRock?

  we stopped to take a sip of water and continued speedwalking, reassuring each other that we were okay and yelling out the most terrified and pathetic, "Hey bears, you have ever heard." I couldn't shake the thought that we were about to run into another grizzly or that she followed us. It was the longest two miles of my life. Every tree and minor landmark I'd noticed on the way out had become a beacon of sheer hope and renewed determination. I knew that we only had to make it back to the Lone Star Geyser Basin. There, we would likely find other people waiting to see the geyser erupt. My heart pounded in my ears and my whole body was shaking like a leaf, but we kept going.

• 41:47Danielle LaRock?

  Finally, we crossed a bridge in the trail junction to the geyser, only point three miles left to safety. When the geyser basin finally came into view, we were both shouting out to everyone around us. We pulled up to a group of people sitting and casually enjoying their lunch and probably looked truly insane, now laughing and heaving with relief that we were alive and unharmed. When I managed to catch my breath enough to shakily explain what had just happened, a French tourist excitedly exclaimed, "Oh wow, did you get a picture? Can I get a video of you?" I was dumbfounded. After fully accepting that I was going to watch my husband die and follow soon thereafter, all it meant to this man was the cherry on top of his Yellowstone vacation story.

• 42:33Danielle LaRock?

  As the adrenaline began to wear off, my husband realized that he'd gotten some bear spray blowback in his eyes and some kind folks offered us baby wipes to try and help clean up. We kindly let them know that we would be hiking the rest of the way out with them. No way was I continuing on in a group of less than ten. So thank God for this extended family of kids on bikes, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. We claimed them as our new family for the two miles back to the trailhead. I found it surprisingly cathartic to explain the experience to an curious eight-year-old boy who was asking questions like, "Was it big?" and "Were you scared?" Along the way back, we ran into a ranger and relayed the experience to him.

• 43:15Danielle LaRock?

  He seemed quite surprised and congratulated us for doing exactly the right thing and for getting closer to a grizzly than ninety-nine percent of people ever will. My husband kindly let him know that he'd lost the safety to his bear spray and felt guilty about leaving trash in the backcountry. Find yourself a man who will save both of your lives in a near-death experience and then apologize for littering in the process.

• 43:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  Truly, green flags all around.

• 43:43Danielle LaRock?

  And we've always said that.

• 43:47Danielle LaRock?

  After re-entering the swarms of flip-flop, wearing Gucci bag toting tourists at Old Faithful in order to properly dispose of our used bear spray cans, we were ready to leave Yellowstone ASAP. While sitting in the parking lot, dead-eyed and emotionally strung out, a girl walking by saw the bear spray education booth and loudly exclaimed, "Bears, do they have those here?" That was the final straw.

• 44:14Danielle LaRock?

  No more tourons or grizzlies for us. We splurged and got a hotel in Livingston where we ate cheap burgers, took incredibly long showers, and didn't get out of bed until noon the next day. We had plans to meet friends in Banff the following month, so we couldn't leave grizzly country just yet. It took us weeks to feel comfortable in the woods again, which is unfortunate when you are essentially camping full-time. We enjoyed some relaxing time in southwest Montana where there are supposedly fewer grizzlies and stuck to the most populated trails and glacier. I discovered that ranger-led events are awesome and went on as many guided ranger hikes as I could. Strengthen numbers, you know? Now we are in Washington, so I guess I only need to worry about mountain lions these days.

• 44:59Danielle LaRock?

  But in all seriousness, it's like new fear unlocked. You're just moving your fear to a new animal.

• 45:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, also just for now, because grizzlies are being reintroduced.

• 45:10Danielle LaRock?

  And black bears attack and eat people too, so.

• 45:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, arguably, black bears are scarier to get eaten by, so.

• 45:16Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, yeah. So look that up.

• 45:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  Just keep that in mind.

• 45:23Danielle LaRock?

