Pod Insights National Park After Dark Trail Tales 92 ft. National Park Trust About this episode Today we are joined by Aylish and Annaliese from the National Park
Trust! They speak to us about all the wonderful programs the NPT
facilitates while also helping us share trail tales that include
thieving bears, grandpa lore, wise 5th graders, bison close encounters
and the healing power of nature.
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Transcript 15,537 words · 9 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:16 Cassandra Yahnian? Hi, everyone. Welcome back to National Park After Dark. I'm Cassie.
1:19 Danielle LaRock? I'm Danielle.
1:20 Cassandra Yahnian? And we're here with another Trail Tales episode for you all today, but this one is slightly different because we have some guests with us.
1:27 Danielle LaRock? We do. We just wrapped up with them. It's such a fun episode, and it's about something we've never really talked about before on National Park After Dark, and that's families and kids.
1:37 Cassandra Yahnian? I know. It's kind of about time, because you guys have been telling us for years that you do this with your kids.
1:44 Danielle LaRock? You're like, hey, guys.
1:45 Cassandra Yahnian? We have kids. We have kids. We listen. And even teachers have come forward and said, like, their kids listen for some educational stuff. And we're like, OK, we have children here. We want to do something that's helpful for them in parks, too, and also for families, not just kids. This is a strictly kids' episode, but we just wanted to do a little nod to that. So today, we have Annalise and Ailish from the National Park Trust here with us today. And you may have seen them around in national parks. This trust, it's very popular. I guarantee you've seen their logos around. But if you're unfamiliar, National Park Trust is a nonprofit organization.
2:28 Cassandra Yahnian? Dedicated to protecting parklands and connecting people to the outdoors. So since 1983, they've protected critical parklands across the country, completing 74 projects that have benefited 57 national park sites. And as we celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States, 31 of those projects have helped preserve historic and cultural sites tied to defining moments in our country's history. And at the same time, they're expanding access to parks, public lands, and waters through youth, family, military, and college programs, connecting tens of thousands of people to the outdoors each and every year. At their core, they believe these places should be cared for, experienced, and preserved by everyone for current and future generations.
3:13 Cassandra Yahnian? So today, they are here to share some of their own trail tales, dive into the work they do, and talk about how all of us can play a role in protecting these spaces. Welcome to National Park After Dark, Annalise and Alish. We're so happy to have you.
3:27 Speaker 04 It is so cool to be talking with you guys. We are such big fans of the podcast and all of the stories you guys have told over the years. We've been listening for a long time. And it's really awesome to be able to chat in with you guys.
3:41 Speaker 05 Yeah, so surreal to be on the podcast.
3:44 Speaker 04 So yeah, like Alish said, just been longtime listeners. Always bring it up in conversation. Always brag about you guys.
3:53 Cassandra Yahnian? Well, thank you. So you're our unofficial hype girls.
3:57 Speaker 04 Honestly, yeah. You guys are getting a lot of promo through us for sure.
4:01 Cassandra Yahnian? We appreciate it. We truly do. Well, I guess before we dive into all of the stuff about National Park Trust, would you both be able to just introduce yourselves and say a little bit about what your role is within National Park Trust?
4:15 Speaker 04 Yeah, definitely. So I am Alish. I am one of the education coordinators in our youth programs department at National Park Trust. We do a lot of different things, but within our youth program, I work as an education coordinator for our Buddy Bison School Program that I think we'll talk about in a minute. But basically, my job is just to connect kids to parks, get kids outside, get kids learning about the environment, get them passionate about it, and inspire them to be future park stewards. And
4:47 Speaker 05 Yeah, and my name is Annalise. I'm a programs coordinator for the National Park Trust. And my side of the house, I do all of our 18-plus programs. So that includes our college ambassador programs and our military programs. I specifically oversee our entirety of our college ambassador program, which encourages college students across the US to motivate their peers to get outside. And then on the other side is military engagement. So providing military families, including all service members of all branches of the military, including veterans and Gold Star families, National Guard and Reserve, just really meaningful park experiences. And
5:32 Speaker 05 yeah, I think just like a little background on myself is I in college was actually a college ambassador myself when the program was first created. And I just fell in love with bringing people outdoors that I found myself post-graduation kind of in the outdoors, or not in the outdoors realm, but like this corporate world and just realized how much I missed it. And I found myself returned to the Park Trust to now lead this program and lead other programs. So really, really cool and a little fun story that I like to share.
6:04 Cassandra Yahnian? Well, it's so cool to have you both here because I feel like we're getting every generation is being covered today, which is really, which is really fun. So with all of that being said, let's get into the National Park Trust and what you guys do, how it started. We'd love to just learn more about it.
6:22 Speaker 05 Yeah, definitely. So the National Park Trust is a national nonprofit organization that is direct partners with the National Park Service. So our mission as a whole is to preserve parks today and create park stewards for tomorrow. And just a little bit of history on how we started. We started 40-plus years ago as an accredited land trust where we buy and acquire privately held lands in and around our national park boundaries and ultimately return those pieces of land to the park service. So those missing pieces can be preserved and protected forever. And that was the, what the organization was solely created to do back in 1983 when we first started. But in the early 2000s, we actually
7:10 Speaker 05 Thought to ourselves, hey, we realized even though our land work is super, super important, parks can't be preserved and protected without dedicated park stewards. Um, so in turn, that's when our community engagement programs were born. And we now work to engage different communities with our national parks and other public lands and waters. Um, through our youth programs, which Alish oversees, which she'll talk more about, our military and college programs. Um, and we do this by creating meaningful park experiences through access, education, connection. And so just as a whole, and that was like a really large overview, I don't want to get too in the weeds of it, but just to tie it all together with our mission.
7:56 Speaker 05 Um, the park trust preserves parks today through our land acquisition work and creates park stewards for tomorrow through our program work.
8:04 Danielle LaRock? Amazing. So going off of that, Alish, question for you. So you are obviously heavily involved with kids and inspiring them to care for and be stewards of the land that you've worked so hard to acquire and preserve and protect. Because you know, like preservation is great in the present, but it's nothing without a future. And we all know that kids are the future. So can you talk to us a little bit about the Buddy Bison Program and Kids in Parks? And what those programs look like?
8:40 Speaker 05 Yeah, definitely. So the Buddy Bison Program is kind of like our flagship youth program model. We work with about a hundred Title I schools across the country. And Title I schools are just underserved schools, basically. They like receive federal funding. Um, so these are really important communities to be reaching. These experiences like aren't innate to their childhood, growing up essentially. And so, yeah, we work with about a hundred Title I schools across the country. And each school gets between like two and three park experiences throughout the school year. So we typically work with like one grade level per school. And so I work really closely with like a lead teacher, a buddy teacher, if you will.
9:25 Speaker 05 And, um, at the beginning of the school year, they just kind of meet with me and I hear more about their curriculum, what they're going to be focusing on in like history or art or.
9:36 Speaker 04 Science, like it, the trips aren't always just like science focused. I think we think about that a lot with like going to the park. You have to learn about nature or something in the environment, but like, no, you can learn about historical figures or do like an art nature journaling thing at a park. So yeah, meeting with the teachers and learning about what they want the trips to look like. And we cover funding for transportation, which is one of the biggest barriers to access. Um, some buses are like $2,000 for a trip. And a lot of these schools just don't have that in their budget set aside. So park trips, but also like assemblies, like we have nature centers that bring like birds of prey into
10:19 Speaker 04 classrooms and do like owl pellet dissections.
10:22 Danielle LaRock? Oh, a favorite even to today.
10:24 Cassandra Yahnian? Owl pellets are so cool.
10:26 Danielle LaRock? I did it la- I like did it last summer when I found one in the woods. Yeah.
10:30 Speaker 04 Oh, my gosh. Every time I find one in the woods, I grab like the most nearby stick and I'm just like, what's going on in there?
10:35 Danielle LaRock? I brought it home and I made bets with friends of how many skulls I would find in it. It was huge. There were seven.
10:42 Speaker 04 No way.
10:44 Danielle LaRock? It was wild.
10:45 Speaker 04 Wait, like how big was it?
10:47 Danielle LaRock? It was big.
10:47 Speaker 04 That's crazy.
10:49 Danielle LaRock? Yeah.
10:49 Cassandra Yahnian? I need to look harder because I have a couple bard owls that frequent my yard. I see, I hear them almost every day and I see them pretty often too. But I've never found an owl pellet. But to be totally fair, I don't really look and my dogs are also pooping around that same area. So it could get a little scary.
11:11 Speaker 04 Yeah, we do so many owl pellets and I have like owl pellets like at my desk at home. And I'm just like, if someone were to clear out my desk, what is this tinfoil of like bone and fur doing in here?
11:23 Speaker 05 Yeah. And like crazy caveat, but for those that are listening to us talk about owl pellets, like they're not actually poop.
11:31 Speaker 04 No, they're.
11:31 Cassandra Yahnian? I, we. They're the throw up.
11:33 Speaker 05 It's literally they.
11:34 Cassandra Yahnian? They're regurgitation.
11:36 Speaker 05 Yes.
11:37 Speaker 04 That's what we have to tell the kids every time. Like this is poop. I'm like, it's actually even better. It's throw up. So.
11:42 Danielle LaRock? Oh, yeah. It's like, I understand where the confusion came from. Looks a lot like poop, is not.
