Witch and Moan/Zombie Chase/Terrifying Turkey Trail Adventure

Sunday was the annual running of the Witch and Moan/Zombie Chase/Terrifying Turkey Trail Adventure. Each October, around the witching time of the month, RunnersWorld-Tulsa conjures up all of the evil ghosts and ghouls, zombies, freaks, and other sorted creatures to the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness for some frolicking through the woods.
The Blood Trail (aka the Red Trail) was haunted by zombies in various states of decay, and all were hungry for----BRAINS!!!!


After a the traverse of the Blood Trail, a few survivors joined forces with an army of brave souls and proceeded down the paved trail for the Witch and Moan 5K.


There were several graveyards and torture stations along the way, where where younger goblins had the opportunity to cast a spell, and/or receive an offering of the delectable variety. (I like the Trix bars best.)

Three zombies formerly known as Amanda, Shorty, and Johnna ate more tricksters than than they gave candy, and reports are still emerging that Shorty has been having Snicker feeding frenzies to go along with her ravishing appetite for human entrails.


Two of the undead, who once were alive and well and known as Amelia and Katie, did their best to ensure the safety peril of those on the trail.

After the Witch and Moan journey was over, and most of the survivors were accounted for, the Turkey Terrifying Trail Adventure began. So treacherous and dangerous is this event that of the 40 people who signed up, 25% decided to not risk their lives and took their candy and retreated to the safety of their homes. One of the "fearless" guides wet himself in sheer terror of the prospect of taking a company of adventures four miles into utter darkness on the most fearful of all routes on Turkey Mountain. But still, 30 stepped up and accepted the challenge of the trek, which led to a few of the mysterious caves hidden on the eastern face of Turkey Mountain. Several of the company that departed at 8:10 pm had never ran on trailz, and most has never been out on the trailz at night. Mitch, the Sherpa for the 2nd group and I kept careful count of our group, yet the trail claimed two of our stragglers. Fortunately, Mitch's group was able to rescue them.

My group chose to go to the farthest length of the base of the mountain before plundering through literally several feet of dense thickets to enter the homeless man's cave. A candle had been lit and it appeared that we narrowly missed a cave dweller as the remains of a half eaten rat was tossed aside as if he had recently fled the confines.

From there, we backtracked, looking for the Crevice Cave, the deepest cave in the area. The entrance was blocked by a giant fallen tree, perhaps a good omen. There is another cave near this one that reached much further and deeper into the mountain, but the entrance was dynamited years ago after reports of people getting lost and never coming out.


The Catacomb Cave and the Vulture cave were next and were our final stops on this adventure.
Getting to these caves requires an eagle eye to the narrow opening through a vine and brier covered remnant of a trail. The climb is over 100 feet, and is almost straight up. Still our group, enthralled with the prospects of seeing caves that most Turkey Mountain visitors do not even know exist, clawed their way quickly through the mesh of vines and stickers to a narrow ledge that led to the Catacomb Cave. This cave, big enough to hide a body (or two) would also be a good place to hide out if you had the law chasing you. This cave has many dreadful tales to tell--if it could talk. I had placed a torch inside to give light to the ghostly chamber, and most of out crew took a peek.

My entourage must have sensed that I was saving the best cave for last, as they were pushing ahead to enter the Vulture cave, This cave has a lot of history. It has been called the BAD DOG cave, since the words BAD DOG are etched in stone at the entrance. It's also known as Lo's Cave, a homeless man from the great depression era who lived here, and had once constructed a gate guarding the entrance. This is also the location for the petroglyphs, carved centuries ago by vikings.

But the Vulture Cave gets its name from an encounter by one of our communities upstanding citizens Brian Hoover, who once entered the cave and came face to face with a giant vulture who was eating a dead raccoon. The coon had been aging for quite sometime, and the vulture was picking the remnants of his warm leftover flesh from the carcass when Brian interrupted dinner. The huge bird let out a shriek and began flopping his wide wings either trying to escape, or attack--I'm not sure. The second shriek a split second later was from Brian who ran like a Kenyon out of the cave and did not stop for 100 yards alongside the bluffs where there was no trail. We did not see the vulture again. We kicked the raccoon out of the cave into some dense underbrush, and threw away our shoes.

At night,  this cave is black as ink--so much so that it seems to consume and diminish the light from a flashlight. Even  LED headlamps seems curiously dim entering this cave after the sun goes down. I had placed a few items in the cave for shock value--a skull (big surprise) and a severed hand complete with fake blood, but these were seasoned Halloweeners and they paid no mind to my hidden fright props. Most of us were crammed in the cave when I felt a sharp jabbing pain to my right ankle. It felt like someone had stabbed my lower leg with a knife, and I quickly raised up my pant leg to see two puncture wounds and a little blood dripping from one of them. I had been snake-bit! Trying to keep the group from panicking, I calmly asked then to carefully exit the cave and that I had been bitten by a snake, Then the unthinkable happened! Several snakes seemingly fell from the ceiling of the cave right onto a couple of girls who were ahead of me deeper in the cave!! The HORROR!!

They screamed is sheer terror--and then began cussing, then laughing. It seems that someone from above the cave had dropped rubber snakes onto their heads, and it coincided with my "supposed snake bite." Yep--thanks to my snake wrangling buddy Russell, and a bit of B-movie acting on my part, we scared the crap out of a few girls. Hey--it's Halloween!