The great outdoors can be beautiful, but it can also be dangerous as heck. Seasoned hikers and campers know – the moment you step into the woods, you have to be extra careful. A strange sound, a suspicious-looking person, or a surprising encounter with the wildlife – anything can be on the table.
Some reports show that around 4,661 people in the U.S. get lost in the woods per year and need some kind of assistance. That's roughly 13 people a day. Search and rescue teams also perform around 50,000 missions each year, so even the most knowledgeable never know what's going to happen.
We recently came across a thread where people shared their scariest experiences while out in the woods. When one netizen asked, "Rangers, forest workers, hunters, and other woods-people of Reddit, what is your scary experience in the woods that you still can't explain?", people flocked to share their creepiest and most unsettling forest experiences. So, we're sharing the most unhinged with you below!
#21
Absolute silence. It kind of freaked me out. I was on a short day hike by myself. I was walking down a trail near a stand of pine trees and came around a bend on the trail and all of a sudden everything got really quiet. No wind. No birds chirping. No rustling leaves. Only the sounds of my own footsteps and breathing. I kept hiking, but it gave me chills. I've since been back there and the woods seemed "alive" again.
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19points
Clothing is also a big part of proper preparation. The weather can change quickly depending on your location and the time of year, so it's always smart to pack layers. Hiking boots, a waterproof jacket, and pants, as well as proper cold-weather attire like hats and gloves, are the basics, but things like thermo base layers and extra socks can come in handy as well. You can call me paranoid, but I believe it's always best to be over-prepared!
#22
I was hiking with my cousins in Guatemala when we came across a MASSIVE field of burnt forest. We decided to explore it and didn’t find anything interesting until we found a burnt car. I still can’t figure out how a car could have gotten there since we were hours away from any road.
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18points
#23
I live in south Spain, near some really ancient forest called "Los Alcornocales", which has some kind of trees that are almost extint and only grow here and in another two or so places.
It's a bit of a rocky terrain, and if you ever are walking on the forest and try to climb some rocks, you should be really careful, because usually you can have caves and hollow spaces under your feet and you can fall easily.
So, my father and his friends usually go hiking on thursdays so they dont find anyone on the woods, besides maybe a sheperd or a forest worker, and on this day they decided to climb a really large and rocky hill. My uncle Frank remembered that when he was young he slept on a little cave when he went hunting and got lost, and he wanted to try to find that cave.
After a few hours, they find the cave. It was covered in moss and grime but It was surelly the same cave. One of my father's friend, John, tried to get as far as possible into the cave, because he was in a really good shape and wanted to see all of it. The rest of them waited outside.
Suddenly, John started screaming and calling for my father. He went inside and turned on his torch. Inside of the cave was a really weird shrine or something like that, with candles, two apples, bones, pieces of coal and ashes on the ground, a pair of gloves, a pot and a pan, etc. Everything looked really old and dusty and it was clear it haven't been touched in a long time.
My father went to the shrine and it had a little bowl, and when he looked inside, there was something that looked like human teeth.
When they got out, they packed up all their things and got out of there really fast. My father refuses to hike around there anymore, and they started hiking on the other side of the hill and into the woods.
All of this was really strange, and I've never heard of something like this before. I don't know anything about voodoo or this kind of things, but my father said it looked like some voodoo shrine or some stuff like that. If any if you guys know something like this, I would appreciate an explanation 😂.
It's a bit of a rocky terrain, and if you ever are walking on the forest and try to climb some rocks, you should be really careful, because usually you can have caves and hollow spaces under your feet and you can fall easily.
So, my father and his friends usually go hiking on thursdays so they dont find anyone on the woods, besides maybe a sheperd or a forest worker, and on this day they decided to climb a really large and rocky hill. My uncle Frank remembered that when he was young he slept on a little cave when he went hunting and got lost, and he wanted to try to find that cave.
After a few hours, they find the cave. It was covered in moss and grime but It was surelly the same cave. One of my father's friend, John, tried to get as far as possible into the cave, because he was in a really good shape and wanted to see all of it. The rest of them waited outside.
Suddenly, John started screaming and calling for my father. He went inside and turned on his torch. Inside of the cave was a really weird shrine or something like that, with candles, two apples, bones, pieces of coal and ashes on the ground, a pair of gloves, a pot and a pan, etc. Everything looked really old and dusty and it was clear it haven't been touched in a long time.
My father went to the shrine and it had a little bowl, and when he looked inside, there was something that looked like human teeth.
When they got out, they packed up all their things and got out of there really fast. My father refuses to hike around there anymore, and they started hiking on the other side of the hill and into the woods.
All of this was really strange, and I've never heard of something like this before. I don't know anything about voodoo or this kind of things, but my father said it looked like some voodoo shrine or some stuff like that. If any if you guys know something like this, I would appreciate an explanation 😂.
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17points
#24
My best friend used to have a job as a research assistant on an owl census project in New Mexico. This basically involved systematically hiking through remote forests for two weeks at a time, and charting where owls were sighted/owl sounds were heard/pellets were found. Then you'd get two weeks off, then two weeks on, etc. The job required that two research assistants hike together for safety. Unfortunately, the guy she was paired with was slow and out of shape, so he generally trailed some distance behind her.
One week into a hike, she started to develop the feeling that she was being watched. She stopped in the middle of a clearing to wait for the other guy to catch up. Thankfully, he wasn't too far behind and realized there was a mountain lion in the trees, watching her. They both put their arms up and screamed at it until it went away.
She said the most terrifying part of the whole experience was knowing that it had been following her for an entire week or longer, and was just waiting for her to be far enough away from her companion to attack.
