Shelters or specific areas on the trail that give you the creeps...

[MedicineMan]

Started this poll after passing by the Wapiti Shelter and years ago when passing the Vandeventer Shelter.
Do they give you an eerie feeling?
Any other places of 'ill-repute' on the trail you can think of?

[hikerjohnd]

I can't wait to hear the responses... maybe I should read by candle light on a stormy night :-?

[MedicineMan]

just hope L.Wolf and BJ dont get too mad at me :)
i thought about the poll when i read the post on the 'murders on the AT' and reflected back to when i did pass Wapiti...i remember thinking how wrong murder is on the trail, thinking it belongs in big cities and the real world, but in so many ways the trail is even more real world isnt it?

[saimyoji]

The first time I hiked over the moutains starting at Danielsville trailhead near Blue Mtn ski resort (PA). After a couple of miles it was just wasteland. It was a brisk, windy November morn., not a shred of vegetation on the mountain. It was a chilling wake-up call to the effect that we humans can and do have on the earth.

Not so spooky anymore. In fact the mountain is starting (slowly) to come back.

[cutman11]

The "blair witch house" in VA ( the place with the handprints on the walls)

[Doc]

I must be out of the loop. When I stayed at Vandeventer shelter it was super with the views out back, especially in the evening. The only problem was the three day hike for water. Does this place have a history?

Doc

[Lone Wolf]

Yeah Doc.Years ago some guy slammed a hatchet into a woman's skull killing her then threw her body over the cliff behind the shelter.

[Lone Wolf]

The so-called "Hikers Paradise" in Gorham gives me the creeps. Rude friggin people.

[The Old Fhart]

Sarver Cabin, VA, has a ghost named “George.” http://www.ratc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=shelters.display&id=9 (.Click here for the "official" story.

Carter Notch Hut, NH is haunted by the ghost of "Red Mac" MacGregor, hut manager in the 1920s, who pulls pranks on the hut crew. Stories I’ve heard from the hut croos over the years say that there is one bunk in the croo quarters that belonged to Red Mac that no one can sleep in without dying. http://www.outdoors.org/lodging/huts/huts-carter-history.cfm (Here is a reference.

Mizpah Hut, NH (built in 1964) is haunted by a little girl named Betsy who got lost and was found frozen not far away. Her body was put in a body bag in the basement that night and when they went to get it the next morning the body bag was not where they put it. When they open the bag they discovered that Betsy wasn’t dead when they found her and after warming up in the basement of the hut overnight had revived and actually died trying to claw her way out of the body bag but suffocated before she could get out. The sounds the croo heard during the night and thought were the wind was actually Betsy trying to escape.

The Tip Top house on the summit of Mount Washington, NH is now a museum but people do occasionally stay overnight. That building from the 1800s is reported to have various ghosts although I didn’t see any when I stayed there overnight. A few years ago what appeared to be old human bones were found buried near the back door of the Tip Top house and because of the ghost stories everyone knew this was the reason for the hauntings. The medical examiner was called in and after a quick examination determined the bones belonged to a moose that was part of the menu over 100 years earlier.

[The Old Fhart]

Looks like the system (or those damn poltegists) mangled the links above. try Sarver here (http://www.ratc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=shelters.display&id=9) and Carter Notch here (http://www.outdoors.org/lodging/huts/huts-carter-history.cfm).

[bulldog49]

Why would Wapiti be considered creepy? Is there a story attached to it? What state is it in?

[Lone Wolf]

There was a double murder at Wapiti. The bodies were in a shallow grave close to the shelter.

[The Old Fhart]

bulldog49, Check the "Murder on the Appalachian Trail" thread in Straight Forward for details.

[halibut15]

The A. Rufus Morgan Shelter scares me. Even though it's close to the road and the NOC, it's just a creepy looking place and shelter...ugh.

[BlackCloud]

just hope L.Wolf and BJ dont get too mad at me :)
i thought about the poll when i read the post on the 'murders on the AT' and reflected back to when i did pass Wapiti...i remember thinking how wrong murder is on the trail, thinking it belongs in big cities and the real world, but in so many ways the trail is even more real world isnt it?
I'm glad you feel comfortable w/ the idea of murders belonging anywhere in our society...:rolleyes:

[Footslogger]

Only reason I chose Wapiti Shelter is that I almost bought the ranch there in 2003. Got in late afternoon in a wind/rain storm. Set up our tents out behind the shelter, made a quick dinner and settled in for the night. Heard trees swaying and branches breaking/falling pretty much non-stop. Woke up in the morning and found a 6 - 8 foot branch stuck in the ground like a javelin at the end of my tent ...about 12 inches or so from where my head was all night. Somebody up there must like me because another foot or so and I would have taken a hit in the noggin.

Guess that's what they mean by a "widow maker"

'Slogger
AT 2003

[Lone Wolf]

I'm sure MedicineMan doesn't think it BELONGS anywhere in society. I think what he's saying is you expect it in big cities.

[Van Lloyden]

I don't know what it is about the Crescent Rocks area north of Route 7 in Northern VA that gives me the creeps after dark. I always get an unsettled feeling there at night. I never have that feeling on any other part of the trail, nor in the city for that matter.

[halibut15]

I get that unsettled feeling in the middle of the day while hiking occasionally. It's usually my indication to turn around and leave. I got that on an overgrown, unmarked trail up the Tallulah River to Deep Gap around Standing Indian, NC this past summer. I just felt really unsettled, my hair stood up all over, and it seemed as if I need to run. Needless to say I headed back to my car (about an hour away). Right after I left the trailhead, a massive severe thunderstorm came raging over Standing Indian; I think a tornado warning was issued for it. As high up on the ridge as I was before I turned around, I'd been jacked up for sure by that storm. I guess it's good to listen to your instincts sometimes after all.....

[The Solemates]

Started this poll after passing by the Wapiti Shelter and years ago when passing the Vandeventer Shelter.
Do they give you an eerie feeling?
Any other places of 'ill-repute' on the trail you can think of?

Docs Knob, Wapiti, Sarvers, Governor Clement, and Carter Notch Hut

[flyfisher]

I stayed solo at the Vandeventer Shelter last Fall. It was a beautiful night and sunrise. Middle of the night, I got up and felt like I needed to play something on my Native American Flute. I had never heard the story of the murder.

This is a quotation from the book I will soon publish. In "A Wildly Successful 200-Mile Hike" I was writing about an experience at Vandeventer shelter:

A Song for the Moon: One AM and all is well… My hammock hangs next to the drop-off at the Vandeventer shelter, and the October night sky is beautifully lighted by the nearly full hunter’s moon.

I’ve gotten up for my middle-of-the-night pee, and I am entranced by the stillness. The night is so clear that I could reach out and touch the hills on the far side of the valley. It will be a long night, with many more hours of darkness than I need to sleep, so I walk around the silent walls to the front of the shelter.

Turning the corner, mice scurry about in their nocturnal searching for food, but this night there are no other hikers from which to gain sustenance with a trifle stolen from their pack. My own food is outside the shelter, back near my hammock, and they will not find it before the sun and daylight makes them less frisky.

