Trail Tales 86

Today’s stories include almost abductions, cemetery shenanigans, shared trauma and men saving (and ruining) the day. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers! For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodesFor 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! Cash App: Download Cash App Today: [https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/ejy661fu] #CashAppPod. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. See terms and conditions at https://cash.app/legal/us/en-us/card-agreement. Direct Deposit, Overdraft Coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit http://cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. Bellesa: EVERYONE who signs up wins a FREE WhisperVibe™ OR a FREE Rose toy with any Whisper™ order! https://www.bboutique.co/vibe/nationalparkafterdark-podcastOllie: Cozy up with your pup this season! Go to ollie.com/npad and use code npad to get 60% off your first box! IM8: Follow our link and use code NPAD for a Free Welcome Kit, five free travel sachets plus 10% off your order. 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

  It's that magical time of year when Designer Shoe Warehouse becomes your Designer Shoe Wonderland and you become everyone's favorite gifter. Because you know that good things come in shoeboxes. Like cozy slippers, on-trend kicks, boots made for snow stomping, and party shoes that sparkle and shine. Plus, socking stuffers that bring joy from head to mistletoe. Who doesn't love more joy? Find shoes for you and yours at your Designer Shoe Wonderland. Shop in-store or visit dsw.com. DSW, let us surprise you.

• 0:32Speaker 01

  Somebody asked me how I'd define myself. And I didn't know what to say. Because how can someone be defined when we're always evolving? I've been so many things. I'll be so many others.

• 0:48Speaker 01

  Because identity's not a performance. It's an exploration. Never the same, but always myself. That's the paradox. Paradox intense and the new sweet chemistry by Prada.

• 1:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  Hello, everyone, and welcome back to National Park After Dark Trail Tales Edition on our anniversary week.

• 1:26Danielle LaRock?

  Drumroll, please.

• 1:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes, yes, we have so many stories today. As always, thank you all for writing in. If you are listening and you're like, hey, I got a story for you. How do I write in? Go to our website, mpadpodcast.com. And there's a submission link right on there. We'd love to hear it.

• 1:43Danielle LaRock?

  Yep. And I would love to hear you tell me a story first, please.

• 1:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, shit. I love a girl who knows what she wants. All right. My first story is titled "Almost Abducted in the Arctic Circle." Hi, ladies. My name is Allison and I absolutely love your show. My fiance introduced me to the podcast and it has quickly become one of my comfort listens. I love that because we're so dramatic.

• 2:10Danielle LaRock?

  I know, usually a comfort listen is, or a comfort watch. I don't know.

• 2:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't know. Your comfort watch is Titanic and that is a true story. That is

• 2:19Danielle LaRock?

  Devastating.

• 2:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  horrific and devastating, so we get it.

• 2:23Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 2:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Minus this is forty, but.

• 2:28Danielle LaRock?

  That is insane.

• 2:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Tomato, tomato.

• 2:32Danielle LaRock?

  It's so funny.

• 2:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  So funny. It's so funny. I can't get over it every time I laugh. Okay, I thought I'd share a trail tale that isn't from a national park, but from a very remote mountain in the Arctic Circle. A little background on me, I love traveling with other people, but I will never shy away from a solo trip. My life motto is that I'm not going to put my life on hold until other people are ready to live their lives, which is how I ended up by myself in Tramso, Norway, a few years ago. I was on a very determined mission to see the Northern Lights. I had already traveled to Iceland the year before and somehow managed to miss them. So I did what any reasonable person would do, picked up a bunch of overtime shifts, and booked another trip, this time farther north and in the dead of winter.

• 3:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  Tramso, also known as the gateway to the Arctic, sounded perfect. And this is in Norway for people.

• 3:27Danielle LaRock?

  I think you said that.

• 3:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Did I? Oh, okay.

• 3:32Danielle LaRock?

  But now we really know.

• 3:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Are you sure?

• 3:34Danielle LaRock?

  No, I'm not sure.

• 3:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay.

• 3:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's in Norway, one of the places I really want to go. The city had everything on my bucket list, reindeer sledding, Northern Light expeditions, and polar plunges. Unfortunately, the weather was absolutely awful. It snowed nonstop, visibility was terrible, and I only had five nights there. I was determined to take every possible opportunity to see those stupid lights. So when my Northern Lights tour was canceled due to weather, I was devastated. I immediately went online and booked another tour that night, hoping that a smaller group might be able to get farther away from the clouds. Red flag number one should have been that all the reputable tour companies had canceled, and this was the only one still running. But I was blinded by hope and happily booked it.

• 4:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  The tour was set to pick me up at 7:00 PM, but I was never told where to wait, so I tried calling them. The phone number they gave me went straight to a disconnected line. I tried Googling the number and got nothing. Then around 6:00 PM, I got a WhatsApp call from a random number. Calling it a number is generous, because it was literally just a string of emojis, whales, boats, fish, and a flexing arm. I didn't know that that could happen.

• 4:46Danielle LaRock?

  On WhatsApp? Yeah, I think you can do that.

• 4:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  I guess. There's no rules on WhatsApp. They told me the tour was still on and they picked me up at my Airbnb, which was located at the end of a dark alley at the top of a hill overlooking the city. Against my better judgment, I gave them my address. At around 8:30 PM, an hour and a half after the tour was supposed to start, I got a call saying they were finally on their way. I waited for a tour bus, or at least a van, to drive down the alleyway, but instead, a slightly beat up black SUV with tinted windows slowly pulled down the alley and stopped next to me. There were two men inside. One was driving and the other sat silently in the backseat directly behind the passenger seat. The driver leaned over and said, "Northern Lights tour?"

• 5:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  Every instinct in my body started screaming, but the other part of my brain, the one obsessed with checking off bucket list items, won. I accepted that no one lives forever and got in the car.

• 5:42Danielle LaRock?

  Wow, okay.

• 5:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Thanks.

• 5:45Danielle LaRock?

  You're writing this, so clearly it works out.

• 5:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  We know you survive.

• 5:49Danielle LaRock?

  That's why I'm laughing, but Jesus, okay.

• 5:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Thankfully, the silent man in the back turned out to be another American tourist, though he didn't talk much. Our guide assured us we'd have better luck over the mountains to the north, so we drove for about two hours through tunnels, winding roads, and heavy snowfall. The farther we went, the worse the weather got. Eventually, we ended up on a dirt road in a desolate mountain area, surrounded by snow-covered peaks. The guide parked the car and said he needed to check for the Northern Lights, got out, locked the car, and walked up the road until he disappeared into the snowstorm. The other tourist and I sat there in silence, watching this man vanish into the blizzard. Finally, he said, "Is this as sketchy as I think it is?"

• 6:33Danielle LaRock?

  Cassie, you would, not that I think you would have ever made it this far, you would have bailed out pretty much immediately.

• 6:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  I would have jumped out of this moving vehicle in the mountains.

• 6:43Danielle LaRock?

  Literally bailed out. But you would be on the verge of a panic attack, I think.

• 6:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  I would be not cool with this. I'd be like figuring, I'd be finding sharp things in my pocket to like-

• 6:57Danielle LaRock?

  The second those doors locked, it's like I gotta-

• 7:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'd be looking for keys and driving away, leaving them there. Be like, fuck this. Yeah, yeah, that's this is scary so far and I hate it. And they replied, yep, it is this sketchy. About thirty minutes later, thirty minutes, the guide reappeared and announced that visibility was poor. No shit. He then opened the trunk and handed out snacks, cheese, crackers, and thermos filled with hot red liquid. When I asked what it was, he said, it's a surprise.

• 7:33Danielle LaRock?

  I feel like this is made up.

