starsfall
Believer
When I was fifteen, so roughly 5 years ago, I went hiking on a nearby range/state park with my then-girlfriend. This girl was already really not into hikes or adventuring, but this place was just awesome, to fifteen year old me, anyway. It's an okay hiking spot now. We got dropped off, and walked through some woods that had trail markers to the actual center of the "state park", where the map was and what not. There was a giant tower up the hill you could climb, the rangers use it to spot raptor or bird nests or something seasonally, and we decided to climb up that and look around.
From here, I saw what I thought was the peak I normally hiked to with friends, it was actually called "Whoville", because as the story goes, the mountain was supposedly the inspiration for Dr. Seuss’ classic holiday tale “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.” According to local legend, the Whos from Whoville in the story were modeled after residents of a nearby town, Easthampton. And Mount Crumpit, where the Grinch lives, was inspired by this mountain. (This is all just stuff I find interesting, it doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of my story.)
There was another peak you could see from here, on the opposite end of the mountain, and then a completely different mountain if you walked down and through a valley from there. We looked at the giant map and decided on what color trail marker we should follow to make it to this peak. We walked for less than an hour, and saw some pretty cool things along the way, small rivers, abandoned station areas, radio towers, one of which was fallen completely, and what I can only describe as the remains of a giant stone house. (There is a burned down hotel somewhere on the mountain from the late 1800's or early 1900's - a man rebuilt it to only have it, along with his stable full of horses, burn down again..)
We came to a big clearly with trees on all sides, and three radios towers making a (sort of) triangle, and then a cliffside that went down and around and back up again, the way we needed to go. We went this way, and camp to a swampy area with a bunch of broken down small shacks with grafitti and what not. We continued down this way, and at this point the sun was starting to set, it was probably around 7:30PM in the summer. We stumbled upon a straight drop down, at least 150ft, and it looked like a massive canyon with a giant burnt out bonfire in the middle of it. The entrance was on the complete opposite side of where we were, and it looked like there was no way down there unless we went around. I wanted to, she didn't, but she humored me and said we could get closer, so we started to make our way.
As we're about halfway down this slope, we see an opening at the bottom, so she becomes compelled to just go all the way down and let me fulfill my curiosity, although I could tell she was also curious. What was down here sort of amazed me in the moment: Houses. Auto shops. Cars. A church. Random little shops. All over grown, just sitting, frozen in time like the inhabitants picked up and left one day out of the blue. The entrance to the canyon was just behind one of the buildings, but there were no tire tracks anywhere to be seen. As we walked towards the entrance, we heard something behind some bushes and trees off to our side, so we stopped and I turned the flashlight on my phone, only to turn it off again immediately when I saw a person on the other side.
Except these weren't people like I've ever seen, they were dressed like neanderthals. Groin cloths, tangled hair, what looked to be rope tied around their biceps and wrists. Two or three of them actually had torches, and all of the ones I could see were male. At this point, my girlfriend was freaking out, and I guess to be honest, so was I. But I was still also interested. It was getting dark now, so we opted to try and find a way back to a main trail or something. She tried to call her brother to pick us up, but she had no service and neither did I.
Looking at the map I took from central hub by the tower, I saw it was a pretty long trek back to just the main trail, somewhere her brother wouldn't even be able to pick us up. So we started walking back, I don't even recall how long it took, really. We tried to tell her brother what happened, but it was moreso me telling him and both of them looking at me like I was insane, even though she saw what I did. Now, I share this experience with no one but her, and we've talked recently, but she's always been against my interest in things such as the paranormal, and UFO's.
But what really got me was she was freaked out, too. And she did confess to one of our mutual friends what she saw, but that she believes it was just a bunch of freaks and could be explained. I do know that there's an abandoned ski resort somewhere in the area, but in a completely different area than we were, and I've been there. This was different, it was like an entire town just got stuck in time and everyone there disappeared. I've researched it, talked to numerous people in my area, and one man's theory when I told him was, he heard back in the 60's there was some kind of mining town along the river somewhere, and they mined down into something that was dangerous.