I sit on the edge of the shelter floor and listen into the darkness. The woods are much quieter than in mid summer, but I can still hear the occasional night creature as it creates a rustling scurry in the dry leaves.

A great horned owl calls from across a ravine. Hearing no answer, I do my best to imitate his call. It must not be good enough, because he does not come closer. Instead he calls out again and again, probably laughing under his breath at the sound of the city-slicker, pseudo owl that has wandered into his forest.

Back near my hammock, I pull the Native American flute from the side pouch of my pack. Settling my back against a chilly rock, a low and mournful song emerges from my mind and is transmitted through my fingers and the flute into the night vapors. My breath propels the rising melody arrhythmically through the naked branches and toward the moon.

I feel one with the woods, my spirit feasting in this October forest, bathed by the hunter’s light. For an hour I sit suspended between earth and sky, looking over the valley of mortals entombed in their square plastic boxes, fitfully sleeping their way through the night.

Finally, refreshed by my spiritual night walk, I lean back in my hammock, pull the quilt over my chilled shoulders, and in my rocking bed, I fall asleep.

Much of my experience in the woods is mental and spiritual. The more time and experience I have in the forest, the less it feels like wilderness and the more it feels like home.

[flyfisher]

Yeah Doc.Years ago some guy slammed a hatchet into a woman's skull killing her then threw her body over the cliff behind the shelter.

LW,

Any details (time of year, weather, what year, etc. not anatomy)

[Alligator]

I had not heard of the murders at Vandeventner nor at Wapati before I passed them, and there were no howls from the Lone Wolf the night I passed through Damascus. While there may be rumors of debauchery at the house of Baltimore Jack, spare me the tales before I pass.

I did stay at the Vanderventer shelter, with one other solo hiker. I was a little creeped out because I had to walk so far to get water and had forgotten my headlamp. The trail to water is so steep, that I felt should I fall in the dark, no one will be able to come help me too soon, as the other hiker had forgone getting water. But I made it back ok.

At Wapati, I arrived there in the mid-afternoon on a crisp November day. I remember coming into the shelter area and taking a break alone. There was an incredible stillness in the area. I wouldn't say it was creepy, but I do remember this shelter much better than others I have stopped in for a break. After close to an hour, my hiking partner showed up. He was having a rough time, as he hadn't backpacked in many years, was overburdened, and was about 20 years older than me. (In fact, I think I almost killed him the previous day by taking him up Angel's Rest(?), sobo out of Pearsisburg LOL). He wanted to stay there, but I convinced him to do a few more miles that day, as I didn't want to leave a long day for the car pickup. Maybe it was for the better?

[Skyline]

The spirits of Vanderventer died in May 1997. It was a night I was tenting nearby and "Amtrak" was staying in the shelter. He snored him/her/it to death. No one's been bothered since.

[BooBoo]

Antietam Creek Shelter was really spooky. The Shelter is just down stream from Antietam Battlefield. It was really spooky to think about that creek running red with blood. I sat there staring at the stream thinking about the thousonds of men that were killed just a short distance away.

[Lion King]

Quarry Gap because of someone hidding in the woods and throwing stuff at the shelter all night while I was there alone...I got up, picked up a chunk of my stove and went all Crazy on them and was like "All right Mother F)#@ ! You want someting...I'll crack your friggin skull you SOB!"" I actually moved quickly toward the privy up to the right and into the woods in the dark, ready to seriously go with whomever was doing this. You know the loud crazy talk people do when they are a little nerve wracked by crazy people behind the shelter. I heard running once I did that, and the next day Innkeeper told me that ...well...a certian trail persona was in the area and had been acting odd to people in that shelter earlier in the day. I didnt know or care, but I was ready to kick some ass.

Then the section right after Pine Grove furnance...got the deepest bonechilling fright in 1998...didnt know the full story of that area, but I felt a dark and scary presence for sure...my adrenaline kicked into over drive, and it was the middle of the day, and a pretty day at that...just scary...hair on the neck kind of stuff.

The the shelter right before Killington where the old dirt road is...all three of these areas I was alone at, which I generally dont mind, but there was something in the air, and I night hiked out of there toward The Shelter at the base of Killington.

[Sleepy the Arab]

Unaka Mountain. There is just something about it that chills me. Naturally, I try and turn it back to something natural by dropping trou whenever I pass through.

[Moose2001]

Sleepy - you mean that really dense pine grove on Unaka? I thought it was only me that got the creeps in that spot.

[CHAD BEAVER]

BLOOD MOUNTAIN i had the pleasure of a solo night w/lightning storm in april 04no indians present but the thought of a battle amongst all those huge rocks creeped me out

[The Weasel]

Sitting on the 'shelf' on the outside of Overmountain, all alone, watching the rain, and seeing the clouds curling, surf-like as they silently blew over the mountain, I could feel spirits of the "Overmountain Men" marching down the Overmountain Trail to meet the British. I'm not being poetic here, folks. They were there.

The Weasel

[celt]

Mizpah Hut, NH (built in 1964) is haunted by a little girl named Betsy who got lost and was found frozen not far away. Her body was put in a body bag ...

The Mizpah library has the issue of Appalachia from 1971 with this story in it. The croo at Pah sometimes brings this story to life during evening programs complete with a croo member lurking in the dark corners of the basement wearing Betsy's old dress!?

Elsewhere on the AT... I'm glad I didn't know the history of the old Thema Marks Shelter in Pennsylvania the night I spents alone there. Another murder shelter.

[Nightwalker]

BLOOD MOUNTAIN i had the pleasure of a solo night w/lightning storm in april 04no indians present but the thought of a battle amongst all those huge rocks creeped me out
Yeah, Blood Mountain shelter in the moonlight is kinda freaky looking, isn't it?

[Tractor]

I got a creepy feeling at the spring at Wise Shelter, daylight, not late at all. Then i wandered into the old grave site about dusk. Very unexpected. I couldn't help but feel like I was not alone. Not in danger, just not alone....... Did finally get to sleep though. Had same feeling as I left the next morning.

[Skyline]

I thought Cooper Lodge in Vermont would make a good set for a Night of the Living Dead sequel.

And to call this a Lodge? Makes as much sense as calling Tom Floyd (just north of SNP) a "Wayside." Both bring visions of hot food and cold beer and even colder ice cream, but neither deliver.

[Mountain Dew]

I last stayed on the top of Unaka Mountain in october. I wanted to stay there after missing the chance on my 2003 thru. Something felt odd up there that night. Sure it was very cloudy and overcast, but twice in the middle of the night I felt like I was being watched. Once while I was drifting off I swore that I felt something brush against my tent. :eek:

[weary]

I found this a fascinating thread. But I'm going to try desperately to forget the names of all the shelters mentioned before I try another long distance hike on the AT.

