Ashmore Heritage Preserve Trail (Chandler Rock)

Dennis Krasinski

This place is beautiful, but... My wife and I visited while in town, just to do a short hike to the lake. The trail was really well worn, and allowed for good footing. There was a nice little creek with clear water and the trail was pretty easy to traverse. We did see a couple of strange things on this short hike, though. First, there was a large man on the trail that immediately looked startled to see anyone else out there, like we had interrupted him. He asked us what we were doing there, where we planned on going, and then volunteered his own itinerary, unsolicited. He kept talking as we continued walking, like he didn't really need us to listen for him to go on with what he had to say. Next, when we got to the lake we found a brand new hat hanging on a tall bush that had an embroidered mask on the front from "Halloween" and said Myers on the back. It looked like it had just been put there before we arrived. We decided after going a little further to turn back so we could get dinner. When we got back to the area we had encountered the strange man earlier, we found that he was still there, still talking to himself. As we got closer we saw that he had setup his phone on a tripod and was recording himself. Without acknowledging our presence, looking at us, or speaking directly to us he took his shirt off, dropped it on the ground in front of himself, and continued speaking words from a long forgotten language while his phone kept recording the weird situation as it unfolded... I'm convinced that we stumbled across someone with mental health issues that hadn't been taking their meds for quite some time and had no one to help them get help. Whether he was schizophrenic or has ASPD of some sort, it seems that we had accidentally interrupted a strange ritual of some kind that he performs out there, and he wasn't particularly happy about it, initially. It's one of the strangest experiences I've ever had, and we will NOT be returning for another hike, even as beautiful as the preserve is.

Randy Sybel

Great hike

T. Carter Jewell

Lots of blow down but very navigable. Good hike

Kever Mac

Beautiful hike