Curious Cat - where science & supernatural collide

Have you ever been to a place in California called Medicine Lake? It lies near Mount Shasta, its infamous cousin, but they both have volcanic parentage. You see, Medicine Lake is a caldera. Even in the west, Medicine Lake lies in the shadow of North America's deepest caldera, Crater Lake.

I remember driving past on summer and winter trips to and from Washington and California and wondering about the name, Medicine Lake. My little girl brain thought there was a hospital on its banks. But the medicine offered by these waters is mystical, strange and ancient.

Let's get into it.

This episode will cover...

Medicine Lake in California

Hospital Rock in California

Modoc History & Modoc War - history to remember

Cascade Mountain Range information

Klamath Reservation - history we cannot forget

Obsidian facts and uses (a grounding end to the episode)

Show Sources and Materials:

Medicine Lake overview, USGS

A Beautiful Escape to Medicine Lake and Glass Mountain, Ryan Loughrey, Active NorCal 

Hospital Rock Pictograph Site, BSA High Adventure

Wandering Mind Travel's Account of the Area

From Ancient Origins:

Modoc War, Oregon History Project

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Thanks for listening, reviewing, sharing, and giving support (even just good thoughts) to the show. It keeps me going. <3 Jennifer

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Crossing into Washington state when you're on the northbound Pacific Crest Trail, or NOBO, is a milestone–a damn smile-stone. Crossing the Bridge of the Gods with no proper pedestrian path is akin to Frogger. But once across, you might have the urge to fling your arms up to the sky and shout a victory hoot. After replenishing your supplies in town you hit the trail again, and that's when Washington hits, and hits hard. The conditions and terrain change fast. Just when you're ready to call it quits, the next peak comes into view, coaxing you north. Alone in your tent? You wonder if you'll survive the cold that night, kicking yourself for not setting out a month earlier. You fall asleep imagining your trail family is camped out in tents beside yours. But some of them pulled the pin on the trail days earlier. And you're left missing them like a phantom limb.

Let's get into it.

Washington's nickname is the Evergreen State. Doesn't that sound inviting? Cozy even? Sweet, like a week at summer camp? Well, Washington is no laughing matter.

Washington has serious weather, active volcanoes, not to mention creepy lore about UFOs, Bigfoot, globs raining down on towns, teen vampires and werewolves and the all-too-real-serial killers. This is where all that subreddit-binging catches up with you. What seemed entertaining in the safety of your bedroom, funny even, alone on the trail, far removed from population center, those stories flood your imagination. Add a little fog, the cries of an owl, not spotting another hiker for a few miles, and the trail can feel brutal and endless. 

Show Sources and Materials

I just hiked 90 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail on McDoubles, GorillaTaco, YouTube

Pacific Crest Trail Horror Stories 2024, HalfwayAnywhere.com

Discovering the Spooky Side of Washington: Haunted Hikes in the Pacific Northwest, Pacific Adventure Club

A 'haunted hike' brings a Washington disaster to life, Courtney Flatt, Northwest Public Broadcasting

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If you are searching for a fresh, binge-able podcast, this might be the one for you!

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Thanks for listening, reviewing, sharing, and giving support (even just good thoughts) to the show. It keeps me going. <3 Jennifer

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Happy Halloween! Landing on a Friday, if you have kids in school, their day probably included some tricks and treats, I hope, and maybe an emergency run to school to drop off an extra dozen orange cupcakes. I have such nice memories of helping the kids' classes have a fun party, often heading up an art project, or making a quiet corner for kids that aren't into the party thing with a basket of Halloween books and Legos.

I got curious about the true origins of Halloween. And how the holiday came to the United States. I'd heard conflicting accounts and you know me, I did some digging. Don't worry though, it wasn't grave digging. Though I did dye my hair platinum, so maybe now I'll fit in with the cool graveyard kids.

Oh, and I haven't forgotten our northbound journey along the Pacific Crest Trail. If you take a day off to rest on the PCT, it's called a Zero Day. That's what we're takin. Next week, I'll bring us back to the PCT where we'll cross into Washington state. I hope we get their before snow starts to fall in the Cascades. 

