Bringing the Mountain to the Movies ft. Andrew Kightlinger

Director Andrew Kightlinger joins NPAD to give us all a glimpse into the making of the much anticipated film - Lost on a Mountain in Maine. From his upbringing in Madagascar to his working interview on Katahdin, Andrew shares how he became involved with Donn Fendler’s story and how proud he was to bring one of Maine’s legacies to the big screen. For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials: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 this week’s partners! The NoSleep Podcast: Visit TheNoSleepPodcast.com to learn more about the show and find hundreds of hours of archived episodes. 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.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:29Speaker 01

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• 0:58Danielle LaRock?

  Hello, everyone, and welcome back to National Park After Dark, the very first episode of the year 2025.

• 1:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  Here we are. I can't even fathom that, 2025. Crazy.

• 1:12Danielle LaRock?

  It's been a wild ride for us, because this month will mark our four-fourth birthday. We're four.

• 1:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  We're four years old.

• 1:23Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, our four-year anniversary birthday is coming up towards the end of the month. We have a fun episode planned to celebrate that, but today is an interview episode, and it's with someone really cool, because it ties into an episode that I actually covered earlier this year, when I was still in Colorado, so I wasn't a Mainer yet, but now I am. And the story that I covered was about Don Fendler and his survival story on Mount Katahdin, which, in the state of Maine, and in New England in general, is just kind of like part of the stitched into the local legend of this region. Like, everyone knows this story, and a lot of children are actually taught it in school.

• 2:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it's very, very popular. And it's cool that you covered it, because just being from New England, it's like, wow, that's so close to here. It's such a popular story. It's so well-known, and... Yeah.

• 2:20Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 2:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was, and now it's a movie.

• 2:22Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, and now it's a movie. So that episode, back when I covered it, was highly, highly requested for us to cover on the show. So that's why I chose to do so. And I'm glad I did because through the research and just, we'll give a brief synopsis, but if you want to listen to the episode in its entirety, it is episode 210, and I titled it The Lost Boy. And in it, I tell the story of Don Fendler's survival on Mount Katahdin. After becoming separated from his hiking party on Mount Katahdin in July of 1939, 12-year-old Don Fendler survived alone for nine days, struggling to survive by leaning on both his Boy Scout skills and his faith until he was ultimately rescued. At the end of that episode, which was a wild

• 3:05Danielle LaRock?

  one, go back and listen to it, I did mention that throughout my research process, I saw kind of whispers that this story was going to be turned into a film. And I couldn't get any concrete information, but the, what I did see was like Sylvester Stallone's production company is, was rumored to be involved. I'm like, what in the hell? Which was really cool. Everyone loves Sly.

• 3:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 3:33Danielle LaRock?

  So that, we kind of just left it at that. And we recommended everyone read Don's book, Lost on a Mountain in Maine. And so many people, especially from New England, is like, yeah, I actually had to read that in, in elementary school. But anyways, so we kind of left it at that. And then fast forward to the end of 2024, and we were put in connection with the director of Lost on a Mountain in Maine.

• 3:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes, which is so exciting because we were put in contact with him. And now today, we're having him on the show to talk about the movie and the story and his experience with creating this movie. So today, we are welcoming Andrew Boothu Kite Linger, the director of the film, to talk about how he worked to bring Don's story to the silver screen.

• 4:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  Thank you so much, Andrew, for joining us on National Park After Dark. We're so excited to have you here and talk about Lost on a Mountain in Maine. And I guess as we get started, we would just love to know how you got started in your journey to becoming a filmmaker.

• 4:56Speaker 04

  Oh, God. A lot of it sounds like a lie, to be honest, when I tell people. It's like, wait, you grew up where? But I was I was born and raised in Madagascar. And my parents were medical missionaries. So they would they would trek into the rainforest and they would stay in villages for weeks at a time and administer vaccines and build clinics and do all those things. And I was just this little, I was like Lindsay Lohan at the beginning of Mean Girls, you know, she had that African experience. That was sort of my life. And, you know, it was, you know, little barefoot kid running around. And when I was five, you think that that would be enough to escape. But when I was five years old, we got our

• 5:40Speaker 04

  first VHS player. This was in the 80s. And I saw E.T. for the first time. And that when that I know, it's classic.

• 5:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  We all remember that moment.

• 5:50Danielle LaRock?

  I just, God, yeah, love that film.

• 5:54Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's it's it's still, it holds up. And and so that movie sort of lit this fuse of what is that? You know, as a five year old, you're not thinking, I want to be a director, I want to be an actor. But you're thinking, what's that feeling? I want to be a part of that. And I don't know why I sound like I'm from New York and I own a pizza shop.

• 6:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  1930s.

• 6:15Speaker 04

  Yeah, 1930s pizza shop owner. I want I want to make pizzas in New York. But but that was sort of like began my obsession with movies. And then I became further obsessed. And then I was an only child and my poor parents are both microbiologists. And they're both very sort of woe is me about the fact that their only child wanted to be an artist to like apply. Why can't you just be a scientist like us? And

• 6:44Speaker 04

  And then eventually, when he moved back to the US when I was 12, which is a weird time to move back, and I moved back to South Dakota. So we moved back to another sort of very outdoorsy, kind of wild place, kind of like Madagascar, but totally different at the same time. And, um, and that began my kind of, the way I adjusted to American society was getting into theater and getting into comedy and all that stuff. And then that sort of led me down the path of making movies. And then, you know, eventually in college, I decided to double down on it and decided I was delusional enough to, to, to take a crack at the career. I just glossed over a whole bunch of stuff, but that's like the

• 7:26Speaker 04

  elevator version of, of like, why I wanted to make movies. And I think thematically, why I want to make movies is, is I am a storyteller at heart. Um, and I have something to say, and I don't know how to say it any other way, um, except through like a visual medium. And, you know, I love the way ET made me felt. So if I can be a part of that for some other kid someday, or old person, whoever is watching, or the two of you, then, then I've done something worthwhile with my life.

• 8:01Speaker 05

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• 8:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  It sounds like filmmaking is definitely your calling. And I really, uh, kind of going back to something you said at the beginning, where you said you referenced Mean Girls as being, uh, an example of your life. I just love the progression of that, too, because then you're like, then I moved back to the United States and went into theater. And I'm just picturing Lindsay Lohan, like on stage after. And then she goes in and she's just picturing everyone fighting like lions. And, uh, it just.

• 9:00Speaker 04

  Yeah, that kind of is, when I saw that movie, I'm like, huh.

• 9:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Feels vaguely familiar.

• 9:09Danielle LaRock?

