Shelters or specific areas on the trail that give you the creeps...

[bobgessner57]

I spent the night with the dude a couple of days before he went off. The guy stood out as a colorful character, great storyteller. He had an old canvas rucksack and a bunch of stuff like a wood and canvas camp stool, his hatchet, and other heavy stuff. He looked like the Hollywood stereotype of a grizzled prospector from goldrush days. He said he had been out west trying to find the Lost Dutchman gold mine. He was real nice to me and shared a big wad of peanut butter candy he had made. I believe that was at Abingdon Gap or Iron Mtn shelter. He was heading south and I was running low on food nobo to Damascus. I was spooked when I found out what he had done so soon after just the two of us had shared a shelter. Things you don't tell your mama, especially when you are 17 and hiking solo.

[rickb]

Some years ago there was so many problems with paranormal activity around Dudley Town, CT that they had to reroute the AT. The locals now maintain a rather strict security perimiter to keep everyone safe, but the old trails in still exist.

http://www.ghostvillage.com/legends/dudleytown.htm

[oldfivetango]

Found it:

April 1975—Thru-hiker Janice Balza, 22, of Madison, Wisconsin, was killed by a hatchet wielded by hiker/tree surgeon Paul Bigley, 51, after breakfast at a shelter in northeast Tennessee. He died in state prison in Nashville. He killed her for her pack, a brand he coveted, testimony revealed.

From the ATC web pages

Are there anytother details on this one?I read about it either on the ATC
site or a link to that site.All it indicates is that he wanted her pack.
I wonder if he had any kind of past history in mental illnes or what and whether or not she was hiking alone?
Oldfivetang

[Mouse]

What gives me the creeps? Any Privy that is heaped above the seat!

[One Leg]

Are there anytother details on this one?I read about it either on the ATC
site or a link to that site.All it indicates is that he wanted her pack.
I wonder if he had any kind of past history in mental illnes or what and whether or not she was hiking alone?
Oldfivetang

Google Search revealed the following:

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~balza...alza_story.htm
Rites Set For Victim Of Slaying
Green Bay Sentinel

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Green Bay, Wis. - Private services will be held in the Malcore Funeral Home here Tuesday night for hatchet murder victim Janice K. Balza, 22 of Green Bay.
Her body was returned here from Tennessee.

Paul W. Bigley, 51, of Tucson, Ariz., charged with first degree murder in the slaying is scheduled to appear in Carter County (Tennessee) Court for a preliminary hearing Friday. he is in custody at Elizabethan, Tenn., in lieu of $10,000 Bond.

Tennessee authorities said that Bigley surrendered to the Carter County sheriff Saturday and allegedly confessed that he killed Miss Balza with a hatchet early last week as she sat near his campfire at a shelter on the Appalachian Trail near Elizabethan. Authorities said he gave no motive for the slaying.

Miss Balza who was graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Nursing in January had been hiking on the trail since late February, authorities said.


Other murders along the trail:

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA...5/06050359.htm


THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606050359
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
LENGTH: 134 lines


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

APPALACHIAN TRAIL'S NEW OBSTACLE - FEAR
You meet a hardy lot along the Appalachian Trail, some of whom are intent on braving all the perils of 2,159 miles of woods and mountains on a hike from Maine to Georgia.

But the slayings of two women - both accomplished backpackers and campers - just off the trail in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park has shaken people who sought peace and challenge in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

``I'm definitely going to be looking over my shoulder on this hike,'' said Cindy Clymer, 42, of Charlotte, who was hiking with her husband and their 21-month-old son near Dark Hollow Falls off the scenic Skyline Drive. ``I don't know who's going to get me out there.''

Park rangers found the bodies of Julianne Williams, 24, of St. Cloud, Minn., and Lollie Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine, Saturday in a backcountry campsite off a side trail within three miles of the popular Skyland Lodge.

Autopsies revealed that the women died after their throats were cut, but investigators refused to say whether they had been sexually assaulted. A golden retriever named Taj, which had been with the women on the trail, was found unharmed in the woods nearby.

