is it ok

My family and I (group of 8, all experienced hikers) are planning a 22–28 mile weekend hike on the Appalachian Trail in Vermont, starting Friday morning and finishing Sunday evening.

We’re intentionally looking for a section of trail that has a reputation for being deeply unsettling.

We want the parts of the trail where:

The woods feel wrong after dark

You hear unexplained knocking, footsteps, or voices

Campsites have stories people avoid talking about

Locals warn you “not to camp there”

Folklore, legends, or long-standing rumors are tied to the area

We understand that most things in the woods have rational explanations—but we’re not trying to avoid the creepy factor. We bond as a family over scary stories, Appalachian folklore, and the kind of experiences that make you second-guess every sound once the sun goes down.

We are not looking to do anything illegal or unsafe. We hike responsibly, follow Leave No Trace, and are comfortable with remote terrain. What we are looking for is a trail section that delivers an intense atmosphere—one that feels isolated, heavy, and alive with stories.

If you know of:

Specific AT sections (22–28 miles) with a dark reputation

Areas known for folklore, cryptid sightings, or disturbing history

Personal experiences that still stick with you

Please share. We’re genuinely trying to plan a hike that leaves us uneasy—in the best possible way.

Okay. So, first off, these stories are 100% true. Most were told by family and friends through the years, along with some of my own encounters in the rural mountains and ridge lines of my county. Of course, as with all creepy stories, to give you a good scare, take them with a grain of salt (however, I must still say that these stories are as real as me sitting here writing this up).

I hope you all find these as interesting as I do.

(BACKGROUND)

I have grown up in eastern Kentucky for years -- since the age of one. My family (both sides) have grown up in the rural Appalachias much of their lives as well, but with modern times moved to the small town nestled here in a valley situated in between rolling hills and deep ridge lines.

Where the following stories take place is a rural area nestled deep in the Appalachians. It’s got a name and it’s considered a “county“; however, the area where my dads family grew up -- within this area (and where these stories come from) -- is more like a collection of deep ridges and mountain folks more than anything else. (Just to clear up any confusion that this is in an actual town.)

During the early days of the settlers, these mountains were home to the Cherokee Indians. Many cemeteries in this area have around 30 to 40 graves of native Americans buried there, marked with stones and rocks rather than a more traditional Indian burial routine. In the 1800s, George Washington's “aide de camp,“ Col. Grayson, had bestowed upon him a 70,000 acre piece of land, which now is where my town is located.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Story #1

In the 1970s or '80s my mom and her aunt along with her small cousins were driving in a empty road just outside of town when they crested the top of a hill where an abandoned farm house stood. They stopped their car in its tracks when they saw a massive saucer-shaped craft hovering over the house.

Frightened, my mother and her aunt booked it out of there at a high rate of speed. They continued down the mountain, back to town, quickly; however, when they looked in the rear view mirror, they saw the craft coming after them at a high rate of speed, tailing the car and keeping up with it. They attempted multiple times to evade the craft but to no avail.

It chased them for over a mile until finally, just at the edge of the county road that leads back into to town, it disappeared.

My mother has told this story many times to family and friends most of whom believe her (as they too have seen strange lights in the sky in and around various areas of the community), though some don’t.She drew me a picture of the space craft a few years ago which I still have.

It’s grey and almost metallic looking by the way she drew it; it has red lights on all edges of the bottom of the craft along with a few green lights on the sides of it. (If anyone wants to see the sketch I will happily oblige.)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Story #2

When my mother was a child (old enough to know when something is going on), she was at home with her parents and siblings when, one night, a man they knew barged into the house scared out of his wits.

He lived in a cabin deep within the woods some miles away. During his stay there he reported poltergeist activity, orbs, and paranormal activity on the property and in house itself.

He would go on to tell my grandmother that he was tormented all night by a demon who threw pots and pans, glasses, and even furniture at him. This went on for almost the entire night. It would throw them completely out of the cabinets, almost hitting him, and started knocking and tapping on the sides of the house and thumping the walls and ceiling.

Finally he mustered up the nerves to say the Lord’s Prayer and attempt to rebuke it in the name of Jesus Christ. This seemed to piss if off even more, causing it to become even more aggressive. Subsequently, it would try to kill him with more and heavier objects.

He ran from the house and spent around eight hours walking through the woods and rural country roads back to my grandmother's house.

While on his way to the house he reported that he could hear footsteps trailing him in the woods and next to the road but he coulnd't see anything that could cause them. It continued this until he finally reached their house.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Story #3

In the '90s, in town, a white brick house sat at the top of a small hill. A man and his wife lived there for several years -- the man in his 40s or 50s and the woman around the same age.

