In our annual Tales of Terror, we bring you three terrifying tales. Shadows in the doorway. Disembodied footprints. Dark figures approaching through the woods. Snuggle up with a friend or your favorite stuffed animal-- and get ready to get spooky. Happy Halloween everyone.

The most memorable gifts often aren’t purchased online. Sometimes, it’s as simple as the time we give to one another. A favorite recipe. An old bike that needs a new set of legs to pedal it. The gifts can be grand or small. 

For the upcoming holiday season, we’re looking for stories about gifts that weren’t purchased for a special mini series with our friends at Patagonia.

Every July, nearly 20,000 cyclists from around the world swarm the roads of Iowa for one week to ride across the state. It’s hot. It’s humid. And it’s not as flat as one may think. Iowa resident Caleb Smith shares his personal journey of RAGBRAI, complete with a buffet of midwestern charm: homemade pies, barn parties, sunsets over fields of corn. But he doesn’t ride a bike, he inline skates.

Today, we bring you two Shorts about love on the trail. Lauren DeLaunay Miller reflects on the bond she forged with her Chevy Astro van. Chuck Radis wades into a hiking trip with his wife of 40 years. For both Lauren and Chuck, the outdoors helped them find, and renew, their loving relationships.

The first time Ken Jarvela picked up a sketchpad in the backcountry in the 1980’s, he decided he wanted to become a landscape painter. In his early 20’s, he packed three months of food, a tarp, and a set of watercolors into the Trinity Wilderness and, over the next 54 days, taught himself how to paint. This trip would mark the first in many that would define his career as a landscape painter.

After Patrick McGunagle graduated from college, he told himself he’d get a “real job” after a summer on a fire crew in Montana. But the adventure, camaraderie, and purpose that came with fighting fire made it hard to trade the woods in for a cubicle. Seven years later, Pat now has a job more "real" than anything he could have imagined: a smokejumper. That’s someone who jumps out of planes to fight wildfires.

Have questions? So did we.

After Euan Fraser lost his dad in a mysterious accident, he spent decades of his life wondering what had happened. When he finally learned the truth, Euan began searching for new ways to get to know his father through adventures in the outdoors.

We just hit our 300th episode! Whether you’ve been a listener from the mic-in-a-closet days, or you just joined us, it’s you-- our community-- that keeps us going. In honor of our listeners, we have a story about four women taking an idea introduced in one of our stories, adding their own creative spin and running with it. Happy summer!

Oak Flat, Arizona: a site sacred to the San Carlos Apache, a beloved climbing area, a rare riparian zone in the desert. The catch? It’s slated to become the largest copper mine in the history of North America. Days before the land was set to transfer to the mining company, a group of Native high school students ran 188 miles to Oak Flat-- joining a cry of protest loud enough to reach the ears of the White House. We dive into the fight to possess and protect a place with incredible spiritual and economic power.

Cycling intervals, homework assignments, planner items: Emily Schaldach raced through her life checking off her list. When Emily’s grandmother invited her to a silent meditation retreat in the woods of Colorado, she reluctantly accepted. Compelled to sit still for a few days, Emily saw herself in a way she hadn’t yet envisioned.