Gazzam Lake

http://www.biparks.org/parks/info/info_gazzamlake.html
 
Sunday night, Trevor and I went to Bainbridge Island and visited both the pier at Point White and Gazzam Lake.  It was key that we go at night, as Bainbridge was the location for one of our roleplaying adventures in Call of Cthulhu.  In the game, our intrepid investigators had met with an American Indian guy at the pier, then sited a huge winged creature off-shore that we believe may have been the Great Cthulhu himself - fortunately seen from a great distance, thus the continued survival of the characters.  Later, we tracked down a cult that was using the seclusion of Gazzam Lake at night to sacrifice the occasional resident to Cthulhu, who in keeping with Lovecraftian horror, couldn't care less.
 
So despite the link above that presents Gazzam Lake as a beautiful nature preserve of untouched splendor, Trevor and I see it as a place of terror, perfect for a little nighttime visitation to capture the mood of the game.
 
The sun set as we took the ferry to Bainbridge and there was much fun had pointing out things like "Look how the returning ferry... is empty!" and "See that substance floating in the water?  Ectoplasmic slime of cthonians?  Oh, wait, they avoid water - perhaps it's Deep Ones?"
 
The pier's most entertaining element was that as we were just reaching it, there was an elderly woman all in white limping down the road.  I dubbed her "The Zombie" as she was walking exactly as I would picture a partially-rigored undead creature to walk.  When we were out on the pier and she was walking by the only escape path except the dark water, it sure look like she stopped a moment.  Scary! 
 
The pier itself, in Trevor's game, included mysterious writing scribed by unknown hands.  The real pier is also covered with difficult to understand symbols, although I think they were all by graduated classes of Bainbridge High School.
 
We had seen a sign for Gazzam Lake on the way to the pier, so we ignored our directions and followed the signs.  This was probably both good and bad.  Looking at the photos in the above link, I think we went into the park from a lesser used entrance.  When I parked the Jeep by the gate and turned off all the lights, it was probably 10:30pm and it was absolutely pitch black.  Fortunately, Trevor had brought a flashlight.
 
We followed the narrow, curvy trails through the woods for what was probably two miles each way.  Spider webs had been constructed across the trail, so I was constantly getting that weird feeling that comes when some invisible, sticky thread catches on your cheek.  At one point, an animal of some sort moved in the bushes near us.  We heard it again on the way back, but it was on the other side of the trail - which means it crossed it sometime while we closer to the lake.  Even little things like this help to play upon your fears when you're actively seeking to be scared.
 
We did make it to the lake, but from a side where you can't see much.  There was water, then tall reeds.  I stepped out on a fallen tree to about ten feet off the shore, but I'd had enough of that when I saw one of the biggest spiders I'd seen in a long time hanging of a reed inches from me.  (An aside: The biggest I remember, excepting tarantulas in Arizona, was a huge spider hanging off the side of our house in Rockville, it's body about as big as one of those "shooter marbles" I had as a kid.  I killed that one, as I could stand having it on, and therefore potential in, my house.  As I recall, I used a weedwhacker.)
 
Around the time we were heading back, we started hearing creatures flapping around in the trees overhead.  One of these did it's flapping around directly overhead, and that really made me jump.  Trevor was unconcerned with the flying things, but I think that's because he didn't realize that what we were hearing wasn't feathery, but leathery!
 
While we were out there, I kept thinking about stuff like the Blair Witch Project movie and the time John and I discovered a woman that had frozen to death in Alaska near the university.  All good stuff for getting yourself creeped out when in pretty isolated woods on a moonless night.
 
All-in-all, this was a worthwhile trip, and one that Trevor and I had been putting off for far too long.  I think next I want to look up reported haunted locations in the Northwest and see about visiting them.  It'll have to be at night.