Anon:
Damn that's terrifying, and there's no way in hell that i would be able to stay out there like that for 2 weeks, the pay better be good, and they sure as hell better be giving you a f**kin assault rifle or something!
One week into a hike, she started to develop the feeling that she was being watched. She stopped in the middle of a clearing to wait for the other guy to catch up. Thankfully, he wasn't too far behind and realized there was a mountain lion in the trees, watching her. They both put their arms up and screamed at it until it went away.
She said the most terrifying part of the whole experience was knowing that it had been following her for an entire week or longer, and was just waiting for her to be far enough away from her companion to attack.
Anon:
Damn that's terrifying, and there's no way in hell that i would be able to stay out there like that for 2 weeks, the pay better be good, and they sure as hell better be giving you a f**kin assault rifle or something!
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17points
Do we have any wilderness enthusiasts among our Pandas? Let us know your wildest experiences in the land of Mother Nature in the comments! Or share a story of a friend, family member, or acquaintance – you never know, some stories might be really helpful to some people in the future!
If this post has got you into the mood for creepy and unsettling stories from the wilderness, check out another post of ours about the most terrifying things people have experienced in the woods!
#25
A couple years ago while hunting I went out before first light and climbed into my deer stand like I’ve done countless times. Right at about 5am. My favorite part of the day is when the light starts to break into the sky and the forest wakes up.
The nocturnal creatures retreat and the day creatures stir and become active. That morning, as the light started to appear, nothing happened. And I mean nothing. No rabbits or raccoons retreating to a den, no squirrels searching for breakfast, no deer, no hogs, not even a single bird. The weather/temperature was unremarkable and the air was mostly still. There was just no movement and no sound throughout the woods that morning. Not a chirp nor a rustle.
As time passed I started to get an unexplainable sense of dread. Not a “this is weird” feeling of observing something strange but more of a “death is imminent” feeling that I’ve never experienced before. I stayed until about 8am (still early for deer hunting) until I was literally trembling with fear and I stormed out of there. I went back that afternoon and I found the woods to be completely normal with all the usual sights and sounds. Weirdest and most uncomfortable experience in the woods that I’ve ever had. Almost like a dream but I absolutely was not dreaming. I have not been scared in the woods since I was a boy going out the first few times with my dad. He would joke, “We’re hunting. We have nothing to fear. The forest is afraid of us.” Not that morning, dad. I was scared sh**less and I don’t know why. I was 45 years old at the time.
sodacanned:
This kind of reminds me of infrasound, which I learned about on the Astonishing Legends podcast (so, not an expert). They were discussing an area with plenty of strange occurrences, Point Pleasant, and mentioned John A. Kelly's book - Mothman Prophecies. In it he discusses how he was exploring a stretch of road in the town and as he drove through a certain area he experienced this incredible feeling of dread and absolute silence, but it passed in a few seconds. So he reversed and drove back to where he felt it and was able to map a boundary to what he described as an invisible field full of low frequency soundwaves that are almost impossible to perceive and has been found to trigger the fear response in some (not all) humans who hear it.
The nocturnal creatures retreat and the day creatures stir and become active. That morning, as the light started to appear, nothing happened. And I mean nothing. No rabbits or raccoons retreating to a den, no squirrels searching for breakfast, no deer, no hogs, not even a single bird. The weather/temperature was unremarkable and the air was mostly still. There was just no movement and no sound throughout the woods that morning. Not a chirp nor a rustle.
As time passed I started to get an unexplainable sense of dread. Not a “this is weird” feeling of observing something strange but more of a “death is imminent” feeling that I’ve never experienced before. I stayed until about 8am (still early for deer hunting) until I was literally trembling with fear and I stormed out of there. I went back that afternoon and I found the woods to be completely normal with all the usual sights and sounds. Weirdest and most uncomfortable experience in the woods that I’ve ever had. Almost like a dream but I absolutely was not dreaming. I have not been scared in the woods since I was a boy going out the first few times with my dad. He would joke, “We’re hunting. We have nothing to fear. The forest is afraid of us.” Not that morning, dad. I was scared sh**less and I don’t know why. I was 45 years old at the time.
sodacanned:
This kind of reminds me of infrasound, which I learned about on the Astonishing Legends podcast (so, not an expert). They were discussing an area with plenty of strange occurrences, Point Pleasant, and mentioned John A. Kelly's book - Mothman Prophecies. In it he discusses how he was exploring a stretch of road in the town and as he drove through a certain area he experienced this incredible feeling of dread and absolute silence, but it passed in a few seconds. So he reversed and drove back to where he felt it and was able to map a boundary to what he described as an invisible field full of low frequency soundwaves that are almost impossible to perceive and has been found to trigger the fear response in some (not all) humans who hear it.
16points
#26
We always built a tiki house in our woods, (just some normal kids) and had loads of fun. But every week when we came back, it was destroyed and we were sad as hell, and always built a new one. One day we saw a guy in a black hoodie taking our sticks apart. We never came back.
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15points
#27
I was out hunting with my older brother and his best friend a few years back, want to say 2016.
We had been walking along a trail for a good 5kms at least. On one side of this trail is a decent drop and then a river and on the other side is a decent uphill section and a huge pine forest. It was about 1am by this point and we were just sort of quietly talking to each other when a horrific noise split the air. We all froze and looked at each other with the expression on our faces doing all the work. “What the f**k was that.” We knew it came from up in the pine forest and where we are there aren’t any big predators or really anything out there that we should be “scared” of. So we shouldered our rifles and headed up to find out exactly what made this sound.
