Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[Thinkingman]

Not a hunting story , just creepy. I was working for Dawn Donuts in Michigan, it’s 2.30 am and I’m driving to work in my Chevette with four 50lb cubes of shortening in the passenger seat south on I 75.
I see this chick hitchhiking so I pick her up but she has to sit in the back seat because of the shortening , so I was looking at her thru the rear view mirror, as we talked .
And every time I would look forward , at the road , I’d catch a glow out of the rear view mirrors , when I’d look back , nothing .
She told me to let her out where I 73 and M 23 split , but I’m trying to figure out what is making the glow in the mirror, but not really seeing it , thought it was a car following with its lights out or something.
She was talking, asking me if I’d noticed a lot of out of state license plates, to which I said no .
She said there was a witches convention in town and that was why so many out of state plates.
Then she said , Know how I know ? Because I’m from out of town , and there was that flash of light , only brighter , out of the corner of my eye , and I still had no idea where it came from.
Then I passed the split of I 75/M23 and had to lock the brakes up , came to a stop on the side of the I 75 and she was pissed .
She got out , on the wrong side of 23 and didn’t like it , she started to say something and I just drive away with her door still open .
I’m looking over my left shoulder checking traffic and there was none , there was a brighter flash of light behind me on the right side , and when I turned around to look at her , nothing , she was gone .
Hair raised on my neck and I was sure she was in the back seat , again , about killed me looking backwards and driving as fast as that little four cylinder would go .
Still creeps me out thinking about it .




PS , had to edit it after reading ...

I grew up in the Chevette era, with 200lbs of shortening in the thing, full throttle would take days to reach 60mph.
Good story.

 

[CRJR45]

I grew up in the Chevette era, with 200lbs of shortening in the thing, full throttle would take days to reach 60mph.
Good story.

I loved my Chevette , it got 30 miles a gallon , I had roof racks and took it everywhere ,throw the poles on the roof go pier fishing , four grown adults in a car pool , all for $3900 brand new .

 

[Sandhills]

When I lived in Ruby Valley, Nevada I was on my way to the bar in the valley to get a bite to eat and maybe a beer or 3. Headed down the road, it's dark as the inside of a cow that night. I can see something up along the road in the headlights, and thinkin it's a elk I slow down in case it bolts in front of me. Well it wasn't an elk but a horse, a guy standing next to it, and a calf on a rope with the other end in the guys hand. I stop and roll the window down and ask if he's doing alright. He said yep, doing alright. I asked him if I could help him out or if he wanted to tie off and we would drive slow down the road to get him home. He said he was fine and that someone would be along shortly but thanks for stopping. I asked him one more time if he was sure and he said yep. I get goin again and I just can't help but think something was off. I turned around to ask him if I could at least bring him some food or something to drink and when I got down there he wasnt there. You can see headlights for a hundred miles in either direction so I knew nobody picked him up. I get to looking around and there's no sign of him, the horse or the calf. No tracks, no horse shit, nothing. Needless to say I get a bit spooked. Head to the bar, and instead of a beer I order a whisky and water. The gal who owned the place knew something was up and after I told her what happened she said oh you seen the road ghost. Everyone see him sooner or later.

 

[Smokey Bear]

View attachment 1038646

“Do you prefer Margaret or Satan’s mistress?”

 

[freezerfull]

A few days a week I squeeze in a before work ruck up a local mountain. The trailheads 5 minutes from home, if I leave the house at 4am I can be back and showered for work by 6am.

Over the years I’ve seen and encountered a number of bears, blacktails and other critters on this trail system. As the years go by is seems encounters are fewer and fewer.

