The Noises at Mount Le Conte – Ep. 245

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_05] Shell V-Power Nitro Plus fuels every drive from the Pacific Coast to the high desert with a fuel like no other. It provides engine performance that lasts to give you more time on the road. That means more protection with active ingredients for longer lasting engines. Shell V-Power Nitro Plus Premium Gasoline. Engine performance that lasts. Chances are you're not far from a Shell station. Find it using the Shell app. Formulation unique to Shell. Compared to minimum detergent gasoline. With continuous use of Shell V-Power Nitro Plus in gasoline direct injection engines. Actual effects and benefits may vary. See shell.us slash more dash protection for more information.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_06] Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest here and I have discovered a fun new escape from the daily grind. Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has hundreds of social casino style games. It's all free to play anytime, anywhere with daily bonuses. So get to chumbacasino.com. No purchase necessary. BGW group. Void word prohibited by law. See terms and conditions. 21 plus.

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_02] Odd Trails is a true paranormal podcast. If you have a story to share, send it to stories at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_00] Forget facts. Forget logic. Forget everything that seems real. Just trust. Believe.

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_02] The Noises at Mount LeConte by PatientEconomics980 So my grandfather has gone up to Mount LeConte 50 times now. This last weekend was his 50th time and he's 80 years old. It's impressive, I know. Anyway, I had only been invited twice before, this being a third time. I'm not big into hiking like he is,

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_02] and I wouldn't have gone if it weren't for my 14-year-old cousin who asked me to go with him. The times I had gone before, I was his age, about 8 the first time. So I felt it necessary to go with him. We got up to the hotel that we were staying at on Friday night and planned to hike up to the summit and stay at the lodge Saturday night, then hike down Sunday morning so that we could be back in

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_02] Georgia for work Monday morning. We started at the trailhead, the 7-mile one. It was about 7.30 a.m. I'm a pretty fit guy. Gym every day. I run. So, naturally, I get ahead of the group pretty quickly, as I like to run for exercise, especially with a weighted pack. I came up to a sign and a split in

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_02] the trail and remembered my granddad had told me that there was a trail that led to a cliff that overlooked the forest. I had some time to kill while waiting for the group to catch up, so I decided to head out to the overlook. It said it was only about 1.3 or 1.7 miles from the main trail, so I didn't think that it could hurt that much. That morning, we had forecasts of light showers in the late morning and

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_02] early afternoon. So if you're familiar with the GSM, you know how it looked that morning. Dark gray, very foggy, low visibility, almost like you're inside a dense cloud while being in a dark forest. They don't call them the Great Smokies for no reason. I started heading down this trail,

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_02] and I noticed the forest was dead silent. This terrified me because the only other time that happened to me was up on the ridge at my dad's cabin. That was another story for another time, but I was petrified. But I knew I wasn't the only hiker out there, and whatever it was wasn't any urgent danger to me at the moment. About 15 minutes down the trail, I got to the cliff, the overlook,

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_02] whatever you want to call it, and as I figured, I couldn't see anything. It kind of felt like a waste of time. But then again, I was the only one there for what I knew was a mile and a half, so it was pretty surreal and isolating to feel. I enjoyed it, and disliked it at the same time. I decided to eat some of my

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_02] sandwich that I had brought up for lunch. I found a good log to sit on that had a view of the forest, so my back was to the cliff. I had just finished eating the first half of my sandwich, when I heard a very faint knock, almost like a tree branch had broken, or something had hit the side of a tree

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_02] pretty hard, but it was so faint that I kind of shrugged it off and paid no mind to it. I finished my sandwich and was getting my poncho out of my bag as the rain had started to come. Ponchos are almost like a shower curtain material, so when you're shuffling around with one, it's kind of loud next

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_02] to your head, and what you hear in the distance might not be what you think. But I was taking out the poncho, and I thought I heard two more knocks just a bit past the tree line to my right. I stopped fidgeting with the poncho so that I could hear properly. About 45 seconds went by, so I continued to get my poncho unfolded and put it on. I started walking toward the trail that would

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_02] take me back to the main one when I heard, clear as day, a loud knock in the woods to my right. I froze and listened, as hard as I could, for leaves crunching or anything, but I heard nothing. I kept hearing what sounded like a large branch or stick being smacked against a rock or tree, though. It knocked another four or so times before I told myself it was time to get back to my group,

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_02] as I already didn't like the Appalachian Mountains as it was. I was walking back down the trail, and I kept feeling like I was being watched, or like someone was following me, or something. I felt hunted. I didn't have a gun with me, as my granddad had convinced me that the bears were not an issue on

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_02] the trail, since it's taken by people every day, usually a lot of them. So I felt vulnerable, but not alone. I didn't want to stop walking and listen because I didn't want something to jump out at me. I swear I had been walking for at least a mile, so I knew I had to be close to the main trail. But I swear I was hearing slow, heavy footsteps behind me. I kept looking over my shoulder for

