#27. Paugan Falls, Quebec. 2013.

Ghost stories! Everybody likes a creepy story told around the campfire. We have had a few strange experiences while out on the trail. I seem to be more sensitive to whatever these may be than Reid but we have both had that creepy, the-hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck stands up, cold shadow passing over you kind of feeling. There's no good explanation for these things. Everything we experience is interpreted, or even created by our brain and maybe we're just all wired a little differently. There are stories we don't talk about much at all, but what the heck, here we go: ghost stories....

I once had what might be called a vision when we were inspecting a possible campsite near the remnants of an old logging camp on the Spanish River. I had a very clear image of a man in a cabin with a badly broken leg moaning incessantly. Very vivid, very weird. I told Reid and it freaked him and we hurriedly left, heading much farther down river before pitching our tent.

On the lower part of the Bloodvein we climbed up to a spectacular open, moss covered campsite on river left with a beautiful view of the river. As the sun set we each wandered off in different directions to check out this beautiful A+ site. It didn't take long for us to reconvene, each of us visibly alarmed and thoroughly and utterly spooked. No words were needed. We said our peace to whatever had completely unnerved us and got the heck out of there, fast.

And then there was the one on the Noire. It was late. It was dark. I was at the campsite with friends and Reid had gone down to the river's edge to filter water. As I sat by the fire I was suddenly overwhelmed and enveloped in a feeling of concern, even dread for Reid, but I felt paralyzed and incapable to act. At the same time Reid had stopped filtering water and was being lulled by voices he heard in the rapids. He said he had never had anything like that happen before or since, but the river was calling to him, inviting him in. It was a very seductive, powerful feeling that was trying to draw him in to the turbulent waters. He stood at the very edge of the rocks mesmerized for at least 10 minutes while I was frozen in place at the campfire. Then the spell broke, he returned to the fire, and we all called it a night. We said nothing and slept surprisingly well that night. The next morning it wasn't until we were a good 2 hours away from that place that Reid finally said "something really weird happened last night" and I said "really? Me too". And then there was that time the zombies....ok not really.😁 But do you have any haunted campsite stories?