• 7:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's a surprise. Like, there's something that's fun where like, if you're in another country and they're like, try our great drink. It's our local, everyone loves this, everyone in Norway drinks this, but to be in the middle of the mountains alone with a stranger that's like, drink this, it's a surprise. I don't know. At this point, I was too tired to argue and realized that if he actually wanted to kill us, he would have done so by now. I took us up at the drink that he handed out. It tasted like a sickeningly sweet and thick melted popsicle. He watched us drink it and then asked if we liked it. I think me and the other tourists both just nodded and made comments about how it was really sweet, but that it was nice.

• 8:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  After that, he played a very long educational video about the Northern Lights. I got extremely sleepy around this time and fell asleep.

• 8:27Danielle LaRock?

  Wait, are you sure you got sleepy on your own or?

• 8:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 8:32Danielle LaRock?

  Well, it was super late.

• 8:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Cars, yeah, and car rides make me sleepy. I've totally fallen asleep in an Uber before and woken up and been like, oh my God, what am I doing? Don't do that. When I woke up a couple of hours later, we were still parked in the same spot. The video had been replaced by smooth jazz and the guide was just sitting and staring at the snowstorm ahead. After some time, he turned around and said, yeah, I don't think we're gonna see them tonight and put the car into reverse. He then drove us back to Tramso in complete silence and I have never been relieved, so relieved to see civilization. To this day, I don't know if he was just an eccentric man with a genuine passion for the Northern Lights, or if something far more unsettling was happening.

• 9:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Happening. I still wonder what would have happened if the other tourist hadn't been in the car with me. Either way, the entire experience has become one of my favorite travel stories. It felt less like a tour and more like fever dream. I hope y'all enjoy the story and I hope that it inspires you to step out of your comfort zone and try solo travel. Hopefully without blindly ignoring red flags along the way like I did. As long as you do it safely, you can have some of the best experiences of your life. And as always, enjoy the view, but watch your back. Side note, I did ask him about the emoji phone number during the drive back. Apparently he lives in a seaside town during the summer and just really loves it there.

• 9:54Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, I feel like this is a wholesome person that just came off in all the worst ways. It's like, just don't do any of what you just did again, ever to another person.

• 10:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  I do need to know more about the sleeping thing. Like, did the other American tourist get really sleepy and fall asleep as well?

• 10:13Danielle LaRock?

  I want to hear from the other American tourist. Imagine they hear us right now. Are you out there?

• 10:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  And we've, and we reconnect you, or maybe you're already connected.

• 10:22Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, trauma bonded for sure. But yeah, I don't, it reminds me a lot of the, um, I know I've told this a million times. I feel like, so I'm not going to tell it over again, but in Ibiza, when Nataia and I got into a car and went off into the Ibiza countryside with our stand-up paddleboard instructor that we met hours before and didn't tell anyone where we were, where we were going, and we didn't know what was happening. And he just pulled up on a, in a white windowless van and whisked us away.

• 10:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Perfect.

• 10:53Danielle LaRock?

  And it ended up great. Um.

• 10:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  We had a great time.

• 10:56Danielle LaRock?

  But it was a definite, like, reflecting back a very red flag situation that I probably wouldn't pursue if it happened to me now. But it happened to me when I was in my early twenties and didn't have developed brain cells yet.

• 11:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  Your brain wasn't fully developed yet. I totally can understand really wanting to see the northern lights though, because I have been on many trips where I have been in search of the northern lights and you do get desperate.

• 11:24Danielle LaRock?

  Well, you get time vision. And you know, when you're like, I'm right here. I'm so close. I, you know, I've planned for this. I

• 11:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know it happens.

• 11:31Danielle LaRock?

  I've saved money for this. I've spent years trying to do this. And that's where it can get dangerous because then all of your, you know, senses kind of are just like, whatever. Who cares? Let's ignore all of these feelings and thoughts. Um, so, and she didn't even get to see him also.

• 11:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know, but you have a hell of a story.

• 11:51Danielle LaRock?

  I hope you weren't drugged. Let's just say that.

• 11:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes.

• 12:01Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. My first story is titled, Should I Laugh or Cry?

• 12:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  Maybe both.

• 12:06Danielle LaRock?

  Dear Cassie and Danielle, I discovered you two last summer and started with episode one. Now that I'm hooked, I'm on episode sixty something and often bounce up to current shows to stay in the loop. You are easy to listen to and remind me of my own three daughters, age twenty seven to thirty five. Thank you for your honesty and ability to laugh at stupid, regular stuff that we all relate to, and for teaching me the history of some of the most beautiful and terrifying places in the world.

• 12:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, thank you.

• 12:32Danielle LaRock?

  My trail tale takes place in the olden days of Yellow Pages, Mary Kay parties and Tupperware.

• 12:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, Mary Kay.

• 12:42Danielle LaRock?

  We've never talked about this, but my mom, Mary Kay Queen.

• 12:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  Was she a Mary Kay lady?

• 12:47Danielle LaRock?

  I don't think she was involved. I

• 12:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Did she sell them?

• 12:51Danielle LaRock?

  No, but she was a active particip buyer of Mary Kay.

• 12:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  She fell for the Mary Kay?

• 12:58Danielle LaRock?

  I just remembered the, um, the makeup remover specifically, just always being around Mary Kay.

• 13:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  I remember Mary Kay came to my school. Not, I don't know if there's the Mary Kay, but, uh, what happened is my home, in my home ec class, one of the home ec classes, they had a Mary Kay ambassador come and advertise all of their makeup and did makeup trials on a ton of us in the middle of class and then sent us home with pamphlets of

• 13:29Danielle LaRock?

  It's like join my LML, L, what is it? MLM, multi-level marketing scheme?

• 13:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 13:36Danielle LaRock?

  Preying on children is, that's weird. Um, it's dark, it's dark. Um.

• 13:45Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, I'm, I'm in it. I'm back. I'm zoomed back. Specifically 1989. Alright, I'm not there. Yeah, I'm not alive yet, but close. My husband and I were newlyweds in our late twenties, living in, why do this? Why you do this to me? Alma Gordo, in Alma Gordo, New Mexico, where he was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base, which is just down the street from scenic White Sands National Park.

• 14:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  I stayed there.

• 14:10Danielle LaRock?

  In Alma, Alma Gordo? Alma Gordo?

• 14:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I stayed in a hotel in that little town.

• 14:16Danielle LaRock?

  Cool. Well, the story does not take place in White Sands, but I just wanted to name drop because it's a super cool place. Do you agree?

• 14:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I really liked White Sands. I thought it was so cool. And the sunsets, the day that I was there was incredible.

• 14:30Danielle LaRock?

  I remember seeing pictures of that and I was just like, this looks Photoshop, you know, just unreal. My husband had recently earned his pilot wings at Shepard Air Force Base in Texas, and we moved to Holloman for his next phase of training before moving to Tucson, where he would learn how to fly the A-10. The apartment complex we lived in had hosted many other couples just like us, new pilots who had graduated from the same pilot program as my husband at Shepard and their wives. Side note, in 1993, a few years after my story took place, the first female Air Force pilot was allowed to fly combat fighters. Training in New Mexico was just six months. My husband and I quickly fell in love with the landscape and wanted to take advantage of every opportunity before moving again.

• 15:12Danielle LaRock?

  When another couple we already knew, who I will refer to as Brian and Liz, invited us on a long weekend at Lake Powell, we jumped on it. Brian and Liz had lived in the same apartment complex as we did in Texas, and Brian was in my husband's pilot class. We had already known each other for well over a year. As couples, we were not close friends at all, and honestly, we didn't mesh with them. It's not that we didn't like them either, you know what I mean. They were fine, but we knew we were only friends due to our circumstances. I had a motto, "In the military, you don't necessarily get to choose your friends. You make do with who you get." The plan was that the guys would rent a single-engine Skyhawk Cessna, and the four of us would fly to Lake Powell, where we would rent a boat.