  In all seriousness, this was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. It not only showed me my own untapped bravery, but it left me with a profound respect for the resilience of Mama Grizzly. That night, while I sat in my hotel room drinking a milkshake, I couldn't help but think of her and hope that she was doing okay. I had the luxury of safety and comfort. She didn't. I imagine she was hurting from the pepper spray and was probably just as shaken up as we were. She didn't have the support of a loving partner to urge her onward or the knowledge that security was as simple as getting back to the car. Her baby risked going hungry and there are predators far scarier than myself. Less than fifty percent of grizzly cubs make it to adulthood.

• 46:07Danielle LaRock?

  A leading cause of death, other male grizzlies looking to repopulate with their own offspring. What I saw in Mama Grizzly wasn't aggression or anger. It was a sheer need to do whatever it takes to keep her baby safe. She showed me what it looks like to stand in the face of annihilation and charge forward, to know that your fight is bigger than yourself because it is a fight for the future. I think we can all learn a thing or two from that Mama Grizzly. This has been long enough, but I can't sign off without a quick bear safety lesson. Be loud, like really loud. Their hearing is similar to ours, so bear bells or casual conversation doesn't cut it. Clap your hands, sing loudly, yell out something silly every so often.

• 46:51Danielle LaRock?

  And hike in groups. That's my one regret here. I seriously wish we had a third or a fourth person with us. If so, this close encounter may not have happened at all. Carry bear spray and be ready to use it. I see so many people with it stuffed in their backpacks in hard-to-access places. If ours had not been attached to our backpack straps at our chest, we would not have had enough time to get it out. Don't remove the safety or deploy it unless you are being charged and don't deploy the whole can at once in case they charge again. Thanks for being my parasocial travel buddies. I've been listening to episodes related to wherever we currently are and am so full of relevant fun facts thanks to you both.

• 47:32Danielle LaRock?

  However, the historic Yellowstone mauling episode came out right after our encounter and it took me a bit to work myself up to listen to that one in particular. Enjoy the view, but always respect Mama Griz. Cheers, Addie.

• 47:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Wow, I love that story because you're okay. And like the ranger said, everything you've detailed in your story is, you did everything right and Yellowstone, of course, is this place where I think sometimes people get tripped up because when you are in Yellowstone in the popular places, it is absolutely mobbed. But I got to spend a lot of time there this summer. And as soon as you step onto a trail, you are completely alone. If you are not on a very popular trail, and even the very popular trails, you'll find yourself alone. But truly, like I did some just random trails that I didn't see a single other person on.

• 48:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  And it is definitely can be overwhelming. And you can think of everything that could happen there, but in your situation, you did everything right, you came out of it okay, the bear came out of it okay, you know?

• 48:49Danielle LaRock?

  It was a base, it was a best-case scenario for everyone involved.

• 48:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  Truly.

• 48:54Danielle LaRock?

  But yeah, like you said, who was it? I think it was, I think I was with you when we were speaking to, maybe it was a ranger? But they were talking about Yellowstone specifically and, and they said, maybe it was Kevin, honestly, I don't know. But they said ninety-nine percent of people see one percent of Yellowstone. And it's just so true, you know?

• 49:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  So I did, I remember I did Hell Roaring Trail and it was really, really beautiful. And it was, it wasn't too far from Lamar Valley and it was absolutely incredible. We saw like four people the whole time. We were on that trail, two of them were on horseback, very far in the distance, you know? So it was, and we did six miles that day and there was just, as soon as we got on the trail, there was no one around. And there were cars in the parking lot, but it is just such a wide-open expansive huge park that even if there's cars in the parking lot, that's not indicative that you're gonna see anyone

• 50:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  once you get out onto these trails. So, which I think is very, because after that, I remember I went into one of the visitor center areas and it was absolutely mobbed and it was a ten-minute drive from there, you know? So it's like you go from huge crowds of people, you can't find parking and there's people everywhere to being completely alone. And you don't know what you're gonna see and what you're gonna run into while you're out there.

• 50:32Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, different worlds.

• 50:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  Very much so.

• 50:38Danielle LaRock?

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• 51:21Danielle LaRock?

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• 51:55Cassandra Yahnian?

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• 52:39Cassandra Yahnian?

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• 53:25Danielle LaRock?

  Well, before we move on, Wes got back to us.

• 53:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  What'd he say?