He didn't know exactly where it was located and couldn't confirm anything, but it was the closest I've ever received to an answer to this day.
Also, I have tried to go back there with different friends, and have always been unable to relocate the area it was in.
From here, I saw what I thought was the peak I normally hiked to with friends, it was actually called "Whoville", because as the story goes, the mountain was supposedly the inspiration for Dr. Seuss’ classic holiday tale “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.” According to local legend, the Whos from Whoville in the story were modeled after residents of a nearby town, Easthampton. And Mount Crumpit, where the Grinch lives, was inspired by this mountain. (This is all just stuff I find interesting, it doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of my story.)
There was another peak you could see from here, on the opposite end of the mountain, and then a completely different mountain if you walked down and through a valley from there. We looked at the giant map and decided on what color trail marker we should follow to make it to this peak. We walked for less than an hour, and saw some pretty cool things along the way, small rivers, abandoned station areas, radio towers, one of which was fallen completely, and what I can only describe as the remains of a giant stone house. (There is a burned down hotel somewhere on the mountain from the late 1800's or early 1900's - a man rebuilt it to only have it, along with his stable full of horses, burn down again..)
We came to a big clearly with trees on all sides, and three radios towers making a (sort of) triangle, and then a cliffside that went down and around and back up again, the way we needed to go. We went this way, and camp to a swampy area with a bunch of broken down small shacks with grafitti and what not. We continued down this way, and at this point the sun was starting to set, it was probably around 7:30PM in the summer. We stumbled upon a straight drop down, at least 150ft, and it looked like a massive canyon with a giant burnt out bonfire in the middle of it. The entrance was on the complete opposite side of where we were, and it looked like there was no way down there unless we went around. I wanted to, she didn't, but she humored me and said we could get closer, so we started to make our way.
As we're about halfway down this slope, we see an opening at the bottom, so she becomes compelled to just go all the way down and let me fulfill my curiosity, although I could tell she was also curious. What was down here sort of amazed me in the moment: Houses. Auto shops. Cars. A church. Random little shops. All over grown, just sitting, frozen in time like the inhabitants picked up and left one day out of the blue. The entrance to the canyon was just behind one of the buildings, but there were no tire tracks anywhere to be seen. As we walked towards the entrance, we heard something behind some bushes and trees off to our side, so we stopped and I turned the flashlight on my phone, only to turn it off again immediately when I saw a person on the other side.
Except these weren't people like I've ever seen, they were dressed like neanderthals. Groin cloths, tangled hair, what looked to be rope tied around their biceps and wrists. Two or three of them actually had torches, and all of the ones I could see were male. At this point, my girlfriend was freaking out, and I guess to be honest, so was I. But I was still also interested. It was getting dark now, so we opted to try and find a way back to a main trail or something. She tried to call her brother to pick us up, but she had no service and neither did I.
Looking at the map I took from central hub by the tower, I saw it was a pretty long trek back to just the main trail, somewhere her brother wouldn't even be able to pick us up. So we started walking back, I don't even recall how long it took, really. We tried to tell her brother what happened, but it was moreso me telling him and both of them looking at me like I was insane, even though she saw what I did. Now, I share this experience with no one but her, and we've talked recently, but she's always been against my interest in things such as the paranormal, and UFO's.
But what really got me was she was freaked out, too. And she did confess to one of our mutual friends what she saw, but that she believes it was just a bunch of freaks and could be explained. I do know that there's an abandoned ski resort somewhere in the area, but in a completely different area than we were, and I've been there. This was different, it was like an entire town just got stuck in time and everyone there disappeared. I've researched it, talked to numerous people in my area, and one man's theory when I told him was, he heard back in the 60's there was some kind of mining town along the river somewhere, and they mined down into something that was dangerous.
He didn't know exactly where it was located and couldn't confirm anything, but it was the closest I've ever received to an answer to this day.
Also, I have tried to go back there with different friends, and have always been unable to relocate the area it was in.
vZ8UmH