11:47 Speaker 04 Yeah.
11:48 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, I used to work in outdoor education and one of the things that the kids loved the most were the owl pellets because they're digging in there, they're finding little skulls and legs and whatever.
12:00 Speaker 04 And then, yeah, I always like to encourage kids to like try and make a full like skeleton of what they find. So like put the head at the top, try and do all the ribs and like see what they have. But yeah, big owl pellet fans over here.
12:15 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
12:17 Speaker 04 So yeah, like assemblies where we have naturalists come in and lead programs like that. And then we also will send out like educational kits. So if like a school has like a community garden or something, we'll supply whatever they may need for that. Seeds or stewardship things like trash bags and gloves, really just like trying to get as much environmental education into the classroom as possible.
12:43 Cassandra Yahnian? Very cool. And so where does Buddy Bison come into all of this?
12:49 Speaker 04 Well,
12:50 Cassandra Yahnian? There he is.
12:51 Speaker 04 I just held him up to the camera. Buddy Bison, for those who cannot see. Buddy Bison is our lovable woolly mascot at the National Park Trust. And we have these kind of like plushy, sliced stuffed animals that we hand out to kids as well. The coolest thing about them is they have a carabiner on them because Buddy Bison is not a stuffed animal that wants to sit on your bed all day. Buddy Bison wants to go out with you to the park and experience the adventures with you. So we encourage kids to like clip them onto your backpack or on your belt loop or anything like that. But he kind of represents our
13:33 Speaker 04 program and our work to bring kids outside. And he's just like a tangible reminder that the parks are yours. Go outside, explore, experience a sense of wonder outside, all of that good stuff.
13:47 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, Buddy Bison isn't a regular stuffed animal. He's a cool stuffed animal.
13:55 Speaker 04 He's different. We also have a mascot as well. We have like a Buddy Bison mascot costume. So Buddy Bison, full-size Buddy actually makes some appearances at parks as well, which is not a part of the job description that I realized.
14:13 Cassandra Yahnian? Have you ever been Buddy Bison? Are we talking to the Buddy Bison right now?
14:20 Speaker 04 It's Buddy Bison in the room.
14:23 Speaker 04 Yeah.
14:24 Speaker 05 If you, if you go to our social media and you see some Buddy Bison, it may or may not be featuring one of us.
14:32 Speaker 04 But we're both like five-two and five-three, so he's like...
14:35 Speaker 05 We can't actually represent Buddy Bison because we are very small. Like, we'd be the size of the children.
14:42 Speaker 04 Yeah.
14:42 Speaker 05 But, but we can go and dance on TikToks.
14:47 Speaker 04 Yeah, we can do that, and we do.
14:50 Cassandra Yahnian? Now I'm gonna have to look out for Buddy Bison when I'm in the parks, because you never know.
14:55 Speaker 05 We sell them all up and down the East Coast. We have like a very good relationship with the East Coast parks, and you can find a Buddy Bison there.
15:02 Speaker 04 Yeah.
15:03 Speaker 05 Uh, but I was actually recently in Yosemite and a, a park ranger there had a Buddy Bison attached to him, and I was like, where did you get that?
15:11 Speaker 04 Did we give it to them?
15:12 Speaker 05 No, he just said he, he got it when he was on the East Coast, and he didn't realize. I was like, I work for that organization. So, no, that was fun.
15:20 Cassandra Yahnian? That's super cool. Well, in the spirit of Bison, um, because today for this episode, we're also reading some Trail Tales, I thought that it would be fun to bring a Trail Tales story that involves a Bison.
15:33 Speaker 05 Please.
15:35 Cassandra Yahnian? So this one is titled, "Almost Kissed By A Bison." That seems a little...
15:40 Speaker 05 I wanna get kissed by a Bison.
15:43 Cassandra Yahnian? Scary. "Hey ladies, my name is Gideon. Feel free to share. And I, like so many, were introduced to the pod by a friend of mine as I started my journey to see all sixty-three US national parks. In the past year, I've checked off fifteen parks and have plenty more trips planned in the near future. My favorite trip so far was this May, where I was able to drive through South Dakota and Wyoming on a four-park trip. I left my home in Wisconsin, picked up my grad school classmate Sam from his home in South Dakota, and we explored the Black Hills, Badlands, Wind Cave, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone in my little Ford Focus."
16:20 Speaker 04 Gosh, that sounds like such a good trip.
16:21 Speaker 05 That is a dream trip.
16:25 Cassandra Yahnian? Grand Teton quickly became my favorite park with breathtaking views, close encounters with creatures pretending to be moose, because moose aren't real, obviously.
16:34 Speaker 04 Oh my gosh, you guys talk about that in your latest, a recent episode about that.
16:40 Cassandra Yahnian? Like, I have never seen one on the east coast and I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced.
16:48 Cassandra Yahnian? But, okay, so you see moose that aren't real. And the absolute best hikes I have ever been on. We spent four days there and then headed up to Yellowstone for another three days. We were exhausted but dead set on seeing some more wildlife, notably grizzly bears. Leaving from Colter Bay in the Tetons, we drove straight up to our campsite in Mammoth Springs, pitched our tent and headed out to Lamar Valley to look for people with better telescopes and binoculars than us to ask them what they were looking at. Danielle and I can relate to that so hard. Pro move. Yeah, we've done it. We saw wolves and coyotes, pronghorn, elk and several black bears, but no grizzlies. At this point, Sam and I were getting pretty exhausted, but we were dead set on seeing a grizzly.
17:33 Cassandra Yahnian? We drove all the way to the northeast entrance, turned around and sat in my little car playing cards while we waited for the sun to get a little lower in the sky. As it approached dusk, we started to drive back to Lamar Valley. Once the forest area we were in gave way to open valley, we spotted a car with someone outside with a big camera watching something across the water. We got out and the man kindly told us that he spotted a grizzly sow with her two cubs. I got out my tiny binoculars and Sam and I watched the grizzly family for as long as we could. This was that magical moment that so many have when they come to Yellowstone and I was so happy. Now you may be wondering why I'm going into so much detail about seeing a grizzly bear
18:17 Cassandra Yahnian? when the title of this story is about a bison. Well, stay with me because we watched this bear for so long, the daylight was really fading. To get to where we were in the park, we had to cross a herd of bison as far as the eye could see. Now, this story is just so funny because Danielle and I had lived this exact same story. Oh, no. I see where it's going. You don't even have to say anything. Now that it was getting dark out, we had to pass through the same herd again. Not too many cars were out at this point, so we took the stretch of road near where the bison were moving very slowly. We came to a point where we could see a larger bison standing still in the road while the other bison and calves around it started to cross the road.
19:01 Cassandra Yahnian? Sam and I were appreciating this awesome sight as the bison's became silhouettes in the setting sun. However, a car came up behind us that did not share our patience. After seeing my car wasn't going to move anytime soon, this white California plated sports car sped around me and right past the bison guarding the road. Uh oh, this was now one mad buffalo. It was clearly startled and angered by the speeding car, but misdirected that fury towards us. It straddled the yellow line and stared directly at me and Sam. Neither of us moved. We just waited and waited. Thankfully, the bison eventually walked off the road. By the time the bison finally moved, the park was completely dark.
19:45 Cassandra Yahnian? We still had a long drive ahead of us. We drove on only seeing what was illuminated by the path of my headlights and nothing else. This whole stretch of road was one lane each direction up until the intersection at Tower Roosevelt, and my headlights barely lit up anything outside the gravel shoulders. The drive was uneventful up to this point as we had seen nothing and Sam started to snooze off. Snooze off, doze off. And Sam started to doze off. I slowed down as we approached the turn. I shifted over into the right turn lane and I started to make my turn. Keep in mind, the road widened here, but my headlights never really went into the corner between the intersecting roads. As I am turning, I glanced out of the passenger
20:28 Cassandra Yahnian? side window past Sam and a massive figure the size of the window materializes out of the darkness. A buffalo, right in the window of the passenger side door, a mere centimeters from the car. I completed the process of turning without stopping or saying anything. As it appeared, Sam rose out of his seat and grabbed me in complete shock. I continued driving forward and he said, "Was that a buffalo?" "Yep," I replied in shock myself. "If he stuck out his lips, he could have kissed us," said Sam.
21:04 Cassandra Yahnian? I continued to drive all the way back to the campsite while Sam and I, with newfound adrenaline-induced energy, came up with theories of what happened and what we decided was that the angry bison from before had somehow communicated with his homies down the road in either A, that we were threats and that this close encounter was just a reminder for us not to mess with them, or B, this was an attempt at a thank you kiss for us being patient. I like to think the second, but either way, the image of the bison appearing right beside us from the void is forever etched in our memory. This was the trip of a lifetime and I am so thankful I got a trail tale out of it. I attached a photo of the sunset while we watched the grizzlies and a photo of the angry buffalo before he got so angry. Keep up the awesome stories. I hope that one day I can
21:49 Cassandra Yahnian? get caught up enough and hear this story on the pod. God bless. Gideon.
21:54 Speaker 04 That is so cute. I think it's such a, like, sweet mindset to immediately think, like, "It could have kissed us," instead of, like, worst case scenario, like...
22:03 Cassandra Yahnian? Sort of terrified.
22:06 Danielle LaRock? It's like, that was intimate.
22:07 Speaker 05 That was really romantic. I loved that.