Weary

[flyfisher]

Yeah Doc.Years ago some guy slammed a hatchet into a woman's skull killing her then threw her body over the cliff behind the shelter.
Found it:

April 1975—Thru-hiker Janice Balza, 22, of Madison, Wisconsin, was killed by a hatchet wielded by hiker/tree surgeon Paul Bigley, 51, after breakfast at a shelter in northeast Tennessee. He died in state prison in Nashville. He killed her for her pack, a brand he coveted, testimony revealed.

From the ATC web pages

[Mountain Dew]

A "tree surgeon" ? :-?

[SavageLlama]

Ice Gulch in CT.

It's actually not scary but the description of it in my guidebook was hilarious.. something like, "The sheer drop into the sublime and eerie gulch will strike terror in the hearts of hikers." It went on and on..

Wish I still had that guidebook. Best piece of creative writing I've ever read. :D

[flyfisher]

A "tree surgeon" ? :-?


tree surgeon

n : a specialist in treating damaged trees [syn: arborist]


:D

As I retired "flight surgeon" I am used to all the looks and questions... "So, when do you need to do surgery in an airplane?" etc.

[bobgessner57]

I spent the night with the dude a couple of days before he went off. The guy stood out as a colorful character, great storyteller. He had an old canvas rucksack and a bunch of stuff like a wood and canvas camp stool, his hatchet, and other heavy stuff. He looked like the Hollywood stereotype of a grizzled prospector from goldrush days. He said he had been out west trying to find the Lost Dutchman gold mine. He was real nice to me and shared a big wad of peanut butter candy he had made. I believe that was at Abingdon Gap or Iron Mtn shelter. He was heading south and I was running low on food nobo to Damascus. I was spooked when I found out what he had done so soon after just the two of us had shared a shelter. Things you don't tell your mama, especially when you are 17 and hiking solo.

[rickb]

Some years ago there was so many problems with paranormal activity around Dudley Town, CT that they had to reroute the AT. The locals now maintain a rather strict security perimiter to keep everyone safe, but the old trails in still exist.

http://www.ghostvillage.com/legends/dudleytown.htm

[oldfivetango]

Found it:

April 1975—Thru-hiker Janice Balza, 22, of Madison, Wisconsin, was killed by a hatchet wielded by hiker/tree surgeon Paul Bigley, 51, after breakfast at a shelter in northeast Tennessee. He died in state prison in Nashville. He killed her for her pack, a brand he coveted, testimony revealed.

From the ATC web pages Are there anytother details on this one?I read about it either on the ATC
site or a link to that site.All it indicates is that he wanted her pack.
I wonder if he had any kind of past history in mental illnes or what and whether or not she was hiking alone?
Oldfivetang

[Mouse]

What gives me the creeps? Any Privy that is heaped above the seat! :dance

[One Leg]

Are there anytother details on this one?I read about it either on the ATC
site or a link to that site.All it indicates is that he wanted her pack.
I wonder if he had any kind of past history in mental illnes or what and whether or not she was hiking alone?
Oldfivetang

Google Search revealed the following:

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~balzarm/janice_k_balza_story.htm
Rites Set For Victim Of Slaying
Green Bay Sentinel

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Green Bay, Wis. - Private services will be held in the Malcore Funeral Home here Tuesday night for hatchet murder victim Janice K. Balza, 22 of Green Bay.
Her body was returned here from Tennessee.

Paul W. Bigley, 51, of Tucson, Ariz., charged with first degree murder in the slaying is scheduled to appear in Carter County (Tennessee) Court for a preliminary hearing Friday. he is in custody at Elizabethan, Tenn., in lieu of $10,000 Bond.

Tennessee authorities said that Bigley surrendered to the Carter County sheriff Saturday and allegedly confessed that he killed Miss Balza with a hatchet early last week as she sat near his campfire at a shelter on the Appalachian Trail near Elizabethan. Authorities said he gave no motive for the slaying.

Miss Balza who was graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Nursing in January had been hiking on the trail since late February, authorities said.


Other murders along the trail:

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1996/vp960605/06050359.htm


THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606050359
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
LENGTH: 134 lines


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APPALACHIAN TRAIL'S NEW OBSTACLE - FEAR
You meet a hardy lot along the Appalachian Trail, some of whom are intent on braving all the perils of 2,159 miles of woods and mountains on a hike from Maine to Georgia.

But the slayings of two women - both accomplished backpackers and campers - just off the trail in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park has shaken people who sought peace and challenge in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

``I'm definitely going to be looking over my shoulder on this hike,'' said Cindy Clymer, 42, of Charlotte, who was hiking with her husband and their 21-month-old son near Dark Hollow Falls off the scenic Skyline Drive. ``I don't know who's going to get me out there.''

Park rangers found the bodies of Julianne Williams, 24, of St. Cloud, Minn., and Lollie Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine, Saturday in a backcountry campsite off a side trail within three miles of the popular Skyland Lodge.

Autopsies revealed that the women died after their throats were cut, but investigators refused to say whether they had been sexually assaulted. A golden retriever named Taj, which had been with the women on the trail, was found unharmed in the woods nearby.

Knowledgeable hikers said it's important to keep the murders in perspective.

The Appalachian Trail Conference, an organization based in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., that maintains and manages the trail, says4 million people visit or hike the trail each year, yet there have been only nine murders on or near it in 22 years.

``There is an expectation sometimes that the trail is a sanctuary from the creeps of the world, and it's not,'' said Brian King, a spokesman for the group.

``People should always keep their street smarts with them,'' King said. ``I think if people take normal precautions about strangers, that will serve them well.''

The enormously popular trail draws hikers from all over the Eastern seaboard, including Hampton Roads.

``We have a very, very active hiking community here,'' said Lillie Gilbert, owner of Wild River Outfitters, an outdoor-supply store in Virginia Beach.

Local hikers are ``extremely concerned'' about the murders, she said.

One of her employees, Kenny Harrah, is on the trail now. He set out from southwestern Virginia in early May, bound for the trail's northern end at Mount Katahdin, Maine.

Harrah telephoned Gilbert on Tuesday from northern Pennsylvania. He hadn't heard about the murders in Virginia.

But ``he said it would not change his attitude about hiking the trail,'' Gilbert said. She said Harrah told her: ``You've always got to be careful, stay alert and be aware of what's around you.''

Reese Lukei, past president of the Tidewater Appalachian Trail Club, said violence on the trail attracts disproportionate attention because it is so unusual.

``The reason, I guess, it gets so much attention is that it's the last place in the world you'd ever expect something like this to happen,'' he said.

Both victims were trained wilderness camping and hiking guides.

``They wanted to help other people learn to be in the outdoors,'' said Peggy Willens, spokeswoman for Woodswomen, a Minneapolis, Minn.-based adventure-travel vacation organization for women.

The women worked as interns for the group last summer, leading outdoor programs in Minnesota.

``They were both very experienced outdoorswomen,'' Willens said.

Cindy Clymer was so frightened and angry about the slayings that she and her husband decided not to camp in the Shenandoah National Park on Tuesday night.

