Let's Not Meet Again

The Potential Horrors Of Camping

My boyfriend and I are a young couple in their mid college years. We decided that we wanted to get away from work and our studies for the weekend, so we took a trip to the the nearest hiking trail that is a part of the Appalachian trail. We decided to leave on a Friday once I got off of work, and back pack up the trail in order to camp there over the weekend. I work in a restaurant, and it is very difficult to have a set time of when I'm going to leave work.

I ended up leaving work around 4:00, but we said that NO matter what, we would be going on this trip. We finally left for the trail, and we began hiking around 5:30. My boyfriend was an Eagle Scout, so we had all of the necessary supplies for a successful camping trip; tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, pots, pans, stove, clothes, food, and of course, necessary substances to free our minds after the long hike.

The first part of the hike was absolutely exhausting. It was all up hill, and we were both carrying at least 40 pounds in our metal-framed backpacks. An hour later, we finally passed the first shelter. If not many of you know, a shelter on this trail is a 10 foot by 15 foot (approximately) log cabin that only has three walls, as it is open to the outside. It's specifically used as shelter to sleep in or hide in from the rain.

Mid-way through the hike, it began to pour dramatically in the forest. Sooner or later, we were both soaked from head to toe. Thick fog grew quickly, as it had been a hot and humid Friday. The trail became very slippery, and our pace slowed down tremendously. We had hoped that we were getting closer to the camping sight, but it turned dark very, very quickly. We took a rest in the dark as it poured on us in hopes that we would find our head lamps. Once we found our head lamps, we placed them on our heads, still struggling to balance ourselves on top of the rocky and muddy path. I thought that by that point, we would never make it to the shelter. We walked, never giving up, although the I wanted to, as my socks and shoes were wet, I was tired, hungry, drenched, and cold. The temperature has dropped more than 25 degrees as we had made our way up.

It was around 8:30 when we finally made it through to the second shelter and camp grounds. There was a split in the path. Either you could walk straight to continue to the top of the view (which was about a mile and a half away), you could turn slightly right to walk to the camp grounds, or you could take a 90 degree turn to the right to walk down to the shelter. At that point, we were drenched from head to toe and needed to dry off. It was still raining to beat the ban, so it would have been nearly impossible to set up our tent and camp. We had decided we would stay put the the shelter until the rain calmed down.

We didn't hear anyone at the shelter, so I was extremely excited to have the place to ourselves and take a few tokes (if you know what I mean). After our hike, I was dead set on it. Once we walked down to the shelter and got to the opening, there was a man and woman in their 60's. We instantly thought to ourselves that they were an older married couple who wanted to get away for the weekend too. We told them that we wouldn't be bothering them for long, so we wet our backpacks down and attempted to dry off. The couple was very welcoming, with a lantern, and an absorbing towel for me to dry off. My boyfriend and I both took our shirts off since they were both carrying a lot of weight in water.

The couple seemed to be very normal, and the man brought a cute dog with him that I enjoyed playing with. We began introducing ourselves, with our names, where we are from, and what we were doing there. They both said they were in their 60's, their names were Joe and Maya, and that they were just messing around for the weekend. In between sentences, they were taking large gulps of what it looked like to be alcohol in their water pack. They said they were just having fun and met online, which veered off into dropping hints that they were there on the trail having an affair.

The older woman, who says that she comes from West Virginia, striked me to be very off. It began with her looks, having scraggly, shoulder-length, grey hair, with circular glasses resting on her face. Her teeth were very dark, nearly covered with a brown film, as if she had used hard drugs in the past. She wore a pullover, hiking boots, and jean shorts that nearly exposed everything. Joe on the other hand was just an average white male, who had grey hair, and was a tad overweight. They spoke about their past employments and what they had done in life. Maya said that she was a writer, which I did admired. Information about ourselves was exchanged too, since they seemed very friendly.