22:11 Speaker 05 Wait, so you said you guys were, you had the same experience practically?
22:15 Danielle LaRock? Well, I thought it was going somewhere else, but we were in Yellowstone and classically, we got stuck in a massive bison jam. Like, the, I mean, I've been to Yellowstone before. I've seen, heard of bison. This was crazy large and it would have been like cool and chill and fine. And it was a little nerve wracking because I, I truly feel like bison are one of those animals that you don't think are scary until you're right next to them and surrounded by them and being stared down by them. But we, so we went into Lamar Valley, similarly to this story, but we went in the early morning hours, like we got up at 3:00
22:56 Danielle LaRock? a.m. trying to went, go see the wolves before we had a meeting at 9:00 a.m. and we didn't have service anywhere except for our Airbnb right outside of the park. So we're like, we'll definitely have time to go do some wildlife watching and then come back for our 9:00 a.m. meeting.
23:18 Speaker 05 And now.
23:19 Danielle LaRock? Okay, we're just trying to get to our meeting.
23:22 Speaker 05 We're just trying to get to work.
23:28 Danielle LaRock? And we, when I tell you, we skirted in, like, the skirt. We had like 30 seconds.
23:37 Danielle LaRock? Just because we were hung up in this bison jam for so long and we couldn't, and I'm like, what are we going to tell these people, which, who we've, by the way, never met and be like, sorry, we're like, we were in the middle of a bison jam?
23:51 Speaker 05 My dog ate my homework, sorry.
23:54 Danielle LaRock? We're gonna be like, who are these people? Yeah. So, but yeah, I think that it's similar in the way of like, you don't realize how. Intimidating being that close to a bison is until they're staring you down. And then suddenly your car doesn't feel that badass anymore.
24:11 Cassandra Yahnian? No, you're not safe in there. That bison could
24:14 Danielle LaRock? Yeah.
24:14 Cassandra Yahnian? Fold you like a piece of paper. It feels like when they're especially they they love to make that eye contact. This story was funny to me because when I was in Theodore Roosevelt, I had the exact same encounter where there was just a bison in the very middle of the road, just staring at me. And I was like, I'm not moving. And I was alone too. I know I was just sitting there. I was like, I will wait until you have moved on. I was like, I am not messing with you at all.
24:40 Speaker 04 It's very humbling, very humbling.
24:43 Danielle LaRock? Yeah.
24:44 Speaker 04 I haven't seen a bison in person in many years, but.
24:47 Speaker 05 I've never, well, actually Alish and I are going to go backpacking in Yellowstone and Tetons this summer.
24:55 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh, fun.
24:56 Speaker 04 Or maybe we'll have our own bison jam.
24:58 Speaker 05 No, now I'm like, I'm like, wait a second.
25:01 Cassandra Yahnian? When are you guys going out there?
25:04 Speaker 04 Or September.
25:04 Speaker 05 September. I said this summer, but it's actually kind of early fall.
25:07 Speaker 04 Yeah.
25:08 Speaker 05 Now I'm like, wait, we have to actually kind of rush from Yellowstone to Tetons for our backpacking.
25:13 Speaker 04 Yeah.
25:13 Speaker 05 We, we, if we get stuck in a, if we get stuck in a bison jam, we might be.
25:18 Speaker 04 Yeah.
25:20 Speaker 05 I don't know, in a pickle.
25:21 Speaker 04 We'll have to get some.
25:22 Cassandra Yahnian? Account for that, for your timing.
25:24 Speaker 05 Note it. This was very helpful.
25:26 Speaker 04 Some recommendations on trails and stuff from you guys, if you have any.
25:30 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, we'll chat after.
25:31 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, we can definitely.
25:32 Speaker 04 Cool.
25:33 Cassandra Yahnian? Well, we know that you guys have a fun trail tale to read as well.
25:37 Speaker 05 Yes, it's another animal encounter. It's super exciting. I'll just dive right into it. I named this the bathroom break to bear encounter.
25:49 Danielle LaRock? Because to preface, this is your own trail.
25:51 Speaker 05 This is my own trail tale story. And let me ask you a quick question. Am I the first person to read a trail tale story that's like in real time?
26:02 Cassandra Yahnian? Outside of Danielle, who has written like her own and read them. Yeah.
26:07 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, but I don't count.
26:08 Cassandra Yahnian? You don't count. You always are on the pod. Um, yeah, you're the first person to ever come on and read your own trail tale.
26:15 Speaker 05 I am.
26:15 Speaker 04 Nice, Annalise. That's cool.
26:17 Speaker 05 I am so honored. I'm like so giddy about it.
26:21 Speaker 05 Right into it and I'm gonna read it exactly how I wrote it in to you guys. So.
26:26 Cassandra Yahnian? Amazing.
26:26 Speaker 05 Hi Cassie and Danielle. It's such an honor not only to write a story, but to be able to read it on your podcast. I've been a long time listener and a huge fan. I always bring up National Park After Dark if podcasts come up in a conversation. I wanted to share one of my stories from the National Parks, a moment that was both terrifying and unforgettable. In the summer of 2024, I went backpacking through Hetch Hetchy on the western side of Yosemite National Park with my good friend and college roommate Maggie. If you ever get the chance, it's an absolute gem, a lesser known part of the park with stunning scenery. Have you guys ever, I know you guys been to Yosemite, yeah, but have you ever been to Hetch Hetchy?
27:09 Cassandra Yahnian? Yes, and weird story about that.
27:12 Speaker 05 Really? Okay, we're gonna have to dive into that.
27:15 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
27:15 Danielle LaRock? Do you know what I'm saying, about to say Cassie?
27:18 Cassandra Yahnian? No.
27:19 Danielle LaRock? Okay, we've, we met someone famous on the trail.
27:21 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh, yeah, we did meet someone famous on the trail.
27:24 Danielle LaRock? I would name them if I remember.
27:27 Cassandra Yahnian? I don't remember their name. They were in, what was that? Um, they were out there and they wanted to take a picture for a promo that they were doing. Just like his own personal Instagram promo for a movie he had just been in.
27:41 Danielle LaRock? Finished, they were filming in, what was it, San Fran? And he was like, oh, I'm cool, something Bad Moon or Blood Moon, something on a moon.
27:51 Cassandra Yahnian? It was on Netflix.
27:52 Danielle LaRock? We're like, he was so famous and it was like this crazy thing.
27:56 Danielle LaRock? No, but seriously, and he was in a movie.
27:58 Cassandra Yahnian? He did have a crazy death scene in it though. I watched it.
28:00 Danielle LaRock? Oh, did you?
28:01 Cassandra Yahnian? I met him and yeah, and he died pretty horrifically.
28:04 Speaker 05 Oh.
28:05 Cassandra Yahnian? In the first like 10 minutes.
28:08 Speaker 05 When you guys met him? That's awesome. That is really cool.
28:11 Cassandra Yahnian? But that was our experience in Hetch Hetchy.
28:13 Danielle LaRock? So yes, long story short, we've been there.
28:16 Speaker 05 Everyone goes to like the Valley of Yosemite and don't realize Hetch Hetchy is such a gem. Like I think Maggie and I were originally trying to hike Half Dome. In hence of my favorite episode, A Lightning Strike Rescue on Half Dome that you guys read.
28:33 Cassandra Yahnian? That one was horrific.
28:34 Speaker 05 No. Everyone go listen to that because it is my favorite episode. It is. She talks about it. But we don't, we didn't get the permits for it, so we went to Hetch Hetchy and it was actually the most amazing time. Anywho, just going back into the story, it was a three day, two night trip. We took the Hetch Hetchy loop clockwise, starting at Beehive Meadow. After eleven miles, we reached our camping destination Vernon Lake, a popular backcountry campsite. The granite ground spread beneath us and the reflective lake at sunset was so beautiful. Maggie and I set up camp completely in awe of our surroundings. The scenery and trying to start a fire, lint and steel style, pushed any fear of bears to the back of our minds.
29:18 Speaker 05 Flashback to the morning before our trek, when we checked in with the ranger station. They had mentioned that a bear had been spotted the previous day ripping open a tent looking for food. Yeah, guys, that was really scary to hear. That definitely raised the hairs on the back of our necks, but panic didn't last long. Of once we hit the trail, we were too busy marveling at our surroundings. After dinner, we triple checked our food and scented items, locking everything safely in our bear canister. I stashed it behind a granite folder, three hundred feet away from our tent and covered it with rocks. No bear was getting anywhere near us, or so I thought. Later that night, a man appeared at our campsite. We were a bit alarmed.
30:05 Speaker 05 We were a bit alarmed, two girls alone in the backcountry, no cell service and a random person shows up? Scary, scary. But he was friendly, he asked if we had room in our bear canister because his group's bear canister was full. And he held out a large ziplock bag of trail mix. Maggie and I exchanged glances, but took the bag to our bear canister and jammed it in. And when I mean jammed it in, we literally had to like punch it in, our bear canister was so full.
30:35 Cassandra Yahnian? His trail mix is just smashed after, it's like here.
30:42 Speaker 05 Later that night, we went to sleep confident that we were safe. Five AM, nature called and I had to go. I stepped out, blurred eyed, without my contacts and walked about two hundred feet away. I pulled my pants down and started to go, but that's when I heard it, a dragging sound. Something or someone was moving. Squinting, all I saw was a blob of brown. Oh my god, I thought, it's the bear the Rangers were talking about. Without my contacts, I was helpless, so I ducked and covered, fumbling my way back to the bear canister to grab my contacts. Shoving them in my eyeballs as quickly as I could.
