Cheers to Five NPAD Years

Take a stroll down memory lane as we reflect on the last five years of NPAD. Come laugh with us (and at us) while we look back on some of the memorable moments that brought us to where we are today. For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at: Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Thank you to the week’s partners! Naked Wines: To get 6 bottles of wine for $39.99, head to NakedWines.com/NPAD and use code NPAD for both the code AND PASSWORD. Coyuchi: Get 15% off your first order when you visit Coyuchi.com/npad.3 Day Blinds: For their buy 1 get 1 50% off deal, head to 3DayBlinds.com/NPAD. MILL: Try Mill risk-free for 90 days and get $75 off at mill.com/NPAD and use code NPAD at checkout. 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.

• 0:00Danielle LaRock?

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• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 0:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Welcome back to National Park After Dark, everybody. Today is a very exciting episode because it is our five-year anniversary of National Park After Dark. And today, we have a special episode because we are going to take a walk down memory lane.

• 1:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  Hi, everyone. Welcome back. If you are new to the podcast, my name is Cassie.

• 1:36Danielle LaRock?

  And I'm Danielle. And what an episode to start on. Good for you. You're going to get caught up real quick. It's actually perfect.

• 1:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, you'll know every single thing we've done for the past five years because it's crazy to think about. But we started this podcast, our first episode ever aired on January 21st, 2020, January 25th, sorry, 2021. And now we're in 2026 and we're five years old.

• 2:01Danielle LaRock?

  A whole five. I know. Time really flies when you're traveling the world and being as busy as possible and having life changes and... All that fun stuff. It's been quite the ride for sure.

• 2:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  Sure has. And for this episode, we wanted to do something special and ask you guys what some of your favorite parts of the podcast have been over the past five years. And we asked that on social media, but we also asked our Patreon members and you guys came up with a lot of good stuff. And some of your answers, I was like, oh, my God.

• 2:33Danielle LaRock?

  I forgot.

• 2:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  I forgot that. And now, now I remember. So this will be a fun episode where we get to dive into some old, some old things.

• 2:43Danielle LaRock?

  And also, we're going to be going through, like, you guys always have a lot of similar questions that to us, it feels like, oh, we feel like we've answered that before, but apparently not, because we get that question all the time. So we're going to go through and do some of the biggest, most frequently asked questions, and then also just some fun ones that people are just dying to know. So

• 3:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  For sure.

• 3:07Danielle LaRock?

  We'll get to people's questions, too, and go over some fun moments and embarrassing moments and things I wish never happened. But yeah, we're going to talk about again. Um, so yeah.

• 3:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  Let's get into it. And I think, I think the first, I think the first question that we'll get into that we get this all the time, and we've answered many times, but I think that unless you're paying attention in certain spots, you may have never heard before. And that is, what is our origin story? How did we start the podcast?

• 3:34Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, perfect question. So, long story short, Cassie and I were veterinary technicians. When we first met, we were working at an animal hospital in southern New Hampshire. And we quickly became, you know, close coworkers, turned friends, and we would just spend a lot of time outdoors together and shooting the shit outside and hiking in the White Mountains. And when I decided to move to Washington was right around the same time Cassie was deciding to move out to Vermont. And when that happened, we decided to just keep. Our chats going that we were already having amongst each other into a podcast format,

• 4:14Danielle LaRock?

  largely spurred on from like the trip that I took to Washington with my late partner Ian, because we were staying at, you know, BLM lands and national parks and we took the long scenic route throughout the country over a few weeks. And I was texting Cassie a lot about stories or things that I was finding along the way that I thought she would find interesting. So by the time I wound up in Washington, I think it was Halloween Day of 2020, because I think I have receipts.

• 4:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  I think so too. I think I remember that.

• 4:49Danielle LaRock?

  I'm pretty sure it was Halloween Day of 2020 is when I formally kind of threw out the idea of creating a show loosely based on this format. So I think that's when like the first real spark started, but of course, we didn't get our act together until January, whatever, 25th of 2021, which is actually kind of a quick turnaround now that I think about it.

• 5:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, because we started in October. I remember you pitched this idea to me and I was like, all right, this is no idea what I'm doing. And we're like, I remember us going back and forth with creative ideas, but then also logistical ideas of how do we, how do we plug in a microphone?

• 5:29Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, my God, don't even talk to me about my snowball Yeti microphone from Walmart or Target or wherever it was. Yeah.

• 5:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  I remember mine was $25. It plugged into my computer. And if you're not a tech person, that is not how.

• 5:42Danielle LaRock?

  How it's done.

• 5:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  How it's done at all.

• 5:46Danielle LaRock?

  No, sure isn't.

• 5:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  And is the reason why a lot of our first episodes sound like we are underwater. Uh, and we didn't, we just didn't have any setup, but.

• 5:58Danielle LaRock?

  More knowledge.

• 5:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Or knowledge. We truly started this from scratch. There was never a production team behind us. There was no, we didn't go to school for this. We. Just kind of had this idea. And fun fact, if you didn't know this about the podcast too, is when we first started National Park After Dark, we thought that this was going to be a strictly true crime show.

• 6:19Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, yeah. For the first solid, like, three episodes, I think we were.

• 6:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 6:24Danielle LaRock?

  And we also toyed around with doing two stories an episode.

• 6:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes, the first few episodes, if you listen back to those ones, both of us tell a story each episode. And quickly, we were like, this is so much work. We're gonna run out of stories so fast, too. And also, we realized, too, we couldn't do the deep dives that we wanted, because if we were both telling a story, it took up a lot more time. So we kind of found our footing and our format as we went with that one.

• 6:54Danielle LaRock?

  Which goes into another question. Do we still work as Vet Tex? The answer is no.

• 6:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Absolutely not. No shade to Vet Tex. It's my personal experience. I was worn, I was burnt out. And I think any person in the vet field can understand that. So I loved my time there, but it was, it was time for me to go, for sure.

• 7:17Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, there just wasn't enough time in the day to do both well. So when this started to gain traction and was proving to be something that we should pursue seriously, that's when the decision was made.

• 7:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 7:33Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. So that answers that question. And then kind of going into the start of the episodes, you know, the, one of the first things you hear is our guitar intro. And many, many people know this, so I'll keep it short. But that intro is created by my late partner, Ian. We approached him immediately to create a intro song for us. We knew kind of right away, he was such a talented musician, that we could kind of describe what we were hoping. To capture in a 15 second snippet to that's gonna really do the heavy lifting, especially early on to get people interested in what the show was going to be about.

• 8:17Danielle LaRock?

  And he took it super seriously. He gave us a, I mean, at least a dozen different versions to pick from, which I couldn't really tell the difference on a lot of them, but to a trained, you know, guitarist's ear, probably.

• 8:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Be like slightly different. It was so funny because he was such a perfectionist about it.

• 8:35Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 8:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Cause he sent so many of them and he'd be like, okay, which one? And you'd hear like one note that was slightly different than the other and be like, what do you mean?

• 8:43Danielle LaRock?

  I know, my babe.

• 8:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  But we did.

• 8:45Danielle LaRock?

  I, it's gonna be great either way. Um, and this is good. And also I was thinking about this today. He did one other thing for us, like musically wise for the show. When you did the Salem maritime episode.

• 9:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, yeah.

• 9:05Danielle LaRock?

  A guitar version of the hocus pocus, like come little children.

• 9:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  I forgot about that.

• 9:12Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 9:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, my God.

• 9:14Danielle LaRock?

  That's there too.

• 9:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  That was so nice of him.

• 9:17Danielle LaRock?

  He was very happy to do that. So yeah, he, we basically were like, hey, we want something that sounds spooky, but also campy, intriguing, but also scary and ominous.

• 9:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes. We're like all of these things, but also remember, one of the reasons we approached him to do this was because we were looking for music and there were so many copyright infringement things. And we're like, Ian, we don't want to go to jail. Like, please.

• 9:54Danielle LaRock?

  Save us from prison.

• 9:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  We don't know how to air this without being sued. Can you please make us something?

• 10:00Danielle LaRock?

  So true. And yeah, he hopped right on it.

• 10:03Speaker 03

  Hey everybody. Welcome to National Park After Dark. This is the man behind our intro right here.

• 10:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, don't duck out just yet. This is Ian.

• 10:14Speaker 03

  Alright, thank you so much. Thank you so much.

• 10:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  Jazz club.

• 10:18Speaker 03

  That was great. Thank you.

• 10:20Danielle LaRock?

  And he was always very proud to play it. He did that for us on our first, like, we did a Moment House livestream when COVID was a thing and that was, like, you couldn't go anywhere for to attend live shows in the way we do now and before. So he went with us and did it live that one time. He was so happy. He was like, because there's a live chat function of that show and he had like his mustache and people were like, "Oh, Ian with the mustache and he's so cute." And he was so happy.

• 10:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  He was beaming.

• 10:54Danielle LaRock?

  He's like, "The people love me."

• 10:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's like, "I'm a star."

• 10:59Danielle LaRock?

  Like, "Thank you for your 20 seconds. It was much appreciated."

• 11:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  He did do great.

• 11:03Danielle LaRock?

  He did. He did.

• 11:31Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, first, right off the bat, this is your time to shine because we get this question a lot, okay?

• 11:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  We do. This is a much anticipated question that we've never fully answered before.

• 11:43Danielle LaRock?

  This has nothing to do with our content, but everything to do with one of the hosts. "What is your skincare routine? Brands, products? I know there must be a red light mask involved."

• 11:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes, there is. I feel like this is to both of us because we both have pretty um strong skincare routines, but I definitely hone into it a little bit more. Great question. I will say for brands and stuff, you actually inspired me to try a skincare brand that I hadn't tried before. And that was um, is it Zoe or Zio?

• 12:17Danielle LaRock?

  I think it's Zoe.

• 12:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Zoe. Yeah, I use a, I use their cleanser and I use their exfoliating cleanser and I really like it. And that is one that you recommended.

• 12:28Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 12:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  I also like SkinCeuticals. They have a lot of good serums that I like to use. And SkinMedica. SkinCeuticals and SkinMedica have a lot of good different serums. And I like um, under eye care stuff. So that's good. But honestly.

• 12:47Danielle LaRock?

  Well, hold on, before you go into your actual like going to the med spa situations. Okay, so I, I am, I've done the SkinCeuticals thing before, like for years. And then I switched over to the Zio, Zoe skincare stuff um, maybe about a year and a half ago. Um, so my whole routine is Zoe skin. But Cassie's so funny because, and I do a red light at home, like a few times a week. Cassie is so serious about her skincare. We will be in the jungles of Borneo, okay? Like I'm getting dengue fever. I'm dying. Like we're in the thick, there's monkeys trying to get into our, our room.

• 13:31Danielle LaRock?

  You know, there's anacondas dripping from the trees. And Cassie has her portable under eye red light.

• 13:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, I almost forgot about that. That's my like pride and joy.

• 13:42Danielle LaRock?

  For travel. And she's like, I just, I have to do this every day.

• 13:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  My skincare has no boundaries.

• 13:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  I do, I have, and I don't know the name of it, uh, which I probably should have looked up before. But um, it's basically this handheld red light and it has blue light and green light. Blue light is for acne um, and green light is for like regenerative cells or something. I don't know. Um, but, because I just do the red light mostly. But it is this vibrating handheld.

• 14:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  Device. It's like a gua- it's like a gua sha, but it's electric. And it helps get, it's like a lymphatic drainage for your skin, which is awesome. And I really like it. And especially when I'm traveling or suddenly I'm at high elevation and I'll notice I'm puffier than normal. It like gets all of that out and I feel like way better. So.

• 14:37Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, she always gets up in the morning before I do on trips and goes to bed after me. And so I always joke that she's a vampire.

• 14:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  She's never seen me sleep.

• 14:45Danielle LaRock?

  I've never seen her sleep.

• 14:48Danielle LaRock?