I wish we hadn’t. We got to a clearing and the trees were thinning out and my brother flicked on his spotlight. Big bright f****r, excellent range. Way up ahead of us was the strangest looking figure I’ve seen. Like the general shape of a wolf but just... off. It was just stopped on the edge of another tree line further up the hill looking right at us. Pacing side to side. My brothers friend and I had our rifles trained on it trying to get a good look. We couldn’t count out the fact it was another hunters dog that was lost so we (against my gut feeling) went up after it. As we went up after it it became increasingly obvious this thing was watching us very intently. The closer we got, more we realised this was definitely not a hunters dog. It was big. Really big and just the way it moved and it’s entire demeanour was just so unsettling. We kept two rifles on it and one the opposite direction, slowly made our way back down and haven’t been back there since.
Don’t really talk about it either as we still don’t know what we saw and people usually jump to the ‘B******t’ conclusion because like I said before where we live there’s not really any big predators.
TL;DR went hunting, saw what I can only describe as some kind of werewolf looking f****r.
We had been walking along a trail for a good 5kms at least. On one side of this trail is a decent drop and then a river and on the other side is a decent uphill section and a huge pine forest. It was about 1am by this point and we were just sort of quietly talking to each other when a horrific noise split the air. We all froze and looked at each other with the expression on our faces doing all the work. “What the f**k was that.” We knew it came from up in the pine forest and where we are there aren’t any big predators or really anything out there that we should be “scared” of. So we shouldered our rifles and headed up to find out exactly what made this sound.
I wish we hadn’t. We got to a clearing and the trees were thinning out and my brother flicked on his spotlight. Big bright f****r, excellent range. Way up ahead of us was the strangest looking figure I’ve seen. Like the general shape of a wolf but just... off. It was just stopped on the edge of another tree line further up the hill looking right at us. Pacing side to side. My brothers friend and I had our rifles trained on it trying to get a good look. We couldn’t count out the fact it was another hunters dog that was lost so we (against my gut feeling) went up after it. As we went up after it it became increasingly obvious this thing was watching us very intently. The closer we got, more we realised this was definitely not a hunters dog. It was big. Really big and just the way it moved and it’s entire demeanour was just so unsettling. We kept two rifles on it and one the opposite direction, slowly made our way back down and haven’t been back there since.
Don’t really talk about it either as we still don’t know what we saw and people usually jump to the ‘B******t’ conclusion because like I said before where we live there’s not really any big predators.
TL;DR went hunting, saw what I can only describe as some kind of werewolf looking f****r.
15points
#28
As a kid, I lived by a decent sized conservation area in southern New Hamshire. Me and my friend from the neighboring town would go there during hunting season, because you weren't allowed to hunt on it, unlike the forests he and I usually hung around. The area spanned a river, and there were a lot of little islands and sandbars that only appeared during parts of the year thanks to snowmelt. So we ford the river, and ended up on a peninsula not that far off the trail, maybe a quarter mile at most, but across water. You'd have to swim to it most of the year. So we're checking it out, climbing the embankment and what have you, and then we both spot a camp at the same time.
It was set up in the middle of this peninsula, just hidden well enough that you couldn't see it if you went boating. The d**n thing had bones *all over*. It looked like your typical homeless camp, with some garbage, a shopping cart of all things, and a tarp "tent" with a really grimy pile of blankets, but what stuck out was the bones. Hanging from branches on strings, strewn around a firepit, just generally littered about... I'm pretty sure they were deer and other animal bones, but I don't know because once we both saw that, my friend wasn't listening to my d*****s self who wanted to check it out anymore and f****d right off, and I followed. Never saw a person, never saw a boat, nothing. Just the camp and the bones.
It's worth noting that the enforcement of conservation there is strict enough that you can get in major trouble if they even *suspect* you're there to hunt or fish without permission, and they're really vigilant about it. We also later realized that you could lay on the embankment we climbed up and watch people on the more popular trails without even needing binoculars, and there was a pretty good view of the river as well. Whoever lived there could watch people and not get seen. Friend and I agree, his gut instincts were right. It's very probable the camp's owner was there, watching us from hiding. I shudder to think what would have happened if we got closer.
It was set up in the middle of this peninsula, just hidden well enough that you couldn't see it if you went boating. The d**n thing had bones *all over*. It looked like your typical homeless camp, with some garbage, a shopping cart of all things, and a tarp "tent" with a really grimy pile of blankets, but what stuck out was the bones. Hanging from branches on strings, strewn around a firepit, just generally littered about... I'm pretty sure they were deer and other animal bones, but I don't know because once we both saw that, my friend wasn't listening to my d*****s self who wanted to check it out anymore and f****d right off, and I followed. Never saw a person, never saw a boat, nothing. Just the camp and the bones.
It's worth noting that the enforcement of conservation there is strict enough that you can get in major trouble if they even *suspect* you're there to hunt or fish without permission, and they're really vigilant about it. We also later realized that you could lay on the embankment we climbed up and watch people on the more popular trails without even needing binoculars, and there was a pretty good view of the river as well. Whoever lived there could watch people and not get seen. Friend and I agree, his gut instincts were right. It's very probable the camp's owner was there, watching us from hiding. I shudder to think what would have happened if we got closer.
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14points
#29
I was driving from Tucson to Denver in the middle of the night. Got tired, was pulling off and crawl in a sleeping bag in the desert far away from the two lane blacktop I was on (highway 666 btw) (it’s since been renamed because everybody was stealing the signs. Anyway pull off the road, onto a dirt road and then a little further. Kind of hid the truck behind some vegetation and toss down a sleeping bar and pad in the middle of pitch black huge star New Mexico night.