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_02] another hiker, or something. But I saw absolutely nothing. And it literally sounded like it was 10-15 feet behind me. This creeped me out. So I started to hightail it, and I eventually made it back to the main trail without incident. The crazy thing is, I wouldn't even call that the weirdest part. As I got back to the intersection, I figured I'd wait for my group to catch back up.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_02] I thought about walking down the trail some to see if I could meet them, since it was taking longer than I thought. I'll also mention that as soon as I left the trail and got back to the main one, it felt like I had walked into another world, almost like the lights turned on. But looking behind me, the trail I had just been on was super dense, dark, and foggy. While the main trail had gotten sunny

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_02] and misty while I was in there, almost like hours had passed without me noticing. I finally decided to continue up the mountain so that I could get to the top and check in, so that when my group got there, their cabins would be ready to walk right into. About two and a half to three hours later, I finally got to the summit.

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_02] My group was already there, which was really weird to me because I thought I had gone pretty far ahead of them. I had even been running at one point. I made my way down to them, and I asked them how they got ahead of me. They responded by asking me where the hell I had been. I told them I had taken the trail my grandfather had mentioned, and that I had gone down to the end, eaten my sandwich,

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_02] put on my poncho, and come back. They told me they had stopped for lunch at the split of the trail just in case I had gone down that trail and waited for me to link back up. But they said they waited for what felt like over an hour and eventually assumed I had continued to the top. They also mentioned that they had been at the top for another two hours waiting for me, and were about to get someone for help.

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_02] This totally freaked me out because I know for sure how long I was gone, and it was absolutely not hours. More like 45 minutes max. I really don't know how to explain this, and they all just think I had gone down multiple different trail splits, exploring, and was lying about it. I'm not sure why they'd even think that. I really need some of you guys to tell me what the hell was going on up

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_02] there. I've looked up the knocking and missing time, but it mostly just comes up related to aliens, and seriously, it can't be aliens, right? There has to be some sort of explanation. Please help me out.

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_04] This took place back in the late 70s. I visited London with a friend. My dad went all over place for work, so I was somewhat of a seasoned traveler as well. When we got to the hotel, it looked like a decent place. It was central, so we were close to all the regular tourist hotspots. We checked in, and the bellboy who was going to take us up to our room was quite peculiar.

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_04] I'd say he was probably at least 6'4", dressed in this red bellman costume. Red pants, a red jacket, a white collared shirt, and a red bell cap. Everything was accented in gold, with gold buttons and polished black shoes. He was a tall, skinny fellow with a thick British accent.

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_04] He took us to the elevator, made some small talk, and eventually we got off on our floor, and approached the door. He pulled out a big metal key. Remember, this was in the 70s, before swipe cards. He opened the door, flipped on the light, and said, after you. We walked inside and immediately noticed something was not right. The ceiling was so low we

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_04] couldn't even stand up straight. We basically had to hunch over. Then we looked around and almost started breaking out laughing. You've got to be kidding me. Everything was so tiny, like we were inside a dollhouse. A tiny bed, tiny chairs. There was no way we could stay in there comfortably. We told him there had obviously been a mistake. The bellboy said,

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_04] I'm sorry, the hotel is fully occupied. This is your room. This is the room you asked for. We told him we hadn't asked for a room meant for someone short, and that we wanted to speak to the manager. Then suddenly he broke out laughing. Apparently the hotel liked to pull jokes once in a while. He said, we're just yanking your chain, playing a little trick. We do this to tourists who

[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_04] come here, especially Americans. We weren't very impressed. So we went back downstairs, got the proper key, and the bellboy took us to our actual room on a different floor. Everything seemed normal. The furniture was very old. There was a small old TV, but we could at least stand up straight. Before he left, we put our suitcases down and looked around. That's when I

[00:13:36] [SPEAKER_04] spotted a wooden pail sitting near the foot of the bed, half sticking out from underneath it.

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_03] I said to the bellboy, what's that? He just looked at us and smiled. So we asked again. He said, well, that's the meat bucket. Our eyebrows went up. The meat bucket? He said, you never heard of this before? We said no.

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_04] Then he explained that he'd be coming back with fresh meat, scraps from the kitchen, pieces of beef, bone, bloody pieces of raw meat. They would all go into that bucket, and then he'd shove it underneath the foot of our bed. We looked at this guy like he was nuts. Why would we have raw meat underneath our bed? He said this went back centuries, apparently. According to him, there was a curse

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_04] connected to the hotel and the land it was built on. He said that if we wanted to stay in this room, and as he put it, survive or not go crazy, you had to abide by the rules. You put the raw meat in the bucket, put it underneath the bed, and go to sleep. Then you'd wake up the next morning, and everything would be fine. And if you didn't, you might pay the ultimate price.

