Camping & Hiking Horror Stories | Cryptids, Ghosts & Unexplained Encounters (x350)

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a medium who is an archaeologist and a ghostly thing reveals a massive archaeological find. What?

Yeah.

Very spooky.

Hi.

Hello. This is Two Girls One Ghost.

Two Girls One Ghost.

We are your ghostesses. That is Corinne.

Hello.

I am Sabrina. Can I move my mic over so I can not be away from my mic as I speak to

can hear you. We are days away from the spookiest time of the year.

October.

[sighs]

September's got its spooks, too.

I'd argue it starts in August.

I argue it's all year round.

[laughter]

And at the very least, if you want to be

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picky, we'll say July 5th.

Sure.

And on.

Yeah. Cuz the next holiday to come

is

that's important

Halloween.

as spooky lovers.

I guess Halloween.

Some people like Labor Day. Get a day off.

There's Labor Day.

Why don't we have the day off for Halloween? That feels rude.

Respect the dead.

Come on.

Truly.

And respect the costumes.

That's so important. [laughter]

If only I could go back in in time and tell my middle school and high school self that. But times are changing for the better. [laughter] And we're all

used to dress really [ __ ] Is that what you're saying?

No, I just feel like I like made some choices that I would never make today.

Like what?

Like one time I dressed This is like I don't Don't cancel me. I was like 14. But like dressed as someone who was pregnant and I was like smoke like had a fake cigarette and like made choices like that for my

things in high school and college where yeah, it was questionable.

Yeah. I was like, "Why did I do that?"

Anyway, we're respecting the dead and the costumes. And we're also respecting another place today, Appalachia and the woods because if you see something, no

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you didn't.

Yeah, that's the opposite of see something, say something. You say nothing.

Say nothing. Run away.

to yourself.

Put your head down, tail between your legs, and walk away. So yeah, in honor of such a fantastic time of year and theme, we are going to talk all about our favorite place slash the most terrifying place, Appalachia or just generally things that are lurking in the woods.

Yeah, I think I just went more woods.

I did both.

It's hard to not have Appalachia come up when we're doing American stories cuz it's such a huge region. It takes up like half the US basically.

And then also since we've been covering Appalachia more, the amount of emails that we get is

That's true.

And also it's concerning how many people have encountered a not deer

Mhm.

and creatures that just abnormally stand on their hind legs and stare at you or chase you at the same speed that your car is moving.

That is true.

And I do not like it.

You're right. I never really thought

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about how odd it is that there are that many people just who emailed us. Just the amount of people who know that we exist, which is a small group.

Which is a fraction of the human population. The ghost population, they all know.

We're quite popular over there. [laughter]

With the dead.

And that's all that matters.

Beetlejuice loves us.

Mhm.

I wish that counted.

[laughter]

what we saw in the Appalachian woods

I'm going to start with one from Appalachia because that's what I said I was going to do.

This is also great because I I'm curious how many people are going to listen to this episode driving to get some last minute camping in and falls.

Some nice fall foliage hikes.

Leaf peep.

And then

into the woods. See you there.

at the leaves, there's something else looking at you.

Hear another set of footsteps walking behind you.

Exactly what's going to happen in this story.

Really?

Yeah.

Okay.

This is from our listener Amber Lee. What we saw in the Appalachian woods. Hi Sabrina and Karen. My name is Amber Lee. I'm a newer listener of y'alls and let's just say I'm absolutely obsessed. My

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fiance is actually the one who introduced me and now I pretty much always have it playing. I honestly can't think of a better place to share this story than with y'all. My cousins and I are completely okay with you using our names if you decide to read this. I did ask for permission. So my story happened about 14 years ago when I was 15. It's something my cousin Caitlin and I both experienced and even after all these years we still remember the fear we felt as if it were yesterday. That summer I was asked to go stay with my aunt and three cousins so I could help watch them while she worked. And I was really excited about it because it meant I got to spend the summer with my cousins and stay in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, which are so beautiful, which I later found out was part of Appalachia. Yes. Oh, but the morning mist. Beautiful. They look blue. The only thing I was warned about before going was that we would not be near town. Dun dun dun. That I would have to occupy my time with whatever was in the house and whatever was outside, which in

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this house were the woods. Being in the woods was always a normal part of my life. I spent part of my childhood living on the Catawba reservation in South Carolina in a neighborhood surrounded by woods. So most of us kids spent a lot of time out there climbing trees, exploring, playing in the creek. Beautiful. Great.

my childhood, too.

Yeah. Before that I lived with my grandparents whose house was by woods. So being outside playing in the woods was just my normal life. I was used to it. But no matter where we lived, the rules were always the same. Do not go into the woods at night. And even though my family has always been very open to the paranormal, it was a part of how I grew up. Do not go into the woods at night.

Yeah, free free range during the day. I feel like that's an important distinction because when we talk about the woods in Appalachia and just like the creatures, the murderers, like the all that's scary. Part of me is also feeling guilty because I'm like well, going outside and being in nature and every time I've ever gone on like a hike or a walk or something, I feel so much more connected to myself and grounded and like

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Do it during the day.

peace at peace. But it that's the distinction. It's night versus day.

Yes.

I never thought this rule had anything to do with the supernatural. I always thought it was because of the real dangers, like people.