``That person could still be lurking around,'' Clymer said.

Porter Teejarden, 23, of Providence, R.I., and two of her girlfriends thought twice about continuing their hike in Virginia when they heard about the slayings.

``For women it's real depressing because men don't have to worry about this half as much,'' Teejarden said.

Park officials and trail organizations already have begun receiving calls from people worried about loved ones on the trail.

``I've gotten calls mostly from parents who are nervous. This morning I got a call from a man in Vermont who was very worried about his 18-year-old daughter, who is hiking the trail alone,'' said Wilson Riley, director of administration of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club.

Nobody has canceled reservations for primitive cabins the club maintains along the trail, but hikers are much more safety-conscious, Riley said.

``People are asking us, `What should we do,' and we tell them to take whatever precautions they feel are necessary,'' Riley said. ``You are alone and out of sight of others and if someone has criminal intent, there's really no one around to witness it.''

Murder usually comes in pairs along the Appalachian Trail. Of the nine people killed on or near the trail since 1974, all but three died in double slayings, according to the Appalachian Trail Conference. In another case, two women were attacked but one survived.

In 1990, hikers were warned to stay off the trail in Pennsylvania after a young couple ``through-hiking'' - walking the trail's entire length - were slain in a mountaintop shelter in Perry County, Pa. Paul David Crews of LaRue, S.C., is awaiting execution in Pennsylvania for those killings.

Two years before, a man frightened two women off the trail and shot them in Michaux State Forest in south-central Pennsylvania. One woman died.

Stephen Roy Carr was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the shootings.

In May 1981, a man and woman through-hiking from Maine to Georgia were killed in a remote lean-to near Pearisburg, Va. Randall Lee Smith, who pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the deaths, is due for mandatory release from a Virginia prison in September.

A Wisconsin woman hiking the trail was hacked to death by a hatchet-wielding man at a Tennessee shelter in April 1975; her attacker died in prison. A 26-year-old man was killed at a shelter in Georgia in May 1974.

The ``A.T.'' occasionally has presented other perils. In 1990, through-hikers were warned not to camp along a 14-mile stretch of the footpath in Tennessee after fish-hook booby traps appeared there, apparently the work of local landowners embroiled in a dispute with the federal government. A trail shelter was burned to the ground along the same stretch of trail that summer.

Last year, there were 15 homicides in national parks, which cover 83 million acres, said National Park Service spokeswoman Anita Clevenger. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by staff writer Bill Sizemore

and The Associated Press. ILLUSTRATION: Autopsies revealed that hikers Julianne Williams,

left, and Lollie Winans died after their throats were cut.

MURDERS ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL

The trail stretches 2,159 miles from Maine to Georgia.

May 1974: Joel Polsom, 26, killed.

April 1975: Janice Balza, 22, killed in a Tennessee shelter.

May 1981: Susan Ramsey, 27, and Robert Mountford, 27, killed in a

remote lean-to.

May 1988: Rebecca Wight, 29, of Blacksburg, Va., frightened off

trail and shot.

Sept. 1990: Molly LaRue, 25, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, and

Geoffrey Hood, 26, shot

May 1996: Julianne Williams, 24, of St. Cloud, Minn., and Lollie

Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine, killed at a campsite off a side trail.

Assailant(s) unknown.

Source: Appalachian Trail Conference

KEYWORDS: MURDER APPALACHIAN TRAIL

[Nightwalker]

What gives me the creeps? Any Privy that is heaped above the seat! :dance
Thanks for the wonderful picture, Mouse. :D

[Rift Zone]

In truth, the creepiest place I encountered was Uncle Johnny's in Erwin, TN. Holy Shat! You say one wrong word and you are in the middle of the freakin twilight zone! Freak! UJ You are a fuken freak!

[steve hiker]

In truth, the creepiest place I encountered was Uncle Johnny's in Erwin, TN. Holy Shat! You say one wrong word and you are in the middle of the freakin twilight zone! Freak! UJ You are a fuken freak!
You mean like political comments? What sets him off? Give some examples.

[Lucy Lulu]

Well, I was going to refer family and friends to this site for more information. With my luck this would be the first thread they check out. I leave in 23 days, and certainly don't want to scare them to death!

Mayfly

[zephyr1034]

The "blair witch house" in VA ( the place with the handprints on the walls)============================================ =================

Maryland, not Virginia. The Crampton Gap Shelter is roughly a half mile north of Gathland State Park. The road through the state park goes to Burkittsville in about a mile. That's where the cemetery is. However, the rest of the movie was filmed in Montgomery and Baltimore Counties, Maryland. Even so, those woods around the shelter seemed eerie when I took a quick hike there a couple of Novembers ago.

I haven't heard anything about Dudleytown CT in a long time. I thought the trail had been rerouted along the Housitanic River because it was a better location. At that time, the old AT through Dudleytown became a blue blaze. Then it was closed and placed off limits. Does anyone know Dudleytown's status now?

[A-Train]

================================================== ===========

Maryland, not Virginia. The Crampton Gap Shelter is roughly a half mile north of Gathland State Park. The road through the state park goes to Burkittsville in about a mile. That's where the cemetery is. However, the rest of the movie was filmed in Montgomery and Baltimore Counties, Maryland. Even so, those woods around the shelter seemed eerie when I took a quick hike there a couple of Novembers ago.

I haven't heard anything about Dudleytown CT in a long time. I thought the trail had been rerouted along the Housitanic River because it was a better location. At that time, the old AT through Dudleytown became a blue blaze. Then it was closed and placed off limits. Does anyone know Dudleytown's status now?

No, Cutman is correct. Two different places. He is refering to the Sarver Cabin in Virginia where the hand prints are. But there are handprints in the cabin in Blair Witch, which took places in Burkittsville, a couple miles from the AT.

[DMA, 2000]

My first night on the trail gave me a few creeps. I was staying at Stover Creek Shelter in a massive rain and thunder storm. I wasn't sleeping well, from the noise of the thunder and the early bedtime. Somehow, I started letting my imagination get going, and I really didn't want to sit up and look outside the shelter. I became convinced that in a flash of lightning I'd see someone sitting on the picnic table, grinning at me, and then he'd be gone at the next flash of lightning.

A few days later, I had a hard hot day ended with my fighting my way up Blood Mountain. Right as I approached the summit, the sun started to slip away, and it was almost instantly gloomy and cold. I shouted, "Anyone here?" towards the shelter, but my voice seemed to go nowhere. I don't know why, but the place really gave me the willies. I was pretty happy when a couple of other thru-hikers showed up a little bit later, and then a few day-hikers showed up for dinner. Of course there was a reason to be afraid at Blood Mountain shelter: that damn skunk terrorized us all night.

