Ghosts

[Limbohiker]

Any ghost sightings on the trail? or any unexplained occurrences?

[Skidsteer]

Some rumor of strange sounds on and around Slaughter Mountain, if you're into that sort of thing... Contact the folks at Walasi-si-yi for the more complete story.As for myself:" Sufficient unto the day," I always say. Cheers :sun

[MOWGLI]

A place called Sarver Cabin in Virginia was reputed to have a ghost. In 2000 there was no shelter at the place, just a campsite among the ruins of an old homestead. I was there with Little Steps, Not To Worry (Ed Speer), and a few other hikers.

I faded off in my tent and in the night I heard a variety of strange noises. I was pretty spooked. There were a number of animals close by my tent for much of the evening.

Well, I finally fell asleep only to be woken by a strange sound. It wasn't an animal. It was a clinking - metallic like. I listened and listened and couldn't figure out what it was. Finally I turned my flashlight on and peeked out of my tent. I couldn't see anything.

Finally I got up the nerve to get out of my sleeping bag and see what was going on. I found my Leki pole with the handlee pulled into a rock wall, and the pole was banging up against a rock. I pulled the pole out of the rock wall and found that a rodent had chewed clean through the strap.

The pole made it to Katahdin, then did perhaps another 500 miles until I gave it to a friend in DC. The pole was then stolen from him by a homeless guy.

If you should happen to see a homeless guy in DC carrying a single blue Leki with a NY Yankees hologram sticker and a chewed through strap, please tell him this story. BOO

The moral of the story? Its all in your head. And oh yeah... Keep an eye on your Leki poles.

[saimyoji]

Try these threads. I especially liked the discussion on Dudley town, Ct.

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2973&highlight=ghosts

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=7818&highlight=ghosts

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4571&highlight=ghosts

[QHShowoman]

I grew up in CT and first learned about Dudleytown (and the AT!) when I was in the 8th grade. I researched it ad naseum and had the good coincidence of my mother working with a fellow who was a descendent of the the first settlers of Dudleytown, who happened to be publishing a book on the subject, so I learned lots about its history. However, despite the fact that I made repeated trips to the Dudleytown site over my teenage/early adult years, I never had anything remotely strange or weird happen, but lots of teenagers who went out to the site for a night of drinking and smoking came back with plenty of stories of the "paranormal" (big surprise). Now it is owned by the Dark Entry Forest Association and indeed, strictly patrolled.

This is a good skeptic's site about Dudleytown, but most of the information is factually correct, as I remember it: http://www.legendofdudleytown.com/thetown.html

At any rate, on my first visit to Dudleytown, my family and I came upon some hikers who explained that they were hiking the AT ... and that was my first exposure to it!

[Gray Blazer]

If you check out my pics you will see one called the Spirit of Burningtown. The camera may have malfunctioned but it is peculiar that the orb is in the middle of the trail.

[Uncle Silly]

There was some old village site in Pennsylvania some miles before the Rausch Gap Shelter. Wookie (of this year) and I were walking through at night, in a light fog, and stopped at this crossroads in the woods where the village was supposed to be. It was nice flat ground, but we didn't see any ruins or foundations left around. Don't know what I expected to see. I remember a mailbox on the trail there looming out of the fog, and somehow that was really creepy.

But even creepier was the weird old Blair-Witch-esque cabin in southern VA. Handprints all over the walls, holes in the roof and floor, rickety stairs. Even in broad daylight it wasn't something I wanted to hang out around.

[hiker33]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the disappearances around Glastenbury Mountain, VT. Beginning in 1945 several people simply diasppeared in the area including at least one who was actually hiking on the AT/Long Trail. Only one body was ever found, and that strangely enough was months later in a prominent location that had earlier been covered several times by search parties. The most logical explanation for all of these disappearances is a serial killer, something little-known in the 1940's.

Hiking the area alone tends to give me the creeps but I never experienced anything odd.

See http://www.xprojectmagazine.com/ARCHIVES/PARANORMAL/benningtontriangle.html

[Gray Blazer]

I eat a lot of cereal. Does that make me a cereal killer?

[Kerosene]

The cereal isn't alive, so you're just a cereal scavenger, perhaps of the laughing hyena variety?