Haunted Places on the AT

[funkyfreddy]

Hi, I'm looking for information about places on the trail that are haunted. Have any of you hikers had any unusual experiences along the trail? I certainly had one on the summit of Sugarloaf in Maine. If any of you have had any unusual or "paranormal" experiences please post. You can also E-mail or PM me if you don't feel like discussing your experience in public. Thanks, Fred

[Moon Monster]

Just south of Sinking Creek Valley and Sarver Hollow Shelter in Virginia, there is an abandoned two-story house falling to pieces right in the woods about 200 feet off the trail. Back in April, I and three others checked it out inside. There were spooky black hand-prints all over the walls and up the door jams. They were in random patterns. There was also an empty ceramic pot in the middle of the main room. The floors were caving in and it was full of dead leaves. We all made jokes about there being witches or ghosts or even teenagers about.

I took a photo of the house, but it took me months to get it developed because I inadvertantly used slide film and I wanted prints from the roll. When I finally saw my photo, I noticed a shimmery patch of light right on the house that ends at the house's edges. Of course, this is an exposure artifact, right? It was dark in the woods and the sun was behind the house shining at an angle down on my lens. But, I have never had any problems of exposure on any other of hundreds of shots with that camera.

I posted the photo here so you can decide:
http://www.whiteblaze.net/gallery/sh...php?photo=1940

[Fox]

I've posted this story elsewhere but, I'll do it again in the hopes that it motivates others to tell their stories.


About 13 years ago I planned take my boys hiking around the loop that is Stratton Pond and Stratton MT in VT. This was going to be their first hike. The youngest was 7 years old.

I invited a good friend along too. It was going to be his first backpacking trip as well. I scheduled the trip to correspond as closely with the full moon as I could so the boys could see the beauty of Stratton Pond at night.

We had a nice easy walk in to the pond via Stratton Pond Trail and set up in one of the shelters that used to be right on the water. We messed around and built a small fire and generally everyone was in great spirits. We got the boys bedded down for the night and my buddy revealed to me that he had brought in 4 beers that were currently sitting in the edge of the pond cooling. We of course adjourned to the waters edge.

In the spot we were staying is a large rock that sits just off the shore that you can step out on to. We were very close across the water to where the trail comes in to the pond region. We were standing down on that rock enjoying a cold one and basking in the warmth of the night when I heard singing. Up to this point we had seen few hikers and none had said they were staying at the area. We had assumed we had the pond to ourselves.

I asked my buddy if he heard the singing and after a bit of quiet he said he did. We listened very alertly trying to discern what was being sung. It became obvious that it was a woman singing. We both fixed our gaze on the south shore where the trail ran into and then around to the east side of the pond. Before long I saw her. She came down to the water and stood on a patch of ground that juts out into the pond right where we were looking. She glowed in the moonlight. I figured she was dressed all in white and I thought it odd that she was wearing what looked like an ankle length nightgown. She kept singing and it was hypnotizing. I still couldn’t make out any words. Her song was soft but it was hauntingly beautiful. We stared fixed at her for what felt like a very long time. I wondered if she knew we were there.

She then seemed to turn around and, still singing, start back towards the forest. It was then that I noticed she had no apparent stride. In other words I could not see that she was taking steps. I know that area very well and the ground is not smooth at all. It requires a few steps up to get back to the trail. She didn’t. She just seemed to glide up. It was at this point the “spell” that had held us so mesmerized seemed to break and my buddy leaned over and whispered to me, “I’m not seeing this… are you?”

I kept watching her as she drifted along the shore through the trees when suddenly she wasn’t there anymore. I looked down the trail to an area I knew passed back out into direct moonlight and waited for a long time to see if she came out. She didn’t. It was then I realized the singing had stopped. I turned to Dan and said, “Well….you’ve got a hell of a story to tell from your first backpacking trip.”

[Bankrobber]

Good stories! I remember that freaky house near Sinking Creek Valley. I never went in, and I am glad that I did not. The area around Stratton pond used to have quite a bit of civilization surrounding it.
The guidebooks say that Punchbowl Shelter is haunted by little Ottie's ghost. Has anyone actually seen little Ottie?
Joe

[Blue Jay]

Fox, I live near Stratton Pond and often do the loop from the Kelly Stand Road over Stratton Mtn. I've seen her too but never told anyone. I cannot thank you enough.

[Lone Wolf]

Y'all are smokin too much of that green s**t. Ghosts my ass.

[gravityman]

Just south of Sinking Creek Valley and Sarver Hollow Shelter in Virginia, there is an abandoned two-story house falling to pieces right in the woods about 200 feet off the trail. Back in April, I and three others checked it out inside. There were spooky black hand-prints all over the walls and up the door jams. They were in random patterns. There was also an empty ceramic pot in the middle of the main room. The floors were caving in and it was full of dead leaves. We all made jokes about there being witches or ghosts or even teenagers about.

Totally spooky house, and we still talk about it. The black handprints I believe are a joke by someone who has seen Blair Witch Project (Now THAT is a scary film). The child's handprints were all over the house at the end of the movie, and looked very similar to what people did with the house along the AT. (It was suppose to be the handprints of all the kids that the witch had gotten over the years) I'm curious if anyone knows if they were there prior to the movie.

Gravity Man

[Blue Jay]

I'm curious if anyone knows if they were there prior to the movie.

Gravity Man

Yes they were. Another thing the movie "borrowed" was those little sculptures that were hanging from trees that freaked out the three stooges. Those were originally made by a hiker in '98'. I wish I could remember her name. She didn't want to carry a book, so when she got bored she would make something out of twigs and hang them in a tree near the trail. I ruined a theater full of outdooraphibics by laughing all the way through Blair Witch.