  But I'll know, like, when I get up in the morning, if she's not in her bed next to me, I'll hear the little like, cause it'll do this little chime thing when it's time to move on to a new section of your face. Just hear that going off. I'm like, there she goes.

• 15:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  She's thriving.

• 15:04Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, sorry. Go ahead. You can finish up with your.

• 15:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, and all of that is great, but honestly, I do. Like in terms of actually stuff that makes my skin look nice is I do a lot of stuff at the med spa and probably the biggest ones that I've done have been microneedling with radio frequency. I've specifically done Morpheus eight, which I really, really liked. And then I've also done laser resurfacing. And those are the two things for my skin in particular that I found have been really helpful.

• 15:38Danielle LaRock?

  There you go. You heard, you heard it here first.

• 15:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, just because you're outdoorsy doesn't mean you can't have good skin.

• 15:44Danielle LaRock?

  We walk the line pretty good, I think.

• 15:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  We do, we do it all.

• 15:49Danielle LaRock?

  What can't we do?

• 15:52Danielle LaRock?

  What is it? People say I'm highlight, high maintenance to be low maintenance.

• 15:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  Is that the saying?

• 15:58Danielle LaRock?

  I think. I think that's the saying, but you do all these high maintenance things. So day to day, you're. You feel.

• 16:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, like I don't put makeup on every day or any, yeah, that totally makes sense. Like I don't really wear makeup that much.

• 16:12Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I wear tinted moisturizer or sunscreen.

• 16:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, but my skincare routine is out of this world.

• 16:17Danielle LaRock?

  Right.

• 16:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Very high maintenance.

• 16:19Danielle LaRock?

  Well, speaking of phrases, um, we have had a couple of our own.

• 16:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  Sure have.

• 16:24Danielle LaRock?

  We've coined over the years by accident. And I think that they really peaked a couple of years ago and a lot of them have kind of fizzled out and every once in a while we'll get some come through and of course, OG people know, but. We, the first one that comes to mind is, I think something you ca- this wasn't me, I don't think.

• 16:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  I think it was me too.

• 16:50Danielle LaRock?

  It was definitely you. Um, moose aren't real.

• 16:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  Moose aren't real.

• 16:55Danielle LaRock?

  And I stand by that to this day.

• 16:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  It stuck for a reason and it's because people believe it.

• 17:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Moose aren't real because moose aren't real. It wasn't a moose.

• 17:07Danielle LaRock?

  Of course it wasn't.

• 17:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  Because moose aren't real.

• 17:09Danielle LaRock?

  It's kind of like, what was the other thing people are saying pigeons aren't real?

• 17:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh yeah, they're, um, they're spies.

• 17:16Danielle LaRock?

  Or spies, whatever. Yeah. Do you know the origin story of this?

• 17:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  I believe it came from a trail tale and I believe that people were talking about trying to see moose and didn't. And I was like, that's because moose aren't real. I've never seen one in New England. Yeah, that was something I've been saying because I've never seen a moose in New England and that is still true. Three, three years after the podcast has started. So moose are still not real. Took a life of its own because people kept writing in Trail Tales saying moose aren't real, moose aren't real. And I will say, one of the questions we get a lot is also, is there going to be a moose aren't real merch launch again? We get that one all the time because moose aren't real.

• 17:58Danielle LaRock?

  The answer's yes.

• 18:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes.

• 18:02Danielle LaRock?

  Just so you know.

• 18:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  New and improved.

• 18:04Danielle LaRock?

  New and improved. Yeah. If you, there are some merch items that like, oh my.

• 18:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  The OG merch items.

• 18:12Danielle LaRock?

  Hold on a minute. Okay. Okay.

• 18:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  We used to hand do our own merch.

• 18:19Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, hold on a minute. I'm gonna, I will take, after this is done, I'll, we'll splice in a little. Um, once I get, we're actually done this episode and I can go and get it and come back. We'll splice in a little, uh, clip of this because you gotta see it. I was just thinking about it. So in, I have a bunch of Ian's things still, um, with me and some of them I wear, but others are just packed away. And one of those items includes one of our very first hoodies that we made on Canva. Okay.

• 18:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  Is it the helicopter one?

• 18:58Danielle LaRock?

  No, my mom has that though.

• 19:02Danielle LaRock?

  Um, it's the one that we just, it's so embarrassing. These are like collector's items. If you have these, hold tight to them.

• 19:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  They're worth millions now, they say.

• 19:12Danielle LaRock?

  It's, word on the street is, legend has it, they're worth a lot. It's so funny. It's like, we literally just took a picture of a cartoon, like redwood tree and put another cartoon of a skeleton laying up against the tree.

• 19:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  I, I made that.

• 19:30Danielle LaRock?

  I know you did.

• 19:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  I was so proud.

• 19:33Danielle LaRock?

  Here's the sweatshirt, still on its original hanger. It's a little wrinkly. Hopefully we can zoom in on this uh, logo, done by Cassie and then for,

• 19:47Danielle LaRock?

  here it is, in all its glory. Yeah. Uh, there's not much to be said about this, honestly. You just, you just have to look at it. But you'll look at it. I mean, God bless Ian for walking around with this proudly, not thinking a thing of it and being like, yeah, my girl has a podcast and um, you should listen to it.

• 20:11Danielle LaRock?

  And Ian was proud to wear it and he did a lot.

• 20:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  I appreciate him for that.

• 20:16Danielle LaRock?

  But it's so embarrassing.

• 20:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, whatever we've been doing the past five years. Who let us do that?

• 20:23Danielle LaRock?

  I don't, who let us do most of this? I don't know.

• 20:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Thank you, everyone, for your unwavering support.

• 20:31Danielle LaRock?

  But so the moose aren't real. We did have an actual killer merch designed for that, which we really loved, but for a lot of reasons, we do not use anymore, but we're making it new, shiny and

• 20:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  Bury vamping it.

• 20:46Danielle LaRock?

  Better. And it's coming soon. So now you understand where the moose aren't real because if you're new and you're like, oh yeah, new merch. And then you're like, moose aren't real. What the fuck does that mean?

• 20:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Stupid idiots, moose are real. It's like, no, they're not.

• 21:01Danielle LaRock?

  First of, yeah, for those who get it, got it. Okay. Next was another one, All You.

• 21:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. This one, I think also came from a Trail Tales and it was, I responded to a Trail Tales and I said, you got haunted.

• 21:16Danielle LaRock?

  I can already hear Cassie saying, you got haunted.

• 21:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  You did get. Haunted.

• 21:21Danielle LaRock?

  Consensus, you got haunted.

• 21:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  You got haunted for sure.

• 21:26Danielle LaRock?

  As Cassie would say, you got haunted. You have, you infamously have said that.

• 21:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 21:32Danielle LaRock?

  Because they did.

• 21:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Because they did.

• 21:33Danielle LaRock?

  Have a paranormal experience of some kind.

• 21:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  They got haunted for sure.

• 21:37Danielle LaRock?

  Yep. So that one's pretty self-explanatory, but again, with the merch, we really like that one. I love that design.

• 21:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  That was fun. It was a fun design.

• 21:45Danielle LaRock?

  It's a ghost park ranger for people who do not know.

• 21:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  He's floating above his little boots.

• 21:51Danielle LaRock?

  He has a little Stetson hat on. Yeah, it's cute. So yeah, you got haunted kind of has gone down in history. And then another one that we don't say super often anymore, but we got a huge influx of emails about. I know this was me. I don't know where it came from. I know the era in which it came about, but take the trip. It was all about encouraging people to not put off spending time with their loved ones and going somewhere that they really want to experience together. Because you never know what's going to happen in life, either within your own life or those that you love and cherish. So to just take the trip, you know, just go for it.

• 22:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  I loved that one because I just really appreciate the sentiment behind it. And I know the other ones are kind of stupid.

• 22:38Danielle LaRock?

  They're so funny though.

• 22:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  And funny, but that one is just like the most heartfelt and I feel like people really resonated with that one, as did I.

• 22:49Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Well, thank you. So those are kind of our top three. If you, I mean, I would love to know wherever you're listening, however you interact with us, whether it's on Instagram comments or like YouTube comments or whatever, I would, if we're missing anything that's glaringly obvious, please tell us because like I've said before, I'm really not lying. I forget 90% of things that have happened to me over the last like three or four years. So please remind us if we've missed anything.

• 23:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. And our next ones that I thought would be fun to put together is when we asked our Patreon members what some of their favorite moments were throughout the past five years. One of our Patreon members put together a few quotes that we've said, and I thought it would be fun to try to guess which one of us said each of these things.

• 23:47Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. So are you gonna read them?

• 23:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 23:51Danielle LaRock?

  Out loud and then we have to guess?

• 23:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 23:54Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, go ahead.

• 23:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  The first one was, "We abducted a Boy Scout this weekend."

• 23:59Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, that was me because I remember that. Yeah, because we did do that.

• 24:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Because you did do that.

• 24:04Danielle LaRock?

  We wait for this kid to, because he's like, "I'm gonna, I'm gonna go in my pants. Like, I just have I have to go." So he like, "We waited for this random kid to go off the trail, take care of business in whatever way he did, which I feel like was not in the right way, comes back. We have to hike with him another mile and a half back to the parking lot. And then we're like, "What do we do with you?"

• 24:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  Because now you just, you just stole a Boy Scout.

• 24:35Danielle LaRock?

  "We abducted a Boy Scout this weekend." And we could have, if we had ill intentions, he would have been a goner. He told us everything about him, where he lived, what his family did. He was ready to go with us wherever, wherever blindly just followed us. I was like, "Hey, so next time, I know that we helped you out, I think, but just next time, don't just go with strangers because it could end up really bad." And he was like, "Okay, whatever." And then we just

• 25:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  Didn't care.

• 25:10Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, didn't care. But we pawned him off on a, on a ranger. So whoever that is, thank you so much because I had no idea what I was about to do. Hopefully that went over well, but hopefully it was a lesson learned as well for that kid.

• 25:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  What an interesting trip to the ape caves. I'm sure you didn't expect to be doing half of it with a 10-year-old.

• 25:28Danielle LaRock?

  I know.

• 25:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Uh, the next one, I I don't know. The next one says, okay, so attack then deep throat.

• 25:38Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, I'm gonna be honest, that feels like me because I would mention deep throating.

• 25:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I'm guessing you as well.

• 25:45Danielle LaRock?

  I have no idea when I did that.

• 25:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  Apparently in episode 299.

• 25:51Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, that feels recent.

• 25:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was recent.

• 25:54Danielle LaRock?

  Wait, what's episode 299?

• 25:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't know. Play the clip.

• 25:58Danielle LaRock?

  I guess we'll find out. Roll the tape.

• 26:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  Trish's rifle fired twice and actually went down the moor tiger's throat all the way to the handle. So that's how close it was. It was literally jumping on him and he was firing at it and it was like full mouth coming at him.

• 26:16Danielle LaRock?

  It like deep throated that gun.

• 26:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 26:19Danielle LaRock?

  Holy shit.

• 26:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  It landed on the gun.

• 26:22Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, so attack, deep throat.

• 26:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Deep throat. Memories. And the next one is, it seems like we had a lot of quotes in one particular episode and that was in Trail Tales 80. And the first quote was, people who wear white pants have it together.

• 26:42Danielle LaRock?

  I feel like that was you, but I also agree with that.

• 26:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  See, I feel like it was you, but I also agree with that.

• 26:49Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. Okay.

• 26:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Either of us could have said that one.

• 26:53Danielle LaRock?

  Well, yeah. That's how this is gonna go.

• 26:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I never wore them and I ended up donating them. I have like one picture in college where I'm wearing white pants though, and I can remember it.

• 27:07Danielle LaRock?

  Or you just didn't.

• 27:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  I just, no, I just don't wear white pants because they're not practical at all. Like you know what, everything, you don't always sit on clean surfaces and you eat and just white pants don't make any sense.

• 27:21Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, whenever I see someone in a white pant, I'm like, oh, they have their life together.