But back to Halloween in the United States...

Let's get into it

This episode covers:

Halloween's Worldwide Origins

Halloween comes to the United States

Trick or Treating

About those treats...and yes, the history of candy corn

Costumes (their history and evolution)

Halloween today

A spooky Halloween track by an independent artist at the show close

About that song after the close...

Caves of Dawn by Guilherme Bernardes (support his work with the link here)

Sources:

Library of Congress article about Halloween origins

Trick or Treat History, 1031 Consortium.com

History of Halloween Costumes in America, CNN

100 Years of Halloween Costumes: An Ultimate Fashion History, The Ultimate Fashion History, YouTube

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If you are searching for a fresh, binge-able podcast, this might be the one for you!

Support the show

Thanks for listening, reviewing, sharing, and giving support (even just good thoughts) to the show. It keeps me going. <3 Jennifer

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Last week we set out on the Pacific Crest Trail, trekking up California, reaching Mount Shasta, where a little boy and a grandmother had a strange experience. I shared the Eternal Trail tribute written by a grieving father, and you learned about the best PCT resource out there, Halfway Anywhere.

This week, we pick up the trail in Oregon, home to some of the best and worst the PCT has to offer. There are mysteries on this stretch of water-logged forest. But up first? The story of an adult daughter connecting with her father on the PCT.

Let's get into it. 

This episode covers:

A father and daughter reconnect on Oregon's PCT

An overview of the PCT

Unsettling stories of the Oregon PCT

Benson Plateau earned its own shoutout

How NOT to go missing

A preview of the next two weeks

Show Sources and Materials

Pacific Crest Trail Horror Stories 2024, HalfwayAnywhere.com

Five Days on Oregon's Pacific Crest Trail, Jess McComb, Bend Magazine

Pacific Crest Trail Mystery, Strange Outdoors

Benson Plateau, Creepily Beautiful or Beautifully Creepy? It's both!, OregonHikers.org

Heather Cyrus Shares Her PCT Experience, HeatherCyrus.com

The Horrifying Reasons Hikers Vanish from PCT, Mina Elwell, Islands.com

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If you are searching for a fresh, binge-able podcast, this might be the one for you!

Support the show

Thanks for listening, reviewing, sharing, and giving support (even just good thoughts) to the show. It keeps me going. <3 Jennifer

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There's a trail that runs from the Mexico-U.S. border north through California, Oregon and Washington, ending at the Canadian border. A grueling test of grit and endurance, it's no surprise those that attempt some or parts of the Pacific Crest Trail are changed. Long after blisters heal over, hammies stop aching, shins come back to normal, the stories of the trail linger in the minds of hikers. Is it the hours alone? Or the silence? Or the senses that become sharper watching for shifts in weather and wildlife? Or something else, like a hitchhiking ghost, that stays with them after leaving the PCT? 

The west coast of the United States is one I know well, like the back of my hand. But as I've been learning about trail angels, trail pirates, hitchhiking, and uncovered the people that have gone missing on this stretch of trail? It's become a place I don't recognize, that fascinates and scares me.

Grab a Bobo bar and a glass of water!  

Let's get into it!

This episode covers:

Pacific Crest Trail 101

Hiker Horror Stories

Hiker Cautionary Tales

Cascadia High Strangeness

Halfway Anywhere's PCT Hiker Survey Information

A Tribute by a Father Who Lost His Son on the PCT

About that song at the end...

Quiet Storm by Alana Jordan

 Show Sources and Materials

Halfway Anywhere's Patreon (sign up for FANTASTIC outdoors content - so good in fact that Outdoors Inc. and others have been stealing his work and taking credit)

Pacific Crest Trail Horror Stories 2024, HalfwayAnywhere.com

The Cult That Lived Next Door, Jack Neath, Medium.com

Creepy Pacific Crest Trail Stories, Ranker.com

Anza Borrego's Haunted Desert, DesertUSA.com

Trevor's Eternal Trail, Doug Laher, thetrek.co

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If you are searching for a fresh, binge-able podcast, this might be the one for you!

