Hillsdale students dodged spider webs, clowns, and classmates on a one-mile trek through Hayden Park at Campus Recreation’s annual Trail of Terror event Oct. 28.

“It was so much more fun this year,” sophomore Maryellen Petersen said. “As we walked through, there were so many different little parts that were really freaking out different people in my group.”

Keeping warm around large fires before and after the haunted walk, students enjoyed free candy and pizza. Campus Rec provided a painted a background for pictures and handed out T-shirts.

Junior Elizabeth Penola, Campus Rec’s promotional leader, said the group spent more than a month planning the trail and tailoring different sections of the trail to trigger different fears. 

“We covered a long stretch in the woods where it’s super dark with a bunch of spider webs going over the top, so you have to crouch down as you walk through the spider webs,” Penola said. “Then, on top of that, there was this really scary audio of this little girl talking that was really getting people.”

Sophomore Savva Archakov said the spider webs were the best part, especially combined with the glow stick trail. 

“The glow sticks made it so much more creepy, because you could just barely see where you were going,” Archakov said. 

Petersen said she also appreciated the glowsticks Campus Rec left along the trail because they kept her from accidentally wandering into the middle of the woods.  

“I went last year and had a good time, too,” she said. “But we definitely struggled to find our way through the woods, especially considering it was dark, and neither of us had really been through there before.”

Campus Rec recruited students to act as scarers throughout the trail.

“It’s not just props; It’s your classmates jumping out and scaring you,” sophomore Sophie Schlegel said. “We had around 17 scarers this year, which was far more than last year.” 

Many of the scarers designed their own costumes. 

“One girl signed up to be a scarer, and her costume was terrifying,” Penola said. “She had a dress on and a baby mask. It was really, really terrifying. We also had the classic clowns and this really creepy rabbit thing.”

At the start of the trail, a man stood motionless as students passed by him. 

“People would walk by and see him, but then he whipped around, turned his chainsaw on, and started chasing them,” Schlegel said. “We didn’t do that last year, so nobody saw it coming.”

Campus Rec also introduced a body bag scare they attached to a pulley. The bag would suddenly drop in front of participants as they walked. 

“It was suspended from a branch on a rope, and then, when we walked by it, it just dropped down and just scared everyone,” Archakov said. 

Penola said they had a bigger turn out in previous years, since the weekend of Halloween overlapped with Parents Weekend this year.

“People are always very busy when their families are in town,” Penola said. “So not everyone can make it to the Trail of Terror, but those who did seemed to really enjoy it, and we had even better reviews this year.” 

Despite overlap with Parents Weekend, Campus Rec pulled off an excellent event, according to Archakov. 

“The haunted forest was the most terrified I’ve been in my entire life,” Archakov said. “I felt like it was my last night.”