Creepy experiences in the backcountry

Not paranormal or even abnormal. First western hunt. Solo general unit archery elk in CO. I have no idea what I’m doing, but that’s part of the fun right? The whole time I was in this particular area I saw copious deer and what I believe to be bear scat. One evening I set up in a meadow about 55 yards from a point where I expect animals to enter, and soon two does step out from the spot. I wait for them to move off a little and start calling. I’m not ashamed to admit that I might have sounded like an elk that got wounded when it fell off the short bus. I’m learning right? I get the feeling that there is something in that point where the does were and draw my bow. Shorty, I hear what I believe to be a bear woof. I’m proud that I held it together and hunted until dark, but the feeling that something was watching me was palpable. I hike back to camp, light off and pistol in hand. I avoid my food tree and don’t eat dinner out of concern for smells near camp. The next day I’m moving camp on account of not seeing any elk in the area and walk through that meadow. Right in the middle of the game trail and the highest point on this ridge in the meadow is what I believe to be lion scat that was absolutely not there the evening before. Not an expert, but “cat” was my immediate thought from several yards away and I pseudo “confirmed” my suspicion using google images. I can’t help but think that there were two predators checking me out that evening. Maybe not stalking me per se, but I should have been more scared than I was. I’m trying to act like a tough guy. I was just too stupid/inexperienced to fully understand the gravity of my situation at the time.
 
This one briefly startled me and got my wife a bit more concerned: we were camping in the New Zealand backcountry, where there aren't any dangerous predators, and we heard a loud bark like a dog, not far outside the tent, in the middle of the night. This wasn't the kind of place anyone would be hiking with their dog in the middle of the night. I vaguely remembered hearing something about fallow deer barking, and we were in their range, but I wasn't sure. I confirmed it listening to them online later... I'm sure a fallow deer spooked at our scent and barked.
 
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The whole Missing 411 deal is pretty scary, especially if you know folks, CREDIBLE folks, who had scary Sasquatch sightings, but, they were just doing that; deliberately scaring people, apparently just to drive em out of their turf. Now Paulides comes along with documented cases of armed, competent hunters who encountered one (or more) that Weren’t just out to scare humans- they hunted them. Successfully.


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JasonWi said:
This happened to me around 1999 or 2000, late fall/early winter. My now ex wife and I were living in a farm house in southern Oregon (Klamath Falls) while in college. We had just gotten home and needed to let the dog out to pee (it was pitch black out/but don't remember specific time)

I let Henry out (basically a blind/deaf basset hound) and he took off running around the back of the house. I told my ex, go around to the front of the house and I'll go this way and bring him back. I'm calling for him and nothing I continue walking around the house and come to the eastern side and I find Henry standing there, hackles up and growling..I look up and no more than 8-10 feet from me is an all black figure about my size (5'11/6ft) standing there..as quick as I saw it -- it turns and goes to the front of the house and turns the corner...I go hauling butt as my wife is up there...as I round the corner and ask where did that man go?? She said what man?

It wasn't until after the event that I remembered it didn't make any noise walking through the dried leaves on the ground. I don't remember anything specific body feature wise... other than you could see the it was blacker than the night, I could tell where head/shoulders were but nothing else stood out.

Another interesting fact I didn't know until years later. My encounter took place outside the extra bedroom where my boys slept. I would alway find them in the living room in the mornings but never knew why and they were too little to really explain it? They told me..something in that room always creeped us out so we felt better in the living room.
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Ever seen the movie signs...? I instantly thought of that.
 
Yeah! When you are walking out in the dark with no light and one barks at you from under 10 metres your heart will skip a beat!
I have found here in aus black fallow bark more often than menil
Troutnut said:
This one briefly startled me and got my wife a bit more concerned: we were camping in the New Zealand backcountry, where there aren't any dangerous predators, and we heard a loud bark like a dog, not far outside the tent, in the middle of the night. This wasn't the kind of place anyone would be hiking with their dog in the middle of the night. I vaguely remembered hearing something about fallow deer barking, and we were in their range, but I wasn't sure. I confirmed it listening to them online later... I'm sure a fallow deer spooked at our scent and barked.
Click to expand...
 