[Chantilly Lace]

While on a day hike on the NY AT last fall I stopped in at RPH Shelter (section 6). It was a three sided cinder bunker located at a trail crossing at Hortontown Rd. It appeared to be a place for local yokels to hang out at. Inside there were religious things and items that appeared to be used in conjuction with drug use. Fortunately I was not expecting to stay the night for my intuition told me it was not at all safe. I wouldn't stay there if there were security guards!
Pokemom

[cutman11]

Yes, I most definitely was referring to the place in VA, since I havent hiked north of the Shenandoah NP yet.....or maybe I was transported there by aliens on that foggy day on the trail last year when I walked past the house with the handprints........

[Panama Red]

just hope L.Wolf and BJ dont get too mad at me :)
i thought about the poll when i read the post on the 'murders on the AT' and reflected back to when i did pass Wapiti...i remember thinking how wrong murder is on the trail, thinking it belongs in big cities and the real world, but in so many ways the trail is even more real world isnt it?
i personally don't think murders belong anywhere

[MedicineMan]

but that doesnt mean i'm not looking for the possibility everywhere, just part of being prepared


I'm sure MedicineMan doesn't think it BELONGS anywhere in society. I think what he's saying is you expect it in big cities.

[MedicineMan]

just before Blood Mtn thinking of all the Indians who died in that battle and three weeks ago when I walked the battlefield at Shiloh, unimaginable a place like the Hornet's Nest...


Antietam Creek Shelter was really spooky. The Shelter is just down stream from Antietam Battlefield. It was really spooky to think about that creek running red with blood. I sat there staring at the stream thinking about the thousonds of men that were killed just a short distance away.

[MedicineMan]

is known locally as a place where Satanists gather to practice their craft...



Unaka Mountain. There is just something about it that chills me. Naturally, I try and turn it back to something natural by dropping trou whenever I pass through.

[MedicineMan]

walking in footsteps is always on my mind when i walk the AT...like Smith Roach Gap and the number of times Stonewall J. passed there, sometimes i picture them too and catch my breath.


Sitting on the 'shelf' on the outside of Overmountain, all alone, watching the rain, and seeing the clouds curling, surf-like as they silently blew over the mountain, I could feel spirits of the "Overmountain Men" marching down the Overmountain Trail to meet the British. I'm not being poetic here, folks. They were there.

The Weasel

[RITBlake]

Some years ago there was so many problems with paranormal activity around Dudley Town, CT that they had to reroute the AT. The locals now maintain a rather strict security perimiter to keep everyone safe, but the old trails in still exist.

http://www.ghostvillage.com/legends/dudleytown.htm
Dudley Town is NO joke. I've been there once and it was the strangest/creepiest I've ever felt. Hair on the neck, heart pumping, feeling somethig/someone next to you, putting there hands on you etc... If you have any interest in this type of thing Dudley Town is a must see. They will tow your car 24 hours a day and it is now located on private property so you have to walk a ways to go in. I'm not condoning this but ya know...Make sure you bring a camera, the results are always ...... interesting?

[saimyoji]

Do you have photos to share?

[RITBlake]

Do you have photos to share?
They're at home, im up at school but It doesn't take much time digging around on google to find some pictures of Dudley. Strange things seem to appear when you develop your film. I'm not a skeptic or a believer, just curious I guess.-

[littlejon]

The creepiest place I've ever hiked is Buzzard's Den Ridge, which is a spur trail off the old Iron Mtn trail north of Damascus.
A few years ago I was hiking it from the Widener's Valley side, and from the start the whole experience was surreal....
To get to the trail head you have to hike a short distance up a dirt road from the highway. Until you get to the actual trail it's private property on both sides of the road, so I wasn't suprised to see "No Trespassing" signs nailed on the trees. I was, however, very suprised when I began to to see DEAD ANIMALS nailed to the trees!
( A fairly fresh groundhog, a deer's head, and various decomposed bits)
"**** it!" I thought, "just the local 'billies trying to freak out the hikers" , so I continued....
Now this road dead ends at a unpaved parking area that is unquestionably on NPS land, so I was further suprised to see an old fashioned truck bed camper set up in what was obviously a permanent arrangement with a well used firepit, trashpile, tools etc around it. ***?
Within a few moments an old geezer with a Yankee accent appears out of the brush with a bottle of liqour in his hand, friendly as hell, "How ya doing? Wanted to make sure ya wasn't one of them"
One one of them? To this day, I regret not asking.
Anyway, I spent a few minutes talking to the old coot, long enough to find out that his "house" was exactly 4 feet outside the NFS boundary. (he had it lined out with stones, and was very proud of his cleverness, and made a point of urinating on the NSF side) I also found out that he barricaded himself inside the camper after dark, because there were "things" in the woods.
When I asked about the dead animals, he just made some vague comment about "people just do that sometimes"
I was starting to feel like I'd wandered into an episode of X-Files or worse, so I hit the trail with no further delay.
Now it's important to stress here that I'm neither particulary impressionable nor timid. I've solo hiked for years with never a qualm. I've also lived on the street in Atlanta, which is a lot more dangerous than anything you might encounter in the woods. And, in this occasion, I happened to be armed with a .410 shotgun. (I know it's not PC...)
So I had no real reason to be nervous, but as I began the climb up Buzzard's Den, I couldn't shake the feeling that i was being watched.
Then I started smelling something funky, somewhere between feet and rotting garbage. The smell would come and go, and was almost overpowering at times. I couldn't figure where the hell it was coming from, and I can tell you, I was putting one foot in front of the other right smartly before long!
I had crested the first steep grade, and was just congratulating myself on losing the "smell", when the FEAR struck.
Totally irrational, but suddenly I just had certain knowledge that if I went any further right then something totally ****ed up was going to happen. So there I was, afraid to proceed, damn sure not about to go back.
So I sat by the trail for a while, chainsmoking and clutching my shotgun. The feeling intensified until I was almost hyperventilating.
Then it stopped.
Period. Like someone had thrown a switch. Everything was cool.
So I shouldered my pack and proceeded to the Sandy Flats shelter on the I.M., and passed a restful and untroubled night.
Again, I'm neither timid nor prone to delusion, but that whole experience still has me shaking my head. Was it really something? If so, what? Was it temporary insanity? Acid flashback? Paranormal experience, or self-induced mind****?
I guess I'll never know......

[rafe]

Blood Mountain shelter... or any shelter built entirely of stone. Yechh.

[WILLIAM HAYES]

Unaka Mountain as noted in a couple of other posts gave me an especially uncomfortable feeling late one evening going through the section with the thick pine trees. Hillbilly

[adamkrz]

The Mohawk trail now passes where Dudleytown once was, It's a nice trail that starts at Cornwall bridge and ends at Falls Village if going north, The A.T. was moved from there after a hurricane in the 80's for a more direct route.

[buff_jeff]

================================================== ===========

Maryland, not Virginia. The Crampton Gap Shelter is roughly a half mile north of Gathland State Park. The road through the state park goes to Burkittsville in about a mile. That's where the cemetery is. However, the rest of the movie was filmed in Montgomery and Baltimore Counties, Maryland. Even so, those woods around the shelter seemed eerie when I took a quick hike there a couple of Novembers ago.

