A haunted house (top), Clown Town (left) andmechanical children wait for visitors along the Haunted Woods trail in Old Bridge, which is open on weekends until Oct. 30. The “first screams of October” were heard in the woods off Spring Hill Road on Friday night. This is what Barbara Nyhus said is her favorite part of the annual Haunted Woods of Old Bridge event, held in the woods of her residence at 75 Spring Hill Road.
“My favorite is right after we open on the first night and the first group of people start going through and all of a sudden you hear them all scream,” she said. “It makes me smile and laugh and I think to myself ‘Ahhh, the first screams of October.’”
The annual event runs the last two weekends before Halloween. Opening night was held on Oct. 16 and the event will continue Friday through Sunday, Oct. 23-25 and then on Oct. 30.
PHOTOS BY SCOTT FRIEDMAN The Haunted Woods of Old Bridge has been a tradition beginning in 2001 with members of Girl Scout troop 81293 and has grown incrementally since.
The walk through the woods is filled with displays, lights and sound, with live actors lurking about. Scouts from Pack 67 and Troop 167 in Old Bridge along with friends and family run the event.
Brave participants will encounter a new attraction of an asylum and a zombie area in the woods.
Nyhus said she was able to build a shed this year and made it part of the yard where people will exit as part of the Haunted Woods trail.
“We painted the inside with “sigils” [or signs] from one of our favorite TV shows, ‘Supernatural’ and I wrote some lyrics on the walls from my very favorite band, Rush,” she said.
Friends donated lighting for the event as well as an antique dentist chair for inside the asylum.
“I had also purchased an electric chair guy after Halloween last year and he is in the asylum,” Nyhus said.
Some other attractions the woods have include a pirate ship, a “madman” with a chainsaw, Clowntown, a haunted horse-drawn hearse, Michael Myers and a Chop Shop.
In 2014, the event featured for the first time a live band “Mildly Medication” from The School of Rock in Monmouth County.
Nyhus said their family starts setting up for the event the second week of August and then Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts as well as friends help as September rolls around.
“At the beginning of making the helper/actor list, we have our regulars,” she said. “These are people who have done this for years. Some of our girls come back from college to scare. … It’s great that they come year after year. I always love to see them.”
During the first two weekends of October, the family also runs a scarecrow-building event.
“We have between 20 to 25 scout troops come and build scarecrows,” Nyhus said.
The Haunted Woods in Old Bridge event is free, but participants are asked to bring non-perishable food items that will go toward the Old Bridge Food Bank and the Monmouth County Food Bank.
“The food bank is always short in the summer because all of the places that support the food bank don’t meet in the summer,” Nyhus said. “School is closed and scouts and other community-based organizations are usually on break so it’s hard to come up with ways to collect food in the summer.” Donations for the Old Bridge Animal Shelter will also be accepted.
“A lot depends on the weather,” Nyhus said of the expected turnout each year. “In the last 14 years, we have had snow, we have had [superstorm] Sandy, it has almost always rained at least one or more nights so when that happens we don’t collect much. However, on the flip side of that, when the weather is nice and the people come most people are very generous. One year we had beautiful weather all seven nights.” Hot chocolate, hot cider and coffee and baked goods will be on sale, with proceeds benefiting the scout groups.
The Haunted Woods is located at 75 Springhill Road off Cottrell Road near Route 34. Friday and Saturday hours are 7-10 p.m. and Sunday hours are 7-9:30 p.m. A twilight viewing is held from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
For more information, visit www.hauntedwoods.com/index.html.