• 27:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, you have to have your life together to wear white pants. The next one is life. Mantra, one ravioli at a time.

• 27:34Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, that was me.

• 27:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  It sounds like you, but I don't remember it.

• 27:39Danielle LaRock?

  I'm, no, no, maybe it was you. I remember talking about eating raviolis.

• 27:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  I feel like it was you.

• 27:48Danielle LaRock?

  No, I think this was you.

• 27:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Mantra, one ravioli at a time.

• 27:53Danielle LaRock?

  Because I was talking about how I ate them too quick or something. And I think you were like, slow down.

• 28:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  One ravioli.

• 28:01Danielle LaRock?

  I feel like it was you.

• 28:06Danielle LaRock?

  I was like scraping the sauce like I was done. He's like, he didn't even have one slice down. Like, it was just, I'm like, I'm so sorry. And then it was weird because.

• 28:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  He was alone eating.

• 28:17Danielle LaRock?

  Right. And I didn't know where to look. I'm like, I'm, I should have just taken this one ravioli at a time. Like, and then put down my fork. It's like the same thing.

• 28:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Mantra, one ravioli at a time. The next one, same episode, Trail Tale eighty.

• 28:33Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, we were on fire.

• 28:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 28:35Danielle LaRock?

  Well, depending on what this is.

• 28:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  We're hilarious. I'm trying to commit a crime. Can you please leave? It's not a good time.

• 28:42Danielle LaRock?

  To you.

• 28:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  I feel like that might have been me too.

• 28:47Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. I remember that.

• 28:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  But I don't know.

• 28:49Danielle LaRock?

  I do remember the story because it was recent. Couldn't remember who told it, though. Ten minutes down the road that it hit me. That guy had totally been robbing the place. And somehow through sheer confusion, his and mine, I just walked right back out. I can't stop thinking about whoever.

• 29:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  And this building is closed.

• 29:16Danielle LaRock?

  I'm trying to commit a crime, like.

• 29:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's not a great time. It all mashes together.

• 29:25Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 29:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  We read so many trail tales and have so many stories.

• 29:29Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, we certainly do. Well, speaking of trail tales, let's kind of go down that lane. Because they're one of the best parts. I mean, I'm so glad we started them when we did. We kind of kicked off the show with them. Pretty much right away. They've taken shape and, you know, over time of kind of like the style in which people send them in and all of that. But I really love trail tales because we get to hear directly from people. And honestly, I kind of get sick of us.

• 30:03Danielle LaRock?

  You know what I mean?

• 30:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it's nice to hear someone else telling us a story because we're so used to researching and telling the stories ourselves. But to hear your real life experiences and you guys writing them in is definitely one of my favorite parts of the show. And you guys, you guys throw in some wild, some wild things from embarrassing to exciting, inspiring, sad, hilarious, really like deep, meaningful, personal things. Like you guys trust us with your deepest, darkest stories and, and your light, your lighthearted ones too. And we just love to hear them and they make us feel like we have friends.

• 30:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I know that when we read them, they make you guys feel like you have friends in the community too, which you do. And I think Trail Tales has, has really helped to build our NPAD community.

• 30:55Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, and it really goes to show how multifaceted and honestly, how cool our community is. Because when we're reading through them, we're like, we can't believe this person did this or experienced that or went here or there. Or, you know, and it's just, we only have so, so much life experience and things that have happened to us that we could talk in circles about for the next five years, you know? And it's like, we need this influx of different perspectives and things. So it's really nice that you guys keep writing in and keep it up. We have favorites, of course, because some have stood out above the rest for obvious reasons.

• 31:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  For sure. And when we were asking questions, it was, it was nice because on Patreon, when we were like, what were some of your favorite parts? We actually had two Patreon members who wrote in their own Trail Tales about how they found us. So we thought it would be fun to read those Trail Tales of what they said of how they found NPAD.

• 31:59Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, you go first.

• 32:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay. Mine is from Elizabeth and they wrote, "Five years deserve celebration for my favorite podcast in existence. I think it's a good time to share some backstory. My husband and I grew up together, rode the same bus since middle school, and didn't get together until after college. When we did finally admit feelings and make it official, we fell in love fast." Now, you might be wondering, what does this have to do with NPAD? When we were falling in love, we also daydreamed about national park trips we would take in the future. We almost high-tailed it for Yellowstone anyway, but living in the Midwest makes it difficult to get to the major national parks out west. So with an unexpected pregnancy, we put our dream national parks on the back burner.

• 32:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Fast forward nearly eight years, we have a six-year-old and a four-year-old who was born the same year as NPAD, 2021. Happy birthday! And life is busy, but one thing our kids sadly know is how much we love national parks and forests, trees, animals, cryptids, and conservation. My kids even know how much I love National Park After Dark, crying laughing face. "Three years ago, we started planning for Shenandoah National Park for my 30th birthday. I was searching for an informative Shenandoah podcast to learn more about the area and low and behold, stumbled upon National Park After Dark's very first episode. I was hooked immediately, and the rest is truly history. I've been a fan ever since and tell everyone I can about the podcast.

• 33:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  We still haven't made it out west, but I trust that we will. Our goal is to have some sort of camper and be ready to take our first big family trip by the time our oldest is in fourth grade and for the fourth grade National Park Pass. Strategic." He says he wants to be a scientist and park ranger when he grows up, and honestly, me too, lol. "We have a scratch-off map hanging up in our home that allows us to scratch off states and national parks. We've made it to four as a family, the Midwest ones. We've listened to Don Fendler's story here together as well. The stories in this community keep me inspired. Over the years, my passion has grown for conservation and protecting these beautiful parks. You have all played a huge role in that. Thank you for keeping hope alive.

• 34:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know one day we'll make it to the dream parks." Thank you Danielle and Cassie for creating this community, sharing important history, beautiful and frightening stories, sometimes within the same episode, and for sharing your own stories as well. What you guys do here is amazing. Thank you. Thank you.

• 34:30Danielle LaRock?

  Wow, that's so nice.

• 34:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's really nice.

• 34:33Danielle LaRock?

  And that reminded me a little bit of just kind of like insider secret. Um, the very first episode is, I'm pretty sure, and correct me if I'm wrong, the only one we've ever rerecorded.

• 34:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it is.

• 34:52Danielle LaRock?

  And we didn't even rerecord it much later. It was like within weeks, I think, or even days.

• 34:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Really? I thought it was like a year later.

• 35:01Danielle LaRock?

  Was it? No.

• 35:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, because I remember. Yeah, because I remember for that people, so we were seeing that when people look for our podcast, they listen to that one first.

• 35:14Danielle LaRock?

  Right.

• 35:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  Can we listen back?

• 35:15Danielle LaRock?

  And this is when our catalog was very small. Like, it's not like if you're gonna come across a podcast right now.

• 35:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  It could have been earlier than I'm thinking.

• 35:23Danielle LaRock?

  Three hundred episodes. Not everyone's gonna be like, whoop, there's three hundred episodes, but I'm going to the very first one. Like, and God bless if you do, and you're like, uh, you know, you have to do it in chronological order. But at least speaking for myself, I'll kind of filter through and be like, oh, what's an eye catching title or whatever. But back when we only had a handful of episodes, everyone started at episode one. You know what I mean? And there was two problems with it. Well, there's probably a lot of problems with it, but there was two that really were the driving forces of us rerecording it. The quality doesn't count because our quality was the same for like the first fifty.

• 36:02Danielle LaRock?

  Um, but it was number one because we, and by we, I mean I, Danielle LaRocque swore so much.

• 36:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  I did too, though. I listened back and I remember I also did.

• 36:16Danielle LaRock?

  No, really? I'm taken back by that, actually.

• 36:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  Not as much as you, but in just casual conversation, we were talking and we were both dropping F bombs. And we listened back and we were like, okay. That's a little excessive, especially for someone's first episode to getting to know us.

• 36:34Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, and you know, I've heard other creators speak about this as well, especially in the very beginning and getting your footing and not really knowing what you're, how to present a story or to be in this medium.

• 36:50Danielle LaRock?

  Is swearing, aside from just being a part of who you are, but when you're doing it that excessively, it's to fill space, you know, and to also be when you're struggling to find descriptors or other ways of saying things.

• 37:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's the same as saying like.

• 37:09Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, yeah, it's another thing we try and dial back on.

• 37:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  Not successfully. Drink every time you hear us say like.

• 37:17Danielle LaRock?

  No, please don't. Um, for your health and well being, don't. But yeah, so those were kind of that. And, um, there was another thing. Oh, we kind of were, which, okay, to, for the swearing thing, I've said it before a million times. I really have tried to stop or at least cut back and dial it back when, on the show. And I think I've done a pretty good job of that compared to the first, the very beginning. So it's just funny when, you know, she's writing in about how her young family listens. I'm like, oh, please. I'm so sorry for swearing so much. Um, but the other

• 37:59Danielle LaRock?

  thing is that people were upset about other than us saying fuck a million times was we blamed men for every murder that ever happened.

• 38:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  That hasn't changed that much, but.

• 38:13Danielle LaRock?

  But we were very bold about it and kind of used that as a blanket statement and.

• 38:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  We don't think all men murder women.

• 38:21Danielle LaRock?

  Right. We do. That's a, and that's a fact.

• 38:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  And that's a fact.

• 38:28Danielle LaRock?

  But anyway, so we were kind of like reflecting. We're like, okay, for our very first episode, maybe we should try and like, we didn't edit for, we didn't change any of the content of what we were saying. It was just the way in which it was delivered. Everything else.

• 38:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Really funny. And this is sparking like an old memory that I'm not sure I've ever told you.

• 38:48Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, no.

• 38:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  Is one of my first memories of you. Have I said this to you before?

• 38:53Danielle LaRock?

  No.

• 38:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  One of my first memories of you is I was, I came to our vet hospital and I was there for a working interview and you were doing a dental. And one of the first things that I remember hearing you say was, so I don't remember exactly what you said, but I remember you said fuck like three times in one sentence.

• 39:21Danielle LaRock?

  Well, that tracks. I don't remember, but.

• 39:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I remember you were mid doing a dental, like, and you needed something. I don't remember the context of like, why you were swearing. And I don't think you were like, super, I don't remember you being angry. I just remember like, multiple swears coming out and being like, who is this person?

• 39:41Danielle LaRock?

  It's like, that's my future business partner. That's interesting.

• 39:45Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, well, I have three things working against me. I'm a Sagittarius fiery. Okay. I'm Italian spicy. Okay. And third, I'm a New Englander.

• 39:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  You're basically, your first word is a swear if you're.

• 40:00Danielle LaRock?

  Right. So I have the trifecta going on and I'm trying to be better. Anyways, so that's that on that. Um.

• 40:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  For the record, I don't think you're mean, but.

• 40:12Danielle LaRock?

  Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I have a short one to share as well from Ally. And Ally says, I've been listening since very close to the beginning when I tried to play an episode to pass time for my science students while teaching high school. It didn't work in my classroom for some reason, but I started to listen on my own. And as an avid outdoors lover, I was hooked. My mother passed away suddenly in 2022 of MS and it was so hard. My twin brother would constantly dream of her after she passed. I never got any signs from her, even when I asked. In 2025, I was driving to my grandma's to work. She watched my baby while I worked from home. I was listening to the episode where Danielle brought up the

• 40:55Danielle LaRock?

  sick opossum slash getting a sign from your dad. While listening, I asked my mom to send me a sign while continuing the episode. I shit you not, five minutes into my drive, there was a dead opossum on the road. I figured it was a coincidence, but we all know about those lol. Oh, there's another phrase, no such thing as coincidences.

• 41:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, yeah.

• 41:14Danielle LaRock?

  How could we forget?

• 41:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, it's such a big one.

• 41:17Danielle LaRock?

  I feel like a lot of people say that, so.

• 41:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, but we say it a lot.

• 41:20Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, it's true. No, we say it more than anyone else.

• 41:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  Anyone who's ever existed.

• 41:26Danielle LaRock?

