Congrats. If you are reading this, you have survived the epic night known as Halloween. We all had our dose of scary things: pumpkins, the undead, “Thriller” re-enactments, the outrageous prices women are willing to pay for sexy costumes and the fattening brought on by candy corn and pumpkin pie.

Halloween got me thinking about the paranormal.

Some ghost stories do come from urban areas, but believe me, there are plenty of frightening things in the wilderness.

Forests can be creepy places. Unfortunately, “The Blair Witch Project” was totally fabricated, but there are a lot more legends out there to explore. Take for example the spirits of the Pryor Mountains. These mountains in Montana are located on the Crow Indian Reservation. According to Crow Indian tradition, “little people” inhabit these mountains and help protect the Crow Indians.

The little people are described as similar to dwarves with sharp, canine teeth. In 1932, prospectors found in a cave two mummified bodies of dwarves with unusually sharp teeth. Imagine the creep factor there. The Crow Indians to this day make offerings to the little people. If you are a foe of these people, backpacking in the Pryor Mountains might prove to be more than you bargained for.

I myself have had an encounter with the supernatural while camping. At the Hells Canyon Dam, there is an Indian pit house dug up by archeologists a few years ago. My friends and I were talking about how everyone had weird dreams while sleeping at this camp site. The hype for the dreams was elevated because there was a full moon that night. I set up my sleeping bag next to the pit house, and the night proved to be an interesting one.

I had a strange dream that there was someone in the pit behind me. I first thought that whatever was in the pit was an animal, so I got out of my sleeping bag and tried to shoo it away, but it wouldn’t leave. I could visually see that there was an animal in the pit by its glowing eyes and short stature, but its presence felt like a person. The next thing I knew, it was morning, and I tried for the longest time to figure out if it was just a dream or if there really had been something in the pit. I came to the conclusion that that was enough supernatural experiences for me.

Going back to the forest, let’s explore one of the wilderness’ biggest legends: Sasquatch. According to the Bigfoot Field Research Organization, this creature has been sighted in every state in the United States, except Hawaii. The highest concentration of sightings is in our very own Washington state. Skamania County has overall the most sightings of Bigfoot, and one snowshoe hiker in 2005 was able to capture an image of it at a distance.

The BFRO offers Bigfoot expeditions where you can sign up to join a team of trackers and enthusiasts on a quest to find Bigfoot. There are also Web sites out there on hunting Bigfoot, but I’d hardly trust a Web site who lists ‘being killed by Bigfoot’ as a top reason to hunt the creature. For a good scare, read some of the eyewitness accounts on BFRO’s Web site. If it isn’t creepy enough to sit in your room alone while reading these, hike into the wilderness afterward.

After reading these accounts, I can assure you that I will not be camping alone for a long while.