My best friend Cameron and I were scouting about a month before bow season here in MT. We were approximately 2 miles from any road. Zero roads anywhere near. We were absolutely 100% the only people in this particular area at the moment. After crossing a giant meadow we walked over this saddle and dropped over the top into the nw side of the mtn.
Once we got about 2/3 the way down we went to check some wallows that sat at the base of a large boulder field on the side of the mtn. After inspecting the first wallow we walked a game trail to the second wallow that was only a little ways further down. This area had lush tall beautiful green grasses. It was nice and cool down there with lots of shade and water sources.
As we walked along the trail Cameron put his hand back towards me and had the stop signal. It thumps me in the chest and I’m thinking to myself “oh fuk” “grizz”. I grabbed for my pistol and cam stepped to the side into the tall grass looking down at the very thin game trail. When I focused on the trail there was a weird looking clump of that tall grass bunched up together and placed very carefully on the tight small trail as though you or I grabbed the grass with one hand and ripped off about 12” of the tops off with the other.
The trail was so tight because it was a single file type trail and had hip high grasses on both sides. This means someone would have to bend over and place that grass right there because if you were to just drop it, it would fall into a bunch of pieces by the time it got back to the ground. The coloration of the grass was every bit as green as the surrounding vegetation, and not dying, yellow, brown or old looking. This bunch of grass was smashed together in the middle and loose/ flared out on the outsides like it had been held in someone’s grasp.
We handled it and looked closer for an animals saliva in the middle area and or any smells but it didn’t produce any idea of what the hell placed that grass so perfectly in the middle of the trail like it was. Kind of a boring story but when you have an open mind like we did it definitely had the wheels turning.
 
conley417 said:
What's up with the lady in Ohio bowhunting in August?

I don't think any seasons are open that early
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That part of the documentary was the only one that had nothing to do with missing people and to me, discredited the entire show. It went from actual documented missing person cases in the first three parts and then suddenly it was all Bigfoot, Aliens, and Predator in the last two.
 
*zap* said:
I am working on a house in the country that has spirits present. Lots of strange stuff happening there. I have another 5 weeks of work to do...sitting in my truck eating lunch a week ago and hear the sound of someone tapping keys on the window behind me, no one was there. Other strange stuff also, the owner hears noises in the kitchen at 3am every night.
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Man, you better write all the strange happenings down and post on here when you get done. I know I'm intrigued.
 
In the spring of 2016 I was up early and heading to a turkey hunting spot about 35 min drive from my house. To access this area you pull off a paved highway to a dirt road which immediately gets rough and starts to climb up a canyon with several tight turns and large sparsely placed rocks and boulders. It's probably around 4am and I'm making my way up the dirt road to where there is a gate separating public & private land and to keep free range cattle in their respective zone. As I approach the gate I see what appears to be a coyote completely motionless. I was already driving very slow but come to a stop to see what the coyote does. However, he remained still, not flinching one bit. I creep my truck up closer, but still no movement from the varmint. I rolled down my window and yelled at him but still nothing. Something about him wasn't right, he looked like complete shit and i wasn't sure what was wrong with him. Again i creep my truck closer and i can start to see more detail, he is tattered, beaten and on the verge of certain death. Thinking I might do him a favor and put him out of his misery I pulled out my 9mm and slowly exit my truck. I kept my gun pointed on him and yelled to see if he would move. The lights of my truck were right on him and each step i took towards him reviled more detail. Bones were exposed, and his condition was far worse than i had initially thought. My first thought was of the movie 'Pet Cemetery', he looked like he rose from the dead and was still on his feet. Now that I was about 15ft away i could see some red color to his coat, still i approached out of curiosity. He didn't move. I was creeped out but with a 9mm in my hands i was ready for whatever i thought was about to happen. My headlamp gave more detail and I could finally see that red color was string. I threw a rock and hit him but no movement and a strange noise reverberated. It was not an animal! I walk up and see that someone had left a piece of taxidermy on the side of this dirt road and it had been deteriorating from the elements. I had a laugh but then became super freaked out about who would leave that out there and if they were still around. I got back in my truck and kept it moving to my turkey spot very Leery of what/ who was in the woods. looking back on it its pretty funny, but at the time i thought i was about to battle a demon 😂
 

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