Jul 23, 2026 · 49 min · 11 segments
The Great Weird Outdoors podcast explores the mysterious and forgotten places in the wild, delving into the stories and history of cabins, fire lookouts, and homesteads. Host Jeremy shares personal…
If you spend enough time outdoors, you've probably noticed something that can be hard to explain.
Cabins have personalities and I know this from firsthand experience.
I lived in one in Nevada and lived in one over in the Ozark Mountains when I was working on the Ozark National Forest.
Yeah, all of them had very different feels and personalities.
And, you know, some of them felt had lived in.
Some of them felt sort of abandoned the whole time that I was there and felt lonely.
And I was convinced, at least in the one in the Ozarks, that there was someone watching me at nighttime in the cabin.
The cabin had a loft in it.
And it was super weird.
And every time I was sitting down in the first floor, I always felt like that somebody was standing up in the loft just looking down on me.
And it was the creepiest thing.
But, you know, just the personalities and...
You know, like I was just saying, some of them feel welcoming.
You walk through the door, you set your pack down, open a window, and within a few minutes, it almost feels like you've been there before.
Other cabins, even perfectly normal ones, never quite let you relax.
I've always found that interesting because cabins are incredibly simple places.
You know, four walls for the most part, a roof, maybe a wood stove, a bunk, a table.
some lighting, maybe a bookshelf.
That's about it.
And yet they can feel completely different from one another.
And I want to point out that we're not talking about like the big, like, you know, 5,000 square foot so-called cabins in Colorado or up in the mountains where rich people live.
We're talking about like You know, trapper cabins and hunter cabins and Forest Service guard stations and, you know, places that are Spartan and have just the bare minimum for what you need to get in and get out of the weather and things like that.
You know, like fishing cabins and family cabins up in the mountains.
If you spend enough time outdoors, you've probably noticed something that can be hard to explain.
Cabins have personalities and I know this from firsthand experience.
I lived in one in Nevada and lived in one over in the Ozark Mountains when I was working on the Ozark National Forest.
Yeah, all of them had very different feels and personalities.
And, you know, some of them felt had lived in.
Some of them felt sort of abandoned the whole time that I was there and felt lonely.
And I was convinced, at least in the one in the Ozarks, that there was someone watching me at nighttime in the cabin.
The cabin had a loft in it.
And it was super weird.
And every time I was sitting down in the first floor, I always felt like that somebody was standing up in the loft just looking down on me.
And it was the creepiest thing.
But, you know, just the personalities and...
You know, like I was just saying, some of them feel welcoming.
You walk through the door, you set your pack down, open a window, and within a few minutes, it almost feels like you've been there before.
Other cabins, even perfectly normal ones, never quite let you relax.
I've always found that interesting because cabins are incredibly simple places.
You know, four walls for the most part, a roof, maybe a wood stove, a bunk, a table.
some lighting, maybe a bookshelf.
That's about it.
And yet they can feel completely different from one another.
And I want to point out that we're not talking about like the big, like, you know, 5,000 square foot so-called cabins in Colorado or up in the mountains where rich people live.
We're talking about like You know, trapper cabins and hunter cabins and Forest Service guard stations and, you know, places that are Spartan and have just the bare minimum for what you need to get in and get out of the weather and things like that.
You know, like fishing cabins and family cabins up in the mountains.
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