So, since we were not close to town and there wasn't much else to do around the trailer, exploring the woods was actually one of the first things I did that summer. A few weeks before the night happened, I went into the woods near the trailer twice during that day to explore. And the first time I remember I did feel a little bit uneasy as if someone were watching me, but the second time was worse. I'd been in the woods for maybe 10 or 20 minutes walking around and exploring, and I remember stopping to look at the tree because I thought maybe it'd be fun to climb. But right then, when I was standing there looking at it, everything suddenly went completely quiet. No birds, no bugs, no wind, nothing.

That's how you know.

Just silence. And then I heard footsteps. It felt so unnatural that I immediately turned around and ran straight back to the trailer. After that, I never went back into those woods again.

I have a question for people who've

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encountered mountain lions. Does the same thing happen? Like do all of the animals and everything stop because a predator is near?

Could. I don't know.

Is it just paranormal predators or actual

all predators.

Yeah.

All encompassing.

I don't know. Although some [clears throat] could argue we are predators.

Oh, we are the scariest of the scariest.

Yeah. When I first arrived that summer, I had been told to sleep in my cousin's old bedroom because they refused to sleep in that room. Though no one really explained why. The window in that room faced the woods and was mostly covered by a large thorn bush. During my first few nights there, I started hearing tapping on the window late at night. And at first I convinced myself it was just branches hitting the glass, but the The would come in groups of three or four, and sometimes it sounded deliberate. When I eventually asked my cousin Alyssa why they didn't sleep in that room, she casually said, "Oh, because the tapping freaks us out." I had never told her about my experience having the tapping, but I had been hearing it, too. So, after that, I also didn't want to sleep in that room and started sleeping in either the living room or my aunt's

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room. The night this happened, the oldest of my cousins, who was just a little younger than me, was spending the night somewhere else, so it was just me, my cousin Caitlin, and her little sister who was already asleep. And as context, the trailers were set along the side of a hill. When you drive up the road, the neighbor's trailer sat slightly lower on the hill, and then my aunt's trailer was just a little further up. The neighbor was a close family friend, but he wasn't there for most of that summer. So, that night, Caitlin and I were inside the trailer when their dog, Spot, started barking to go outside. Normally, we would just let him out and wait for him to come back to the porch, but for some reason that night, we opened the door, let him out, and walked out onto the porch with him. To this day, I still do not know why we did that, since we normally do not do that, especially not at night. It was already dark outside, and the area between the trailers was lit by a mix of porch light and the neighbor's outside light, which kind of blended together to create this dim yellow light across the yard. Spot immediately started running toward the edge of that light toward the neighbor's trailer, and that's when we noticed a deer standing near the edge of the light, close to the

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neighbor's trailer. And at first, it looked like a normal deer. Its head was down, like it was eating, and we can see its body in the light, but it wasn't fully facing us. When I noticed Spot starting to go toward it, I started yelling at him cuz I didn't want him bothering the deer. And that is when the deer stood up. And the way it stood up is something both my cousin and I still remember. As the deer stood up, it looked like arms began to form. They didn't suddenly appear, it was more like they were always there, but stretched out as it rose up, the same way a person looks taller when they stand up after sitting down. The motion itself was unnatural. Ew, I hate this.

And I'm also shocked that we don't see more from wildlife cameras and like deer cams that people set up.

Like they feel like they know.

Yeah.

When it finished standing, it was facing us. But the face no longer looked like a deer's face. It looked like a mix between a deer and a skeleton. You could see the shape of the skull in its face, but the rest of the body still had normal deer fur. Its legs were long and

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stretched out like deer legs, but the whole thing looked incredibly tall, like 6 ft or taller. Though it's hard to judge exactly because it was standing slightly downhill near the other trailer. And again, everything felt like it slowed down. We were just standing there staring at it. Everything went quiet. And then suddenly, it took off running behind the neighbor's trailer disappearing into the darkness. The moment it ran, we started screaming for Spot, who turned back towards us and ran back. The three of us went inside the trailer together, and after we [clears throat] got inside, we went into my aunt's bedroom, where her younger daughter, my youngest cousin, was sleeping. We all climbed into the same bed, turned on a movie, and stayed there until my aunt came home. Spot also didn't leave the bed, stayed with us. The only time he moved was to lift his head and growl. Sometimes he would growl towards the bedroom door, other times he would poke his head up and look toward the window and growl. Every time he did it, I felt terrified all over again because Spot was not one to growl at anything. He hardly ever barked, let alone growled. I remember

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praying that he wouldn't have to go back outside for the rest of the night. Spot also was like,

Please hold it in.

[gasps]

Poor baby.

After the night we saw the deer thing, the tapping on the window seemed to get worse. One night I even heard what sounded like voices outside, and at one point I also was so sure I heard my aunt calling that I called her and asked if she had come home early, but she wasn't home. She was at least an hour away. What makes this story even stranger is that Caitlyn and I didn't talk about what we saw again for almost 2 years, at least not to one another. We did tell others, but most didn't believe us, and the only person who really believed me was my mom. Then almost two years later Caitlin and I were sitting on my grandma's porch with family and the story somehow came up and without realizing it at first Caitlin and I started describing the exact same thing and that is when everyone finally believed us because we hadn't talked about it to each other in two years.

Wow.

And even now 14 years later we still agree on the same thing. The way the deer stood up the way those arms seemed to form as it rose and how everything we

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were looking at was not natural.