I haven't heard anything about Dudleytown CT in a long time. I thought the trail had been rerouted along the Housitanic River because it was a better location. At that time, the old AT through Dudleytown became a blue blaze. Then it was closed and placed off limits. Does anyone know Dudleytown's status now?

Oh, jesus, I'm going to be there tomorrow. Ah, damnit...

[dessertrat]

Crampton Gap is kind of dank and unwelcoming, now that you mention it. And although I like most of the Barren-Chairback range in Maine, I have to say that Chairback Gap shelter up there gives me the creeps. Just a bad vibe generally.

[CaseyB]

Buzzard Den? I ride there from time to time, never seen anything creepy. It is over on the deserted side of the mtn., lots o' critter tracks, scat. Please tell me that by a few years ago you meant 20;). I won't be out there alone anytime soon.
What will probably happen is I will forget all about anything littlejon said until I'm halfway in the middle of BFBuzzarden.:D

[buff_jeff]

Crampton Gap is kind of dank and unwelcoming, now that you mention it. And although I like most of the Barren-Chairback range in Maine, I have to say that Chairback Gap shelter up there gives me the creeps. Just a bad vibe generally.

Looks like I'm going to avoid this shelter. Anyone know if Maryland is pretty crowded during this time of year?

[dessertrat]

Looks like I'm going to avoid this shelter. Anyone know if Maryland is pretty crowded during this time of year?

I haven't tried the trail in Maryland this time of year, but I will say this-- if you want to stay in a shelter, try to time it so that you get to Ed Garvey Shelter rather than Crampton at nightfall. Ed Garvey has a better view and is much nicer generally. The only drawback is that the water is a long ways down the hill. But then Crampton is usually dry anyway, and you'll end up getting water at Gathland. (And if you are going through Gathland toward Crampton, stock up. It will most likely have no water there).

[buff_jeff]

I haven't tried the trail in Maryland this time of year, but I will say this-- if you want to stay in a shelter, try to time it so that you get to Ed Garvey Shelter rather than Crampton at nightfall. Ed Garvey has a better view and is much nicer generally. The only drawback is that the water is a long ways down the hill. But then Crampton is usually dry anyway, and you'll end up getting water at Gathland. (And if you are going through Gathland toward Crampton, stock up. It will most likely have no water there).

Thanks, I actually just got the maps out and re-planned it that way. I'm not going to be able to start hiking until 1 or 2 in the afternoon, so making it to Crampton probably isn't feasible anyway. All I've heard is that Maryland is the easiest trail on the entire AT, so I should be able to finish by Monday without hitting Crampon tomorrow.

[dessertrat]

Thanks, I actually just got the maps out and re-planned it that way. I'm not going to be able to start hiking until 1 or 2 in the afternoon, so making it to Crampton probably isn't feasible anyway. All I've heard is that Maryland is the easiest trail on the entire AT, so I should be able to finish by Monday without hitting Crampon tomorrow.

A couple of things to bear in mind, also: water is scarce this time of year, but there are vending machines (!) at Washington Monument Park where you can buy bottled water if the situation gets dire (so make sure you have some change or one dollar bills), and there are also machines at Gathland, nearby which there is a public water fountain (about 10 yards from the vending machines, easy to overlook if you don't know it's there).

The water is also shut off at most of the state facilities, including Dahlgren campground.

[Doctari]

Birch Gap shelter (the first shelter in GSMNP for NOBOS) now fortunatly torn down. It just felt WRONG to be there. I wasn't planning on staying, just stopped for water, but I peeked inside "Just because" & felt dirty for the next 3 hrs.

[rafe]

Birch Gap shelter (the first shelter in GSMNP for NOBOS) now fortunatly torn down. It just felt WRONG to be there. I wasn't planning on staying, just stopped for water, but I peeked inside "Just because" & felt dirty for the next 3 hrs.

Always was a ratty shelter. Bryson's account is dead-on.

[Summit]

Everywhere I camp on the trail, tent or shelter . . . it's those creepy barking wood spiders! :D

[ki0eh]

Antietam Creek Shelter was really spooky. The Shelter is just down stream from Antietam Battlefield. It was really spooky to think about that creek running red with blood. I sat there staring at the stream thinking about the thousonds of men that were killed just a short distance away.

If it helps someone's next stay there, Antietam Creek Shelter is actually well UPstream from the battlefield, not even in the same state!

I'm surprised no one mentioned the old (now removed) Thelma Marks Shelter, formerly located just south of Duncannon, in the years of this particular thread. It had knife mark holes in the interior walls that I imagined (not sure if rightly) were from the thru-hiker murders.

[Blissful]

The two places that I did not like was the area of the old Thelma Marks shelter and the place where the 2 hikers were killed some years back. The forest was gloomy, eerie, and it didn't help that the trees were defoliated from gypsy moths.

Another was the Gov Clemont shelter where I stopped for lunch.

[Sly]

The so-called "Hikers Paradise" in Gorham gives me the creeps. Rude friggin people.

I thought Bruno and MaryAnn were great, you just have to get to know them.


There was a double murder at Wapiti. The bodies were in a shallow grave close to the shelter.

I left the shelter area and within a mile or so some dude was approaching from the opposite direction was dressed like Daniel Boone, long rifle and all. Freaked me out.

[Appalachian Tater]

The monument to Ottie Cline Powell freaks me out a little bit. How did that little kid get up there? How did he die? How afraid must he have been?

THIS IS THE EXACT SPOT.
LITTLE OTTIE CLINE POWELL'S
BODY WAS FOUND APRIL 5, 1891, AFTER
STRAYING FROM TOWER HILL SCHOOL HOUSE
NOV. 9, A DISTANCE OF 7 MILES.
AGE 4 YEARS 11 MONTHS.

[dessertrat]

Where is that, Tater?

[Bigglesworth]

Looks like I'm going to avoid this shelter. Anyone know if Maryland is pretty crowded during this time of year?

Just hiked from Washington Monument Park through Harpers Ferry earlier this week and only passed by about a half dozen people. Crampton Gap did have water running fine - and didn't seem too creepy to me, but just stopped for lunch. Be aware that Rocky Run Shelter is being rennovated (new shelter being built) and not currently usable.

[Appalachian Tater]

Where is that, Tater?

Bluff Mountain in Virginia. I am a little creeped out right now just thinking about it.

http://www.jcpinkerton.com/people/ottie.html

[dessertrat]

Yes, that's really sad. When I was growing up in Maine, a classmate of mine in elementary school lost her little brother up north in Maine while on a camping trip. There was a search involving hundreds if not thousands of people, and lasting for weeks. They finally gave up.

He was never found-- it is not known whether he was abducted or got lost.

[rafe]

Yes, that's really sad. When I was growing up in Maine, a classmate of mine in elementary school lost her little brother up north in Maine while on a camping trip. There was a search involving hundreds if not thousands of people, and lasting for weeks. They finally gave up.

