Haunted Trail 2023 – Night Tremors

Hi folks, are you up for a night of frights? In the last post I covered some of the prep that goes into bringing our haunted trail to life. It is definitely hard to express just how much work is required to pull this off year after year, but one thing is for sure – I have no idea how we were able to do this while I was still working!! All those years leading up to retirement, I was thinking how much easier the Halloween event was going to be with all those extra hours. I have NO idea where those supposed “extra” hours went as once again we were scrambling right up to the start to get everything in place an operational. The only thing that really matters though is through the invaluable help of amazing people…we got’er done.

Our friend in haunt, Paul, did make our annual teaser video. Feel free to watch that walkthrough and then we’ll take a more static look at the trail after the jump.

Hit the jump to take a closer look.

With all the activities, it is difficult to remember to take pictures during the two nights we hold the party. Fortunately, we did get a few that give the overall feel of the haunt experience. There is so much more out there that you will just have to experience for yourself.

We like to start the night with Paul’s penguin. Sure, it’s a Christmas themed prop, but who isn’t taken aback by a 14+ foot flightless bird! We have a picture of a small child just standing in front and staring up in ah. I didn’t include it here because of his age, but that image perfectly sums up the night of wonderment.

Before we get too far, should mention this year Brad brought his industrial strength fogger. That thing is absolutely amazing. The chilly night and slight wind not only gave a blanket of creepy fog over our entire trail, it also managed to fog up the entire valley (miles in both direction). If some of these shots look a bit hazed, that is the reason, as in this shot of our new 12′ Inferno Skeleton that points the way to the trail.  

Can really see the fog in this next shot of the bonfire and the pumpkin arch entrance. Call me evil, but I did chuckle when I saw a mother trying to calm the nerves of child in her arms that was having some definite hesitations about even starting the trail.. and this is the kid’s side ha. Admittedly, the fog did make it feel scarier than usual.

Here is what it looked like before the fogger mist made it to this area – definitely more inviting hehehe.

I mentioned during the prep that the trail is set up so there are more mature scares the farther you go. This first section is definitely tamer and consists of blow ups and more docile static props. Oh, and thanks to the broken elbow this year, I didn’t get the planned switchbacks cut in so our guests had to traverse the large hill in and out of the valley – sorry about that.

Hockey Jason was the first prop we ever made when we started this crazy addiction over 17 years ago. As a point of nostalgia, it always has a prominent place on the trail.

We are in the blow-up alley now. The other nice thing those do is bring a lot of light onto the trail. Makes it less scary for the kids and gives extra light for everyone to navigate the hill. There isn’t a lot ambient light happening once you get under the tree canopy in the valley.

Casper and his friends always gather to greet our guests.

More shots down the hill. 

Happy, happy ghosts to put our smaller guests at ease.

Paul added two of these pumpkin man arches this year. The pumpkin prop behind the arch is 12′ tall if that gives you a reference for this closer arch.

Paul’s dragon has always been my favorite prop in this section of the trail. I have to say now that I’ve seen the pumpkin arches, I might have to change my vote.

Once down the hill, we start to transition from the air-blown props to more traditional scares. Still on the tame side, but starting to ease into the skeletons and other things that go bump in the night.

There is a nice collection of skeleton animals on the trail – suspect a number of them get missed on first run through which is why we recommend multiple passes and even attending both days if they want the full package.

Looks like we are going to have a new addition to the dragon’s lair soon as that egg wasn’t hatching when we initially put it out there.

“I have a feeling we are being watched!”

This section gets really dark, so we do add a few more blowups just to take advantage of the extra light. Too early to start scaring the kids ha.

Bat Boy will be getting a makeover this off season to make him a bit more proportional to his 65″ wingspan. Those wings are animated and raise and retract whenever someone passes by.

Our pirate greeter welcomes our guests to the next section of our trail. He has a number of custom sayings (thanks to Ron’s pirate voice) that lets people know it is time to walk the plank (err, our bridge) to the Emerald Forest.

There is nothing that gets us more upset than when we see Christmas commercials during the Halloween season. As a taunt to that behavior, we have our own haunted Christmas section.

Welcome to the Emerald Forest. The fog definitely helped out this year because in the past, the cell phones were unable to take a picture of the emerald effect in the trees. Imagine the entire canopy lit up with tiny green dots. Oh, and happy greetings from Brad’s 12′ foot Skele.

More cool effects from the massive fogger. Our two new 8′ spiders were a big hit this year. The fluorescent paint on the back and eyes really popped with the UV lights.

A little closer look at the toxic spider.

This shot of its sister didn’t come out as clear, but looked equally creepy as its slightly larger brother in the shot above.