We never done a full episode on not deer have we? Or like an actual research segment? Is this just one of the things that come comes up all the time?

All the time. I guess not.

Yeah, I don't think we've done a research episode on it.

Cuz I feel like cuz I'm almost I want to know more because I feel like so many of the not deer encounters it's like

And sorry if we did do research and I'm just remembering nothing about it.

Yeah.

But I'm like so much of it is this the scary part is the encounter with this creature that seems so unnatural. And it's awareness of you.

The way it looks at you.

Yeah. But then I'm like well what what is it?

Well it does

What does it want?

It's hard also because especially in these regions like is there a blending of flesh pedestrians or is it its own entity or is it a shapeshifter? Yeah, we I don't know. But that's the thing with cryptids.

Are these species able to mate with one another and create different mutated cryptids?

That's the problem with all cryptids and creatures like this. We don't really know what they want. Like even Bigfoot

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we don't know what Bigfoot wants.

I need more character

development and character [laughter] development.

I need them to study who their character is what's their backstory.

What do they what are their intentions?

want? Just to scare us cuz mission accomplished.

Before you step foot on my stage you need to be able to answer those questions about your character.

Karin's interview with a not deer.

Coming soon.

I'm going to be like excuse me wait let's pause. Have you thought about what your childhood was like? We should have like a late night show like Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon but it's interviewing cryptids.

[laughter]

That would be so great.

[gasps]

One day. One day. It's on It's on our vision board. Never say never. It could totally be possible for us. We don't know what's going to happen.

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witchcraft at a Vermont state park

I got an email I got an email. It feels like it's for me when it's from Vermont.

Yeah, it's for you.

[laughter]

We got an email called witchcraft at a Vermont State Park. Cool. Obviously I

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have to read it. Of course. Hi, I wanted to start off with saying that I love your podcast. I struggle with OCD and I'll play it daily which helps me tune out my own thoughts.

Aw. We replace them with uh creepy thoughts.

Yes. I listened for a while before I realized Corinne was from Vermont. That's shocking cuz I feel like I find a way to bring it up every other time.

Episode one.

[laughter]

My jaw dropped when I found out. Not to mention that I live across the river from Littleton.

No way.

So, pretty close to your OG stomping grounds. So, for some background, I worked for a state park as an attendant. I won't say exactly where to keep some privacy for my old co-workers who are still employed here. I want to know so bad. So, you need to privately message me.

Yes.

Because my family like I grew up camping.

We have the inside scoop.

Tell me, have I been there?

tell everyone else.

Yeah, we promise. It was a very fun job. You get to be outside in the middle of the day in the forest and our job mainly consisted of mowing and firewood and

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road work, trail work, etc. I loved this job. But as you can imagine, it's quite physically demanding and it could get pretty tiring at times. I quickly grew close to two of my co-workers. I'm still in contact with them to this day. One of my co-workers was very in touch with the spiritual aspect of things and I would describe them as being a medium.

I wonder what that's like, being a medium in the woods. Like does it tune everything out for you or are you suddenly tuned into different types of spirits? Like the forest is talking to you now.

Interesting.

We'll add them to our interview list.

[laughter]

Our late night show. Interview with a forest witch.

The forest witch?

Forest medium.

They have had a plethora of experiences throughout their life and we'd always chat about spooky nonsense while working which I adored. Okay, so now let me get into the story and there's going to be content warning for depictions of suicide.

Mhm.

Some small details are being excluded just to protect the family's identity. After a day of work, I got home after a 40-minute drive. I was decompressing

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from the day. I was doom scrolling on my phone. I was laying in bed and I got a snap notification from my co-worker. Their dad volunteered for emergency services in the town that we worked and he had to rush to the park due to an emergency. They were unsure of what type of emergency it was but just gave me some fair warning that the following work day this might come up. So, in my mind I thought, "Okay, possibly a lost camper, maybe a fire that had gotten a little out of control, worst case scenario someone crash on the curvy road." I arrived the next morning and I pull into the office. The energy was suffocating.

Oh, no.

A camper that we had all known had died that night by suicide.

Oh, so heartbreaking.

Again, I'm not going to go into detail out of respect, but my co-workers who responded to the emergency and the campers around the site were all incredibly traumatized.

Oh, no.

Even those who were not directly involved immensely affected. It was so heartbreaking and mentally draining and the effect spread through the rest of the summer. That campsite held a lean-to

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which was torn down and closed the rest of the season. Okay, now here's where the creepiness starts. In the following week, me and my spooky co-worker went to the lean-to that was closest to the one that we no longer used to clean it up after campers were staying there. So, while we're chatting and we're grabbing supplies, I walked to the other side of the structure. Inside was a little doll that looked straight out of the Blair Witch just hanging from the wall.

Like the stick dolls?

Yeah. It was made from plant material, almost like a vine, and not one that's found in our area.

Ooh, ooh.

Cuz I could see myself like doing it as like a little craft or like

Yeah.

doing it as a prank.

But something that doesn't even come from the land.

something that's brought in. I yelled at my co-worker to come check it out. She came rushing around the corner and told me, "Do not touch that." She told me without knowing the intention behind it, she wanted to remain careful while removing it. And this experience has been up there with one of the strangest things that I've seen. Me and my co-worker decided to keep what

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we found between us. But here's the creepier part. She took it home. She planned on burning it. She sat for about 20 minutes pouring lighter fluid on it. This was dry plant material, but it would not catch. She could not burn it. We had wondered if someone was maybe using it as protection and their energy was coming off of it, but the fact that it could not be destroyed ruled out that possibility. So, then there's three of us now who knew about this and all three of us had incredibly bad luck starting directly after this incident.