• 15:54Danielle LaRock?

  And set up camp somewhere along the lake. We were stoked for the adventure. We drove to the local airstrip where the guys filled out the paperwork and completed the required pre-flight checks before we set off into the great wide open. The sky was clear and calm. Flying a Cessna from New Mexico to Lake Powell takes roughly two and a half to three and a half hours, depending on the specific Cessna model, winds and fuel stops covering about 300 to 400 nautical miles, but requires a fuel stop as most Cessnas can't do the full distance non-stop. Stopping to refuel was part of the original flight plan, and when we took off, our plane's gas tank was full, supposedly. No. Have either of you flown in a flimsy little aircraft? The vibration is

• 16:38Danielle LaRock?

  intense and the noise from the engine is so loud that you must shout at the person seated next to you for them to hear what you're saying. Yes, and only once, when I was flying from Costa Rica to Panama in a true puddle jumper. Like I, there was no wall between the pilots and the four seats in the plane.

• 16:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  My actual nightmare.

• 17:00Danielle LaRock?

  It was an experience. I, it was fine and nothing happened, but I have a very vivid memory of looking out the tiny little window and just down at the vast expanse of jungle and thinking, if this thing goes down, there is literally no way I will ever survive or be found.

• 17:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  There's that too, yeah.

• 17:21Danielle LaRock?

  So, so yeah, I have been.

• 17:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, loved it.

• 17:25Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, it was great. Um, okay. Oh, because of the shouting, it's better to just not talk at all. That is, unless you are desperate. We hadn't been airborne for very long when I started to feel queasy, something I hadn't anticipated. As much as I tried to mentally hold it down and overcome the inevitable, I couldn't. When my mouth started watering, I knew I was about to lose it. I grabbed Liz's thigh and yelled, I'm gonna be sick. Kudos to Liz. She was a quick thinker. She unzipped her backpack and pulled out a large Tupperware container filled with fruit. She dumped the fruit into her pack and thrust the Tupperware into my hand where I proceeded to hurl. mere inches from us had no idea what was taking place behind them because the

• 18:08Danielle LaRock?

  sound of the engine consumed the plane, but their noses didn't lie. Everyone knows the smell of vomit. Not wanting to get sick themselves, they quickly opened the windows while Liz held up my long hair as I continued to throw up over and over, nearly filling the Tupperware, which I already told you was large. I steadied my bowl of vomit as best I could under the circumstances of bouncing around in the sky in a tiny tin can. It slushed around and I was worried it would splash over the edge into my lap, so I snapped the lid on. After expelling the entire contents of my upper intestines, eventually the queasiness settled. I still had gross vomit mouth and the sloshing Tupperware container resting on my lap. And yes, I was terribly embarrassed, but at the time, I was just too sick to care. I would deal with the embarrassment and apologies

• 18:53Danielle LaRock?

  later. Just get me onto the ground. As if that wasn't enough, something far more frightening was about to unfold. The plane went silent, no vibration, no deafening noise, no engine. I will never forget the sound of that silence 6,000 feet up in that tiny tin can of a plane. It wasn't complete silence. I heard the soft whisper of moving air, like that of a person blowing out birthday candles, only louder, but very gentle. We glided like that, suspended in the wind, and time stood still for what was likely only a few seconds because planes don't glide very long without an engine. They spiral and plummet. Liz and I stared at one another, wide-eyed, saying nothing. We looked at our husbands, who calmly shifted into well-trained

• 19:37Danielle LaRock?

  emergency pilot mode. They consulted each other and proceeded to push buttons and turn knobs in the cockpit. They kept trying to restart the plane. You know, that sound your car makes when the battery's dead and you turn over the key of your ignition, or when you pull the starter cord of your lawnmower or chainsaw, but it just won't catch? That was the sound the plane was making. Again, your nightmare.

• 19:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  My actual nightmare, at first I thought the worst part of this story was sloshing vomit in a Tupperware container. I was like, oh, that's a visual. She or like, they really painted the photo, the picture there. I could envision it, but now.

• 20:16Danielle LaRock?

  She buried the lead, for sure.

• 20:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 20:18Danielle LaRock?

  It's like, oh, you thought that was bad? I'm about to get into an accident.

• 20:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  Bring back the vomiting. I'd prefer it.

• 20:24Danielle LaRock?

  They kept trying to restart the plane a few times, and with each attempt, the plane jerked and lost more altitude. I gotta say, the two pilots never lost their cool. Eventually, on the fourth or fifth try, the engine started up. It chugged and sputtered, and we bounced up and down in our seats as it stabilized, gained speed, and leveled off. Thank God. Needless to say, we all survived. The plane had run out of gas. Our husbands had utilized the emergency reserve fuel tank by switching tanks midair, something they had never done before. They said the guy who they rented the plane from told them the fuel tank was full and would easily take them to the airport they had intended to stop at to refuel, but

• 21:06Danielle LaRock?

  it didn't. Not knowing how much fuel the reserve tank had, our husbands used their map to locate the closest airstrip where we could stop and refuel. I gladly dumped out the unsavory Tupperware contents into the toilet at the airstrip and rinsed it out in case I needed it again. And I'm glad to report that I made it to Lake Powell without further puking. Lake Powell is part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, so there's my NPAD connection. The canyon rock walls were spectacular. I'm from Silicon Valley and had never laid eyes on anything like it. During my husband's nine-year career in the Air Force, we moved throughout the Southwest and overseas to RAF Woodbridge, where the famous Rendlesham Forest UFO incident occurred. You might want to look into that.

• 21:50Danielle LaRock?

  By now, you're probably biting your nails about what happened to the Tupperware. Actually, I didn't even think about it, literally at all, but sure, tell us. I threw it away when we got back to our apartment, found a local Tupperware lady in the Yellow Pages, and ordered Liz a replacement. I felt this was a considerate thing to do. Instead of being happy or relieved, Liz was annoyed. She wanted hers back. Isn't that disgusting? I was stunned.

• 22:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  And this is why we weren't friends.

• 22:21Danielle LaRock?

  I mean, there's been, it didn't happen a lot, but there was a couple of times. So when we worked at Vet Med, in Vet Med, people would drop off for a variety of reasons. We needed urine samples from pets. And we would try and collect them when the animal was there, but if not, we asked the owners to bring in a sample. We're like, I'll just use like a, you know, a used and clean, I don't know, like cream cheese container or Tupperware or whatever. And some people would want it back. I'm like, ew.

• 22:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  They'd bring in, they'd bring in your regular old Tupperware stuff that you'd put like soup in or something. So just think about that. Next time you want to eat leftovers at a friend's house, just ask them what they do with that Tupperware when there's not food in it. Ask them if they've done anything else with that Tupperware.

• 23:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  Cause it could have, people would do that with feces too.

• 23:17Danielle LaRock?

  I do.

• 23:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like a lot of people would do it in a bag, but sometimes they would come in Tupperware containers.

• 23:22Danielle LaRock?

  I'm like, you, you've never heard of a doggy bag, like a poop bag? Why are you, whatever. That's just, we've moved on.

• 23:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Fear for everyone.

• 23:34Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. So Mary, back to Mary. I was stunned. I wouldn't have kept it if it had been my own. Thanks to your show, I am no longer an outsider to the phenomenon of podcasts. I tell everyone about you and have even forced a few to listen. I hope you know how blessed you are to have careers that you love. Not many young people can say that. Goodbye, ladies. Enjoy the view from 6,000 feet, but before you do, make sure your fuel tank is full and you have a Tupperware in hand. Sincerely, Mary from Mountain View.