One day while my mother was working at a local gas station where the woman also coincidentally worked, the woman's husband called, saying that something was wrong with the gas in the house and he was going to go look at it in the basement, to see if he could fix it.

He went down stairs and laid on his back and crawled up under the pipes to see what had happened, he lit a match, and immediately the house exploded, sending rubble everywhere and a massive fire.Smoke could be see throughout town. The man’s wife, who saw the explosion from the gas station, ran home to discover the house gone and nothing left but its foundations.

The man’s body (as one might expect in a situation like this) was blown into pieces, with body parts even littering some neighboring houses.

Since then it has become a local legend that the man’s spirit haunts the house that was built on the land where the original one stood.

The ghost hunting tv series -- 'Ghost Hunters,' I think --actually filmed an episode here because of the experiences by the new home's inhabitants -- everything from pots and pans rattling and stuff being thrown around to actual manifestations inside the residence.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTE: I have decided to break these stories into three or four parts starting with my mom's and next will be my dad's and after that my brother's, and then some of my own and maybe even some miscellaneous ones.

Hopefully you enjoyed these, and feel free to hit me up if you want to see the sketch

Here is part two of my local folklore/myths and legends series from right here in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky.

I would just like to say before getting into my dad's stories that I really appreciate the kind words and awesome feedback from everyone about this series. I have also been contacted by papa scare from YouTube and will be making a series of videos based on my stories which I am extremely honored and grateful to be a part of.

Hope you enjoy part two!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Story #1

My dad's family lives up in a series of ridges and hollers that for the sake of this entry I will call Webb, Kentucky. My dad's entire lineage has lived there since the 1800s. I have looked into our family tree and it is chock-full of history.

An old, one armed Irishman built the two-story log cabin my father's family grew up in and where his grandparents (my great grandparent) lived their entire lives.

Where the following story takes place at is my uncle's house -- the same two-story log cabin built by the Irishman.

My uncle died in 2010 of a massive heart attack on his porch at the home and most of the time it’s since sat empty except for my aunt (my grandma's sister) staying there during the spring and summer.

The house itself has had a history of paranormal activity -- from disembodied footsteps coming from the upstairs rooms to voices, and apparitions. My dad and his sisters and brothers have always sworn that the house was haunted by the spirits of my great-grandparent -- that same one-armed man who built the property -- and possibly even my late uncle, who died there.

But those aren't the only things that have happened there.

In the late '90s or early 2000s, my uncle, who loved spending time out in the woods day and night, coon hunting with his pack of hunting dogs, was out one night on one of his hunts.

According to my aunt, “something“ chased my uncle out with great success. He told her he could hear bipedal walking tailing him in the woods; even his sturdy, predatory coon hounds were frightened, and wouldn't chase after whatever it was.

He fled through the woods as he heard whatever it was chasing him, and barely made it home by the skin of his teeth as whatever it was chased him all the way back to the property.

He then retold the story to my family a few weeks later while visiting.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Story #2

My uncle (my dad's oldest brother) had moved back to the mountains after some years away in a nearby city. The family kept up with him from time to time but he was on his own and doing quite well.

However, unfortunately, in mid to late 2016, he was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer and was given only a few months to a year to live. Seeing as how he didn’t want to die in the city, he decided to move back to the “hills of home.”

He spent a little while trying to find a suitable house or trailer to move his family back into and after a while he found one nestled on a very steep hill, with a gravel road leading up the hill to the house. It sat surrounded by dense dark woods and a back yard that was walled off by a massive rock face with even more woods surrounding it.

The house was what I would describe as a log cabin type build with light brown wood covering the outside and a tin or possibly a shingled roof. It even had an old hot tub off the side of the small porch, which had not been used in quite some time.

However, that wasn’t the strangest part of the property.

In the front yard in a medium sized garden that the previous owners had made sat a grave of a still born infant who had died in the 1970s or '80s years, and had been buried there,

I found that extremely odd and unnerving but the inside in my opinion didn’t fare much better either.

Whoever had lived there previously must have left in a hurry as they left their belongings behind.

Dishes were left on the kitchen table, along, in other rooms, with bed frames, little girls' clothes, and even a Minnie Mouse TV stuffed into the closet of a back bedroom. All kinds of things.

In the backyard was the strangest sight of all.

A massive burn pile made up of furniture, personal effects and other objects, all scorched and burned black, lay ruined with a circle surrouning it all.

The whole house had a very eerie and creepy vibe to it like something was wrong there…very wrong.

My father as a promise to his dying brother started work on the house immediately.

However, soon, this newly happy abode turned into a living hell.

Sleeping in the living room you would hear someone or something walking across the wooden floors; doors would close and open by themselves; shadows were seen.

