Strange Mountain Encounters

Hello to all friends and followers of SPI, and a special welcome to our future followers. 

            I’m Don, the old guy of the group, and I’d like to tell you a story that has my son, Mitch, and me totally baffled.  Please remember that we treat the field of paranormal investigations with respect.  We don’t stretch the truth or put anything on this website that is not 100% factual or clearly stated as our opinion.

            First, some background: Every summer, Mitch and I travel to Colorado for a week or so of hiking.  Colorado has 54 “14ers”—mountains that reach an elevation of at least 14,000 feet.  Most of them can be summited with strenuous hikes and maybe some mild scrambling or boulder-hopping near the top.  The average round trip on a 14er is around ten miles—quite a trek for somebody from the south, considering how thin the Rocky Mountain air is. 

            In June of 2017, we hiked several of these mountains.  The last one we summited was Mount Shavano.  This is a high mountain that looms over the Arkansas River Valley just west of Salida. 

As usual, we got an early start—around 3 a.m.—so we could be off the exposed slopes and ridges before any afternoon thunderstorms could build up.  When we started, Mitch’s truck was the only vehicle at the trailhead, and during those first few dark hours, lit only by flashlights and moonlight, we were totally alone. 

Even after breaking the tree line at dawn, we were alone.  The trail on Shavano emerges from the trees and runs along the southern slope of a high ridge as it ascends toward a low point, a saddle, between Shavano and another peak.  As we progressed out of the trees that morning, the entire route up to Shavano’s summit became clearer and clearer, and we both commented that we were alone on the trail: there were no signs of anybody behind us, and certainly, there was nobody on the slopes ahead of us.

We commented that we might actually be, for the first time ever, the first ones to reach the summit.

As we neared the saddle, we finally saw signs of life on the mountain.  A group of four hikers—little more than specks from our vantage point—were coming up the slopes approximately two miles below us.

Again, this was the first time we’d seen any other hikers or climbers (some prefer to reach the saddle via a snow slope just below the main trail) on the mountain….  Yet, when we reached the summit, we were surprised to see a female hiker there, getting ready to descend.  She was around forty and wore a lavender-colored top or jacket and a cap that hid her eyes.  In a rather stern, firm voice, she said hello and proceeded to tell us that she’d come up the mountain via an alternate trail, or a “back” way.  Mitch asked her if that meant she’d come over Tebeguache Peak, a nearby fourteener that many people climb with Shavano via a connecting ridge. 

She said no and began to descend.

We shook our heads and wondered where she’d come from.

To be clear, there are only three established routes to the top of Shavano: the main trail, the previously mentioned snowfield, and the trek over Tebeguache.  Any other route would be a bushwhacking wilderness romp—not something a solo hiker should do.

We sat for a few minutes, ate a snack, and decided to go down.  As we picked our way around and over the summit boulders to begin our descent, we were shocked to find that she was nowhere in sight.  We could see all the way down to the saddle, across to the top of the thirteener on its other side, far down to the trees to the east, down into the deep valleys to the west…  We had nearly 360 degrees of view, and there was no sign of the lady we’d just talked to just moments ago.

We did, however, see the group of four hikers we’d spotted earlier.  They were cresting the saddle.

When we reached them, I asked if they had seen a woman hiking down from the summit.  I briefly described her.  All the hikers said no.

We kept hiking, and at some point I turned to Mitch and said, “I think we talked to a ghost.”

We half-laughed about it, but I was very serious and still am.

This was, as I said, in June, 2017.

But just a few days ago, on October 7, 2018, we learned that a woman’s bones were found on Mount Shavano.  Authorities believe they are the remains of a homicide victim from the early eighties.  After reading about this, I again started thinking about that woman we met at the top of Shavano. 

Based on my experiences with the paranormal, I believe a spirit will wait as long as it takes to speak to someone who can help them.  I don’t know if there is any connection between the hiker we met on the summit and the human remains found on the mountain.  I do know that the woman—where she came from and where she went—remains a mystery.

Again, we don’t know much, only that the woman we met was around forty.  She was in good shape.  She wore a cap and a lavender top or jacket. Mitch and I would be willing to re-hike Mount Shavano with proper equipment if a friend or relation wished to make contact.  I truly hope that anyone with any potential knowledge about this will contact us through this website (sebournparanormalinvestigations.blogspot.com) or via email at sebournparanormal@gmail.com.