It's easy to forget that in the 1700's, western Pennsylvania was in fact the western frontier of a young nation. The lands beyond the Alleghenies-- that we know today as the Pittsburgh metropolitan area and its surrounding countryside-- was settled by rugged, brave people and even today we can see traces of their history tucked into the forests of the Allegheny Plateau, and much to the dismay of the fearful, one of those reminders of the past is the occasional abandoned graveyard. And while so many graveyards are forgotten, some live on only in the rumors of the supernatural. Case in point: the tiny burial ruins of Haunted Ridge.Haunted Ridge is a nameless plot of graves, with graves dating back nearly 300 years and hosting a score of Revolutionary War soldiers. These fallen warriors are not only shrouded in the dense cover of a Washington County forest, but also in a bit of mystery. Locals have reported for decades of strange mists and noises along the old dirt lane, along with the echoes of disembodied footsteps and voices and the sensation of an additional presence among the tombstones.
Mind you ghost stories are a dime a dozen so it usually takes a great one to draw Team Crash to investigate, but it was summer, Sparky and I were bored as fuck. We actually started the journey by following geocaches through Washington County before twilight before reaching Haunted Ridge at that good old witching hour. Check it out!
Starting off, my fascination with bridges brought us to two of the remaining covered bridges in Pittsburgh's southern neighbors realm. Friends and fans know that I have a bridge fascination so you're not gonna be surprised to see the next few pics. Deal with it. First, the Bailey Bridge...
And by the time we reached the Hughes Bridge it was pretty damn dark... the nearby old pipe/tank thingy in a group of trees kept us pretty confused too.
The extensive lighting on the Jeep that Sparky has always mocked finally came in handy as we rumbled through the quiet forest on a very dark access trail. The GPS was zeroing in and there really was a creepy feeling in the air. A little bushwhacking into the woods and Sparky came across the first signs of the old graveyard. Beat-ass old tombstones were scattered amongst the trees, weathered down and leaning out of position. There were a lot of these but its not easy to take pictures of them in total darkness. 
So the official word? Nothing. Yeah it was creepy as hell but c'mon, its an abandoned old graveyard; that's to be expected. But no noises, no mists, no apparitions. And after reviewing the pics, not even anything close to an orb or anything of that sort. Even my casual tombstone poses didn't seem to stir anything up. Oh well. Back to the Jeep!Hm, yet another failed attempt to come face to face with a ghost. I'll get one some day. Regardless, it was an interesting day of driving in circles, crossing bridges, finding geocaches, and posing in a graveyard. Sounds like a good time to me, eh?
Tally-ho!
-Crash
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