8 replies to this topic

[TNVolMama]

It was mid July, a friend and I decided to hike twenty mile trail in the Smoky Mountains. It was forecast to rain that weekend and the trail is pretty remote, so we were happy to enjoy a weekend of complete solitude in the mountains.

The first night we hiked a few miles in and decided to set up camp a good ways off from the established trail, in a small clearing alongside a large creek bed. We stayed up late into the night, finally settling in for bed around 1am. We had hung a 2 person hammock between two trees and had a thick hammock cover over us (it's fitted to feel just like being inside a tent) to protect from bugs or rain. We got snuggled in and turned off our headlamps to get some sleep. We laid inside there talking for a couple minutes in complete pitch darkness, when suddenly a bright light lit up the area around our feet just outside our tent. I was immediately shocked and scared and I shut my eyes hard and held my breath (I know, a weird reaction but I've never been in that situation and I was really scared and didn't know how to react). At that moment all I could think was, we are in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, and there is someone outside our tent with a flashlight on us.. and I figured it was probably bad news. But nothing happened, my friend didn't react or say anything, so I opened my eyes and let out my breath. I immediately looked down again and this time there were two balls of light INSIDE our hammock cover. One was smaller than the other but they were both small and extremely bright white. I looked at my friend in disbelief and his eyes were glued to balls of light. All of this happened within a matter of seconds and just as fast as they flashed on, that flashed off and it was dark again. As soon as they flashed off we both went into what the heck? mode and nearly killed each other trying to get out of the hammock and cover. He grabbed his flashlight and a knife and walked around yelling if anyone was there. I didn't really care to know what it was, I was terrified by whatever it was that I'd seen and sat with a flashlight next to the fire wrapped in a sleeping bag.

We contemplated leaving immediately, but it was close to 2am by this point and we had miles to go to get back to the car. Whatever is was, I didn't want to run into it again. So we abandoned our hammock, grabbed two sleeping bags, turned our lights off and crawled in the dark to what we felt was a safe distance from where we'd set camp. We didn't want to risk it coming back again. Neither of us slept much that night, nor did we talk much. We were both pretty scared out of our wits. The next day it was a relief when the sun came up. We slept in longer than usual and had a wonderful morning once we got up. I felt at peace again and we agreed to finish the backpacking trip and talk more about what happened once we got back home.

That day we continued our hike another 7 miles up a steep mountainside to a beautiful place called Gregory Bald. It was an extremely rugged exhausting hike and we arrived just before dark, again we were alone. We set up a tent on the ground this time, and since were we on a bald, there were no trees around I felt much better being able to see around me. We planned to wake at sunrise, a view you can't miss atop a bald! So we went to bed early without incident. I fell into a deep sleep, dreaming I was a part of an American Indian tribe. They wanted to play me a song using all different kinds of small drums, they began singing when I suddenly hear a loud "BOOM" (what sounded like a drum hit really hard, with a deep bass). My eye popped open and my heart was racing. I looked over and my friends eyes were wide open too. I said, did you hear that? He replied "I don't know what I just heard, but it was loud and jolted me awake". The drum was in my dream, so how could he have heard it to?! He couldn't remember his dream, but he said a loud boom had woken him up at nearly the exact same time as me. We were over 10 miles away from anything, in the middle of the forest, there was no one around, and definitely no large drums to be seen. We then noticed the sun was just beginning to rise, we had been woken up just in time. Again, we decided to talk more about it after we got home, and we set off to lay a blanket out and watch the sun come up.

Once we got home, we didn't get any further in figuring out what we'd seen and heard while in the mountains. I don't know if I would have believed what happened to us if I wouldn't have been there myself, had him there to confirm it. I honestly would have just called myself crazy or hallucinating. There have been a couple other really peculiar and strange things that had happened before this independent (and after), but I had always figured there was a scientific explanation for it. Now I'm starting to believe there is more out there than the eye can see.

Edited by TNVolMama, 17 February 2012 - 08:19 PM.

[moiraesfate]

Wow, thats creepy. There are lots of stories about lights in the darkness when it shouldn't be possible throughout mythology. It is said that mythology is usually based in truth.

I think that you may have found a native American burial ground, or perhaps native sacred land, the first time you camped and it whatever existed in that area was investigating you for some reason. It seems that it was more curious than anything else.

How interesting.

What other things have happened to you?

[SuperMrScratch]

2 lights eh ? thats really strange...