After trying to burn it?

Uh-huh. [clears throat]

And after moving it?

Mhm.

To keep it short, basically, all of these bad luck things uh were long-term relationships that ended, family health issues, relationship issues, mental health issues, everyone struggling immensely. I'd like to say we got it to stop, but we didn't. Everyone wrote it out to the end of the park season and my luck got a lot better as I didn't attend this year, but my co-workers who did

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stay at the park, it's the same for them and they're still struggling. The other part to this is that there's a young family member of the deceased who's had encounters and still speaks to them. But, that's not my story to tell. But, to summarize it, it is not a happy haunting. I feel as though the two events must be connected. With the timing, it just seems like it has to be. The incident was not in any media, but I feel deep down that someone was drawn to the energy in the park and almost used it to magnify their own bad intentions and energy. I don't know. I don't know much about witchcraft, but I do know that this doll was made with the intent to hurt others.

Ah. That's so upsetting.

Yeah. See you on the other side.

Natalie.

Uh Which is How do we reverse this?

Help. Help.

I That makes me so sad because clearly the loss is so upsetting and so heartbreaking and impactful to so many people and that alone leaves an energy on the land.

Yeah.

But for then someone to come in and put

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more negativity there? Or like maybe that wasn't their intention. I don't know.

I don't know. Just it not burning and stuff is And then the string of bad luck is But I'm like, what what would happen if they left it there? Was that supposed to be like a protective thing? I don't know. Someone send a witch to the woods to fix the bad juju that's happening to all of our

all of our friends.

that it's not just like a few weird things or like a quick string of bad luck, like that it's just following them, does make me feel like it was something really dark.

And that Natalie has been able because she's had distance from it is it's not impacting her as much now.

Right. I guess one thing that Natalie didn't answer is where is it now? If it couldn't be burned.

Good question.

Bury it? What happened to it?

Natalie, we have a couple questions. One, where? We won't share that with everyone else, but then two, where's the creepy entity?

Yeah.

Creepy

Or is she a crone?

Crone or hag skills. Okay, wait. I'm so

ghostly archeology

excited about this story. It is from our listener Smokey who goes by they/them

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for anonymity. But it is like a medium who is an archaeologist and a ghostly thing reveals a massive archaeological find.

What?

Yeah. Okay, that's my tease.

Okay. And also I love the name Smokey for a woods story.

Smokey the Bear.

Hi, how's it going Ghost This Is? Let me begin by saying that I considered myself a skeptic all my life until this unfolded. In my mid-20s, I took a job with the Federal Forest Service in Mississippi where I prepared areas for future timber sales. Over the winter months, it's not rare for most of the senior staff to take leave while the technicians continue projects. During one such winter, I was tasked with driving alone to the furthest part of my forest to collect some data on trees for a proposed sale. It was cold, lonely, it was repetitive work measuring tree diameter, height, species, you know. It all gets very repetitive when all the trees are the same size and same species. I was alone an hour or more

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from help in the middle of the woods. And even though that could be creepy, I never never felt spooky vibes or anything. In fact, I loved this job for letting me keep my own little naturalist hobbies, like birding, which I got to do while I was working. So fun. I listened to endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers while hiking through the woods all to myself. It was my own little heaven. During the winter months in this forest, the witch hazels bloomed, too, hinting at the coming spring even through the cold winter mornings. So, all this is to say that I wasn't new to the woods at the time of this story. But still, I could not explain what happened. A long winding gravel road got to the edge of the unit I'd be working in that day. I hiked down to an older overgrown road to a handful of data collection sites, which this is pretty standard as we won't upkeep the roads inside of sale units in between timber sales. So, you end up hiking along the remains of a old forest road. Right in the middle of this patch of woods, the furthest from the road, the furthest from my truck, I was

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continuing data collection until behind me, way too close for comfort, I heard a child laugh. Oh, in the middle of the like that's impossible. I turned around. You're so deep in. Terrifying. I turned around, saw no one, but it was so confusing because it sounded like a kid playing, like that infectious laugh that kids have when they're having a great time. I was so startled because I had been doing this work alone for almost two straight months and never heard anyone else in the woods with me. But here was this child laughing literally right behind my shoulder, but no one was there. Oh my god. Now, some of our That's so disturbing. Now, some of our units do back up to residential sites or rural residential sites, so I thought maybe it was a kid from a nearby house playing near the woods. But then I remembered the Forest Service owned all the land that touches this specific unit, except for one side, which has a massive farm field. Basically meaning that the closest house to that spot was no less than 2 to 10 miles.

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Unless they're riding on the back of Bigfoot and going on adventures together.

Whipping around right past you through dense pine plantations and rough terrain. So, I call out asking who's there. No one's there. No one answers. Had I really just heard a kid's laugh?

Ooh, I have the heebie-jeebies through this whole thing.

Was I hearing a ghost? Was it the fae? And remember, I was a skeptic, so all of my skeptical instincts kicked in. And I remember trying to rule everything out. One, wind was moderate that day, but the treetops made a sharp clocking sound when wind blew them into each other. But, I listened. I was hearing that. That's not what I heard.