No one around, no light, nothing at all.... visibility for miles. I’m completely f*****g alone in pitch black nothing and getting wound down in my eyes are getting droopy. Then I hear it. It sounds goofy to say but it’s the same Indian music you’d hear in old black and white westerns. Native music, voices and a drum. I literally think I’m dreaming and when it starts I’m f*****g petrified because that noise just appearing out of nothing simply put ice in my veins.
Relax a little and unfreeze, and try to be logical about what I’m hearing, which has no physical manifestation of its origin... so..thinking logically... now instead of pure panic..... I could be on the reservation at this point. Perhaps it’s coming from behind a previously unseen hill... I get up, look around. I don’t see anything at all. It kind of comes and goes in volume. Doesn’t seem to be coming from a direction. I have no clue. I looked for evidence and didn’t find any. Crawled back in the bag because I’d been driving for hours, and they sang all night. Logic tells me it had to be a group of people I didn’t see. But I looked, and there were no ancillary noises like talking or stopping or anything. Just that Indian drum. And the “hiyaya HI Ya....” What was originally terrifying became calming and I ended up sleeping fantastically. Later learned that was a terrible stretch of road for very bad things to happen, it sort of lived up to its 666 moniker for wrecks and bad s**t occurring apparently.
No one around, no light, nothing at all.... visibility for miles. I’m completely f*****g alone in pitch black nothing and getting wound down in my eyes are getting droopy. Then I hear it. It sounds goofy to say but it’s the same Indian music you’d hear in old black and white westerns. Native music, voices and a drum. I literally think I’m dreaming and when it starts I’m f*****g petrified because that noise just appearing out of nothing simply put ice in my veins.
Relax a little and unfreeze, and try to be logical about what I’m hearing, which has no physical manifestation of its origin... so..thinking logically... now instead of pure panic..... I could be on the reservation at this point. Perhaps it’s coming from behind a previously unseen hill... I get up, look around. I don’t see anything at all. It kind of comes and goes in volume. Doesn’t seem to be coming from a direction. I have no clue. I looked for evidence and didn’t find any. Crawled back in the bag because I’d been driving for hours, and they sang all night. Logic tells me it had to be a group of people I didn’t see. But I looked, and there were no ancillary noises like talking or stopping or anything. Just that Indian drum. And the “hiyaya HI Ya....” What was originally terrifying became calming and I ended up sleeping fantastically. Later learned that was a terrible stretch of road for very bad things to happen, it sort of lived up to its 666 moniker for wrecks and bad s**t occurring apparently.
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12points
#30
Mine was not of monsters but of humans.
My friends and I were high in the woods deep in the Sierra Nevadas in the California back country and decided to travel a few miles off a path to reach a river and shoot at targets with our 22. The path is littered with deer bones and claw marks from bears so we're freaking out a bit but finally make it to where we set up camp.
I notice off in the distance about a half mile upstream the river there are two men walking towards us in the exact direction we are firing our gun. I yell at the guys for them to stop shooting and we just watch these men, wide-eyed and in their late 20's and early 30's walking quickly alongside the river when suddenly they both decide to jump in.
I should say at this point that the river is moving very quickly and could easily sweep you under and is definitely not safe for a casual swim. We watch as both the men are swept away towards us downstream. One of my friends, we'll call him Mike, decides to be brave and get close to the edge and extend a piece of wood for them to grab as they're about to pass us. Both the men latch on and Mike is the hero pulling them to shore.
When everyone catches their breath we asked the men what they were doing out here as it's super remote and they were at least 3 or 4 miles from the nearest trail and why they both jumped in the deadly river they give us short answers like "Oh we were just having fun boys" and "Just free swimming the river!" while they're leering at us.
Immediately the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and every fiber in my body tells me they mean us harm. We tell them we're going to head back to the trail and they say they're coming with us. Given that we're so far off from civilization and these guys are clearly high on something and a danger to themselves we reluctantly agree to allow them to follow us.
It was the most quiet hike of my life. I felt them trying to feel out if they could take us in a fight. There were three of us and two of them and we had a 22 but were young squirrelly adults. I don't know how to explain it but the hike was us constantly positioning against each other with body language without ever directly fighting. They would get close to the gun and try to both be near it then we would counter by getting between them and the gun as naturally as possible while hiking up a path that was littered in bear claw marks and dung. We finally make it to the car and they decide we weren't suitable targets and moved on. No idea what two random guys were doing risking their life in a freezing cold raging river in the Sierra Nevadas, or why they felt the need to size up if they could attack three random teens but I'm glad nothing happened that day.
Tldr: went hiking in the woods with friends as teens. Almost shot some random crazies. Crazies fall into river and we save them. Then crazies proceed to position themselves to fight us. Eventually get away.
My friends and I were high in the woods deep in the Sierra Nevadas in the California back country and decided to travel a few miles off a path to reach a river and shoot at targets with our 22. The path is littered with deer bones and claw marks from bears so we're freaking out a bit but finally make it to where we set up camp.
I notice off in the distance about a half mile upstream the river there are two men walking towards us in the exact direction we are firing our gun. I yell at the guys for them to stop shooting and we just watch these men, wide-eyed and in their late 20's and early 30's walking quickly alongside the river when suddenly they both decide to jump in.
I should say at this point that the river is moving very quickly and could easily sweep you under and is definitely not safe for a casual swim. We watch as both the men are swept away towards us downstream. One of my friends, we'll call him Mike, decides to be brave and get close to the edge and extend a piece of wood for them to grab as they're about to pass us. Both the men latch on and Mike is the hero pulling them to shore.
When everyone catches their breath we asked the men what they were doing out here as it's super remote and they were at least 3 or 4 miles from the nearest trail and why they both jumped in the deadly river they give us short answers like "Oh we were just having fun boys" and "Just free swimming the river!" while they're leering at us.
