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Did We Move Into a Haunted Cabin?

Posted on by citlali17feliz

When Leland first told me that his Dad had bought a cabin in the mountains and we could live there and fix it up after we were married I imagined this.

Thankfully, it was not the dilapidated building I had imagined. It was a beautiful ski-in/ski-out chalet located in Alta ski resort. 

Once it was repaired we started managing weekly rentals. On a particularly busy day preparing for a new group of renters we decided to split up the work. Leland went down to the valley to do laundry and pick up groceries for our arriving group. I had started cleaning the 5,000 square feet of the cabin that needed to be cleaned. 

As I was finishing in the kitchen, wiping the counters, I heard something. A muffled woman’s voice. At first, I thought someone had wandered in from the ski hill looking for a bathroom. I went to the entry and checked. No one was there. I yelled out “Is someone there?” I got no answer. As I stood near the entry I heard the voice again. This time from within the room I had just been cleaning. A tightness ran down my spine and into my fingertips, my heart began to race, my palms got clammy. It sounded like it had come from the hallway leading downstairs. Confused, I searched the rooms, trying to figure out if an alarm clock in one of the bedrooms had turned on and was playing music. I didn’t hear the sound anymore. 

I felt flustered but I had a job to do. So, I ran up the stairs to the top story and searched the whole cabin systematically room by room, closing and locking doors to rooms and closets I had checked until I got to the bottom story. I found no one. 

I breathed a sigh of relief and I got back to work. Then, I heard the obscure sound again. Now I was really scared because I realized that maybe, I was going crazy. People don’t just hear muffled voices. I tried to find the voice again but whenever I thought I was close it seemed to be coming from within the walls and then it would just stop. 

At this point, I knew two things. First, I was completely alone in the cabin. Second, I was hearing a woman’s voice. I started to feel a bit panicked. Do you know you’re hearing voices if you’re hearing voices, I wondered? How do you tell your new spouse you’ve started hearing voices? 

I decided it was best to be straightforward, I had to just tell him, and soon. 

Once we had gotten our renters all settled and we were alone I said, I have something really serious to tell you. He said “ok”, so, I recounted that when I had been cleaning that morning I had heard a woman’s voice but no one was there. I had checked the whole cabin and couldn’t find the origin. His eyes widened for a split second, I could tell he was trying to stay calm. He said, “maybe there’s a logical explanation”. 

We tried to find an explanation but found none, at first we assumed maybe someone was hiding in the cabin. This was no ordinary cabin after all with its hidden passageways and storage hideaways. It was indeed quirky. Leland assured me he’d be listening and watching in case someone had snuck in and was living in the depths of the cabin somewhere. 

The week went by smoothly.  As the renters were leaving they mentioned they had heard the resident ghost, but couldn’t find exactly where it was coming from. They were actually quite excited to have stayed somewhere that was haunted, for a whole week. At this point I was more relieved than they could fathom, I was not in fact insane. My husband could breathe easier knowing that I was not the only one who had heard “the voice”. We had not told them about the voice since I had been the only one to hear it so far. 

The group left and once again I was cleaning. This time Leland had stayed and was cleaning upstairs. We were on separate floors of the cabin when suddenly we both heard the sound of a woman speaking as if through a pillow. He began running up and down the stairs to different stories of the cabin quickly, almost frantically, trying to find out where the ghost voice was coming from. 

We determined that it was not coming from the upper story of the cabin, it was either the middle or bottom stories. Then the voice within the walls vanished. 

While making beds on the lower story later that night we heard the voice coming from within the walls and ceiling above us. As we walked up the stairs passing the landing the voice was much louder. We opened the door to the hidden utility closet and there above our heads was the voice.

“Change my batteries”, it said in a British accent, it was a smoke detector.

Gear Guide

Posted on by citlali17feliz

Living in a mountain environment is hard on everyday gear. If you buy something of poor quality you’ll find out quickly. Generally, it will be some kind of plastic that snaps from cold. Sometimes, it’s a poor weld or a thinner metal than should be used for repeated use in a harsh environment. To be honest there are very few things I buy the name brand. Our mountain gear tends to be an exception, with everyday use some brands just always held up, despite repeated abuse. Also, some brands will take the item back no questions asked. This is a list of comparable items to what we used daily if not the ones we actually used and still use. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Backpacks, We have an REI 60 pack that we use to this day, it has lasted us 15 years. We make sure to have a bright color so we’re easily spotted, just in case. The version REI offers on their website is a little different than ours, in that ours has a stretchy strap area on the front. We use this area for carrying our shovel. It needs to be easily accessible. The stretchy mesh is probably a better version of the same idea. We like the small zippered section at the top for things that would be lost in larger areas of the bag and need to be accessed quickly. We tend to have a headlamp and small first aid kit in this section. The Osprey brand has some great alternatives to an REI backpack. This one is particularly similar to what we use.

A shovel, this was crucial. We liked the smaller collapsable ones because we could keep it on the outside of our backpack, which meant we would end up taking it everywhere.

Gloves, no frostbite. Also, most leather gloves held up better as a rule.

If you’re in a particularly frigid environment a good pair of mittens are a must. I like to tuck my fingers into the palm of my gloves or mittens on a cold day to warm them.

Gaiters, these keep the snow from getting in your boots, so your feet stay warm.