• 24:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  That was a great story and I cannot tell you like the thought that was going through my head when their husbands were navigating this whole situation. I would have been like, my husband has never been more attractive than in this moment.

• 24:16Danielle LaRock?

  You know how good you're gonna get it if you get us out of this.

• 24:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's like when we get home. I'm gonna repay you for all of this.

• 24:27Danielle LaRock?

  It's like, I, I'm hopeless in this situation, but I will be of service later. You know what I mean?

• 24:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  So it's like, I knew you were, I knew you were trained and I knew you had some skill, but now that I see it in real time, it's like you have never been more attractive and, and our whole marriage, saved our marriage today.

• 24:45Danielle LaRock?

  Switch those fuel tanks.

• 24:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Save our lives, honey.

• 24:54Danielle LaRock?

  Anyway.

• 24:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, it's my turn. Right. I'm like, anyway, tell me more.

• 25:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, my next story is titled, Impatience in Peru. Hi ladies, I'm so excited to finally be writing in. My coworker turned me on to your podcast a little over a year ago, and I have been an avid listener ever since. The outdoors mixed with the dash of true crime and a side of aliens and spookiness, I feel so seen. I love it all. So thanks for putting on such a great podcast. I wanted to share a story from 2015 when my boyfriend, now husband, despite his questionable judgment that is soon to be seen, and I took a month-long trip to Peru. We had only been dating for about three months when he suggested the trip. I was so into him and it sounded fun. So the next thing I knew, we were making plans.

• 25:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  The trip got off to a dicey start. We were living in San Francisco at the time. We were in our twenties and in great shape. So we thought going from sea level to a trek that starts at 7,000 feet and maxes out at 15,000 feet, we'll be fine. What could possibly go wrong? Well, a lot, it turns out. All the coca tea in the world could not stave off altitude sickness. By the end of day two, we couldn't eat due to the nausea, couldn't sleep due to the pounding headaches, couldn't apply sunscreen due to the weakness and disorientation, and I even started hallucinating. I had excellent hiking stamina, but that was no match for the altitude. I have a vague recollection of a gorgeous glacial pond at the top, but it's really a blur until we returned to sea level.

• 26:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  Lima and what I assume was brain swelling finally went down. Despite also being sick, albeit less so, my boyfriend was very sweet and attentive through his first obstacle. So, near-death experience? Probably, but also a check-in-the-marriage material category. Then came the next trek, a shorter one-night descending, then ascending the Colca Canyon in southern Peru. Now, at this point, we had been in Peru for over a week. I know you get a fair share of poop stories, but don't worry, poop is only a supporting character here. We both had had a bit of tummy troubles over the last week, but hey, it was only making our relationship stronger. On the second day of the trek, we were ascending the side of the canyon.

• 27:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's a narrow trail with nothing but rocks on the side, nowhere to hide. Picture just switchbacks up the canyon wall where you can look up and see the people ahead of you the whole way up. About halfway through, my stomach started gurgling. I mentioned it to my boyfriend and he brushed it off by saying, "Just wait until we're at the top. I'm sure we will be somewhere soon." What baseless assurance, and obviously, if I could wait, I would not be panicking right now. We had plenty of canyon yet to ascend and my stomach was only getting worse. I started nervously rambling about it, trying to figure out what to do, and I could tell that he was getting annoyed. He wanted to get to the top and he couldn't understand why I couldn't hold it. Now my husband has his redeeming qualities, but patience is not one of them.

• 28:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  After about 10 minutes of fearing this is the day I poop my pants in public, I see my salvation. A tiny offshoot of a trail that bends right around a big rock. I tell him my plan, drop my pack, and run. Crisis averted, or so I thought. I walk back to the trail to find no boyfriend and no pack. That jerk left me. Yes, it's an impossible trail to get lost on as long as you know up from down, but we were still in another country, in the wilderness, and all I have are the clothes on my back and some broken Spanish. The pack had my water too, so I am both angry and thirsty. I start walking up, scanning the switchbacks above for the guy who has now lost said check-in-marriage-material-category. After another mile or so, I

• 28:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  spotted him above. I yell his name as loud as I possibly can to get his attention. He has the gall to look at me like, what's wrong? Situational awareness, another area of growth for him. I angrily ask him if he has my pack and he replies, "Why would I have your pack?" So not only am I deserted on this trail, but my pack with my passport in it is also missing.

• 29:07Danielle LaRock?

  The fury.

• 29:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  There are plenty.

• 29:08Danielle LaRock?

  I would have.

• 29:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  There are plenty of other people on the trail. So when this genius decided to keep on hiking and leave my pack unattended on the side of the trail, someone else picked it up. I was mad before, but now I'm fuming. We keep on hiking about a half mile apart from each other. Mind you, he did not wait for me to catch up even then. I'm rehearsing in my mind how I'm going to rip him a new one when I get to the top, all the while scanning the switchbacks for my green pack. Finally, I get to the top and see my soon to be ex-boyfriend, sitting down with my pack next to him. Upon reaching the top, he spotted a man with my pack attached to his mule. The man told him he had to pay to get my pack back, a small piece of justice. At least at this point, he had the sense to look sheepish and muttered,

• 29:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  "Sorry, I probably shouldn't have left you." Um, yeah, you think?

• 30:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's what they wrote, not me.

• 30:06Danielle LaRock?

  I'm thinking it, so yeah.

• 30:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  I then proceeded with my aforementioned ripping of a new one. He was on his very best behavior for the rest of the trip. We ended with an incredible five day trek to Machu Picchu, well acclimated to the altitude to that point. Over 10 years, I moved to Colorado and two kids later, we are still adventuring. I am happy to report, he is slightly more sensible than that fateful day, but only slightly. Thanks for reading and thanks again for such a fun podcast. Enjoy the view, but watch your back, I mean, pack.

• 30:38Danielle LaRock?

  I would be so mad. I don't know if I would recover from that quickly.

• 30:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, he must have really made up for it in other ways after that fiasco.

• 30:49Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Men, you know, what are you gonna do?

• 30:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's so funny because we were, uh, we were hiking yesterday. We went into the back country for some skiing and snowboarding. And when we were on the trail, there was this woman and this guy, and this guy just took off way in front of her. And Al looks and he's like, well, look at him, just leaving his lady in the dust. And she's so far behind him skiing. She's so far behind him, in fact, that he like turns around. We watch him. We see him turn around and see how far she is behind. He skis back down to her because he has like a whole run at this point to get back to her. And then he starts hiking back up with her, totally passes her again.

• 31:35Danielle LaRock?

  I'm sorry, I can't, I can't do this.

• 31:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  And Al and I were just watching from afar. And it was, it was comical.

• 31:42Danielle LaRock?

  In another country, though, it takes on a different level. And she was so exposed. She's like, she's literally shitting her pants. And he's like, bye.

• 31:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, the fact that she wasn't feeling well and then just dipped out on you.

• 31:55Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, it's like, hope you make it. I don't know.

• 31:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 31:58Danielle LaRock?

  The disrespect.

• 31:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't know. When we were in Machu Picchu, Al left me in the dust. I was hiking by myself for the most part.

• 32:05Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, we were in a group, though, and like, not that we were all...

• 32:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I didn't mind. I didn't mind being left behind.

• 32:12Danielle LaRock?

  I don't know. You were like the, um, I was so impressed by you in that. I really, I think about that a lot, that hike. I was like, I've never seen Cassie so just like trucking it in your own world and like everyone around you is dropping like flies. And you're just, I'm like, you know, Kris Jenner, she's like, go Kylie, go. Like, that's how I thought about you. Like, wow, look at her.