Actually the next time you get to that large War Memorial in Maryland turn right (NOBO) and two miles you'll come to an Art Gallery in Birkitsville. The Blair Witch lives there. She's a very nice lady (as long as you don't have a video camera). Tell her Blue Jay sent you.

[Kerosene]

Note that the guidebook for Central Virginia describes Sarver Cabin as an official "primitive" but decrepit shelter.

[RagingHampster]

The day I see an etheral being float by me while cranking out some liptons at Stratton Pond is the day I'll pack up and move to the crazy home

Makes for a great story though!

[A-Train]

The Sarver Cabin is quite freaky.

Apparently the area right around Crampton Gap shelter in Maryland is where Blair Witch was filled.

I hiked with a local in PA who told me that the area around and north of Rausch Gap shelter is suppsedly very haunted and that its famous locally. I don't remember but I think it was called Yellow Springs or somethin. Used to be a community of 1000 that lived there that was whiped out in the last hundred yrs.

[mcw1882]

Most terrifying thing I ever saw on the trail was a wild boar scratching its hump on a log while I was gathering firewood... Almost scared me to death.


Cut me some slack here, I was six...

[rickb]

If you do a search on the web, you can find a ton of information on Dudleytown. CT.

The AT used to pass right through it (all that's left are cellar holes) and I think that with some creativity, you can still route a hike by way of it (although you will need to stray away from the current white blazes).

The place is rather famous. In you do a web search, you will find that Dan Akroyd (the Cone-head) was said to call it the most haunted place in America. Horace Greely's(Go West young Man) wife killed herself there a week or before he lost the Presidential Election to US Grant. Plenty of other freaky stuff.

Be safe out there. Some forces are not to be messed with :-)

Rick B

[Fox]

If you do a search on the web, you can find a ton of information on Dudleytown. CT.

The AT used to pass right through it (all that's left are cellar holes) and I think that with some creativity, you can still route a hike by way of it (although you will need to stray away from the current white blazes).

As I understand it this is ill-advised. The area is privately owned and has attracted so much attention that it is patrolled regularly and prosecution is mostly what you'll find.

Blue Jay - hey no kidding? You've seen her? I am there at least once a year and you are the first person I have encountered that's seen her outside of Dan and myself. Thank You!

Come on folks - stories were solicited here. I find it hard to believe that people that spend large amounts of time in the woods don't have more experiences to relate.

Tell, tell. Everybody loves a spooky tale.

[gravityman]

Mine was not something that I saw, and not really a ghost story, but rather something that I dreamed.

We were at the shelter before Roan Mountain with Paranoid, Yogi and Ranger Bob in April of 01. I dreamt that a mother was watching a plane carrying her daughter slam into something (a building?) and the mother was just screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOO" and I was feeling her emotions. Just the most heart wrenching thing that I have ever felt in my life. What made it so bad was that she knew shortly before hand that the plane was going to crash (as if she had just watched a pervious plane crash). I woke everyone up in the shelter shouting her shout, and feeling her pain. Phew, I really didn't like that one.

When 9/11 happened I immediately remembered the dream. Probably not related but it's pretty wierd, since I was in the middle of the woods, have no fear of flying, knew nothing about the mom or the daughter, and hadn't thought about flying since we landed in Atlanta. It was the worst dream I have ever had...

Gravity Man

[Jack Tarlin]

The Punchbowl Shelter in Virginia is allegedly haunted, perhaps by little Ottie Powell, who died nearby. The late, great Trail Angel Ed Williams, who visited Punchbowl almost every night in the summer for years on end told me that he'd "felt" something there on more than one occasion, and Ed was a VERY steady man.

On a personal note, I camped near Crampton Gap in Maryland one night and had a miserable night's sleep, tossing and turning all night and hearing more than a few odd sounds. Only later did I discover that dozens of men, mostly from Cobb County, Georgia, had died there in battle in September of 1863, and some of them lie there still.

And lastly, there's a room in the Doyle Hotel that I never want to see the inside of again, but THAT story is locked away for good.

[Jack Tarlin]

It must be geting late in the day; my memory's bad. The battle at the Gap (actually known as Crampton's, not Crampton) was a precursor to the battle several days later at Sharpsburg (Antietam); the principal fighting that took place at the Gap was on 14 September, but the year, of course, was 1862.

[30seconds2000]

I was standing on the porch of the Doyle, the second story one that looks up and down the street, during my hike in 2000. I had a very strong feeling that I had been there before. I have never had such a sense of familirarity and home in some place that I had never actually been to before. I don't really believe in past lives, but if I did I would defintiely consider that a past life regression experience.
Makes we wonder about my past lives, we all know what the Doyle used to be =). Just kidding. Sorta.

[laurenpav12]

As long as I forget about y'all's stories about these places until AFTER I've hiked through them next year I guess I'll be fine...I don't think I want to read this thread anymore!

-Lauren

[cabalot]

If you do a search on the web, you can find a ton of information on Dudleytown. CT.

The AT used to pass right through it (all that's left are cellar holes) and I think that with some creativity, you can still route a hike by way of it (although you will need to stray away from the current white blazes).

The place is rather famous. In you do a web search, you will find that Dan Akroyd (the Cone-head) was said to call it the most haunted place in America. Horace Greely's(Go West young Man) wife killed herself there a week or before he lost the Presidential Election to US Grant. Plenty of other freaky stuff.

Be safe out there. Some forces are not to be messed with :-)

Rick B

Dudleytown. CT. is patrolled frequently. dont park a car it will get towed. hike in if curious, very dark and rockey. not much wildlife. be carefull, people have had flashlights with fresh batteries suddenly go dead. read up on the story before venturing in.

http://www.prairieghosts.com/dudleytown.html

http://theshadowlands.net/famous/dudleytown.htm