Guys, have you read Star Vaker? This isn't sponsored at all, but dang. I just finished it, and it was the best horror novel I've read in years. Very sad, very eerie. I recommend it. Oh yeah, today I've got backpacking stories

for you. So maybe if you're brave enough to take up a backpack and go for a hike, toss a copy of Star of Acre in your pack.

Tonight, there will be European folklore monsters, secret cursed places, and childhood trauma. Enjoy.

Don't forget to send me your scary stories of the unexplained

at dark stories dot org, so I can narrate them.

Now let's begin.

Disturbing Wolf Thing from recent Surger.

I was about halfway through my trek along the Great Divine Trail in the Canadian Rockies. It was late August.

The plan was to hike the whole thing, from Waterton Lakes National Park, all the way

up to Cocoa Provincial Park.

It was a trip I'd been dreaming about for years.

I'm from Vancouver, but I'd never really explored much of the wilderness in my own backyard.

Always too busy with work and life and all that.

But I'd finally saved up enough vacation time and money to take a couple months off and just

disappear into the mountains.

That particular day had been rough. I'd been pushing myself hard, trying to make up for

lost time after waiting out a nasty storm a few days back. My legs were aching and my feet were blistered, and I was starting to run low on supplies.

I knew I'd have to detour off the trail soon to resupply, but I was hoping to push on for one more day.

As evening started to set in, I realized I had miscalculated.

I was nowhere near my planned campsite, and the terrain was too steep and rocky to safely set up camp.

From there I spotted a faint light in the distance, off to the east of the trail.

Had to be a farm or maybe a ranger station or something, I thought.

...