• 32:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  Look at her go. Yeah, I don't know what got into me that day. I had like a good breakfast or something because I was just like...

• 32:45Danielle LaRock?

  That was one of the hardest hikes I have ever done in my life for a variety of different reasons. Just the altitude was getting to me. The humidity was awful. I, for my personal, like, how I like to stay in shape, I... Was not in the best shape of my life and I just, I struggled really hard and there are like thousands of steps.

• 33:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting because of all of like the group trips we've done and hikes that we've done. I, for me, I don't know why. Because it is a very hard hike. It just, for some reason, that day wasn't for me. But the hardest one for me, you did much better on, and that was the one we did in Patagonia. That was, I think it was like sixteen miles. It was a really long day.

• 33:32Danielle LaRock?

  I remember the day. I don't remember the name of the hike, but up to that lake, right?

• 33:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, like the three, the three lakes. The three towers. Yeah. Something, I forget the name of it, but yeah, that was the hardest one for me. I don't know. And that one, you were doing way better than me on that hike. And that hike, I was like, oh my God, I am not in the shape that I want to be. Here. I was like, and I remember one of the guides at one point being like, how you doing? It's like, I'm fine.

• 34:03Danielle LaRock?

  It's like, I'm gonna make it, but I'm.

• 34:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like, I'm gonna make it. I'm just, my legs are really tired. We've been out here for so long.

• 34:09Danielle LaRock?

  We still have to go all the way back.

• 34:12Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, that was a rough one.

• 34:22Danielle LaRock?

  Well, my next story is titled, Sometimes Your Significant Other Can Believe In You Too Much.

• 34:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, I feel that's so hard.

• 34:30Danielle LaRock?

  To you?

• 34:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes, Al always thinks I can do everything and I try to tell him I'm just a girl and he doesn't believe me.

• 34:36Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, his confidence in you is pretty high, which is nice and very.

• 34:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  It is nice and it is really sweet, but sometimes I'm like, I just want you to do it.

• 34:49Danielle LaRock?

  Well, let's see if you can relate to this. Even more. Hey ladies, you recently asked for the most embarrassing moments that didn't involve poop, so here it is. My family recently moved to Europe and we rang in the new year at a ski lodge in Bavaria. We were thrilled, mostly because my kids had never seen snow before, let alone skied in it. First snow, first skis, core memories unlocked. My husband and I snowboard, so after dropping the kids off at their lessons, we headed to the lifts for what we thought would be some much-needed adult time on the slopes.

• 35:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  I already relate to this. Where'd he take you, girl?

• 35:27Danielle LaRock?

  Tell us everything.

• 35:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Tell us everything. How did he make you cry? I've been there.

• 35:32Danielle LaRock?

  Quick side note, my husband is an excellent snowboarder.

• 35:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  I bet.

• 35:37Danielle LaRock?

  Like, former instructor, muscle memory of a superhero, hops on a board and instantly remembers who he used to be.

• 35:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yep.

• 35:44Danielle LaRock?

  It had been years since we had snowboarded, but he stepped on it like it was yesterday. Me? I am not that. I never took lessons. I am terrible. And I'm notorious for doing everything the hardest way possible for no reason at all. Somehow, somehow, my husband forgot just how bad I am. And as we're waiting to get on the lift, I ask him where the easiest routes are. Now, in Bavaria, trails are marked differently than here in the States. There's only blue, red, and black. We learn that blue is easiest, black is hardest, simple enough. But then there's something called Kinderland, which sounds adorable and implies, hey, even a toddler can do this.

• 36:27Danielle LaRock?

  So naturally, I'm thinking, great, put me where the children are. We do one quick run, and shockingly, I do fine, like, better than expected. My husband gets confident. Too confident. As we approach a red run, he says, I think you can handle this. Narrator voice. She could not handle this. I start off okay until a skier whips by. I lose my balance and fall. No big deal, except I cannot get up at all. Ladies and gentlemen, this red run would have been a single black diamond minimum in the States. This thing was a series of straight drops. I'm talking straight drops in all capitals. There's a lot of punctuation going on. It's

• 37:11Danielle LaRock?

  serious. Each one would taper off briefly, just long enough to give me hope before turning into what felt like a vertical cliff. So I did the only thing I could do. I went down on my butt the entire way.

• 37:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  No.

• 37:25Danielle LaRock?

  I butt scooched. I slid. I crab walked. I prayed my pants wouldn't rip. People stared. Some people asked if I needed help and honestly, I didn't even know how they could help me. Like unless you have a helicopter or a crane, I think we're past that. At one point, I fully lost control when I saw two people on what looked like a nearby trail. It looked close. It was not close. So I cut my losses, unclipped from my board, and very carefully, very slowly, made my way over. When I finally reached it, I took a deep sigh of relief until I saw signs pointing to nearby towns. My town was 50 minutes away. 50 minutes. How long was this run?

• 38:11Danielle LaRock?

  Was I even still in Germany?

• 38:15Danielle LaRock?

  I took another deep breath, decided to enjoy the view, and accepted that I had no choice but to get back to my family under my own power. And honestly, the view was beautiful. Snow-covered landscapes, a small creek, horses, very sound of music, very peaceful for someone who had just emotionally accepted death. Eventually, I saw the lift again. I made it back to the lodge, got some incredible Bavarian food, mulled wine, and waited for my husband. And that's when I realized what made this whole thing even worse. Earlier that day, I had asked the ski rental place for a neon green helmet. Because I love a pop of color, okay, my jacket and pants were neutral. I wanted balance. So there I was for at least an hour.

• 38:57Danielle LaRock?

  Butt scooting, sliding, falling down a mountain in a neon green helmet. Highly visible, unmistakable, a beacon of failure. If I had worn the regular white helmet, no one would have known who I was, but no, I wanted personality. For the rest of the trip, I joked that I hoped everyone could sleep peacefully at night, knowing that I had survived. So thank you for listening to my tale. And if you ever find yourself in a bad situation on the slopes, remember, enjoy the view, but watch your back. You never know how other countries label their ski runs. Final side note, because this matters, my husband is wonderful. He checked on me, apologized profusely, and I told him to go enjoy himself while I made my way down eventually. When we finally met up, I did ask him if he'd recently

• 39:42Danielle LaRock?

  increased my life insurance payout, because at that point, it really felt like he was just trying to kill me.

• 39:52Danielle LaRock?

  Can you relate?

• 39:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes. Oh, my God. Yeah, mine is less at the resort. Well, yeah. I mean, Al's definite, Al's a way better snowboarder than I am. So we've definitely been on some trails that he can do no problem, just fine. And me, I'm just kind of like moving pretty slow down, which is fine. I've never been on a trail at the resort per se that I felt really uncomfortable on, but I've been in the backcountry with Al where I've been like, I can't, I don't have the skill for this. Like I, when I first got my split board that I got because he does a lot of backcountry stuff,

• 40:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  and I wanted to be included. He's like, great, you have one. We just go out into the woods. There's no clearing anywhere to snowboard. And he's like, all right, find a line. Bye.

• 40:45Danielle LaRock?

  It's like, please don't do this to me.

• 40:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  And it was, it had snowed, but it was wet snow. So it was really heavy. And where we were, I wasn't moving fast enough. So I was getting caught under the snow and then I'd fall and I couldn't get up. And it was just like a whole, it was a whole mess. But we actually went out into the backcountry yesterday and we went Pretty far and we found that he's like, don't worry, it's open. You'll be able to do it. And the whole time I'm like, I don't know if I believe you, but this skin, where we're skinning up, I know I can snowboard down this. So if we get anywhere, I'll just snowboard back the way we came and it won't be a big deal. Uh, but we got there and it was a level that I could do and I was really excited about it.