31:24 Speaker 05 They were going in there. Then ducking covered back to my tent, like ducking down was ever gonna do anything. I woke up Maggie and as we stood up to get a better look, outside our tent about three hundred feet away, lay a large black bear, tearing through a backpack with ease and chomping on whatever food it had found. We stood there, jaws dropped. After staring for a bit longer, we confirmed that the backpack that was getting absolutely mutilated belonged to the same group of guys that had asked us to store their bag of trail mix for the night. Carefully, we made our way to their tent and awkwardly leaned in and said, hey, good morning. Sorry to wake you, but I think a bear has one of your packs.
32:09 Speaker 05 Three sleepy boys spilled out of the tent and we all watched as the bear continued eating, unbothered by our presence. The group tried to scare it off with the typical, hey bear, hey bear, go away bear. Have you ever done that?
32:22 Speaker 04 Yeah. Get on bear.
32:23 Speaker 05 Yeah, go on.
32:24 Danielle LaRock? Get on out of here.
32:25 Speaker 05 Out of here. But the bear looked.
32:27 Danielle LaRock? Get on getting.
32:29 Speaker 05 But the bear looked up for a moment then went back to chomping. After a few more hey bears, finally the bear grabbed the backpack and ran off, disappearing across the lake. We all exchanged.
32:40 Speaker 04 Took it with him?
32:41 Speaker 05 Dude, it took it with him. I have a whole video of it. I'll show it to you. We all exchanged.
32:46 Danielle LaRock? Show it to us.
32:47 Speaker 05 Yeah, I'll show it to. We all exchanged looks in disbelief and sympathy for the lost pack. Like, why did we think that if we scared off the bear, he wouldn't take the bag with him?
32:59 Speaker 05 Dumb. Maggie and I returned to our campsite, cooked breakfast and filled out our bear encounter sheet the ranger had given us the morning before. Something we thought we wouldn't need to do in this particular outing. This encounter is brought up to this day and actually Maggie recently got the bear tattooed to commemorate the trip. Shout out Maggie, I love you if you're listening. I know she will be listening. Uh, this experience remains one of the coolest and scariest moments I've had outdoors. Enjoy the view, but watch your back. Next bathroom break might lead to a bear encounter and PSA, always put your food in the bear canister. Yes. No, for real. And your scented items. The most important thing. Yeah. Yeah.
33:42 Speaker 05 And I didn't say this in the story, but now that I'm the person reading it and that wrote it in, the bear actually came back. It did? Like he's.
33:51 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh, again, after that?
33:52 Speaker 05 Yeah, he strolled back looking for more. And the only voice that the bear was scared of was my roommate's Maggie. She has her, it was quite ear splitting. I would also be scared if I was a bear and heard her scream. What else was in the backpack, do you know? I think it was a literal another bag of Trumex. Did it have like their wallets or anything in it? Oh, yeah. There, somebody sleeping like another tent or something. Yeah. It was something.
34:21 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh, so they lost a bunch of their gear along with.
34:23 Speaker 05 Yeah, it was something super important where they had to, instead of finishing the loop, they had to just turn around and go back. Hmm. Uh, yeah, so.
34:31 Cassandra Yahnian? Damn. Another reason to put your bear, to put your stuff away if you want to keep going on your adventure. It's taken by a bear. That's cool to be able to see a bear that up close, but not so much under those circumstances.
34:47 Speaker 05 It was quite crazy and I'll show you the pictures, but I have like the little bear. He's like running away with his little pack. The pack is swinging. He looks so fun, like you want to go up and hug him, but you can't.
35:01 Danielle LaRock? Well, you, I can see some of the pictures on our document right here.
35:04 Speaker 05 Yeah.
35:05 Danielle LaRock? Looks like he's just having a grand old time. Yeah.
35:07 Speaker 05 He was having such a good time and I hated ruining it for him, but.
35:11 Danielle LaRock? I mean, he is pretty cute, but.
35:12 Speaker 05 He's so cute, beautiful. His little eel.
35:15 Cassandra Yahnian? He's the classic, like, he's a black bear, but you think he's a brown bear.
35:19 Speaker 05 Yeah.
35:20 Cassandra Yahnian? Kind of thing.
35:20 Speaker 05 Yeah.
35:21 Danielle LaRock? I could see how somebody would think this is a grizzly bear.
35:24 Speaker 05 I, yeah, it's so blonde. That's what everyone says when I show the pictures and what's great.
35:29 Cassandra Yahnian? But he doesn't have the hump.
35:30 Speaker 05 Yeah, exactly. And in Yosemite, you're actually not allowed to have bear spray.
35:34 Danielle LaRock? Right, right.
35:35 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, I did know that.
35:37 Speaker 05 As aggressive as obviously grizzlies, but you can't have anything, any sort of thing. So we just relied on like clapping throughout the time we were hiking and stuff, but.
35:48 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, I wonder if that regulation will change one day because as we know and stories we've told, black bears can be just as
35:55 Speaker 05 They can.
35:56 Cassandra Yahnian? aggressive and deadly as.
35:57 Speaker 05 Scared.
35:58 Cassandra Yahnian? Grizzlies.
35:59 Speaker 05 I was boots when I saw him, when I was peeing.
36:02 Cassandra Yahnian? And then when you have a bear like this one who's habituated and not afraid of you, it's just, um, calling for
36:09 Speaker 05 More dangerous.
36:09 Cassandra Yahnian? Something. Yeah, exactly.
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38:45 Cassandra Yahnian? Well, I guess going forward, we wanted to jump into some more things about the National Park Trust and all of the programs that go on. And we wanted to talk about one that is coming up really soon, which is exciting. And that is Kids to Parks Day, along with the school grants program. And we just wanted to kind of talk about those experiences, what they are, when it's happening, how people can join, all of that good stuff.
39:10 Speaker 04 Yeah, definitely. We're glad you brought it up because Kids to Parks Day is happening on May 16th this year. And I'll go at least.
39:19 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah.
39:20 Speaker 04 It's a national day of outdoor play established by the National Park Trust. So think about like, do you remember at Nickelodeon where they would have the day of play where like they wouldn't play any? Like shows during the day and if you turned on the Nickelodeon channel, it was like day of play. Cause it was like, there's no TV on. You're supposed to go outside. Do you guys remember?
39:41 Danielle LaRock? No, I don't.
39:43 Speaker 04 Okay. It's basically, I hope some people remember that. It was not like a fever dream that I had. But yeah, just going outside and.
39:52 Danielle LaRock? So the network essentially went dark for the day and said, get outside and don't watch TV.
39:57 Speaker 04 Yes, exactly.
39:58 Danielle LaRock? That's awesome. I had no idea they did that.
40:01 Speaker 04 I know. Yeah. But I think people would still turn on the TV and just like, watch that screen.
40:06 Danielle LaRock? Anything to glue yourself to a screen.
40:10 Speaker 05 Yeah. So this day, we really wanted to emphasize getting everyone, not just kids, but families outdoors to their local parks. Um, and just enjoying the day outside. I mean, I think we get always so lost in the hustle and bustle of things. And now that technology has just become so prevalent in our daily lives, we kind of lose that sense of just getting outside and playing and picking up a, a leaf and a stick and making some, you know, mud soup and all that good stuff. So we really want to motivate with this day is finding a local park in your area. And getting outside and sharing the moment that you had and sharing the memories that you had with your family during that day.
40:54 Speaker 05 So it's super exciting that, you know, every third Saturday in May, dedicated to just unplugging and getting out with your family and just enjoying.
41:05 Speaker 04 Yeah. Yeah. It's just like an intentional day of being outside. Um, if you want on our website, we have some like published events that certain parks across the country have made. Like in connection to, um, Kids to Parks Day. So some of them are like volunteer stewardship events, doing like invasive pools. Or just like an event where like, we will have tabling here at the park on Kids to Parks Day, come out, just make it more of like a intentional event, I guess. And then. Cities and towns can also proclaim Kids to Parks Day for their town.
41:40 Speaker 05 And they do.
41:41 Speaker 04 And they do. And you get like a certificate and stuff. So if you have a small town and you want to proclaim Kids to Parks Day, reach out. We would love to.
41:49 Speaker 05 I mean, if you wanted to get involved, I would say the best way to do that is to look up parks near you in your local area. And most of them will have a Kids to Parks Day and they'll have fun events in the local park, whether it's engaging with park rangers or little activities that engage with art or play or learning how to do X, Y, Z. It is super, super fun and it's amazing to see. And we encourage everyone, if you do decide to go out, to post it on social media and just start that chain, start the domino effect. Like, hey, I also want to have a good time outside with my family. So.
42:30 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah. So for the National Park Trust, you guys help facilitate these activities that are happening throughout all of, throughout these national parks. Is it happening at every national park site? Or is it more of something you're just encouraging everyone who is near a national park to go utilize this day?
42:46 Speaker 04 So it's not even just national parks. So I know that we are.
42:49 Cassandra Yahnian? Any park.
