Ghost Stories: a Time Honored Tradition

Sitting around a campfire late at night, a cold chill shivers up your spine. Chances are it’s not just the wind. It’s a camping tradition: the ghost story.

Whether it’s tales of escaped, homicidal-lunatics, or lost hikers perpetually wandering the woods in search of fresh brains, the campfire ghost story is a camping tradition even more popular than hunting snipes.

Mischievous older kids and "evil" uncles are quick to relate tales of doom to younger, imaginative children camping in the wilderness – with all the new and strange night time sounds. Take a moment and share your favorite ghost story with the GettingOutside Community.

Here’s how one of our favorites goes. It’s a standard " escaped psycho" story… and it helped me scare the heck out of my wife on our first camping trip together. You’ll have to work to set it up and sell it, but the results can be priceless.

Escaped Lunatic. You won’t believe this! On my way back from the latrine I ran into the ranger. Seems there’s something going on… Someone escaped from an asylum not too far from here. They said there’s nothing too worry about. What are the odds that he’ll end up here?

There’s a million places to run out in these woods, but he told me not to worry. They are calling in all the rangers who are off duty to come in and guard the campground, and keep an ongoing search...

So if we hear trucks and cars driving through the camp all night, don’t be alarmed, it’s just the rangers and police and maybe sheriffs..

Of course, as soon as he told me not to worry, I began to worry..

I thought it was kind of funny that they would have so much beefed up security if the odds are slim that he’d come this way. He muttered something about standard procedure, but it just didn’t feel right.

"Should we be worried here?" I asked. He hesitated and said, "Well, not really, but the guy who escaped did so once before, when he was in Illinois. They found him in a local campground. He had just murdered a young family, and was eating the youngest kid when the police arrived."

He continued, "Just keep your eyes and ears peeled... Call us if you hear anything. ANYTHING."

(Now’s a good time to throw a rock into the bushes or have an accomplice make some noise in the dark. When everyone is on edge, yell, "BWAH!" at the top of your lungs.)

Laughing should follow. Of course, some people may have trouble sleeping.

Try making up your own story, and share with the rest of us. Become a registered user today, and you can post your story below!