• 53:29Danielle LaRock?

  And it is indeed a black bear.

• 53:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  I knew it! Yes! Wow. Wow, I'm good.

• 53:37Danielle LaRock?

  You are fucking good.

• 53:42Danielle LaRock?

  Our resident bear biologist is Cassie.

• 53:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  Here I am.

• 53:47Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, just wanted to wrap that up before we move on.

• 53:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Don't use me. Ask Wes. Ask Wes. He'll know way more than me. But I am proud that I got that right.

• 54:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay, my next story is titled, "A Moose, a Wolverine, and a Subway Sandwich." Hello. Just like everyone else, I absolutely love you guys and NPAD. You keep me company every day at work. I get a good laugh every now and then, thinking how I work at an art museum as a designer, and I am just casually listening to the wildest stories in my headphones, and no one would ever know. Anyway, here's my story. A few summers ago, my family took a trip up north to Alaska. Now, if you've never been, let me tell you. Alaska is gorgeous. But it's also the kind of place where a short hike can turn into an episode of Man vs. Wild real fast. So, one of our stops was Denali National Park.

• 54:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  After being trapped in the car all day, we decided, "Hey, let's stretch our legs with a nice little afternoon hike. Easy, relaxing, totally safe." We stopped at the visitor center, got some trail recommendations, and picked the Horseshoe Lake Trail. Scenic, short, family-friendly, it was perfect. Now, of course, Denali is grizzly bear country. And if that wasn't stressful enough, a local added, "Oh, and keep an eye out for wolverines." Wolverines? I didn't even know those were real animals, outside of X-Men. But hey, both my parents were former park rangers. I thought if anyone can keep me alive in the wilderness, it's gotta be them.

• 55:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  We'd been hiking maybe 15 minutes when we turned a corner and froze. Up ahead was this huge brown shape standing in the water. My heart dropped. I whispered, "It's a grizzly." The longest one second of my life went by, and then, "Nope, not a bear, just a moose." Also scary, by the way. We laughed, shook it off, and kept walking. But oh no, the real fun was still ahead. The trail narrowed, rock wall on one side, the lake on the other. So, we went single file. My dad and my brother were in the front, and my mom and I were behind.

• 56:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  Suddenly, my brother points at the rock wall and shouts, "What is that?" Charging straight at us was a large, dark figure. And in unison, we all went, "Wolverine!"

• 56:29Danielle LaRock?

  Aren't wolverines extremely rare to see?

• 56:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  Very, yes.

• 56:33Danielle LaRock?

  Let alone be charged at by?

• 56:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  We'll see what happens. Now, fight or flight is real, and at that moment, I did not fight. I did not protect. I shoved my mom out of the way, sorry, Mom, and I ran. I was gone, the complete opposite of what you are supposed to do. Meanwhile, my dad tried to get my brother to safety, but in the chaos, his walking stick went flying into the lake, and now he was knee-deep in water. And that wolverine? Yeah, not a wolverine, not even close. It was a beaver. A poor little beaver who lost its footing and slid downhill right into us.

• 57:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  But at that moment, oh, I thought it was game over for all of us. So picture it, two former park rangers and their kids, screaming, splashing, running for our lives from a beaver. And yes, my family still reminds me I ditched my mom immediately, with no hesitation, just an everyman for themselves attitude. We eventually survived our hike with our dignity in ruins and stopped at a Subway for sandwiches, because nothing says Alaskan wilderness adventure like a six-inch turkey and cheese on Italian bread. But here's the kicker. That moose that we saw at the beginning? Turns out that she had lost her calf and had been aggressively defending the area.

• 58:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  She'd actually attacked other hikers that same week. So the real danger in Denali was not the bears or the wolverines, but the moose. And somehow, we lived to tell the tale. Amy?

• 58:17Danielle LaRock?

  Well, in all fairness, I know that the beaver was like not actively charging at you, but if it was, that reaction, I think, is warranted.

• 58:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, you can run from a beaver. Beavers are actually really fast on land, too.

• 58:34Danielle LaRock?

  Their teeth are insane, and if they got a hold of you, they'd mess you up.