42:50 Speaker 04 Yeah, any park. We are the National Park Trust and yes, we do work extremely closely with the national parks. But this is like nature centers, state parks, like county parks, regional parks, um, which we also, especially in our youth programs, work really closely with. I mean, not everyone has a national park, even like within.
43:11 Cassandra Yahnian? I mean, mine is four hours away.
43:12 Speaker 04 Yeah. Yeah, I grew up in the Northeast too, and I spent a lot of time in upstate New York where I went to school and it's all state parks there really. Like there's Acadia, I think is like the only national park in the Northeast, maybe.
43:25 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, there's like national park sites.
43:27 Speaker 04 Yeah.
43:27 Cassandra Yahnian? But in terms of the biggest.
43:29 Speaker 04 Yeah.
43:30 Cassandra Yahnian? Um, and like Cape Cod National Sea Shore. And but yeah, Acadia is like the, the big one. It is mostly, mostly national forests or in, or state parks that are.
43:40 Danielle LaRock? Up here.
43:41 Speaker 05 Yeah, so just any parks really in general.
43:43 Danielle LaRock? That's great because we've talked a lot about leaning into local and national parks are great. And of course, we love them very much, but I think by, you know, focusing in on just national parks, you can miss out a lot on a lot that's just right in your own neighborhood or around the corner. So that's awesome that you guys emphasize that and encourage relationships with lesser known parks. That's awesome.
44:09 Speaker 05 Yeah, and I mean, it's such like, our goal as an organization is not really to find the already pre-established outdoorsy individuals. Like, we love to engage with those that are backpackers, those that are trying to check off their list to hitting the big 63 national parks. But we want to find the first timers.
44:31 Danielle LaRock? Yeah.
44:31 Speaker 05 We want to find people that are maybe a little bit nervous about getting into their parks or outdoor spaces and haven't traditionally felt welcomed
44:39 Danielle LaRock? Yeah.
44:40 Speaker 05 in the past. And I think working with local parks, state parks, who's maybe a big national park, maybe Yosemite is really intimidating to someone, you know, but maybe their local park right outside isn't. So if we can get them engaged, and especially children engaged with those local parks and state parks, they can start building up to being like, hey, now I'm gonna, when I'm older, I'm gonna backpack B A T. You know, it.
45:06 Danielle LaRock? Yeah.
45:06 Speaker 05 So it's really fun to see like the growth and that's what the organization does is while we do work exclusively with the National Park Service, we're not exclusive to working with the smaller, you know, local and national or local and state parks.
45:20 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, and that's especially true also with the populations that we work with for our youth programs, which are largely like urban areas where the, their local park is like.
45:32 Speaker 04 Half concrete and like, you know, just like a bus ride away and that's still a park. You can still hang out.
45:38 Cassandra Yahnian? You're still outside.
45:39 Speaker 04 Right outside and there's birds and there's like stuff to do and dig in the dirt and you can experience nature there just as much as you can in Yosemite. Like it is all the same. Nature does not, you know, play favorites. Yeah.
45:53 Cassandra Yahnian? I love that.
45:54 Speaker 04 Yeah. That was beautiful.
45:55 Cassandra Yahnian? So what is, I know you said it's the third, um, the third week of every May. What date is that for this year for 2026? Didn't you say it was the 16th?
46:05 Speaker 04 It was the 16th. Yeah. Yes.
46:07 Cassandra Yahnian? May 16th, 2026.
46:09 Speaker 04 What are you guys up to this year in May 16th?
46:13 Cassandra Yahnian? That's a big, I'm going to a park now.
46:20 Danielle LaRock? And you guys brought a couple of just quick little, um, I hate to say like reviews, but just like, just little quick experiences from some of your grantees that have had, um, you know, kind of boots on the ground experience with this type of relationship that you're talking about.
46:38 Speaker 04 So, um, kind of aligned with Kids to Parks Day, we also have our Kids to Parks Day School Grants Program, which, um, is kind of my side of the house. And the grant program opens every October and all Title I, K through 12 classrooms are eligible to apply. And so each classroom can apply for up to a thousand dollars for a park trip. So that funding can go towards like the bus, it can go towards program fees. And what's really cool about the grant too, is it's super collaborative between the teachers and the students. So there's like always a student section where they have to answer the prompts that are within the grant.
47:21 Speaker 04 And this is so cute when we read through these because sometimes there's like first grade classrooms and they're just like.
47:27 Cassandra Yahnian? No.
47:28 Speaker 04 Flower. And you're like, you're correct, you're getting a thousand dollars. Go to the park.
47:35 Speaker 04 They're like, what do you want to see? And they're like, I want to play with my friend Joe at the park. And it's like, how you're going.
47:42 Speaker 05 You deserve that.
47:46 Speaker 04 But anyways, yeah, so the grant opens every October. And so every individual classroom can apply. So if you're in a big school that has five fifth grade classrooms, you can pull together and apply for up to $5,000 to help cover all of those costs. And this year, we had almost like 250 applications. And we were able to give out a little over 100 grants. We would love to give out more in the future. So, quick plug, if you are passionate about funding park trips for kids, please donate for our Kids to Parks Day grant program so we can keep it growing. It has grown exponentially every year for the last three years. So, spreading the word well.
48:30 Speaker 04 But, so on that note, we always ask for some kind of testimonial from each of the grantees every year, just to kind of like hear about how the trip went and be able to share these stories about the impact of it with you guys and with other potential donors. So, this was one trip in particular that, um, so this was a fifth grade class in San Francisco, California, and they had applied for a camping trip with this really cool organization, Nature Bridge, that we work closely with. And it's at the Marin Headlands. So, this is testimony from a fifth grade student who won the grant and went on this awesome camping trip.
49:14 Speaker 05 Very cool.
49:15 Speaker 04 Nature Bridge Marin Headlands was so cool. Seriously, it was one of the best weeks of the whole school year. We got to leave the classroom, pack our bags, and head out to the Marin Headlands. And it was awesome from start to finish. As soon as we stepped off the bus, I could smell trees and flowers and fresh air. It was like we walked into a nature movie. The hike was probably my favorite part. We went down this trail where everything was green and alive, and there were birds everywhere, and even a squirrel that ran right across the path in front of us, and we jumped. Then Jeremy, who is usually quiet, bent down next to this mossy log and said, "This is alive. It's like a whole little world." We all crowded around and it totally was.
49:56 Speaker 04 There were poison oaks and bugs everywhere. We started talking about ecosystems and decomposers and all that stuff we learned in science. But it felt so different to actually see it in real life. I was like, "This is what science should be." Then there was the night walk, which I didn't think I'd like, but it was actually really fun. We had to hike at night and find a quiet spot to be silent in nature for a few minutes. It was relaxing. My brain felt calm and clear, like all the noise went away. One of my friends said it felt like the earth was talking, and I agree. Back at school, we had a reflection circle and everyone shared what they loved the most. I said, "I didn't want to leave. I felt like a scientist and a hiker all at the same time."
50:38 Speaker 04 Other people said they felt brave for hiking or that they saw stuff they'd never seen before. One person even said they were going to ask their family to go hiking that weekend. Honestly, Nature Bridge, Marin Headlands, wasn't just a field trip. I learned more in one week than in a whole week of regular science class. I felt helpful and connected to nature. I want to go back with binoculars and my family since they said that there was an area where we can camp. 10 out of 10, would hike again.
51:06 Danielle LaRock? This kid's in fifth grade?
51:08 Speaker 04 Fifth grade, yeah.
51:10 Danielle LaRock? That was so profound.
51:12 Speaker 04 So profound. I know. My brain felt calm and clear, like all the noise went away.
51:16 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, I was like, "Okay."
51:17 Speaker 04 Beautiful journal entry.
51:19 Danielle LaRock? An old soul, yes.
51:22 Speaker 04 But I mean, it's like, you know, those are the experiences that we're striving for. Like, we are trying to get kids outside so they can have those connections and experience that calm and just love of nature. When you love something, you want to protect it. And so, like... That is what we're trying to cultivate through all of these programs, the grants, all of it.
51:45 Cassandra Yahnian? And getting kids out there like how this person was saying out here, they felt calm and they were excited and it cleared their mind. This is setting up a relationship with the outdoors for children for the rest of their lives. So further down the line, when they do need their head to feel calm and they need to be relaxed. Like, you know, I know where to do that. I know what I need to do. I want to go for a hike. I want to go for a walk or whatever that looks like.
52:11 Speaker 04 Yeah.
52:11 Cassandra Yahnian? You're kind of facilitating the beginning of those relationships with the outdoors.
52:17 Speaker 04 It will only ever be a positive and like good experience when you go outside and tune into your mental health, tune into your senses. And Elise and I were talking about how we didn't really grow up as like nature kids. Like I didn't really get into nature until college and stuff. And then I like took that trajectory towards environmental education. But like to have established that relationship with nature already in fifth grade, like you were just extending the time period of that love of nature and that relationship that like a student has with nature. And it's just awesome. The earlier the better.
52:52 Cassandra Yahnian? Totally.
52:52 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, I think Cassie and I talk about that all the time about how we wish we leaned into our relationship with nature earlier. For whatever reason, we did not is, I mean, varied, but.
53:06 Speaker 04 I don't know either.