  And that's a blanket statement. I will.

• 41:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Prove us wrong.

• 41:31Danielle LaRock?

  Closer to town, there was another dead opossum. I thought to myself, all right, Mom, you never liked the outdoors, so this is a weird sign. I get to my grandma's and start working. My nine month old was in the living room while my grandma went to the bathroom. She was playing with a bluey piano, but it wasn't working, which I thought was odd since we just put new batteries in it. So I gave her a different, very cheap piano toy that my grandma had gotten her when she was about three months old. She started hitting buttons and the piano started playing "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, and I froze. It had never played that song over the six months we had the toy. And to my knowledge, it has not played it since. That was my favorite song as a kid, and my mom and I would take long car rides around town, listening to Celine Dion and talking.

• 42:17Danielle LaRock?

  A memory I hold so very dear. I felt a wide range of emotions while I cried listening to the song play. My grandma, who is my mom's mom, came back and asked what was wrong. So I told her what had happened, and she broke down too, saying that she can feel her presence when she's alone at home. It was a beautifully sad experience. Your opossum story was the start of a sign I so desperately needed from her. Since she never got the chance to meet my daughter, thank you for that.

• 42:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's very sweet. That is really sweet. And I love that they wrote, one told us this story on Patreon, but also just reflecting on our five years of being a podcast. For the past several years, we have talked so, or you in particular, have talked so much about signs. And we've gotten so many trail tales of people experiencing their own signs from their loved ones. And I just thought that that was such a nice.

• 43:11Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, that's been a big part of the show, unexpected.

• 43:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes.

• 43:16Danielle LaRock?

  But very big part of the show that is again, kind of fills the, the part of us that needs like, you know, this is, this, these are real people that we're talking to that are having really deep, meaningful experiences because of some of the things that we've said, or at least inspired by some of the things that we've shared and. Yeah, so it's like, sometimes it's really hard. I just said like again, caught.

• 43:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  I hear it every time. Everyone drinks.

• 43:52Danielle LaRock?

  No, but it's just sometimes when Cassie and I come on to speak to one another and do the show, it feels very kind of isolating a little bit because we're, first of all, we're not even together. We don't even get to be in the same room and record. Fun fact, we've only recorded in the same place, I think, two or three times for, over the last five years. So it's just really nice when we get to hear from people having meaningful things happen to them because of conversations that we feel like we're having by ourselves. You know what I'm saying?

• 44:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it's nice to see. And we can see on the backend the numbers of people listening, but it feels like it's still just a number. It's just, it's still just a thing on the screen. So when you guys send in these, it's like our own connection to you guys. And we really appreciate it.

• 44:49Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 44:58Danielle LaRock?

  And just kind of rounding out the Trail Tales thing, we could not let this go. We couldn't not talk about Trail Tales and not talk about the infamous, the legendary.

• 45:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  The one and only.

• 45:12Danielle LaRock?

  Foaming Pants.

• 45:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  The Foaming Pants. The Trail Tale that has gone down in NPAD history the past five years. I shit you not, when I asked what people's favorite part of our podcast for the past five years, so many people said, "I'll never forget the Foaming Pants."

• 45:32Danielle LaRock?

  Yep. And I don't know, because I know we've talked about it a lot. But, and we had a different separate email in the very beginning, kind of when we were doing this, because this is a Trail Tale, like, from years ago. And I don't know who the original sender was, but can you please reach out to us if you still listen? I would love to hear from you. And thank you personally.

• 46:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like, I feel like we need to give you a trophy.

• 46:03Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I'll like make you a trophy. I will make you a trophy.

• 46:08Danielle LaRock?

  You just have to verify it has like, you can't scam me. Like, you know, we need to, yeah, we need like proof.

• 46:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  We'll know, we'll know. Yeah. Well, if you are listening to this and you are like, what is the foaming pants story? I've never heard it. You need to hear it. And I think right now would be a great time to kind of rewind the tapes and check out this Trail Tales story, which was titled, "What the Fuck, Why Are My Pants Foaming?"

• 46:37Danielle LaRock?

  And it's from Trail Tales number 25. Let's hear it.

• 46:41Speaker 04

  All right. My next one is titled, "What the Fuck, Why Are My Pants Foaming?"

• 46:46Danielle LaRock?

  Foaming or filming?

• 46:47Speaker 04

  Foaming.

• 46:47Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, okay.

• 46:49Speaker 04

  This story does not involve a vicious murder, a near-death experience, or even an alien encounter, but I am sure you will find a certain relatability to it. Typically, when we go mountain hiking, we try to keep the routes between two to five miles and read reviews on all trails prior to planning our trips. On this trip, however, we planned to challenge ourselves with a longer route. Our chosen route would go across an open meadow, connect with the Appalachian Trail, through Deep Gap, and summit Mount Rogers. While at our campsite the night before, we checked the weather forecast and things were not looking good. The weather was calling for thunderstorms throughout the day. We decided to wait until morning to determine if we needed to change our plans. In preparation for the original hike, I bought a brand new pair of buttery soft hiking pants from Old Navy.

• 47:33Speaker 04

  I had not worn them yet, and like most people, I did not wash them prior to wearing them. I was just going to get them sweaty and dirty anyway. This becomes important later in the tale. Wearing my brand new pants, we set off to the Cabin Creek Trail. The gentle pitter-patter of off-and-on rain picked up into a raging monsoon. We quickly packed up and began making our way down the trailhead. Wearing my raincoat and hustling in the rain, I got a little sweaty. The pouring rain let up again, and we slowed our pace. This is where things took an incredibly confusing and embarrassing turn. My husband looked back to me as we were chatting on the trail and gave me the craziest look before asking, "Are you okay?" Confused, I inspected myself. I felt fine, but what I saw was unreal.

• 48:17Speaker 04

  Between my legs, coming from-

• 48:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  From my crotch was a white foamy substance. It was dripping down my leg. What the fuck is that? While I brushed it off, I worried, how the hell are my lady parts leaking? What the hell is this? And oh my God, am I dying? These are just some of the thoughts that raced through my mind. After wiping it all away, assuring my husband that I must have just brushed against something sort of weird, like a plant and hoping to move on and never think of the moment again, we continued to hike.

• 48:51Danielle LaRock?

  I'm just imagining the husband.

• 48:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like, are you? What is, what's going down? What's going on down there?

• 49:00Danielle LaRock?

  So funny.

• 49:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  Not even three steps in, the white froth was back. What the fuck? Wiping it away again, I racked my brain. What the hell is happening? My husband was very supportive. He offered his coat to cover me and never once cracked a smile or took a photo. I declined his coat. I didn't want to get whatever this was on that too. We began to pass a few hikers braving the trail.

• 49:25Danielle LaRock?

  Mortified, sorry, this is so funny.

• 49:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Mortified, I foamed on, I foamed on.

• 49:38Danielle LaRock?

  I'm like crying. I'm like trying to guess like myself, like what this is. And I hope she tells us, but this is so funny.

• 49:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  Looking back, I wondered what they thought of me. With every step more white dripped from my nethers. To try and paint a better picture, it was specific.

• 49:58Danielle LaRock?

  You don't have to.

• 49:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  We, we can picture it.

• 50:02Danielle LaRock?

  We get it.

• 50:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was specifically coming from my crotch. It looked like it was coming out of me, if you catch my drift.

• 50:13Danielle LaRock?

  We get it.

• 50:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was white, thick and a little bubbly and foam-like. It made my pants wet around where it was settling, leaving a wet spot with the white in the middle until I wiped it away. It was oddly sexual, even though I knew damn well we hadn't done that. And even if we did, it wouldn't do this.

• 50:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  She's like, I swear, we didn't do anything. There's no reason for me to be foaming. I'm like, I'm really crying. Once in the car, after a deep breath and settling into the calm of privacy resulting from the embarrassing episode, I think I figured it out. My new buttery soft pants must have been treated with some sort of substance to make them soft to the touch. When that came in contact with the combination of rain, sweat, and the friction of my legs rubbing together hiking, the end result was my foaming crotch. I have scoured the internet to find someone with a similar experience, but so far, I think it's unique to me. It has taken some time for me to transition from this being an embarrassing memory into a story that I can share and laugh about, and here we are.

• 51:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  So enjoy the view, watch your back, and always wash your new pants. Girl.

• 51:28Danielle LaRock?

  I literally have never heard of anything like that.

• 51:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  I want to know if this has happened to anyone else. We need everyone whose pants have foamed while hiking to step forward now. We need answers.

• 51:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, if everyone is now on the same page with the foaming pants story and you can join us collectively moving forward. Welcome. Please send in your foaming pants stories.

• 51:52Danielle LaRock?

  We've gotten a sequel.

• 51:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  We've gotten a sequel. Let's get, what's it?

• 51:57Danielle LaRock?

  Let's get the third, whatever that is.

• 51:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  Third, fourth, fifth. Let's make it a whole episode of foaming pants.

• 52:03Danielle LaRock?

  It's still yet to happen to me. I feel like every time I go hiking in those conditions, I'm on the alert, though, that it could strike at any time.

• 52:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's a new fear.

• 52:14Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, it is.

• 52:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Fear has been unlocked.

• 52:18Danielle LaRock?

  All right, well, let's talk about times we've been stupid idiots.

• 52:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, because there's one time in particular, there's been lots of times.

• 52:27Danielle LaRock?

  Too many to count, really, and we're doing you all a favor by just talking about one of them.

• 52:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  But there's one in particular that I have to show off again for our five year anniversary, in case you weren't here for it. And it was our third episode where I talked about a story in Denali, a mountaineering accident in Denali, and I did not understand the difference between crevice and crevasse. And I very, very seriously told the story using-

• 52:56Danielle LaRock?

  Told millions of people, the worst mountaineering. She's like in the thick of the story. We're in it, we're on-

• 53:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  Totally serious.

• 53:02Danielle LaRock?

  We're in Denali with her, we're struggling for our lives.

• 53:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I use the word crevice wrong multiple times in a row. And I just thought you guys should all hear this clip so you can understand.

• 53:16Danielle LaRock?

  Did I react?

• 53:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  No, no, you're just listening to the story.

• 53:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  So let's take it back to this moment. So you guys can just see how far we've come.

• 53:29Speaker 04

  When they got closer to the summit, soon they found a sleeping bag with a pair of wool socks inside and it was next to a big crevice. So immediately they assumed that this person did not survive. Their stuff was right next to a huge crevice.

• 53:45Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. All right. Well, do you want to clear it up for the people now? Because you have grown. We've evolved. We've learned.

• 53:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  We've evolved. And if you are still on the path of you don't know what the difference between crevice and crevasses, as I wrote down.

• 53:58Danielle LaRock?

  If you haven't graduated third grade yet.

• 54:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  As I had not.

• 54:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  So the reason why using crevice, and I said something along the lines, and I know you all just listened to it, but I said something along the lines of, he almost fell into this giant crevice. A crevice is not giant.

• 54:18Danielle LaRock?

  A crevice is so small.

• 54:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  The exact definition of a crevice is a narrow opening or fissure, especially in a rock or a wall. And I will also point out that that story took place on a glacier, not a rock or a wall.

• 54:37Danielle LaRock?

  Cassie, okay, this is funny in and of itself, but I've been drinking the, not an ad, but I've been drinking the out of office.

• 54:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, shit.

• 54:48Danielle LaRock?

  So it's setting me so mad right now. So I'm high. This is so funny.

• 54:56Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, my God. I'm not high. I'm relaxed. Just the right amount.

• 55:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  You're a psycho.

• 55:02Danielle LaRock?

  Seriously.

• 55:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  You're a psycho. They're crazy.

• 55:05Danielle LaRock?

  They are. I'm drinking the cucumber melon lime one because I ran out of it. I like the raspberry one. It's my favorite, I think. But anyway, regardless, I'm feeling great right now. And this is just so hitting the spot for me. Okay, so we got the crevice.

• 55:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  We got the crevice. It has nothing to do with a glacier, but a crevasse.

