Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[SpookySpectre308]

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. But still, he remained still, not flinching one bit. I creep my truck up closer, but still no movement from the varmit. 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 didnt 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

Fantastic

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[FlyGuy]

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. But still, he remained still, not flinching one bit. I creep my truck up closer, but still no movement from the varmit. 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 didnt 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

Haha haha!!! That would have totally flipped my lid!! Awesome story!!


You can’t cheat the mountain

 

[Bighunt531]

Five years ago in the Wind River Range of Wyoming I had something repeatedly breaking logs approximately 100 ft from my tent. I was over ten miles from the Trailhead and my car was the only one there when I left and the only one there when I got back a week later. This is not an area that is well connected to other trails or used by thru hikers and they would have to go way out of their way to come in from other Trailheads. Not impossible, but very unlikely for other people to end up at this small lake I was at from a different starting point.

It was a perfectly calm night in mid June and I had just climbed into the tent for the night and started reading a book when I heard the first crash in the woods behind the tent. It sounded like maybe a tree falling, or if a large person stepped on a log and the entire thing broke. It happened again a minute later which to me ruled out "tree falling". Then it happened yet again. Then whatever was doing it was suddenly in my camp walking around the tent. I couldn't tell if it had two or four legs because my heart was thumping out of my chest and I was quickly planning my self defense if it tried to get in the tent. After awhile it was gone and nothing tried to get my food bag hanging outside of camp that night. I've never been more frightened while alone in the backcountry for sure. I'm almost certain it was a bear though. A buddy and I actually encountered a big black bear at that same lake a few years prior to this and that bear actually stood its ground while foraging right on the trail. We couldn't get it to amble away by yelling at it from a good distance away, he just looked at us and continued his business so we ended up hiking way around instead. I have always thought that was strange behavior for a Wilderness Bear. Also, someone had carved an inscription into a tree in the campsite I was at that said "Adventures with Yogi" so maybe that bear frequents the area and scares the crap out of people that camp there. Still seemed strange for a bear to be breaking logs in half repeatedly though. . . I'll never know what it truly was because I was too frightened to unzip the tent and shine my light around.

Sounds like a good place to fill a bear tag

 

[Bighunt531]

I was around Sanford edenville Beaverton area. That’s why I try to hide my camp when I’m alone. Although it probably makes me look like the creeper. Lol. I had a van I used for camping. No one ever bothers me while I was in the woods camping with it.

I live near there and its so sad what happend to sanford lake everytime i cross 10 im just like wow

 

[Quicksilver]

Last year in the central Washington wilderness during high buck hunt in September me and a buddy were sleeping our second night. We are an 11 mile hike back on a trail I’m sure nobody would come down in the next week. In an old burned hillside we found an oasis which was our planned camping area. Natural spring coming from up the hill with plenty of green grass and trees that survived the burn. Put us at the top of the valley to glass from all day. We had a nice stream weaving around our tent and was a really nice setting. We found a horse camp down in the bottom of a valley so we knew weren’t 100% alone, but we were quite a ways in. Anyway he instantly starts sawing logs and I’m finishing up a movie and decide I should probably try to sleep as well when we start hearing a half ass howl followed by a bark at the end of it. I instantly stop the movie and make it silent, again it happens down the hill from us. Earlier in the day we came across some scat but couldn’t make out if it was bear or wolf. If it was coyote it was massive for one of them, so that starts playing through my head right away. I start waking my buddy up and tell him to listen, it happens again but closer. His eyes get big and I knew I wasn’t just hearing stuff. I have my rifle outside under the vestibule so I’m scrambling trying to bring it inside and he gets his knife ready just because. We hear it one more time 60-80yds away and we are about ready for anything at this point. We are laying motionless just listening, the type of quiet where your breathing seems loud. Next thing you know 10yds from our tent we hear a single splash in the stream, like somebody hung a rock over it and dropped it. We instantly give each other the “oh shit look” and wait for what happens next. We decide making some noise is probably a good step and let whatever it was know there’s 2 of us in there. We never heard anything after that. Fast forward 10 minutes later and down the valley at the horse camp we start hearing gunshots and then nothing. We discuss some possibilities and then go to sleep.

