Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[ethan]

I'll try to keep this short. Several years ago myself and about 5 of my buddies did an overnighter up Mt LeConte in the Smokies and spent the night. Next morning we hiked the boulevard trail to the AT, then stayed the night at the Ice Water shelter. It's the closest shelter on the entire AT (important to the story). The next shelter down the trail is Tri Corners. About dark we were all boiling our water for dinner and a solo hiker comes in and the first thing the guy says is "sure am glad their are other people here, hate this shelter. They found a dead body here once". Kind of a weird way to start a conversation with strangers, but whatever. He tells us he's hiking out in the morning to New Found Gap and he's paid a shuttle to pick him up at 10:00 and take him back to his car. NF Gap is only about 4 miles from this shelter. The next morning, it's snowing and is about 12 degrees out and I hear the guys get up and gather his gear and head out. I look at my watch and it's about 5:00 am. Strange time to hike out on an icy trail in the snow for 4 miles to wait for a ride at the trailhead for 6 hours, but again, whatever.
We get to the trail head around 9:00 and wave to the guy and he not only ignores us but immediately turns and walks away from us, again...whatever.
About ten days later one of my buddies on this trip texts me a link about a hiker that left NF Gap and had planned to have friends pick him up 5 days later in North Carolina. Guy never showed up so his friends call the park service They find the guy dead at the Tri Corners shelter (where the solo hiker came from) and estimated he'd died the on the previous Saturday. The solo hiker came into the Ice Water shelter on Saturday night. We thought it was strange so we called the park service and told them about what happened. They thanked us and told us it was believed the dead hiker had died from natural causes. We followed the story for a few weeks and never heard anything one way or another, but they did have the Tri Corners shelter closed for investigation for 8 or 9 days and didn't fly the body off the mountain for 3 days after they found him. Maybe the guy just came across him and was a little freaked out, who knows???

 

[ArrowForester]

Hey ethan......you have to be careful who you let into camp and around the fire......you never know......

 

[lyingflatlander]

Sounds like he might of had a stroke, a brain condition like a tumor affecting his thought process or possibly a diabetic emergency that killed him.

 

[Evol]

There was a serial killer named Israel Keyes that would go into the backwoods and murder people all around Washington State, Oregon, Etc. I was listening to a podcast about him on my drive over when I went hunting opening day last year and I freaked myself out bigtime hiking in. Who knows, maybe one of you encountered him in the woods or maybe he was watching you.

 

[AK Troutbum]

There was a serial killer named Israel Keyes that would go into the backwoods and murder people all around Washington State, Oregon, Etc. I was listening to a podcast about him on my drive over when I went hunting opening day last year and I freaked myself out bigtime hiking in. Who knows, maybe one of you encountered him in the woods or maybe he was watching you.

No need to worry about him anymore.

Alaska Serial Killer Committed Suicide With Hidden Razor and Bedding

Serial killer Israel Keyes committed suicide in his Alaska jail cell by embedding a disposable razor blade into a pencil and slitting his left wrist, according to the FBI. He then used bedding material from his cell to strangle himself.

abcnews.go.com

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[John Jason]

I have a problem with wanting to know what's over that next hill. I was in Colorado with my wife at the time and the public land boundary was close before it was an off limits city property area. We were in the middle of nowhere so I figured peak over the hill. We found a fire ring out of rocks that was recent and before the tree line a round went off. I assume in the air, nothing whizzed by. We quickly left the area watching the back trail. Whoever it was didn't want us there, nor was it hunting season. So it was a warning for us to leave.

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[KNOPHISH]

A friend and I fished a remote river, camped at the end of the road about 15 miles up a dirt road off the desolate hwy. some scattered houses along hwy but at least a good hour to any towns. Sitting around the fire in the dark and rain having some drinks. We haven't seen anyone or vehicles when a guy pops out of the woods and asks if we want some ice cream? He holding a half gallon saying it's melting. Uh no thanks with hands on our weapons. He walked off in the dark.

 

[Kerbs]

A buddy and i were hunting in north central idaho on NF land and came upon a squatters cabin in the middle of nowhere. We looked around and didn't see anyone. There appeared to be a false door on the front and looking into the window which was mostly painted over, you could see the whole thing lined with visqueen. Then I found a pile of starter fluid cans and realized they were using it as a meth cookhouse. We took the GPS coordinates and then got out of there fast as we could. Called a buddy at F&G and they got LE to go sit on it and see what they could catch.

 

[fish impaler]

Once found a big pile of concrete mix and fake pine needle Christmas garlands stashed under cammo netting, in the middle of the back country , presumably for some off-grid agriculture in the area.