• 58:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, imagine your leg just being...

• 58:41Danielle LaRock?

  Like a chunk. I imagine my calf, like a chunk getting taken out of my calf.

• 58:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  I imagine it like a stump. You know, when you see a newly cut tree from a beaver?

• 58:52Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 58:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  I imagine that as your leg.

• 58:55Danielle LaRock?

  You imagine being still for long enough for them to gnaw

• 58:59Danielle LaRock?

  in the circumference of your leg?

• 59:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes, exactly.

• 59:04Danielle LaRock?

  It's got me, and you're just like holding still while it eats around your leg.

• 59:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's so cute, I can't move.

• 59:14Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, my next story, last story, second to last story, where am I? Is titled Barry Scary. Hello, I'm an OG listener and your podcast is one of my absolute favorites to listen to. I have been on the fence about submitting this because it's a bit long, but here we go. My story takes place in the Boundary Waters canoe area wilderness in northern Minnesota. And just a quick bit of backstory before the real story. My friend and I were best friends in elementary school until she moved away just before middle school. Her family was very outdoorsy and I remember her coming back from trips to state parks, national parks, and the Boundary Waters with stories that I thought were incredibly cool.

• 59:59Danielle LaRock?

  By pure chance, we ended up in the same door building in college and immediately became inseparable again. We worked at the same summer camp, lived together in a tent during the summers, lived together at school during the winters, and our friends eventually started combining our names because apparently referring to us as two separate people was unnecessary. She's also the reason I met my husband and was the maid of honor at our wedding. As adults, though, life happened. My husband and I moved to Utah, she stayed in the Midwest and started a family, and weekly phone calls slowly became birthday texts and holiday cards. Meanwhile, I had fallen in love with the Boundary Waters myself. My first trip was in September of 2011.

• 1:00:42Danielle LaRock?

  See apocalyptic photo attached of the Pagamai Creek Fire, a story for another time. And my husband and I now try to get back at least once a year. So in early 2024, when my friend reached out and asked if I wanted to meet her there for our girls' trip, I was all in. We hadn't seen each other in years. We met on the Gunflint Trail in late May and put in our canoe on Clearwater Lake for a four-day, three-night trip. Conversation came easily. We caught up on our lives, reminisced about college and camp, and filled in all the gaps from the years we hadn't seen each other. That first night, we found a campsite on Pine Lake, made dinner and had a small fire,

• 1:01:26Danielle LaRock?

  and then remembered the bear barrel. My friend casually mentioned that her family usually just straps theirs to a tree. I was stunned, as this woman had always taken outdoor policies very seriously, and I was not okay with this plan. After some discussion and perhaps a little tension, we finally got the barrel hung in a way that met my personal standards of bear-related security. Then we crawled into my tiny, two-person backpacking tent. Now, I am afraid of the dark and have a very vivid imagination. So my wilderness sleep routine is simple. Eat a CBD gummy, put in earplugs, and remain blissfully unaware if anything is preparing to murder me in the woods.

• 1:02:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  Ah, girl after my own heart.

• 1:02:12Danielle LaRock?

  Sounds familiar.

• 1:02:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm the same, one and the same.

• 1:02:17Danielle LaRock?

  That night, just as I was falling asleep, my friend sat up feeling claustrophobic. Honestly, fair. It was a very small tent. She opened the tent fly, got some air, and eventually went back to sleep. The next day was great. We took a detour to hike a waterfall, paddled and portaged, and eventually found an amazing island campsite on West Pike Lake. It looks like we had the entire lake to ourselves. We set up camp and, in an effort to avoid bear hang conflict, night two, hung the food barrel early. We ate dinner, went for a freezing swim, read by campfire, and eventually climbed into the tent. I took my CBD gummy but didn't put in my earplugs because we had just been talking. At some point, I fell asleep.

• 1:03:00Danielle LaRock?