Well, and also like this isn't your first day or first week out there. Like you're used to the sounds of the woods.

But, you're trying to rule out everything.

Right.

Two, but it's so out of place. Birds can be great mimics, but I had never heard a bird mimic human laughter, not that well in Mississippi. And I didn't see any starlings in the area, either. Three, if anyone was moving around those woods, they would be easy to hear with

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all the dry leaves on the ground. There was nothing. I was not able to explain it. And I was content to leave. So, fast forward

Content or eager?

Eager, probably. Sprinted out of there. Fast forward over a year. I'm still working as a forest service technician, but I got assigned to work with our archaeologist who was finishing up a survey. During their surveys, archaeologists dig holes along a grid looking for a cultural artifacts. Now, this was well over a year after the above experience when I heard the child laugh. So, we pull up to the exact same unit a year later. And I only had a vague sense that I had been here before, but throughout that day that sense got even stronger and stronger until I ended up in almost the exact same spot that I heard the laugh. As the archaeologist and I continued to dig, we got to the area where I had heard that laugh. And ding, our shovels hit brick. By the end of the day, we uncovered a large antebellum house site, its cistern, and nearly intact brick sidewalk.

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No.

Right.

Freaking way.

I heard that child.

Why did I think this whole time it was like some weird creepy cryptid? I never even considered that this used to be like a family property and it's the ghost of a little kid just like hanging out at their house.

Yeah.

[sighs]

What a find.

I thought the closest house was two and a half plus miles from me. How could I possibly have known that I was in the front yard of a house from 170 plus years ago?

god. Ooh, ooh, I literally I have chills.

Isn't this the coolest story?

ghost? Can they bring us to cool places, too? Like where's the house dinosaur?

So, that's my story. I hope you enjoyed. While I was with the Forest Service, I'd regularly listen to the podcast while hiking around and do my work. So, thank you for being part of my many, many nature walks with me. Stay spooky from Smokey.

This is the best story.

I know.

for a great story at like any dinners you're at, anytime you're meeting new people.

Yeah.

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Like that might be a talk at a wedding.

This might be the one that I start to pull up now when people are like, "I don't believe." And I'll be like, "Well, let me read you a story."

Yeah, cuz I feel like a lot of times people who don't believe, they're thinking of ghost stories as fitting this like one specific narrative. But like that is

So cool.

That's so cool.

A child's laugh in that spot, and then a year later, you find the remains of a house and a property where a child laughed and enjoyed a life.

Yeah, that is that's one of the coolest one of my favorite stories.

Yeah. Such a good pull.

I was very excited.

Oh my god.

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Lake Tahoe

Okay, well, we're going to venture all the way over to the West Coast to Lake Tahoe area for this one.

Fantastic.

Hi ladies, I want to preface this story by saying that I have been a lifelong skeptic of everything paranormal.

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Well, we welcome you.

Yeah.

And we've said it before and we'll say it again, sometimes the scariest emails are the ones from people who claim themselves to be skeptics.

Like skeptics of what?

Because because you just experienced some crazy paranormal [ __ ]

What are you What are you trying to explain away? Okay. Not to say I don't believe the perceived experiences of everyone who've had weird things happen to them, but I've always thought that there must just be some reasonable explanation for some of the stories of people who've heard bumps in the night.

I do agree that there should be some reasonable explanation, but we have not been able to find the reason yet.

Yeah.

Which is why it's paranormal. But they I think that science will be able to explain it. Yeah.

Accepted.

Yeah. That it is scientifically proven to be ghosts.

I mean, how do you believe in physics, but you don't believe in ghosts?

Good question.

[laughter]

Good question. What about gravity?

Also confusing.

Also invisible.

[laughter]

But something happened to me about 2 weeks ago that has completely shattered

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this previous worldview of mine. Since then, I've been obsessively researching anything that this could possibly be or anything similar to my experience, but I have yet to find anything like it.

Love it.

In this endeavor, I stumble across your channel, and I think, "Okay, this is the best place to share my story in hopes that maybe somebody will have something similar to share."

Ooh.

I love this. We came up in like the research of trying to figure out what what's going on. Okay, to begin, my family owns a cabin in northern California near Lake Tahoe. Our cabin is less than a mile away from one of the Donner Party camps where people starved to death

Yikes.

and resorted to cannibalism.

I have that on my list to cover. Or did you cover it?

No, I don't think I covered it.

Okay, I think it's on my list.

I covered Boon Island

Mhm.

in Maine, which had cannibalism, if that's what you're thinking of. Not sure if the Donner Party thing is relevant to the story at all, but being so close to one of these horrific events has always creeped me out nonetheless.

Very creepy.

I grew up coming to this cabin, and I have nothing but great memories there.

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That was until recently. I was there only with my mom and her two dogs for the week. She had a couple weeks off of work, and my job is remote, so she invited invited me up to the cabin for some quality mother-son time. And our third night there, my mom had gone to bed, and one of the dogs was scratching at the door to go to the bathroom. And note, the backyard of our cabin faces protected forest land, so basically, it's just woods for miles. So, I let my dog out. I walk out with him as I normally do so that he could go to the bathroom and I can keep an eye on him. Instead of meandering on out as he normally would to go do his business, he sprinted straight off into the forest barking.

No.