Might be giving one of our big secrets away here, but the eye effect looked really cool in this shot, so decided to add it. 

A look at the emerald colored forest. We’ll talk about that red area further along the trail.

Spiders gotta eat too!

The witches got a new home this year thanks to the walnut issue covered in the previous post. I think they approved of the new location …and it did a good job of keeping our guests out of the area behind them where all the walnuts were falling through the two nights (and during prep and during the tear down and for some time afterwards).

Our staff is given the task of putting out all the skeletons on the trail. Someone must have watched Predator before heading out to help set up.

“Excuse me sir, do you happen to have any Grey Poupon?”

More sights from the trail. You will likely see some of the extensions cords in the shots we shine a light on (they are hidden in the dark). There are many cords running throughout the woods to power this trail up. We have a heck of a time keeping the mice from chewing on the soy-based insulation.

A fan favorite, the Skele-bride is quite the performer and serenades all the guests as they pass through.

Did I mention we have very large spiders …

This skeleton looks like it is doing an Irish Riverdance.

There are three wolves on the trail. The skeleton one below, a zombie one not shown and Wolvie, the new 8′ long beast that you will see later in the post.

“Welcome to my nightmare, I think you’re gonna like it”

Now we come to our new sister witches – never stare into their eyes or you will be caught in their evil spell.

Linda gets all the credit for this next prop. She found it on sale at Costcos a couple of years ago and has been a really nice addition to the trail. 

This ground grabber was a new addition for this year. A friend of Linda’s gave it to us after her company found it left behind from one of those Spirit pop up stores. It was broken, but it was super easy to fix and now works perfectly.

It was a goal this year to beef up our ToT Cemetery with some new larger tombstones. I’ll let you figure out the clever sayings.

These new stones were internally lit. I took this at a bad angle, but from head on they looked absolutely beautiful..you will see in just a sec…figure the epitaph out yet..hint there is a clue on top.

Another one of the new stones – you can see how they were built here. 

Another new stone.

…let’s bring you in a little bit closer. Complete with skull beer mug and lighted tapper.

Our other set of mechanical wings. These are slightly smaller than Bat Boys’ and belong to you know who.

Keep your eyes open, you never know what you are going to find in the woods.

Last year we added a hidden projection screen for our resident phantoms (in back). That is actually a custom tombstone we built to house the projector and speakers.

This tombstone is more of an inside joke thanks to the genius mind of Brad and Jan Marks. A tribute to this year’s trail “incident”.

Will bring you a bit closer on this one as well. Ron added a nice touch with the weeping angel and he also found the winged angel skeletons sitting on the stone.

Looks like our evil Poodle has trapped another victim up a tree.

Our old stones are starting to look a bit simple with the addition of the new high tech versions. Might have to give these an upgrade over the off-season as well.

Definitely needs some upgrades, although they do give an older/creepier feel to the cemetery.

Our animated ground grabber was “back again”. Both the tombstone and the accompanying animated prop got an upgrade this year. Definitely worth the extra time we spent on them.

Another obscure joke from my days at work where the addressee on the email was often typed wrong.

This is probably the only prop we had issues with this year. It worked great last year, but for some reasons the servos that open the tombstone were acting up this year. I’ll get that fixed before our next haunt, but these two nights we just propped it open. The skeleton inside was still popping out like it was supposed to.

We use a lot of rope lights to direct out guests around the trail. They also give off a lot of light..you can see how dark it gets beyond those lights thanks to the canopy choking out all the ambient light – this is even with a full moon those two nights.

Some kids get to play in sandboxes..others ..well, they go with what they have access to ha.

Our guests cannot deny we didn’t warn them. We’ve come to one of the scariest sections on the trail.

Sorry, I have to shield my eyes on this next one, catch you on the other side.

Man, I hate that damn Pennywise. It is Paul’s and he animated it and has it play a number of creepy lines from the movie. Makes me tremble every time I see it.

Of course, that isn’t the only clown on the trail – it’s more like an infestation.

Another of Paul’s new props. Helpful tip…do not reach for the candy. 

Do you realize the weeks of nightmares I have well after the trail is taken down and packed away!?!

Linda forced me to pose for this next shot. I figure she had just upped my life insurance payout.

Oh yeah, this is going to keep me up for sure.

Unfortunately, this shot came out bad, but the Juggalo clown below is the second prop we ever built and was the first in the Posey line that has been evolving every year since.

It has taken a while to get the Clown in the Box working the way we wanted it to. After more tweaks this year (lightened the head, reduced the amount of springs) it is finally working great. Now the clown head revolves inside the box and has a nice set of scary clown sayings sure to leave a lasting impression.