[QueenChacon]

That sounds pretty scary to me.  I would have been gone the first day, lol.
s

[Spirit of the Appalachians]

Living in NC and a fairly frequent visitor of the Smokies I read this post with great interest. I did some quick research and found that Gregory Bald, which is located on the state line between NC and Tenn, overlooks Cades Cove. I've been to Cades Cove once and may end up going there again tomorrow. For those that don't know Cades Cove is an isolated valley which contains a ghost community and a part of Great Smoky Mountains National Park located in Tenn. It can be very beautiful but frankly when you tour through it and visit all the cabins and barns that are now part of the park it can be very eerie. First of all the entire valley and community was bought up by the federal government to be included as part of the park which wasn’t very popular with the residents of the valley who put up quite a bit of resistance. The more modern builds were torn down eventually and the older cabins and barns left as an example of traditional Appalachian life for park visitors to experience as they tour through the valley.  The thing is as you walk through the empty cabins and wonder what life there must have been like you have to question if the place isn’t crawling with paranormal activity. There was much life and death that went on there as there are numerous cabins, open fields and meadows which are very representative of farm life, and there are two churches with cemeteries in the community as well, a Primitive Baptist church and  the Cades Cove Methodist church. At the visitor’s center at the halfway mark are a few buildings that have been moved or built to represent early life in the mountains complete with a water powered grist mill, black smith shop, home with craft demonstrations such as hand weaving, and a grinding mill used for grinding up cane for molasses. Because of the water and the limestone geological formations in the valley and surrounding mountains this was also a place which produced high quality moonshine.

Before Europeans settled their Cherokee natives use this area heavily possibly as a village and hunting camp. There are also two main trails which the Cherokee used to travel between NC and Tenn. I would not be surprised to find that parts of this area was considered sacred by the Native Americans and probably used at places and times to bury their dead. Before Europeans most of the entire area was solid forest. The meadows and fields in the middle of the community and near the cabins were cleared by the settlers so they could farm.
What I wonder about is, considering the close proximity to Cades Cove you had the second night of your hike could there have been paranormal activity which reached out that far? I’m not sure how close you were the first night but the Smokies are well known for many legends, strange experiences, and desolate areas. I would love to hear if you could even see Cades Cove from where you camped the second night.

One last question would be how long ago in mid July was this? There have been reports from all over the country lately about the sound of explosions and booms all over the country lately. My brother heard a very loud explosion type sound that shook his house about 6 weeks or so ago and I would wonder if this kind of thing has been going on for a while.
Thanks for posting this. I loved it.
Tony
http://www.youtube.c...ser/SAPRSociety

 TNVolMama, on 17 February 2012 - 08:12 PM, said:

It was mid July, a friend and I decided to hike twenty mile trail in the Smoky Mountains. It was forecast to rain that weekend and the trail is pretty remote, so we were happy to enjoy a weekend of complete solitude in the mountains.

The first night we hiked a few miles in and decided to set up camp a good ways off from the established trail, in a small clearing alongside a large creek bed. We stayed up late into the night, finally settling in for bed around 1am. We had hung a 2 person hammock between two trees and had a thick hammock cover over us (it's fitted to feel just like being inside a tent) to protect from bugs or rain. We got snuggled in and turned off our headlamps to get some sleep. We laid inside there talking for a couple minutes in complete pitch darkness, when suddenly a bright light lit up the area around our feet just outside our tent. I was immediately shocked and scared and I shut my eyes hard and held my breath (I know, a weird reaction but I've never been in that situation and I was really scared and didn't know how to react). At that moment all I could think was, we are in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, and there is someone outside our tent with a flashlight on us.. and I figured it was probably bad news. But nothing happened, my friend didn't react or say anything, so I opened my eyes and let out my breath. I immediately looked down again and this time there were two balls of light INSIDE our hammock cover. One was smaller than the other but they were both small and extremely bright white. I looked at my friend in disbelief and his eyes were glued to balls of light. All of this happened within a matter of seconds and just as fast as they flashed on, that flashed off and it was dark again. As soon as they flashed off we both went into what the heck? mode and nearly killed each other trying to get out of the hammock and cover. He grabbed his flashlight and a knife and walked around yelling if anyone was there. I didn't really care to know what it was, I was terrified by whatever it was that I'd seen and sat with a flashlight next to the fire wrapped in a sleeping bag.

We contemplated leaving immediately, but it was close to 2am by this point and we had miles to go to get back to the car. Whatever is was, I didn't want to run into it again. So we abandoned our hammock, grabbed two sleeping bags, turned our lights off and crawled in the dark to what we felt was a safe distance from where we'd set camp. We didn't want to risk it coming back again. Neither of us slept much that night, nor did we talk much. We were both pretty scared out of our wits. The next day it was a relief when the sun came up. We slept in longer than usual and had a wonderful morning once we got up. I felt at peace again and we agreed to finish the backpacking trip and talk more about what happened once we got back home.

