Anyone know any "psycho in the woods" type stories?

[funkyfreddy]

Looking for legends/lore/true or not so true stories about psychos, escaped convicts, monsters, ghouls, ghosts, aliens, Indian legends, etc. The kind of tales that have been told over the campfire for eons.

Anyone care to post any or point me to any links were I can find some? Thanks, Fred

 

[afka_bob]

Anyone know any "psycho in the woods" type stories?

You mean, besides whenever I go for a hike?

 

[jbrown]

The only one I know is one I made up for the benefit of a newbie hiker buddy which began the first day of a hike when I told him that a park ranger had warned me about a murderer loose in the Pharaoh Lake wilderness region.

(I had spoken to a ranger, but he was just telling me about the morons who had spent the night in one of the leantos.)

So after several days of stories and warnings, it culminated in one of our members getting "lost" two of us who went to look for him being "attacked" (lots of screaming, branch shaking going on...) and my newbie friend coming to our "rescue" with a hatchet and machette. Scared the pants off him. The look on his face was priceless.

And NO, we weren't in any danger of being hurt by him for those of you saying "Oh, my heavens, he could have killed YOU with those weapons!"

 

[afka_bob]

...And NO, we weren't in any danger of being hurt by him for those of you saying "Oh, my heavens, he could have killed YOU with those weapons!"

Durn.

 

[Jaytrek57]

There's this story about this big guy in the woods, actually a camp, who goes around with a hockey mask killing innocent teenagers. I think his name was Jason.

Speaking of campfire, scary stories/movies. Check out the campfire story in the movie Meatballs with Bill Murray...pretty scary/funny.

I take kids out a lot and have some books back home for what you a probably looking for. Will post later.

 

[teejay]

True story

http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/robert_garrow/

My wife of three weeks and I camped 20 miles away that weekend.

teejay

 

[trailbiscuit]

There's the tale of the ghost of the drowning victim at Mizpah Hut. I believe her name is Betty, but the details escape me. Anyone?

My wife would say that me on the trail singing Elvis and Neil Diamond would classify as psycho!

 

[Jim lombard]

Do you believe in Ghosts??

Back in the mid 80’s I was walking in the woods with a friend in an area near Ossipe New Hampshire, south of the White Mountain region. We left the road and walked down an old logging road into an area of fairly dense woods.

By mid-day we’d stumbled onto an orchard and Tom who had planned on hunting that season marked the area as a good place to build a tree-stand as we found lots of deer sign. We got turned around somehow and ended up in an area that clearly once had been a cross-road of sorts.

We saw 10-15 old foundations, several quite large, an old well and debris from a wagon on the leaf strewn road. We ended up eating lunch there and behind one of the larger foundations was a small cemetery. Of the 15 tombstones all but 3 or 4 were fallen over and the graves were sunken. We spent a good half hour putting them upright, a couple were smashed so we couldn’t do anything about that.

We walked back towards the orchard and spent the rest of the afternoon looking for deer-paths and checking out the area. By late afternoon it had begun to get dark, typical of late October and early November. We decided to sit on an old mossy rock wall back to back and be silent to see if a deer or moose would emerge.

I've always enjoyed sitting in the woods as darkness approaches listening to animals move around. In about 45 minutes it got very dusky and hard to see. I felt Tom stiffen up and figured it was time to walk out before the darkness was complete. Neither of us had flashlights, matches, nothing. And so we got up and hiked out the final bit to the tote road.

We still had about a half mile walk back to the van and I spoke up. It was almost completely dark by then but the road was wide enough and we could see some lights from a house that bordered the woods. I said, “Tom, you know back there on that rock wall, I had the weirdest feeling we were being watched.”

Tom stopped, turned to me and said, “Strange you should say that, do you remember when I stiffened up back there on that wall.” I said “Yes.” He continued, “I was just sitting there and it was pretty dark but I saw something out of the corner of my mind and looked. Just then an old woman, dressed in strange clothes stepped into the little glade and walked right across in front of me. She just disappeared into the woods”

I said, “You’re kidding right? I thought an animal was watching us.” He didn’t say a word, I continued to prod him with questions but he never spoke about it again. We walked quickly the final bit to the van, what a welcome sight! I never saw the woman, he figured it was a ghost, maybe she was thanking us for trying to right the stones at the cemetery. We returned a few days later to the same area and got completely lost in those woods. Spent a long, cold night in those dark foreboding forests. I've never been back, I don't think he did either

 

[bandana4me]

I know an old book

"Behold the White Mountains" written sometime in like the 1930's or so. It has alot of the history of the Whites, the elderly lady who discovered the Flume, bones in the caves on Willard, etc....I wish I could remember the authers name. I do know it is in the N.H. library system though. Last time I knew the library in Tilton.

