3 More Scary Appalachian Trail Stories
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What sparked the hiking trip into the Appalachian Trail?
It was Drew's idea, like it usually was when we ended up doing something dumb but well-intentioned. He called me after eight months of silence, no texts, no memes, not even a Merry Christmas, just a one-line message at 2.04 in the morning. You still hike? i didn't respond right away truth was i hadn't hit a trail in over a year work a breakup and the kind of creeping exhaustion that settles in your bones had kept me firmly planted indoors but something about the timing about the way drew asked made me say yes without even asking where We met up in Asheville three days later. He looked rough, pale, gaunt around the eyes, like he hadn't slept properly in weeks. But when I asked about it, he shrugged it off. Said he just needed to get out of the city, clear his head, breathe real air again. And I didn't push because frankly I needed the same. Drew had picked the spot, an isolated stretch of the Appalachian Trail near the Tennessee-North Carolina border.
We'd hike for four days, circle back using a fire road, and crash in the truck. No service, no noise, just miles of nothing. It sounded perfect. I should have asked him why he picked that spot. Should have asked a lot of things, really. We parked his rust-bitten Tacoma on an overgrown shoulder near an old mile marker. The trailhead wasn't labeled on any map I had. Drew just said, "'Trust me, it connects in,' and pointed uphill to a faded break in the trees. The path was narrow, overgrown in places, and I could feel the wetness of the moss through the sides of my boots within the first twenty minutes." The air was heavy, damp, like the woods had just finished raining even though the sky was clear. It smelled old, earthy, but not the good kind.
More like mildew and forgotten things. Every step kicked up the scent of rotting leaves and mud. Still, we laughed a lot that first day. Talked about the usual. Exes, jobs, dumb crap from high school. Drew seemed like himself again. That night, we set up camp in a shallow basin next to a dry creek bed, just a flat enough patch to drop our gear.
What eerie events occurred during the first night camping?
We cooked some ramen on my jet boil and passed a tiny flask back and forth until the stars came out in full. Around midnight, the forest got too quiet. It wasn't gradual. One second we could hear the rustle of squirrels, the buzz of insects, the occasional flap of something big in the trees. The next, it was like someone had hit mute on the whole world. The fire still crackled. Drew's breathing was steady. But beyond that, nothing. I sat up suddenly alert. Do you hear that? He didn't say anything, just nodded, eyes fixed on the dark tree line beyond the fire. That's when we heard it. This low grinding noise. Not footsteps, not a growl. It sounded like someone dragging a bag of rocks through wet gravel. Long, slow, pausing every few seconds.
It moved just beyond the trees where the firelight faded to black. We didn't speak, didn't move, just listened. It circled, slowly, like it was checking us out. When it stopped, Drew whispered, Don't move. It's circling. I nodded, even though he couldn't see me. My skin felt electric. My body coiled tight like a spring. I grabbed the hatchet near my sleeping bag and held it low. Minutes passed. Maybe hours. I don't know. At some point, I must have dozed off because when I opened my eyes again, the sky was turning gray and the fire had burned to ash. The woods were noisy again, birds chirping, a squirrel scampering up a trunk like nothing had happened. Drew was already awake, standing at the edge of camp with his arms folded. I walked up next to him and followed his gaze.
Boot prints, deep ones, not ours. They circled the camp in a wide arc, maybe 15 feet out, where the brush was just thick enough that you wouldn't see someone unless you were looking for them. Drew didn't say anything, just turned and started packing up. we hit the trail again around seven a m both of us were quieter not as quick with the jokes there was this shared understanding between us now unspoken but heavy something had been watching us last night and it wasn't a bear or a deer or anything that belonged out here We hiked most of the day without seeing anyone.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What sparked the hiking trip into the Appalachian Trail?
0:20–2:41
2
What eerie events occurred during the first night camping?
2:41–7:15
3
What unsettling discoveries did they make on the trail?
7:15–10:23
4
What happened when they encountered a strange man on the trail?
10:23–14:59
5
What ominous signs suggested they were being watched?
14:59–18:29
6
What terrifying experiences did they face in the woods?
18:29–22:30
7
How did the situation escalate during their hike?
22:30–27:02
8
What was the ultimate fate of Drew and the narrator?
27:02–1:01:36
Speakers
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