That day we continued our hike another 7 miles up a steep mountainside to a beautiful place called Gregory Bald. It was an extremely rugged exhausting hike and we arrived just before dark, again we were alone. We set up a tent on the ground this time, and since were we on a bald, there were no trees around I felt much better being able to see around me. We planned to wake at sunrise, a view you can't miss atop a bald! So we went to bed early without incident. I fell into a deep sleep, dreaming I was a part of an American Indian tribe. They wanted to play me a song using all different kinds of small drums, they began singing when I suddenly hear a loud "BOOM" (what sounded like a drum hit really hard, with a deep bass). My eye popped open and my heart was racing. I looked over and my friends eyes were wide open too. I said, did you hear that? He replied "I don't know what I just heard, but it was loud and jolted me awake". The drum was in my dream, so how could he have heard it to?! He couldn't remember his dream, but he said a loud boom had woken him up at nearly the exact same time as me. We were over 10 miles away from anything, in the middle of the forest, there was no one around, and definitely no large drums to be seen. We then noticed the sun was just beginning to rise, we had been woken up just in time. Again, we decided to talk more about it after we got home, and we set off to lay a blanket out and watch the sun come up.

Once we got home, we didn't get any further in figuring out what we'd seen and heard while in the mountains. I don't know if I would have believed what happened to us if I wouldn't have been there myself, had him there to confirm it. I honestly would have just called myself crazy or hallucinating. There have been a couple other really peculiar and strange things that had happened before this independent (and after), but I had always figured there was a scientific explanation for it. Now I'm starting to believe there is more out there than the eye can see.

[Spirit of the Appalachians]

Hi Everyone,
First of all I did in fact go to Cades Cove this past Saturday. It was a beautiful spring day and we had a great time driving through the settlement. For those that don’t know Cades Cove is a ghost community located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in Tennessee. The federal government bought the property from the residents starting in the 1920’s much to the distain of the residents and several law suits ensued from the government’s use of imminent domain to acquire the property. The residents of that last generation to live there were allowed to live out their lives there, but when they died that was it, their children had to move. As I understand it the children of the last residents were allowed to be buried in the cemeteries with their families. This remote valley is beautiful and it is a unique example of conservation and of historical preservation. It takes a little bit of an adventure to get there but it is well worth the trip.

As for my personal journey this past Saturday, we got thought the approximately 10mile one way loop, the road you drive through both sides of the valley, and wound up back at the ranger station before leaving the park. While talking to the three rangers that were on duty at the park I enquired where Gregory’s Bald was located exactly in relationship to the park. The female ranger pointed out the location and I told them the story that TNVolmoma told us in this thread about the strange events which happened to her while hiking in the Smoky Mountains winding up on Gregory’s Bald. I then proceeded to tell them that my brother, girlfriend, and I ran a paranormal research society and that we would love to investigate such a historical place. One ranger was laughing pretty hard and I did not take offence a tall. I just explained to him that we use very ridged investigative techniques and protocols to gather hard evidence wherever we investigate, that often people have experiences they cannot explain that that was the reason we do what we do. I then gave the female ranger by business card. She then chimed in and said sure people do have experiences they can’t explain and that this area was active and did have unexplained or paranormal events. She then began to tell me about something that happened to her and her three kids.

It seems that she took her kids camping and was traveling between two separate sites in order to set free a screech owl that they had rescued. The owl was in quite a state evidently screeching the whole way between sites. When they arrived at the site they were going to release the owl the owl suddenly got very calm and quiet. They got out of the car and got ready to release the owl when suddenly they were startled by a native American, she stated a Cherokee native, was standing right beside them. They did not hear him approach or sense him before just looking up and seeing him. The invited him to stay and watch as they released the owl, which was still very calm and quiet, and they all heard him reply that he would like that very much. She said he was smiling and seemed very happy and sensed no threat from the man. She then set the owl free and as it flew away they turned to look at the man who had evidently not only approved of their selfless humane act and he was not there, no trace of him anywhere. It was at this point that a family member came into the office to retrieve me since I must have been taking too long. LOL I asked them if they had any need to please feel free to contact me and our group and we would be glad to help them any way we could and reminded them we would love to investigate any location in the park area at all. I doubt anything will come of it but it was a good conversation and a good contact.