Immediately the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and every fiber in my body tells me they mean us harm. We tell them we're going to head back to the trail and they say they're coming with us. Given that we're so far off from civilization and these guys are clearly high on something and a danger to themselves we reluctantly agree to allow them to follow us.
It was the most quiet hike of my life. I felt them trying to feel out if they could take us in a fight. There were three of us and two of them and we had a 22 but were young squirrelly adults. I don't know how to explain it but the hike was us constantly positioning against each other with body language without ever directly fighting. They would get close to the gun and try to both be near it then we would counter by getting between them and the gun as naturally as possible while hiking up a path that was littered in bear claw marks and dung. We finally make it to the car and they decide we weren't suitable targets and moved on. No idea what two random guys were doing risking their life in a freezing cold raging river in the Sierra Nevadas, or why they felt the need to size up if they could attack three random teens but I'm glad nothing happened that day.
Tldr: went hiking in the woods with friends as teens. Almost shot some random crazies. Crazies fall into river and we save them. Then crazies proceed to position themselves to fight us. Eventually get away.
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12points
#31
Kinda creepy thing happened to me when I was a student forester this summer. So, the forest I was working in was about 20 kms from the nearest town which contained around 1200 people and we usually set out for what ever task we have to do in the forest at around 7:00am. So we are at the forest at around 7:30am and we are about 12 kms up the road when we turn a corner very slowly and see what I initially thought to be a weird looking bush or statue but it was in fact a person, sitting on a carved out stump on the side of the road, just sitting there. What really threw me off was the fact that this person had a parka on and a balaclava underneath it IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER. We drove by this person real slow and he lifted a hand to wave slowly as we drove past and it was just super creepy. Never saw them again after that but it did make going out on excursions a little more uneasy sometimes when alone.
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12points
#32
Walking through the woods in a state park. Saw a bunch of branches perfectly twisted in a vortex manner that resembled a swirling portal maybe 10-15 feet high. Obviously know that somebody made it but still creepy and you get that feeling that you dont know if your mind is tricking you because it almost looks hazy in the center of the branch-portal. Kept walking a bit further but then it got dark abnormally early and abnormally quickly. Semi jogging back (didn’t go too far deep) and somehow didn’t pass the portal again but felt a pretty worried even though I knew I was on the path. Got back to the parking lot and it was suddenly day time again as it had been since it was only mid afternoon. Still not sure if my mind fed into all of it because I love horror especially creepy pasta and everything creepy or cryptid in nature, but also definitely knew some weird s**t happened.
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12points
#33
A few years back (When I was around the age of 14 and my brother was 9), my dad, my little brother, and I all went out deer hunting in the afternoon right before sun down. While we were walking through the woods, before we even got started, my little brother tugged on my arm and asked me if I saw "that". I said that it was probably his imagination and he let go of my arm. A few minutes later, I couldn't hear him walking behind us anymore, and turned around to find him gone. I quickly told my dad and we looked for him for, at the least, half an hour, when he walked over out of nowhere towards the both of us, he was covered in mud like he'd fallen somewhere. I worriedly asked where he'd gone and he just stared at me, telling me that he couldn't remember and thought that he had never left. He acted normally afterwards just as nothing had happened, I don't know if this is really scary to anyone else, but it shook my entire family, including myself, quite a bit.
Edit: To answer a few of your questions. Several of you have been asking whether or not he could tell or show me where he had been and the answer is no. As I said, (although I hadn't specified, so that might've been on me) he told me that he couldn't remember a thing. Not what happened, not why he was covered in mud, not why he had walked away in the first place, nor that he had walked away at all. The only thing that he said he could recall was walking a few steps away from us, after seeing a doe from behind him, and that's it. He told me that he genuinely hadn't remembered walking away from us and acted like no time had passed. Also, one of you had asked how muddy it was. I distinctly remember that we had several flood warnings and heavy rains before then, but it wasn't like knee-high deep mud. It had been in the middle of fall and I can remember myself being irritated at the mud and leaves sticking to my boots. He wasn't drenched in mud, after we found him, but his knees and the palms of his hands were coated in it, along with having a few splotches here and there on his clothes. I had one other question on whether or not I asked him what he saw in the first place. He had initially told me after the entire event that he had saw a glimpse of a tall person standing next to a tree, which I, to be completely honest, doubt. As a kid, I also had one hell of an imagination, and was very paranoid, which I believe was passed down from my mother to the two of us. Lastly, someone had asked how I had found him? I'm not sure if that's the right way to word it...? Anyways, all three of us had been walking North and later on, when I did find him, he had trotted out of the woods, avoiding trees, from the West. Before he had gotten to me, he hadn't really spoke, until I ran up to him and hugged him, asking if he was okay. I hope this answers most of the questions you had.
Edit: To answer a few of your questions. Several of you have been asking whether or not he could tell or show me where he had been and the answer is no. As I said, (although I hadn't specified, so that might've been on me) he told me that he couldn't remember a thing. Not what happened, not why he was covered in mud, not why he had walked away in the first place, nor that he had walked away at all. The only thing that he said he could recall was walking a few steps away from us, after seeing a doe from behind him, and that's it. He told me that he genuinely hadn't remembered walking away from us and acted like no time had passed. Also, one of you had asked how muddy it was. I distinctly remember that we had several flood warnings and heavy rains before then, but it wasn't like knee-high deep mud. It had been in the middle of fall and I can remember myself being irritated at the mud and leaves sticking to my boots. He wasn't drenched in mud, after we found him, but his knees and the palms of his hands were coated in it, along with having a few splotches here and there on his clothes. I had one other question on whether or not I asked him what he saw in the first place. He had initially told me after the entire event that he had saw a glimpse of a tall person standing next to a tree, which I, to be completely honest, doubt. As a kid, I also had one hell of an imagination, and was very paranoid, which I believe was passed down from my mother to the two of us. Lastly, someone had asked how I had found him? I'm not sure if that's the right way to word it...? Anyways, all three of us had been walking North and later on, when I did find him, he had trotted out of the woods, avoiding trees, from the West. Before he had gotten to me, he hadn't really spoke, until I ran up to him and hugged him, asking if he was okay. I hope this answers most of the questions you had.