Well a few weeks back I’m up doing my early morning routine. Headlamp main beam set at about medium brightness with the flood off. Around 5am I’m approaching my turn around point which is the intersection of my ascent trail and descent trail. The trail I ascend cuts straight up the ridge requiring a few hands on scramble moves during the last 400’ of elevation gain, the descent trail I then take drops into a drainage to the south through a series of switchbacks saving the knees. As I make the intersection I pull my phone out to stop the timer I have set. The phone lights up full brightness in the light of my head lamp, washing out any semblance of night adjusted vision. Right as I pause the clock I hear a faint footstep off to my left. As I whip my head around I see 2 eyes glowing in the headlamp. It seems close.

What follows took place in only 3-4 seconds. My mind does a quick assessment. The eyes are wide and low to the ground. In the edge of my beam off to the right I see two more eyes, also seeming the same distance away and height above the ground. As I adjust my focus to those eyes I distinctly see the first set of eyes move towards me.

Now in a millisecond my thoughts went from two deer bedded on the crest of the finger ridge to two adolescent cougars, possibly siblings, testing out my response. The word “HEY” yelled out from an instinctual place as my right thumb grazed the release on the safariland attached to my pack belt and my left hand reached to tap my headlamp. As the illumination increased to full beam plus flood I could just make out what I was dealing with.

Just above the glow of the eyes I could see the tips of the ears of two does. Positioned about 10 yards away and just over the crest of the steep ridge, giving their eyes the low to the ground look of a stalking predator. I wonder what they were thinking, I’m sure they were rather displeased with some jackwagon blasting light in their eyes and yelling at 5am.

Anyway thought I’d share. I got a pretty good laugh out of it as I don’t ever recall yelling at animals I’ve encountered in the dark before or getting quite that excited over a couple of deer haha.

 

[EastHumboldt]

I have a legit question because I’ve never seen a cougar or bear in the dark. The eyes of deer always seem kind of luminescent green in the dark. Do cougars and bears and wolves have the same green glow or is it another color?

 

[Sandhills]

I have a legit question because I’ve never seen a cougar or bear in the dark. The eyes of deer always seem kind of luminescent green in the dark. Do cougars and bears and wolves have the same green glow or is it another color?

They typically glow red

 

[gerry35]

The bears I have seen in the dark had green eyes, not sure about wolves or cougars.

 

[CRJR45]

Sasquatch eyes are red , the female Sasquatch are red with a little twinkle in them , BEWARE the red eyes with a twinkle at all costs . But that’s another story.

 

[Billogna]

Sasquatch eyes are red , the female Sasquatch are red with a little twinkle in them , BEWARE the red eyes with a twinkle at all costs . But that’s another story.

Dunno man... It's been a long cold winter for some guys...

 

[ianpadron]

I have a legit question because I’ve never seen a cougar or bear in the dark. The eyes of deer always seem kind of luminescent green in the dark. Do cougars and bears and wolves have the same green glow or is it another color?

Typically orange/red/yellow but not a hard rule. I've got a dog who's eyes are lighter colored and at night they glow green like a deer while my brown eyed dog glows orange like most night time predators I've encountered.

 

[gerry35]

Typically orange/red/yellow but not a hard rule. I've got a dog who's eyes are lighter colored and at night they glow green like a deer while my brown eyed dog glows orange like most night time predators I've encountered.

Our Husky/Shepard has a green eye and a red one. Both eyes are light brown, one of his siblings had one blue eye and one brown and another one had blue eyes. Might be genetics when it comes to eye shine.

 

[Speaks]

I see wolves at the edge of my WI property all the time at night when taking the dogs out. Always have glow green.

 

[IronNoggin]

The wolves I encountered in the Arctic had eyes that glowed green or turquoise.

My Hybrids do the same.

 

[EastHumboldt]

So green, yellow, orange, or red. I guess if it’s any color but green no it’s not a deer for sure?

 

[freezerfull]

So green, yellow, orange, or red. I guess if it’s any color but green no it’s not a deer for sure?

And deer and elk eyes can often shine almost white at times. I think distance apart, height above the ground and what the animal is doing is a better predictor of what you’re encountering.