I remember worrying about this kinda thing while hiking with my nephew in Maine. He was 16 or so. I didn't want to be too mother-hen-ish by requiring that he stay within sight at all times. OTOH, I'm sure my sister would have been seriously pissed if I'd lost him. :D

[dessertrat]

The child I am thinking of was about 4 years old, I think, so obviously a different situation. Also, we were all about 8 years old, so I guess I shouldn't say she lost him, specifically-- he wandered off when nobody was watching and was never seen again.

[CrumbSnatcher]

just hope L.Wolf and BJ dont get too mad at me :)
i thought about the poll when i read the post on the 'murders on the AT' and reflected back to when i did pass Wapiti...i remember thinking how wrong murder is on the trail, thinking it belongs in big cities and the real world, but in so many ways the trail is even more real world isnt it?
i'm pretty sure murder is frowned upon every,not just on the trail.

[Bare Bear]

Hey quit picking on Baltimore Jack. He is not dangerous unless he is cooking then it is just the spices that will get you. :)

[CrumbSnatcher]

Started this poll after passing by the Wapiti Shelter and years ago when passing the Vandeventer Shelter.
Do they give you an eerie feeling?
Any other places of 'ill-repute' on the trail you can think of?
the water fountain at the highpoint state park headqtrs.

[Undershaft]

I felt creeped out a few times in southern Penn. When I crossed into PA from MD everything just started feeling kinda weird. I don't know how to explain it, everything just felt strange. I didn't see any other hikers on the trail for like three full days. The only people I met on the trail were rangers looking for a missing woman. I met them as I was crossing Dead Woman Hollow road, which added to the overall creepiness of the area. I also got creeped out in the woods just south of Limestone Spring lean-to in CT. I was hanging with 2 thru's at an overlook and then set out alone to hike to the lean-to. I started walking along the ridgeline and the woods seemed to get really dark and cool and claustraphobic. A very unsettling place. Come to think of it, Riga mtn. was like that too. I saw hikers every night in CT except the nite I spent at Riga. Kinda weird.

[minnesotasmith]

19E (with the pickup loads of trash dumped on the trail at road crossings).
Elmer's.
A recently-burnt long side trail in VA.
The GA shelter I saw Eric Rudolph's name carved into in 2005 (since removed)
Duckett main house den.
Any campsite with some "hoods in the woods".
The large narco/ex-con self-help group at Overmountain shelter.
A couple of long-abandoned shelters I ran across by taking wrong turns.

[buff_jeff]

Just hiked from Washington Monument Park through Harpers Ferry earlier this week and only passed by about a half dozen people. Crampton Gap did have water running fine - and didn't seem too creepy to me, but just stopped for lunch. Be aware that Rocky Run Shelter is being rennovated (new shelter being built) and not currently usable.


I just got back on Monday from doing Maryland. Really nice state overall, actually. I was quite surprised. I didn't get to take my time and start out with a shorter mileage day into Ed Garvey or Crampton, though, because my train got into Harpers Ferry late on Saturday and I got caught in that nasty (but real brief) storm so I turned back. The one night I was out, I camped at the Pine Knob Shelter

[buff_jeff]

19E (with the pickup loads of trash dumped on the trail at road crossings).
Elmer's.
A recently-burnt long side trail in VA.
The GA shelter I saw Eric Rudolph's name carved into in 2005 (since removed)
Duckett main house den.
Any campsite with some "hoods in the woods".
The large narco/ex-con self-help group at Overmountain shelter.
A couple of long-abandoned shelters I ran across by taking wrong turns.


Yeah, this weekend I was out and there were 3 or 4 guys at the Pine Knob Shelter that were a little weird. I mean, they were nice overall, showed me a solid campsite and all...but they had a ton of brews back there and there was a Philly Blunts package in the fire pit. They wanted me to watch a movie in the one tent with them. :-?

[Flush2wice]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Beauty Spot. Probly more nastiness there than anywhere else on the trail.

[aficion]

Ottie haunts Punchbowl shelter. Recent suicide reported there. Spooky and very loud at night with the bullfrogs croaking.

[John B]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Beauty Spot. Probly more nastiness there than anywhere else on the trail.

Nastiness in terms of trash? When I hiked through, it looked OK.

I'll agree with M.Smith -- 19E was a trash dump.

[Flush2wice]

Nastiness in terms of trash? When I hiked through, it looked OK.

I'll agree with M.Smith -- 19E was a trash dump.
Nastiness in terms of murders and rapes.

[earlyriser26]

Vandeventer shelter creeped me out when I made the mistake of agreeing to get water during a lunch break. I know there are water sources that are farther away at some shelters, but this one is a half mile straight down hill.

[Doughnut]

What gives me the creeps? Any Privy that is heaped above the seat! :dance

Hey Mouse, I just finished your book,

I sincerely hope you are living on a berry farm now!

Doughnut

[rafe]

Vandeventer shelter creeped me out when I made the mistake of agreeing to get water during a lunch break. I know there are water sources that are farther away at some shelters, but this one is a half mile straight down hill.

You haven't hiked PA yet, I take it... :rolleyes:

[Lone Wolf]

Vandeventer shelter creeped me out

there was a gal murdered there back in the 70s

[rafe]

That area around (but mostly just north of) Rte. 19E has been a problem since... forever. Apparently lots of bad blood between the locals and the trail (and/or the "trail community.") Story I heard was that the ATC used eminent domain here in a way that seriously pissed off the landowners.

[Lone Wolf]

That area around (but mostly just north of) Rte. 19E has been a problem since... forever. Apparently lots of bad blood between the locals and the trail (and/or the "trail community.") Story I heard was that the ATC used eminent domain here in a way that seriously pissed off the landowners.

this is true

[dessertrat]

Yeah, this weekend I was out and there were 3 or 4 guys at the Pine Knob Shelter that were a little weird. I mean, they were nice overall, showed me a solid campsite and all...but they had a ton of brews back there and there was a Philly Blunts package in the fire pit. They wanted me to watch a movie in the one tent with them. :-?

It's too close to the road. I've seen a lot of people there who didn't seem to belong, found porno mags there, etc. (The porno mags weren't even good ones!)

[Gray Blazer]

..............

[minnesotasmith]

.................:eek::-?

[Gray Blazer]

LOL....since I'm a mormon, I wouldn't know about such things.:rolleyes:

[minnesotasmith]

LOL....since I'm a mormon, I wouldn't know about such things.:rolleyes:

In your premarital days, I can guarantee that you made such appraisals about multiple women you met in real life. It's part of what me are, as males.

[minnesotasmith]

"me" = "we"

[sherrill]

Too late - sometimes a cigar is just a cigar :D

[Gray Blazer]

SSSHHhhhhhhh, don't tell my bishop!;)

[Storyteller56]

It's alway's good to listen to your instincts no matter what others may tell you.
They are there to protect you from harm, when you don't actually see it coming.
More people should learn to trust in them as you never know when it may save your
life. How many of you out there have ignored those feelings only to end up in
trouble later. Many people grow cinical as they get older & laugh those feelings
off. We are born with those instincts for a reason so trust them & be glad you have
them to guide you in life.

