One path leads to death, the other to near death.

This is the fate for those who venture to the Haunted Preserve in Boalsburg this weekend.

The preserve is new to the area this year and its creators, Roy and Cindy Love, said it's even scarier than the Haunted Granary.

Roy Love helped start the Haunted Granary six years ago when he lived in Lemont.

Last year he and his wife bought a 15-acre wooded area next to their new house in Boalsburg.

One dark morning around 6 a.m., Roy was walking in the woods with his dog, who suddenly stopped and refused to go any farther.

"I thought 'I'm getting out of here!' " Roy said.

It was then that he realized by opening the woods up for Halloween, they could raise funds to help pay back the debt they owe on the land.

"I thought that if walking through an old building was scary, just think what'd it be like to walk through the woods," he said.

The Loves bought the land, which is known as the Stan Yoder Memorial Preserve, so that it would not be developed.

All profits from the $5 admission charge made from this weekend will go to pay back what they still owe on the land.

Cindy said they have done "everything they can" to raise money over the past year. They have been fundraising, accepting private donations, selling Christmas ornaments, and performing shows at cafés. They have managed to cut their debt from nearly $650,000 to about $80,000.

But they are very excited about this effort.

"[Roy Love] always loved Halloween, so this has been a great venue for him to help out the cause," Cindy said.

The Loves -- with help from the Boalsburg Village Conservancy, Janice and Rich Olsen, Patty and Joe Devecka, Joe Banks and about 50 other volunteers -- have set up gravestones, creepy signs, scary dummies, and even a real skinned pig's head sure to send chills up the spines of even the bravest visitors.

Guides will lead groups of 12 to 15 people through the paths with flashlights providing the sole glow for
the scared participants. Roy said it takes about 20 minutes to walk the whole path "depending on how lost you get."

"Walking in the woods is a primordial fear at night," Roy said.

He mentioned how images in The Blair Witch Project and other familiar frights add to people's fear of the dark and the unknown in the woods.

Participants should also be prepared for the haunting ghouls scattered throughout the woods.

The Love's son, Sean, and his friends Kevin Hubbard and Ross Baker, all students at State College Area High School, have helped out at the granary in the past, and are now looking forward to scaring their friends at the preserve.

"We're experts," Hubbard said.

This is Banks' fourth park conservation project; however, it is his first time haunting (as a ghost with sharp hedge clippers), and he is very excited about it.

He helped fund for an addition to Sunset Park 20 years ago, and he has also helped preserve Lederer Park and Thompson Woods.

Roy Love said that once the debt is paid, the memorial preserve will be open to the public.

"Backyard parks are vanishing," he said, "and it's a way to preserve a nature area close to houses, and it's a lovely place."

He also said that it's early enough that students can go to both the granary and the preserves, and then still do whatever they normally do in the evening.

He hopes that the Haunted Preserve will become an annual event.

"Darkness, woods, guides that don't know where they're going, and ghouls, it just works," he said.

For more information, the Loves can be contacted at 466-1114.