Knowledgeable hikers said it's important to keep the murders in perspective.

The Appalachian Trail Conference, an organization based in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., that maintains and manages the trail, says4 million people visit or hike the trail each year, yet there have been only nine murders on or near it in 22 years.

``There is an expectation sometimes that the trail is a sanctuary from the creeps of the world, and it's not,'' said Brian King, a spokesman for the group.

``People should always keep their street smarts with them,'' King said. ``I think if people take normal precautions about strangers, that will serve them well.''

The enormously popular trail draws hikers from all over the Eastern seaboard, including Hampton Roads.

``We have a very, very active hiking community here,'' said Lillie Gilbert, owner of Wild River Outfitters, an outdoor-supply store in Virginia Beach.

Local hikers are ``extremely concerned'' about the murders, she said.

One of her employees, Kenny Harrah, is on the trail now. He set out from southwestern Virginia in early May, bound for the trail's northern end at Mount Katahdin, Maine.

Harrah telephoned Gilbert on Tuesday from northern Pennsylvania. He hadn't heard about the murders in Virginia.

But ``he said it would not change his attitude about hiking the trail,'' Gilbert said. She said Harrah told her: ``You've always got to be careful, stay alert and be aware of what's around you.''

Reese Lukei, past president of the Tidewater Appalachian Trail Club, said violence on the trail attracts disproportionate attention because it is so unusual.

``The reason, I guess, it gets so much attention is that it's the last place in the world you'd ever expect something like this to happen,'' he said.

Both victims were trained wilderness camping and hiking guides.

``They wanted to help other people learn to be in the outdoors,'' said Peggy Willens, spokeswoman for Woodswomen, a Minneapolis, Minn.-based adventure-travel vacation organization for women.

The women worked as interns for the group last summer, leading outdoor programs in Minnesota.

``They were both very experienced outdoorswomen,'' Willens said.

Cindy Clymer was so frightened and angry about the slayings that she and her husband decided not to camp in the Shenandoah National Park on Tuesday night.

``That person could still be lurking around,'' Clymer said.

Porter Teejarden, 23, of Providence, R.I., and two of her girlfriends thought twice about continuing their hike in Virginia when they heard about the slayings.

``For women it's real depressing because men don't have to worry about this half as much,'' Teejarden said.

Park officials and trail organizations already have begun receiving calls from people worried about loved ones on the trail.

``I've gotten calls mostly from parents who are nervous. This morning I got a call from a man in Vermont who was very worried about his 18-year-old daughter, who is hiking the trail alone,'' said Wilson Riley, director of administration of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club.

Nobody has canceled reservations for primitive cabins the club maintains along the trail, but hikers are much more safety-conscious, Riley said.

``People are asking us, `What should we do,' and we tell them to take whatever precautions they feel are necessary,'' Riley said. ``You are alone and out of sight of others and if someone has criminal intent, there's really no one around to witness it.''

Murder usually comes in pairs along the Appalachian Trail. Of the nine people killed on or near the trail since 1974, all but three died in double slayings, according to the Appalachian Trail Conference. In another case, two women were attacked but one survived.

In 1990, hikers were warned to stay off the trail in Pennsylvania after a young couple ``through-hiking'' - walking the trail's entire length - were slain in a mountaintop shelter in Perry County, Pa. Paul David Crews of LaRue, S.C., is awaiting execution in Pennsylvania for those killings.

Two years before, a man frightened two women off the trail and shot them in Michaux State Forest in south-central Pennsylvania. One woman died.

Stephen Roy Carr was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the shootings.

In May 1981, a man and woman through-hiking from Maine to Georgia were killed in a remote lean-to near Pearisburg, Va. Randall Lee Smith, who pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the deaths, is due for mandatory release from a Virginia prison in September.

A Wisconsin woman hiking the trail was hacked to death by a hatchet-wielding man at a Tennessee shelter in April 1975; her attacker died in prison. A 26-year-old man was killed at a shelter in Georgia in May 1974.