• 55:24Danielle LaRock?

  Nothing to do with the story whatsoever.

• 55:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  A crevasse, in which I should have been saying, is a deep open crack, especially one in a glacier, is the exact definition.

• 55:38Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, and this is around the time that I feel like, because this is what, episode three?

• 55:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 55:48Danielle LaRock?

  So not a ton of people are listening at this point in time, but there have got to have been people who who called us out for this.

• 55:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's one of our highest downloaded episodes by now.

• 55:58Danielle LaRock?

  Don't even say that to me.

• 56:03Danielle LaRock?

  I'm actually shocked we don't get messages about that then, or comments or reviews.

• 56:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 56:10Danielle LaRock?

  They've got to be like, they must know by now.

• 56:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  They must. They're in episode 350. They've got to, they figured it out.

• 56:19Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 56:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  And if you made it this far. Yeah.

• 56:22Danielle LaRock?

  This is actually a really good time to formally ask, because we haven't for a while. And this just goes to show, so for podcasting, the podcasting world, there's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that are like really important to how the show is, like indicators of how the show is performing and opportunities we can get and things like that, aside from just pure downloads or listens. And one of those things is getting engagement on social media stuff, but also reviews and ratings. And if you are one of those people like me, before I had a show, a podcast myself, that is an avid listener, like listens to something all the time, never

• 57:04Danielle LaRock?

  misses an episode. I mean, I have like seven podcasts on rotation that I listen to religiously every week. And Until I had my own show, I never gave them a nice review or even rated them five stars. And I had been a listener for years. And it's like, if you haven't done that for either us or any other show that you listen to, please do, because it makes a huge difference.

• 57:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  For our fifth birthday, our gift we're asking for.

• 57:33Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, please.

• 57:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  Is a review. A five star one.

• 57:36Danielle LaRock?

  A kind, a kind, yes, a kind one, please.

• 57:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's like we just get a bunch of people yelling at us. You didn't specify you wanted a nice one.

• 57:45Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, we're trying to avoid that, please. Um, so yeah, that would be really lovely and it's just a nice reminder. I mean, I think a lot of people nowadays podcasts are just so, like it's that not new anymore, like people listen to a bunch of them all the time and it's just.

• 58:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like you just forget or don't think about it.

• 58:02Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, but it's important.

• 58:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  It helps us a lot. So we'd appreciate it. That actually reminds me of one of the questions. I don't know why it reminded me of the question. Um, just going into like podcasting and production and things like that. It reminded me of one of the questions that we got. And that was, who is walking over the leaves in the into, into and after commercial breaks?

• 58:24Danielle LaRock?

  Couldn't tell you. I don't know.

• 58:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  Couldn't tell you. It's just a generic leave. It is leaves though. People question what that is. If you have always, if you don't pay for ad free episodes and you have to listen to the crunching of the leaves before our ads and after our ads.

• 58:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  No, it is crunching of the leaves because some people are like, what is that? And other people have written into us and been like, I was listening to you guys on a trail and I thought someone was walking up behind me.

• 58:52Danielle LaRock?

  Oh yeah, yeah. And then some people are like, can you not have somebody chewing granola really loud? Like for your ads? I'm like, what?

• 59:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like, just know I would never have that because it would ruin my life to hear chewing on the podcast.

• 59:07Danielle LaRock?

  Cassie is a big, um, what is it called? Misophonia?

• 59:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  Misophonia.

• 59:11Danielle LaRock?

  Or whatever. Yeah.

• 59:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Hatred of sound. That is me.

• 59:15Danielle LaRock?

  And yet you're in the, in the biz of making sound.

• 59:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  I am, and I enjoy making sounds. I just don't like hearing them.

• 59:21Danielle LaRock?

  And also, oh my God, another memory. This episode's gonna be like five hours long. Five hours for five years.

• 59:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Welcome.

• 59:27Danielle LaRock?

  Cassie, for the first, like, I don't know, good year, solid year, maybe more.

• 59:35Danielle LaRock?

  She would legit have fidget spinners or like change in her pocket or a pen that she would click back and forth and back and forth. And it would be so, I'm like, girl,

• 59:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  I do.

• 59:49Danielle LaRock?

  It needs to be quiet.

• 59:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  I thought you were gonna say when we were editing our episodes, I would edit out every single sound of breathing because I would. Every single noise, mouth noise, anything. And mind you, I wasn't good at editing. But the part of me that couldn't edit anything out.

• 1:00:09Danielle LaRock?

  Like, I can't sound like a person.

• 1:00:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I, it actually made some of the recordings sound crazy because I would, it's natural to breathe while you're speaking.

• 1:00:20Danielle LaRock?

  Right.

• 1:00:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  And have natural breaks in your cadence of how you are speaking. And I would completely erase all of those. So it would be me talking really fast because I would just erase every pause.

• 1:00:37Danielle LaRock?

  Not on my watch, am I gonna be breathing?

• 1:00:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  No.

• 1:00:39Danielle LaRock?

  Okay.

• 1:00:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  No one's gonna witness this.

• 1:00:42Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:44Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, well, moving on to trauma.

• 1:00:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  Trauma.

• 1:00:49Danielle LaRock?

  We love it.

• 1:00:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  We've traumatized you and we know it.

• 1:00:52Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. And honestly, it's what Cassie's doing. I'm not involved because.

• 1:00:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  You will have trauma. You have traumatized. You've traumatized me. Yossi Ginsberg.

• 1:01:02Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, Yossi Ginsberg was.

• 1:01:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  That one?

• 1:01:05Danielle LaRock?

  That one was mine, I'll say.

• 1:01:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  That one got me.

• 1:01:07Danielle LaRock?

  That was rough, but by and large, kind of the responses we got from our polling operations here, we got a wide variety. Yossi was in there. However, there was one that rose above the rest.

• 1:01:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  For how much we traumatized you all.

• 1:01:24Danielle LaRock?

  It's, of course, the night of the Grizzlies.

• 1:01:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  How could it not be the night of the Grizzlies? The night of the Grizzlies is the scariest.

• 1:01:33Danielle LaRock?

  Thing that's ever happened.

• 1:01:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:01:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  If you haven't heard The Night of the Grizzlies, let's traumatize you again for just a moment.

• 1:01:42Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:42Speaker 04

  So for the next several weeks, this bear would harass visitors at Trout Lake with many reports to the Park Service about incidents. But with no actual contact reported, the Park Service did not see it as a dangerous situation. There were even instances where the bear was reported following campers for hundreds of yards and scaring visitors. He looked up to see the grizzly on all fours standing over Julie. The bear was tearing at her body. Then the bear returned to him. He grabbed a hold of the back of his thighs and bit down hard. Still, Roy managed not to make a sound. Then, once again, he returned to Julie, biting her. Except this time, Roy could hear her bones crunch under the strength of the bear's bite.

• 1:02:25Speaker 04

  "This hurts, someone help us!" Julie cried out, but now her voice was starting to get further and further away. The bear was dragging her. So Janet had been in a deep sleep when suddenly she awoke to the sound of screams. At first, she thought that it was an animal or two that were fighting. And to her, her first thought was that it sounded like a mountain lion attacking a deer. And the scream was cat-like, and it couldn't be anything, except for maybe it could be a human. And then she thought, it couldn't be a human, that can't be right. Then she started to hear words. She heard a long scream, and then "Help!" Another long scream came followed by "Mommy, mommy!" and more screams. At this, her husband, Robert, awoke. "What is that?" he asked.

• 1:03:10Speaker 04

  More screams started, and at first, they thought it might be a child having a nightmare. More screams came, but it started to sound farther away. The sound stopped. It was 12:50 a.m. Dawn awoke. Unsure what had woken him, and disoriented, he looked around. It took him a moment, and sleepily, he saw a figure in front of him standing, and then slumped to his knees. He looked at it a little longer and realized it was a teenage boy. It was Roy Ducat that he had met earlier in the evening, that had decided to go to the campground to camp with the girl. Roy was giggling and babbling. Clearly in shock. A bear got ahold of me. I tried playing dead, but it didn't help. He dragged her off into the brush. You have to go after her. Please forget about me.

• 1:03:55Speaker 04

  The bear dragged her away. Can somebody go find her? I can't. He has my zipper. She replied. He's got my arm. My arm is gone. Oh, my God. I'm dead. The bear lifted the sleeping bag into his mouth and carried it off into the woods. Soon as they reached the area of Roy and Julie had been camping, aiming their flashlights, they looked around. Blood painted the ground. There were shredded pieces of sleeping bags and some shoes on the ground. Okay, so I'm just gonna pause for a moment. This is the part where it is very gruesome. So I just want to forewarn everyone to be prepared that this part is hard to hear. And this description of Julie is what Jack Olsen described in Night of the Grizzlies.

• 1:04:39Speaker 04

  Julie lay on her face in a hollow. Her body was ripped and torn, and she was covered in blood. To the first observers, it looked impossible for her to be alive. She moved her lips and everyone could hear her say, "It hurts."

• 1:04:53Danielle LaRock?

  Moment of silence.

• 1:04:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, now, if you haven't heard Night of the Grizzlies, go listen to it. It's horrendous.

• 1:05:02Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. I mean, it's good. And it's just one of the most traumatic stories that I have ever heard, period. Like, not even just for this show specifically. I'm talking ever in my life. And I think a lot of people would agree. And I will say the second most that people were talking about a lot was the Bolt from the Blue story that you did. Just something about lightning is, it's just so hard because it's, you know, a force of nature that you can't, you can prepare for and do your best to avoid, but... It's, that story was rough.

• 1:05:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, and I think the victims of the lightning strike just really struck a chord in a lot of people hearing in detail what happened to them. But also, I think the Jenny Lake Rangers, just knowing this, this team of people who go out into these really dangerous places to rescue people who have gone through some really horrible environmental things. It was inspiring and tragic and awful. And that was definitely one of my favorite ones to research.

• 1:06:16Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, yeah, that's a question we get a lot.

• 1:06:26Danielle LaRock?

  But speaking of other questions, in another life, what would your profession be?

• 1:06:33Danielle LaRock?

  You have to work. You have to choose a profession. I know you were gonna say,

• 1:06:38Danielle LaRock?

  I wouldn't work.

• 1:06:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, I don't want to answer anymore.

• 1:06:42Danielle LaRock?

  Like, let me stop you right there.

• 1:06:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  In another life, what would I be for a profession? And I don't have to like,

• 1:06:51Danielle LaRock?

  I think we should also specify, like, money is not an obstacle.

• 1:06:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay, money is not an obstacle.

• 1:06:58Danielle LaRock?

  Like, imagine whatever you're doing, you're making a comfortable living, and that's, it's fine.

• 1:07:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. I think it would be really cool to be a glaciologist.

• 1:07:07Danielle LaRock?

  What?

• 1:07:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  I think it would be so cool.

• 1:07:10Danielle LaRock?

  When we went to Antarctica?

• 1:07:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  Have you? When we went to Antarctica and we had that glaciologist who was giving talks about the glaciers and how, and they go out and they study them and they're melting and, and what's in them and if they have life in them and things like that. And they go into these really cool Arctic or Antarctic locations.

• 1:07:31Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  That seemed really cool to me.

• 1:07:34Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, I am shocked by that answer, but it's a cool answer.

• 1:07:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  Thank you. I thought about it the other day and I had this conversation with someone the other day. So it's a new, it's a new idea. But if podcasting doesn't work out.

• 1:07:48Danielle LaRock?

  Head to Antarctica. They need you.

• 1:07:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Glacial people.

• 1:07:53Danielle LaRock?

  I think I would be, I know I would be doing something either as a historian, working as a historian in some capacity. Whether that's

• 1:08:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  I could see that for sure.

• 1:08:07Danielle LaRock?

  in like academia or just giving guided tours or working at a museum or something, just something to do with the study of history is what I would be doing.

• 1:08:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  I could see that for sure.

• 1:08:22Danielle LaRock?

