It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally on hikes we come across cars abandoned in the woods. Now we’re talking really old cars, that barely resemble their former self and have slowly become one with nature. Which of course makes us wonder, how they got there on these narrow, forested trails? Such was the case on our recent hike.

Now this being Stephen King country, master of horror and the macabre, who finds inspiration for his books from life in Maine, we can’t help but wonder if there’s a sinister story behind the cars we find. It is easy to imagine this rusted wreck is the inspiration for Christine, the car so devoted to its owner that it went on a murderous rampage, and had to be destroyed.

Thankfully though, that’s probably not the case here. An old timer once told our Mom that way back when, before the internet, cell phones, and even video games, it was a popular pastime for teenagers to fix up an old junkyard car to the point that it was running, and take it racing in the woods along logging roads, or through abandoned farm fields. They would have a “swell time” racing the car until it didn’t run anymore, and would simply leave it where it stopped and walk home.

However, the most likely story behind this vehicle, and many others in the woods, is more about the practical nature of Mainers than about possessed cars or thrill seeking teenagers. When a car’s life came to an end, often it was parked in some out of the way spot on a family’s property. Usually there was the practical intention that despite the fact it no longer ran, there were parts that could be repurposed. Or perhaps as with those teenagers, there was hope that it could be fixed to run again. However, time passes, life gets busy, and the old car slowly rusts away forgotten.

In the meantime, nature begins to reclaim the land where the car rests. Trees begin to sprout, bushes surround it, animals call it home, and in that process the abandoned car quietly becomes an accepted part of its surroundings. Sometimes these properties become conservation land, deeded to or purchased by a nonprofit. By then the old car is well past the point of moving without serious damage to the trees that surround it, not to mention it would be a major expense to get it out of there. So it becomes part of the experience for hikers enjoying the trails, to pause and wonder what this piece of forgotten history once was before being reclaimed by nature.