53:07 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, it's, it's just, it is such a nice opportunity for children because beyond all of that, even just the part where they were mentioning, you know, like we learned about this in class, but it's totally different to see it in the real world. And making that connection between what you're learning in a classroom and its real life applications and seeing it unfold in the natural world is just that connection is great for seeing decomposition and knowing what that is. But also it extends beyond that of like, oh, the things I'm learning really do exist and matter. So that's really cool.
53:45 Cassandra Yahnian? Of course, you say decomposition.
53:47 Danielle LaRock? That's what they, that's, is that not what that kid talked about?
53:52 Speaker 04 They did. He said.
53:53 Cassandra Yahnian? Thank you.
53:55 Cassandra Yahnian? Funny that that's the one he picked, not like the scientist hiker.
54:03 Danielle LaRock? Just saying, it stuck out to me.
54:05 Speaker 04 Had to flex.
54:06 Danielle LaRock? I know it, dude.
54:10 Danielle LaRock? Okay, well, moving on, I have a trail tale that involves children. So let's get into it. It is titled Grandad Lore Lost and Found With Kids. I also love lore stories.
54:25 Speaker 04 I heard lore and my ears broke down.
54:29 Danielle LaRock? Let's get straight into this wild story involving my granddad, who has since retired from his granddad lore level adventures to now making use of his e-bike on more sedate trails and his local Pilates gym and one of many misadventures.
54:42 Speaker 04 Sorry.
54:44 Speaker 04 You guys think on the trail.
54:46 Danielle LaRock? There's a lot going on immediately. Yes. So grandpa is now taking Pilates. A Pilates king, if you will. Yep. And the story is about one of their many misadventures involving three of four of his kids. Picture it. It's in the mid to late 1970s. My grandparents were a young family with four kids living in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. They were very much involved in the outdoor community, skiing both in competitions, training and pleasure in the Australian Alpine area every winter, hiking, rock climbing and swimming in the summer. Also befriending prominent mountain climbers of the time when they had an outdoor supply store in the city, one of the first of its kind. A story for another
55:30 Danielle LaRock? email when I get those names. I love when people just drop also like things are like, we'll get back to you. It's like, I'm waiting. Please do. That was crazy.
55:40 Speaker 04 We're not going to text about it. What do you mean?
55:42 Danielle LaRock? It's a crazy mic drop, but okay, continue. Moving on, I suppose. My dad and his siblings were between the ages of two years old and 10 years old at the time of this story. The family was taking a trip to the Threadboe Parish area in the Alpine region for a week of snow and one day, granddad took the three older kids, my dad included, for an afternoon ski lesson near the Parish Pass, leaving grandma and the youngest child at Threadboe Village to relax. Granddad had planned to be back before sunset for dinner, but when it got dark with no sign of him or the three kids, grandma started to worry. She managed to get to a ranger station to tell them about her missing family and since it was already dark, not snowing, and in
56:25 Danielle LaRock? the 70s, the search was delayed until dawn. I'm confused at the landscape of this air. We're in Australia, but it's snowing, but it's also 70 degrees. Oh, the 70s, like time.
56:38 Speaker 04 I was like, wait, how did she know it was seventy degrees?
56:41 Cassandra Yahnian? Wait, when did we say it was seventy degrees?
56:45 Cassandra Yahnian? And the seventies, not in the seventies.
56:48 Danielle LaRock? In the seventies.
56:48 Cassandra Yahnian? And the seventies.
56:49 Danielle LaRock? And the seventies. Okay. Anyway, the search was delayed until dawn. The thinking was that since granddad knew the main trails and it was not snowing, that he and the kids were probably not far and hopefully made it to one of the emergency trail cabins to bunker down for the night. Wrong. Granddad had misjudged the time and had taken the kids along another side trail, leaving him and the three kids stranded in the middle of seemingly nowhere. He dug a hole in the ground and pulled the tarp out of his bag and the four of them sat down with their legs in the hole with the tarp pulled over their heads and the skis like a makeshift tent. And they spent the entire night there bundled together. In the morning, they managed to find that the main road was just a couple minutes
57:33 Danielle LaRock? walk down the hill from where they were and started walking down the road. Classic.
57:40 Cassandra Yahnian? That's an awful night's sleep to be like, oh, wait, the road's right there.
57:45 Danielle LaRock? Throw a rock and hit it.
57:47 Danielle LaRock? One of the rangers out searching for them happened upon them on the roadside. He called it in on the radio and they bundled into the car. Grandma was not too happy, but glad they made it out alive, albeit a little cold and very hungry. At least they got a memorable adventure out of it and it didn't put the kids off of skiing or camping in the snow.
58:07 Speaker 04 Heck, yeah.
58:08 Danielle LaRock? They, which is great. It's like, it could have gone the other way.
58:11 Speaker 04 Yes.
58:11 Danielle LaRock? They were even mentioned in the local paper as a family missing overnight story since it was a very small community where these types of stories were always a juicy talking point. There's one other granddad lore story involving getting trapped in a snowstorm overnight while ice climbing in Tasmania with nothing to eat but a raw onion. But that's a story for another email.
58:34 Speaker 04 We need to find them.
58:35 Danielle LaRock? Come on. That's like some like.
58:37 Speaker 04 You know all these.
58:38 Danielle LaRock? Stanley Yelnat shit.
58:42 Speaker 04 Details that they've chosen to include with the e-bike and the onion and like.
58:47 Cassandra Yahnian? Pilates.
58:48 Danielle LaRock? Pilates. Pilates, grandpa? Oh, okay. Cause they need to go to the granddad to retell it for extra details. All right. We'll be eagerly waiting. Thank you for all you do, ladies. Can't wait for more Australia stories. Noni, they, them.
59:05 Speaker 04 Cool.
59:06 Cassandra Yahnian? Wow.
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1:01:50 Speaker 05 Have you guys ever had like a camping trip gone wrong story?
1:01:56 Cassandra Yahnian? I don't know. I feel like Not on wood. Not like
1:02:00 Speaker 05 I would want to have one of those.
1:02:01 Cassandra Yahnian? Not search and rescue rangers are out looking for us. Yeah. Type of situation. The first thing I can think of, which is not a camping gone wrong story is just hilarious, is when Danielle and I were in the Badlands and we have a video of it. We didn't, we talked about this recently, actually, and I forget where we were talking about it on. Oh, yeah. But I had packed our tent and I forgot our tent stakes and it was a crazy windy night.
1:02:31 Speaker 05 Oh, no.
1:02:32 Cassandra Yahnian? On the grasslands, open plains of the Badlands with no tent stakes.
1:02:38 Speaker 05 Wait, so what did you, what did you do? You just like let it fall on you while you were asleep?
1:02:41 Cassandra Yahnian? Well, we were the weight that like, we had, well, we should say, we had the stakes to like, hold the tent up. We didn't have the, um, No, we didn't have
1:02:49 Speaker 05 In the ground.
1:02:49 Cassandra Yahnian? The stakes. We had the tent poles.
1:02:51 Speaker 05 Okay.
1:02:51 Cassandra Yahnian? We had the poles, not the stakes.
1:02:53 Speaker 05 Like, so it's just like lying on top of you?
1:02:55 Cassandra Yahnian? No, we, we had the poles, not the stakes. So it could blow away if we were in it. So we were the weight, however, because it wasn't like, part of the role of those stakes is to make it so your tent is really tight on every side and steady. And because we didn't have that, ours was really flimsy. And in the wind, our whole tent was just going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, all night, pretty much. And we were just sitting there like, is this, are we having a good time?
1:03:26 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:03:26 Cassandra Yahnian? It's like, Brian, is this our vacation?
1:03:33 Danielle LaRock? Yeah.
1:03:34 Cassandra Yahnian? Yeah, that's exactly it. It was, we got some really funny videos and not great sleep, but good memories.
1:03:42 Speaker 04 I feel like you either have like the best sleep of your life camping or like you get one hour and 16 minutes of sleep like spread out throughout the night.
1:03:50 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, I always have wild dreams.
1:03:53 Speaker 04 I do. I always dream about owls when I'm camping.
1:03:56 Danielle LaRock? Oh, really?
1:03:58 Speaker 04 Very special.
1:03:59 Danielle LaRock? That's cool. It's going back to the owl pellet thing. We're all big fans.
1:04:02 Speaker 04 You dissect the owl pellets in your dream. No, I just like to see them in the trees and I hear them.
1:04:08 Cassandra Yahnian? Well, moving forward back to talk about the National Park Trust a little bit more. At the very beginning of this episode, we mentioned a little bit, or you guys mentioned that you have a program that helps benefit military families and people who have been a part of the military. So we'd love to learn a little bit more about what that, what that looks like.
1:04:28 Speaker 05 Yeah. So our military programming, it largely falls on the partnerships that we have with military affiliated organizations and direct partnerships that we have with the US military, including their bases and the programs that they already have in place. So for example, some of our amazing partnerships include the National Military Family Association, Project Healing Waters that gets veterans out fly fishing, our Military Kids, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, which is one of my personal favorite organizations that we partner with, which I'll share a story about a little bit later. We work with
1:05:08 Speaker 05 the US Air Force Outdoor Recreation Programs. We've worked with the Single Marines Programs. And we work with these groups exclusively to create memorable park experiences. And they can range from a day trip to multi-night trips at their local national parks. So the reason that we partner with these affiliated organizations is to make sure that we're reaching audiences that have access to these parks and can make them more accessible to them. So we also really prioritize on reducing barriers, things like transportation. We keep kind of like mentioning that transportation.