My immediate reaction was, "Oh [ __ ] he's on animal or something to go chase after."

Right.

So, I then ran after him.

Into the dark woods.

As I went after

It's so scary.

As I went after him, he was nowhere to be seen. And then about 50 yd away, I stopped to call out for him. I did so a

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couple of times. And as I was about to call out again, I heard a sound that I have been unable to rid my memory of since. I've tried so hard to explain it to people, and I failed every single time. The best way I can explain it is a cross between a distorted human scream and like a croak of a toad.

What?

It was so horrifying, such a weird combination that sounded familiar but so wrong at the same time. The worst part was that it wasn't some far off cry. It was extremely loud. It sounded like it was right behind a close tree. It was aggressive and in no way trying to disguise itself. It was so close, so loud, I didn't even think to freeze. I just started running back to the cabin immediately.

Good. Good instinct.

Yeah. And this is when the weirdest thing of this whole experience happened. After running for about 10 seconds, the air around me started to feel really thick and heavy. And an overwhelming tiredness came over me, and time seemed to slow. And it was like whatever it was

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was actively trying to keep me from getting back to safety.

I do hate that part.

I didn't hear the sound again, but I knew whatever it was that had made that sound was also the one causing this feeling.

Mhm.

Every part of me wanted to collapse and fall to the ground and take a rest.

It's very poppy field in Wizard of Oz.

Yeah. Well, it's also reminding me of just like, not to bring up Bigfoot every [laughter] chance I can, but like some of the stories, especially of kids who get lost in the woods, and they describe the hairy man carrying them and it's all There's a lot of like them napping and like sleeping and like gently opening their eyes and seeing this hairy creature.

Yeah.

So, I wonder if there is some sort of like magical ability to send away the energy.

Yeah.

Yeah, induce sleep. Or is your Is it your body your fight or flight kicking in so hard that like your brain is trying to make you black out so you don't remember what's going [laughter] on?

Oh god.

Okay, so every part of me wanted to collapse and fall to the ground. The last thing I remember, I'm trying with every bit of energy I have to keep going.

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And I don't know how, but somehow I made it back. Not remembering much about what happened, but that feeling that hit. I immediately ran. I woke up my mom. I'm crying. I'm trying to explain to her what happened. She's asking about the dog. I admit I I'd forgotten about him.

I was just going to ask too. What happened to the dog?

He writes, "Don't worry, he did come back to the house too. He was waiting by the front door."

Just abducted by aliens though for an hour.

To this day, my mom thinks that I had some sort of abnormal episode and that I was imagining the whole thing.

See, this is why you're a skeptic.

You grew up with it. You grew up with it.

But I could have never imagined that sound or that sensation. I'm convinced something out there was trying to hurt me. Again, I've researched so much and I've found nothing similar to this. I don't know if it was some sort of singular entity or if anyone else has had a similar experience, but please let me know. All the best to you girls and all the people's stories that you share in the show. It has certainly made me feel less crazy. From Connor.

Connor, you are not crazy. And from a I'm going to approach this with you

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skeptic wise. Yeah, if we want to have ruled it out, listen to every animal sound in Tahoe. Cuz like what? Coyotes and stuff sometimes sound like screaming ladies.

Yeah.

Like listen to different sounds of animals that you know are in Tahoe that have screams to rule it all out. If we're going skeptic approach first. Once you've done that, let's all agree, yeah, it was something paranormal.

Yeah, and if there are there any bodies of water near you too? Cuz I'm thinking about like some of the birds. [snorts]

Mhm.

You know, like if someone heard a loon for the first time, they'd be like, "What the [ __ ] is that?"

But they're like woman scream with the like croaking of it.

[gasps]

Also, when you go to the paranormal side, I'm not sure that this will quite align with what you've described. But if you search the Sierra Nevada sounds,

Mhm.

you can hear some California Bigfoot calls that have yet to be debunked

[laughter]

um and are attributed to Bigfoots in the area.

Yeah. And then, let's just look up what cryptids are in Tahoe, cuz

Mhm.

it might very well might be a cryptid.

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Yeah. Well, now I want to look that up.

Okay. Go do a little Google.

Cryptids in Tahoe.

Probably a lot of them. Woah, you have your own

What?

Tahoe Tessie. They have their own lake monster. Did we know this?

Tahoe Tessie?

Tahoe Tessie.

I like the alliteration.

You know, it makes sense because of course.

Does Tessie scream and croak?

that it's a large sturgeon. Stop blaming everything on a sturgeon, you guys.

Wait, you said body of water is What if the Tessie has a screaming croak?

Mhm.

Well, if Tessie is related to Nessie, Nessie or Champ in uh Vermont, New York, then it would be more echolocation like like the clicks.

Mhm.

Dolphin-like.

Anyone speak dolphin? Mhm. Where's Dory when you need her? Yeah, we don't have answers for you, but I think we would all agree, everyone here probably would agree something paranormal.

Uh yeah, but people hearing the description of that call, I wonder if some people are going to be like, "Oh, that is exactly what what I heard."

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We'll report back. Connor, if we hear from anyone, we will let you know.

This is our investigation. Our new goal.

In the comments of this episode, let us know if you have any theories on what this was.

Mhm.

