After a mountain trip, a woman was spooked by a detail in her developed photos.
During a hike in Panther, West Virginia, Duffy Springfield and her boyfriend were surprised by something eerie in one of their pictures.
“We both found it strange and thought it resembled a hand. We were intrigued because of the myths about creatures rumored to inhabit the West Virginian mountains. Even if it’s not really a hand, it makes for a fun story,” shared Springfield, a full-time student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Cryptids are creatures from folklore that some believe are real, like the famous Bigfoot.
West Virginia is known for its rich folklore of mysterious creatures, as detailed by Hannah McNemar in her article on The Columns, a Fairmont State University student news site.
Popular cryptids in the area include the Mothman, a creature with wings and red eyes first sighted in Point Pleasant in 1966, and the Flatwoods Monster, described as a tall humanoid with a red face and green body since 1952.
Other lesser-known cryptids include the Snarly Yow, a phantom dog-like creature in the Blue Ridge Mountains since the 1700s, the Ogua, a giant turtle-like creature, and the Vegetable Man, a plant-like humanoid seen in 1968.
Springfield shared the mysterious photo on Reddit in a thread called r/oddlyterrifying.
In the post, she wrote, “We were alone there for the week and the first visitors in a while. This picture was taken at the mountain’s summit. There should have been nothing behind the pillar, just a drop to the woods below. Are we mistaken? It really does look like a hand.” The post received 25,000 upvotes.
Reddit users shared their thoughts in the comments.
“Go back to the spot to be sure. Otherwise, it will bother you forever,” suggested hyperimpossible.
“This is genuinely oddly terrifying,” commented GTasker92.
“OP returns to the spot, finds nothing, feels a tap on the shoulder,” added Imaginary_History985.
“Don’t worry, OP! As a handonrockiologist, I can tell you it’s just a strange root. Forget about it and move on,” joked Joevarny.