11points
#34
Walking down this long street that was completely downhill surrounded by woods. This place was known for king Phillips war, Native American burial ground. I was with a couple friends and we stopped to get drinks out of our bags and all the sudden the moonlight in the sky disappeared above the clouds that rolled in out of nowhere. It got eerily quiet and I looked down at my feet and noticed I was standing on the words “GET OUT” painted in red and after that it immediately started down pouring. Creepiest experience of my life. We ran back home and it stopped raining. They didn’t want our company that night.
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11points
#35
We have dense woods behind my house, and one evening I hear my dog barking up a storm. I ran out side to see what it was, and near our grape vines stood this wolf-like creature that was about the size of a huge bear. I freaked out when it made eye contact with me. It just stood there, about 10 yards away from me, just staring. I grabbed my dog and ran inside to tell my parents. They wrote it off as my imagination since I was about 10-12 at the time, but ever since then when I go into the woods it feels like I'm being watched.
I'm now 17, and still have the vivid memory of it.
I'm now 17, and still have the vivid memory of it.
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10points
#36
Hiking part of the NCT north of Grand Rapids, MI. We hiked around 25 miles in a day and by the time we made camp I was in a huge amount of pain (hadn’t hiked for almost a year so going that hard was a mistake). I was starting to get sick and couldn’t get warm no matter how I layered up. I barely ate and then went to sleep. I woke up in the very early morning to slow footsteps walking around camp. They were pretty heavy and lumbering so I knew it was a bear. I didn’t dare move and tried to slow my breathing as much as possible to stay quiet. After around 20 minutes it started moving away again and I passed back out. When I woke up the shrubbery around camp was disturbed and a friend had also woken up and heard the same thing. She was somewhat new to hiking though and had no idea what it was so she was a little spooked when I told her. We got the f**k outta there as soon as we could.
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10points
#37
I'm a landscaper and we manage some pretty big accounts in the woods. Well I stepped off a hundred feet or so to take a leak. I started peeing and looked up and around and off in the distance I see someone in a red hoody just fckn staring at me from behind a tree. This lot of land is next to a road but its all commercial and not residential so besides us there really shouldn't be any other people out here but us. Especially this deep out there. I cocked my head to the side to make sure that it was in fact a person in a hoody and not something else my mind distorted into a human. Well once I move they move back behind the tree. I yelled at them hey what are you doing and they took off. I'm pretty sure whoever it was did not have pants on. They could have been flesh colored but I don't believe so. And no shoes. I was shook by the all thing so I just called my boss man and told him what's up. We all went to do a quick search together and we never saw the person again.
10points
#38
I've lived on the high dessert for most of my life (6000' above sea level if you're wondering). I was out riding my horse alone in the absolute middle of BFE in the Badlands (no trees, and hardly any brush to speak of so sounds carry a long way and there is nowhere to hide for long) when all of a sudden his ears perk up. I feel my skin start to crawl like we're being watched. My normally mellow gelding, starts to panic. I start to feel really dizzy, and my horse stumbles. I black out.
I come to an hour or so later about 3 Miles away from the inciting incident still on my horse. He is frothing with sweat and shaking all over. I'm still not sure what happened. I had plenty of water and snacks. It was 65ish Degrees and breezy, so I don't believe weather or dehydration/hunger were a factor. I have never before or after had a fainting spell, and that was the most reliable, quiet horse I've ever owned.
I now have a serious case of the heebie jeebies again just thinking about it.
I come to an hour or so later about 3 Miles away from the inciting incident still on my horse. He is frothing with sweat and shaking all over. I'm still not sure what happened. I had plenty of water and snacks. It was 65ish Degrees and breezy, so I don't believe weather or dehydration/hunger were a factor. I have never before or after had a fainting spell, and that was the most reliable, quiet horse I've ever owned.
I now have a serious case of the heebie jeebies again just thinking about it.
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9points
#39
TL;DR at bottom.
I‘ve got one. When I was in Boy Scouts, my troop would always go to a camp called Camp Tahquitz for our yearly summer camp. That specific year, they had had abnormal bear activity in and around the camp. It was a pretty sizable camp, but was still way out in the boonies, so an encounter with a chipmunk was just as common as it would be with a California black bear. Wildlife management was done by some crazy old Gunnery Sergeant that we called Gunny, so you can see the situations you might find yourself in.
So anyway, I was tenting with my friend who had just joined the troop, lets call him James. So James and I are sleeping in our tent in the middle of the night, probably around 1 or 2 in the morning, when I was abruptly awoken by something. Everything is dead silent, aside from a plasticky creaking sound. Then I see it, right above my head. Something was pushing the tent in so hard that it began to cave in right above my head, like if someone was leaning into it with all of their weight. Except, these tents were relatively strong, you (I mean, I could as a preteen) could jump on them and you would just bounce right off.