  Well, it's it's interesting because when we were reading up on your short bio and stuff, and we read that you were from Madagascar, or you were raised in Madagascar, we have of all the places that we've been on some group trips, we went to Madagascar with some of our listeners, which was a really cool experience. And so hearing that you are from there is just like, wow, I like of all the people and all the connections. And now we're talking about a story that's based in Maine, where, you know, we kind of grew up around. It's just, it's really cool. But yeah, Madagascar is a I can't even imagine that upbringing is

• 9:48Danielle LaRock?

  just so different from yeah, from life here, you know, and how how was that adjustment coming, especially at 1212 is a weird age to begin with.

• 9:58Speaker 04

  It's a very weird age. I'm in therapy now because of it. First question for you. Do is there an episode about Madagascar that I missed that I should be listening to?

• 10:12Danielle LaRock?

  I don't. Yeah, we did. We did an episode with Dr. Raywin Grant about her. It wasn't specifically a story based in Madagascar, but we talked about her lemur research while she was there. Yeah.

• 10:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, I know of her. Yeah.

• 10:29Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, we physically brought people with us to Madagascar.

• 10:33Speaker 04

  That's amazing. Yeah, I mean, so Madagascar, that's India. I've heard of Dr. Grant, like Jurassic Park, but I am, but we actually growing up knew the Jane Goodall of lemurs, who was Pat Wright. And so she was kind of like this, this, this family friend. Yeah, you know, like, you're right, Madagascar is, I always say it's at the ends, it's the literally the ends of the earth. You couldn't find a farther place to go. And it's, you know, one of still one of the top 10 poorest countries in the world. And when you go there, there's something almost biblical about it. And I mean that not in the religious sense, I just mean that in sort of the primordial sense, it feels like you're going to where like Earth

• 11:15Speaker 04

  was forged for the first time or something. There's something very elemental about it. Yeah. And when we moved, you know, as a kid, I obviously took that upbringing for granted. I one of my, I just wrote an article about it for another publication and I, I, I was kind of digging back into my memories and this is kind of gross, but we're in a national parks after dark podcast. So if you like, I can talk about gross things.

• 11:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  Sure can.

• 11:40Speaker 04

  Well, one of, one of my like core memories is running through the rainforest with all my friends. And I grew up with Malagasy kids. I didn't have like a, people think about missionaries and think, oh, he went to a boarding school and he wore like a little suit. That wasn't my experience. My, my experience was like, I was a jungle kid and I remember running through the jungle with my Malagasy friends who were barefoot and just like racing through it. And then one of them had a tummy ache and he had to relieve himself. And I remember him just pooping out this pile of worms that looked like linguine, you know, and that, and then that was, you know, and then he just, that was life. And then he just pulled his pants back up and we kept running, you know, and that was, but they were like, yeah, they were like alive. It was gross, but they, that's like one of my core memories as a child.

• 12:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, yeah, that'll stick with you.

• 12:28Speaker 04

  It will.

• 12:30Speaker 04

  You know, and I have had my own share of worms. Just my father, my father's, you know, a scientist. So he's weird inherently and he's kept all of them in little vials of alcohol, which we still have in the house here in the US. He's like, he's like, oh, this is the, the tapeworm you had when you were six. I'm like, oh.

• 12:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  Some people collect teeth. Some people collect worms, you know?

• 12:49Danielle LaRock?

  Intestinal parasites. Yeah, right.

• 12:51Speaker 04

  Usually they become serial killers. So, but, um, so yeah, so we moved, moved here when I was 12, which my parents just finally wanted to get out of the mission. And I think they wanted, I was becoming too French. This French was my first language growing up. And I think I was like, oh, we on baguette. And I was becoming a little too, oh, so they're like, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna come back to the US and we're gonna Americify him a bit, um, for better or worse. And, um, yeah. So we moved back in. It was weird. Like I was, you know, we moved to central South Dakota in Pierre, Pierre, Pierre, as we like to say here. And, um, and I was at the time, other than the,

• 13:31Speaker 04

  Lakota Indian students in my middle school. I was the darkest kid. Well, not that dark, you know, I'm like olive skinned. But I was, but the fact that I was from Africa just made me this kind of other, you know, and I had to decide as a kid. You know, at that age, especially like, do I embrace this? Do I like push it away? And I kind of ended up making my origin story my super weapon and kind of just leaned into it. You know why? That was my, my response to it. Um, and eventually, yeah, people just embraced me as like this, you know, kind of goofy kid from Africa and, you know, it, it worked out. But yeah. And then throughout that process of adjusting, I think I, movies were always sort of like my, my baseline. Like I would go and rent,

• 14:15Speaker 04

  you know, seven Friday the 13th movies at the local video store and then watch them, you know, in succession. My parents like, oh God, he's going to turn into a serial killer. So then they like forced me to be friends with people. And then I became, you know, got into theater and all that jazz. But yeah, it was a tough adjustment. I mean, how was, was middle school hard for you? Or did you love middle school?

• 14:35Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I don't know if anyone loves middle school. I think everyone would just rather forget it happened. And I think many people do. They just kind of like glaze over that part.

• 14:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  I wish I could forget middle school, but.

• 14:48Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 14:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Playing to the memories.

• 14:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  I just, I see pictures of myself in middle school and I just remember things that I was doing in middle school. And it was just as like a teenage girl, like I remember this maybe is, I just, I remember just doing weird things and like, I remember I would have like crushes on people and I would like, write weird notes to people that were really embarrassing now. I, I remember this is maybe too much information, but I like stuffed my bra and in math class, all of it fell out onto the floor.

• 15:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  There are things from middle school that I do not miss, but I will never forget about it.

• 15:35Danielle LaRock?

  Well, there is memories in kind of like tying it back to the movie world of middle school for me. It was like the blockbuster was the place to be, you know, like every weekend I had a ritual with my dad when I would go see my dad. Like, he was a huge movie person and kind of passed that love on to me. And I don't know if it was a way of just being like, all right, I got you for the weekend. You go get some movies. I'll get my movies and we'll just, I'll order us a pizza and we'll part ways. But we, it was just so exciting because it was a big to do. Like, you didn't have the access that we have now to streaming services and on demand things and on your phone and iPad

• 16:20Danielle LaRock?

  and laptop. You, you had to physically go peruse around. And then like, sometimes you'd be like, I really want to see this movie. You get there and it's, you know, it's just the card. And you're like, oh, somebody else has it.

• 16:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  Or you open it, the DVD, and there's nothing in it because someone took it.

