a true halloween story by chip

October 27th 2008 at 7pm, I had just finished up working with a client in Forks, WA and started on my way down to Ocean Shores for the night. It was obviously dark out, and too many deer were crossing the roads. Being too tired to continue driving down to Ocean Shores, I decide to shack up at the Lake Quinault Lodge. I mean Teddy Roosevelt stayed there, so it’s kind of an honor thing that I stay there too. It’s a famous lodge that nobody really knows about... unless you are there.

I call my wife to let her know what’s going on and she says, “No way! It was on the news the other day that the Lake Quinault Lodge is haunted.” I laugh it off, because what is the likelihood that this would be the same hotel some TV network decided to shoot.

I arrive at approx 9pm. It’s dark, it’s cold, and a thick wet mist has soaked everything…. I walk in and see cob webs in every nook and cranny. The place smelled like the original rustic wood paneling. The silence from no civilization within 110 miles was deafening. I thought WOW they go all out for Halloween,… until I saw the spiders,… and they were real,… it all was real. And because I have about 2 hours of reports to complete, the receptionist put me in room #211. It is where the wifi is the strongest, as well as it is the very same room President Roosevelt stayed in! I’m no TR fanatic, but now the honor is all mine,… at no extra charge! $$

I get to my room and promptly start my reports. There is no TV, the wifi is spotty, and my phone has less than 1 bar. About every 30 minutes I hear someone working on the gutters outside for about 5 minutes. Didn’t think much of it, except that I thought it sucked for them to have to work outside at night. Some time around 11pm I start hearing my next door neighbors who are making short work of their bed. About every 20 minutes they would go at it, but it was peculiarly slow and semi inconsistent. (Sorry I stay in enough hotels these days that I tend to hear couples a lot.) For as thin as the walls were, there was no passion, and in fact they were the most silent people… they were bouncing the bed too slow and dangerously too hard, and they would do it for about 5 minutes at a time. This went on all night, every 20 minutes. Finally around 1am, some heavy breathing came on, but it was passionless. It was heavy, like a bad dream snore, and it sounded close enough for it to be coming from the wall in my room. I finally fell asleep around 2am.





4:00am I get woken up by some major bed spring popping from my neighbors, as they continue their weird escapades….. At this point I do not fall asleep again.





6:00am I am packed and ready to go, so I go get breakfast. Amazing blueberry pancakes! And at 7am I went to check out. The receptionist asks if I had an OK night. I say yeah, cuz I never make a big deal out of a bad night. Then I say, “These walls are pretty thin huh?”He says, “Not really, why do you ask?” I say, “Oh I could hear the neighbors all night long.” He looks at his computer and says “That’s strange, you were the only patron in the whole lodge last night.”





I stop in at the internet café out on Highway 101. I talk business with the owners for the next 20 minutes. They say yes, so as I’m filling out the paperwork, I ask them about the Lake Quinault Lodge.





They say, “Hey Ghost Hunters were just there last month.” I ask why. They give me the run down.





I ask, “Do you believe them?”





They look at one lady and point at her saying, “She worked there for 25 years.” So I ask her if she ever experienced anything weird.





She says, “In the 25 years that I was there, the staff had to leave the premises four times because things got a little too weird, like things were moving for no reason. One night I checked a guy in who came back downstairs in 5 minutes saying he couldn’t stay with us. When I asked him why not, he simply said there was a guy in his room standing inside the bed.”



I ask, “He said the guy was inside the bed?”



She said, “He said he couldn’t see the legs of the guy because he was standing in the middle of the bed as if his feet were touching the floor, but he apologized to the entity for the intrusion, but the entity never acknowledged him. The entity just kept staring motionless at the mirror across the room.”



She relayed a few more stories.



When I asked her where the disturbances were, she said they always came from one room, and one room only… room #211…

Thanks Mr. Receptionist for shacking me up in the one freakin room out of all the other vacant rooms. That mirror was my only friend that night… and I haven’t been back.


Happy Halloween,
Chip