 

[freezerfull]

20 years ago one of my best friends from high school and I were out walking logging roads looking for grouse. We had a habit of peeling off up or down hill to follow game trails just to explore. On this day we noticed what looked like an old road grade sweeping off up hill with a decent game trail following it. Now I’m not talking a 20 year ago decommissioned grade but a grade covered with old second growth firs and cedars. Well we started up the game trail as it circled around the finger of the mountain. We had probably gone 3/4 of a mile and gained a steady 500’ as we progressed. The overgrown grade leveled off on a bench that had a pinnacle like knob maybe 20’ higher than the surrounding terrain. Naturally we had to go up there to see how suitable an ambush location for blacktails this would be.

Upon reaching the top we see a sight we were not expecting. There in front of us was the remains of a cabin. Old split cedar logs squared up and fitted together with a collapsed roof that had fallen to the ground. Old square nails, some clearly individually forged were sticking out of the roof shakes.

As we continued to explored the ruins my buddy became eerily quiet. It took a few minutes for his silence to catch my attention. When I finally look over at him he says “do you hear that?” Stopping all movement I immediately picked up on what he was referring to. A very faint music could be heard.

Initially it was so faint it was hard to determine exactly what we were hearing. Then as we stood silent for the next few minutes the music continued to get louder, to the point where it sounded as if were in the room with whoever was playing it. It surrounded us, with no discernible direction of the source. The best way I can describe it was old time player piano music. We each were perched on opposite sides of the remaining footprint of the cabin, staring down into the alders and ferns below looking for whatever it could be. As I turned back to look at my buddy, his back up against the remnants of a door jamb from long ago I see a flicker of something moving through the trees down below, near the overgrown road we’d come up. Could have been in my mind at that point, either way I’d had my fill.

I said “let’s get out of here”. We both bailed off the side of the knob and down the mountain, joining the old grade roughly half way back to the logging road. As we continued down we stopped to listen. The further we had gone from the cabin the fainter the music had become. As we approached the last 100 yards to the road it had completely faded.

That day was one of those few that I have no explanation for. Since that time I’ve passed by that cabin many times with no strange events. In fact my wife killed a buck in 2016 not 200 yards from the cabin.

Sadly Sierra Pacific logged the cabin site about 7 years ago. Not only changing the dynamics of the blacktails in the area but also wiping out any sign that the cabin ever existed. The forest will regrow, the blacktails will be back, but the history is gone forever.

 

[Pharmseller]

The history will remain for those tuned to hear it.

 

[Sandhills]

20 years ago one of my best friends from high school and I were out walking logging roads looking for grouse. We had a habit of peeling off up or down hill to follow game trails just to explore. On this day we noticed what looked like an old road grade sweeping off up hill with a decent game trail following it. Now I’m not talking a 20 year ago decommissioned grade but a grade covered with old second growth firs and cedars. Well we started up the game trail as it circled around the finger of the mountain. We had probably gone 3/4 of a mile and gained a steady 500’ as we progressed. The overgrown grade leveled off on a bench that had a pinnacle like knob maybe 20’ higher than the surrounding terrain. Naturally we had to go up there to see how suitable an ambush location for blacktails this would be.

Upon reaching the top we see a sight we were not expecting. There in front of us was the remains of a cabin. Old split cedar logs squared up and fitted together with a collapsed roof that had fallen to the ground. Old square nails, some clearly individually forged were sticking out of the roof shakes.

As we continued to explored the ruins my buddy became eerily quiet. It took a few minutes for his silence to catch my attention. When I finally look over at him he says “do you hear that?” Stopping all movement I immediately picked up on what he was referring to. A very faint music could be heard.