Boots, I like to buy zip front boots or ones with a hook for the top section of the laces. This is because we often had to get out the door quickly. I would just unhook the laces from the top hook to take them off and then twist and rehook the laces when putting my boots on. I didn’t like to have to tie laces in an emergency.

Headlamps, my husband loves his black diamond headlamps. I don’t really love them because I don’t like having to charge something to use it. I have an energizer LED that works just fine. No bells and whistles but whatever I don’t have to charge it. Go for the Black Diamond or Petzl if you want a rechargable headlamp. In fact the Petzl below is extremely bright if that’s what you need.

Another item that isn’t glamorous but is essential is a car fire extinguisher. I kept this kind in the snowcat at all times.

They also have these ones made by the same company but with a different spray head. This kind seems more readily available.

Straps, These ones are nice for tying down things like skis and mountain bikes. I like the 14″ length.

Cookie Caper

Posted on by citlali17feliz

My husband Leland LOVES chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Warm, gooey yet crispy, chocolatey cookies. So, I figured I would make some as a treat. I made sure to buy oats and chocolate chips while I was shopping at the grocery store in the valley, 40 minutes drive from our cabin. I put them away in the pantry and thought that was that.

A few days later when the cabin guests had arrived and gotten settled I figured I had some time to bake. I went to the pantry to find the chocolate chips and oats, yet they were missing. I hadn’t seen my husband eat them, so I asked him if he had. He said no. I could tell he didn’t even know I’d bought them. I figured maybe I had misplaced them and would eventually figure out what I had done with them.

A few months went by and something in the cabin needed repair. So, Leland opened up the ceiling tiles in our hallway area. To our surprise sitting in the ceiling were the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies. A bag of chocolate chips and a half-eaten container of oats. A squirrel had gone into the pantry via the false ceiling and hoisted a 12oz container of chocolate chips and a 2 1/2 pound container of oats into the ceiling 15 feet away. This must have been quite the feat for such a small animal. It had even placed the false ceiling tile in the pantry almost perfectly back in place and proceeded to feast on chocolate and oats for months.

Cat Track

Posted on by citlali17feliz

I can still remember the contour of the mountain if I close my eyes. The blue-green color of the trees. The texture of the hardpack snow as the snowcat chewed it up and spat it out the back of its metal tracks. Every curve of the winter trail, every shortcut we’d take after the season ended and we were the only ones left in the upper mountain valley. Knowing that trail was vitally important because every time there was a whiteout, all you could go by was what you could see 5 ft in front of you. The snow would fall so thickly that the landscape and the horizon would blend together into an indistinguishable mass. The trees sometimes seemed to float in the sea of snow as if they were islands being revealed through dense fog. If you didn’t know the groups of trees then you could end up making a wrong turn off the trail into a stream bed. I remember squinting trying to see further through the snow as the lights reflected the white of the flakes back at me. Luckily there were few occasions that we had to drive through such storms. Most days the snowfall wasn’t very thick.

My favorite time to drive the snowcat trail was in the springtime when the sun warms the air. The Uinta ground squirrels began popping up out of the snow in extraordinary numbers. Suddenly driving felt a bit like playing whack-a-mole. The squirrels would get scared when they’d see and hear you, ducking into their snow tunnels and down into their burrows. You can only see them really well when the snow is melting, they don’t come out of their dens in winter. Once spring comes they seem to be everywhere, then the snow melts and suddenly they are camouflaged, seeming to have vanished.

Beheaded?

Posted on by citlali17feliz

We had been married less than two months. I remember thinking that as I sat shaking fighting back tears and the fear of uncertainty.

It all started when the snowcat track came partway off. We had only had the track come off one other time. We called the snowcat repair guy and asked if he could come to help us. He said we were in luck and he was already headed that way. He’d get there in about 10 minutes. He advised us to get out the car jack and put it on the back of the snowcat to lift the weight off the track. Since the snowcat had no parking brake I sat in the driver’s seat holding both brake handles toward my chest and my feet on the metal dash.

My husband Leland jumped out and started jacking the snowcat up. I felt the shaking of each ratcheted push of the car jack, lifting the snowcat a few inches at a time. Then suddenly the whole snowcat thudded to the ground. I could no longer see my husband in the rearview mirror. Instead, I saw the top of his helmet rolling away down the hill. I knew if I moved and he was alive the snowcat would roll over him and kill him. So, I sat and waited, I sat knowing that all I could see was his helmet. I sat thinking his head may be inside that helmet. I sat shaking, my stomach churning at the thought that I may have just become a widow.

The snowcat repair guy showed up a minute later, as he ran closer I yelled out the window “Is he alive?” He just said “Stay in the cat. Keep the brakes on.” I wasn’t sure if he just didn’t want me to see the carnage or if there was hope. So, I continued to just sit there holding those brakes hoping that his life still depended on it. The cat repair guy put the snowcat on blocks and said I could get out. I just about dropped to my knees from shock, trying to get down from the driver’s seat. Thankfully to my eternal happiness, Leland stood up, having been knocked out and having his jaw displaced. He decided he better get it back in place immediately before any adrenaline wore off. So, he made a fist and proceeded to bang on the side of is face hitting his jaw until it popped back into place.

I thought he should see a doctor, he refused. He couldn’t open his mouth for a while. I had to make soup, smoothies, and puddings for a few days in order to feed him. After that he was fine.