1:05:49 Speaker 04 It's expensive to take yourself to a park.
1:05:51 Speaker 05 It can be expensive to take, take yourself to a park and we. Give gear support and structured ranger programming, so make it a little extra special, like a nice welcome from the park itself and really get into the nitty gritty of history of the park and why they're here from park rangers and superintendents. So families simply can just show up and just enjoy and unplug. And what I always like to say with our military service members is they not only serve to protect us, but serve to protect the natural beauty in our parks that we love. Um, so to give back and as a thank you from the National Park Trust, just giving them a time to enjoy what they've protected.
1:06:36 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:06:37 Cassandra Yahnian? I love that. I love that outlook on it too, and to bring it around to also be like, enjoy this. You, you work so hard for this. You, you fought for our country for this.
1:06:47 Speaker 05 Yeah.
1:06:48 Cassandra Yahnian? Come to it, enjoy it, you deserve it.
1:06:50 Speaker 05 Yeah, and it's, it's
1:06:51 Speaker 04 Heal in it.
1:06:52 Speaker 05 Exactly, yeah. It's so special to see and most of what we work with are families. And it's children of service members that don't get to see maybe their parents um, very often when they're deployed. And just being able to create those memorable experiences outside is super, super special to see.
1:07:10 Cassandra Yahnian? Well, I know you brought a story today that kind of coincides with all of this.
1:07:16 Speaker 05 It did. It, yes, I did. Um, so I wanted to share kind of a story that encapsulates two things. One, how much I love my job as a programs coordinator, working with military service members. And also how much nature truly heals us as people. So as a programs coordinator with the National Park Trust, working to connect military families with the outdoors, I have had the privilege of meeting some of the most resilient and inspiring people across the U.S. But one trip in particular touched me in a way I will never forget. In the summer of 2024, again, the same year as my Yosemite bear story. Yeah, crazy.
1:08:01 Cassandra Yahnian? Oh, it's a bear summer.
1:08:02 Speaker 05 Yeah, that happened like months apart from each other, which was crazy. In the summer of 2024, the National Park Trust partnered with TAPS for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.
1:08:14 Speaker 05 Incoordinated, a weekend full of camping, hiking, and exploring Rocky Mountain National Park for Gold Star families. So if you're not familiar, TAP supports families that have lost a military service loved one, helping children, spouses, parents, and siblings of these fallen service members navigate grief through mentorship, counseling, therapy, and programs that offer care and connection. The National Park Trust partnership with TAP supports these families through healing and connection in the outdoors and our national parks. We spent three days and two nights surrounded by the Rocky Mountains, offering a group of families an escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life and a space to reconnect
1:08:57 Speaker 05 with nature and with others going through the same hardships. Together, we hiked, camped, and explored the park with park rangers and took all that the Rockies had to offer. One of the final hikes of the trip to Spruce Lake, two moose suddenly appeared quietly waiting through the water. Several participants shared that seeing these moose felt like a visit from their loved ones, a gentle, unspoken reminder that they were not alone, and that our loved ones can speak to us in many forms. And I love this because listening to your podcast with some other Trail Tales stories, I've heard just the same stories from people and it's really touched me because I got to see that in real time. So that was just gorgeous in itself.
1:09:41 Speaker 04 Yeah, I think that motif of seeing loved ones or like meanings through animals or just other experiences you see in nature is just so real.
1:09:50 Speaker 05 It was so beautiful. On the last day before saying our goodbyes, we stood in a large circle, sharing highlights of the weekend, memories of loved ones, and ways reconnecting with the outdoors in the park helps them find some peace. Something that I will never forget was a young boy who had lost his father shared that this weekend was the first time since his father's death that he woke up without the feeling of dread and the weight of the world. He shared that he had felt a piece of himself be restored just by walking through the trees and being surrounded by the mountains and lakes in the park. Hearing him speak, witnessing families who have not known each other before the trip hold each other while sharing these stories and experiences with grief,
1:10:34 Speaker 05 I felt the weight of their loss and the courage it takes to be present with it. Someone in the circle asked me about the tattoo on my arm that says, "Look up", which is this one. You can't see it, but it's there.
1:10:48 Speaker 05 To me, it has many meanings: to lift your chin up when life feels heavy, to find connection in the eyes of others, and to lose yourself in the beauty of what's around you. That weekend, I realized it meant something more. I told the group after sharing my own interpretation of my tattoo that even after we say goodbye to this weekend of healing and connection within the park, as we return home, realize that we are never too far from these mountains and forests or to each other, because when you look up at the sky, it's the same sky that connects you to the Rockies, to each other, and to the mountains and the memories we shared and created. While it's a big cheesy looking back, I meant every word. I was so inspired by the strength of each of these families and individuals,
1:11:32 Speaker 05 and helpless that I couldn't do more for each of them, it only felt natural to share a motto that connects me to the outdoors and to the people around me, in hopes it could resonate with someone and help them on their journey through grief. Weeks later, I received an email from one of our trip participants. They wrote, and I quote, "I wanted to share a copy of the tattoo I got after the Colorado weekend. Annaliese from the National Park Trust inspired it with the one she has that says, 'Look up. It always reminds me of that weekend,' end quote. I'm so grateful and blessed to experience the beauty of our parks with communities across the country and call it a career. That weekend in the Rockies, surrounded by strength, courage, and love, is something that I will carry with me always.
1:12:17 Speaker 05 Caring for our parks is caring for each other. Enjoy the view, but watch your back, because someone you love always has it."
1:12:24 Danielle LaRock? Ah, Annalise, way to make me tear up.
1:12:28 Danielle LaRock? I mean, that's not hard to do, but
1:12:32 Speaker 04 Yeah, no, it was
1:12:33 Danielle LaRock? It's a really beautiful, like such a beautiful, profound experience and such an important program. Not to say that, I think what I'm impressed by the most with the National Park Trust and the plethora of programs that you guys offer is just how many communities and groups of people that you're servicing and touching and working for and with. And just the profound change in people's lives that they're facilitating. It's not just a, hey, we really like nature. We think you should like nature and like, let's protect nature. It's more of how do you connect with the outdoors?
1:13:18 Danielle LaRock? How does it change your life? And how can you connect with each other through it? And this is just such a beautiful example of that.
1:13:27 Speaker 04 Yeah. Thank you for saying that. Yeah, I think that we do try and make it a personal thing for each and every student, college ambassador, college student, military family, military child, whatever it may be. Like, just speaking for myself, my relationship with nature is so coveted and personal and special and important to me. And like, I strive to inspire that in other students and like seeing that sense of wonder, that sense of connection, peace, calm, whatever it may be, that we can help inspire through these like kids trips or military program outings.
1:14:08 Speaker 04 Like, there's so many positive benefits to be had when you just start connecting with your local park, your local trail, whatever it may be. Like, we just need to protect these lands. And that's another thing that we do. We are an accredited land trust and we protect lands. We haven't really gotten into that yet. But like, yeah, it just is also really cool to like be in this community of like outdoors people and the outdoors women who are like confident and able to facilitate these things. It's
1:14:40 Speaker 05 It's just great. Yeah, it's such a special organization with it's very apparent on who we service and how special it is through the anecdotal stories, through our staff, the individuals that actually take part in our outings, but even so, it does give back to us. I hope that when we're talking, we are really talking from such a place of passion. Yeah. And we love the outdoors so much and we just want to share it with others and all the communities and find different ways and outlets that the outdoors can heal. Yeah. Us and different ways we can enjoy it and just take from it and learn from it.
1:15:19 Speaker 05 And everyone in the National Park Trust is so passionate and it's so fun to see just the passion radiate through our work. Yeah. And just being able to, I would have never experienced this if I was never working with the National Park Trust or. Yeah. And going even further back before I found this as an ambassador program. Mm-hmm. Um, so it all dominoes, it's all a big butterfly effect. Yeah. But, yeah, super special.
1:15:47 Cassandra Yahnian? Well, I definitely feel the love that you guys have for the parks and for the outdoors. I mean, you can feel it, but it's also contagious. I'm in my own mind now being like, okay, what's my next adventure?
1:15:59 Speaker 05 Yes!
1:16:00 Cassandra Yahnian? What am I going to do next?
1:16:01 Speaker 05 Exactly.
1:16:02 Cassandra Yahnian? So I guess my next question here is for other people who are listening right now who are feeling the exact same way that are like, okay, I'm inspired, I'm ready to go. How do I join this? Where do I look for this? How could people join these programs that we've talked about today? Or I know the National Park Trust is a lot more even than what we've covered so far today. So for people who are really feeling inspired right now, where can they go to find more information on all of this?
1:16:29 Speaker 05 Well, you can go to our website, parktrust.org.
1:16:33 Speaker 04 We are all over social media, TikTok, Instagram. You can donate to us. You can even specify where you want your donation to go. So if you are super passionate about our kids youth program, you can say, I would like to fund towards the Kids to Parks Day grant program. I'd like to sponsor one of the Buddy Bison schools and fund field trips throughout the school year. Like, you are more than welcome to do that. And we also have our lands department. And if you own land that you're looking to donate to the National Park Service, we can help you facilitate that transaction. Yeah.
