# The Mason Tract is Haunted, I swear!



## YPSIFLY

I just found this thread too.

Reminds me of when I would go out to fish some of the lakes at Pincney Rec. Area at 3-4 in the morning.

I was working the graveyard shift and listened to a lot of late night conspiracy radio like Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM. This was in the summer of '99 when all of the crazy pre-millenium/Y2K hype was going on.

I don't believe in black helicopters and little gray aliens, but listening to all that weird stuff on the AM dial made me think that that would be the place to see them.

Worked myself up pretty good a few times. I had to walk about a mile down a dirt road. All the little critters running around in the woods didn't lighten the mood.


----------



## Sailor

Splitshot's Toad Tale reminds me of a similar 
adventure I had around thirty years ago while backpacking on Beaver Island. It was in October
and I was laying in my sleepingbag next to a 
small fire. I Was startled by loud crashing in 
the brush and stomping in the leaves. All I
could think about was "BIG FOOT"!!! I decided to defend myself with my sheath knife!! I yelled at
the intruder and told him what I would do to him-but the noises got louder and closer-and I 
was scared witless. I built up my fire,lashed my knife to a pole and made a spear.My ordeal lasted most of the night. And then I saw them-yes there were two of them-Porcupines!!!! You wouldn't beleive the sounds those little buggers made-or how unafraid they were and how afraid I was! This is the first time I told anyone about this as I've always felt ashamed of getting such a serious case of the shivvers from such small animals.


----------



## HATCHBOMB

Going back to Weezer's original post--I feel the same way sometimes when fishing the Tract. Went out a couple weekends ago, and was unnerved while gearing up when a pack of coyotes started howling right down the road from me. Continued to go fishing, and something scared the crap outta myself and my friend as we were walkin down the trail. Sounded like a possum crashing through the trees directly above us. Then I got buzzed by an owl last weekend while night fishing alone. I'm not too worried about bears and such, only weirdos that find their way to the parking areas where we tend to fish. Every noise that sounds like a car door opening or tailgate flopping down is what keeps me on my toes. Can't help but worry about the stuff in my truck after hearing stories of people being ripped off while they are in the river...

HATCHBOMB


----------



## Steve

I agree that other crazy people are your greatest threat in Michigan's woods. After all there is no law out there. But I have had coyotes make me scramble pretty fast to my tree-stand in the early morning darkness more than once. There's been a few times when I've had my big Mag light in hand ready to fend them off


----------



## Robert W. McCoy Jr

> Pack some heat


Is that your answer to every thing? 
Ohh wait thats my answer too. LOL


----------



## Shagy

This kind of silly but I got the crap scared out of me while scouting with a buddy last Thursday just about dark. We were walking down a 2 track and all of the sudden I see something kind of small and white run between our legs. I whirled around and there wasn't anything there. I asked my buddy if he seen that and he said he didn't. Next thing I know something this "thing" made a awful sounding bark right behind me, practically on my heel's. I about jumped 10 feet in the air only to turn around and see a cute little beagle with a electric collar on. He ended up following us to the truck and then followed the truck down the road all the way to where his owner was.


----------



## kienbaumer

I heard lotsof coyotes last weekend. A couple deer snorts too. I hooked into a muskrats mouth full of leafs. I swear it snagged me on those branches on purpose. O ya the owls are cool sounding too. Would i night fish there by myself? Heck no


----------



## Sturgeon-man

I know whatcha guys mean. What I can't stand is the beavers (that would be the ones with the big yellow teeth). Some of the "old boys" I started night buggin with used to say "AAHH- they won't bother ya", they still scare the crap out of me. I never thought I'd see one attack until I heard Lloyd Dunbar screaming his head off one night. Apparently he got too close to a hut and one latched on to the soft part of his skin behind his knee. Bit right through his waders, skin & all. To this day I scream like a girl when one slaps it's tail - and talk about someone gettin' out of the water fast...


