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Backpacker Magazine – October 2005
Terror in the Trees
Ghost stories always seem scarier beside a flickering campfire. So, dim your headlamp and scoot up closer: our writer-at-large explores the ghoulish beginnings of these age-old tales and shares a few of his all-time favorite blood-curdlers. We dare you to read on.
(Illustration by Jackie McCaffrey)
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Tags:
- Mysteries |
- California |
TELL A SCARY STORY
Learn how to tell your own tale of terror with our how-to guide, right here.
It involved a haunted hotel out West, and a room where a little girl had died in a fire, and a chill that passed up Roberts’s arm when she touched the wall of the room—right where the cradle had gone up in flames!Learn how to tell your own tale of terror with our how-to guide, right here.
It scared her enough that the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Me? I wish her tale brought healing. But hearing it, I think of my experience with…honestly, I still don’t know what was moaning in the Mendocino woods. Had consenting adults been engaged in weird but safe bondage games that night? Were the waitress and her hooded pals playing a trick on us?
And if it was all innocent, how to explain that other item I saw in the County Tattler that foggy spring afternoon in that dusty little library? How to explain the strange letter to the editor? It was from a woman in North Dakota, asking for help in locating her daughter. Her daughter who had been living in Mendocino for a few months, who had called her every morning, just to assure her that everything was okay, that her waitress job was going fine, that she was making friends, that no, really, her mom didn’t need to worry.
“But I’m worried,” the woman from North Dakota had written. “I haven’t heard from my little girl in three months. Has anyone seen my daughter? Her name is Kath.”
She haunts me still.
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READERS COMMENTS
No offence, but that wasn't very scary (it wasn't scary for me).
??????what?????
??????what?????
I'm very happy about this, for me you pulled me in with earnies, kept me interested with the other directions and came back in with the kicker at the end.....i honestly can't decide if its true or not....well done
Wow, I found it to be a quite amusing tale till i read the majority of these posts. Now i think i must have fallen asleep and dreamed it all up.
I certainly don't remember reading anything about his girlfriend screaming.. I guess i better go back and read it again. My macular degeneration must have gotten worse.
I thought it was pretty goo - tied several stories together nicely.
The Smokey Joe story is told at every session at Camp Orr - a Boy Scout camp on the Buffalo River near Jasper Arkansas. There was just a snippet told here. The whole story is a 45 minute long tale about the derranged camp counselor presumably hiding in Compton Hollow. We were there a couple of years ago, and prior to starting the story, they warned the audience and allowed anyone about the disturbing nature of the story and allowed anyone to leave that wanted to. This really helped set the mood.
I wonder if the other stories are original by the author, or if they are also snippets of stories he has heard at some time?
its so bad that i stopped readin after the 1st page.
whhat the hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i think he fell asleep writing it what a shame oh well at least he finished it.......heheheheheh
hi
what the hell is this about?How do you not hear your girlfrend screaming? What a dumb as. This story is#&(@$&(^%*$
PS.I wrote the storie below to=)
what the hell is this about?How do you not hear your girlfrend screaming? What a dumb as. This story is#&(@$&(^%*$
PS.I wrote the storie below to=)
The most retarded scarie storie i have ever read! I laughed the whole way. My dog could tell a better storie than this! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I liked it. Scared the hell out of my 6th grade class.
I thought it was pretty good. For those of you who think you're missing something make sure you go through all the pages they're listed on the bottom. I can imagine sitting around a campfire with friends and looking into their fire-flickering eyes, seeing them hope but not know that it isn't true. haha
This was so stupid
I thought it was well written and interesting. The things it leaves out are freaky...
Ditto - didn't get it at all. Just a bunch of words which could be scary in an actual story, which this was not!
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwnnnnn
Close enough behind your tent for a morning whiz but your girlfriend didn't hear a bunch of guys bullwhipping a woman all night? On her first night ever in the woods. And you were too cool to say anything. Why did it take 3 months for the blurb to coincidentally end up next to the mother's letter in the paper? Too much pseudo psyche 101 about scaring kids. Too much silent, troubled hero. Too many holes. Sorry.
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