7 Mountain Witch Charms I Found in Abandoned Appalachian Homes on Patrol

7 Mountain Witch Charms I Found in Abandoned Appalachian Homes on Patrol In thirty years of backcountry patrol in these mountains, I found seven things hidden in old homesites that most people would walk right past — a horseshoe nailed over a door frame standing alone in the woods, an axe laid edge-up under a collapsed bed, a glass bottle full of bent pins buried beneath a hearthstone. Each one was a charm, made by people who were afraid of something. Not something out in the dark. A neighbor. Somebody a ridge over, whose cow gave more milk than theirs. What the internet won't tell you is how rare most of these actually are, and what it means when the same mark starts turning up across five different sites, in five different hollows, always the same size, always the same notch, always pointed somewhere deliberate. The last one I found was on the outside of a chimney, on the side facing the trail. The trail I'd walked for nearly twenty years. I'll tell you what I can explain. Then I'll tell you what I can't. Watch More: 6 Feral People Camps I Found on Appalachian Patrol (One Was Still Warm) https://youtu.be/Rl-BSjn2OiI Six camps in the backcountry with no permit on file and no trail access — including one fire that was still banked when I arrived, and something that happened at that ring I still can't account for. The Appalachian Ghost Town Rangers Won't Patrol After Dark https://youtu.be/riBe6nGnCqs A coal town in Mingo County that swallowed thousands of people and left almost nothing behind — and the unwritten rule every ranger on that stretch follows without being told. I Am An Appalachian Park Ranger. Here Is Why I Would Never Camp On The Appalachian Trail After Dark https://youtu.be/WST_-jlvB68 Thirty years on the trail and there are places I will not sleep — this is what I have seen after the light goes on the AT.