• 16:34Speaker 04

  That's devastating. I mean, that, I miss that because, because now with streaming, you know, that's supposed to open things up. But I'm sure you've done the thing where you want to watch something, then you spend 35 minutes deciding what to watch. And then you just end up not watching anything at all, or just turning on an episode of Golden Girls again, you know? I do that. I don't know if anybody else does that. But, but what was great about the sort of prison of the video store is you go in and if you, if the movie Chairman of the Board, I don't know why I just coined that movie, but it's a terrible movie with Karen Topp from the 90s. There's a great YouTube video with Norm MacDonald on Conan talking about it. Google that afterwards because it's one of the funniest things you've ever seen in your life. But if you rented Chairman of the Board, because that's the choice that you made, when you took it home, you had it and

• 17:19Speaker 04

  you had to watch it, right? Like, you made your choice. But that was streaming. If you get five minutes into Chairman of the Board, like, I'm bored. And then you can cancel and look at something else. And sometimes I'll watch like the beginning of six different movies, and then it's back to Golden Girls in the end. So I miss, I miss the decision you had to make at the video store.

• 17:38Danielle LaRock?

  The commitment.

• 17:39Speaker 04

  The commitment, exactly.

• 17:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was also a real, it was a real plan. It wasn't like now you just like hop in your living room or wherever and you turn something on and you're like, all right, I'll sit down and watch this. And then you might get distracted. If you're renting a movie and you're buying the movie candies that are there, and like the special popcorn, you are going home and you are, like, you're probably with friends, you might be with a sibling or your parents, like, it is a set. Event that is happening that night when you rent that movie. And it's very different now with streaming because you can turn it off. You can turn it back on later. It's just kind of, it's more, you just like hop in and out.

• 18:16Danielle LaRock?

  Well, it's passive. It's passive now. And it wasn't as like in gate, like before you just had to really, again, make a decision, whether it be going to Blockbuster or going to the theaters to see something, which to this day is one of my favorite things to do of all time. I love going to the movie theaters and I'm always kind of bummed when things just kind of get directly out into streaming services and kind of bypass the whole theater. Or they're like, okay, it's in theaters for two days. You better get on that. You know what I mean? So, but anyways, yeah, so kind of going back to the, the movie we're all here to talk about because we could talk about movies, every other movie for a long time. But how did you get specifically involved in this particular film?

• 19:01Danielle LaRock?

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• 20:19Speaker 04

  So the boring answer, and then I'll go to the more exciting answer. The boring answer is that I have managers and my managers procured it. They found it through, they did what they're supposed to do. And they found that Stallone's company Balboa, who had been incubating the movie for a couple of years, though it had been incubating for a long time as a film from about 15 years prior with a producer named Ryan Cook, who's a mainer. Would have been good to have on this podcast in hindsight. Whoops. Anyway, but he could be a great separate interview. I think he's climbed Katotin like 35 times, but um, yeah, which is a commitment. But he, he had been gestating it for a long time. And then another producer named Dick Boyce came on, who's this,

• 20:58Speaker 04

  you know, used to be like the CFO of Pepsi and whatnot. He came on and then it ended up at Balboa and then they were trying to find, I think, Balboa's whole ethos, obviously because it's Stallone, is underdogs, like they, you know, obviously Rocky, Rambo, yada, yada, yada. Number one, this project was interesting to them because it was about a kid who was an underdog, who overcame this amazing thing and they had never done, Stallone had never done a movie about a kid before. And then I think in finding a director, they were looking for an underdog as well. They were looking for somebody that nobody knew. They could have hired, you know, I was up against 10 other directors, some of whom I won't name, but had directed pretty big movies. And, but I think they wanted somebody who was kind of fresh and you know, and whatnot. They also needed to find somebody who physically could take the demands on

• 21:41Speaker 04

  of shooting a film in the wilderness. And so after a bunch of interviews that went really well, my final interview for this movie was to fly out to Millinocket, Maine and to climb Katotin. That was the final test. And, and I climbed with, we had, we were out there for a week. I mean, we took like a plane up and we saw where Dawn, you know, we saw where Dawn was stuck in the Klondike, yada, yada, yada, and all retraced his steps. We like bushwhacked through the Silver Maple Flood Plains. And then of course we climbed the mountain itself. And I'm a long distance runner, so I have endurance thankfully. But I can't say that I'm like, I love hiking. I love the outdoors. The Badlands in South Dakota is like one of my meccas, probably the Mecca.

• 22:25Speaker 04

  So I'm a big outdoorsy person, but I'm not, I'm not going to be one of the People that's gonna do like the AT someday as much as I think that'd be a magical thing to do. Yeah, like I'm not, I don't need it. Some people need it. I don't think I need it. But if somebody said, hey, we're gonna, you know, you go three months to the AT, I'm like, maybe. But um, so I didn't have like the hiking gear. So they sent me this, this list. I'm one of those guys like, I'll hike in my sneakers. He's like, you can't do that. You have to get boots. I'm like, okay. So I get the boots and I do the hike and hike was pretty hard, but I made it at the top and was exhilarating. I loved it. And then I got the job. And so that's how this all came to be. Um, and then we hiked it again, which we can talk about later at, at the end of the shoot to actually film on the mountain as well.

• 23:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's quite the working interview to throw you on Katahdin and

• 23:11Speaker 04

  It was. No.

• 23:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  What time of year?

• 23:14Speaker 04

  It was, it was in September. So it was like the perfect time. It was, it was, you know, the leaves were turning. It was stunning and it was like a beautiful day. Perfect weather. I kept stripping off clothing as we're hiking to the, it was getting too hot. Yeah, it was great.

• 23:29Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I mean, a lot of people vastly underestimate New England climbing, um, hiking. Because if you look at the numbers on paper, you know, it's like four, 5,000 feet. Okay. Like whatever compared to 14 plus out in the Rockies. But with the elevation changes and where you're starting out and the ascent, they're just way different and they're, um, they're no joke. And you kind of get a sense of that once you're doing it. And if you're not prepared, it's even for the most prepared of people, it can really humble you fast.

• 24:05Speaker 04

  Well, what's, what's interesting about Katahdin is really like, not only the grade, but that it is like doing the step house, the stair stepper for five hours. Cause I did, I did a 14 year in Denver in March and I did that like with snowshoes and that was pretty easy. You know, it was hard, but it was like pretty easy because you're not really climbing boulders or taking like huge steps other than you're in snowshoes. Whereas Katahdin is, it's almost right away. You're just going straight up. And it doesn't relent. And yeah, I think people do underestimate that, but it's a beautiful hike. I would, if I could do it every year, I would, to be honest. Have you, I assume you've done it?

• 24:46Danielle LaRock?

  Uh, no.

• 24:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  We haven't.

• 24:48Speaker 04

  What?

• 24:48Danielle LaRock?

  Really?

• 24:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's pretty far from us.

• 24:50Danielle LaRock?

  It's kind of embarrassing. It's like a little embarrassing to say.

