Families embarked on an enchanted trail for Halloween treats.
Shadae Henriques
Kicker
A once tranquil trail, the Manuels River Trail transformed into a thrilling adventure filled with different characters and frightful challenges along the way.
Kelly Howse, a first-time tricker-or-treater at the hunt enjoyed the trail with her kids Tuesday night.
“It was a bit dark in there and the little one got a little bit scared, but it was pretty cool,” said Howse. “It’s a great addition to trick-or-treating.”
Event organizer Justin Smith recalls the decade-long history of the Halloween Hunt.
“It started off with us telling ghost stories to a group as we go out into the trails then it changed to a more self-guided tour,” said Smith. “We had a lot of younger kids, teenagers, and adults all in the same group and it was really hard to market towards all of them at the same time. We’ve adapted it to be for younger kids and anyone interested in trick-or-treating.”
Smith has seen many families make the trip to the hunt as it’s become a part of their Halloween tradition.
“You see a lot of parents come over and over (again) with their kids … year after year.”
The Halloween Hunt is volunteer based, with many of the volunteers from the surrounding high schools.
“They learn (the routine) in a half hour, they go out in the trails and try to make sure the kids have a good time,” said Smith.
Howse hopes to see more Halloween events for kids.
“There wasn’t very many (kid-friendly Halloween events) this year and I find the ones we did try to get into sold out pretty quickly.”
Like all good things, the Manuels River Community Inc. annual Halloween Hunt starts with a mad scientist.
Trick-or-treaters adorned in colourful costumes and armed with flashlights, and Halloween candy bags, made their way onto the trail braving chilly temperatures, a howling wolf, and smoke from a distant fire.
There were eight spooky stations along the trail. At one of the stops, there was a monster that only accepted dance moves from the trick-or-treaters as payment. Once they busted out their moves, they were allowed to continue along their way.
Ghouls and monsters gave trick-or-treaters chocolates, candies, stickers, and small toys as they went from station to station.
A person dressed as black cat directed trick-or-treaters to the dimly lit baskets spread out along the trail loaded with pumpkin bucks that were used to pay the troll by the bridge.
Loud howling competed with the rustling of the trees and the roaring of the river to create the perfect balance of fright and excitement.
At the final stop, witches offered a spooky treat of marshmallows toasted over a crackling fire for those who survived to the end.
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