"Turn back now!" "I warned you..."

Ominous signs lined the drive back to the Souza bogs on High Street on Friday night as the Troop 31 Boy Scouts revived an old tradition – a haunted hayride.

"They planned it themselves, they decorated it themselves," Scoutmaster Kevin Thompson said. "We let the boys pick whatever they wanted to do as long as it was safe and appropriate."

The entire ride takes about 15 minutes as a tractor pulls a wagon through darkened, narrow, bog roads. It makes stops along the way – at a graveyard, a biohazard site and a campsite turned deadly, to name a few. Around every corner is another ghoul, ghost, or Boy Scout with a chainsaw.

"It's all totally safe," Thompson said. "The worst that could happen is someone could get scared out of their pants."

Each scout was assigned an area to decorate on the property, and from there it was all in their hands.

"Some [areas] are very detailed, some are simple," Thompson said. "But look at Alfred Hitchcock. Sometimes the simple stuff is the scariest."

Regardless of the approach each scout took, it seemed to pay off.

"They did an awesome job," Kathy Poikenon said after her ride. "The graveyard was really good."

The event also served as a fundraiser for the troop, with each car paying $5 for entry.