• 24:53Speaker 04

  I'm sorry I outed you on the podcast.

• 24:55Danielle LaRock?

  It's okay. We'll, we'll take it out.

• 24:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  We'll edit this part out.

• 24:59Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Well, we, uh, we both grew up in New England, so we both grew up in Southern New Hampshire. And currently I am in Maine and Cassie's in Vermont, but it's still, it's so far out there. It's still a four hour drive plus from Maine in the state, you know? So, but we'll get to it eventually. Um, it feels like a must now because we're embarrassed, but.

• 25:28Speaker 04

  That's funny.

• 25:29Danielle LaRock?

  So that's how you got involved with the film to begin with. So you're, you're now involved. How, what was the process like bringing such a story that's, I mean, this is like really ingrained in New England's fabric of being like a lot of people who were born and raised here or has spent any sort of significant time here, whether they consider themselves outdoorsy or not, are familiar with Don's story. And that has a large part to do with the publicity it received at the onset, when it was, when it happened, but also just his legacy of continuing to speak about it. And he just spent most of his life talking about that experience. So how did you, were you a little intimidated?

• 26:13Danielle LaRock?

  Or were you excited?

• 26:15Speaker 04

  Yeah, excited. I'd never heard of the story because I'm not from New England. I went to school in Boston, I guess, but I even then I didn't, I didn't really hear of it. You know, I, I wanted the challenge of doing like a true story. I'd never done that before. And, and something that I hadn't written myself, that there was a screenplay already written and that I would come on board and interpret it. And I also felt like the movie had producers on board and Ryan Cook and Dick Boyce and Derek Desmond, who, Ryan Cook and Derek Desmond knew Don. Don personally, Don was basically a grandfather to them and they knew him up to when he died in 2016. They were stewards of his legacy and they were there the whole time, making sure that I didn't,

• 26:56Speaker 04

  you know, do something insane like Don is battling a wolf with like a carved spear or something out of wood, you know, like things that just absolutely did not happen. And they were there making sure that we captured the essence of what his, of why he wrote the book and then ultimately why he kept talking about it to kids for decades beyond that. And I think he was trying to teach people about the power, the triumph of the human spirit. And how if you have something that you can cling on to, whether that is faith or family, or it could be a pumpkin pie that's been left home in the fridge, whatever it is, that's going to compel you to crawl back to survival and to civilization. He just wanted to inspire people.

• 27:39Speaker 04

  And I think there's something very elemental about that. So for me, it was just capturing that, that essence in the movie. Um, and I saw an opportunity when I read it to make a movie that we don't see that much anymore. And by that, I mean a PG rated live action movie for families. We just don't, those don't happen. We get animated films all the time, but we don't get that. That's why I'm excited about Wicked, because Wicked is kind of a movie for everybody and it's PG and you can go and enjoy it with everybody. But, um, but this was an opportunity to do something like The Black Stallion or White Fang, these kind of outdoorsy movies that I loved as a kid, which, or Alaska, I don't know if you ever remember Alaska. Did you see Alaska with Thora Birch?

• 28:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  No, I don't think so.

• 28:18Speaker 04

  Great, great, great. We should check it out. It came in that white, you know, the, the white VHS tapes that.

• 28:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, yeah. Yes, I do remember this.

• 28:26Speaker 04

  Alaska was one of those movies and, um, and I remember having it as a kid and, you know. So I wanted to make something like that and I saw an opportunity to make just something for everybody. Um, and Don's story. And I know, you know, it's funny, I didn't really feel pressure to get it right until after we made it and we showed it in Maine. And when we premiered the movie in Maine in July, that was like a goo, you know, like what's going to happen here. But in the end, people liked it. In fact, some people loved it. It's like one of the highest grossing movies of all time in Maine now.

• 28:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  Wow.

• 28:58Speaker 04

  Because, yeah, which is pretty amazing because, because I think we captured his essence. You know, not, maybe not every detail is the same. Maybe it's not, you know, some people see it's not exactly the book. You know, or we've took and taken some liberties here and there, though I'd say it's about 90% accurate. But it captures what he tried to say to the world. And that, to me, was the most important thing.

• 29:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, I think the fact that you went out into the mountain yourself too, it makes a huge difference. You were in the locations where he was when all of this happened. And I have to ask, when you were out there and you did the hiking and you were in these locations that he was in, how did that affect the way that you chose to do the movie? Did you feel like you were connecting to Don's story while you were out there?

• 29:44Speaker 04

  Absolutely. You know, initially I wanted to shoot the entire thing in Maine. That was my goal because I wanted to shoot in the real locations. You know, I grew up in South Dakota as well, so I know what it's like to shoot in a state where like movies aren't made it up that much. People sort of open up their doors to you. It can be very like, if you wanted, you know, we weren't ever going to shoot on Katahdin, though I tried.

• 30:06Speaker 04

  But, you know, they weren't going to let me take 12 year olds up to Katahdin and shoot up there. But it did help, it did help when we went to upstate New York and shot a hard, large portion of the movie in the Catskills. To have Baxter State Park and Katahdin in my head and have the actual silver maple blood flains. To have all these places kind of in my soul so that when we were location scouting to find approximate places that this doesn't feel like it, we can't do it here. But this does. And then eventually we did, you know, we also, we can tell we built to the mountain on a down stage. Like that was one way we achieved a lot of the, the mountain, like storm scenes in the movie.

• 30:47Speaker 04

  We built an 80 foot by 80 foot replica of the peak of Katahdin and whatnot. But eventually we did go back up to Maine for five days and we did aerials out of a helicopter. And then a crew and I climbed the mountain with like 60 pounds of gear, which is, and, and we, we was like an 18 hour hike round trip. Where we, we chose the worst weather day possible because we wanted bad weather on purpose. And we hiked it and it was the hardest physical thing I've ever done in my life. Because on the way down, we had filmed at the peak and everything, and then it started to rain hard. And then night came because I wanted sunset shots and stuff.

• 31:28Speaker 04

  And then eventually we were hiking down about seven hours in pitch black with just headlamps and pouring rain. And the trail became like a river and you didn't know where you were going. So you just had to kind of like dawn himself. You had to use the white markings on the trees to find your way down. So I wanted that experience like we could easy gone and shot this wherever, you know, but I wanted to make sure that the movie felt like it was part of Maine and that we had and that the audience felt like they were part of that experience when they watched the film and came out of it and it felt like, oh, I've just been through a hike myself.

• 32:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it certainly conveys that way. I remember when I watched the movie and I think it's the opening scene where there's aerial footage of Katahdin. And I'm like, oh my God, there it is. And of course, like I haven't been up there, but just being from New England, I've seen so many pictures and videos and I know I have friends who have hiked the AT and they've, and so I've definitely seen stuff so immediately. I was like, wow, it's really here. It's in Maine, um, because there recently there is a movie that was put out that was in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

• 32:32Danielle LaRock?