So, being the scared little thirteen year old that I was, I began to smack whatever it was with all of my might whilst simultaneously clubbing James with my fist to get him to wake up. Mind you, James is an incredibly deep sleeper, so this in effect does nothing. Whoever or whatever it is is leaning so hard that it is almost touching my head when James wakes up from the nightmare that he was having and let out a blood curdling ten-year-old-girl-being-m******d-in-the-woods type scream. Whatever it was stopped leaning on the tent and vanished silently into the night.
So, for a few years, James (who has no recollection of the event whatsoever) and I always assumed it was a bear after the meds in my daypack. But, after staffing at the camp and getting to know the lore of the grounds a little better, I think something else might have been afoot. There have been many strange happenings in and around Camp Tahquitz, both paranormal and just normally unexplained. Theres the usual Bigfoot and ghost stories, but older scouts and even administrative higher-ups claim to have seen things. Claims of wendigo-skinwalker hybrids (things that look like both, not actual hybrids), some dead guy called Dragthump, and a bunch of Native American myths (Tahquitz has the biggest and most active Native American program West of Oklahoma).
The fact that there were no tears in the tent flap from the bear claws, we were the furthest away from the bear box, the fact that there was absolutely no sound from the supposed bear (black bears make a heck of a ruckus), and the fact that it was just persistently leaning into the tent instead of just clawing at it like most bears leads me to believe that it was no Yogi or Smokey. It just didn’t behave like bears do, and even if it was some older scouts attempting to play a joke on us, they wouldn't have been heavy enough to lean that far in on the tent and probably would have erupted into laughter right afterward. Plus, my troop isn’t like that. Its full of a bunch of mild mannered city boys, perfect Eagle Scout material, (of which I am one). Everything just seems so off.
I don’t claim to know what it was (hence the unexplained part). Let me guys know if something similar happened to you.
TL;DR: Strange thing attempted to break into my tent in the night, thought it was a bear, but I don’t think so anymore.
I‘ve got one. When I was in Boy Scouts, my troop would always go to a camp called Camp Tahquitz for our yearly summer camp. That specific year, they had had abnormal bear activity in and around the camp. It was a pretty sizable camp, but was still way out in the boonies, so an encounter with a chipmunk was just as common as it would be with a California black bear. Wildlife management was done by some crazy old Gunnery Sergeant that we called Gunny, so you can see the situations you might find yourself in.
So anyway, I was tenting with my friend who had just joined the troop, lets call him James. So James and I are sleeping in our tent in the middle of the night, probably around 1 or 2 in the morning, when I was abruptly awoken by something. Everything is dead silent, aside from a plasticky creaking sound. Then I see it, right above my head. Something was pushing the tent in so hard that it began to cave in right above my head, like if someone was leaning into it with all of their weight. Except, these tents were relatively strong, you (I mean, I could as a preteen) could jump on them and you would just bounce right off.
So, being the scared little thirteen year old that I was, I began to smack whatever it was with all of my might whilst simultaneously clubbing James with my fist to get him to wake up. Mind you, James is an incredibly deep sleeper, so this in effect does nothing. Whoever or whatever it is is leaning so hard that it is almost touching my head when James wakes up from the nightmare that he was having and let out a blood curdling ten-year-old-girl-being-m******d-in-the-woods type scream. Whatever it was stopped leaning on the tent and vanished silently into the night.
So, for a few years, James (who has no recollection of the event whatsoever) and I always assumed it was a bear after the meds in my daypack. But, after staffing at the camp and getting to know the lore of the grounds a little better, I think something else might have been afoot. There have been many strange happenings in and around Camp Tahquitz, both paranormal and just normally unexplained. Theres the usual Bigfoot and ghost stories, but older scouts and even administrative higher-ups claim to have seen things. Claims of wendigo-skinwalker hybrids (things that look like both, not actual hybrids), some dead guy called Dragthump, and a bunch of Native American myths (Tahquitz has the biggest and most active Native American program West of Oklahoma).
The fact that there were no tears in the tent flap from the bear claws, we were the furthest away from the bear box, the fact that there was absolutely no sound from the supposed bear (black bears make a heck of a ruckus), and the fact that it was just persistently leaning into the tent instead of just clawing at it like most bears leads me to believe that it was no Yogi or Smokey. It just didn’t behave like bears do, and even if it was some older scouts attempting to play a joke on us, they wouldn't have been heavy enough to lean that far in on the tent and probably would have erupted into laughter right afterward. Plus, my troop isn’t like that. Its full of a bunch of mild mannered city boys, perfect Eagle Scout material, (of which I am one). Everything just seems so off.
I don’t claim to know what it was (hence the unexplained part). Let me guys know if something similar happened to you.
TL;DR: Strange thing attempted to break into my tent in the night, thought it was a bear, but I don’t think so anymore.
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9points
#40
I distance hike when I can. Sometimes this means getting up early, or staying out late, to get as many miles in as possible. Sometimes, walking in the pitch dark with a low light headlamp gets spooky.
I grew up in the woods of this area. I’ve slept under our canopy of stars more nights than I can count. I’ve trekked thousands of miles of trail, river bank, lake shore, ridge, bottoms, bogs, and creeks. I’ve hunted the game. I’m establishing this because it’s important you understand I‘ve heard, seen, and smelt about all this region has to offer in the way of wilderness.
My scariest experience though happened at about 0430 in the morning. It was late spring, so the first morning light wouldn’t be visible in the tree tops for another 30-45 minutes; another hour past that until sunrise. I was on mile five.
I’m in a low bottom that’s wedged between two steep ridges. The trail I’m on was narrow, muddy, and completely hemmed in by thick underbrush, young maple, and old oak growth. I’m focused on the small light from my headlamp, just one step after the other, zoned out. Then I heard a loud CRACK! And I froze solid.