I sincerely hope that if any of you get anywhere near the Great Smokies that you will consider visiting here and take in the beauty and spirit of such important historical locations.
Tony
http://www.youtube.c...ser/SAPRSociety

 TNVolMama, on 17 February 2012 - 08:12 PM, said:

It was mid July, a friend and I decided to hike twenty mile trail in the Smoky Mountains. It was forecast to rain that weekend and the trail is pretty remote, so we were happy to enjoy a weekend of complete solitude in the mountains.

The first night we hiked a few miles in and decided to set up camp a good ways off from the established trail, in a small clearing alongside a large creek bed. We stayed up late into the night, finally settling in for bed around 1am. We had hung a 2 person hammock between two trees and had a thick hammock cover over us (it's fitted to feel just like being inside a tent) to protect from bugs or rain. We got snuggled in and turned off our headlamps to get some sleep. We laid inside there talking for a couple minutes in complete pitch darkness, when suddenly a bright light lit up the area around our feet just outside our tent. I was immediately shocked and scared and I shut my eyes hard and held my breath (I know, a weird reaction but I've never been in that situation and I was really scared and didn't know how to react). At that moment all I could think was, we are in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, and there is someone outside our tent with a flashlight on us.. and I figured it was probably bad news. But nothing happened, my friend didn't react or say anything, so I opened my eyes and let out my breath. I immediately looked down again and this time there were two balls of light INSIDE our hammock cover. One was smaller than the other but they were both small and extremely bright white. I looked at my friend in disbelief and his eyes were glued to balls of light. All of this happened within a matter of seconds and just as fast as they flashed on, that flashed off and it was dark again. As soon as they flashed off we both went into what the heck? mode and nearly killed each other trying to get out of the hammock and cover. He grabbed his flashlight and a knife and walked around yelling if anyone was there. I didn't really care to know what it was, I was terrified by whatever it was that I'd seen and sat with a flashlight next to the fire wrapped in a sleeping bag.

We contemplated leaving immediately, but it was close to 2am by this point and we had miles to go to get back to the car. Whatever is was, I didn't want to run into it again. So we abandoned our hammock, grabbed two sleeping bags, turned our lights off and crawled in the dark to what we felt was a safe distance from where we'd set camp. We didn't want to risk it coming back again. Neither of us slept much that night, nor did we talk much. We were both pretty scared out of our wits. The next day it was a relief when the sun came up. We slept in longer than usual and had a wonderful morning once we got up. I felt at peace again and we agreed to finish the backpacking trip and talk more about what happened once we got back home.

That day we continued our hike another 7 miles up a steep mountainside to a beautiful place called Gregory Bald. It was an extremely rugged exhausting hike and we arrived just before dark, again we were alone. We set up a tent on the ground this time, and since were we on a bald, there were no trees around I felt much better being able to see around me. We planned to wake at sunrise, a view you can't miss atop a bald! So we went to bed early without incident. I fell into a deep sleep, dreaming I was a part of an American Indian tribe. They wanted to play me a song using all different kinds of small drums, they began singing when I suddenly hear a loud "BOOM" (what sounded like a drum hit really hard, with a deep bass). My eye popped open and my heart was racing. I looked over and my friends eyes were wide open too. I said, did you hear that? He replied "I don't know what I just heard, but it was loud and jolted me awake". The drum was in my dream, so how could he have heard it to?! He couldn't remember his dream, but he said a loud boom had woken him up at nearly the exact same time as me. We were over 10 miles away from anything, in the middle of the forest, there was no one around, and definitely no large drums to be seen. We then noticed the sun was just beginning to rise, we had been woken up just in time. Again, we decided to talk more about it after we got home, and we set off to lay a blanket out and watch the sun come up.

Once we got home, we didn't get any further in figuring out what we'd seen and heard while in the mountains. I don't know if I would have believed what happened to us if I wouldn't have been there myself, had him there to confirm it. I honestly would have just called myself crazy or hallucinating. There have been a couple other really peculiar and strange things that had happened before this independent (and after), but I had always figured there was a scientific explanation for it. Now I'm starting to believe there is more out there than the eye can see.

[Spirit of the Appalachians]

I know I've already posted twice to this thread but I forgot to say that during my adventure to Cades Cove I took a photo of Russell Gregory the founder of Gregory's Bald. The grave markers quote was, " Russell Gregory, 1795-1894; Founder of Gregorys Bald about 1830; Murdered by NC Rebels". Evidently at least a portion of Cades Cove community was divided during the civil war. It resulted in two of the churches supending Sunday services and meetings and divided the Methodist church. I had no idea when I went there Saturday that I would find Gregory's grave but I thought you might like to know.
Tony
http://www.youtube.c...ser/SAPRSociety

 TNVolMama, on 17 February 2012 - 08:12 PM, said:

It was mid July, a friend and I decided to hike twenty mile trail in the Smoky Mountains. It was forecast to rain that weekend and the trail is pretty remote, so we were happy to enjoy a weekend of complete solitude in the mountains.