  You're gonna say.

• 32:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, my God.

• 32:35Danielle LaRock?

  Did we see it together or did we just talk about it?

• 32:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  We didn't.

• 32:39Danielle LaRock?

  We're like, wait a second. We don't want to say it like, we don't want to shame anything, but like.

• 32:44Speaker 04

  Naomi Watts movie?

• 32:45Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 32:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah.

• 32:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, so that there's video footage and I think they, I forget exactly where they filmed it. It was in Switzerland. It was in Switzerland. I was going to say Sweden or Switzerland or Norway or something.

• 33:00Speaker 04

  Might have been Croatia.

• 33:02Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, really?

• 33:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, there's, well. It was mountains that have no resemblance to Mount Washington.

• 33:09Danielle LaRock?

  Wherever it was. Like to the person who has never been to New Hampshire or the New England area. It like they could be like, oh, wow. Like New Hampshire is really packing, you know, like, whoa.

• 33:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 33:21Danielle LaRock?

  We're like, whoa, that is not what I'm.

• 33:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  Hold on a minute.

• 33:25Danielle LaRock?

  So we looked up the filming locations because it was just.

• 33:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  I mean, for everyone who is not familiar with the area, like it it still fit. It wasn't like it was these lush tropical mountains in New England or anything. But to people who are from here, it just kind of made you feel a little disconnected and disjointed from the storyline. So here with you and this film, it's nice to be like, even though there are some locations that are not in Maine, you still took the time and diligence to be like, this really aligns and this feels.

• 34:02Speaker 04

  They think authenticity is, Don was such an authentic person that if the movie wasn't authentic, we'd be doing him a disservice and be doing the state of Maine a disservice. So that was like, very, it sounds like a talking point, but it's not. It is just sort of what I like. I really did believe that going into it and, you know, like South Dakota, the Revenant is a South Dakota story, but there are no mountains that look like the Revenant because they shot it in Argentina and in British Columbia. We don't have mountains that big, you know, but they came here and decided it was too boring, like rolling prairies are not as interesting as giant peaks, you know?

• 34:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 34:41Speaker 04

  But sometimes, you know, filmmakers take license, but for me, it was really important that the people of Maine embrace this movie, which they have. So we must have done something right.

• 34:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I think as New Englanders and people in Maine, when you see a spot that is based on your location, it's exciting. And then, like I said, the opening film, seeing Katahdin right there, immediately I was like, okay, we're in it, like we're here. And I felt connected to it when I watched it. It was my first, actually, my first thought watching it was like, wow, it's really here. I'm really excited to watch this movie. And following the movie, it was, I thought that you guys did a really great job of really portraying that Don was a child's because as I'm watching this and I'm watching the

• 35:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  actor going through the mountains and walking, like walking these, this really difficult terrain, even though I knew the end. Of what happened from the book and everything, watching it, I was just like, oh my God, this is a child. And it really reiterated how serious of a story that this was. And I think that that was something that you guys did really well because that was so important for Don's story is that he survived as a child through all of this. In directing that, was it hard to get those scenes to be able to be in this rough terrain and portray like the feelings that was happening?

• 36:06Speaker 04

  Well, I guess the answer to that would be no, because we cast the right actor for the role. So we auditioned about 150 boys to play that, to play Don. And narrowed, and narrowed in on, you know, Luke Bloom. And obviously he's very like all American looking, you know, but that's, you know, that's kind of what, what the, the movie is sort of harkening back to nostalgically. And he was more than, I wanted to find a kid who loved to hike and who was more than down to just roll in the mud like a pig, you know, like that, that, because that's me, right? Like running through the rainforest, people shooting worms like this. Without, to me, it's like, okay, great, you know? So I wanted, on day one, we were shooting this shot in a marsh in New England, which we knew, we knew what we were going to do is eventually,

• 36:51Speaker 04

  because it was just a marsh with sky in the background. And we knew eventually what we were going to do is use visual effects. We were going to film Katadon and then put Katadon in the deep background. So this is kind of one of the kind of iconic stills from the movie is Don walking through this body of water and this mountain in the background. And that's actually a composite of two different locations geographically. And so I said, we're going to, I want you to be out in the water, but I didn't just tell him to go. I went out into the water up to my chest and said, come out here. And so he was more than willing to do that. So I think that got us in tune right away that we're going to roll around in the mud together. And one of the other things that I think brought out that child likeness in it is that there's an, there was an earlier draft to this movie that was more like The Revenant

• 37:36Speaker 04

  in the sense that the kid was getting swept up by rapids and falling down ravines and having to climb out and do this sort of this kind of action hero stuff. But eventually, being because you're making a movie and budgets dictate certain things, we decided, well, let's just focus more on the human elements of this movie and not have all this fake spectacle. The movie will be more like how it was in real life, which is a kid just walking through the woods. And what that allowed us to do is to have that sequence in the film where he's just having fun. You know, having a good time in the water. That was my favorite day of shooting because it was just me and the kid and the crew and the sound guy and the camera. And we're just, we're going in the water and okay. And I'm like, go under this, this like waterfall and just, you know,

• 38:19Speaker 04

  and gargle the water. And so I'd do it and he'd do the same thing, you know? And, and so we just had like, I was able to be a kid as well, because I am one, you know, at heart. And that allowed the kid, him to be more childlike. But then as the movie progresses, he does grow up. It is a coming of age movie. And so he was, you could see as we were filming the movie, he took the more metaphysical stuff towards the end more seriously. And, and then at the end, it does feel to me, as I draw it out, just because I made it, I think the kid's performance is, is sublime. And it's because it feels like he's grown up and learned something by the end of it.

• 38:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. And I love that you mentioned the part where he's playing because to me, that was the part where I really was like, oh, my God, he's a child. Like, he is a child lost in the woods. And when he's out there just playing and having a nice time as an adult, I don't think that that would happen if I like, if I was lost in the woods, I wouldn't, I don't know if I would find this time to like splash around in the water and have a nice time. I'd be like, oh, my God, I'm gonna die out here. And but for that moment, I was like, he's a child. He's out here. And it just kind of added this amazement of how he survived for so long to it. And I agree with you, by the end where he is found, it's, he's changed from where he was at the beginning of

• 39:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  the movie when they started the hike to at the end. And I just thought that that was really, really well done. And that of just creating the child's atmosphere with it. And I was, one of the things that I, that we noticed in the movie is that with the way that it was done, there was a lot focused on his relationship with his father, which wasn't as much of a focus in the book. And we were curious of why you decided to highlight that dynamic.