----------



## Guest

Steve,
Well, after a beaver slapping his tail next to me at midnight on the Mason track or having one of them bump into me I have a red light flash light so I can check out the local critter and not have to clean out my waders. Also have had near encounters with racoons..man they can make noise at night. As for a CPL...if you are serious, come on down to AA next weekend, we have a one day class on the 21st.
As for ghosts....About 6 years ago one of my buds was getting ready for some hex fishing in that area when a crowd of 12 or so people came piling down with coolers, kids and rods. They stopped at the bank looking at my Rick while discussing something amonst themselfs. Finally after a few minutes one of them waded out to Rick, introduced himself and said they were in the area to deposit the remains of there uncle who has been killed in a car accident and cremated. Rick was in his favorite spot, would he mind if they deposited the remains there? Rick, being the sensitive kind waded downstream 50 yards and watched as the whole family moved the the river, huddles and seem to pray..suddenly there were ashes all around Rick...yeck.....Hour and half later Rick watched a 12 year old kid pull out a nice 20+ inch fish from where he stood. He did ok but was still frustrated as he wanted a nice quite night and figured they just pulled some ash out of a webber grill or something. Much to his suprise he found out that indeed a dentist had been killed, he was creamated and yep..he had been wearing some of the fella that night. OH..by the way, Rick is also a dentist....Rick swears he can see someone prowling the banks in this spot on those dark hex nights now.


----------



## mickdrosco

Weezer,
Before you get too carried away and start packing the big heat, just know that I live next to the Mason Tract and often walk the area after dark a lot. I also sit and watch fishermen just because it is pleasant to compare their casting choices with mine in the same area. If you're going to pack heat, I'll be sure to steer you a wide berth!!

There are a lot of bears in the area right now, but unless you happen to position yourself between a sow and her cubs, they are much more scared of you than you are of them.

I should probably write more about the area being haunted, as anything that scares fishermen away leaves more of the area for me


----------



## Texas Fly

I don't know of this particular area, but my father inlaw has some pretty spooky stories of things he has seen in the UP. Like when he was coming back home after hunting with his brother and a bright light shined on them from above and followed them as they ran...this was in the late 30's so no helicopters or anything like that.


----------



## jeremy L

i wish i would have found this sooner. the most freaky place is grindstone after dark. You are sitting off the two points,or whatever you want to call them. it is dark and you only have a flashlight. you sit there alone in the dark and try to think about the walleye you are going to catch. you end up thinking about how dark the water is, how so many people have lost there lives on the lakes, you think how they never found some bodies, you look in the water. waiting for a pair of pale eyes to look at you and a hand to grab you. kinda makes you wish you were at home.


----------



## mad4trout

I fish the Mason Tract regularly, and primarily after dark. 

In past years, my brother came along, but 2007 was a "solo" season for me.

In mid-August, I got to Highbanks #9 about 6:30pm, and walked the ski trail up to an entry point just below the Castle. I normally smoke a cigar to keep the mosquitos at bay, but they weren't bothering me this evening, so I was just working a small Adams fly, when something caught my attention about 75 yards downstream.

My first thought was "deer", but it was a black bear. The first I had ever seen on the Mason tract. 

It wasn't big. Maybe 200-250 pounds. And after it saw me, it was extremely timid.

I reached for the camera that I keep on a lanyard around my neck, and did snap a couple desperation shots, but he had already crossed the river, and was behind a log jam. As much as I blew the pictures up afterwards, I couldn't make out anything that looked like a black bear body part.

I had heard them in the woods at night before, but this was my first sighting.

How do you spell Pepper Spray??? :sad:

Bob


----------



## Sailor

How do you spell Pepper Spray??? :sad:

Bob[/QUOTE]

Hi Bob,Welcome to the site. If you follow this link:
http://www.udap.com
you'll find the best Pepper Spray made and the bloody face that convinced the guy (with the bloody face) to go into business making it! Mark is a customer of ours and I'm very impressed with his firsthand knowledge of bear attacks and the use of pepper spray. You can buy it from him or at Cabela's.


----------



## catch&release

I've never had a weird experience in MI while in the outdoors.

The place that creeped me out as a college kid was Cattaragus Creek in SW New York State. It's the first place I tried fishing for trout. There are a lot of narrow gorges where you're kind of boxed in and if anything bad is upstream or downstream there's nowhere to go. 

I was fishing there at sunset in the late summer and it was a windless evening. No birds were singing and no bugs were chirping. The utter quiet beside the low babble of the stream really seemed ominous. I just had a weird, hair raising feeling about being alone in such a eerily still and quiet place. I left an hour earlier than I had to and never returned.

Funny, after thinking about it, today I typed a google search for "Zoar Valley Haunted" and pulled up the below link. Even though it's been 20 years, maybe I was right to high tail it out of there that night!

www.paranormalghostsociety.org/Zoar Valley.htm


----------

