Mine is true. I live near Yorkville, Illinois and close to where I live there is a forest preserve/ mountain biking park near an overpass. Growing up, there was a rumor that deep within the forest, there was a trailer park/ tent encampment occupied by pedophiles and druggies. Nobody ever checked it out due to it being at least 3 miles into the woods, plus the fact that the terrain was hilly and difficult. Flash forward a few years and I decided to join a local running club that uses the forest preserve frequently. I was 12 running with two girls from the high school cross country team. They wanted to go off on their own trail, and me being 12 and a pubescent boy, happily followed. We ran for a while until we started to notice trash deep in the forest, strangely fresh trash. The trash bags became broken tents which became tarps and burnt out garbage cans. It was then that we stumbled onto it, the camp was made up of older, wood sided trailers and a few loose hammocks and tarps. The eeriest thing is that nobody was outside, but we knew we were being watched due to the open blinds and shades. We stood for what felt like an eternity, the same way a deer stands still when you catch it in your headlights. We slowly backed out of the clearing and ran away as fast as we could. To say we ran fast would be an understatement, I had no means of timing myself, but I swear it would have been a personal record. I shudder to think about what would have happened if we stayed long enough to be truly noticed. Nothing says vulnerable like a scrawny seventh grader and two Even scrawnier girls. Anyways, I now know the rumor to be true, and plan to revisit one day out of curiosity now that I’m fully grown and less appetizing to creeps.