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_04] Obviously, we thought this guy was completely full of crap, trying to pull our leg again. But he said, No, trust me. Strange things are seen during the day, but horrible, creepy things come out at night. Things you can't see in a dark room. Do it this one night, and we'll talk tomorrow.

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_03] My friend and I just laughed and looked at each other, like, what the hell? Sure, go ahead, we told him.

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_04] The guy went downstairs and eventually came back, carrying a container. He dumped its contents into the wooden pail. There were pieces of raw meat and blood at the bottom. He shoved the bucket

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_03] underneath the bed and said, Don't touch it. Leave it there. Then he left. We watched some TV, went to bed, and laughed about the whole thing.

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_04] The ridiculous miniature room, followed by this guy telling us we needed raw meat underneath our bed to stay safe. Eventually, we went to sleep. The next morning, we got up, and at first, we didn't even think about it. Then one of us remembered the bucket. We reached underneath the bed and pulled it out. The bucket was empty. There were only a few drops of blood left at the bottom.

[00:16:39] [SPEAKER_04] Again, we thought, What the hell? Somebody had had to have come into our room during the night, but we locked the door before bed. Not only was there a deadbolt, there was a chain as well. When we checked, everything was still in place. We figured somebody must have had a way to get in. Maybe they had a master key and some kind of device that allowed them to open the chain.

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_04] We were fully convinced it was probably just the bellboy. Maybe he'd come into our room at two or three in the morning and taken the meat just to scare us. It was creepy, and we even thought about reporting him. You can't just come into somebody's hotel room in the middle of the night. We went downstairs and found the bellboy. We asked him if he was in our room last night,

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_04] and he said no, and that the hotel staff wasn't allowed to do that.

[00:17:41] [SPEAKER_03] So we asked, Then why was the bucket empty? He looked at us and said, You tell me.

[00:17:51] [SPEAKER_04] Then he said, This is what I told you. If you want to stay safe, you follow what people have been

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_03] doing for hundreds of years. You do this, and you will be spared. We still thought he was full of crap. We spoke to the manager, but he didn't really help. He basically looked at the bellboy, and they both acted like, It is what it is.

[00:18:19] [SPEAKER_04] So the second night, we took the pail and put it in a corner. The bellboy had warned us that we had to do this every night we stayed there. We went to bed laughing about that. But then sometime in the middle of the night, I don't know what time it was, but it was well after midnight. The room was pitch dark. And we could hear something in the room. We immediately thought that the bellboy had snuck inside

[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_04] and was trying to freak us out. But we could definitely hear something, or someone moving around. It sounded like something crawling across the floor. We thought it was the bellboy slinking around down there. We didn't hear a voice, though. We didn't hear any grunting or groaning. But you could still sense there was a presence in the room. Something was moving around.

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_04] And there was a slight smell that was hard to describe. It smelled almost like wet moss. Finally, one of us yelled,

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_03] Who is it? What's going on? Is that you? We turned on the light and...

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_04] There was nothing there. After that, we left a light on for the rest of the night. The next morning, we went downstairs and spoke with the bellboy.

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_03] He asked us what happened that night, and we told him. All he said was, There you go.

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_04] So, for the rest of the week we were there, we had him give us fresh scraps of raw meat every night. And to this day, we still can't explain what actually happened. What makes the most sense to me is that there was another way into the room. Maybe there was a hidden entrance somewhere. A false wall. A hidden door. Something that allowed him to sneak inside. But if they were doing that, it was creepy.

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_04] And how could we prove it unless we found the other access point? It was a very bizarre, creepy experience. And it 100% happened. I thought the whole thing with the four-foot ceiling was strange enough. But then the bucket happened. I just wonder if anybody else has ever heard of this. I can't remember the name of the hotel. It was something like... Regal Arms.

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_04] It was an old hotel or inn that had been around for decades. Maybe even going back to the turn of the century. I don't remember the name. But I'm curious if anybody has any answers to any of this.

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_04] So I think we've all reached some low points in our life. And if you haven't, let me in on your secret. I know when I've needed to talk to a professional about my low points, insurance was so much of a headache I often just sucked it up. And that's not a good idea. We typically use insurance for our physical health. But for any number of reasons, our mental health can sometimes get brushed aside. Assuming it's for some reason not as important. Well, it definitely is.

