Glastonbury - Diamond Lake Area

         This trip is different from the others because I went with a different group of people not affiliated with the CTPS.  They are locals in Glastonbury who I know, and while they had never been on an official ghost hunt before, they had gone exploring at night through different trails in some of the Glastonbury woods.  So they knew the precautions to take, and similar things.
             We decided to explore the Diamond Lake area in Glastonbury because it has a very eerie feeling to it, even in the daytime.  It has the setting of the Friday the 13th movies on a quiet lake.  The particular area we explored can be found if you are coming from the Manchester area by heading east on Ash Swamp Rd, taking a left hand turn onto Diamond Lake Rd, then turning right onto Lake Shore Trl.  This is only one of the many beach areas but it is generally regarded as the most creepy.  There is an old shed, picnic tables, small beach area, and woods on both sides with some walking paths on one side (farthest from the main road).
             When we arrived, there was an immediate feeling of coldness even though it was a warm early summer night.  Also, there was a strange feeling of intense isolation even though there are houses scattered along a street about 200 yards away.  This was one of the oddest feelings I have ever had on an investigation.  We walked around the beach area for awhile, taking pictures and getting a feel for the place before we decided to investigate the paths in the woods.  Only one odd thing happened during the first part: the camera that I was holding began to take pictures erratically.  According to the owner, it was fairly new and this had never happened before.  I have never heard of spirits possessing a camera in this way, so I do not know if this was paranormal activity or merely a technological flaw.
              When we entered the woods, we split into two groups of 3 as there were two different paths.  The first couple minutes went by without any problem but we found something shocking after that.  There was a small clearing maybe 10 feet long and 5 feet wide with a couple of small animals (2 or 3 squirrels, a raccoon, and a woodchuck?) that were killed in a gruesome way.  This was not the work of nature because they were not eaten at all.  Their heads and limbs had been cut off and scattered around the clearing.  Blood was all over the grass and underbrush, although it was dry.  But there were few insects on the pieces and they had not begun to mold or decompose so it was fairly fresh.  Better judgement told us we should probably get out of their quickly so we headed back out of the clearing and started walking briskly along the path.  Along the way, one of the other members grabbed us and motioned for us to stop.  We all heard the same thing at once: the sound of a flute or something similar being played very softly to our right, the direction of the lake.  By the time one of us had pulled out a cell phone to record it, it had faded away.  By the time we got back to the clearing the other group of 3 was waiting for us.  Although different events, their trip was just as eventful.  When they had gone in aways, they heard the sound of running feet on the leaves and deep breathing but it seemed to be coming from all around them; they could not pinpoint a direction.  Then right after we had called them and told them to get out, they heard voices talking in the woods all around them.  But they could not have possibly been hearing us.  The paths went off at a 45 degree angle and we had walked inside about 10 or 15 minutes each.  I’m sure there is a math equation to show exactly how far apart were but it was at least a half a mile.  We quickly told them what happened to us as well.  But the most interesting thing was yet to come.  We decided, against our better judgement to walk around the beach area one more time instead of running away.  When we walked down to the top of the beach, we saw a single set of footprints that went down the beach in a straight line and directly into the water.  They were about a size 5 or 6, and it was a shoeprint.  We stood there for about five minutes and could not chase away the creepy feeling we felt.  Nobody rose out of the water from a late night swim, everything was as calm as could be and we surely would have heard someone swimming.  We jogged quickly to the cars, still unsure about all the events we just went through.
              The next day I got an interesting email from the owner of the camera; not one single picture had anything in it but blackness.  Maybe the camera broke when it started taking pictures without us touching the buttons, but why wouldn’t previous pictures have come out?  One other point of interest: because my grandmother lives ¾ of a mile from the lake and I had to do mow her lawn the next morning, I quickly drove down to the lake.  The shoeprints we had seen were gone.  I don’t know what this means, as it is too early for many swimmers (mid June) and there is no tide to wipe them away.  I was there at about 9am so even if there was a swimmer or two they would not have wiped away every print.  

 CONCLUSION: 8/10             For an original investigation, this is pretty much the best you could ever hope for.  It was a creepy place before, but once the activity started, we were downright terrified.  As explained prior, there are no pictures to put up as all of them turned out blank.  Just a word of caution for anyone who ventures there, we are not sure how much was paranormal and how much was caused by humans, especially the animals in the clearing. Without a doubt there is intense activity here, and hopefully research will unearth something.