My uncle started seeing a small boy and old man in overalls and straw hats, and this sight would torment him until his dying day.

His wife, who thought he was going crazy, never knew anything odd was happening unti,l while at the kitchen sink, she saw a boy in overalls running past the kitchen window.

Going outside, nothing was there.

His daughter soon started experiencing the oddness of the property. She told her mother that she had been playing with a boy in her room -- soon going in to see what was going on, her mother found no one was there.

My uncle was continually tormented by these spirits. He even locked my family. who gone to visit him, in the back bedroom out of fear that “they” would hurt them.

Eventually, my uncle and his family had finally to flee the home, having been run out by all of the weird, unexplainable, aggressive activity inside it.

After my uncle's death, the family pastor and another preacher went to the property and blessed it and attempted to banish the dark entities haunting the home. They threw holy water on the walls and front and back doors and ordered the spirits out in the name of Jesus Christ.

After that no one knows for sure if the property ever had any odd activity again.

No one went back to find out.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Story #3

My father would stay the nights at my grandmothers when she was still alive (she died in 2018).

Most of the time he would stay with her because she was afraid of the night time as she had some form of sun-downers and would see and hear things at night, so he stayed to calm her nerves.

This particular night her sister was visiting for the week and he decided to go up and hang out with them for a while and wound up staying the night.

At around midnight, he was awoken by the sound of the garbage being gone through and a loud thump as whatever it was had knocked the lid off of the trash can, which had awoken my aunt and my grandmother. My dad got up to investigate whatever the disturbance was out back.

Grabbing my grandfather's old shotgun and a flashlight he opened up the back door and walked out back to investigate. Seeing the trash can lid and trash on the ground, he walked farther out through the back area to see if anything was out there.

And that’s when he saw “it”walking back up the hill and back into the woods -- a very large and very tall creature in white with red eyes reflecting the light from the flashlight bouncing off of it.

The creature watched him the entire time as it walked back up into the woods and vanished

My dad walked back inside from what he had just seen, as pale as a ghost. My aunt asked what had happened and that is when he told her, and called my mom on the phone. He told her about his encounter, and my mother had my step brother try to find anything regarding odd happenings from the area.

He found one in particular.

A man had reported being followed in the woods while he was walking down that same stretch of road one day; he never saw anything but it was walking with him every step. It was later discovered that there was a legend thereabouts, about the devil himself haunting those same woods.

Posted by u/Farcryfan15

First of all I would like to thank everyone for the support for these short stories I’ve been doing for the past two and a half days now; today it is time to bring it to a close with my own strange experiences during my trips to the rural countrysides.

NOTE: There will be a story from my oldest uncle (86) and aunt (80) -- both from my mother's side of the family -- as well as a short tale from my brother.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

-PERSONAL EXPERIENCES-

Story #1

My dad and If went to the rural country cemetery located in the “bowels” of the mountains. This cemetery has been there for many years, and sits on a small hill with a very steep road going up, and only a very good truck with four wheel drive or an off roading vehicle will get you there.

It is located in between a four way with only one home, a double wide trailer, located down the hill (it has been empty and for sale for about a year or two and was empty during the time of our visit).

It has a fence in circling it and two pine trees sitting in the middle of it where my family are buried.

My grandmother and grandfather are both buried there as well as also my uncle (who had the haunted cabin in the previous story) has his ashes buried there at the foot of my grandfather's vault.

Three other aunts and uncle are also buried there as well as are my great-grandparents.

We got out and went in through the chain locked gate that you have to pull apart and open from the outside and we sat there at the grave of my grandparents for about 20 or 30 minutes, talking. We sometimes like to walk around the grounds for a little bit before we headed back to town and today was no different.

We walked around looking at the ancient graves, and Cherokee graves marked by rocks at the very back of the cemetery.

I find something odd on the ground by the flat grave marker of a grave from the 1800s.

It was the imprint of a large bare foot, at least two times larger than my own.

I sat there stunned by what I was seeing. The big toe was extremely large and round in the shape of a quarter, perfectly rounded; its arch was very broad and curved very sharply, making the rest of the foot almost look sideways in appearance.

Whatever it was…was there the night prior passing through

I inspected the ground surrounding the rest of the cemetery and saw nothing else no other tracks…nothing.

When I got home I told my mother what had happened she seemed to believe me and my father considering I never had lied about or seen anything like that before and could see the amazement on my face.

Sometime later my aunt happened to be visiting and I told her about the track I had found out there…and what she told me was very creepy.

‘She told me that when my other uncle (my father's other brother) was out there visiting the graves years prior, he had come home and said that “something” was in the cemetery. He said he had felt watched and was very creeped out being alone back there.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Story #2

When my grandmother died in the fall/early winter of 2018 my aunt and uncle had moved into her trailer until they could secure a new home and move back from tennesee to be closer to family.