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_04] And you shouldn't let insurance get in your way. I'm here to tell you about Rula. They're a healthcare provider that makes it easy to find a therapist right for you. They partner with over 100 insurance plans, and the average copay is just $15 per session. And depending on your plan, you could end up paying nothing. And one of the best parts about Rula is that they don't just randomly pair you with the first available provider and then forget about you. They carefully consider your goals and background,

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_04] and they make sure you get the right kind of care for your needs. And all throughout your journey, they'll check in on you, and they'll make sure everything is going smoothly, and your needs are being met. One of the reasons I like online therapy so much is that leaving the house can sometimes feel like too much of a burden. Maybe some of you can relate, or there might be other first steps that are holding you back, but I think online therapy is one of the easiest ways to get past that and get started on getting better. Thousands of people are already using Rula

[00:22:44] [SPEAKER_04] to get affordable, high-quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Visit Rula.com slash trails to get started. That's R-U-L-A dot com slash trails. You deserve mental health that works with you, not against your budget.

[00:23:03] [SPEAKER_02] I visited a parallel alternate world of ours by SFTD Dan. All my life, there's something that has called me beyond, so to speak. I firmly believe there has to be so much more than just working, paying bills, and moments of happiness in the midst of all the suffering.

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_02] Anyway, all that to say, it has opened my mind to several things. Weird and bizarre experiences, odd stuff, synchronicities, and so on. I do believe there's so much more that we just don't know or understand, or that is simply blurred by our modern lifestyles. I had a very vivid dream a few weeks ago where I traveled to an alternate version of this world.

[00:24:02] [SPEAKER_02] It was the same world, earth, same nations, same people, but it was different. It was brighter in every sense. In this world I traveled to, I was aware I was traveling there, and the people I met were also aware that it was a different version of me. I met my actual partner who recognized me in that world. We talked, shared a lot of information,

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_02] and she suggested that I leave in a loving way, as that was not my home world. There was a version of me there who I didn't meet. Interestingly enough, the two of them were not together in that world, although they did know each other and kept some sort of contact. What was most interesting about this alternate version is that everything worked out for good, always,

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_02] and people were really happy because of it. Not that they didn't have issues at a societal or individual level, but things always worked out for good. If someone in your family got cancer, they were cured. Some conflict erupted between nations, well, they reached an agreement on good terms, for good. If you wanted a promotion at your job, you got it. For the reasons mentioned above, people were really happy to be alive.

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_02] They were grateful for the world they had, and they were hopeful. And you could even feel it in the air. Like I said at the beginning, it was all so bright. It was warm and yellow. I even remember feeling the light as something almost tangible. I know I spent some time there with my partner, and at some point, I knew it was time to go back. So I woke up with a deep nostalgia

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_02] for one of the most beautiful things I could ever have experienced. So there you go. I hope you enjoyed reading. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_04] A Visit from My Grandpa by Mel My story is about my favorite person. My grandfather Walter visited me weeks after he passed away.

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_04] Growing up, my best friend was my grandfather. I was five years old when my parents divorced, and we moved right into my grandparents' house. I lived with them until grade 11. Me and Gramps were two peas in a pod. In kindergarten, for show and tell, I didn't bring a toy or a book. I brought my grandpa. He raised me and showed me what it means to be a good, honest person. He was funny, loyal,

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_04] kind, and empathetic. He was also a very successful businessman, owning and operating hotels all over Canada. He loved management and was an amazing leader and entrepreneur. But honestly, he could have been a stand-up comedian. Fast forward to a few years after I graduated high school and then hair school, which he pushed me to do and follow my dreams. My Gramps got sick with cancer.

[00:27:34] [SPEAKER_04] It was fast and harsh. Every day after work at my local salon, I would drive to the next town over to visit him. He started to really go downhill, not remembering family members or what was going on. But he always remembered me. I would walk into the hospital and go to his floor and nurses I hadn't met yet would ask, Are you Melanie? Walter has been asking for you.

[00:28:04] [SPEAKER_04] I would hold his hand and brush the little hair he had left. When Gramps finally passed away, I was absolutely devastated, truly heartbroken and lost. I had read about after-death dreams or visits from a loved one, as well as lucid dreams, but never experienced any of these things myself, although I prayed and wished for it to happen. It was a few weeks later and I was cleaning my house,

[00:28:34] [SPEAKER_04] crying and thinking about Gramps. That night I went to bed, sobbing and thinking about him. It must have been about 3.30 a.m. when I woke up smelling my grandfather's scent. In my dream, or visitation as I call it, I walked into a massive high-rise building. I got into the elevator and proceeded to press the top floor. I've truly never remembered something so clearly.

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_04] Once I got out of the elevator, someone greeted me at the front desk. Oh, you must be Melanie. Walter has been expecting you. I walked down the hallway and entered the last door. It was a massive boardroom meeting with men and women sitting at a long table. They all looked at me and then sat silently. The man at the far end turned around. It was my grandpa.

[00:29:34] [SPEAKER_04] He turned to me and smiled, wearing a fabulous suit and looking like he was in his early 70s, how I remembered him when I was five. I've been expecting you, he said. Everyone instantly started disappearing. I ran up and hugged him. I was crying with excitement and confusion. Grandpa, I miss you, I cried out. He held my face and told me he was okay

[00:30:04] [SPEAKER_04] and that he was truly happy because his favorite person finally came to see him. I looked up at his mustache, which I hadn't seen in forever. He kissed my forehead and told me how much he loved me.

