Tell me Your Spooky Story!

Halloween is approaching and once again I’m volunteering for The Missing Arm Hike. The staff of Big Basin Redwoods State Park, in northern California, guides visitors through a 1-hour, 1/2-mile, silly and slightly spooky night hike through the deep, dark, redwood forest.

Volunteers and park staff relate the haunted tale of Big Basin’s last lumber mill owner and his disastrous encounter with a grizzly bear. The hike leader stops the group at predetermined locations in the forest to read from a script. Then he and the trail sweep illuminate the forest with their powerful flashlights to reveal volunteers dressed in period costumes acting that portion of the story.

The slapstick humor and spooky silliness is always a big hit with park visitors. The park takes some liberties with the actual history of William Waddell, but makes an effort to educate visitors about the real man.

Hiking can be Spooky

But not all spooky hiking stories are silly. Several years ago I went hiking by myself in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Santa Cruz is the coastal range that separates California’s Silicon Valley from the Pacific Ocean. My hike took me through dense oak forest alongside a pleasant creek.

The heavy overcast put a gray roof on the forest. But the crisp, cool autumn air energizes me as I stride beside the creek. I decide to pick up my pace when I notice an overgrown path leading down into a densely forested area below the marked trail. Having nowhere to go and all day to get there, I follow the path to see where it leads.

I descend about 30 yards into the forest where I find the body.

But the body of what?!! All that remained was a three foot long length of spine and two bone fragments that look like they were from a scapula and a pelvis.

Finding bones while hiking is not unusual. And finding large bones is also commonplace. Black tailed deer live in the area and their young often fall victim to mountain lions and other predators. Death is a part of nature.

So having established that it is not strange to stumble upon animal remains, this skeleton is exceptional:

The skeleton is wearing a necklace!

Draped around the top of the spine is a woman’s necklace. There’s no mistake. The skeleton is wearing a necklace.

I can’t describe the chills that crawl up my spine. I actually look around to see if I am being watched. Stupid, I know. But I was unnerved!

This is unbelievable! I inspect the pelvis fragment, being careful not to move the position of the bones or disturb the ground around the skeleton. Its shape reminds me of a four-legged animal. But I’m not an expert. I can’t be certain. And what about the necklace? It’s bizarre! Unbelievable! Unfathomable!

Time to Look Foolish

Crucially, I don’t have my camera! My photography equipment is among my heaviest gear. I didn’t always carry it with me.

Without my camera, I can’t capture the scene. It never occurs to me to use my cell phone! I record the location of the bones and scurry home.

As soon as I’m home, I write an Email to the Open Space District that manages the land. I describe what I saw and provide directions for finding the bones.

I feel a little sheepish as I hit send. It is probably a coyote and the necklace washed down from the trail above. There is going to be some hilarity at the ranger station tonight! I can picture the rangers sitting around shrieking with laughter at the hiker who mistook a coyote skeleton for something sinister.

Things get Spooky

Several days pass and I hear nothing from the Open Space District. Just as I’m ready to forget the incident an Email arrives in my inbox. The district sent a ranger to the location using my directions. She looked at the skeleton wearing the necklace and is as freaked out as I am.

Nearly 8 million people live in Silicon Valley. So there are bound to be unsolved disappearances on the books. So the rangers summon crime scene investigators from Palo Alto, the nearest city. Their analysis takes a day or two but the verdict is clear: The bones belong to a canine.

All for the Best

We may never explain how the skeleton came to be wearing a necklace. The necklace was definitely human. Since I found the bones in a natural wash, I suspect the necklace was lost on the trail above and floated down to where I found it. But there are many other possible explanations.

I’m just happy the most straight-forward explanation turned out to be incorrect!

Share Your Spooky Story

Do you have a spooky hiking story? I’d love to hear it in the comments below.