Haunted Trail Takes Over Northland Arboretum

It was a night full of spooks, thrills and chills as Brainerd community members took a walk on the Haunted Trail at Northland Arboretum.

“We love Halloween; we have been coming here every year since the kids were little, it’s become a tradition,” said one guest.

Now in its now 14^th year, there is an alternative low-scare route for parents with young children or those with low-scare tolerance.

“If you choose to take the side loops that are labeled high scare, then be prepared to have your pants scared off of you. The low-scare options are really fun options, they are still scary and Halloween,” said Northland Arboretum Executive Director Vicki Foss.

The trail starts off with some ghosts floating in the trees and then moves on for the next mile with many more surprises in store.

“Monsters, blood, guts and who knows, because each group gets to do their own thing,” said Haunted Trail Coordinator DeAnn Caddy.

A group of nearly 250 volunteers stage their own scary scenes to perform on the trail, like Mackenzie Papillon-Renford and her mom, who are acting out a science experiment gone wrong with some crazy make-up. “The way you do this is with layers of Kleenex and then some sort of copper wire,” Papillon-Renford said.

It’s a spooktacular event that encourages getting outdoors.

“There is something creepy in the woods, so we think it’s a lot of fun to amp it up just a little bit and scare for fun, and believe it or not, you are still walking a mile, so you are getting exercise in the great north woods,” Foss said.

With a variety of sounds in the woods, you just never know what to expect.

“I love hearing the kids out in the woods laughing, joking and having a ball setting up their scenes and the scaring during the night, it’s wonderful,” Caddy said.

“I absolutely love Halloween, it’s my favorite holiday ever and I absolutely love scaring people or being scared,“ Papillon-Renford said.