And until then, I have one more story, but don't worry, it's not the last one if you're a Patreon member, because if you are a Patreon member, we have a bonus story this episode, also Appalachia Woods themed that will be available for only Phantoms the day this comes out. Raise your hand if you

Kepos

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39:00

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Night shit in a haunted prison with video evidence

Um this is also Appalachia. It is from our listener Grace and it is called I covered a night shift as a correctional officer and something followed me home in Appalachia. Hi, my name is Grace. I'm 22. I've been a fan of your podcast for 2 years now and would love to share my story. I've never really been a firm believer in ghosts, but I've always leaned toward

40:00

enjoying the stories more than really believing in them. Although I did grow up in some creepy houses, but I never had a moment that made me really fully think this is real until this night. And since then, things have been different. We should do a skeptic to believer thing.

Oh, that's a good That's a good one. For context, I grew up in East Tennessee, deep in Appalachia. It's a kind of place where everything is quiet, surrounded by mountains and woods, where nights get really dark and really still. There are a lot of older homes, a lot of land, and a lot of stories that get passed around. People there grew up hearing things, seeing things, and you kind of learn to not question it much, or well, not even bring it up. I finally feel safe enough to share this now because I just moved to Florida. And since moving, I have not had anything happen at all. But when this happened, I was working My brain just went like the real horrors are the people of Florida. I was like

Florida man wrestles

That's where bath

alligator

salts didn't the cannibalism bath salts

41:00

happen in Florida? Yeah. Okay, so when this happened, I was living in Appalachia, working as a corrections officer, and I usually worked the day shift, but this was the first and only time I got pulled into night shift. So for context, there is a lot of death that happens in this jail, especially recently with the fentanyl epidemic getting into the facility despite everything we've tried to stop it. So, yeah, this jail has had a real body count within its walls.

Oh, so scary.

So sad. Our job involved doing

Which Sorry, not to like go on like a drug tangent, but I feel like like even in our time of being younger and youth and like fentanyl was like just starting to be laced into things, I feel like just trying to be a young adventurous recreational young adult is like the scariest thing you you just don't

I know I know too many people who have died.

Well, cuz like normal pet like oh, you want to study for a college at your

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upcoming like test, and you just try to get some

Yeah. Don't Don't do drugs, kids.

and then like you're dead. It's so terrifying.

Okay, so our job involved doing hourly rounds. Every hour we physically walked through each assigned pod, visually confirmed that every inmate was there, scanned a checkpoint mounted on the wall. This scanner was proof that we completed our round at the correct time, and if it wasn't scanned, basically it didn't count. In between these rounds, we monitored everything from a central station. We controlled doors electronically, we watched cameras, and even watched one another. So, our male counterpart would do his rounds while we watched him on camera, and then when we did our rounds, he would watch us on the camera. Basically, the point with every always someone observing.

Yeah, yeah, good. Safety.

And there are videos.

Oh, [ __ ] Okay, I had to pull up this email so I can see.

So, most of my pods were single cell units, where inmates were locked down and everything stayed quiet. But, there was one area called GX, which was different. This had an open day room, and that pod always felt off. So, at

43:00

first, it wasn't even me who noticed anything. My co-worker Lexi pointed out that when I went into GX, there was a white blob on the camera that looked like it was following me, which I laughed it off. But, after that, I couldn't shake the feeling. And every time I walked into GX, it felt like someone was awake watching me, even though I could clearly see everyone was asleep. I would shine my flashlight across the beds just to confirm, and I'd see mouths open, eyes closed. I even annoyed inmates with how often I checked. But, still, something didn't feel right. It felt like something was pushing me through the pod.

Oh.

Like I didn't belong there. Then, one night

They're better than me. I would wake up every inmate and be like, "I'm scared. Something's happening. We all need to be awake and figure out what's going on. Do you guys feel this, too?

Then, one night I was watching the cameras. Now, we have heat signature cameras that would outline anything that registered as a person, which helped differentiate movement from light or

44:00

shadows.

And it's just like high surveillance.

It's smart. I'm glad they have it. I'm watching the GX camera when I see a white thing moving freely across the room and the system boxed it like it was a human figure. I watched it move all night. After that, every round into that area in GX felt worse. I rushed through it. I scanned the wall checkpoint, got out as fast as I could. When shift change came and Lexi came in to relieve me, who she had never worked nights before, I joked with her about how creeped out I had been all night and she laughed it off. Shift change was 5:30. Count usually happens around 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. so it doesn't interrupt breakfast. So, I stayed on the cameras while she went to go do her count. Everything looked normal at first. She went into GX, started scanning and counting and radioed it in. But right as she radioed in, I saw it again. This thing appeared from the top of the wall, floated down and sat on the bunk closest to the door. Sat on the bunk. This bunk was actually occupied and I even told

45:00

the inmate about it the next shift in a joking way because I was so shaken, but you know, I was trying to cope. Not my proudest moment. [clears throat] At the time, Lexi had no idea what I was seeing. Her scan failed on the first attempt, which sometimes happens, so she had to turn around, go back and as she passed the bunk again, the figure that had sat on the bunk got off the bed and followed Lexi into the darkness.

Oh my god.

That is when I knew it wasn't something random. This thing was intentional and it followed her. When she came back from the count, I was so freaked out that I immediately showed her the video and her face went completely white. I could tell it scared her badly and that she didn't want to go back into that pod after seeing it.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to either.

