Trail Tales 103: Grand Canyon Ghosts, RV Bats & Paranormal Wedding Crashers

Danielle LaRock (0:17)

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to National Park After Dark, our Trail Tales episode and happy fall.

Cassandra Yahnian (0:23)

Happy fall. We're officially in October, which I think everyone in New England, at least can say, hands down, is the best month of the year.

Danielle LaRock (0:32)

Yeah, we hope everyone is getting spooky and drinking your pumpkin spice lattes and going apple picking and all the things that happen in October.

Cassandra Yahnian (0:41)

Okay, can I just say that, and I don't know if this is a new thing or if I'm just noticing it, but I noticed Dunkin Donuts had put on pumpkin stuff, like drinks and flavored things at the end of August.

Danielle LaRock (1:01)

Yeah, the same thing happened at Panera.

Cassandra Yahnian (1:03)

Is this, are we creeping up into, I don't...

Danielle LaRock (1:08)

It's like Thanksgiving or Black Friday.

Cassandra Yahnian (1:12)

Oh, yeah.

Danielle LaRock (1:12)

It starts right now, pretty much. It's like get ready for Black Friday.

SPEAKER_3 (1:17)

Black Friday, it used to be earlier and earlier and earlier every year.

Cassandra Yahnian (1:21)

It's like, let's just keep things contained a little bit, because I think it preserves the magic a little bit, because Black Friday was Black Friday because it happened on a singular day. It's not Black Friday weekend, Black Friday week.

Danielle LaRock (1:36)

It is now.

Cassandra Yahnian (1:37)

Or at least it's not supposed to be. Yeah, it is now. I feel similarly about the pumpkin stuff.

I don't know. It's just kind of it's like it's it's still summer. Why are we doing this?

Danielle LaRock (1:49)

Yeah, it's like I'm not ready. Don't make me be cold yet.

I love fall, but.

Cassandra Yahnian (1:55)

But like one summer was short this year. Well, summer was short, especially for you, because your window was very small in Idaho.

Danielle LaRock (2:04)

Yeah.

Yeah. I need to go somewhere warm this winter because I'm truly not ready to be cold.

Cassandra Yahnian (2:11)

Okay. Just think about it.

Danielle LaRock (2:14)

Just think about it.

Cassandra Yahnian (2:15)

And I hate to say this because we always do this. We're like, we're going to relax once we're done being crazy for work and travel. And we're in the midst of that right now, fighting for our lives. But just think about it. For my birthday celebration, I was thinking maybe we could go to the US. Virgin Islands because there is a park there.

Danielle LaRock (2:36)

I could be convinced.

Cassandra Yahnian (2:38)

And it is warm.

Danielle LaRock (2:39)

I would like to be warm. And we should celebrate your birthday.

Cassandra Yahnian (2:43)

Just think about it.

Danielle LaRock (2:44)

And you should be warm for your birthday because you don't get that up very often.

Cassandra Yahnian (2:47)

I know.

Okay. Well, we can circle back on that at some other point. But for right now, we have Trail Tales. And yeah, let's get on to them. Do you want me to go first or would you like to go first?

Danielle LaRock (3:02)

You can go first.

Cassandra Yahnian (3:03)

Okay. Okay. My first story is titled Local Lore.

Hello, ladies. I started listening to your podcast in order to get over some depression a few years ago. Something else to do besides just walking. I started in the summer of 2024 And as of today, August of 2026, I'm almost caught up. I love what you two do. And I hope you know you're helping people probably more than you know.

I was recently listening to Trail Tales 83 or maybe 84 And a woman was talking about a cryptid that her husband had seen as a child in Northeastern Ohio and the research she had done on cryptids of the Northeast. She mentioned No Face Charlie in Pennsylvania and my memory tingled. So I Googled it. As a child, I did not know him as No Face Charlie. I knew him as the green man. Born and raised about 45 minutes northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, No Face Charlie was from my neighboring town. And he was real.

Let me skip forward to a trip I took to Florida to visit my uncles one summer. They grew up just down the street from where I did. And their father, my grandfather, was a teller of the tallest tall tales and had invented a few of his very own cryptids, creatures that wandered the vast forests behind my house. We were laughing and giggling about the headless calf, the man with a head as big as a wagon wheel that followed him home one night. And I mentioned, ooh, have you heard the one about the green man? They both looked at each other and made a face, then a grin, then looked back at me and urged me to go on. You know, he wanders the train tracks and playgrounds between Elwood City, the town I'm from, and Copel at night, glows green and is never seen during the day.