1:17:09 Speaker 05 Yeah, I would say the biggest way to connect with us, definitely go on our website. We have a newsletter that keeps you up to date with everything and all of our projects that we're working on. And the best way to just support our work is donating. And I just want to share that there are many amazing organizations that work to protect and preserve our national parks. I want to differentiate ourselves as the National Park Trust. The trust, T, trust?
1:17:40 Speaker 04 Not foundation.
1:17:42 Speaker 05 When-
1:17:42 Speaker 04 No, we love the-
1:17:43 Speaker 05 We love the foundation. They're the charitable partners of the National Park Service. We don't get as much of, support is the wrong word, but donor dollars as they do. They're the big partners of the National Park, charitable partners of the National Park Service. We are the boots on the ground, people that put on these programs. We are the ones, Alish and I are the ones traveling to these different parks and making it happen. So not to discredit anyone or any other entity that does similar work, but supporting our work specifically really empowers us to continue the work that we're doing and the passion that we said are,
1:18:28 Speaker 05 we're, you know, trying to present to the world. So just look for, when you're looking us up, and I know you'll have it hopefully in the show notes, but look for parktrust.org and look for the tree logo. We're looking for the tree, not necessarily like-
1:18:46 Speaker 04 I spy a tree.
1:18:47 Speaker 05 The shield that everyone knows and loves. Look for that little tree that we have.
1:18:51 Cassandra Yahnian? Well, also, speaking of donations, we're doing something fun collaboratively together.
1:18:56 Speaker 04 Everyone wants a new shirt.
1:18:59 Cassandra Yahnian? Yes, we all do. We all love merch. So we are doing a merch collab with the National Park Trust where we have some really fun designs. And in the spirit of youth programs, we have some youth sizes for kids, which we know that a lot of our listeners have been like, hey, get me more youth stuff because we've only done a couple things so far. So we do have some designs and every for this specific design in the merch, all of the profits from this are going to the National Park Trust. So that is a direct way that listeners can donate.
1:19:35 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, and it'll be a design that is similar for an adult size and a youth size, so you can fulfill Cassie's dream and match.
1:19:42 Speaker 04 Family matching, family matching.
1:19:48 Danielle LaRock? That's right. Yeah. And so we would love to see people, you know, not only support the National Park Trust, but tag us and them in your photos in the merch and with your Buddy Bison and out and enjoying the next adventure that you're on. And maybe share with all of us what you've learned or pieces of your experience that were life-changing or just a happy, good memory.
1:20:12 Cassandra Yahnian? Send us a trail tale.
1:20:13 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, we would love to know.
1:20:14 Speaker 04 Send us a trail tale from a time going to the park, wearing your new merch with Buddy Bison.
1:20:20 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, that's right. And just, I guess, to close out, we would love to hear from you guys, like, either you can answer either your favorite, I hate when people ask us this, so I won't frame it of like, what is your favorite park? Like, because I know it's might be hard. But maybe your favorite park experience or something that was memorable.
1:20:46 Danielle LaRock? On a park trip.
1:20:47 Speaker 04 Yeah, definitely. I can go. So we work with a school out in Beaumont, Texas through our Buddy Bison School Program. And last year, I went on one of their field trips to Big Thicket National Preserve. Have you guys ever been there?
1:21:03 Danielle LaRock? No.
1:21:04 Speaker 04 Okay, it's really cool. Um, they are, they have a lot of like carnivorous plants there. They have like a carnivorous plant trail. That's really awesome.
1:21:13 Danielle LaRock? Ooh, fun.
1:21:13 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's cool.
1:21:14 Danielle LaRock? That's really cool.
1:21:15 Speaker 04 But yeah, this trip was really cool because it was eighth grade students and I worked with the park and our lead Buddy Bison teacher to coordinate a stewardship prod- project where the park had just done a controlled burn. And so they were looking to like replant the understory in front of the visitor center. And so the students were able to actually plant little blue stem grass, which is like a native restorative grass. And like, we were just framing it in such a way where like, you can come back here for the rest of your life and know that you changed this plot of land and you helped restore this plot of land. And like, yeah, we just, like, all the kids were just like laughing with their friends.
1:21:58 Speaker 04 And it was just fun to see them all on a field trip doing this like awesome stewardship project around rangers and like, knowing that then leaving the park that day was literally changing the ecosystem of that park.
1:22:11 Danielle LaRock? Yeah, making a difference.
1:22:12 Speaker 04 The rest of their life. And so that was an awesome trip.
1:22:15 Speaker 05 That's amazing that kids can come back to that park and pour it and be like, I did. I planted that. I planted that.
1:22:23 Speaker 04 Yeah, that is so fun. I wish I could say that. That'd be, that would be so fun. No, that is so much fun. Uh, it's so hard to just choose one. One of my favorite outings that we do is at Carter Rock. I'm a huge rock climber. Um, and it's Carter Rock in Maryland, part of the, uh, Great Falls National Park or, you know, our local park, uh, National Park Service site. And it gets families out rock climbing on the cliff face in Maryland. And it is just so great to see military families just come together, get out of their comfort zone, climbing rocks.
1:23:01 Speaker 04 And there is this like three-year-old girl strapped up in her full body harness, having just the absolute best kind of fun life.
1:23:11 Speaker 05 Was she actually climbing the wall? No. Was she more like being pulled up it? Yes, but you could just see the how special it was to her. It's gonna be a memory that lasts for a lifetime.
1:23:25 Speaker 04 It felt like a roller coaster.
1:23:26 Speaker 05 And she's honestly probably gonna be in the Olympics sometime. Yeah.
1:23:31 Cassandra Yahnian? That was just the beginning.
1:23:32 Speaker 05 I was like, just, I was like, remember me when, when you're climbing the big, the big boulders.
1:23:38 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:23:39 Cassandra Yahnian? Like, I was here.
1:23:40 Speaker 05 Yeah, I created this.
1:23:44 Speaker 05 Yeah, there's, it's so special.
1:23:45 Speaker 04 There's like so many funny stories though, too, from the kids at parks, like, on fishing trips, like getting ear piercings, like we were on like a salamander hike out in Natahala, in North Carolina, and like the salamanders were going into this kid's casts and he's like shaking them out. Like, I don't know, they're so.
1:24:04 Cassandra Yahnian? Kids are a riot.
1:24:05 Speaker 04 Kids are a riot. Yeah.
1:24:07 Cassandra Yahnian? And seeing kids in the outdoors is, when I worked in outdoor education, I specifically worked with kids from, like, they were around eight to thirteen years old. And a lot of them, it was some of their first experiences in, in nature. And just to see kids with their eyes wide, just looking at everything around them and really taking it in. And they're so funny and creative when they're out there. And they're totally, I mean, I remember kids would come out and they'd be like, so where do I use my iPad at the beginning? And by the end, they're covered in dirt, they're climbing stuff, they're trying to, you know, they're like,
1:24:45 Cassandra Yahnian? it's just so cool to see how well kids connect with nature and just the stories that come out of them.
1:24:53 Speaker 04 Totally.
1:24:54 Cassandra Yahnian? In those spaces.
1:24:55 Speaker 04 Yeah, even in the course of like a two hour field trip outside, like that sense of wonder. And it helps me to reignite like my inner child and my sense of wonder of being out in nature to see that. Like, it's very refreshing to see that so often.
1:25:10 Danielle LaRock? Well, thank you ladies so much for joining us and sharing your passion and all the information about the National Park Trust. We will share all of the things of where people can find you. And hopefully, we see some Buddy Bison's out there in the wild. I'll have my eyes peeled now. I legitimately did not know anything about it before, and now I'm gonna be like scouring crowds for this keychain. I mean, I have mine actually right on the desk because you sent it. And I'm gonna actually give it to, he's not listening because he's like four, but I'm going to give it to my nephew for the summer and hopefully get him out somewhere because his mom
1:25:55 Danielle LaRock? is pretty indoorsy. I'll be the cool aunt to get him out there.
1:25:59 Speaker 05 Yeah, we'd love to see where Buddy Bison's been. Tag us on social media, Park Trust, and thank you guys so much for speaking with us and asking your questions and giving us the platform to like share more about our work and just get people excited about parks. You're really great. Yeah, and just closing out, you guys play such a big part in people's experiences with the outdoors and you guys being able to share stories and tell stories so well about the outdoors. And it really does encourage people to explore more, maybe be a little bit mindful of bears and the scary things, but it does get, it motivates people to get outside and we can't
1:26:40 Speaker 05 thank you enough for the work that you all do, just speaking about the national parks and your passion for telling stories and other people's stories. So really cool that we could work together.
1:26:51 Danielle LaRock? Thank you. It's our favorite part. Yeah, we appreciate that. Thank you so much. All right, everyone. Well, do you guys want to help us close out?
1:27:00 Speaker 05 Yeah, we'd love to.
1:27:01 Danielle LaRock? Yeah. All right, well, we will see everyone next time. In the meantime.
1:27:06 Speaker 05 Enjoy the view. But watch your back.
1:27:10 Danielle LaRock? Watch your back.
1:27:13 Danielle LaRock? Amazing. I didn't prep you for that, so you did great.
1:27:23 Danielle LaRock? Thanks for joining us for another episode. We hope you learned something new and have another location to put on your list. If you want more NPAD content, make sure to follow along with our adventures on all socials at National Park After Dark. For more stories just like this one, with the added bonus of exclusive content, you can join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. If you prefer to watch our episodes, head over to our YouTube channel. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform.
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