Support the show

Thanks for listening, reviewing, sharing, and giving support (even just good thoughts) to the show. It keeps me going. <3 Jennifer

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Northern California, this stretch sand, rocks, logging roads, wineries, tiny towns and pulsing centers of culture are one of my happy places. Often when I travel here to visit family, I fly into Santa Rosa, a quaint airport that feels like a time capsule, with touches of Peanuts' cartoonist, Charles Schultz everywhere. 

Fog-nipped mornings, the sound of a distant train, a winding stretch of trees, shoulders of highway that drop off a rocky incline, this is a place best enjoyed like a glass of fine wine, one intentional sip at a time.

From a lost bit of coastline to a community that has its own dialect that's about to go extinct, which might not be a bad thing, there's lots to learn about and love in Northern California.

Let's get into it!

This episode covers The Lost Coast, B. Bryan Preserve, Bohemian Grove, Zodiac, Mount Shasta, Boontling, and more.

What to Watch, Listen to, Read, or Shop for NEXT!

CASCADIA episode on Mount Shasta, Buzzsprout (shout out to Hotes Design - that created the episode art!) 

Exploring California's Lost Coast, VisitCalifornia.com 

B. Bryan Preserve link to donate, book a tour, fall in love with a giraffe, or plan an overnight stay!

Want a Spiffy House? Acreage by the Pacific? Zebras? Here's the House for You, SF Gate 

Earth's Root Chakra: the mysticism of Mount Shasta, Backcountry Magazine

Strange, Unique Northern California, CaliforniaThroughMyLense.com

California - A List of the Weirdest Things to Ever Happen in Northern California, OnlyInYourState.com

11 Weird Facts about Northern California that Sound FAKE but are 100% TRUE, Only In Your State

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If you are searching for a fresh, binge-able podcast, this might be the one for you!

Support the show

Thanks for listening, reviewing, sharing, and giving support (even just good thoughts) to the show. It keeps me going. <3 Jennifer

Buy Curious Cat Podcast a Coffee!

Last week we ventured along the East Coast, specifically Florida's famed Space Coast to share the story of a civil rights couple who was killed by the KKK. We went a few miles inland to rewrite our old school programming about ancient civilizations thanks to scientific analysis of soft tissue matter, bones, bottle gourds and fabrics preserved for from 7-9,000 years ago, and this week? Well, the east coast can't have all the spotlight, can it? I'm looking closely at some of the weirdness along California's central coast.

Let's get into it!

This episode covers the death of James Dean and his cursed Little Bastard, the history and strange UFO/UAP sightings at Vandenberg Space Force Base, the Central Valley, Hearst Castle, a Zodiac killing, La Purisma Mission, and more.

What to Read, Watch, or Listen to NEXT!

 Sister Irenita - A Very Special Halloween Episode, Curious Cat Podcast, Buzzsprout

James Dean's Obituary, LA Times

***The TV Witch Accused of Casting the Hex that Killed James Dean, FarOutMagazine.co.uk

Site Where James Dean Crashed, CaliforniaThroughMyLens.com

Unearthing The Mysteries Of 'Egypt' In The Dunes Of The California Coast

National UFO Reporting Organization

Scientists solve deep-sea ‘Octopus Garden’ mystery off California coast

Ten Commandments' Relics, Old Hollywood, Being Excavated from California Sand Dunes, LA Times

Secrets of Hearst Castle, CNN

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If you are searching for a fresh, binge-able podcast, this might be the one for you!

Support the show

Thanks for listening, reviewing, sharing, and giving support (even just good thoughts) to the show. It keeps me going. <3 Jennifer

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A few months back while I was researching strange history in and around the Orlando area, I found a YouTube video that stuck with me. A young man that likes to explore abandoned places went to a house in an upscale neighborhood of Orlando to see what had happened to a house whose owners were gone, the wife murdered and her husband in prison for life.

Something about their dog crates in the driveway and the gutted interior has haunted me ever since. It's a story straight off of 48 Hours or 20/20 and I feel the need to share it here.