[00:30:19] [SPEAKER_03] Then, bam, I woke up. I was screaming to my husband. I can smell him. He was here.

[00:30:28] [SPEAKER_04] Gramps was just here. I laid back in bed with happy tears in my eyes. Gramps finally came to see me, my best friend. Thanks, guys. I hope my story brings a smile to someone. Our souls will always stay with us.

[00:31:00] [SPEAKER_01] This summer, whatever you're watching, baseball, golf, soccer, racing, DraftKings has you covered for every single moment of it. The DraftKings Sports app is now available in all 50 states, bringing the game straight to your fingertips wherever you are. New DraftKings customers sign up with code KSR, spend five bucks to get 150 in rewards within 14 days. Includes all markets. That's code KSR in partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. Bet with DK Sportsbook.

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER_01] Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 1-800-MY-RESET. Connecticut? Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas, bet tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 plus. Void in Canada. Event contract trading with DraftKings predictions involves risk of loss. Availability varies. Predictions offer void in New York. Bet to get bonus bets that expire in seven days.

[00:32:00] [SPEAKER_01] Trade to get prediction dollars that expire in one year. $50 in rewards issued every seven days via click-to-claim for 14 days. One non-withdrawable reward redeemable. Terms at dkng.co slash offer limited time offer.

[00:32:14] [SPEAKER_00] Drew McIntyre here from WWE. Wielding the Claymore can be a life of chaos. When I'm not dominating in the ring, Chumba Casino is how this warrior takes a wee break. With hundreds of online social games and new weekly releases, there's always something fresh to try. And those daily boosts, next level. Even my free time feels like Valhalla. So when life feels like a battle, kick up your feet, have some fun, and less Chumba. No purchase necessary. VGW Group Voidware prohibited by law.

[00:32:42] [SPEAKER_01] CTs and Cs. 21 Plus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino.

[00:32:46] [SPEAKER_02] The Disappearing and Reappearing Bath Mat by Skywatcher1234 Have any of you had an object disappear then reappear at a later time? I'm sure some of you have. Please let me know what happened to you guys. One afternoon, I was washing some towels and a bath mat in my washing machine. I threw them all in the dryer like usual.

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_02] I went to take them out of the dryer and the bath mat was gone. Since things like that rarely ever happened to me, I was surprised. I felt around the dryer, looked into the back of the washer, looked up and down, high and low, around the apartment. But it was not to be found. My husband had been sitting in the family room working on his computer and he's not really a jokester and didn't play a joke on me. I was around him

[00:33:47] [SPEAKER_02] the whole time and he had never gotten up during the whole washer-dryer incident. I told him what happened, I was muttering like a fool, and he decided to help me look around too just to see if we could find the mat, but nope, not to be found. Over the weekend, he washed our bed sheets and pillowcases. He put them in the wash, then he put them in the dryer like usual. I was sitting out in the family room when I heard him yell, Oh my God, come over here,

[00:34:17] [SPEAKER_02] you've got to see this. I went to the laundry area, it's in our kitchen nook, and he was holding the dryer open and the bath mat was right between some of our sheets. So somehow, it left the dryer, then showed back up in the dryer after a couple more washes and several days. But he and I both don't like to wash our bath mats with our bed sheets. We just wash them with the bathroom stuff

[00:34:46] [SPEAKER_02] like the towels, so it's not like we've ever done this purposefully. I don't think I'll ever forget this weird incident as long as I live.

[00:35:07] [SPEAKER_06] Hello, it is Ryan, and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on Chumbacasino.com. I looked over at the person sitting next to me, and you know what they were doing? They were also playing Chumbacasino. Everybody's loving having fun with it. Chumbacasino is home to hundreds of casino-style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere. So sign up now at Chumbacasino.com to claim your free welcome bonus. That's Chumbacasino.com and live the Chumba life.

[00:35:32] [SPEAKER_00] Sponsored by Chumbacasino. No purchase necessary.

[00:35:38] [SPEAKER_04] All right, all right. Feedback for today. Lola says, am I mishearing you or do you say let's jump into the feed bag after the stories? Yeah, Andy, you started that and just kind of rolling with it ever since. Genius.

[00:35:55] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, that was an accident. I was trying to say feedback, but I said feedback and yeah, just stuck and that's kind of how you and I are.

[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_04] Yeah, sticky.

[00:36:03] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, we're sticky. Michelle Taylor says, there's another true crime storytelling podcast that's hosted by two women. Don't want to mention it here. You can mention it. That's fine. They did a story about the bizarre death of the first man that tried to make a business of selling Ouija boards as a game. That's something that I had never thought about. Like, who decided to sell the Ouija board? Is it something that's been around since before the board game or did it start as a board game?