  Moving on, uh, oh yeah, back to the trauma. We're not done.

• 1:08:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  Back to the trauma. Yeah. Which, um, yeah, which episode traumatized you the most researching?

• 1:08:33Danielle LaRock?

  This one was difficult to answer because we've clearly covered so many stories at this point in time and just having to think of not only the main episodes, but then also Patreon episodes we've done and bonus content. And honestly, I think this was one that you may be surprised by, but the honeymoon from hell that I did.

• 1:08:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:58Danielle LaRock?

  I, for some reason, that one was really tough for me. I read the book Ruthless River for that episode and

• 1:09:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  That was a crazy experience.

• 1:09:13Danielle LaRock?

  I mean, it had spoiler alert. Um, if you haven't listened to it, they do survive, but just barely. And something about, I think what it is, is same thing with Yossi, going back to our man, Yossi, is something about being in the Amazon and being on death's doorstep. When you're in a place where thousands of people, millions of people have thrived for millennia.

• 1:09:45Danielle LaRock?

  Because they know their way around the land and how to coexist there and like what to eat, what not to eat, how to find, you know, whatever is needed to sustain life just so easily. And yet as visitors and you're just in this place, like you're in the most biodiverse, rich place in the world and you're starving to death. Or you can't find enough clean water to live. And it's like, there's a, there was a poster in my high school English class that said, and I know it's a famous person who said, I don't know who, but it says, water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink. And it was about being stranded in the ocean.

• 1:10:30Danielle LaRock?

  And you're like, I'm literally surrounded by water, but I can't, I can't drink any of this and I'm gonna die. And it's kind of the same thing of like, you're in this place that you could easily survive if only you had the skills and knowledge to do so.

• 1:10:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  Knowledge is power. So why was it so traumatizing for you?

• 1:10:50Danielle LaRock?

  Just because it made me spiral. I'm like, there's so much to learn. I never want to be in a situation where I could survive, but I just don't know how.

• 1:11:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I think that's such a valid fear. Especially because when you hear stories like theirs in particular, they didn't know that was gonna happen to them. It's not like they could have like studied it like in hindsight, it's like I would have studied every plant species in the Amazon and what was edible and not and, and known my way around, but just to, you can't know all things.

• 1:11:23Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, but just to have a foundational knowledge that can at least get to you a little, and I mean, their circumstances was just one bad thing after the other. And it was just like way out of their control. But yeah, so I don't know, that one was just kind of, and we've had so many stories like that where it's like.

• 1:11:39Danielle LaRock?

  If they just did something different or whatever, and we never say that because we don't want a victim blame and I sure as shit wouldn't know what to do.

• 1:11:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, and it's not blaming, it's just a fact that they just didn't have the knowledge and.

• 1:11:52Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Well, what's yours?

• 1:11:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Mine was hands down the nutty putty cave story, which I did as a Patreon story. I am a little bit claustrophobic myself in that story. If you haven't heard it before, essentially it's this man goes spelunking in this rock that is no longer, this cave in Utah that's no longer available to the public because of this event, but he got stuck in an upside down position and rescue came in and tried to help him. And his wife was speaking to him throughout this whole ordeal and they just couldn't get him out of this space and he slowly died. And it was horrific and traumatizing for

• 1:12:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  not just him, but also the rescue personnel who had to be part of it and his wife who was speaking to him for hours while this whole ordeal went on. And it was just such a

• 1:12:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  the way he died and then also just the people affected because of the way he died. It just all of it just traumatized me for sure. And all the plane crash episodes I've ever done. I don't like planes anymore. Traumatized myself.

• 1:13:05Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, you did that one. You did yourself dirty for sure because you have gotten, but it is kind of like, along with more knowledge, it comes more awareness.

• 1:13:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  Knowledge makes you scared.

• 1:13:19Danielle LaRock?

  It does. Yeah. And I see it firsthand with you. It doesn't prohibit you from going anywhere. I mean, your love of travel and experiencing new places and things overrides your fear of flying for now, but the trajectory you're going, I'm worried for you because it has escalated quite a bit in the last few years. And it's just more so of like, When we're booking flights, she'll look at the particular aircraft.

• 1:13:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:49Danielle LaRock?

  Um, and say no to certain ones. And when we're on the plane, if any sort of weird sound or event happens, she's on it. She's, her ears are perked up. Even when I think she's asleep.

• 1:14:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  I can't do anything.

• 1:14:04Danielle LaRock?

  But she doesn't sleep. We've already established that. So she's always listening.

• 1:14:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  Always watching, like, always watching.

• 1:14:12Danielle LaRock?

  That's right. Okay. Well, favorites, I guess. Um, we get this question all the time. Personal favorites.

• 1:14:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  Uh. I already mentioned mine.

• 1:14:23Danielle LaRock?

  Which one?

• 1:14:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  One of my favorite was the fatal lightning strike, the Jenny Lake Rangers in Grand Teton. That was one of my favorites for sure.

• 1:14:32Danielle LaRock?

  To research. Yeah.

• 1:14:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:34Danielle LaRock?

  And then mine, I had the same, we did a four year anniversary episode as well. Um, and this question came up in that episode. My answer is the same. Uh, the manmade man eater. Jim Corbett National Park, uh, episode 52. Is that great?

• 1:14:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's a good one.

• 1:14:52Danielle LaRock?

  Wow. Yeah. 52. Uh, super good. It has all the elements of what I find really interesting in stories and that always kind of ties back to human wildlife conflict. That's kind of my thing. Um, so yeah, uh, that was my favorite to research. I just found it so interesting. The book was great. No Be So Fierce, if you want to look into that. Um, yeah.

• 1:15:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Speaking of books.

• 1:15:17Danielle LaRock?

  Books, books, books.

• 1:15:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Books. So many books for NPAD. If you've been, if you've been on our website, there's a whole book recommendation list there. If you've been listening for a while, you know that 70% of our episodes end with a book recommendation. At the end, we've read. I have not counted how many books we've actually physically read for research. Cause I'm sure it kind of varies a little bit between, since we both researched, but, um.

• 1:15:44Danielle LaRock?

  I would say it's solid 70 each.

• 1:15:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it's a lot. A lot of books. Which one was your favorite?

• 1:15:52Danielle LaRock?

  Uh, yeah, definitely between what I just said, no be so fierce. Or I think gun to my head, I would have to say the third man factor.

• 1:16:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  Hmm.

• 1:16:06Danielle LaRock?

  Because I just, that was one of my favorite episodes to research, um, just because of the subject matter, just kind of like in survive, in a lot of life or death situation, not just in the outdoors. I mean, the book itself goes into other scenarios, including the terrorist attacks in nine 11 kidnapping situations, hostage situations, things like that. Um, but about, you know, that, that voice that people get in life or death situations in their head, you know, is that, what is that? It, you know, is that a spiritual thing, guidance?

• 1:16:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  And why does so many people experience it?

• 1:16:48Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Or is it you? Is it just some part of your brain that you're, you've disassociated from yourself and you're interpreting as a third person? Um, and it's just, it's so fascinating. I love that story. We got a lot of trail tales about third man factors and people experiencing the third man factor themselves, um, which is another cool, I would love to bring back if people, um, have their own stories like that. Um, but yeah, I really loved that one. It was great. That was episode one. What did I write? 1456. So good luck finding that. It's either 146 or 156.

• 1:17:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  1,046.

• 1:17:29Danielle LaRock?

  You gotta wait a long time.

• 1:17:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Yeah. And mine was the Wall of White by Jennifer Woodley. She also wrote A Bolt From The Blue and the Wall of White, she talks about the deadliest avalanche in US history. Um, that took place at a resort in Tahoe and I actually was originally just a Patreon episode and I released it as a main episode, but she just really dives into avalanches and what happens when you're caught in one, what happens to the human body when you're caught in one, how long you have, um, typically to survive. And the story itself is really miraculous for the people who.

• 1:18:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  Who did survive and then also just the efforts of the community that came forward to help the people who were caught in this avalanche. I just thought it was an extraordinary story. There's documentaries on it now. Um, that came out after I actually recorded this episode. So you get to see the faces of the people who were involved in the documentaries, which is really, really an interesting perspective, but that was.

• 1:18:37Danielle LaRock?

  You love an avalanche story. You've done at least three.

• 1:18:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I do like avalanche stories.

• 1:18:43Danielle LaRock?

  You did the one in the White Mountains, White Mountains, that one, and then the one in Washington. Those are right off the bat, three that you've done.

• 1:18:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  Avalanche scare me a lot.

• 1:18:53Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  But I mean, you've been in one now.

• 1:18:58Danielle LaRock?

  You've been caught in an avalanche.

• 1:18:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  On a group trip. On a group trip. Yeah. Oh, my God. We were gonna dive into group trips next because we have gone um, across the world and around the past few years. We started them in two thousand and twenty-three, but Danielle actually got caught in an avalanche on one of our group trips.

• 1:19:15Danielle LaRock?

  I did. Yeah. Um, we were, it was our group trip to Colorado at the beginning of twenty twenty-five, January of twenty twenty-five. And this group trip was a little different because we kind of split it up. So Cassie did a backcountry ski snowboard AVI course and I did a backcountry snowshoeing um, group. And on one of the days, we, we went out and it was one of the most well-traveled trails in Rocky Mountain National Park, but it was in some pretty, I wouldn't say all of the, it wasn't scary. Like, it's not like, oh, we shouldn't have been out there. It was just, we rounded a corner.

• 1:20:01Danielle LaRock?

  The snow was. Just right.

• 1:20:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  And it was a steep rocky cliff side on the corner and it was a really short period where you're in this section too.

• 1:20:11Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Oh, super short.

• 1:20:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's super short and people walk it all the time with their kids. People don't have AVI gear here.

• 1:20:19Danielle LaRock?

  Right. Yeah. We're not like deep in the back country or anything, but.

• 1:20:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  You wouldn't expect it here.

• 1:20:24Danielle LaRock?

  But yeah, just it wasn't anything like, I mean, our guide Reed, who listens all the time. Hi Reed. He was pretty shaken up about it because he's like, you know, not only have I never experienced something like this before, I'm with other people, you know, that I need to be concerned about. And so he took it very seriously. So I'm not saying it wasn't a big deal because it could have been, but thankfully, just the first couple people. So I was, I think, fourth in line and the first two people got swept off of the lost poles, like got buried a little bit, but quickly popped up and like gave us their an okay signal. The person right in front of me kind of got pushed down the mount- the

• 1:21:08Danielle LaRock?

  mountainside a little bit and I was just buried up until like my knees. And then everyone behind me was fine, but it happened really quickly. It was scary. Everyone was fine. But yeah, that was something.

• 1:21:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  My side of the group went back the next day to use it as a teaching lesson on how to find avalanche conditions.

• 1:21:26Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, to study. Yeah.

• 1:21:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  So it was great.

• 1:21:28Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, it worked out all around.

• 1:21:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Everyone was fine. It was a good teaching moment and it was also really interesting because our guide for the AVI course, he was actually telling us that he had concerns of that area and he had been writing into the National Park Service that he felt like it was a dangerous area and he was going to use your experience to write back into them to be like, hey, we need to put signs here.

• 1:21:53Danielle LaRock?

  This is what I'm talking about.

• 1:21:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  This is what I'm talking about. Something really bad can happen here and they were going to put signs. So hopefully that has been, it's a bad situation that went the best way it could. Everyone was totally fine. He walked out with an experience and hopefully now I'm there. I don't know, I haven't been back this time of year, but hopefully there's signs now.

• 1:22:18Danielle LaRock?

  Well, speaking of other places we've been, do you want to just like rapid fire list them off?

• 1:22:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:24Danielle LaRock?

  And these are just for everyone, for everyone out there, these are just National Park After Dark group trips since mid 2023 that we have done, not, not-

• 1:22:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  Around.

• 1:22:38Danielle LaRock?

  Not personal trips, not side quests, like this is literally just for the show and with listeners. So we'll go in chronological order.