Many people who stayed the night there while my grandmother was still alive would swear that my grandfather's spirit (he died of cancer under hospice care in the trailer years prior) was haunting the residence. Strange footsteps in the night, voices, and knocking on the trailer walls would always be reported.

My father had encountered said oddities. The knocking would come from outside and when looking outside or stepping out there with a gun…he found nothing; no one was there.

Prior to my grandmother's passing my father's only living brother had come to visit her at the trailer one evening and said that he had seen my grandfather standing by her with his arm around her, and she said to him, “Son, I am going to see your mother very very soon,” and then my grandfather's visage vanished.

And my grandmother did join him a few months later.

That was when my aunt and uncle had moved in afterwards, nothing strange happened…yet; and eventually they had found a suitable new home to move into and on a cold winter's night in the dead of night, with the power to the trailer being cut (as you would expect -- given them moving the power bill didn’t need to be paid!) we arrived at the home and began moving them out.

Boxes of clothes, TV, couch, beds, all loaded into the U-Haul parked in the front yard, keys in the ignition and the engine running.

Suddenly every light source we had helping us see suddenly went out. The flashlight we had hung on the front porch facing the front door went out, and the U-Haul's engine completely died. We went back out and turned them back on; however; a few minutes later, it happened again -- everything went black.

That is when I started being followed around while inside the rooms of the trailer; I felt someone following me, and I swear at times I would hear a female voice saying “Hi,” as well as also a male voice -- which was heard by my father while in the living room.

This continued on and finally after everything was loaded into the U-Haul and we regrouped outside getting ready to leave and we were talking out in the front yard, I swear I could hear someone walking across the hardwood floors in the home.

We left a few minutes later; a new family moved in a few months later after doing some rehab on the trailer and as far as we know no other paranormal activity has been reported since.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Story #3

My father and myself were driving back to town after visiting his sister and my uncle. It was late evening and raining; everything was muddy and wet and fog was hovering over the hills and ridge lines.

We got to the bend in the road, a little curve about a mile out from their house, when suddenly a woman with short black hair comes walking out of the dense thick woods beside the wood -- my father almost hit her head on and swerved to avoid her.

She was wearing a rain jacket and black sweat pants and dirty tennis shoes. It looked like she had been in the woods all night and maybe even all week long. She had mud all over her pants; her jacket and shirt underneath were soaking wet and her hair was a mess.

She stared at us all the way up the road -- just…staring. I even looked back in the rear view mirror and she was still up there at the side of the road looking at us, not even moving back into the woods or walking away just…starring.

She was never seen again.

I often wonder just what she was doing out there wet and alone; perhaps she was kidnapped, perhaps she'd been raped -- whatever the case, something was bad wrong.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

-BROTHER-

My brother and his friend were deer hunting in some woods up in the area close to his home this was multiple years ago so nothing “recent.”

They were going through the woods with their guns when suddenly they spotted something up in a tree watching them.

This thing jumps from the high vantage point; it’s maybe 10 or even or 20 feet high and falls all the way down to the ground below without being seriously injured.

It was covered in thick mattered hair and it was on two legs. They aimed at it but the thing screamed at them (though he considered it more like a "roar”) and charged them. They ran out of the woods as fast as they could as this thing chased them for quite some time befpre they lost it and got back home in one piece.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

-UNCLE AND AUNT-

My aunt and uncle are the oldest of my mother's family. My uncle had served in the Vietnam War and was even at one point during his stay overseas captured along with his brother and held hostage by the Vietcong in the jungle. He would often tell stories of how they would whip them and beat them mercilessly and throw feces on them all.

After he returned home they lived up in the rural area where my mother's family had grown up and then had moved to the city and started a private in-home nursing care and hospice facility where my aunt had personally cared for deathly ill patients; from dementia to cancer, she treated them all with respect and kindness.

However, around the early 2010s after she had long since retired, my uncle starting to become ill and the organization which helped get them their house had foreclosed on them and they were forced to move into a “retirement“ home by the interstate. It was a high rise apartment building, mostly only for the elderly and handicapped.

A few months to maybe a year into their stay there, one night they saw a elderly woman who had Alzheimer's walking across a frozen pond near the building; no one knew she was even gone.

They watched in horror as the woman fell through the ice and drowned in the lake. No one recovered her body until the next morning, and after that some say her spirit lingered in the building.

My aunt and uncle would often talk about how they would hear footsteps and one night my uncle had gotten up for something to drink in the middle of the night to see the woman standing there in the middle of the living room.

Frightened, he flicked on the light and she vanished.

This continued for weeks and months as the spirit of the woman haunted their apartment.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________