Walking in deep woods, dry leaves crunching under his feet, Johann saw something abandoned.
He wanted a closer look but when he got within fifty feet, his blood ran cold.
It was a staircase.
The steps were carpeted, and the carpet was eggshell white, and the carpet was clean.
Reports of stairs found in the wilderness have leaked from forest rangers who patrol
national parks in the United States.
Normal people from around the world are coming forward with their own experiences.
Lillesand is the town perhaps best known for the bed that is sold in Ikea stores.
While visiting his grandfather there, Johann, a native of Norway, was playing hide and seek
in the woods with young cousins.
He ran a long way into thick forest.
He found cleanly carpeted stairs, upon which there was not even a twig, or a leaf.
He thought he found the perfect hiding place and hunkered down behind it.
Almost immediately he got up and retreated several paces.
Suddenly he knew, he should be nowhere near it.
He felt nauseous and unwelcome.
He ran back to the younger children as hard and fast as he could.
A picture was captured of one of the more unusual stairways.
This was taken in the Forest of Dean by a photographer in Great Britain, who was too
frightened to approach the first step.
Others have a notion to climb.
The armed forces of Portugal have their own Navy Seals.
For annual survival training a soldier will be released into the forest.
Albano had only the military fatigues on his back, a canteen holding a quart of fresh water,
and a Bowie knife.
He wanted to refill his canteen when he saw stairs in the woods.
How convenient.
From the top he could get a better view of the land around him, and look for a water
source.
But on reaching the top step the sounds all around him faded away, like someone was slowly
turning down the volume of a radio.
The sound of the wind and of birds faded into silence.
Before anything else happened, fearfully, Albano jumped from the stairs and beat a hasty
retreat to his camp.
Marta lived in the western zone of Rio de Janeiro, in suburbs adjacent to a large Igapo
which resembled a swamp.
An Igapo is land on the banks of the Amazon river where the flood waters ebb and flow.
Marta saw a staircase there, and then she climbed it.
Days later when the search party found her, she was sitting in a small boat, apparently
bailing water out of it with a tin can.
However the boat was on dry land and there was no water in it.
The last thing she remembered was climbing the stairs.
Another rain forest is the jungle on Borneo.
Yusof says the stairs are a common occurence there, which are often connected with unsolved
disappearances.
If Yusof dares to climb those stairs, he knows there's a good chance that at the same time,
somewhere else on the island, someone whom he does not know will vanish.
The Philippine forests are patrolled by scout rangers such as Torkik.
He found eerie structures of two types.
One was the kind of stairway that looked normal.
The second type was made of stones, stacked up to form steps.
Only once, when running from a stray dog, did he ascend one of the stone piles.
Suddenly the dog was gone, and with relief Torkik stepped back down.
Returning to the Ranger Station, he discovered he had lost his job.
For him only eight hours had passed since he went on patrol.
To the outside world, he had gone missing for past five years.
Two students in Sweden went hiking in the forest.
Axel and Isak traveled for miles before coming to a clearing.
In the middle of the clearing were the stairs.
Axel wanted to turn around, but Isak wanted to see how sturdy they were.
When Isak made it to the top, Axel heard a loud scream.
He turned and fled.
When finally he stopped, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
It was Isak, who was following close behind.
Isak said he heard the scream too, but did not know from where it came.