• 1:22:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  You want to do every other one?

• 1:22:48Danielle LaRock?

  Go for it.

• 1:22:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  We're gonna do it fast. Egypt.

• 1:22:51Danielle LaRock?

  Patagonia.

• 1:22:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  Alaska, twice.

• 1:22:54Danielle LaRock?

  Banff, Jasper, and Yoho National Park.

• 1:22:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  South Africa.

• 1:22:58Danielle LaRock?

  Madagascar.

• 1:22:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Peru.

• 1:22:59Danielle LaRock?

  Quebec.

• 1:23:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Acadia National Park.

• 1:23:02Danielle LaRock?

  Borneo.

• 1:23:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Antarctica.

• 1:23:04Danielle LaRock?

  A moment for Antarctica.

• 1:23:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  A moment. Pour one out for Antarctica.

• 1:23:09Danielle LaRock?

  Yep. Okay, I know we're going rapid fire, sorry. It felt like we needed to pause. Colorado.

• 1:23:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  And Hawaii.

• 1:23:18Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. So well, we've, so those are the group trips we've done. But we've also done a like, a little bit more unique group trips, like the one, the avalanche situation. And that was a second trip to Colorado for the backcountry ski, snowboard, snowshoe stuff. And we also did a Wilderness First Aid Course, certification course in New Hampshire.

• 1:23:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, that was fun. Yep. Hometown.

• 1:23:44Danielle LaRock?

  And then we also have done live shows, of course.

• 1:23:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  We have. We sold out the Stanley Hotel twice.

• 1:23:50Danielle LaRock?

  In one night.

• 1:23:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  In one night. Jinx. That's crazy.

• 1:23:54Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, couldn't believe it.

• 1:23:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  How?

• 1:23:57Danielle LaRock?

  That was a moment in time, for sure, of being like, I just remembered their, um, I don't want to call it a green room, but where the dressing room, kind of where they had us getting ready and prepared before the show started was above, kind of looking over the event space. And I just had a moment of being like, we were out on the deck of that little space that looked out into Rocky Mountain National Park, over Estes Park, we're in the Stanley. And I'm like, this is my job. But I cannot believe this is our career.

• 1:24:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  We're here.

• 1:24:33Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  And then watching people piling in to this beautiful room at the Stanley.

• 1:24:38Danielle LaRock?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:24:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  To come hang out with us and watch a show that we put together. It was definitely, it was one of, one of the bigger moments, I think, in our podcasting career so far to just be there with everyone in that specific location was just really cool.

• 1:24:55Danielle LaRock?

  So you have the Stanley Comedy Works in Denver.

• 1:24:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  Which was really close. Our first live show. Yeah, we did too.

• 1:25:02Danielle LaRock?

  Was? Oh, yeah.

• 1:25:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Comedy Works was our first ever live show.

• 1:25:07Danielle LaRock?

  I had the worst hangover after that.

• 1:25:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, we partied a little bit after that.

• 1:25:13Danielle LaRock?

  It was this, and it wasn't even like we drank a lot. I just drank a lot of champagne.

• 1:25:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  Hmm.

• 1:25:18Danielle LaRock?

  And that did it for me.

• 1:25:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was our first time.

• 1:25:21Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  And we went way over the showtime. They were blinking the lights at us to get off the stage, but we didn't know. We've never done this before.

• 1:25:30Danielle LaRock?

  We're like, oh, something must be wrong with the lighting. It's odd.

• 1:25:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  I rushed my story because we had taken up so much.

• 1:25:37Danielle LaRock?

  Wait, wait, wait. We need to pause on this because there's so much good stuff here. Okay. Not only did we go over by, I would say, a solid forty five minutes.

• 1:25:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:48Danielle LaRock?

  It was a long time.

• 1:25:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  We're sorry for people who had plans that day.

• 1:25:53Danielle LaRock?

  That was the plan. That was supposed to be the plan. Actually, we did get one person. We got one person who was pissed because they had a dog sitter. And they're like, and they were really mad. And it's like, sorry, we didn't mean to keep you hostage for almost four hours. Like, what live show goes for four hours?

• 1:26:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  We didn't know we were babies. Come back to another one. We'll do it in time. We promise.

• 1:26:15Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, we're getting our stuff together for real for the next round and more to come for that. But, um, so not only did we go over, completely ignore the workers trying to get our attention desperately, like, hey, wrap it up.

• 1:26:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  At first, I genuinely didn't know that that was them trying to wrap it up. I'm like, yeah, like, at first I was like, oh, are they doing like a light show on us? Or like, I genuinely didn't know. It took me a minute to understand what they were saying. And I was like, oh, shit. But I'm like, in the middle of this, like, I'll hurry it up and.

• 1:26:47Danielle LaRock?

  But as she's doing this, so, okay, so then we also, we didn't have iPads, nor did we bring a laptop. So we printed out, like, twenty five pages.

• 1:26:58Danielle LaRock?

  Of notes to read. Like making it rain on the ground. We would literally just take up, because we didn't even staple them together. Who needs that? It wasn't in a professional portfolio.

• 1:27:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:11Danielle LaRock?

  No access to a stapler. I remember putting together fifth grade presentation things in a better, in like a nice sleeve and like a packet. No, couldn't be me for that.

• 1:27:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  Show though. I had a nice time.

• 1:27:24Danielle LaRock?

  No, I'm not trying to take away from that. I'm just trying to say, we were, so we were taking all these pieces of paper, throwing them on the ground. We didn't even have a side table. It was on the ground littered with pieces of paper everywhere. And the cherry on top, we had each prepared, I did Alfred Packer, the Colorado Cannibal, and you did that, the, not the Wild Bunch, who did, I don't know, you did some Wild West story.

• 1:27:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't even remember.

• 1:27:56Danielle LaRock?

  You're like, I don't know, I brain dumped that the second the champagne hit. But we did, so we did these two stories. And we had prepared them extensively beforehand and had this, all these amazing pictures and slideshows and assets to go along with our storytelling. We get there, they're like, oh yeah, so our bulb for the projector broke, so.

• 1:28:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes, we had to go off pure talent. Of entertainment.

• 1:28:22Danielle LaRock?

  Oh my God, I'm like, oh no. So people are just gonna be staring at me. They're not even gonna be looking at a picture behind me.

• 1:28:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  There's nothing. It was just all eyes on us. And when we finally did wrap it up, we went and we did meet and greets, which were really cool. We had never done before. And we went way over time on those as well. Because we just, we hung out with everyone, like, they wanted, it was like, I guess a normal meet and greet, which we had never done before is like, you say hi and like, walk away, say hi.

• 1:28:48Danielle LaRock?

  Take a picture.

• 1:28:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  Take a picture, like, it's like a 30 second thing. And it was our first time and we had never met you guys. So we just hung out and talked to all of you.

• 1:28:58Danielle LaRock?

  Well, and when you're gonna

• 1:28:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  For a really long time.

• 1:29:00Danielle LaRock?

  You're gonna give us a homemade craft and tell us the story of how you took a road trip from Florida to get to our show in Denver, Colorado and had no other reason for being there.

• 1:29:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  That we are sat for this.

• 1:29:15Danielle LaRock?

  We are. You know, I, it just feels not right to just be like, oh yeah, thanks. Anyway, here's your picture.

• 1:29:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  You're our friends. What do you mean? We gotta, we gotta hang. I gotta know the rest of the story.

• 1:29:27Danielle LaRock?

  Comedy works were like, oh my God, these girls.

• 1:29:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Shout out to them. They really took care of us really well and they handled, they stayed late for all of this. They were super nice and they just like, they let us use their facility for as long as we wanted. And I remember at the end, we apologized and they're like, hey, you sold it out. Do whatever you want.

• 1:29:50Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Just in retrospect.

• 1:29:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  Sorry. If you invite us back on me works, we'll do better.

• 1:29:57Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Um, what else have we done? What else have we done?

• 1:30:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  We did the Joshua Tree live show, which was really cool because we actually did a camp out weekend. It wasn't a group trip per se, but there was like 80 of us, I believe, that were all camping in this huge campground in Joshua Tree. And we did like campfire stories and smores and we hung out with the Joshua Tree National Park Association and put on a show. And that was really fun.

• 1:30:25Danielle LaRock?

  That was a cool event because not only did it have the camping aspect, but we specifically did that show in partnership with the Joshua Tree National Park Association to help fundraise for them. And a portion of our proceeds went to that association, which is a nonprofit organization directly partnered with the park. So we're just always kind of being mindful of opportunities that we can partner with organizations that are in real time helping the National Park Service. So.

• 1:30:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  This would be a fun clip to play for people if we have it.

• 1:31:00Danielle LaRock?

  Oh yeah, if we have it, that would be great. Oh yeah. And then also for that one, we did it in a church.

• 1:31:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  An old church.

• 1:31:11Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 1:31:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  It converted. It used to be a church, but wasn't anymore.

• 1:31:14Danielle LaRock?

  But.

• 1:31:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  People sat in pews.

• 1:31:16Danielle LaRock?

  No, they did not.

• 1:31:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm just kidding.

• 1:31:19Danielle LaRock?

  But we were in a back room because there was no like official green room or anything. And we were in this back room, didn't have a single window, didn't have anything, but we could hear everyone filtering in. So we were trying to look through the grate of the door.

• 1:31:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  We were watching you guys through the grate of the door to see. And Al was there with a merch table because he was so, he was running the merch table and you guys were so nice. You flocked to him. And we are looking through this grate in the door and there's a line circling the whole building.

• 1:31:49Danielle LaRock?

  Out the door.

• 1:31:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  Just Al, just Al taking care of merch and he's like sweating and running back and forth and trying to take your payments and, but it was before the show.

• 1:32:00Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Pour one out for Al. He was the MVP that day. And then after the show, we got to hang and say hi and we helped him sell some merch because.

• 1:32:09Danielle LaRock?

  Another thing they say not to do. And we're like, oh shoot, what have we done? Because now this just turned into an informal meet and greet. And.

• 1:32:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  But we like saying hi.

• 1:32:18Danielle LaRock?

  Yes. What did we?

• 1:32:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  We came all this way.

• 1:32:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  We came all this way and you're not going to talk to us?

• 1:32:25Danielle LaRock?

  And then I felt so bad because we only ordered a certain amount of merch. We're like, this feels like, like not everyone's going to want something like this. This feels like enough. It was not enough. And then people were waiting in line for like an hour and we had run out of stuff. And I was like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. Talk to me for at least 25 minutes.

• 1:32:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. So this is all just to say that our shows are really good. You should come see us.

• 1:32:51Danielle LaRock?

  Come when we go places again. You should.

• 1:32:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:55Danielle LaRock?

  Consider coming.

• 1:32:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, like the Bamfield Festival in Burlington, Vermont is coming up really, really soon. It's February 6th and 7th and we have tickets there. So if you want to see Al at the merch table and maybe us helping him if he's struggling.

• 1:33:11Danielle LaRock?

  But she yeah, we'll we're gonna be there. Yeah.

• 1:33:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, we'll be there for sure.

• 1:33:14Danielle LaRock?

  All right. And last but not least, we did also do an event um at the Barn Door Hostel in New Hampshire. It was cool because they just kind of invited us to talk. It wasn't like a National Park After Dark exclusive event. We just happened to be one of the people there and it was um a fun opportunity to meet a lot of the climbing community in New Hampshire.

• 1:33:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:33:35Danielle LaRock?

  And yeah, we went, shared some New Hampshire based stories.

• 1:33:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, which was fun. It was fun to be up in the White Mountains. It was not far from where I went to college. It was just a really, really fun community. We camped out, hung out. It was very, it felt very like the good outdoorsy rustic that you're trying to vibes that you're trying to get. And it was just a really wonderful community and we had a nice time.

• 1:34:03Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, and we had two of our friends from previous trips come.

• 1:34:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:08Danielle LaRock?

  To see us.

• 1:34:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  And our dogs.

