Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[Snowwolfe]

My weird encounter was in a hotel. Exwife and I had a small apartment in a local hotel when we were first married. Someone was playing games with us by knocking at the door then no one would be there when I answered.
I sat inside beside the door waiting for someone to knock. Someone knocked loud and I immediately opened the door (within 2 seconds) and no one was there. And the hallway outside was maybe 40 yards long.
The knocks never happened again.

 

[bigunit]

This one was scary at the time but funny later.

I was moose hunting Oct 2023. After a long and unsuccessful day, I was on my way back to camp near dark on my atv. It was cold and quite rainy. I saw a dark shadow on my left in the intersection of a trail and realized it was a bear about 20 yards away. It looked like a decent boar and I had a tag so I quickly grabbed and loaded my rifle.

Right as I was loading my rifle, the bear started walking straight towards me. I found that quite strange especially since I was still at the atv and it was running with the lights on. I shot the bear head on and he quickly spun and ran away from me.

I wasn't too keen on looking for a bear after dark when I was still quite a ways from camp and getting pretty cold. My dad and father in law would also already be back at camp and I didn't want to worry them so I decided to leave the bear and head to camp and retrieve it in the am.

The next day I still wanted to moose hunt so I thought I'd find the bear well before first light, gut it and be on my way for the morning hunt. We'll that's exactly what happened. I found the bear a few yards of the trail about 50 yards from where I shot. It was about a 200lb boar. I prepped all my stuff to start gutting, but some nitrile gloves on and got to work.

Remember this is still well before daylight and I'm in thick bush and can't really see anything out of the beam of my headlamp, so I'm a bit on edge but not too bad. As soon as kneeled down and was about to start the first incision, I heard the loudest scariest thing I have to date.

There must have been an owl directly above me the whole time and as soon I was about to touch that bear he let a huge hoot out. I damn near shat and must have jumped back at least 4 feet. That was the creepiest thing to happen to me in the bush so far. I'm so glad it wasn't on film.

 

[Snowwolfe]

This is my “raise the hair on the back of your neck” story.
Took my son with me to hunt moose up on the Huslia River which flows into the Koyukuk. We were trying to call in a bull and he was tossing the bushes working towards us. He was about 30 yards away and making plenty of noise but was still hidden.
All of a sudden we heard a pack of wolves howling as they circled the bull. Some had to be within 15 yards of us. Then something alerted the bull or the wolves and they all took off. The bull disappeared but we seen some of the wolves lay down in a field 150-200 yards away.

 

[omicron1792]

My weird encounter was in a hotel. Exwife and I had a small apartment in a local hotel when we were first married. Someone was playing games with us by knocking at the door then no one would be there when I answered.
I sat inside beside the door waiting for someone to knock. Someone knocked loud and I immediately opened the door (within 2 seconds) and no one was there. And the hallway outside was maybe 40 yards long.
The knocks never happened again.

That’s some freaky stuff.

 

[MedServ60Driver]

This was actually backpacking in the summer in the Lost Creek Wilderness area with my girlfriend. Our first night on the trail we set up solo at a pretty well established camping area next to a stream. The night was beautiful, but I have never been completely comfortable out in the woods at night.

Anyway, I woke up at probably 2 AM needing to relieve myself something fierce. I zipped open the tent and peeked out a bit. A full moon painted a beautiful, almost otherworldly scene of bright silvery light, bright enough to read a book by, contrasted starkly with completely dark shadows from the tall trees and other vegetation. The bubbling stream and still air added to the ambience. After a moment I decided I couldn't hold it anymore, and got out of the tent with my headlamp to take care of business.

I mentioned previously that I am not completely comfortable in the woods at night. Call me a wimp all you want but that's how I am, despite numerous camping, backpacking, and hunting trips throughout the years. Anyway, I say that to preface why I had the headlamp: I shone it around to see if any eyes were looking back in our direction before I moved away a bit to take care of business (maybe a bad idea, ignorance is bliss after all). I didn't see anything, and satisfied enough to calm my overactive imagination I stepped off from the tent a bit towards some trees to take care of business. The area was so well lit (outside of the shadows) that I turned the headlamp off and took care of things.

Making my way back to the tent, all of a sudden, I heard crashing footsteps from a darkened area of the woods RUNNING RIGHT TOWARDS ME. Adrenaline took over, and before I could actively think about it I faced the sound, threw my arms out wide, and shouted "HEEEEEEEEEEY!" at the top of my lungs. I yelled so loud that I heard it echoing through the forest, and it immediately woke my girlfriend in the tent. I heard the source of the footsteps fleeing away from me and up a hill nearby.

It was right about then that I heard my girlfriend from the tent: "I can't find the bear spray, where is it?"

Heart still racing, I turned my weak headlamp on and shone it all around our campsite. At the crest of the hill where I heard the sound of the footsteps running, much to my chagrin, I saw two eyes staring at me. Not yet responding to my girlfriend's inquiry, I worked my way back to the tent and without explanation said "Give me your headlamp." (Her's is brighter). Fortunately, she did, and heart still racing I shined her much brighter light in the direction I had seen the eyes.

Silhouetted in the flashlight's glare was a yearling doe, staring curiously back down towards the calamity she (or maybe I) had unknowingly kicked off.

Finally able to calm down a bit, I turned the light off and flatly informed my girlfriend "It was a deer." After a moments pause we both broke down laughing.

We made sure after that night to have a designated bear spray corner in the tent, and I later bought a much better headlamp.