upon packing up camp and leaving a hunter walks in as it’s snowing and accumulating fast. Was a nice guy and has hunted down in that valley with his friends the past few years and pay a guy to pack a wall tent in for them. Started asking about the gunshots the other night and he said “oh yeah, there’s a stupid yearling buck that keeps getting into our food at night. He’s like the village idiot we decided so we were trying to scare him off with our pistols and hoped he would get the hint.” Got to talking more about our story with what we heard and he said “oh yeah we saw a massive bear down the hill from your guys earlier while we were hunting the other side of the hill.” So now I know what the scar belonged do. So at this point I have closure to the shooting story, where the scat came from we saw, but still don’t know what it was that came by camp.

also my first backcountry overnight trip so we’ll see what this year brings

 

[Jellymon1]

I was walking up a ridge one early morning to get to my spot to start glassing for deer. I heard something behind me make a sniffing sound. I turned around and nothing was there. I kept hearing it throughout the day and had a creepy feeling something was around. On my way out in the dark I looked up with my headlamp and saw the creepiest thing I’ve seen in my entire life. Joe Biden.

 

[NDGuy]

Saw the creepiest thing I’ve seen in my entire life. Joe Biden.

What did he whisper in your ear?

 

[Jellymon1]

What did he whisper in your ear?

The pancakes will be ready in world war 2 so that the hammer can bird it’s way into the snowcone while barbers cut the grass of the Sahara pinecones.

 

[Jagger0502]

Was with a few buddies and our wives camping along a river and a bigger older fella and his well ridden wife showed up on a 4 wheeler after dark so we just saw some lights up about 100 yards from our camp. They took a while to walk down to us giving us plenty of time to be prepared for who knows what. He had a Dirty Harry on his hip that you could see outside of his overalls, mind you we are in black bear country, not Grizz. Both with cigarettes hanging out of their mouth and he starts off by saying, “ well why isn’t any of you naked?”

apparently there was a camp down river that was a swingers party... or at least that’s what he told us when we asked them to leave.

give you two guesses as to what state we were in...

 

[Deplorable77]

"Well ridden "

Was with a few buddies and our wives camping along a river and a bigger older fella and his well ridden wife showed up on a 4 wheeler after dark so we just saw some lights up about 100 yards from our camp. They took a while to walk down to us giving us plenty of time to be prepared for who knows what. He had a Dirty Harry on his hip that you could see outside of his overalls, mind you we are in black bear country, not Grizz. Both with cigarettes hanging out of their mouth and he starts off by saying, “ well why isn’t any of you naked?”

apparently there was a camp down river that was a swingers party... or at least that’s what he told us when we asked them to leave.

give you two guesses as to what state we were in...

 

[ccoffey]

I dont' care who you are, the first time you hike through timber in the early morning, everything is a monster haha. I had every light I owned on and definitely pushed everything out of the woods that morning. The most frightened I've every gotten is by grouse though...

 

[Huntindog45]

Last year in the central Washington wilderness during high buck hunt in September me and a buddy were sleeping our second night. We are an 11 mile hike back on a trail I’m sure nobody would come down in the next week. In an old burned hillside we found an oasis which was our planned camping area. Natural spring coming from up the hill with plenty of green grass and trees that survived the burn. Put us at the top of the valley to glass from all day. We had a nice stream weaving around our tent and was a really nice setting. We found a horse camp down in the bottom of a valley so we knew weren’t 100% alone, but we were quite a ways in. Anyway he instantly starts sawing logs and I’m finishing up a movie and decide I should probably try to sleep as well when we start hearing a half ass howl followed by a bark at the end of it. I instantly stop the movie and make it silent, again it happens down the hill from us. Earlier in the day we came across some scat but couldn’t make out if it was bear or wolf. If it was coyote it was massive for one of them, so that starts playing through my head right away. I start waking my buddy up and tell him to listen, it happens again but closer. His eyes get big and I knew I wasn’t just hearing stuff. I have my rifle outside under the vestibule so I’m scrambling trying to bring it inside and he gets his knife ready just because. We hear it one more time 60-80yds away and we are about ready for anything at this point. We are laying motionless just listening, the type of quiet where your breathing seems loud. Next thing you know 10yds from our tent we hear a single splash in the stream, like somebody hung a rock over it and dropped it. We instantly give each other the “oh shit look” and wait for what happens next. We decide making some noise is probably a good step and let whatever it was know there’s 2 of us in there. We never heard anything after that. Fast forward 10 minutes later and down the valley at the horse camp we start hearing gunshots and then nothing. We discuss some possibilities and then go to sleep.