 

[jbrown]

Durn.

Now that's just hurtful...

 

[el-bagr]

Re: I know an old book

B4me, that's "Behold the White Mountains" by Eleanor Early. A great little book.

 

[Rob S]

Prepping for Tuesday night, Fred? Yeah, the Full Moon Campout at the Haunted Girl Scot Camp!! Remember the Twilight Zone movie, the part with Dan Ackroyd (I think) ...... Do you wanna see something really scary?!? Hint: The Midnight Special!

See ya Tuesday!!

 

[Warren]

I headed to Vermont to climb Mansfield after Labor Day. I needed to escape the city. I had been experiencing a lot of random walk up to me and confess your strange bizarre personal blackness city encounters. A solo trip was in order.

I had peaked Mansfield and headed to the Calamity hut intending to stay there. I sat outside and begun to chomp on a PB&J sandwich. A fellow introduced himself as care taker for the night and informed me of a wonderful lookout just yards away. Sublime.

That night it was just the two us and over a bottle of wine and a candle we talked back and forth. He hitched from Colorado where he was living in the woods around Pikes Peak (?) and had been walking the Long Trail. We talked about the difficulty of finding fellow backpackers (this was before VFTT). I mentioned many of my friends wanted to go, but universally they only would if they had a handgun and that made me uncomfortable.

He starts talking about how he has no problem with that and that he carries one. I'm alone in cabin with a strange hitchhiking fellow with handgun and a pleasant mutt of a dog. He explains the bear fear- Colorado has grizzlies after all and then goes onto hitchhiking fears. Now this fellow was pretty mellow, but my city tuned alarms were beginning to warm up in the back of my head. I mention that a hand gun is useless unless it's on your belt and you're a really good shot- you get really shaky during hard exertion. He said he keeps the thing just inside his pack lid and that he's a good shot. He asks me if I want to see it. My alarms go into overdrive on the inside and on the outside I just shrug disinterest, pure city boy exerting itself here, mutter "shur" and take a swig of wine. He takes out a this little berretta you've seen Sean Connery save the world with, cracks it open, inspects the chamber, removes the clip, places fit lat on the table and slides it to over to me. I immediately feel calmer that this stranger didn't hand me a loaded gun. I look it over in a disinterested manner calculating on the inside just where I am and kinda stunned at how damn small the thing is. I shrug again " A .22 it's only going to make the bear pissed, if it notices". He responds that he's a really good shot and had trained with the Navy Seals. Alarms warm up again and I raise an oh really eyebrow. He goes on explaining in the Reagan years he did operational support with the SEALS and so was trained as one. In fact it's the reason he's a vegetarian and won't participate in the killing of a living thing. My alarms are very discombobulated at this moment beyond all help of the wine, he sees my confusion and explains they were due to pick up a SEAL from the shore of Panama where they weren't supposed to be- international laws and all that. As they were approaching the shore tracer shots lashed out, they were being shot at. As trained to he shot back. Looking genuinely haunted he told me till this day he doesn't know if he killed anyone that night and so his vow.

I slept fine that night, my alarms oddly mellowing in the totality of his story. The next day I walked over Mansfield with him and his dog, down the Sunset Ridge trail on a glorious day back to my friends house in the valley where I immediately relayed my story and the frustration of not being able to get away from the true confession effect no matter where I went.

I heard from a friend of this fellow soon after asking for a copy of a picture of him and his dog and promptly lost the contact info. I've always wondered about him and hope to run into him again on a trail somewhere.

Stayed tuned as I have two more, shorter, less controversial ones, including a minor tie in to jbrowns above posting. And please, direct any gun comments to my private email if you must.....

 

[JimB]

This was a few years ago in the Ithaca area (Conneticut Hill?)I can't remember all of the details, but a prisoner was let out of prison on parole and never reported to his parole officer for over a year. In the early spring some turkey hunters stumbled on a remote stick shanty that someone had obviously been living in. After some investigation the person was found and returned to prison. He had been using a bicycle to go into town and get supplies and survive. Maybe someone knows more about it and can make it sound scarier.

