It’s Tuesday again! Time for your weekly dose of the Spooky, culled from around the web, the world, and life. Every week I’ll have something new to send a shiver down your spine.
This week’s theme is Sudden Deep Water.
Let’s face it, with few exceptions, mankind is a land dwelling species. Sure many cultures over the centuries have produced amazing seafarers, but deep down we all know that it’s safest on Terra firma. But what happens if we leave that safety for a quick dip in the lake? Refreshing, right?
Wrong. It’s terrifying.
Consider the following aptly-named thread “Where is the scariest place on earth.” According to u/ChuckItRealGood, the answer is Higgins Lake, where there is a sudden drop off and the bottom that was only a few feet down falls away to blackness. Here is the relevant excerpt from his contribution:
See that dark blue strip out there? It’s blue because the water becomes hundreds of feet deep over the course of a few yards.
In Northern Michigan, there is a lake called Higgins Lake. Beautiful, cerulean blue waters and a gorgeous place in general (voted by National Geographic as the 6th most beautiful lake, at one time) … However, the water is strangely shallow for hundreds of feet, around the perimeter of the shore.
But a few hundred feet out – the depth suddenly changes from waist-deep to a sudden drop-off. The tropical-blue water morphs into deep-blue / black … (http://harrysoms.blogspot.com/2007/05/story-of-higgins-lake.html)
As a kid who used to summer here, my friends and I always found interesting ways to “play chicken” with the drop-off … until one year my cousin got hit with a strange updraft from the dark waters that was very cold. She was so caught off guard by the wash of icy water that she almost couldn’t swim back to the ledge.
Never again.
Another user in the same thread did u/ChuckItRealGood one better with a location known as “The Wall”:
Please don’t jump.
Just off the coast of the island of St. Croix, there’s a place called “The Wall”. It’s a favorite spot for scuba divers, and every picture online is a breathtakingly beautiful image of a close up of coral and divers taken with a serious high powered flash.
The reality? A two mile straight vertical drop off to the ocean floor? Nope nope nope nope nope. Imagine…
The water is shallow, warm, and perfectly clear as you start out, tiny colorful fish dart about, scattered coral formations dot the ocean floor. It’s literally paradise. After bobbing along for 15-20 minutes, not even a quarter mile from the beach, the dive master points.
And there’s The Wall. It’s a straight drop off to the ocean floor. The depth is recorded from a mere 1,000 foot drop off to 2 miles straight down. The clear turquoise water shifts to a deep blue for a few feet, then – solid black. You are floating directly above a black abyss, you feel the coldness of those depths gripping you like the tentacles of a giant squid. It pulls you, and as you awkwardly try to shuffle backward in flippers and full dive gear, like a nightmare where you can’t run because you’re paralyzed, it occurs to you that there are things, down there, giant things, things that are built to move and hunt and kill in the water, and you, you are completely out of your element, you are slow, clumsy, you are food.
Scuba divers who do this … you have balls of steel. I do not. Its still haunts my dreams……..
And, of course, there’s always Loch Ness, which drops to several hundred feet within fifty feet of shore:
Don’t fall off the towers; they’ll need dive gear to find you. Plus, you know, the monster.
Spooky, no? See you next Tuesday.
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