Every year we add another feature to the clown section. Honestly, I don’t know why I do this, but my therapist says I should embrace my darkest fears. Beginning to think this is self-serving as it just results in more sessions.

Looking back into the clown section – the red glow just increases the mental discomfort.

Time to start heading to the zombie containment area.

Someone should tell the vamp that he has some left overs to wipe off his face – you know, courtesy and all.

Hard to tell in this shot without a reference, but our resident Grim Reaper now stands well over 8′ tall. Quite the intimidating figure, but it is the kids screaming to get out of the lamp that unnerves our guests the most ha. There are even moving little arms silhouetted inside.

Excuse me, have you any Brians…I mean brains?

And for the main course we have arm and leg chops.

Last year Freddie was upgraded to reflect the whole vax shot situation. Just for historical purposes, July 21, 2021 our government said “You’re not going to get covid if you have these vaccinations”.

Dance zombie, dance!! (link to the animation here)

Spike Zombie looking rather ravishing that night.

Ned will be feasting well tonight. I’ve told our small guests time and time again, stay away from the arachnid skeleton …they never listen.

Now we enter Paul’s area and let’s just say he brought it this year. I mentioned the red light in the prep post…the creepy “hellscape” effect that produced was amazing.

His army of skeletons were out and about.

The general of the skeleton army was busy barking orders to his troops.

Even if you manage to make it past Hell’s army, there were plenty of scares that still await.

I think I heard someone playing a banjo near this family.

If these girls didn’t scare you enough just looking at them..wait to you hear what they have to say.

Still up for more eh?

Paul picked up this werewolf on sale after last year’s Halloween – finally get to see it in action this year!

Clowns and Freddy… a match made in hell, that’s for sure.

Congrats, you made it out of there. Kudos for the newly retired haunt partner. All the extra time he has now was put to good use.

The last scare down in the valley was the new Birdman and Wolvie. Really happy with how the feet/hands came out and the fluorescent paint really made them pop in the UV light.

For reference, Wolvie is 8 feet long and over 4 feet high. Next year I hope to have Birdman’s wings animated and maybe its arms if I can find strong enough servos. 

Wolvie was my first large foam carving ever and really more of a validation test for plans I have for next year (hint even bigger). I ran out of time to get it fully polished off – I had glass eyes and wanted to give him a fur texture – but overall, very happy with it. It was definitely a lot more work than originally thought. Stay tuned for his project post(s) to get all the details on how it came to be.

We always close our trail with our Headless Horseman. Admittedly, placed at the top of the valley closer to the house so we can keep an eye on the flaming pumpkin for both the safety of our small guests and, quite frankly, to make sure he doesn’t throw it into the woods. You just can’t trust help these days, especially those without a head ha.

Another angle.

That’s a wrap on the 2023 Haunted Trail tour. Hope you enjoyed just a few of the sites and scares we prepared for our guests this year. 

The fun is over, now the really hard work begins – pulling it all back out of the valley. Fortunately, we do not have to be as careful with the props so it goes a bit faster.

I can tell you by now I am completely exhausted and the upcoming 50 mile ultra trail race the following weekend was starting to weigh heavy on me.

I remember the days when we didn’t have the trailer..and still working. Oh, I should probably mention this year was tremendously hampered by the still healing broken right elbow. Deeply indebted to all our volunteers!

It just occurred to me, I have to find a place to store this beast … Linda, we might need another out building!!

Linda: “Isn’t there some local wildlife refuge it can roam around in until next year’s trail!?!”

“Now that’s thinking!!”

The goal every year is to get everything back up into the out building soon after the event. This gives the props a chance to dry out while I rest up for the race. Problem is, trying to keep them from escaping and terrorizing the neighborhood.

Just some of the trail props getting ready for the storage phase. 

Another successful year. A big thanks to my brother Ron (left) who not only helps me as a year round sounding board on prop ideas, spends countless hours down here away from home to help us get ready – especially helpful this year with the injury and all. And, of course, a big thanks to my friend in haunt Paul who also shares the addiction..I mean passion for all things scare. 

Needless to say, we are already working on props and planning next year’s haunt extravaganza. Forgot to mention, Linda made us shirts this year. Paul was sporting his the last day of tear down when we took this picture. Ours say Haunt Master, Linda’s had Haunt Queen on it and the rest had Haunt Staff. They all had Haunted Trail 2023 on the sleeve! A small token of our appreciation for all their help.

Hope you enjoyed scenes from our annual Haunted Trail. It is only a fraction of the overall experience, but it gives a feel for the event as a whole.

Until next year, Stay Calm and Haunt On!