 

[Mark_151]

Re: Do you believe in Ghosts??

Back in the mid 80’s I was walking in the woods with a friend in an area near Ossipe New Hampshire, south of the White Mountain region. We left the road and walked down an old logging road into an area of fairly dense woods.

SNIP

Ghosts, maybe, but perhaps "temporal anomaly"?!

I experienced the exact same thing once, though not in the backcountry. When I graduated high school in 1981, I was living in the Catskills briefly, renting a contemporary house behind one of those old stone houses so prevalent in the New Paltz area -- in Olive Bridge., with my brother Kurt. The place was once an old farm that dated back at least to the early 19th century. The stone house and barn were original.

He was a carpenter and was working on a project and was away. I was in the rental house, doing some renovation work. My bedroom window looked up the dirt road that ran from the road past the barn, past the contemporary where it sort of faded into new-growth where the fields once were. This was rural New York in the middle of the work week -- there wasn't anyone around.

I'll never ever forget, going about my business, and glancing out the window to see a male figure in the old clothes you see in depictions of pre-20th century rural living, walking casually down the dirt road with some sort of farm implement thrown over his shoulder., about 100 feet away.

I didn't think twice at the time, and just thought it perfectlly normal, and turned back to what I was doing in the room. I then stopped when I realized what happened, looked out a quarter second later, to of course nothing.

Hallucinations? Maybe. I spent my adolescence in New Paltz in the 70's, so my mind was more than a little psychedelic at that time



But I really don't think so....

 

[Jay H]

There's this story about this big guy in the woods, actually a camp, who goes around with a hockey mask killing innocent teenagers. I think his name was Jason.

Well we could go to Crystal Lake, I mean the movie was filmed at Camp No-Be-Bos-Co (I know I'm spelling that wrong) in Blairstown, NJ.. I think the camp is still a camp and they still have a sign that says "Crystal lake" on it even though that's not the real name.

Jay

 

[brianW]

A few years ago I believe three college students went into the woods down in Maryland(?) to make a film and were never seen again. A year later the film was found.


Great to watch just before a multi day solo backpacking trip.

 

[Jay H]

Burkettsville, MD.

I don't know about you but I was laughing throughout that whole movie. It was kind of funny more than scary, IMO. I enjoyed myself though and that what's movies are for anyway...

I like it when they lost the map and thought they were going in circles.. Sometimes I feel like it myself.

Kind of like reading the story in Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" about the guy who was hiking the AT north but one day turned the wrong way one morning and took almost a whole day before he realized he was heading south and not north.... d'oh!

Jay

 

[John Graham]

There is a very imaginative, if far fetched collection, of ghost stories in the appropriately named site:
www.weirdnj.com.
This one is pretty good if you are in to that kind of thing.

 

[mink319]

I heard a story from my neighbor who has lived in Putnam County his whole life, in the same house. He told me that in the 50's when the carnival was in town some guy who worked there went crazy and killed some people and ran off into the woods behind my house. A few days later a local boy saw him in the woods and ran away from him. He told his parents who told the police and they went looking for him. They never found the guy, and the perimeter of the woods is surrounded by houses and nobody saw him leave, and the woods are only about 200 acres so legend was he lived in the really thick swamp back there, now that's just ridiculous but that's what the story is.
One time while hunting back in those woods with my brother, we felt like we were being watched. I said "Hey, I feel like someone is watching us", and I heard "Yea, I am", and looked next to me and didnt realize there was another hunter right there, sitting down with full camo on and since it was dark out I had not noticed him.

Another story I have heard was by my place up in the Catskills, in Conesville. Supposedly in the 70's some farmer went crazy and killed his family and hid in up in the Huntersfield Range. They said he lived there and you could here him shooting deer with his .357. Another story that I think is ridiculous.

A lot of times when I am hiking and I am exhausted after a long day and I am almost back, I start seeing things. Sometimes on those gray, cloudy days up in the mountains I get the feeling something is watching me, yet I know its an animal because I don't believe in ghost.
Minor hallucinations can be caused by simple things such as exhaustion, dehydration, or hypothermia, hence the whole concept of mirages.