 

[jlaner0408]

A buddy and i were hunting in north central idaho on NF land and came upon a squatters cabin in the middle of nowhere. We looked around and didn't see anyone. There appeared to be a false door on the front and looking into the window which was mostly painted over, you could see the whole thing lined with visqueen. Then I found a pile of starter fluid cans and realized they were using it as a meth cookhouse. We took the GPS coordinates and then got out of there fast as we could. Called a buddy at F&G and they got LE to go sit on it and see what they could catch.

You can’t leave us hanging like that! Did they ever catch anything going on?

 

[jaypope]

Tagged

 

[notradame]

I have always been looking out for BigFoot, Still o luck.

 

[AbnRanger]

Hunting a spot in Eastern Nev and bumped into a loonatic in the woods. Seriously. We found out His family dumped him out there in a POS trailer and would bring him food once a month or so. Heard him screaming one night. Walking around in shit soaked clothes a knife and barefoot. This guy was certifiable. The guy was dangerous.... both from his attitude and the Cholera he was wearing.

We finally had to intimidate him not to pester us.

..

I think I would find another area to hunt... lol

 

[wjj605]

I have always been looking out for BigFoot, Still o luck.

Same brother, no such luck here either

 

[mitchellmountain]

My first elk hunt back in 1999, we were way up in on a pack trip wall tents 3rd season. One of our party hit an elk near dark and we tracked it well into the night. I was alone tracking with a mag light following a set of tracks( bull had quit bleeding and mixed in with some other tracks, suddenly the hair stands up on the back of my neck, ice runs down my spine feeling. Looked all around and saw nothing but had had enough of the whole business so I headed back down to the horses and back to camp. Next day we get up and go to resume our track, 200 yards from camp we cut a big set of cat tracks, you can guess where those cat tracks lead back to, directly to where I left the trail of the elk I was tracking. I was too young and stupid to think anything but “ cool!”

 

[Seeknelk]

I spent 4 years up there driving fish trucks in the late ‘90s - always heard of the Paulding lights being creepy as hell but never went. Some real backwoods on the UP!

Yeah, I was born and raised north of Paulding a ways. Went there once with friends. I was a skeptical tough guy...but I still do t know what the heck those lights are. Are definitely not car lights reflecting , etc like some say . No way possible for that. Oh well, there's a lot out there we know nothing about!

 

[notradame]

This here is personal to me because i saw it with my two naked eyes.... Some Kinda Hybrid Wolf its as big as a lion but a wolf. It saw me first i believe but i quickly noticed it sniffing..It was so damn big to be a wolf but yet is. I tried to aim at it but couldn't get a clear shot.

 

[polarkraft]

This here is personal to me because i saw it with my two naked eyes.... Some Kinda Hybrid Wolf its as big as a lion but a wolf. It saw me first i believe but i quickly noticed it sniffing..It was so damn big to be a wolf but yet is. I tried to aim at it but couldn't get a clear shot.

What?

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[Nickofthewoods]

This here is personal to me because i saw it with my two naked eyes.... Some Kinda Hybrid Wolf its as big as a lion but a wolf. It saw me first i believe but i quickly noticed it sniffing..It was so damn big to be a wolf but yet is. I tried to aim at it but couldn't get a clear shot.

Haha yeah, what? Aside from aiming a weapon at something that you haven't even positively identified...what?

 

[ArrowForester]

A few of the posts on the last page turned up another memory. I didn't think of it before because it's not really back country but rather remote rural. Probably 1989/90.
Me and and my buddy were small-mouth fishing in a relatively small stream and having a good morning. We had parked at a road side pull out and hit the water just as it was getting light. Absorbed by the good fishing we just kept wading upstream catching fish. We knew where we were and we knew it wasn't far to a road. but we had gone almost two miles from the truck.

Casting into a promising hole and a loud shot rings out up the hill and maybe 50 yards downstream. We look at each other surprised but are not overly concerned because there are people living in the area. We were confirming with each other that we heard a snap-pause-boom and thought is was a muzzle loader shot. Just then another muzzle loader shot rings out just up the hill and maybe 50 yards upstream and this time we could hear the bullet fly through the woods along the creek headed toward the location of the first shot. Now we looked at each other with a WTF? look in our eyes. And before we could do anything there is another shot from the location of the first and we hear the round headed toward the location of the second. And we hear it ricochet off a branch just before it explodes a rock right across the creek from us. We didn't need to look at each other anymore as we high tailed it up the bank and toward the road. We may even have jogged down the road a little before stopping to discuss being caught in Hatfield-McCoy crossfire.

We decided not to fish anymore and started hoofing it toward the truck. With about a mile of dirt road to go we round a bend and see a house ahead, with someone sitting on the porch. We politely smile, wave and say hello to the young lady as we get close. She never changes her expression as she sits between two baskets snapping beans and she says '"You two look like nice men. Would you like to help me snap my beans?"....We politely declined and picked up our pace......