I was in a very bad mood though and very irritable until I smoked some. My boyfriend and I periodically showed each mother our phones in order to communicate, as we didn't have a bit of service in the shelter we were at. We agreed that it was okay if we started smoking, since they were becoming drunk. They said they didn't mind, but would like to join. I thought it was absolutely insane that they wanted to smoke too at that age. The many only took two hits, but the woman took MANY, and she was struggling a lot to even flick the lighter. The guys began their own conversation, and the woman and I veered off on our own as well.

The woman began with asking me to tell her a story. As she inched closer and closer to me, she would ask me to tell her a story. She grew more and more demanding, saying, "TELL ME A STORY!" My boyfriend and I met online, just as they said they did, so I was going to tell her about the story of how we met. I began the story with, "So you met him online, right?" The woman nearly cuts me off, and angrily says, "WHAT? WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?" I said to her, "You all met online, right?" She nearly cuts me off again, and more aggressively says, "WHAT? WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?" I said again, "Earlier, Joe said you all met online, didn't you?" She then nearly shouts and growls, "WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT?" I wanted to jump away from that conversation so quickly, so I asked her, "Well you're a writer you said, right? So why don't you tell me one of your best stories?" The woman becomes happy and giggly, and while swirling her hands around her head in the air, she said, "Well, I am a writer... In my mind..." I was extremely confused and creeped out, I didn't know what to say. I'm the type of person to laugh it off, so that's what I did. She just said she enjoyed being a writer in her mind.

I look over at my boyfriend's and Joe's conversation, and it seemed to be as normal as can be. There was absolutely nothing wrong about it, but Maya nearly gave me the chills as she got my attention, getting closer into my face, asking me what I was saying. The problem was that I wasn't saying anything. I was absolutely silent, ignoring her. She began talking to her self.

She would make very in-depth hand gestures, as she spoke to her self, then would ask me what I was saying to her. I wasn't saying a word, and she would wonder what I was telling her. She would abruptly say, "Yes, no, maybe, no way, yea, it can't, wait, huh?" As she would rock back and forth, waving her arms around.

She began crossing her legs, holding her arms up in the air, above her head. She started to shout. "COMING OUT IM CALLING OUT ALL OF YOU COME" she was nearly talking jibberish. The older man's attention was caught, and he asked her what in the world she was doing. She said, "I'm calling out. It's Witch craft." I was nearly high and terrified of ALL my surroundings. It stormed loudly in the background and was pitch black all around us. A small lamp light rested on a bean above our heads in the middle of the wooden shelter. I was wet and VERY vulnerable. Everything slowly began to get worse that night.

Maya kept slurring her words, and the man demanded she get in her sleeping bag and sleep. I sat against the wall next to my boyfriend very closely, as the man crawled into his sleeping bag, and Maya attempted to put her legs in the sleeping bag, but couldn't. She moved around for a very long time and finally curled up next to Joe, on top of her sleeping bag. She was probably freezing, as it was 35 degrees by 9:30. Only a few minutes passed, and we heard Maya whisper. Maya said angrily, "What did you give me?" She growls again, "What did you give me?" The man finally woke up and demanded, "What?!" Maya hits him on his back and yells, "What did you give me?" She jumped up immediately, facing us. Her eyes were nearly all black, as her pupils were so enlarged. She looked nearly sadistic, and yelled at us, "WHAT DID HE GIVE ME?" My boyfriend and I both tensed up, nearly losing our shit. She screams, "WHAT DID HE GIVE ME?" Even louder again, as her voice screeched into my ear drums. She once again turned around to the man, laying down behind him. She slowly whispered into his hear, softly growling, "Did you give me acid?" It began to run through my mind that he had drugged her, or she was having a flashback of a bad trip.

Joe attempted to calm her down, but she was still restless. She laid down for approximately 5 minutes, but Maya immediately sat up. She faced us, with her legs crossed. She stared at us, without breaking contact, for at least 5 minutes. She did this every so often, sitting up, stating at us, then laying back down. She would do this over and over again, so we decided to leave immediately. We finally made our way out, as she stared at us for one last time.

We pitched camp as far away as possible, but I remained sleepless that night, in fear Maya would find our tent and crawl into it...

Maya, let's never meet again.