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Trail Tales 91

April 9, 2026·47 min·3 clips

Great-uncle Ari stuck his head out of a train window in 1912 and got a cinder in his eye — his swollen face got the whole family denied boarding the Titanic.

1. National Park After Dark Trail Tales Edition 91 presents five listener-submitted stories ranging from a 1912 Titanic near-miss to a 1985 lightning strike to a 2025 mountain lion encounter. 2. Hosts Danielle and Cassie read and react to each story in their conversational format, adding personal context and follow-up commentary. 3. The episode functions as a listener community showcase, with each story illustrating the show's themes of wilderness danger, historical discovery, and nature's unpredictability. 4. The first story, titled Family Lore, describes a Dutch immigrant family denied boarding the Titanic in 1912 because 10-year-old great-uncle Ari had a cinder-inflamed eye mistaken for disease at the health inspection; the family has honored him with the name Ari in nearly every generation since. 5. A second story, A Master Class in Dry Socks and Humility, recounts a late-October Mount Washington hike by a group of children and their fathers who set out in snow wearing baseball caps for warmth, reaching a hut where a 9-year-old's toes were turning blue before a descending hiker warned them off continuing into steep rock scrambles above. 6. The Mount Washington hikers deployed spare socks as makeshift gloves and credited the Boy Scout preparation philosophy of the fathers with preventing serious injury. 7. A third story involves listener Anna and her boyfriend discovering a mountain lion 10 to 15 feet away while using cannabis at the edge of her boyfriend's family's property; Anna, knowing her companion would panic, calmly said 'let's just back away' and retreated without triggering the cat. 8. The next morning, a neighbor asked Anna if she had seen a missing chihuahua that had escaped the night before; Anna did not tell him the likely outcome. 9. Listener Kelly's story, Silent Fury and Karma That Made My Day, describes a 10.5-mile hike through Cuyahoga Valley National Park in 90-degree heat where her brother-in-law John consistently ignored her trail knowledge, led them half a mile off course to a closed ranger station, and woke up the next day unable to walk from overexertion. 10. Kelly noted that she had planned the entire trip, shared itinerary details in advance, and used the All Trails app while the men used Google Maps to find a closed water source. 11. The fourth story, about Wiggly Bridge in York, Maine, describes a listener's midnight paranormal experience where she and her boyfriend felt an overwhelming sense that 'we are not supposed to be here' while standing on a dock near the bridge. 12. A year later, the same listener's community college Maine history course led her to a Historic New England article about the Sayward-Wheeler House, a 1719 colonial home across from the bridge where an enslaved man named Boniteau had been bought by Joseph Sayward in 1730. 13. She reflects that Maine is rarely included in discussions of American slavery, but the state's colonists enslaved both African and indigenous peoples, with the article noting that indigenous enslaved people were targeted partly because they might know the land well enough to escape. 14. The Historic New England article's final paragraph speculated that Boniteau may have escaped, which the listener connected to her physical sensation on the dock. 15. The fifth story describes a 1985 summer internship at Mount Mitchell, North Carolina's 6,684-foot summit where a 20-year-old forestry major collected cloud condensate from an 86-foot aluminum tower every 30 minutes. 16. During a severe thunderstorm, the intern answered a ringing landline phone hoping to reach her colleagues and was thrown into a wall when lightning traveled through the phone line—surviving unharmed with ringing ears and a racing heart. 17. Host Cassie mentions that Mount Washington and lightning strikes have appeared in multiple National Park After Dark episodes, and that she has been researching a second Jenny Lake lightning rescue story larger than the one she previously covered. 18. The episode's tone is warm and conversational, with hosts digressing into personal stories about matching sweaters, social media algorithms, aging dogs, and walkie talkies before returning to listener content. 19. Best suited for fans of true listener-submitted outdoor and nature stories who enjoy the hosts' candid commentary and personal tangents between stories. 20. Less suited for listeners seeking a single extended narrative or strictly edited format without multi-topic trail tales episodes.

As heard by us

Listener stories, a vivid park setting, and relaxed banter keep Trail Tales Edition moving.

Trail Tales Edition keeps its focus on listener stories, opening with family lore before shifting into a sharper account set at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The hosts keep the tone easy and steady, which lets the personal turns land without feeling strained.

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Why you'd press play

You want trail stories that start with family lore and end with a little righteous fire.

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