• 41:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I've gotten better and we had a really nice time and I can finally do more backcountry stuff, which is exciting.

• 41:36Danielle LaRock?

  That is exciting. And it's also nice because it's just reassuring that Al is medically trained. So if anything did happen to you, like you have that level of, okay, I might be in over my head, but if something does happen, at least I'm with somebody who has knowledge about how to keep me safe or help me if something does happen bad.

• 41:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. I was, he was like, what are you nervous about? And I was like, well, I'm afraid that you're gonna be far away from me and I'm gonna fall. It was pretty deep snow and I was like, I'm afraid I'm gonna fall and drown. And he was like, okay, well, I will stay close to you then. So if you do fall and start drowning in the snow, I can pick you up.

• 42:17Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 42:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like great.

• 42:18Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 42:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Because he fell over in one spot, um, when we were skinning. He's not good at, I love saying this because he's

• 42:28Danielle LaRock?

  Like I love putting him down where I can.

• 42:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  He's literally physically better at everything than me. Uh, but we were skinning and we had, we were skinning downhill and he's just not good at downhill skiing. And he fell over in the snow and he couldn't lift himself back up. So then after I saw that, I was like, oh no, that's gonna happen to me, but I'm gonna drown.

• 42:51Danielle LaRock?

  I don't enjoy any of, I mean, it's funny because I was texting with Sabrina the other day from, uh, Two Girls, One Ghost and we're trying to figure out like times to get together and stuff. And she like said something about like, oh, like, is there a time that like, maybe you want to go skiing or something? I'm like, oh, honey, that's, you're talking to the wrong girl. You're, that's a Cassie request. I don't.

• 43:16Danielle LaRock?

  No, no.

• 43:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like you and I. Catch me.

• 43:18Danielle LaRock?

  And she's like, oh, I'm sorry. I thought you grew up in New England and then lived in Colorado for a decade and like.

• 43:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. It's like, what have you been doing?

• 43:25Danielle LaRock?

  It's my dirtiest secret. I don't know. Like, it's embarrassing.

• 43:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  I think is really funny about that, though, just because I've been snowboarding with you before. I think that if you like, took the time to stay out there, I think that you would be a good snowboarder. Like, just from the very small amount that you've done, I think that if there was ever a time where you're like, all right, I gotta learn how to do this, I feel like you would pick it up quick.

• 43:50Danielle LaRock?

  That's nice. That's a good, that's a good thing to have for my confidence. I just, I'm not going to pursue that.

• 43:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Noted. But just so you know, if you ever decide. I will go with you and I will.

• 44:02Danielle LaRock?

  No, because then I'm good. No, you just want me in your position that you're in with Al and I see how it's an MLM scheme.

• 44:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  No, it's not. I would be so nice to you and I would not put you anywhere that we would stay on green trails. I've been on the other side, so I would be extra nice.

• 44:20Danielle LaRock?

  Put me in Kinderland or wherever that was.

• 44:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  You don't want to be there. Remember, it was false advertised.

• 44:25Danielle LaRock?

  Right, yeah.

• 44:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  All right, well, my last story is titled Smoky Mountains Alien Abduction, question mark? Hello, I have a combo of events that ultimately made me want to write in. First of all, after hearing about your Smoky Mountain trip, I am so sorry.

• 44:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Doesn't sound that sorry.

• 44:55Danielle LaRock?

  Laugh at my pain.

• 44:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  I spent my, I spent my college summers working right outside the park and it is so amazing and awesome. Pigeon Forge is nuts. We lived in a tiny town west of Gatlinburg called Cosby, and I had some of the most amazing experiences of my life. We lived right off the Blue Ridge Parkway in the foothills of the most amazing mountains. With that being said, let's dive into the story. I moved to Tennessee for my first summer in 2020. Yes, in the thick of COVID. I worked for ZipLine and we had. Employee housing, which fit, I want to say around fifty mostly college age staff members. Our company owned an entire condo unit, so it was just us and we had fun.

• 45:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  We had parties and games every night and there was never a shortage of things to do. So this story comes in June of my first summer there. We had just started a bender of a week, but my friends had just gotten a fish and we were throwing a fish party. Since it was

• 45:55Danielle LaRock?

  Any excuse.

• 45:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like you caught a fish? Party.

• 45:59Danielle LaRock?

  No, I think they have a bait of fish. They got a bait of fish, right?

• 46:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  What? Oh, like they bought a fish?

• 46:06Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 46:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, I thought they were saying they caught a fish.

• 46:09Danielle LaRock?

  Either way.

• 46:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  But a new pet.

• 46:11Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, right.

• 46:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  What, something to eat? Either way, fish party. Since it was right next door, I wasn't not going to go. I remember only having two white claws in my fridge and thinking to myself, thank goodness that I didn't have to drink much that night. Oh, my God, this is bringing back so many memories.

• 46:28Danielle LaRock?

  I'm having flashbacks, yeah.

• 46:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  This particular month, a few of my coworkers were really into aliens. They had watched a ton of documentaries and had been practicing getting into a spiritual space in which the aliens would communicate. It is worthy to note that this was induced with microdosing. My friends had planned that night to go to the field behind my house to try and communicate with the aliens. Okay, scene set, back to the fish party. I arrived around eight thirty and many people were already drinking pretty heavily. At around ten, I noticed that my boyfriend at the time's roommate could barely stand up. I had only had two drinks at this point and did not mind taking a break from the part, so I asked my boyfriend if we should walk his roommate home and we both agreed that we that that would be a good idea.

• 47:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was only a couple minute walk between the condo buildings, but it's down a dark gravel road. We had a lot of fun on the walk, holding his roommate up, but laughing so much. We finally got to their apartment and put his roommate to bed. We chatted with him for a bit, then decided that we were going to leave and go back to the party. That is the last. Thing I remember. The timestamp was around ten thirty P M. I snapped back into consciousness at around three A M. I woke up to being mid make out with my boyfriend in his bed. I didn't want to say anything because at first I was embarrassed, thinking that I had blacked out from drinking, but then I remembered I had hardly drank. I pulled away from him acting super weird when he kind of did the same. He told me then not to be mad,

• 48:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  but he thinks he had just blacked back in. I explained to him that I had the same thing. We decided to just go to sleep and talk about it in the morning. When we woke up, we discussed every possibility. We thought maybe someone had drugged us, but my body is so sensitive that there would have been no way that it would have affected us at the same exact rate. We could not find any rational solution for the missing five hours at time. Fast forward a few hours, we were back with our friends and we were talking about our night. They told me that they were successful in communicating with the aliens that night. I asked them what time they think it was and they said it started around ten thirty. I don't know if I believe in aliens, but I do know that this experience was supernatural.

• 48:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  I have no other explanation for the missing time unless I really had been drugged or something. I chose to joke about it and say it's when the aliens abducted me, but honestly, I sometimes think it may be true. Anyways, this is my creepy alien experience from the Great Smoky Mountains.

• 49:02Danielle LaRock?

  Girl.

• 49:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  I just.

• 49:03Danielle LaRock?

  You got drugged.

• 49:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 49:05Danielle LaRock?

  That's my opinion as somebody who has gone through unfortunately, an experience similar to that and I was drugged when I was out um and at in southern New Hampshire after college. The same thing happened to me, only I was the sickest I've ever been in my entire life the next day. Like I almost went to the hospital and my parents were like, you like need medical attention.

• 49:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  Really wrong here.

• 49:33Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, that's the only, that's the only thing that is like, hmm, maybe you weren't drugged because if your body literally didn't have any sort of reaction at all, but I don't know. Everyone tolerates things differently. But I don't know.

• 49:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  To just miss time like that and your boyfriend.