Let's get into it.

(David Tronnes is serving life in prison for this crime)

What to Watch, Read, or Listen to NEXT

This ABANDONED Orlando House Hides a Chilling Secret, Adventuring with Trevor, YouTube

The Murder of Shanti Cooper, Millionaire Murders, YouTube

48 Hours, Home Renovation Murder,  episode on the case, YouTube 

Send us Fan Mail

If you are searching for a fresh, binge-able podcast, this might be the one for you!

Support the show

Thanks for listening, reviewing, sharing, and giving support (even just good thoughts) to the show. It keeps me going. <3 Jennifer

Buy Curious Cat Podcast a Coffee!

This week we are going from the East Coast. And next week to the west, because as I researched incidents of high strangeness on Florida's space coast, I found a geolocation full of weirdness in California's space pocket, and yes, I DID make that nickname up. The location in California is north of Santa Barbara, west of La Purisma Mission and near a famous spot for split pea soup. But, enough about NEXT week!

This week, our journey takes us the east coast of Florida, best known as the site of rocket launches and a space shuttle tragedy. There's more to this stretch of land than the soft sands and salty blue waters and space travel.

It's a place of a race-fueled double murder, a water-logged ancient cemetery that is rewriting how we think of prehistoric people, and much more. 

Let's get into it!

What to Watch, Read or Listen to NEXT:

Documentary, Harry T Moore (and Harriette Moore), BlackCatMedia, YouTube (take five minutes to watch this important documentary, then please share it with others)

Windover: Prehistoric Past Revealed at Pond Cemetery, Lesleyanne Drake, Orange County Regional History Center

Titusville's Great Fire of 1895, SpaceCoastDaily.com

Voices of the Past, Dr. Glen H. Doran on Windover Bog Burials, YouTube

Windover Archeology Site DNA Report, ResearchGate.net

North American Bog Burials, MiniMinuteMan, YouTube

Send us Fan Mail

If you are searching for a fresh, binge-able podcast, this might be the one for you!

Support the show

Thanks for listening, reviewing, sharing, and giving support (even just good thoughts) to the show. It keeps me going. <3 Jennifer

Buy Curious Cat Podcast a Coffee!

This episode began after an actor that was rumored for decades to be dead, actually died. I thought it was a lighthearted way to touch death and feel more alive than ever, a sort of auditory momento mori, but after outlining the stories, it can also serve as a cautionary tale. 

Leave instructions, pinned to your shirt front or tucked into your wallet by your ID, to have a coroner check for your pulse, then check again and again. Ask that your family grin and bears it if they are asked to identify your remains. It may just be someone that looks like you, and works at the same car wash, and if someone publishes your obit before your death day? Have a laugh and host a living wake at your local tavern.

Let's get into it.

Show Sources and Materials

Subscribe to my substack, Thoughts Scribbled in a Notebook, here! (and thank you!)

Family Was Given His Ashes, then he turned up alive in Oregon, Tacoma News-Tribune

8 People Who Were Mistakenly Pronounced Dead, Everplans

Prematurely Reported Obituaries, Wikipedia

13 People Who Faked Their Own Deaths, Readers' Digest

10 Mysterious Times People Faked Their Own Deaths, WatchMojo.com, YouTube

Supposedly Dead Celebrities who are most probably dead, CRACKED

The Lazarus Effect Surfaces Again after Woman Declared Dead Comes to Life, New York Post

Man Who Came back to Life Dies Two Weeks Later, CNN

Celebrity Death Hoaxes, Spyscape.com

150-Year-Olds ARE NOT Getting Social Security Checks, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Alicia H. Munnell

Strange Love: The Morbid Obsession of Carl, American Hauntings Ink

Send us Fan Mail

If you are searching for a fresh, binge-able podcast, this might be the one for you!

Support the show

Thanks for listening, reviewing, sharing, and giving support (even just good thoughts) to the show. It keeps me going. <3 Jennifer

Buy Curious Cat Podcast a Coffee!