Comments on: The Black Dog of West Peak

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:00:12 +0000

The most famous account of the Black Dog was written by William H. C. Pynchon and published in the April-June, 1898 issue of Connecticut Quarterly (Volume 4), which is on Google books. Link: http://books.google.com/books?id=n_8aAAAAYAAJ&source=gbs_similarbooks and go to page 153. but could not find easily when I tried again. Pynchon recounts a long tale that ends with his friend and fellow geologist slipping to his death after seeing the dog three times on Feb. 5 of an unspecified year. Since it was Pynchon’s second sighting, “it shall be for sorrow” and for Marshall, “and the third time he shall die.” Fanciful stories would like to say that Pynchon returned to the site at a later time and slipping to his death on the same spot. Pynchon actually died Jan. 2, 1910 in Oyster Bay, L.I., information I verified from two different websites, one of which is here: http://www.americanancestors.org/novelist-thomas-pynchon/
There are a couple of oddities about the Pynchon article in Connecticut Quarterly. One oddity is that he refers to years as 18–, a literacy style of the time used in stories to keep them somewhat timeless. The other oddity is that the article is full of pictures of the ill-fated trip, yet there are no pictures of the black dog, which supposedly followed them the whole day.
From a lack of common sense point of view, they were up there in February in icy and snowy conditions, presumably without any sort of crampons. I will not hike at West Peak under anything but dry conditions because there are far too many places to slip and go over the edge. I have never seen the legendary black dog up there and I have a friend who does trail maintenance there, and he has never seen this mysterious mutt either.

By: jim

jim — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 23:27:44 +0000

Its strange to have stumbled upon this story because I have hiked this trail several times and never heard of any rumors. About 5 or 6 years ago a couple of my friends pushed for the summit to have a breakfast at Castle Craig before graduating high school and had encountered a black dog. Being so early we had assumed it stray, it never bothered us just sat in the distance on the other side of the closed off parking lot (from the castle). Naturally, hiking in the dark gives one the spooks but the creepy sensation of feeling like you are being watched was with me until we had finished and headed back down. It isn’t uncommon for a dog to follow but keep their distance so I didn’t really find this to be too abnormal. I normally don’t buy into this stuff, but I thought I’d share this experience.

By: Dom

Dom — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:49:21 +0000

Supposedly it is the following, see the dog once: good luck is upon you; see the dog twice: a bad omen/curse is set upon you; the third time – your death is imminent. Now, I am an avid hiker, and have been to practically every state park, and hiked almost every trail that is supposedly haunted. Including the trails that link near Dudleytown. Castle Craig is beautiful but have never even seen or confronted a dog. People have claimed to have seen a dog walking aimlessly, and thats fine, the only time I have ever seen a dog is when a guy and his wife were walking a black pug down the mountain. The dog came over and sniffed my leg. I haven’t really felt any more luck, nor a bad omen, but maybe thats just me…

By: Jenny the Black Dog

Jenny the Black Dog — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 23:24:04 +0000

One time I went hiking on the trail, and all was normal, until I felt a cool breeze brush past me, and to my surprise, and small timid black dog walked out from the behind a tree, and just stared at me like it had half a brain. I through a stick at it because I thought it was cute, and it peed, AND THEN IT WAS GONE. So I decided to leave the site as quickly as possible, and I whistled for a cab and when it came near the liscence plate said “Fresh” and there was dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare but I thought “naw forget it yo holmes to bel-air!”. I pulled up to a house about 7 or 8 and I yelled to the cabby “Yo holmes smell ya later!” I looked at my kingdom, I was finally here, to sit on my throne, as the prince of Bel-Air. I never saw the dog again.

By: julianne

julianne — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:29:42 +0000

I have lived here all my life and i really haven’t seen a black dog until two years ago. I was hiking up the hill with my mom and i saw a black dog staring at us. Of course, i went up to greet it because it seemed friendly, but when i got up were it was it was gone. And just remember the ground was wet and there were no paw prints there. I freaked out and told my mom, but she said she saw nothing and I forced her to go back down with me. I’m not sure if it was a ghost, but it sure scared me half to death. Now that i hike there without my mom i don’t really see it……

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 04:38:34 +0000

Went hiking up there one November evening around 5:00pm and saw what looked like a black dog peering down at me from a rocky ledge. I called out to the dog but it just stood still looking at me so I picked up a stick that was near my right foot and when I looked back where the dog was it was gone. Huh? I thought, so I threw the stick in the direction where I saw the dog and when I got up there to see where it was the dog was nowhere in sight. It seemed strange to me because I would of definatly been able to see where he was by the time it took me to retrieve the stick where it was watching me. I shrugged it off and began to head back down the trail and about 10 minutes later I thought I felt like I was being watched and when I turned my head back to look there it was again just looking at me from a distance of about 100′ up the trail. This time I quickly grabbed my pistol from my side and pointed it at the black dog and yelled to it to see if it would come at me but it turned and walked up the trail. I was a little scared cause it was just getting dark and it looked like it was a wild dog. I left and never seen it again. Hopefully I see it again cause I will kill it next time or maybee it will kill me.

By: Stacey

Stacey — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:42:15 +0000

My children and myself hiked up the mountain to the castle. We never saw the black dog but I can sure say that one wrong step and it could be your last!. It was a nerve wracking hike on the rocks with my two children. If I had known of this black dog story we may have not gone it alone. Since this hike we have driven up to the castle and I will tell you what breathtaking sights!

By: Rick

Rick — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:06:18 +0000

I have been hiking there for the last 2 years. In Winter after work I hike On the trail above the res. at nite since it gets dark so early……A couple of times I started getting the creeps being so far out there at nite alone. I have not seen the dog and don’t want to… after learning of this story I will only be hiking there during the day now. If I ever see a dog like that I will never hike there again!!!

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:23:35 +0000

Oddly enough my brothers dog jumped to its death at this site.. For some reason it just leaped off the cliff. My brother went to the bottom and try to save the dog but it was dead on arrival. Strange coincidence I guess. This was the mid to late 80s. It was quite sometime before I heard the legend.

By: ray manchisi

ray manchisi — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:43:11 +0000

um what if its just a dog?a normal dog?okay a normal dog with no voice but other than that normal.some dogs,especially the annoying ones can have a surgery to remove there voice box so they cant bark/howl.
im just saying look at it from a ” its not real ” point of view.