  Later, I vaguely remember hearing what sounded like my friend getting up and walking outside of the tent. I figured she was just being claustrophobic again, but then I felt someone tap me. I opened my eyes and I realized my friend was in the tent. She whispered, "Hey, there's something out there." Half asleep, I said, "Weren't you just out there?" "No." The sound woke me up. "I think it might be a bear." That woke me up fast. "On the island?" "Yeah." I heard a splash, then something came on shore and walked past our tent. "I think it swam over from the mainland." My heart was pounding, but outwardly, I remained mostly calm.

• 1:03:42Danielle LaRock?

  Internally, I was absolutely losing it. "Okay, what do you want me to do?" "I don't know." "Is your pepper spray in the tent?" "No." "Well, where is it?" "In my pack, under the canoe, down by the lake." "Excellent." We decided to sit quietly and listen, but nothing. A few minutes passed, and still nothing. So naturally, we decided to count to three and charge out of the tent screaming. Three, two, one. We came barreling outside yelling at the top of our lungs because, at the time, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable wildlife management strategy. Nothing.

• 1:04:24Danielle LaRock?

  We walked around the campsite back-to-back like characters in a low-budget horror movie. We checked the fire and cooking area, and we checked the bear hang, but both were completely undisturbed. Then we went down to the canoe, retrieved the pepper spray, and went back into the tent. Feeling slightly better about the situation, we decided to try sleeping again, but I agreed to leave out my earplugs. Just as we clicked off the light, we heard it. Footsteps. Slow, heavy, twig-snapping, brush-moving footsteps. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. "Yeah," I whispered. "Shit, I think that is a bear." My friend responded with, "What do we do?"

• 1:05:07Danielle LaRock?

  Me, mostly to calm myself down, said, "Our food is secure, we didn't leave anything out, there's not really anything we can do." "Should we get out again? I have the pepper spray." Until this moment, I'd always thought camping on an island was a safer choice because of the bears. But sitting there, listening to something large walking around outside, I suddenly saw the flaw in this logic. We were now trapped on an island with a bear. For reasons I still cannot explain, we decided to get out of the tent again. In hindsight, remaining inside may have been wiser, but at midnight, fueled by adrenaline and questionable decision-making, we decided we needed to scare this bear away.

• 1:05:51Danielle LaRock?

  So once again, we charged outside screaming. This time, we added rock-throwing. We frantically swept our headlamps through the trees, but wilderness like that just swallows up your light, making your six-foot light bubble feel even smaller. And then I heard it. Faster footsteps. Something was bounding towards us through the woods. My friend screamed and jumped behind a small boulder. And I, I froze. And then, apparently, offended that my longtime friend had just abandoned me to be mauled by a bear, I yelled, "Get your fucking shit together and don't leave me here alone." And then I saw it.

• 1:06:31Danielle LaRock?

  Glowing eyes, dark brownish-black fur, coming towards us, and it was about the size of a cat? It turned. Long tail, shiny coat, loaded the ground, and then it disappeared back into the woods. I stared after it in silence and then started laughing. "Hey, it's a fucking fisher cat." My friend stared at me, saying, "Fuck, I almost sprayed you with pepper spray. Are you sure?" Yes, it was not a bear. Now that we knew we weren't about to die, we walked down towards the water to see if we could spot it again. Nothing to the left, I looked to the right, and there sat a giant beaver watching us from a rock.

• 1:07:15Danielle LaRock?

  "Hey, buddy," I whispered. "Sorry about all this noise." We went back to the tent, mostly laughing and pieced together our theory. The footsteps had probably been the fisher wandering around the island hunting. The big splash was likely the beaver slapping its tail when the fisher got too close, and what my friend thought was an animal swimming over from the mainland was probably just the waves from that tail slap. There had never been a bear. At that point, I put my earplugs in and had officially decided I did not need to hear any additional information from the wilderness that night, and I slept great. The next morning, it was cold and rainy. On our first portage, we found wolf tracks, which only added to our psychological enrichment.

• 1:07:59Danielle LaRock?