• 40:09Speaker 04

  Great question. I mean, You know, there is a version of this film that is just his POV or in the forest within the entire time. I mean, that movie's been made before. So I think what we saw was an opportunity to kind of broaden things and broaden the viewing experience. And we also happened to have, because our producer, New Dawn, and New Dawn's family, we had this backdoor to other stories and like the other side of the equation, which was the parents, you know, in this feverish, you know, in this feverish attempt to find him and then to mount up this, this amazing search effort, which I think to this day remains the biggest in the history of Maine, if not one of the biggest in the country, too. And so we had all this stuff.

• 40:53Speaker 04

  We also had all that documentary footage was made into the film. We had all that stuff which was shot in the 80s. And we just, we just saw this other side of the story. And I think for me, as a filmmaker, like, survival movies are a dime a dozen, to some degree. You mentioned the Naomi Watts film, which is a movie that I, you know, as a non-New Hampshire, you know, resident, I enjoyed as a survival film. But I feel like we keep seeing those types of movies. This one is more about, you know, the psychological trauma that is inflicted by all the people around the kid as well. And these two parents that have to reckon with, oh, we might lose him. And specifically with the father, I just thought there was an interesting, interesting way to

• 41:37Speaker 04

  explore just the dynamic between parent and child, which I think anybody, are you, any of you parents, I never want to assume that, but. No. No. No. Me neither. Me neither, no. But, you know, I know I have enough friends at this point in my life that are having kids and they're always, you know, muttering about, oh, they're going to screw up their children. How do I not screw up my child? And but what would happen? And I, so I thought that that was just an interesting thing to explore because no matter what, if you lose them, you're clinging to it. So I feel like I'm getting off the trail here, so to speak, with what you were asking. But the goal was to just give this movie more of a dimension so that I think it could reach a wider swath of audiences. And also, that you'll learn, I think,

• 42:20Speaker 04

  I think it's actually a fuller experience. Because not only is the kid surviving and yay, trying for the human spirit, but there's a father who has this. This very specific view of what it means to be masculine. And it's actually the wrong view. And he learns through the film, oh, vulnerability is important. And I reminded the, the, the crew every day on set before we'd even film a single frame. I'd say, this is a movie about a father and a son who just want to hug each other. And that sort of gave people, oh, okay, that's why we're making this. And I think that's when people, they see it, they come out and they think, oh, okay. I better call my sister who I haven't talked to in three years because I, I probably should.

• 43:03Speaker 04

  Or let me call my father who I haven't talked to in a month, you know? Um, that was always my goal is to bring people together and that father, son dynamic is that image.

• 43:14Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, well, you, earlier in our conversation, you mentioned just in passing, like you want people to leave with a feeling or like that you have reflected back on the times that you've seen certain films that left you feeling a certain way or left you with something after you left the theater or, you know, the tape ran out. So is that kind of what your ultimate goal was with thinking of what do I want people to feel? Once they see Lost on a Mountain in Maine, is that like just kind of being together? And kind of this connection with their loved ones type of feeling?

• 43:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think when all, when all is said and done, and you know, everybody has different relationships with their family. Um, and when all is said and done, when we're stripped of everything. And then in, in, in the wilderness, literally, even if you're just on a hike by yourself and you know, you're going to be okay. It becomes a very kind of, you know, quote unquote, spiritual experience. And you start to think about all these things, you know? And I think my goal was to remind people that when all is said and done, we, we should always be able to go back to the source. And the source is family. And that's where you're going to find, find your grounding. That's. Beyond the earth itself, that's where we're most grounded.

• 44:34Speaker 04

  And so, again, my goal is, it's happened a couple of times where people will say, oh, I saw your film. And I immediately had to call my child afterwards, once the credits started rolling, to tell them that I love them. That, to me, like, I've done my job. That's the goal. And I also want to inspire people to go to national parks. I want kids to see, like, oh, I love the outdoors, you know, I don't want to get lost in it, but the outdoors seem fun and wondrous and, you know, and maybe there's a bird god hidden in the forest that I could talk to, you know, things like that. But I'm hoping that that sort of inspires kids to take the outdoors seriously, but also to be in wonder of it. And tell their parents, I want to go to Glacier, or I want to go to the Badlands, or Zion, or Baxter State Park.

• 45:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  I mean, that resonates with us very much because that's the whole point of why we created this podcast was we might be telling dark stories and things that have gone wrong in the outdoors. But the underlying reason behind it is we want to help inspire people to enjoy them, but enjoy them in appropriate ways and to be safe and to learn from other people's mishaps that have happened in the outdoors. So we can definitely resonate with that.

• 45:42Speaker 04

  Have you ever, have you ever been, I'm asking you questions here, but have you ever been lost in the wilderness?

• 45:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, together. Together, yeah. I wasn't like, we weren't fearing for our lives or anything. But we were hiking up in the White Mountains and we were doing a six mile, I think it was six or eight mile trail, that ended up being 16 miles. Because we got, there were, the trails that we were on, there were intersecting trails that led to other mountains and stuff. And we don't know, like, where we stepped off, where we went. We were always on a trail, but there did reach a point where we were like, what trail are we on? And why was this a six mile trail? And we're looking at our phones and we're clocked at 12 miles already. And we're like, ah, something has gone wrong here.

• 46:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  And eventually, we did find our way out. But Danielle has a really funny video of when we finally got to the bottom, to the parking lot, where I'm just like laying on the ground, like, call the police. Call the paramedics. I made it.

• 46:50Danielle LaRock?

  I remember we went out to eat after that and it was like the best meal I've ever had. You know, I'm like, oh my god.

• 46:59Speaker 04

  No.

• 46:59Danielle LaRock?

  And it wasn't even that deep. It wasn't that serious. But yeah, I really appreciate.

• 47:03Speaker 04

  Something about like a hard hike and then the meal you have afterwards is always, I remember every meal I've ever had after a hard hike. Like I just always.

• 47:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's different.

• 47:13Speaker 04

  It really does.

• 47:14Danielle LaRock?

  I equate it to the feeling of so different, but it's like a similar, in the similar vein of feeling when you have like a really nice day out in the sun, like at the beach or like doing something with, um, I don't know, like if you're on vacation or whatever, you're out in the sun. And then you go and you take a nap and then you wake up for like dinner or to finish your, like that nap feels so good. Cause you're tired from being in the sun and doing physical stuff. And then you just like get reborn after that shower and nap. It's like, it's definitely that feeling for me.

• 47:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  Have you ever been lost on any of your adventures?

