Solo Halloween Night Hike

[Bad Biscuit]

On Friday, Oct 31st a friend and I were going to do some "dusk/night hiking." I was excited to try out some new hammock gear and get back to the Sipsey Wilderness after the long and hot summer. The initial plan was to head in as the sun went down and continue to our selected spot as it got dark. Our plans did not work out exactly as we planned.... I'll leave out the details, but after waiting until dark (6:45 pm here) I decided I had waited long enough and that maybe my hiking buddy would meet me at the campsite as there are several ways to get there.

I have been in my share of spooky, creepy, and/or scary situations so I do not spook easily. I strapped on my pack, turned my headlamp on, and headed down the trail. This was a very familiar trail and I was only going about 3 miles - what could possibly go wrong???

After about 15 minutes I had traveled pretty far into the woods. Outside of my small circle of illumination it was dark and I was having to pay pretty close attention to the trail. I'm not sure if it was because it was Halloween night, or if this was my first solo night hike, or if there were creatures in the woods, or a combination of all of the above. I couldn't get over the feeling that I wasn't "alone."

Needless to say, my blood was pumping and I was hyper-sensitive to every little sound (which did not help matters AT ALL). I picked up my pace, because NOTHING in the woods can chase down a fast walking hiker, right???? I hiked about three and a half miles in an hour. In the dark. By myself. I made it to the dark campsite and quickly started a fire.

Shortly my hiker friend made his way as he ended up only being a few minutes behind me. We compared our experiences and both agreed that it was spooky solo hike in the woods that night.

[nosckaj123]

Funny enough, this halloween I did a solo overnight and had quite a spooky encounter.

I live at school currently so the woods around here aren't too familiar and while hiking around away from any trail trying to find a good spot to hang, I came across the strangest thing - a gravestone! I had to stare at it for a couple minutes before I realized what it was because it looked so out of place. I don't know if the person was actually buried there or what but there was a flag next to the stone and some flowers, in the middle of the woods! there weren't any trails within a 15 minutes of that spot. Needless to say I kept on walking and tried to forget about it, but was quite shaken up for the rest of the night. I'll be telling that story for years to come I'm sure!