• 49:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  And you're at a party. I would, I would like to know what more, cause you just kind of grazed over the fact that your friends were like, yeah, we communicated with aliens. And then just like, nothing else was said on that. So.

• 50:06Danielle LaRock?

  What does that mean?

• 50:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. What does that mean? Did they know you were abducted? Were they abducted? Like, I need to know a little bit more context there.

• 50:15Danielle LaRock?

  And also, what does the communicating in a field with them mean? Like, but I, I just, I don't even know what to envision. Like, I just envision everyone kind of sitting in a circle in a field on drugs and like meditating and trying to. Or like with a Ouija board of some kind, but not a Ouija board because I don't know. I'm lost.

• 50:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  We need to know the connection here, but I agree. It sounds like, I don't know, to just lose five hours of time.

• 50:45Danielle LaRock?

  It's, I don't know, but just like snapping back into it. I mean, same thing. Mine was more embarrassing. You want to talk about embarrassing stories? It doesn't have to do with poop, but it has to do with pee. And I had pissed myself when I was drugged, but I had like, I snapped back into consciousness. Mid, it's somebody's random house that I had never been to before with someone I knew from high school and hadn't seen in like almost eight years. And I had, I was holding a hair dryer and like drying off my jeans that were still on. I was fully dressed. I was mid-conversation with this person, but I snapped back into consciousness and reality in my body.

• 51:28Danielle LaRock?

  And I was like drying off my jeans because I had peed myself. And he was like comforting me and trying to talk to me and stuff, but we were clearly mid-conversation and I had not been there for hours. I don't remember leaving the bar. I don't remember having these conversations, making these plans, going to this house, doing any of this stuff. And this was when I was at my height of, I know what being drunk was, okay? I know what was blacking out was from alcohol.

• 51:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was different. Do you know who, do you know who did it?

• 52:00Danielle LaRock?

  No, not to this day. And I remember I was with Nataia and she and I called my stepdad to come pick me up. I'm like, I am not okay. This is crazy. And my stepdad came and picked me up and I like, we again, kind of like laugh about it now. It's not funny, but I was, I started getting pretty sick pretty immediately and I was legitimately hanging outside of the window of his car and throwing up and just like, my body was so wrecked. I was so, I know that there were some sort of drugs in my system that was like, my body was trying to detox from and it was crazy.

• 52:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's like, get this out of me.

• 52:39Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, that took me out and it was super scary because I've been blacked out before. I've browned in and out before. Uh, but nothing like that. So.

• 52:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Yeah, that's so scary. I have never been drugged, but I had a very close call my first night of college. My first, yeah, my very first night of college, someone um, drugged my drink and it was a beer and I know who did it. Um, but it was a beer that I actually didn't like, so I had been avoiding it. And one of my friends, I saw he was drinking a beer that I did like, and I asked him if he wanted to switch with me. And he did, and he got drugged and he was, I mean, within thirty minutes, he was in the bathroom puking like crazy. He was so sick. And I remember being like, are you okay? What, what is going on?

• 53:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I remember telling everyone, because we were at my friend's house and it was just a party that they were having. And this person showed up and I told them the series of events that happened, this person I had been talking to right before that. I had left my beer alone with him. I came back, I switched it with someone else and then.

• 53:51Danielle LaRock?

  That happened. Yeah.

• 53:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  And he, I mean, it was very early in the night. We hadn't even been drinking, really. We hadn't even really started. So I saw the effects that it had and that same night, that same person. I had noticed he kept talking to me and he was like, how are you feeling? Do you want to walk? Do you want me to walk you home? Like, you've been drinking for a while. Are you feeling okay? And I remember being like, yeah, you fucking weirdo. Like, get away from me.

• 54:14Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, my God. That's so creepy. That is so nefarious also, like.

• 54:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I remember, yeah, and I remember he had been like waiting around for me to go home. And I was like, and I specifically stayed because it was my first night in college. I didn't know many people. My only friend that I knew was drugged in the bathroom.

• 54:35Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, intentionally, yeah.

• 54:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. So I was waiting for him to leave because I didn't feel comfortable walking home with him around. So I waited until he left and then I walked home by myself. And, uh, but he waited a really long time until like two o'clock in the morning and yeah.

• 54:52Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, it's, you gotta be careful out there at fish parties and beyond, you know? You never know what's happening. And I don't know, I'm not trying to discount your alien situation.

• 55:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  It just feels very familiar.

• 55:04Danielle LaRock?

  Yes, it feels, it hits close to home. Um, so I just, yeah, I.

• 55:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  Unless there's more context to your friends and how they communicated with aliens and how they could have been there that night. It feels like some partying went a little foul.

• 55:18Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. So you can follow up, feel free to follow up and we can make a ruling from there. Um, but, okay. All right. My last story is titled New Year, Who's Bones? Hey, girls. Love your podcast, especially enjoying catching up on all the trail tales. My name is Chris and I wanted to write in with one of my own that I hope will entertain you. My husband Scott and I love the creepy, the haunted and the unexplained. So it's fitting that this story takes place not in a national park, but a graveyard. It was New Year's Day and we had been visiting Scott's mother, who now lives in my small hometown. We go out there every January 1st for her version of Hop and John to bring us good luck for the coming year. I've never once heard of Hop and John.

• 56:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Me either.

• 56:01Danielle LaRock?

  So.

• 56:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's a type of food.

• 56:03Danielle LaRock?

  What?

• 56:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  Does that make sense?

• 56:05Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 56:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, yeah, it says.

• 56:07Danielle LaRock?

  Wait.

• 56:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Hop and John is a traditional southern US dish of black eyed peas and rice, often flavored with pork like bacon or ham hock and seasonings, and is famously eaten on New Year's Day for good luck.

• 56:19Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, yeah, the very next sentence says after the meal, so that makes sense. I thought they were saying they were in the graveyard for Hop and John.

• 56:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Hop and John does sound like a name of someone.

• 56:31Danielle LaRock?

  Well, I'm sure.

• 56:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  Of a ghost.

• 56:33Danielle LaRock?

  Right. That lingers in this.

• 56:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, Hop and John is a ghost that lingers for sure.

• 56:39Danielle LaRock?

  After the meal and on our way back home, we decided to stop by the local cemetery and visit a couple relatives that are buried there. We also had our dog, a blue healer mix named Rue with us, so we decided to take her on a short walk around the cemetery. This cemetery is on the older side, and there are some beautiful gravestones, small mausoleums, and interesting markers, so we were going slow, ambling along and enjoying just being outside on the overcast chilly day. As we went up a small hill, I noticed several graves that looked odd, just muddy areas, but the areas were directly in front of the stones and coffin shaped. Not new burials, as the dirt had settled, so it was even with the grass that was growing between them.

• 57:18Danielle LaRock?

  The stones were all people who had died at least fifty years prior, and we could not figure out why their sites had been dug up, moved? We had no idea. Stumped, we decided to move on, but suddenly I saw a bone sticking up out of the gravesite mud. I pointed out and say, is that a bone? Scott, whom I apparently can't trust to roam a cemetery without strict supervision, decides to dig it out a little and then picked it up to prove that I was wrong. His face quickly changed because, yep, it's a bone. To me, this is definitely an arm bone from a body that should be buried below us right now. I tell him he's definitely getting haunted and take a couple steps away from him.

• 58:00Danielle LaRock?

  He drops it and we stand there for a stunned second or two and then walked away quickly, a little unsure of what to do next. I realize he's just dropped it on the ground and make him go back and kind of at least bury it. A little so a dog or another husband doesn't walk along, pick it up and carry it off. We run over to my grandparents' site, which is very close to where we were walking. And I tell them all about how Scott dug up a grave and is getting haunted for sure. I could just imagine my grandma's reaction, a little mortified, but laughing at the both of us as we talk over each other explaining. We drive back to our house, about thirty minute drive, talking over what we should do next, if we should call someone, etc. We decided to call the local police department and just let them know what we saw.