  We briefly considered leaving a day early and getting a room at Clearwater Lodge, but ultimately decided we needed to stick it out. Our final campsite had a beautiful view down the lake to watch the rain clouds clear. We were both still jumpy enough that we enforced the buddy system for our trips to the latrine, but otherwise, the night was uneventful. The next morning was gorgeous. Glassy water, fog lifting all along the cliffs, and everything was peaceful again. As we paddled back towards the landing, we replayed our bear encounter and laughed at how ridiculous the whole thing had been. When we arrived, four men with an absolutely unreasonable amount of gear were prepping to head out. They made the usual friendly Midwestern small talk, then one of them asked, "See much

• 1:08:44Danielle LaRock?

  wildlife out there?" My friend and I looked at each other, smiled, and said, "Oh, yeah, lots of wildlife." Thank you for reading, Gigi.

• 1:08:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  What an adventure.

• 1:08:55Danielle LaRock?

  And as a first trip back together in years.

• 1:09:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:01Danielle LaRock?

  That's one way to rekindle your friendship and just get things back on track, you know?

• 1:09:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  And have just like such a fun adventure story after.

• 1:09:10Danielle LaRock?

  Yep. Loved it.

• 1:09:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  And seeing a fisher cat is cool.

• 1:09:14Danielle LaRock?

  I was gonna say, I've heard, so growing up at my parents' house in New Hampshire, it borders a huge conservation area and coyotes and stuff were pretty normal, hearing them, especially when you have the windows open in the summer and stuff. And I vividly remember the very first time hearing a fisher cat and being like, what is that? I'm never going into the woods again.

• 1:09:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  Cause they sound like women screaming. Yeah, I remember the same, we used to hear them from my mom's house. I haven't actually heard them in a long time now, but at my mom's house, I used to hear them all the time in the summertime. And it's creepy because fisher cats sound like a woman screaming.

• 1:09:58Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. And I know we've talked about red fox calls that also have a pretty

• 1:10:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  But it's different.

• 1:10:05Danielle LaRock?

  scary type of thing, especially if you don't know like what it is you're hearing and you're trying to identify what that call is coming from, what creature that is. But yeah, fisher cat calls are creepy. But yeah, I'd never seen one in person.

• 1:10:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  Me either.

• 1:10:20Danielle LaRock?

  My whole life. So that's kind of a cool, I know it wasn't a bear, but it's a cool encounter either way.

• 1:10:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I feel like they're a lot more elusive than bears. So to see a fisher cat is super cool.

• 1:10:32Danielle LaRock?

  Wow, is that it?

• 1:10:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's it for our regular episodes. But we do have two more trail tales for our subscribers. So if you want to join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions, you can hear our next stories over there. And mine is titled, Don't Kill the Magic.

• 1:10:51Danielle LaRock?

  And mine is titled, My Angel on the Trail.

• 1:10:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, thank you, everyone who wrote in to us. We appreciate it. If you have a trail tale that you want to hear us read on the podcast, you can find the submission link for that on npadpodcast.com. And Danielle goes through them regularly. So make sure you make the subject line really interesting and we would love to hear it.

• 1:11:18Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. And we'll see you next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view.

• 1:11:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  But watch your back.

• 1:11:23Danielle LaRock?

  Bye.

• 1:11:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  Bye.

• 1:11:28Danielle LaRock?

  Thanks for joining us for another episode. We hope you learned something new and have another location to put on your list. If you want more NPAD 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 platform.

• 1:12:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  I told you my brain is really stupid today. So please bear with me. You can take that.

• 1:12:12Danielle LaRock?

  He's like, no, I get it.

• 1:12:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  In case that wasn't clear.

• 1:12:18Danielle LaRock?

  I don't know. Sometimes he fucking tricks us. You put things at the end.

• 1:12:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  We see, we see the ending.

• 1:12:25Danielle LaRock?

  I'm looking right at him.

• 1:12:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Cause everyone, yeah, look him in the eye.

• 1:12:32Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. He's like, oh yeah, no, I'll take it out. I'll just make a social clip of it.

• 1:12:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  And put it at the end.

• 1:12:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  And people think it's so funny.

• 1:12:41Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, good. Anywho.

• 1:12:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Anywho.

• 1:12:44Danielle LaRock?

  No, but take it out.

• 1:12:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  Take it out.

• 1:12:49Danielle LaRock?

  Or else.

• 1:12:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Or else, yeah. Okay.

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