But what messed with me the most is what happened after. So, I still had to go back into GX one last time to complete my final count. This is all happening in one night, too. Which this was policy. I had to confirm my starting and ending numbers matched. But I didn't want to go back in there after what I saw. When I stepped inside GX, it was freezing. And this is June around 5:00 a.m. in a poorly insulated

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jail where it's normally warm and humid, but it was cold. And then I felt something touch my shoulder. And I heard, clear as day, a voice say, "You shouldn't have done that." Excuse me? Immediately, the temperature went back to normal. I jumped. I scanned. I left quickly, and I even woke up a couple of inmates accidentally with how fast I was moving. I finished my shift. I left. I don't even remember the drive home. It was a 12-hour shift. I was exhausted mentally and physically, and when I got home, I lived in a camper to save money, and it had this built-in radio system that I'd never used. I wasn't even sure the radio worked because I never used it. I'm winding down, trying to go to sleep when, out of nowhere, jazz music starts blasting through the speakers. Not static, not a radio station tuning in, but a clear clip of New Orleans-style jazz. I got to the radio immediately, and it is off. Like, there was dust still settled on the buttons. I panicked. I

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ran outside, and from there I could hear the music getting louder inside the camper, and then suddenly, it stopped.

I can't decide if this is like a good spirit that's just making their presence known or if this is like some weird, like a threat, like you shouldn't have done it, and then they're

I don't know.

axe murderer from the '20s when jazz music was It's like, "I'm hunting you now."

[gasps]

I mean, it does sound like there's been a lot of deaths in this facility. It probably is someone who's died there. I don't know. Maybe that "You shouldn't have done that" was like about like talking to themself about taking a drug or doing something. I don't know.

Shouldn't have committed [clears throat] the crime. You You shouldn't have done that.

I don't know.

I'm into my jazz theory now cuz now I'm remembering about like the murderer who did like they would play jazz music at night, too. Everyone was advised to play jazz music to keep the murderer away.

Cuz they didn't like jazz music?

He cuz he loved jazz music or something. So, it was like if you played jazz music at night

No, I think he like wrote in. I'm misremembering a a bunch, I'm sure, but I think he wrote in to newspapers like,

48:00

"If you play jazz, like you know

I'll leave you alone."

It's crazy.

Okay, so since that night I've had small things happen that never used to. Nothing constant, but it was enough to notice. So, I really do believe that that spirit came home with me. Like I said before, prior to this, I really only had one or two minor experiences, nothing that I really fully believed in, but after this night, I am a full believer. I've been holding onto this story for years, and it happened when I was 19, and I'm 22 now. I've attached the videos from that night. I would love to hear what you think. It still genuinely unsettles me to this day. Sorry for the audio in the clips. I was honestly just overwhelmed and trying to capture everything as it happened. The first video was taken earlier in the shift around 3:00 a.m. when I first noticed something was off, but wasn't too alarmed yet. And the second video is what confirmed it for me. Thanks for reading. See you on the other side from Grace.

Okay. Should we watch the first one?

Oh, there it is.

Do you see it just kind of like floating across?

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[laughter]

Uh-oh, she's going back for it. There it is. There it is. See it? Look.

I I love it.

And there's nobody there.

First thought, I was like, "Oh, what if it's the light reflection from her cell phone?" But when she comes back, you can

see Wait, that one's even more

Ooh.

Hold on.

Ooh.

Wait, that looks so much more Look. You can see it's sitting there. And it gets up. Like you see more of a body there.

Oh, god, when it's sitting, and then it becomes more like orb-like, but it's not even an orb. It's like a little

Like a face.

string. Yeah.

Okay, that's one.

Cuz when she was walking back, at first I was like, "Well, is her phone shining or something?"

Right.

But she was that you can see her like with the two

angles

angles of the camera. Like she the the phone is on her.

It's like the other one.

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Look, she she not there is a [ __ ] demon. See that little white thing? There's nobody right there. There's nobody. No one's in the hallway.

I'm sorry. I could never have this job cuz I wouldn't keep it to myself. I would be broadcasting it throughout the entire prison. I would set up projectors and be like someone explain this. There it is.

Who was using a makeshift Ouija board at lunch today?

I'm also just so curious to comment something

about the inmates here, what they they experience. They have to sleep here all night.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's so interesting.

What is it? But that I shouldn't have done this. I shouldn't have done that.

You shouldn't have done [clears throat] that. You shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't have done that.

Places are haunted.

People are haunted.

Appalachia is haunted.

Yeah.

The woods are creepy and so are you and we love you.

And if you want another story, do you want to tease what your next one is?

Yeah, sure. I'll give you a teaser. I'll give you a little teaser.

Because on Patreon we have a full-length bonus episode every single month that's

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available, but we also pull two extra stories per month from encounters to share with our Patreon listeners.

Okay, teaser. I'll just read the subject line. Appalachia, apparitions, visions of snakes and skulls, a creepy baby doll, and more.

Wow, there's a lot. Okay, got a lot.

So yeah, see you over on Patreon, but if not, um we love you and we hope that you love us. Um say it back. And that you want to know how you say it back is you rate and review us or you tell all your friends, family, strangers, anyone who you can possibly tell, anyone who's willing to listen about our podcast.

Thank you to Jamie Ryan who edits and produces our podcast. We could not do any of this without Jamie.

No, we cannot.

And thank you to all of you.

And we will see you on the other side.

Very smooth.