The ``A.T.'' occasionally has presented other perils. In 1990, through-hikers were warned not to camp along a 14-mile stretch of the footpath in Tennessee after fish-hook booby traps appeared there, apparently the work of local landowners embroiled in a dispute with the federal government. A trail shelter was burned to the ground along the same stretch of trail that summer.

Last year, there were 15 homicides in national parks, which cover 83 million acres, said National Park Service spokeswoman Anita Clevenger. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by staff writer Bill Sizemore

and The Associated Press. ILLUSTRATION: Autopsies revealed that hikers Julianne Williams,

left, and Lollie Winans died after their throats were cut.

MURDERS ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL

The trail stretches 2,159 miles from Maine to Georgia.

May 1974: Joel Polsom, 26, killed.

April 1975: Janice Balza, 22, killed in a Tennessee shelter.

May 1981: Susan Ramsey, 27, and Robert Mountford, 27, killed in a

remote lean-to.

May 1988: Rebecca Wight, 29, of Blacksburg, Va., frightened off

trail and shot.

Sept. 1990: Molly LaRue, 25, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, and

Geoffrey Hood, 26, shot

May 1996: Julianne Williams, 24, of St. Cloud, Minn., and Lollie

Winans, 26, of Unity, Maine, killed at a campsite off a side trail.

Assailant(s) unknown.

Source: Appalachian Trail Conference

KEYWORDS: MURDER APPALACHIAN TRAIL

[Nightwalker]

What gives me the creeps? Any Privy that is heaped above the seat!

Thanks for the wonderful picture, Mouse.

[Rift Zone]

In truth, the creepiest place I encountered was Uncle Johnny's in Erwin, TN. Holy Shat! You say one wrong word and you are in the middle of the freakin twilight zone! Freak! UJ You are a fuken freak!

[steve hiker]

In truth, the creepiest place I encountered was Uncle Johnny's in Erwin, TN. Holy Shat! You say one wrong word and you are in the middle of the freakin twilight zone! Freak! UJ You are a fuken freak!

You mean like political comments? What sets him off? Give some examples.

[Lucy Lulu]

Well, I was going to refer family and friends to this site for more information. With my luck this would be the first thread they check out. I leave in 23 days, and certainly don't want to scare them to death!

Mayfly

[zephyr1034]

The "blair witch house" in VA ( the place with the handprints on the walls)

================================================== ===========

Maryland, not Virginia. The Crampton Gap Shelter is roughly a half mile north of Gathland State Park. The road through the state park goes to Burkittsville in about a mile. That's where the cemetery is. However, the rest of the movie was filmed in Montgomery and Baltimore Counties, Maryland. Even so, those woods around the shelter seemed eerie when I took a quick hike there a couple of Novembers ago.

I haven't heard anything about Dudleytown CT in a long time. I thought the trail had been rerouted along the Housitanic River because it was a better location. At that time, the old AT through Dudleytown became a blue blaze. Then it was closed and placed off limits. Does anyone know Dudleytown's status now?

[A-Train]

================================================== ===========

Maryland, not Virginia. The Crampton Gap Shelter is roughly a half mile north of Gathland State Park. The road through the state park goes to Burkittsville in about a mile. That's where the cemetery is. However, the rest of the movie was filmed in Montgomery and Baltimore Counties, Maryland. Even so, those woods around the shelter seemed eerie when I took a quick hike there a couple of Novembers ago.

I haven't heard anything about Dudleytown CT in a long time. I thought the trail had been rerouted along the Housitanic River because it was a better location. At that time, the old AT through Dudleytown became a blue blaze. Then it was closed and placed off limits. Does anyone know Dudleytown's status now?

No, Cutman is correct. Two different places. He is refering to the Sarver Cabin in Virginia where the hand prints are. But there are handprints in the cabin in Blair Witch, which took places in Burkittsville, a couple miles from the AT.

