We Went to Haunted Trails and We Got Sticky-

Halloween is just around the corner and Austin is full of ghoulishly fun activities. Among the nightmare factories and haunted houses is the one of a kind Haunted Trails out west at the Wildlife Basin Preserve on Highway 360.

Austinist got an early glimpse of "the show" at their media night, with said media consisting of Austinist and a guy from a local Austin access show. They served us tacos and beer and cokes and kindly allowed for photographs to be taken while they chased us with swords in ultra slow motion. We giggled our way through, cracked jokes, made puns, and somehow had a much more difficult time than expected with the scavenger hunt item retrieval. It was the riddles. We've never been much for riddles. Another thing we are not particularly fond of is sticking our hands it to sticky gooey bags, pulling out sloppy sticky gooey things, and having to carry them around for the next half hour. Ick.

We kinda wish the group that puts this together would give up on a theme because it makes for a distraction from the scares and they never really follow through on it anyway, at least not the couple of times we've been. This year's theme is a scavenger hunt organized by "Dr. Danger", so that he can find an heir to his fortune. One will encounter strange and sometimes trashy "family" members eager to get their hands on the money, but one will also encounter girls with hockey masks, museum curators, giant spiders, and lots of tunnels and banging and people chasing you with fake weapons (but not very far).

It's not the scariest time, but it's an exceptionally fun one. And it scores points for supporting a good cause--preserving the perserve, as well as accomplishing the difficult task of getting us out in the woods.

Haunted Trails begins October 15th and holds shows on the 21st, 22nd, 27th, 28th and 29th. Tickets go up in price the closer you get to Halloween. Next weekend (Oct. 21 and 22) will run you $30 a person, plan to spend $40 if you go the following weekend.