[00:36:34] [SPEAKER_04] Definitely before in some sort of capacity like the old talking boards back in the day. I don't know if they necessarily had the same format of what we know today as Ouija boards, but it's got to be derivative of something more classical.

[00:36:47] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, right. Yeah, I wish I actually knew what podcast you were talking about, Michelle, because I'd love to listen to that specifically, the Ouija board. I wonder if that would bring some bad juju on you.

[00:36:59] [SPEAKER_04] Maybe. All right, Princess Cheech. That's cute. Most Hastings locations here in Texas have turned into Entertain Mart. They're as close as you can get to Hastings. Good to know. I'll have to check them out if I'm ever in Texas again. Usually I would just go to half-priced books and collect old geometry textbooks.

[00:37:20] [SPEAKER_02] So I looked this up. Entertain Mart looks awesome. It's got this very 90s aesthetic, almost like that Java coffeehouse 90s. Yeah,

[00:37:31] [SPEAKER_04] that whole boho brown burgundy type of thing with cocopelli and suns, moons, and lizards. AOL little guy type art. You know what I'm talking about. Maybe a little crossover of Utopian Scholastic, that 80s, 90s school textbook artwork. Yes, yeah.

[00:37:50] [SPEAKER_02] It looks really great. I would love to have an Entertain Mart here in California. They sell tons of books and movies. I've even seen VHS on the shelves there. Most of the cool places like that have completely shut down. You have to go to independent sellers, which is great, but they're just so hard to find and it's so hard for them to stay in business.

[00:38:08] [SPEAKER_04] Yeah, it sucks that you can't get secondhand stuff locally for at least as much as you can get it for on eBay. Everything's marked up, but you can't really blame them either.

[00:38:18] [SPEAKER_02] Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, Little Red Spark is back again, referencing the voodoo story. I loved the third story so much because it talks realistically about the practice slash belief that has had so many lies spread about it, one of my favorite facts is that voodoo dolls weren't developed to curse people. Enslaved people largely weren't allowed to learn how to read and write,

[00:38:48] [SPEAKER_02] so healers started using dolls to mark people's medical ailments and come up with treatment plans. They were medical records used by incredibly resourceful people. That is something that didn't come up in my research. For some reason, I didn't think to look at voodoo dolls. I thought that that was just a Hollywood thing for movies and horror stories.

[00:39:10] [SPEAKER_04] Oh no, yeah, definitely real. It's interesting that she mentioned the enslaved people not being able to read and write because that's also how Kaporia came about, the fight style that Eddie uses in Tekken. They were enslaved people and they were dancing supposedly, but no, it was self-defense as well. Hmm, wow. I'm positive I didn't pronounce it right. It's probably Kaporia or something like that, but yeah, nonetheless, it's cool stuff. I always liked his style. Oh yeah, if you hold

[00:39:39] [SPEAKER_04] down triangle and tap circle, that's where you can do the upside down spinny kick and really cheap, but it works.

[00:39:45] [SPEAKER_02] I never played it on console because I never really had a PlayStation growing up. It was always just arcade for me.

[00:39:52] [SPEAKER_04] Tekken 3 is my favorite.

[00:39:53] [SPEAKER_02] I'll get it.

[00:39:55] [SPEAKER_04] Sweet. And then from Griselda, Gary D, he shared the same story to Stories with Sapphire. I'm happy to hear his stories in other paranormal podcasts. Well, you'll be happy to hear an additional story from Gary this week. I'm not sure which one I'll use. He's submitted quite a bit. And truth be told, I haven't read it yet because there's so many to choose from. But we are going to talk about the story from last week's episode because it is worth covering.

[00:40:22] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, definitely.

[00:40:23] [SPEAKER_04] So I'm sure this is fresh in everybody's mind still, but this is about the friend who wasn't there. Basically, what happened was he saw his friend and his friend's family at a gas station in Wyoming near Yellowstone. But lo and behold, Gary's actually from Ontario, Canada, quite a ways away. And he saw this entire family, his friend Reese, the entire family, essentially duplicated, but they were slow moving, gray, white, pale looking. And I think what makes this

[00:40:52] [SPEAKER_04] stranger than just being a normal doppelganger story is that Gary didn't just see one familiar person. He saw Reese with his entire family. So I don't think that really makes it an obvious mistaken identity. That explanation doesn't work for me. And for a split second, I was thinking maybe Reese was just messing with Gary. That's what best friends do. They playfully gaslight each other every once in a while. But that would mean his entire family would have had to conspire to gaslight poor little Gary before stepping

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_04] out of the car. That doesn't seem likely. So I don't know what it could have been.