The first night we hiked a few miles in and decided to set up camp a good ways off from the established trail, in a small clearing alongside a large creek bed. We stayed up late into the night, finally settling in for bed around 1am. We had hung a 2 person hammock between two trees and had a thick hammock cover over us (it's fitted to feel just like being inside a tent) to protect from bugs or rain. We got snuggled in and turned off our headlamps to get some sleep. We laid inside there talking for a couple minutes in complete pitch darkness, when suddenly a bright light lit up the area around our feet just outside our tent. I was immediately shocked and scared and I shut my eyes hard and held my breath (I know, a weird reaction but I've never been in that situation and I was really scared and didn't know how to react). At that moment all I could think was, we are in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, and there is someone outside our tent with a flashlight on us.. and I figured it was probably bad news. But nothing happened, my friend didn't react or say anything, so I opened my eyes and let out my breath. I immediately looked down again and this time there were two balls of light INSIDE our hammock cover. One was smaller than the other but they were both small and extremely bright white. I looked at my friend in disbelief and his eyes were glued to balls of light. All of this happened within a matter of seconds and just as fast as they flashed on, that flashed off and it was dark again. As soon as they flashed off we both went into what the heck? mode and nearly killed each other trying to get out of the hammock and cover. He grabbed his flashlight and a knife and walked around yelling if anyone was there. I didn't really care to know what it was, I was terrified by whatever it was that I'd seen and sat with a flashlight next to the fire wrapped in a sleeping bag.

We contemplated leaving immediately, but it was close to 2am by this point and we had miles to go to get back to the car. Whatever is was, I didn't want to run into it again. So we abandoned our hammock, grabbed two sleeping bags, turned our lights off and crawled in the dark to what we felt was a safe distance from where we'd set camp. We didn't want to risk it coming back again. Neither of us slept much that night, nor did we talk much. We were both pretty scared out of our wits. The next day it was a relief when the sun came up. We slept in longer than usual and had a wonderful morning once we got up. I felt at peace again and we agreed to finish the backpacking trip and talk more about what happened once we got back home.

That day we continued our hike another 7 miles up a steep mountainside to a beautiful place called Gregory Bald. It was an extremely rugged exhausting hike and we arrived just before dark, again we were alone. We set up a tent on the ground this time, and since were we on a bald, there were no trees around I felt much better being able to see around me. We planned to wake at sunrise, a view you can't miss atop a bald! So we went to bed early without incident. I fell into a deep sleep, dreaming I was a part of an American Indian tribe. They wanted to play me a song using all different kinds of small drums, they began singing when I suddenly hear a loud "BOOM" (what sounded like a drum hit really hard, with a deep bass). My eye popped open and my heart was racing. I looked over and my friends eyes were wide open too. I said, did you hear that? He replied "I don't know what I just heard, but it was loud and jolted me awake". The drum was in my dream, so how could he have heard it to?! He couldn't remember his dream, but he said a loud boom had woken him up at nearly the exact same time as me. We were over 10 miles away from anything, in the middle of the forest, there was no one around, and definitely no large drums to be seen. We then noticed the sun was just beginning to rise, we had been woken up just in time. Again, we decided to talk more about it after we got home, and we set off to lay a blanket out and watch the sun come up.

Once we got home, we didn't get any further in figuring out what we'd seen and heard while in the mountains. I don't know if I would have believed what happened to us if I wouldn't have been there myself, had him there to confirm it. I honestly would have just called myself crazy or hallucinating. There have been a couple other really peculiar and strange things that had happened before this independent (and after), but I had always figured there was a scientific explanation for it. Now I'm starting to believe there is more out there than the eye can see.

[marilsolstice]

wow     this is interesting. As a kid, I was a great fan of Stephen King's Pet Semetary. Because of the movie and novel I have interest in the mystical properties of Sacred Native American burial grounds. It's amazing how these places are so wrapped up in mystery.

[GRAVEYARD HOUND]

Ya'll might be interested in doin' some readin' about the "Brown Mountain Lights", between Morganton and Lenoir on Highway 181 in western North Carolina. There was a site, no idea if it's sill on-line, www.ghosts.org/ghostlights/brownmtn.hlt Happy readin'.

Edited by GRAVEYARD HOUND, 27 October 2012 - 12:43 PM.