Ghost stories and camping go together like prom queens and sequence dresses. We’ve all spent a restless night, curled up inside our tent clutching our hatchet because of some spooky story one of our campmates told over the fire. One AT thru-hiker told us of how he was haunted during his entire, six-month hike. Each day around dusk, the hiker would see a cooler full of beer ahead on the trail. When he would run for the cooler, it would disappear. Spooky.

Here are a few ghost stories from around this region, along with the eerie hikes that will put you deep into Blair Witch territory. Pick a hike and go ghost hunting.

GREAT SMOKIES, NC:

Some say William J. Bishop committed suicide deep in the woods of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park where his body wouldn’t be found. Some say he’s still hiding out in the woods, running from the law and from his past. Bishop was a Yale graduate who worked for the state department in the 1970s. He lived in a nice home in Bethesda, Md., with a loving family-a family that he bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. In March of 1976, Bishop allegedly killed his mother, wife, and children, loaded them into the trunk of his station wagon and drove to North Carolina, where he dumped the bodies in a ditch and lit them on fire. Allegedly. His blood-soaked station wagon was found near Elkmont Campground in the national park and bloodhounds tracked Bishop’s scent into the mountains, but the mass murderer was never found.

The Hike: Little River Trail, 2.3 miles. The trail starts above Elkmont Campground and follows the Little River, one of the largest streams in the park, for its duration. Elkmont Campground is a huge, 200+ site facility and the closest campground to Gatlinburg. But the crowds thin out in late fall, so the atmosphere should be appropriately spooky.

BLUFF MOUNTAIN, VA:

As far as we know, Ottie Cline never killed anyone in his life. The four-year-old kid walked into the woods behind his schoolhouse in the fall of 1891 and was never seen alive again. The boy’s body was found five months later near the summit of Bluff Mountain. The A.T. now runs through Ottie’s stomping grounds and thru-hikers say his ghost annoys backpackers as they sleep in the nearby Punchbowl Shelter. Ottie may be more pain-in-the-ass than serial killer, but if the ghost of a little boy rifling through your backpack doesn’t spook you, you’re truly desensitized by modern media.

The Hike: Appalachian Trail in Amherst County, Va. The trailhead starts at milepost 51.7 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Head south on the A.T. You’ll hit the Punchbowl Shelter in less than half a mile.

CHICKAMAUGA, GA:

For two bloody days Confederate and Union soldiers fought for control of Chattanooga outside of the city in what is now Chickamauga National Battlefield Park. An estimated 35,000 men lost their lives in those two days, making the battle of Chickamauga one of the most devastating in American history. It’s no wonder people have reported ghostly activity throughout the park for over a century now. Visitors have reported seeing a lady dressed in white looking for her slain husband. Others say they’ve heard voices yelling, “Retreat! retreat!” and gunshots and cannon fire can be heard throughout the woods.

By far the most popular Chickamauga ghost story concerns “Old Green Eyes.” Some hikers who have entered the park at night say they’ve seen a pair of glowing, green eyes floating toward them. Supposedly, the eyes come complete with moans. A couple of witnesses have even said the green eyes were attached to a man with long hair and fangs who wore a cape. Legend has it that a Confederate soldier was struck by cannon fire, his head was severed, and his body was scattered across the battlefield. Ghost hunters say “Old Green Eyes” is the manifestation of the soldier searching for his body. However, there is a Native American legend that says Old Green Eyes is an ancient, evil spirit that plagues the living and there are reports of Old Green Eyes sightings toward the end of the Chickamauga battle in 1863. And just to increase the spooky factor, Chickamauga” is a Native American word that some translate to mean “the river of death.”

The Hike: There are 35 miles of hiking trails within the Chickamauga National Battlefield. Head to Snodgrass Hill, where some say the battle for Chattanooga was won. It’s the roughest terrain in the park and now features a number of monuments commemorating the battle.