I've never seen a ghost before. I kind of wish I did, but overall I'm glad I haven't yet, because I would probably never sleep again.

I never realized just how creepy my home of Long Island was. When you think of New York you don't think of ghosts, maybe Mole People (a fascinating read), but not ghosts. Even though it is common for children to have paranormal experiences, I never did from what I remember. It wasn't until I started searching around on the internet that I realized just how many local haunts I was surrounded by -- even the Fire Island Lighthouse has its ghosts.

I grew up in Massapequa near the border of the town of Amityville. One of the most popular haunted house movies in the past decade is "The Amityville Horror." It wasn't until I watched the movie that I made the connection (oh, it takes place in that Amityville, the one right down the road) -- of course I had to see the house. My mother and I drove past it one day. The infamous lakeside house where in 1974 Ronald "Butch" DeFeo, Jr. shot and killed his entire family one night because he heard voices telling him to do it. Later, in 1975, George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into the house only to leave 28 days later because they were being tormented by spirits.

There have been people in and out of that house for as long as I remember. Some say it's haunted, some say it's not. I guess it really depends if you believe it enough. It's actually on the market right now for $850,000 if you've got the nerve for it.

While living 15 minutes from one of the most famously haunted houses in the United States actually isn't as exciting as it sounds (the most recent owners actually remodeled the whole house because fans of the movie were bothering them). There's another location 20 minutes from my house that I know all too well -- Sweet Hollow Road and Mount Misery Road.

My aunt used to live in Huntington, and the fastest route to her house avoiding lights was to drive though the winding road that cuts through West Hills Count Park, and it has many, many scary stories.

To give you some perspective, Sweet Hollow Road cuts right through the park. It's the more famous of the two roads and I've driven down it about 100 times and took horseback riding lessons there. I've never seen a ghost. My mom has waked through the old cemetery and also has never seen anything. Mount Misery Road runs parallel to Sweet Hollow and there are trails connecting the two. Mount Misery is apparently more haunted. I went on one of these trails with my mother, and I had some interesting experiences the closer we got to Mount Misery. I felt unsettled, like someone was watching me. Now, I'm taking my boyfriend there. He doesn't believe in ghosts.

But before I share our awesome experiences, let me give you a rundown of all the creepy tales surrounding this road.

The stories have been around since the Native Americans lived there who believed the area to be cursed and taboo. The land was un-farmable with steep hills so tribes refused to settle there. In the 1700s, there was an apparent metal asylum built on the land that was burned down by a female patient. The story goes that the "Lady in White" went through a bout of depression and burned the entire hospital down and now she can been seen wandering the roads in a white dress.

Her story is often entwined with Mary's story. There are many locations of the supposed "Mary's Grave." There are actually tales all around Long Island that differ. One version says that Mary was accused of witchcraft for killing local children. She was burned and if children visit her grave she will come and kill them. Another says that Mary was the wife of a sailor who never came home, so she committed suicide -- you can see a light in the window of the house where she lived. Another says that she was abused as a child and killed her mother with an axe -- she still roams to this day. The most relevant story is that Mary's grave is located in the Sweet Hollow Cemetery.

The bridge in the photo above also has an unsettling history. There's a story that some teens hung themselves on that bridge, a child was hit by a car and the saddest story that a school bus filled with children lost control and slid off the bridge.

Once you pass the bridge, you might get pulled over by a police officer, only to see that the back of his head is blown off, you might see a man carrying a basket of served heads, you might see a hell hound with glowing red eyes and you might even see the scariest ghost of all: poet Walt Whitman who's ghost loves to sing on the trails he wrote most of his poetry on. I personally would love to see a ghostly Whitman -- the others not so much.

The trail is actually one of the nicest ones on Long Island I have been on. Everything looks truly untouched, quiet once you get away from the main road and peaceful.

While we didn't see any spirits, we did come across a black and white cat staring at us from deep in the trees, which was creepy enough.

There were also some very pretty flowers scattered throughout the trails.

And some random bamboo plants that seemed to have overgrown into the trail from some private property.

Although we didn't see any malevolent spirits, we did come across some strange rock formations. I did at one point hear a woman laughing, though. My boyfriend didn't. It was enough for me to come to the conclusion that there was something eerie about these trails, whether it is the supernatural or that we have become so distant from nature that it becomes strange to us.