upon packing up camp and leaving a hunter walks in as it’s snowing and accumulating fast. Was a nice guy and has hunted down in that valley with his friends the past few years and pay a guy to pack a wall tent in for them. Started asking about the gunshots the other night and he said “oh yeah, there’s a stupid yearling buck that keeps getting into our food at night. He’s like the village idiot we decided so we were trying to scare him off with our pistols and hoped he would get the hint.” Got to talking more about our story with what we heard and he said “oh yeah we saw a massive bear down the hill from your guys earlier while we were hunting the other side of the hill.” So now I know what the scar belonged do. So at this point I have closure to the shooting story, where the scat came from we saw, but still don’t know what it was that came by camp.

also my first backcountry overnight trip so we’ll see what this year brings

this is why i take xanax with me backpacking...

 

[jspradley]

My first camping trip ever, Providence Canyon in GA. On the 7 mile trail, we were camped pretty much at the halfway point.

My buddy and I went to get water (from a little pond called the Glory Hole at that) and we saw this guy with no backpack carrying nothing but a shovel, a full ass shovel, not one of those little poop trowels on a hill standing over us watching us.

When he noticed us noticing him he said "What are y'all doing back here?!"

"Um... camping"

"Oh ok..."

Then he walked off.

Was really weird...

 

[actionshooter]

I have hunted the Frank Church wilderness for years and one year my buddy and I were floating the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in November. Its an incredible experience seeing parts of the area that no one else gets to see in the winter and we hunt a lot of spots people can't access from the airstrips. We were in a spot that was a known camp from the Sheepeater Indians back in the 1800s so we decide to stop and check it out, we had lunch and stretched our legs, while we in the old camp we saw a good looking ridge and whenever you see a good looking ridge, you just have to see what's on the other side, right? We got up there and ended up in a rock formation and found a ton of old pictographs. VERY COOL!! I took a ton of pictures with my camera and phone. We headed back to the raft, floated down to an area we hunt about 5 miles down river and set up camp...... went to take pictures of camp with the camera after we set up and it didn't work... no rhyme or reason why, just didn't work... sucked but those things happen.
The next 2-3 days we spike up a drainage where we have had some good luck in the past. My buddy tagged out, I took pics, and got it back to spike camp. The next day I tagged my buck, took pics and started cutting it up... went to switch out the blade on my havalon and damn near cut my finger off... I mean for real, to the bone over halfawy around (my toes are curling right now, 4 years later)... wrapped it up the best we could, my buddy finished the buck and got the hell out of there. Got to spike camp in the dark. Up in the morning and headed back to the raft. Got loaded up and headed down to the airstrip, it took 3 days to get out total, but at the airstrip, my phone stopped working, just quit, not broken, just quit like the camera. Later on I never got any pics off the camera, nothing and after taking my phone to a Verizon center we pulled all the pics off, everything before the pictographs was there and everything after but NO pics of the indian pictographs....
Never really creeped me out, but I truly believe this wasn't all coincidence.....

 

[PredatoronthePrairie]

Wouldn't call it backcountry. But on a walk out during late season. Was on the field edge when a coyote started following me. He was striding on top of the 12ft drift of snow in the shelter belt. Probably was about 15 yards away, but felt weird with him looking down at me.

 

[Grizz99G]

Literally just sat down and read all 25 pages haha. Awesome thread!

 

[jspradley]

Literally just sat down and read all 25 pages haha. Awesome thread!

Man I used to hang out at at a ghost hunting forum back when I was younger...I would do the same thing. Middle of the night freaked the F out reading all these true (-ish?) ghost stories, and looking at pics of orbs. I wish I could remember the site...

 

[Dpetersen12]

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. But still, he remained still, not flinching one bit. I creep my truck up closer, but still no movement from the varmit. 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 didnt 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

I still would have shot it....

 

[rayporter]

it was not creepy to me but my stepson, Adam would have another opinion.

we rode in about 10 mi and made a camp the night before season and watched the elk with our binos on the mountain.
in the morning i walked with him up the trail about a mile and told him not to go over the top and that there was a bowl just ahead of him to hunt. if you get lost - just follow this stream as it goes to camp. and i left him.

he said that was one heck of a feeling when i left and my light disappeared. boogie man was everywhere.

but he got a big one and there is another story to that.

 

[AugustWest]

My first hunt in grizzly country, I was pretty nervous and on edge. Still hunting through some dark timber, and one of those damn birds about made me crap myself

Same thing has happened to me. I was just backpacking, not hunting though.