This is the part I have trouble describing. 0430 in springtime means I’m the only thing making noise. No birds chirping, nothing. Dead quiet.
Mid-step I froze. When fight or flight kicks in you have these immediate instinct thoughts. The thought that instantly flashed in my mind as I stood there balancing myself into silence was, “If I hear that again, I’m turning around, and I’m going back the way I came in a hurry.”
Why? Because that sound was not a branch breaking. It wasn’t deadfall. It wasn’t a widow maker. I was d**n sure I had just heard something intentional. Hearing it twice, well, that meant get outta here. To describe it as best I can, it sounded like a decent sized wooden stick being violently whacked against a smallish tree. More a fungo bat sized stick, than a baseball bat. The distinction in my head being that this sound was a crack, and not a thud or thump. And I have described it as, “explosive,” in the past because it was so sudden, and so terribly loud. I had the sense that it was about fifty yards directly in front of me, and it was loud, and clear.
Now, as I stood there, completely spooked, I realized the soon-to-be worst part of my situation. I knew where the sound came from. And I knew where the trail went. In about thirty yards, I was going to come to a 180 degree turn and start up the ridge going away from the creek. This meant, as soon as I got the courage to move towards this noise, I was going to have to turn my back to it, and get up that ridge. This made me very nervous. My heads somewhere between m**h fiend murder, and bigfoot bludgeoning.
Minutes pass. I just breathe my foggy breath into my glasses, and listen. Nothing. Dead quiet. I’ve got about 20-30 minutes until first light. I crank up the headlamp, and start to slowly creep to the 180 turn. When you wear a headlamp in the woods at night, every tree branch in front of you casts a big black moving shadow on the trail. It didn’t help.
I get to the turn, and quickly make the bend. I’m moving pretty fast at this point. Trying to be quiet. Taking tiny, shallow breathes so I can listen while humpin it up the trail.
And then I smell it. A stench hits me that I can’t describe. I just imagined wet, rotten, death. I’ve actually worked scenes where humans have expired in a past life as a firefighter. This was like days old decomposition, but it just smelled, strange.
I kept walking fast. By the time I made the top of that ridge, I was huffing, and the first light was showing. I didn’t stop moving until full light was out, and the birds were chirping.
I’ve heard it all in our woods. I’ve smelled it all. I’m telling you, I don’t know what the hell that was. Deadfall, and especially leafed out branches, make a lot of noise on the way down. I’ve heard it many times.
I don’t know.
I grew up in the woods of this area. I’ve slept under our canopy of stars more nights than I can count. I’ve trekked thousands of miles of trail, river bank, lake shore, ridge, bottoms, bogs, and creeks. I’ve hunted the game. I’m establishing this because it’s important you understand I‘ve heard, seen, and smelt about all this region has to offer in the way of wilderness.
My scariest experience though happened at about 0430 in the morning. It was late spring, so the first morning light wouldn’t be visible in the tree tops for another 30-45 minutes; another hour past that until sunrise. I was on mile five.
I’m in a low bottom that’s wedged between two steep ridges. The trail I’m on was narrow, muddy, and completely hemmed in by thick underbrush, young maple, and old oak growth. I’m focused on the small light from my headlamp, just one step after the other, zoned out. Then I heard a loud CRACK! And I froze solid.
This is the part I have trouble describing. 0430 in springtime means I’m the only thing making noise. No birds chirping, nothing. Dead quiet.
Mid-step I froze. When fight or flight kicks in you have these immediate instinct thoughts. The thought that instantly flashed in my mind as I stood there balancing myself into silence was, “If I hear that again, I’m turning around, and I’m going back the way I came in a hurry.”
Why? Because that sound was not a branch breaking. It wasn’t deadfall. It wasn’t a widow maker. I was d**n sure I had just heard something intentional. Hearing it twice, well, that meant get outta here. To describe it as best I can, it sounded like a decent sized wooden stick being violently whacked against a smallish tree. More a fungo bat sized stick, than a baseball bat. The distinction in my head being that this sound was a crack, and not a thud or thump. And I have described it as, “explosive,” in the past because it was so sudden, and so terribly loud. I had the sense that it was about fifty yards directly in front of me, and it was loud, and clear.
Now, as I stood there, completely spooked, I realized the soon-to-be worst part of my situation. I knew where the sound came from. And I knew where the trail went. In about thirty yards, I was going to come to a 180 degree turn and start up the ridge going away from the creek. This meant, as soon as I got the courage to move towards this noise, I was going to have to turn my back to it, and get up that ridge. This made me very nervous. My heads somewhere between m**h fiend murder, and bigfoot bludgeoning.
Minutes pass. I just breathe my foggy breath into my glasses, and listen. Nothing. Dead quiet. I’ve got about 20-30 minutes until first light. I crank up the headlamp, and start to slowly creep to the 180 turn. When you wear a headlamp in the woods at night, every tree branch in front of you casts a big black moving shadow on the trail. It didn’t help.
I get to the turn, and quickly make the bend. I’m moving pretty fast at this point. Trying to be quiet. Taking tiny, shallow breathes so I can listen while humpin it up the trail.
And then I smell it. A stench hits me that I can’t describe. I just imagined wet, rotten, death. I’ve actually worked scenes where humans have expired in a past life as a firefighter. This was like days old decomposition, but it just smelled, strange.
I kept walking fast. By the time I made the top of that ridge, I was huffing, and the first light was showing. I didn’t stop moving until full light was out, and the birds were chirping.
I’ve heard it all in our woods. I’ve smelled it all. I’m telling you, I don’t know what the hell that was. Deadfall, and especially leafed out branches, make a lot of noise on the way down. I’ve heard it many times.
I don’t know.
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9points