• 1:34:10Danielle LaRock?

  From Taiwan.

• 1:34:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes.

• 1:34:12Danielle LaRock?

  I mean, she didn't come just from Taiwan to go to that.

• 1:34:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  She was hanging out in New York City, but hi, Pay, if you're listening.

• 1:34:19Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  That was awesome.

• 1:34:20Danielle LaRock?

  Yep, her and Danielle came.

• 1:34:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, and Danielle came, which was really cool. And we were allowed to bring our dogs, which is the only show we've ever brought our dogs to.

• 1:34:28Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, Chaska hate, Chaska hates camping.

• 1:34:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, he does. He's a bougie boy.

• 1:34:34Danielle LaRock?

  He is a diva.

• 1:34:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, he can't camp. That's crazy, Danielle.

• 1:34:38Danielle LaRock?

  He was just wrapped up in my rumple blanket the entire time, looking like Eeyore. In my camper.

• 1:34:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  On like an actual mattress. And he's like, I hate this.

• 1:34:50Danielle LaRock?

  Like, you're bad for the brand.

• 1:34:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, my God.

• 1:34:53Danielle LaRock?

  It's like, be outdoorsy.

• 1:34:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  He is perfect. He's such a good boy.

• 1:34:57Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, to finish this up, let's just finish up with some uh questions, random, random questions that we've gotten. Okay, we did skincare. We did uh what else? What else?

• 1:35:11Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, this is a good one that I feel like we should wrap like or kind of make a more formal announcement about because we get this question all the time. For those of you who do not know, Cassie and I began a second podcast called Watch Her Cook. And we, a lot of people are like, when is where new episodes are always suggesting new topics for us to do on that show. And we very much appreciate that. But if you did not catch it in the last episode that we published of Watch Her Cook, which was Julia Child, fittingly, that was our end of season one. We are not saying it's done and gone and dead forever. But there are things in the National Park After Dark world that require a lot of our

• 1:35:56Danielle LaRock?

  attention. Even more so than, I mean, okay, were you here when we listed the, I don't know, 20 places we've been?

• 1:36:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, we we just went over the past five years. We've been really busy. And we just have other things that require our full attention. So we don't have plans for a season two, but we hope to someday. But as of right now, we are fully focused on National Park After Dark.

• 1:36:23Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, but the all the episodes for Watch Her Cook are still up and available. And we encourage you to listen to them because Watch Her Cook was Cassie's brainchild. And I know we've posted like some, maybe at least one episode. I know we posted Mary Shelley's episode on the National Park After Dark feed. And we've talked about it before, but we're proud of the show. It's just we can't, there's only so many hours in the day. You know what I mean?

• 1:36:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  There's so much to do, so many things to see.

• 1:36:50Danielle LaRock?

  Yep.

• 1:36:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes.

• 1:36:52Danielle LaRock?

  So, okay, so that kind of goes into, first of all, how dare you ask this, any 2026 side quests?

• 1:37:00Danielle LaRock?

  Are you kidding me?

• 1:37:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  I have enough quests.

• 1:37:04Danielle LaRock?

  I, there's too many quests to handle.

• 1:37:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  A side quest.

• 1:37:10Danielle LaRock?

  If I could have a side quest, though, what would it be?

• 1:37:15Danielle LaRock?

  And I, I say this a lot. I hate when people are like, creators in particular, like something's coming soon. Can't tell you anything about it, but I'm going to tease you about it for a year. But we really are working on things we can't tell you about.

• 1:37:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  But really?

• 1:37:30Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Something's coming soon. But things are happening. But yeah, so we are working on some things that are very exciting and we can't wait to share with you. But I don't think they're going to allow for many 2026 side quests. There is one thing, actually, I'm doing, I'm looking forward to. For Christmas, my mom got me a trip, mother daughter trip. We're going to Halifax, Canada in May. And the whole reason is we were gonna go in April to be there on the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. But the ferry isn't, doesn't run until May. So we're gonna go then,

• 1:38:12Danielle LaRock?

  and go have a Titanic themed week. Because for those of you who do not know, a lot of the victims of the sinking were brought to Halifax are interred in Halifax. And a lot of the buildings have ties to the tragedy. So.

• 1:38:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  You know what? I'm really glad that you mentioned that because you have tied the Titanic into everything throughout the past five years. And it feels like it would be a really missed opportunity if we didn't mention the Titanic on our five year anniversary.

• 1:38:44Danielle LaRock?

  You're, you're right.

• 1:38:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Remember when I used the Titanic ship as measurements in a, in an episode? I can't even envision what 20 million tons of water looks like. So I wanted to understand the scale. And I wanted to put it in a way that you would also understand the scale. So I wanted to know how many Titanic. Ships are 20 million tons of water.

• 1:39:13Danielle LaRock?

  Thank you so much for using this measurement. Please tell me.

• 1:39:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  Have you seen that meme where it's like Americans will use anything but the metric system?

• 1:39:24Danielle LaRock?

  And here we go.

• 1:39:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  And here we go. This is the amount of Titanic ships.

• 1:39:28Danielle LaRock?

  Can I guess? A ton is 2,000 pounds. I don't know. I'm gonna say 17 Titanic's.

• 1:39:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Not even close. It's the equivalent of about 382 fully loaded, like passengers, everything in it, Titanic ships.

• 1:39:44Danielle LaRock?

  Whoa. Well, I get the scale now. Who needs the metric system?

• 1:39:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  We understand math.

• 1:39:50Danielle LaRock?

  We get math.

• 1:39:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's just great that I was able to Google that, too.

• 1:39:54Danielle LaRock?

  Well, I really appreciate that. It's one of my favorite things you've ever done.

• 1:39:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  And remember, it's holding 382 Titanic ships.

• 1:40:02Danielle LaRock?

  I haven't forgotten.

• 1:40:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, and the Johnstown flood. I'll never forget. I was so surprised by that. I gotta bring it back. I haven't had any measurements that I've needed to use a Titanic ship, but the next time I do.

• 1:40:17Danielle LaRock?

  I would love for you to continue. Yeah, please. Do you have any quests you'd like to take?

• 1:40:24Danielle LaRock?

  A honeymoon, perhaps?

• 1:40:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I haven't gone on a honeymoon yet, and it's not looking promising. So 2027, here we go.

• 1:40:32Danielle LaRock?

  Here we go. Coming in hot. That's okay.

• 1:40:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  A honeymoon.

• 1:40:36Danielle LaRock?

  And that's our next phrase. Life is a honeymoon. That doesn't land well, actually. Mine isn't.

• 1:40:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  That didn't land.

• 1:40:48Danielle LaRock?

  Nope.

• 1:40:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  Check out our merch. Life is a honeymoon.

• 1:40:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, we have one last, long awaited questions and one of our most frequently asked questions. And that is, will we ever do a joint trip with Tooth and Claw?

• 1:41:05Danielle LaRock?

  Will we? Or won't we?

• 1:41:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  The world may never know.

• 1:41:10Danielle LaRock?

  Just kidding, you'll know. Because we are. Uh, now's the time to tell you. Kind of. You're just gonna have to wait and see.

• 1:41:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  Something's coming soon.

• 1:41:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  And it's a trip with Tooth and Claw.

• 1:41:24Danielle LaRock?

  Honestly. Like actually, yeah. Yeah, we're organizing right now in the works, a joint Tooth and Claw National Park After Dark trip. And it's been something that we have collaborated on for a while to make happen. And we're getting kind of the final details in order as we speak. So we will have that available to everybody. And by everybody, I mean Patreon is definitely going to get first access and dibs, as is only fair.

• 1:41:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes.

• 1:41:56Danielle LaRock?

  But we will be releasing more details about where we're going, when we're going, the type of trip, all of that in the next actual couple of weeks.

• 1:42:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, so keep an eye out.

• 1:42:07Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 1:42:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Come hang out with us on Patreon if you want to know first.

• 1:42:11Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, so that's happening. That's super exciting. We know that you guys really enjoy Tooth and Claw, as do we. And they're kind of like our closest relationship when it comes to people in the biz. Like they're obviously huge overlapping audiences and just we get along with them very well. We love them very much. So we're very happy to be able to do something all together.

• 1:42:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it'll be a really good time and you guys are going to be stoked when you see where we're going.

• 1:42:40Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, you're going to be stoked. I just want to say it. I want to say it. I won't, I won't. I can't.

• 1:42:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's why her hair is so big. It's full of secrets.

• 1:42:50Danielle LaRock?

  I know. I got it.

• 1:42:55Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, everyone, well, thank you so much for hanging out with us and for this episode and the 300 plus that have preceded it and for the last five years and hopefully another five. Truly, our lives have been changed for the better. Being able to.

• 1:43:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  Because of you guys.

• 1:43:13Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, being able to do this job. Couldn't do it without you. So thank you. We love you and appreciate you and hope that you're with us for many more.

• 1:43:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, welcome to 2026. We have a lot happening this year and we'll see you all soon. But in the meantime, enjoy the view.

• 1:43:32Danielle LaRock?

  But watch your back.

• 1:43:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's a phrase we did not put in the phrases we use at the beginning.

• 1:43:38Danielle LaRock?

  Does that count?

• 1:43:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  I think so.

• 1:43:41Danielle LaRock?

  Or is that a tagline?

• 1:43:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's still a phrase. It's on everything.

• 1:43:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  But anyway.

• 1:43:48Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, don't even get me started on trying to TM things.

• 1:43:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  Roll the bloopers of enjoy the view, but watch your back.

• 1:43:58Danielle LaRock?

  You would think we'd understand how to just say it.

• 1:44:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  We don't. I'm surprised.

• 1:44:03Danielle LaRock?

  Have we said it since episode one?

• 1:44:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:08Danielle LaRock?

  Wow, I'm surprised by that.

• 1:44:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, yeah. Uh, I think so, but I'm not sure.

• 1:44:17Danielle LaRock?

  Somebody can tell us. I'm certainly not going to fall on the sword and listen to our first.

• 1:44:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know. Let's hear our first episode ending.

• 1:44:28Danielle LaRock?

  Ah, roll it.

• 1:44:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Hey, everyone. Welcome back to National Park After Dark.

• 1:44:33Danielle LaRock?

  Hello, everyone, and welcome back to National Park After Dark. I'm Danielle. I'm listening today.

• 1:44:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm Cassie. I'm telling the story.

• 1:44:40Danielle LaRock?

  And here we go.

• 1:44:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  And here we go. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to National Park. I'm Cassie.

• 1:44:46Danielle LaRock?

  After Dark.

• 1:44:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I'm Danielle. Did I just say National Park?

• 1:44:49Danielle LaRock?

  Yes.

• 1:44:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Welcome to this unhinged episode of One Star Reviews.

• 1:44:54Danielle LaRock?

  Boring.

• 1:44:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Danielle, I looked up a song you said you love. Don't Fence Me In, and it's a song I'll always keep. Tell me more music you love.

• 1:45:03Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, my God, that's so funny that you bring this up.

• 1:45:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Hello.

• 1:45:10Danielle LaRock?

  I just got so excited. My old mic fell off.

• 1:45:14Danielle LaRock?

  I'll just hold it like this for now. Thank you so much for asking.

• 1:45:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Less visibility.

• 1:45:19Danielle LaRock?

  There's music playing. A hero.

• 1:45:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  There goes my hero.

• 1:45:25Danielle LaRock?

  Oh.

• 1:45:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Different songs.

• 1:45:29Danielle LaRock?

  This podcast.

• 1:45:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  This podcast. This podcast is brought to you by National Park After Dark.

• 1:45:36Danielle LaRock?

  Thank you for joining us again this week. If you love National Park After Dark and want to hear exclusive bonus stories, join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Patreon subscribers have access to our National Park After Dark Book Club, live streams, Discord, and much more. If you prefer to watch our episodes, video episodes are now available on YouTube. If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform. And to follow along with all our adventures, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X at National Park After Dark.

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• 1:46:50Speaker 06

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