Initially it was so faint it was hard to determine exactly what we were hearing. Then as we stood silent for the next few minutes the music continued to get louder, to the point where it sounded as if were in the room with whoever was playing it. It surrounded us, with no discernible direction of the source. The best way I can describe it was old time player piano music. We each were perched on opposite sides of the remaining footprint of the cabin, staring down into the alders and ferns below looking for whatever it could be. As I turned back to look at my buddy, his back up against the remnants of a door jamb from long ago I see a flicker of something moving through the trees down below, near the overgrown road we’d come up. Could have been in my mind at that point, either way I’d had my fill.

I said “let’s get out of here”. We both bailed off the side of the knob and down the mountain, joining the old grade roughly half way back to the logging road. As we continued down we stopped to listen. The further we had gone from the cabin the fainter the music had become. As we approached the last 100 yards to the road it had completely faded.

That day was one of those few that I have no explanation for. Since that time I’ve passed by that cabin many times with no strange events. In fact my wife killed a buck in 2016 not 200 yards from the cabin.

Sadly Sierra Pacific logged the cabin site about 7 years ago. Not only changing the dynamics of the blacktails in the area but also wiping out any sign that the cabin ever existed. The forest will regrow, the blacktails will be back, but the history is gone forever.

Maybe the ghost or what ever you guys encountered was scared of by the Emerson bunch

 

[DuckDawg22]

20 years ago one of my best friends from high school and I were out walking logging roads looking for grouse. We had a habit of peeling off up or down hill to follow game trails just to explore. On this day we noticed what looked like an old road grade sweeping off up hill with a decent game trail following it. Now I’m not talking a 20 year ago decommissioned grade but a grade covered with old second growth firs and cedars. Well we started up the game trail as it circled around the finger of the mountain. We had probably gone 3/4 of a mile and gained a steady 500’ as we progressed. The overgrown grade leveled off on a bench that had a pinnacle like knob maybe 20’ higher than the surrounding terrain. Naturally we had to go up there to see how suitable an ambush location for blacktails this would be.

Upon reaching the top we see a sight we were not expecting. There in front of us was the remains of a cabin. Old split cedar logs squared up and fitted together with a collapsed roof that had fallen to the ground. Old square nails, some clearly individually forged were sticking out of the roof shakes.

As we continued to explored the ruins my buddy became eerily quiet. It took a few minutes for his silence to catch my attention. When I finally look over at him he says “do you hear that?” Stopping all movement I immediately picked up on what he was referring to. A very faint music could be heard.

Initially it was so faint it was hard to determine exactly what we were hearing. Then as we stood silent for the next few minutes the music continued to get louder, to the point where it sounded as if were in the room with whoever was playing it. It surrounded us, with no discernible direction of the source. The best way I can describe it was old time player piano music. We each were perched on opposite sides of the remaining footprint of the cabin, staring down into the alders and ferns below looking for whatever it could be. As I turned back to look at my buddy, his back up against the remnants of a door jamb from long ago I see a flicker of something moving through the trees down below, near the overgrown road we’d come up. Could have been in my mind at that point, either way I’d had my fill.

I said “let’s get out of here”. We both bailed off the side of the knob and down the mountain, joining the old grade roughly half way back to the logging road. As we continued down we stopped to listen. The further we had gone from the cabin the fainter the music had become. As we approached the last 100 yards to the road it had completely faded.

That day was one of those few that I have no explanation for. Since that time I’ve passed by that cabin many times with no strange events. In fact my wife killed a buck in 2016 not 200 yards from the cabin.

Sadly Sierra Pacific logged the cabin site about 7 years ago. Not only changing the dynamics of the blacktails in the area but also wiping out any sign that the cabin ever existed. The forest will regrow, the blacktails will be back, but the history is gone forever.

The cynic in me thinks it wouldn't be too too difficult to rig up some sort of motion activated hidden speaker to do exactly what you guys experienced in order to keep people away from a good blacktail area. Fact you went back there numerous times (and killed a deer) without a similar experience just backs that up. Either the battery died or the culprit moved the setup to his next honey hole.

There have certainly been more diabolical actions taken to keep people out of certain areas...