[DMA, 2000]

My first night on the trail gave me a few creeps. I was staying at Stover Creek Shelter in a massive rain and thunder storm. I wasn't sleeping well, from the noise of the thunder and the early bedtime. Somehow, I started letting my imagination get going, and I really didn't want to sit up and look outside the shelter. I became convinced that in a flash of lightning I'd see someone sitting on the picnic table, grinning at me, and then he'd be gone at the next flash of lightning.

A few days later, I had a hard hot day ended with my fighting my way up Blood Mountain. Right as I approached the summit, the sun started to slip away, and it was almost instantly gloomy and cold. I shouted, "Anyone here?" towards the shelter, but my voice seemed to go nowhere. I don't know why, but the place really gave me the willies. I was pretty happy when a couple of other thru-hikers showed up a little bit later, and then a few day-hikers showed up for dinner. Of course there was a reason to be afraid at Blood Mountain shelter: that damn skunk terrorized us all night.

[Chantilly Lace]

While on a day hike on the NY AT last fall I stopped in at RPH Shelter (section 6). It was a three sided cinder bunker located at a trail crossing at Hortontown Rd. It appeared to be a place for local yokels to hang out at. Inside there were religious things and items that appeared to be used in conjuction with drug use. Fortunately I was not expecting to stay the night for my intuition told me it was not at all safe. I wouldn't stay there if there were security guards!
Pokemom

[cutman11]

Yes, I most definitely was referring to the place in VA, since I havent hiked north of the Shenandoah NP yet.....or maybe I was transported there by aliens on that foggy day on the trail last year when I walked past the house with the handprints........

[Panama Red]

just hope L.Wolf and BJ dont get too mad at me
i thought about the poll when i read the post on the 'murders on the AT' and reflected back to when i did pass Wapiti...i remember thinking how wrong murder is on the trail, thinking it belongs in big cities and the real world, but in so many ways the trail is even more real world isnt it?

i personally don't think murders belong anywhere

[MedicineMan]

but that doesnt mean i'm not looking for the possibility everywhere, just part of being prepared

I'm sure MedicineMan doesn't think it BELONGS anywhere in society. I think what he's saying is you expect it in big cities.

[MedicineMan]

just before Blood Mtn thinking of all the Indians who died in that battle and three weeks ago when I walked the battlefield at Shiloh, unimaginable a place like the Hornet's Nest...

Antietam Creek Shelter was really spooky. The Shelter is just down stream from Antietam Battlefield. It was really spooky to think about that creek running red with blood. I sat there staring at the stream thinking about the thousonds of men that were killed just a short distance away.

[MedicineMan]

is known locally as a place where Satanists gather to practice their craft...

Unaka Mountain. There is just something about it that chills me. Naturally, I try and turn it back to something natural by dropping trou whenever I pass through.

[MedicineMan]

walking in footsteps is always on my mind when i walk the AT...like Smith Roach Gap and the number of times Stonewall J. passed there, sometimes i picture them too and catch my breath.

Sitting on the 'shelf' on the outside of Overmountain, all alone, watching the rain, and seeing the clouds curling, surf-like as they silently blew over the mountain, I could feel spirits of the "Overmountain Men" marching down the Overmountain Trail to meet the British. I'm not being poetic here, folks. They were there.

The Weasel

[RITBlake]

Some years ago there was so many problems with paranormal activity around Dudley Town, CT that they had to reroute the AT. The locals now maintain a rather strict security perimiter to keep everyone safe, but the old trails in still exist.

http://www.ghostvillage.com/legends/dudleytown.htm

Dudley Town is NO joke. I've been there once and it was the strangest/creepiest I've ever felt. Hair on the neck, heart pumping, feeling somethig/someone next to you, putting there hands on you etc... If you have any interest in this type of thing Dudley Town is a must see. They will tow your car 24 hours a day and it is now located on private property so you have to walk a ways to go in. I'm not condoning this but ya know...Make sure you bring a camera, the results are always ...... interesting?