[bayinghounds]

================================================== ===========

Maryland, not Virginia. The Crampton Gap Shelter is roughly a half mile north of Gathland State Park. The road through the state park goes to Burkittsville in about a mile. That's where the cemetery is. However, the rest of the movie was filmed in Montgomery and Baltimore Counties, Maryland. Even so, those woods around the shelter seemed eerie when I took a quick hike there a couple of Novembers ago.


It's interesting you say that about the area around Crampton Gap, because I was going to say the same thing. Crampton Gap was the site of the Battle of South Mountain on September 14th 1862, days before the battle of Antietam. Something around 5000 total casualties. I remember staying at the shelter one night with my dad when we were hiking through Maryland years ago and being really sketched out.

Also, on the road from Gathland towards Burkittsville is a place we called spook hill. Supposedly, if you take your car to the bottom of the hill and put it in neutral, the ghosts of Confederate artillerymen will push it up the hill and if you put flour on your car you're supposed to be able to see ghostly hand prints. We used to do it all the time in high school (grew up in Boonsboro) with mixed results. Can be very spooky though.

[Yahtzee]

The stretch from Hot Springs to Sams Gap is creepy to me. Feels like the trail ghetto.

[saimyoji]

Not spooky or creepy really, just kinda strange feeling I get when crossing over the Turnpike...just south of Lehigh Gap walkin back towards BOK. Sometimes I swear I can hear someone calling my name.....I also heard that if you hear your name being called that the berries

[saimyoji]

Not spooky or creepy really, just kinda strange feeling I get when crossing over the Turnpike...just south of Lehigh Gap walkin back towards BOK. Sometimes I swear I can hear someone calling my name.....I also heard that if you hear your name being called that the berries...

ooopssss......

...along the ridge become sour/toxic.

[jaywalke]

What about Sarver Hollow shelter, just south of the Audie Murphy Memorial? The Roanoke Appalachian Trail club says it is haunted by the ghost of George Sarver.

http://www.ratc.org/docs/shelters.pdf
(page 4 of the .pdf)

Supposedly he walks through the woods at night, dragging his cane. The ruins of the Sarver homestead are just below the shelter, and the water source is what remains of his springhouse. There is supposed to be a family cemetery there somewhere, but I couldn't find it. I hiked out there last Halloween for an overnight, but didn't hear anything but mice in the shelter and deer outside.

[minnesotasmith]

Hexacuba shelter and its associated "Pentaprivy". When I saw the latter, my first thought was that using it would be like making an offering downstairs...

More seriously, Elmer's. The staff was as odd as that of the staff in Isabella Rosalini's character's abode in the movie "Death Becomes Her".

[rafe]

What about Sarver Hollow shelter, just south of the Audie Murphy Memorial?

Well, it's a bit of a distance from the Audie Murphy Memorial, but I didn't notice anything spooky about the shelter last September. It's very spacious shelter with an expansive covered deck and a picnic table. (Photo (http://www.terrapinphoto.com/cpg143/displayimage.php?album=13&pos=109).) It's a ten minute walk downhill from the ridge.

I did notice that the ridge north of there is rather poorly maintained. If I lived in that area, I'd volunteer to work on it.

[Pedaling Fool]

I stayed at Watauga Lake Shelter (5-15-07) and two others in the shelter - I was in my tent - said they saw floating orb-like lights sometime during the night. They were a little freaked out about it and were not about to get out and investigate. They described them as very distinct lights, nothing like lightening-bugs and very close to the shelter - ~10-15 feet to the front. I don't know they seemed sincere and they were not hiking together, so I don't think it was a conspiracy.:eek:

[Wise Old Owl]

Sitting on the 'shelf' on the outside of Overmountain, all alone, watching the rain, and seeing the clouds curling, surf-like as they silently blew over the mountain, I could feel spirits of the "Overmountain Men" marching down the Overmountain Trail to meet the British. I'm not being poetic here, folks. They were there.

The Weasel

Weasel are you sure you have it right? Wiki has it as KING'S MT. Good story though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overmountain_Men

[dmax]

King's mt. is where the battle took place. On their way there, they went over yellow mt gap. They camped right below Overmountain shelter next to the creek.

[dmax]

I've camped there a couple of times in the winter. I've seen scout troups there in winter, with some of the boys not having proper cold weather gear. I usually tell the scoutmasters that if they head down into that little valley, it feels about 10*-15* warmer. I wonder if any of those scouts saw any ghosts?

[4eyedbuzzard]

Weasel are you sure you have it right? Wiki has it as KING'S MT. Good story though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overmountain_Men

The Weasel quit Whiteblaze last week. You might try sending a PM or e-mail if he is still communicating.

[saimyoji]

The Weasel quit Whiteblaze last week. You might try sending a PM or e-mail if he is still communicating.
He'll be back. He's quit before.

[ed bell]

dmax has it right. That's why it's called the Overmountain Shelter. I believe there is an historical marker in the gap about the event.

[Dholmblad]

666 shelter, it was new but it just felt weird there..

[minnesotasmith]

It was an old post, from before the newer rules went into effect.

[Nicksaari]

sky meadows state park's campground, south of Paris gap. alone on a sunday night, confederate dragoon john mosby and his raiders haunted my camp that night. i swear to god i heard horses galloping, huffing and puffing, neighing. havent been back since.

also, various blue blazes in SNP off AT. south fork moorman river trail out of jarman gap, there are ruins scattered about in all the right places that seem palatable for settlement. a large flat grassy plain in between the rampart walls of Turk mtn and Bucks Elbow mtn, you can feel its presense before you arrive. hiking the trail for the first time, its was eerie and surreal, i was stopped dead in my tracks by something out of peripheral; a boxwood tree. normally boxwoods are short shrubs, theyre native to england, but here in the middle of SNP in this flat little plot of land with boxwood trees growing. fifteen feet high, their matte green shade stuck out amongst an early springtime forest. startled, i walked closer off trail, and a foundation presented itself to me, and i had a cold sweat, a chill down my spine, and a dry taste in my mouth. i was standing at someones doorstep and i got spooked.

and def anytime after passing a pissed off bear that didnt want to move to let you keep down the trail.

[SunnyWalker]

One night near Hogpen gap some martians landed their UFO and I took a ride to Kahtadin! Quickest thru hike I ever did!

[minnesotasmith]

One night near Hogpen gap some martians landed their UFO and I took a ride to Kahtadin! Quickest thru hike I ever did!

We need a new term, though. How about "sky-blazing"? That's what Jump Start did between Amicalola and Springer. ;)

[mikec]

I spent the night in Wapiti Shelter alone in March, 2000. In the middle of the night, I hear a vehicle very close to the shelter (the AT crosses an old woods road about a quarter mile south of this shelter). I was scared. I thought it was that guy that murdered those two hikers as he was out by then. Then I thought 'Whatever happens happens'. I didn't get bothered that night but that shelter and Cove Mountain gave me the creeps more than any other.

[Tha Wookie]

Gatlinburg!!!

Creepy!:d