• 58:43Danielle LaRock?

  I hear Scott on the phone, giving the dispatcher the story, and after giving his name, he starts laughing. We actually know the dispatcher he's talking to. She's an old friend of ours. She sends a cop out to take a look and talk to the cemetery owner. She texts Scott a bit later after some confusion over where the grave actually was and says that they found it. And the cemetery owner says a tree came down and pulled up some roots and they had to just fix some damage. That no bodies were out of the ground or anything. I found this so odd because tree roots wouldn't have popped up just three graves and not the earth in between them, which hadn't been disturbed. And we were about to point that out when we got another text from our, another text from our friend.

• 59:26Danielle LaRock?

  Correction, then another. He just found it. Then another. He was wrong. We need to get the coroner out here. Then radio silence.

• 59:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's a serious of a text.

• 59:35Danielle LaRock?

  I know. Like, you were right. She called us later and gave us the full story. The cemetery owner said he was mistaken. It wasn't a tree root, but several graves that had settled that needed to be filled in. They had to bring in fill dirt from a farm nearby and the bone that had been in the dirt was identified by the, by the coroner as thankfully a deer bone. So the first day of twenty twenty six for us had some graveyard drama, even if it ended up being a little anticlimactic. Remember, enjoy the view, but even in a cemetery, maybe especially in a cemetery, watch your back.

• 1:00:11Danielle LaRock?

  Uh, this remember reminds me of the story that just came out of that guy in Mount Mariah Cemetery. Did you see that? Is this your algorithm? Oh my God, Cassie, this guy, I don't know his name. I'm probably gonna butcher a bunch of the details, but long story short, has been breaking into mausoleums and digging up old graves and whatever of hundreds of people and literally hanging the bodies from his ceilings and lining them up all in his home. And like, there's like heads everywhere, there's bodies everywhere, there's pieces of people's families, like an entire mausoleum of generations of people. And he just got caught.

• 1:00:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  How'd they catch him?

• 1:00:55Danielle LaRock?

  Uh, no, I don't know. I think there, I think something to do with not only did he have them in his house like Ed Gein style, but he was also dealing that, like, like selling them as, yeah. Yeah. And he, his mugshot is so creepy. And I mean, it's super disturbing. Um, and there, I did stumble upon some like leaked footage from the police body cams of like when they originally went into his home. And it's pretty gnarly and disturbing and so heartbreaking to know. Like, yes, it's gross and creepy and like spooky and scary, but also it's like.

• 1:01:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Someone's family.

• 1:01:35Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, like these are people's loved ones that you're doing this to. And it's, so there's so many layers to it and it's, it just happened as we're recording this maybe like a week or two ago.

• 1:01:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't know how, I have not seen it, but I have been hiding everything on my algorithm that's been, um. You know how you can like, be like not interested, not interested, not interested?

• 1:01:57Danielle LaRock?

  Can you do that on Instagram? I don't use TikTok.

• 1:02:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, yeah, on Instagram. You can do like in the corner, you can click not interested because I was getting flooded with, I mean, I would open Instagram in the morning and instead of seeing a garden or people snowboarding or something, I was seeing people being murdered.

• 1:02:17Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  And live footage on Instagram and that was just a bit. I want to be informed and I do try to stay informed of obviously what's going on, but watching people get murdered is not a way that I want to stay informed. I would rather like I want to read about it. I want to know that it happened, but I don't need to. Without my permission, if I want to see a video like that and it's out there, I will look it up, but I just don't think it's right that without my permission, I'm being forced to watch it.

• 1:02:44Danielle LaRock?

  Well, yeah, you know, long go, long gone are the days that there's like a video that's like kind of blurred out and you have to select play to watch it, you know, it's just like this automatic immediately in your face violence and it's a lot, especially when there is so much violence going on and there's like you said, toeing the line of being informed and you know, being involved, but not having this overwhelming. I mean, a single person seeing that much unfold in the ma- in like the span of minutes.

• 1:03:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:21Danielle LaRock?

  You know, like video after video and scene after scene of mobs and riots and shootings and you know, it's just, it's a lot.

• 1:03:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. And I want, it's just, i- it's been going on for a little while now that my algorithm has been doing that to me, but and I saw one meme that I just kind of resonated with a lot and it was like, our mental capacity is not supposed to be making breakfast, see someone be murdered, then take care of my children, then go to work and then watch another video of someone being murdered and then go and then call about my electric bill. Like it's

• 1:03:58Danielle LaRock?

  What's desensitizing us in a really scary way?

• 1:04:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I don't want to be desensitized to that stuff, but I also don't want it to be like, I don't want it to be normal for me to open Instagram and watch someone be murdered. And so I think my algorithm is figuring out that I don't like that. Um, it still does come up for me. I get a lot of, yeah, I just, I don't need to see that on Instagram. I will find out what's going on in the world in many ways, but watching it on Instagram is not, not my news source. So.

• 1:04:33Danielle LaRock?

  Great. Well, let's all fix our algorithms while also being and staying informed.

• 1:04:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  Present and informed.

• 1:04:40Danielle LaRock?

  Yes, let's do that. I would like to change my algorithm because right now it's all dogs that are on the euthanasia list and it's like

• 1:04:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  That was my Facebook algorithm for a while.

• 1:04:51Danielle LaRock?

  My god. It's just the, it's videos of the volunteers that are like, you know, taking these dogs out for their last day because they're up for euthanasia. And I'm like, I'm seeing this like two weeks after the fact or a day after the fact. And it's like, I know that they're not around anymore. And like, I couldn't save them. I'm like, all right, what is going on? Please?

• 1:05:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's too much. It's too much sadness.

• 1:05:15Danielle LaRock?

  I know.

• 1:05:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm just looking for a recipe. Like, you know, it's just not, it's too much. It's too much.

• 1:05:21Danielle LaRock?

  Well, what do you have for your bonus story today?

• 1:05:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, we are all done with our main stories, but if you would like to hang out on a brighter note, maybe, maybe not for our next stories. Mine is titled, Don't Listen to the Locals. And you can listen to it on Patreon or Apple subscriptions.

• 1:05:39Danielle LaRock?

  And mine is titled Fiasco in the Cordillera Blanca. So who knows what we have in store, but come find out and we'll see you over there.

• 1:05:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. In the meantime, enjoy the view.

• 1:05:48Danielle LaRock?

  But watch your back.

• 1:05:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  Bye.

• 1:05:50Danielle LaRock?

  See ya. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale of your own you'd like to share, you can write to us at [email protected] or visit our website at npadpodcast.com. Bonus trail tales and content are available to Patreon members and Apple subscribers. Follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X at National Park After Dark. And if you prefer to watch our episodes, you can find us on YouTube at National Park After Dark. And as always, if you enjoy the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

• 1:06:39Speaker 04

  Everyone talks about how challenging it is to raise kids. But what about protecting them? Outlet covers, kitchen cabinet locks, baby gates. Where do you even start? Well, protecting your home and auto is a great place to start. Progressive offers customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage. They're basically the baby gates of insurance. Get a quote at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers. Not available in all states.

• 1:07:11Speaker 01

  Somebody asked me how I defined myself. And I didn't know what to say. Because how can someone be defined when we're always evolving? I've been so many things. I'll be so many others.

• 1:07:27Speaker 01

  Because identity is not a performance. It's an exploration. Never the same, but always myself. That's the paradox. Paradox Intense and the new Sweet Chemistry by Prada.