• 47:53Speaker 04

  I guess the most, yes. I would say the most recent one, well, really fun one, but I won't tell that story was in Madagascar recently. I went back in 2018 and 2019 to visit my father who had gone back because he joined the Peace Corps after he retired. So he was like a 65 year old guy and he was back doing work there. So I went back and visited him and went back to the homeland, quote unquote. And I remember trekking and getting lost in the rainforest and it was raining that day. No, was it raining? It wasn't raining. And so the leeches were out in full force. And it was one of those things where these tiny little leeches that they would, they would just cling to the, the low grass. And as you walk through them, they would eventually just glom onto your body. And at one point I had a hundred leeches just hanging out on my leg.

• 48:38Speaker 04

  It was disgusting. Uh, but that's not the story I was going to tell. Uh, I would take like a little, little match and try to burn them. And leeches are gross because they're like, they were probably like one of the first things to ever survive on earth. And that just like creeps me out. They'll still be here when we're long gone.

• 48:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Primordial.

• 48:54Speaker 04

  Yeah, primordial, yeah. Like, uh, but they're amazing, too. But no, we actually, on that hike to Kataden where we did the, where we filmed, when we were at one point, there was me and this other guy. We kind of split up and not too much from, there was about five of us and we, we just kind of had our own little pockets going because we had different speeds. Like, one guy had done the AT like twice and he was, had his pole and he was trucking down. But it was dark and it was raining and all we had were the headlamps and you couldn't see anything. And there was a point, and, and the trail at this point was just a washout and there's just water running down the mountain. And at one point we stopped and we couldn't see the trail anymore. And we couldn't see white markings in the trees. And I said, is this the trail?

• 49:40Speaker 04

  Or did we just start following a stream? Like a new stream that was buried from the rain. And there was a moment of like, there was panic for like a second, like, oh, okay, I've just become the movie I just directed. I'm an idiot. But then, but then the next thing, like you said, like, what, what do we do as adults in a situation like that? Or like, well, hold on, what do we do? Let's stand here and wait. Let's not keep moving. Let's wait. Let's see if anybody else comes. And if we have to spend the night here, I'd rather we stay here. Don't move. Spend the night, wait for, you know, the sun to rise, we'll be cold, but we'll survive. And then we'll find our way down. We'll figure out, we'll figure something out. Because you hear about how people will keep going.

• 50:25Speaker 04

  And then they find their bodies later and the body was only like 15 feet off the trail or something the whole time, you know? So I tried to listen to those instincts. Luckily, we, we stood there for like five minutes and then we saw this, a headlamp searching in the dark and it was one of our other people right behind us. But that was one moment where I felt like I was dumb, like we should have been more careful. Um, but you know, stuff like that happens. So that was, that was probably the one time I got like truly lost, like, oh, God. You know, art imitating life.

• 50:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, now you have an experience, yeah. Well, now you have an experience of, uh, you know how you'll react in a emergency situation like that.

• 50:59Speaker 04

  Who knows? I mean, if there was a bear involved, I would just start running. I don't know.

• 51:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, let's not do that.

• 51:05Speaker 04

  You're not supposed to do that.

• 51:09Speaker 04

  But you're right with a bear, you're just supposed to essentially like

• 51:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  Depends, depends.

• 51:16Speaker 04

  I see this so many factors.

• 51:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  The factors, the bear species, what's going on?

• 51:21Speaker 04

  Okay, see at that point, it's like, take me. Elizabeth, I'm coming to join you. Yeah, it's like, just take me if this is meant to be, it was meant to be. What a way, what a way to go, to be honest.

• 51:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  I mean, it's a, it's a cool story, I guess, at the end of the day.

• 51:37Danielle LaRock?

  I don't know, there's a lot of like, if, yeah, like, is it just like a, you get an artery severed and it's pretty like quick bleed out? Or are you getting eaten alive? Or like, what's the context?

• 51:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  I just wouldn't want to go by a black bear.

• 51:51Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, they sit on you and eat you.

• 51:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Well, black bears, they'll also like grizzlies, they like attack to kill. Black bears will just sit on you and like rip you limb from limb and like eat you.

• 52:02Danielle LaRock?

  Eat you, yeah.

• 52:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 52:04Danielle LaRock?

  The more you know, do you want to talk more about this? We could talk so much.

• 52:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'd rather get taken down by a grizzly.

• 52:10Danielle LaRock?

  I'd rather be taken down by a cat, a feline, a cougar. Literally, snap your neck and let's get it, let's get it moving.

• 52:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's so funny because we wanted a bear in this movie because there's a bear in the book. You know, it's, he's not attacked by it. He just sees it and he's like, you know? But I, I wanted it and we ended up not getting it because a trained bear, there are only like three trained bears and they're all on the west coast and they all cost about 50 grand a day to rent. So we just couldn't ultimately afford that bear. And they were also all like grizzly, brown bear, grizzly types. So they didn't actually fit the milieu either. Yeah, but I, I was disappointed because I just wanted to hug him. You know, he's a trained bear, so you can give him a hug.

• 52:51Danielle LaRock?

  Can you?

• 52:52Speaker 04

  I would have tried. I would have asked and if they would have said yes, I would have just given a little bear hug.

• 53:00Danielle LaRock?

  I know. It's like, you're not supposed to say it, but like, I would really like to do that, too.

• 53:05Speaker 04

  Bears are cute. They're cute.

• 53:07Danielle LaRock?

  They are really cute.

• 53:08Speaker 04

  They really are.

• 53:09Danielle LaRock?

  There's a reason they're teddy cuddly bears that people get for, yeah, little stuffed animals. Anyway, we're getting off track. I don't even know what else to ask you.

• 53:20Danielle LaRock?

  Well, you did mention that you are outdoorsy yourself, even though you're not like have goals to do the AT or anything. But Cassie and I have talked quite often actually about the Badlands area because we went there once together on a trip just for pleasure. And it was so, we were so taken aback by how amazing it is there. And it's just super underrated, I think, especially in the realm of, I don't know, the national park worlds of, you know, the big bucket list places. You know, a lot of people don't really put the Badlands up high. And I think that's, we found that that's kind of a mistake because they're so amazing.

• 54:04Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 54:04Danielle LaRock?

  So is that somewhere you go often to? Or are you to have your sights set on anywhere else?

• 54:11Speaker 04

  No, anytime that I'm back home in South Dakota, because my dad still lives here, we will do a trip to the Badlands. We're about a two and a half hour drive from it. And we will do a hike. I will sometimes take my camera out there and camp or take a motel. But sometimes I've set up a tent and, you know, take a couple of cans of sardines and water and, you know, wake up for the sunrise somewhere. But this was really interesting. It's just like, it feels like you're on a different planet, you know? It's kind of like when you're in Zion. I just did the Narrows last year in Zion. And I feel like that's one of those places where every corner you expect to see like a brontosaurus drinking water because it feels like you've gone back in time. And that's how the Badlands feels. And there's a specific place in the Badlands

• 54:56Speaker 04

  that's part of the national park, but it's close to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. And it's called Sheep Table Mountain. Now I'm giving away trade secrets from South Dakota.