[00:41:28] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, I mean Reese claimed that they never even left town that summer. It's impossible. It's absolutely impossible. It's a wild story. I love it.

[00:41:37] [SPEAKER_04] Maybe it was some sort of glitch in reality. Maybe on a previous summer Reese's family did go to Yellowstone and it somehow crossed paths with Gary's present reality.

[00:41:48] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. When Gary describes how he made eye contact with Reese and called his name, that for some reason is so creepy to me just thinking about that, making eye contact with what's probably a ghost or a memory or an otherworldly version of Reese. It's so weird. Don't look in the eyes. Don't look him directly in the eyes. Yeah, it was like a parallel dimension version of Reese. It kind of reminds me of the story that I read from Dan about the weird parallel alternate world they were talking about.

[00:42:19] [SPEAKER_02] Obviously, it's not a new idea that there are alternate realities, alternate timelines and stuff and it's become so popular because of Marvel and Hollywood and stuff. Right. But it seems like forever we've always had a fascination with life outside of ours, which is weird because life is so short and we're so focused on things beyond our lives. The spiritual, the whole podcast we're doing, what happens after, what happened before, what is

[00:42:49] [SPEAKER_02] beyond our comprehension and our reality.

[00:42:52] [SPEAKER_04] Yeah.

[00:42:53] [SPEAKER_02] Why are we so interested in that when we have this finite life that we need to be living and enjoying?

[00:42:58] [SPEAKER_04] Yeah, I mean, as the saying goes, reality is stranger than fiction, so good point. Maybe we feel like we've discovered enough or we feel like we've hit some sort of brick wall where it's time to look beyond. And I also think it's because it's so incomprehensible how we could actually be here floating around on Earth and life itself. It's a trip. I think our brains just go in every direction trying to make sense of everything. I think a good baseline happy medium is just considering life

[00:43:28] [SPEAKER_04] outside of Earth, not even aliens visiting, but out of the hundreds of billions of planets in the Milky Way alone, man, there's got to be something else. But also, yeah, aliens, really cool.

[00:43:39] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, it's also funny that it's been such a focus for sci-fi, not even just sci-fi, like there are all kinds of genres. I mean, you've got the Bible, which is all about this stuff. You've got all kinds of ancient religious scriptures and writings talking about everything beyond our reality. We're just so fascinated by it, and it's just so funny to me because we have such a unique experience here on Earth.

[00:44:03] [SPEAKER_04] Not strange enough for us, apparently.

[00:44:06] [SPEAKER_02] It's just not strange enough. Well, thinking about another timeline, a happier one, like obviously Dan dreamt about, isn't necessarily out of the ordinary these days because reality is just becoming so grim and so scary. It's becoming its own sci-fi dystopian story.

[00:44:26] [SPEAKER_04] Oh, yeah. Like we were talking about before we hit record, the whole plot camera thing and the surveillance state that we live in. I don't like the way we're going, but there is some hope here.

[00:44:37] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah.

[00:44:38] [SPEAKER_04] We can even talk about Mel's story, how on the topic of what happens after this, I really liked hers because obviously it was a feel-good story. Those are always great, but just the fact that she could smell her grandpa, with that pairing with the actual visitation, I think that makes it more than just a dream or some sort of lucid experience because she was able to catch his scent afterwards and it wasn't like wild dreaming, like, oh, during my lucid dream or whatever it was, I could smell my

[00:45:07] [SPEAKER_04] grandpa, which, you know, that's fair if she did, but the fact that she could smell him outside of that, I'm sure you've thought about a smell and like kind of air quotes here, smelled it.

[00:45:18] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah.

[00:45:18] [SPEAKER_04] But to have a sustained lingering, like, oh, is that burning rubber? Oh, is that blah, blah, blah. When you smell something, you can actually smell something. It wasn't just some passive thought that she had. So maybe it very well could have been her grandpa. I'm on board with it being a visitation.

[00:45:34] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. The lingering senses after a dream, this is something that has had some research surrounding it, but I don't think we have any explanation as to why this happens. Sometimes it does happen. And going back to Dan's story, they woke up with this great feeling of nostalgia for this, this alternate reality, this alternate life, this alternate earth with everybody that they know on it. Right. And they woke up with all this nostalgia and a sense of loss, longing for that world.

[00:46:03] [SPEAKER_02] It's very real. There's research on that specifically.

[00:46:06] [SPEAKER_07] Mm-hmm.

[00:46:07] [SPEAKER_02] I know I've woken up from certain dreams where I just felt so sad because I was like, that was amazing. I want to go back so bad.

