Vinalhaven Ghosts with Horses

Over on the Unexplained Mysteries discussion forum, Marty Floyd posted on May 5th about an interesting experience he had about 7 years ago on Vinalhaven Island.

When I was about 15 (I'm 22 now), my family and I were looking at houses on Vinalhaven, ME. My Dad has a tendency to 'go exploring' as he likes to call it and drive down random roads wherever we are. As usual, he turned down one road on the island and as we were driving, we came across this young man walking a horse (he was walking on the ground and just leading the horse). He was wearing odd clothes, but no one really payed him any attention at the time. The topography of the road was strange in the fact that the embankments were about 10-15 feet tall on both sides the whole way down the road. And it was about 6 miles long. We encountered the man about halfway down the road.

So we kept driving down the road and eventually had to turn around (whole process took about 4-6 minutes, 8-12 minutes to get back to the same spot).

We were expecting to see the man again on the second passby.

He wasn't there.

So, being the skeptic that I am, I figured he had just hopped on the horse and rode him the rest of the way. But then I was thinking, horses at a normal walk or even a trot aren't going to make it 3 or 4 miles in 8-12 minutes (the time it took to get back to the same spot). And since the embankments were so high, he couldn't have gone off to the side. Or, my memory of the precise time was inaccurate.

So, my Dad being a complete disbeliever asked the real estate agent when we met up with him about 2 hours later how many horses were on the island. The REA said unequivocally that there were no horses on the island.

We ended up buying a house on the Island, and I have since spent a great deal of time there. One summer I searched for the road (when I was 20) and couldn't find it again. Vinalhaven isn't that big of an island and has a finite number of roads. I went over every single one.

Haven't found the road to this day.

SO, let me know what you all think. I'm more than happy to have this debunked and/or any good suggestions to what may have happened.

Vinalhaven will forever be wonderfully spooky for me because of its association with John Bellairs' "Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull," one of the best of his books, in my opinion. In the book, an early clue left by Professor Childermass leads Johnny Dixon to the Maine islands, Vinalhaven in particular, for some very chilling adventures. Good stuff. CREEPY and WONDERFUL!!! (If you go out looking for a copy, make sure you get the one with the Edward Gorey art.)