• 55:07Danielle LaRock?

  Like, I'm taking notes.

• 55:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know, write it down.

• 55:09Danielle LaRock?

  Sheep Trade Mountain.

• 55:10Speaker 04

  Sheep Sheep Table Sheep Table Mountain. And it's, and it's just this beautiful.

• 55:17Speaker 04

  Primordial was the third time we've used the word on the on the recording today. Primordial space that looks like you've you've you've landed on Mars or something. And it's a really great place to just pitch a tent and just. You want to see the Milky Way and almost touch it. That's where you go. And you can hike anywhere. What's nice about the Badlands too is generally they're pretty loose about where you hike. You know, and don't be an idiot and fall down a ravine, but they're pretty loose about it. So you can kind of explore and and look at all these little nuggets of places. Those rules might have changed, but that's kind of how we've always known it out here. Yeah. And it's kind of like a best kept secret national park in a way. Um, the people are, people should not bypass it because there's something about it that's very poetic and kind of fulfilling.

• 56:02Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Well, we always ask people like, what's on your list? Like, what is the next place that you haven't been to, but you're really anxious to see?

• 56:09Speaker 04

  Man, I live in, I live in Los Angeles now and I have to go to, I've never been to Yosemite. So Yosemite is Yosemite. I need to do all the hikes there. Like that is the next thing on the list.

• 56:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes. Yosemite is really magical. You gotta get out there.

• 56:25Speaker 04

  Okay, great.

• 56:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. It is a thousand percent worth the hype. Like I, I get why so many people flock there because there's something that's truly very, very magical about Yosemite.

• 56:37Speaker 04

  Now I had, I can't wait. Now I have to go.

• 56:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  You have to. You're so close.

• 56:41Speaker 04

  I know, I know. I just got to do the, yeah, it's like a six hour drive, but you can do it. What about the two of you? Or is there a place you haven't been yet?

• 56:49Danielle LaRock?

  I know Cassie's answer.

• 56:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  What's my answer?

• 56:52Danielle LaRock?

  Glacier.

• 56:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh my God, yes. You're right. Yeah. I have not been to Glacier National Park yet and it, I just know it's going to be my favorite park once I go there, but I just have to actually get out there and I, I guess I have very high expectations for it, but I think that they will be far surpassed.

• 57:12Speaker 04

  It'll surpass them. Yeah. Montana is, you know.

• 57:17Speaker 04

  It's amazing.

• 57:17Danielle LaRock?

  Holy grail. Yeah. Yeah. Mine's on a park that I'm like really, really anxious to go to, but I am really hoping to do a long trip to Vancouver Island. I lived in Washington state for several years and could, you know, pretty much touch Vancouver Island, but never went. As is the case when you're somewhere, you kind of just always want to be elsewhere. But I love just the vibe of the Pacific Northwest area and Vancouver Island has wolves that have specifically adapted to live in the intertidal

• 57:56Danielle LaRock?

  zones and they're called sea wolves. And I would absolutely love to be able to spend time there and hopefully photograph and see some of them in the wild.

• 58:06Speaker 04

  That would be amazing. I just read about the sea wolves the other day. I want to hug them too. Give them a little hug.

• 58:12Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Well, I've actually hugged wolves. I've worked with wolves. So I

• 58:16Speaker 04

  I'm so jealous.

• 58:17Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 58:17Speaker 04

  I would love, my dream would be to do a White Fang remake. Like if somebody came to me and said, "Hey, we're going to do an update of White Fang." Like, I'm in, just to work with wolves.

• 58:28Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, they're amazing. Yeah. Cool. Well, bring it back to movies. That's good. Thanks. Where, where can people see Lost on a Mountain in Maine? Tell us, tell everyone.

• 58:37Speaker 04

  It just, it's still playing in theaters in Maine, though it's not anywhere else in the country, but in Maine, it's, we've just surpassed Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl, box office wise. Yeah, yeah.

• 58:50Danielle LaRock?

  Congratulations. That is huge.

• 58:52Speaker 04

  In Maine. Maine has really come for it. But no, it's going to be on streaming in early January and you can actually, yeah. So it's going to be on streaming early January on all platforms. So you can go and watch the movie in your home and rent it on Amazon and wherever. And then I think hopefully eventually Netflix in the future. But if you're in Maine, you can still see it. And also people can also, you know, contact the distributor or find me on Instagram at andrew.vhs. And, you know, we're happy to do like special screenings and things and host. Because the movie's meant to be seen in a movie theater. The end, you know, it's a wilderness movie and that's the way to see it. Um, so we're more than happy to do screenings at colleges or for schools and whatnot.

• 59:34Speaker 04

  It's, we want to keep pushing forward Don Fendler's whole ethos, which is to inspire people to do great things in life and to persevere and to enjoy the outdoors and respect it. So.

• 59:48Danielle LaRock?

  Great. Well, thank you so much for sharing and for having the conversation and sharing a bit about yourself and the project and this is a story, we said it a million times, but New England in particular knows it well and clearly have really responded well. I mean, that's a huge mark to pass the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. So congrats on that.

• 1:00:11Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 1:00:11Danielle LaRock?

  That's great.

• 1:00:12Speaker 04

  That's always my dream in life.

• 1:00:14Danielle LaRock?

  It's like, I just gotta get past. Yeah.

• 1:00:18Speaker 04

  Specifically. Uh, yeah, no, well, thank, yeah, thanks for having me on. You two seem really fun. So, um, I'm

• 1:00:24Danielle LaRock?

  Thanks.

• 1:00:25Speaker 04

  When I, uh, my, my cousin, I'm going to keep, I'm going to tell everybody to listen to this pod.

• 1:00:29Danielle LaRock?

  Thank you. And tell your cousin that we say hi. Yeah.

• 1:00:32Speaker 04

  I will. Hey Naomi.

• 1:00:34Danielle LaRock?

  Hi Naomi.

• 1:00:37Danielle LaRock?

  Cool. Thank you, Andrew.

• 1:00:39Speaker 04

  Yeah, thank you so much.

• 1:00:45Danielle LaRock?

  Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at [email protected]. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD Podcast. Join our outsiders only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad free, unlock monthly bonus episodes and exclusive content.

• 1:01:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show. For our exclusive discount codes and source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For more information on our show, our book recommendations, merch updates and more, visit our website at NPADpodcast.com and please rate, review and subscribe from wherever you listen to podcasts.

• 1:01:41Speaker 05

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