[00:46:14] [SPEAKER_04] That happened to me recently. I wish I could remember what it was. And usually I do journal my dreams, but I think it was too heavy. I just kind of wanted it to fizzle away and not dwell on what was and what actually wasn't. But yeah, it was a very real feeling of, oh man, like I can't go back. Actually, no, I do remember now. It's coming back to me, but I was living on some island with a small community of people. And at first it was like, hey, who is this guy? But eventually they took me in under their wing and I became part of this

[00:46:44] [SPEAKER_04] really close knit community that you only really read about anymore. People knew me. We waved to each other. It was like one big compound of a family, but we weren't family. And it was really sad to wake up and not be part of that anymore.

[00:46:57] [SPEAKER_02] And I think that's a sign that you need to start a commune. I think that's what they're called.

[00:47:00] [SPEAKER_04] Yeah.

[00:47:01] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah.

[00:47:02] [SPEAKER_04] Maybe I will.

[00:47:03] [SPEAKER_02] Speaking of dreams, I was thinking of this the other day because this has been a long term thing. My wife is never in my dreams. Ever. Ever. If I do dream about my wife, it's very vague, like a vague version of her. And it doesn't really resemble her. It's just like a stand in. You know what I mean? I usually wake up around the time that I start thinking about her. It's weird. Everybody else in my life has ended up in my dreams except for my wife.

[00:47:29] [SPEAKER_04] That is strange. Usually only dead people end up in my dreams who have been a part of my life, but never like anybody who I see on a regular basis, which is kind of weird. But yeah, sure enough, like anybody, any relative who has died, I'll see them in a dream and that'll usually trigger a lucid dream as a result.

[00:47:48] [SPEAKER_02] Lots of dead people in mine. Yeah. Before we take off, I do want to touch on the LeConte story. Mount LeConte was very interesting. I had never heard of it after reading a little bit about the area. This story makes a lot of sense. The thing about time, and that's what was the most fascinating to me, I guess it was missing time, but in situations with high stress, like being followed in the woods by what I assume is Bigfoot, research shows that time can

[00:48:18] [SPEAKER_02] definitely be affected, like your awareness of time, but it's usually in the opposite direction. Like experiencers perceive time being longer than it actually is when they're in periods of stress like this, like when you're being chased. People say it felt like an eternity, but it was really only just a few seconds, you know.

[00:48:34] [SPEAKER_04] Yeah, that's really common with psychedelics even. If you're doing them with a friend and you take like a mental note or have them time it and not tell you obviously when it's starting, but then they ask you like, hey, when we talked about this, how long ago was that? You might be like, oh, I don't know, like two minutes ago, but it'd really be 20 seconds ago or something. It's really strange. Obviously, it's not paranormal, but still.

[00:49:00] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, I'm really sensitive to THC and there would be times where I would completely lose track of time. My perception of time was just way off, just like that. I felt like hours, but it was only 10 minutes.

[00:49:14] [SPEAKER_04] Yeah, the brain can take you on quite a journey and it feels like that for sure.

[00:49:18] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. The thing about the Smokies, which is something I've been reading about quite a bit after checking this story out, is that the whole missing 411 cases, you remember that? Oh, yeah. The Smokies appear in that multiple times, like over and over again. This isn't something that's just unique to this author. This is a common thing that happens in that area. So I'm more inclined to believe this more than any story that, you know, I've read on the show because this is extremely common and

[00:49:47] [SPEAKER_02] there's a lot of documentation on this.

[00:49:50] [SPEAKER_04] Happens a lot to you up in Humboldt County, but I think that's probably a bit more malicious. That would be my guess.

[00:49:56] [SPEAKER_02] Yes, I would agree. I would agree.

[00:49:59] [SPEAKER_04] Which is sad. Such a beautiful area.

[00:50:02] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. And, you know, in the missing 401 cases, they would reappear and they would have like no memory of what happened. You know, sometimes weeks later. In the weird cases where like they would be naked and their clothes would be all folded up nicely somewhere. Yeah. The clothes would be put on improperly. Like, it's so creepy, man.

[00:50:21] [SPEAKER_04] Yeah. Yeah. No.

[00:50:23] [SPEAKER_02] Well, hey, if you guys have any stories that are going to scare the hell out of us, make sure you send them into stories at odd trails dot com. We check out everything that you guys send. So I really encourage you if you have any stories you want to hear on the show, don't hesitate. Send them in. We love all kinds of stuff. And if you want to get ad free versions of all of our episodes, it's the best way to listen to the show and support us. Go to patreon dot com forward slash odd trails and make sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts. Let's not meet in the old time radio cast. We'll see you guys next week. Stay safe.

[00:50:53] [SPEAKER_04] Peace out. Ghosts and the ghouls disturb you, guys.

[00:51:17] [SPEAKER_06] Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest here and I have discovered a fun new escape from the daily grind Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has hundreds of social casino style games. It's all free to play anytime, anywhere with daily bonuses. So get to Chumba Casino dot com. No purchase necessary. BGW group. Voidware prohibited by law. See terms and conditions 21 plus.