I’ve been seeing a lot of ghost stories set in national parks and wilderness areas, and honestly I kind of enjoy them. I’m not much of a scary story person (and I hate jump scares – probably because I jump scare easily), but from the comfort of a cozy couch, it can be fun to read ghost stories.

Let me add one big disclaimer here: I don’t want these stories to scare you or keep you from getting outside. Genuinely dangerous things on the trail are rare, and if you’re prepared, you should be totally fine. Staying safe on the trail would be a great topic for a future post…

With that, and with spooky season well upon us, let’s jump right in. We’ll start with some lighter things, and then get into the crazy stuff. Consider yourself warned!

Abandoned clothing. And the previous wearers of said clothing…

I don’t get this one. I didn’t really know it was a thing, but I encountered this on three separate occasions this past summer, and honestly, every time was unsettling.

The first time was when Allie and I did the first nine miles of the Colorado Trail. We found this amazing campsite, right by a stream, and it was absolutely perfect. We couldn’t have asked for a better place to camp for the night.

As we were setting up camp, Allie noticed something strange in the woods, right off to the side of our campsite. Upon further investigation, it was a bundle of clothes (fuzzy pajama pants, a shirt, and men’s underwear).

After that trip, I did a bit of googling to figure out why someone would abandon their clothes in the woods. Apparently, people will leave unwanted or soiled (EWW!!) clothes on the trail. I don’t understand why…pack it out, y’all.

Two weeks later, Allie and I were backpacking north of Denver, near Loveland. And sure enough, we found a pair of men’s underwear.

The icing on the cake of abandoned clothing was actually in a different state. I often travel to Albuquerque for work, and when I have some extra time, I like to sneak out for an evening hike or run in the Sandia foothills.

At this point, I must pause to apologize to my mother, who does read this blog (hi, Mom!). If I thought this was real, I never would have gone on the hike.

Back to my story: I found this bundle of abandoned clothes at a trailhead. Surely this isn’t real though, right? I mean, maybe it’s a joke shirt or from the Idaho State Penitentiary gift shop or something. Do penitentiaries have gift shops?

The Ravenous Beast

My next story has a preamble that goes back to a trip I took with my dad right after graduating from high school. My high school graduation present from my dad was a canoe trip in the Adirondacks. During that trip, we hung a bear bag for our food, as that was the prevailing guidance at the time in that region. One night, there was a tremendous commotion outside. I swore it must have been something large and scary – like a bear (or many bears!). My dad assured me that it wasn’t; he suggested I listen to the footsteps to hear how heavy the animal was. This was clearly not a large, heavy animal, so it was fine.

Turns out it was chipmunks, who’d performed some Cirque du Soleil-level acrobatics to reach the food in the bear bag. They did some intense damage…it’s amazing how much food the tiny, adorable jerks went through, leaving their little teeth marks on everything.

Fast-forward to a backpacking trip in the Tetons two summers ago with Jerry and one of our friends. After a long day, we found a nice campsite near a stream (my favorite, in case you can’t tell), and set up camp for the night. After an early dinner, we went to sleep – but it wouldn’t last long.

Very near to us, we heard this loud tapping. It was like a TAP TAP TAP…TAP TAP…TAP TAP TAP. It was persistent and quite loud. Whatever this was, it was both close and had very large teeth. From the next tent over, our friend said, “guys, can y’all hear that?” After a brief exchange where we all decided that whatever was out there was terrifying, we realized that none of us wanted to go outside to see what it was. I leaned on my dad’s advice about the footsteps not being heavy, so it wasn’t a bear. I knew we’d been very careful with food – everything with any smell at all was in a bear barrel far away from us. But what was it? A wolf? And how was it so close to us?

In the morning, we surveyed the damage. Turns out whatever the animal was had eaten through our friend’s shoe (just one of them) and the mesh on the back part of my backpack. It also nibbled on my hiking poles and shredded the fabric straps on them. We thought it might have been eating salty things (from our sweat), but the part of the shoe it ate wasn’t likely to have too much salt. We still didn’t know what it was, but because of the damage to the shoe and our gear, we decided to call our trip early and head back to the trailhead.

When we had phone service again, we looked up what it was based on the sound it made…and it was a porcupine. Apparently, it was a hungry porcupine with an odd taste in camping gear.

After this event, I had to replace my backpack. Luckily, Osprey has a crazy good warranty on their gear. I emailed them about repairing my backpack, and they replaced it for free! If I wasn’t already hooked on Osprey backpacks, I sure was after this.

To this day, I still find that tapping sound to be oddly haunting. While I replaced the straps on my hiking poles, I didn’t replace the foam grips, so they still have porcupine tooth marks to commemorate the event.

The Midnight Headlamp

Hmm…so this one might be my scariest story yet. I’m still unsettled by it…but to be fair, it could be the guys pranking me.

On the same night as the porcupine incident, at about 1 am, I saw a headlamp outside our tent, moving around. It was there for a couple of minutes, and then gone. I’d assumed one of the guys had gotten up to use the bathroom or something.

The next morning, we talked to the backpackers one campsite over from us, and they said that someone with a headlamp had come up to their campsite at about 12:30. They said it was really strange; the person looked around a bit and then left. After hearing that, I asked the guys if they’d gotten up at 1, and they both said no.

So who was the person with the headlamp? Was it a ranger, checking passes? Surely not – it would be awfully tricky (and pretty difficult) for a ranger to check campsites at night in a pretty wild area.

I still think there’s a good chance it was one of the guys…but I guess we’ll never know!

Happy Halloween!