Trip Report: The Legend of Fridley Gap Hollow

Posted by Evan Mc on

Our costume-less forces of Halloween (Jimmy, Steve, Trisha, Catt, Evan, and Kylie)set out on a spooky-free and overcast morning at the Vienna Metro station and made our final car and shuttle details on the fly. A few hours later, united with Andrew and what appeared to be an army’s worth of trucks near Boone Run, we headed north and began our southbound hike of Massanutten South. The woods and trees were in full All Hallow’s Eve regalia, depositing their dead and decomposing orange and yellow leaves on the ground and leaving us with only the evil red of Satan’s maw on their branches.

We shivered through this display and hiked up to enjoy a pleasant and decidedly not scary view. A lone report from a nearby musket shot added to the fell atmospherics of our stroll. That and our political conversation left us quaking in our boots.

Then we descended back along the ridge to meet our biggest foe yet: Ichabod Roadwalk.

We were too terrified to take a picture but we noticed a large colony of tents nestled in the woods off the trail. Clearly the forces of murder (Bambi, Beware!) were massing for a night of evil rampage. We hurried on and made good time to our sanctuary for the evening: Fridley Gap Hollow. Blessedly, the campsites on either side of the stream were ours for the taking. We set up camp and readied to fend off the evil night spirits and rampaging killers with their bows and muskets. And old legend came to us: only the ritual scarring and flame sacrifice of two young pumpkins would give us the blessing of protection to make it through the evening. That, and the only way to defeat spirits was to drink said spirits. And so we did.

The artists at work.

In the morning, we realized with only a little confusion and consternation that we survived. The Evil Dead and their Hunter Avatars claimed only one fatality: an hour of time.


Michael Martin posted on

Wow, scary trip report!


Dave MacLuskie posted on

It's frightening how gleefully maniacal Kylie looks stabbing a vegetable.