Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[orionsbrother]

This isn't all that creepy, but more like weird and certainly, unexplainable, at least to me. Kinda follows Brancher's post above about a light.

This was just last week Wednesday during deer season at my farm in NE Missouri. It was around 5:30am, it was a super clear, cloudless sky with virtually no moon, just tons of stars. We had just pulled into a pasture area off an unlit gravel road a quarter mile or so from the ground blind we were going to hunt out of. We were at the back of my SUV with the hatchback closed, no lights on, and we were gathering our gear getting ready to start walking. All of a sudden there was this instant, gigantic flash of light right on us and around us, maybe literally only a fraction of a second in duration. It wasn't lightning, wasn't on the horizon or anything, just right ON us. As if an enormous camera flash was triggered on us. I'm not sure I've ever seen a light as bright and as quickly on and off as that was. We both looked at each other and said what the heck was that? Neither of us had or has any idea what that was. But I'm glad my buddy was there as a witness because I don't think anyone would believe it if I told them about it.

Any thoughts on what that could have been?

I know what it was. I’ve experienced it. I’ll post a little later.

 

[jlaner0408]

Soak?

I was hoping corbland would elaborate, but urban dictionary is probably the best source for finding out what “soak” refers to

 

[orionsbrother]

I’ve got a couple.

First. I know what the bright flashes of light may be. I experienced it once and it’s pretty cool. They’re satellite flares. The sun reflects off a satellite and or its solar panels and a beam of reflected light sweeps across the Earth like a giant flashlight. There are people who track these paths and try to intercept them to experience that momentary “daylight”.

Welcome - Login

Online 3D Satellite Tracking, with more than 15,000 satellites, pass and flare predictor. HD Images and video of the Earth from space

www.satflare.com

You know how your eyes can pick up a pattern and temporarily fool you? You’re scanning the woods and see a branch with no bark 100 yards away and momentarily think it’s the rack of a deer and a downed log next to it can look like a deer’s body for an instant. The light changes after a while and it catches your attention again.

I was on a wilderness canoe trip and climbed out of the tent to take a leak in the middle of the night. About 40 yards from the tent, I saw a bush that had the rough shape of a crouched person. There was a glowing pattern that kind of looked like a face. It was like I was looking at a Scooby Doo ghoul. It was my only encounter with Foxfire. Armillaria mellea, a fungus. It grows on wet wood and glows green. Really cool.

On a gun hunt with a buddy, we were doing a “sneak and creep” on a deer. I looped around and still hunted through a bedding area bordering a swamp. My buddy posted up on a bluff that looked down on a flood plain bordering a creek. I was moving really slowly and quietly, a deer moved calmly away from me onto the flood plain. My buddy shot it from above. The bullet hit the scapula, deflected transverse across the body and length wise. It hit the ball of the hind hip joint and travelled down the interior of the femur, shattering the full length. The deer dropped and let out what could be best described as a “scream type bawl” and died.

I’ve never heard a vocalization like that before or since. I was in some pines and couldn’t see anything, but I remember thinking, “WTF did he just shoot?!?!?!”

 

[CorbLand]

@CorbLand knows what I’m talking about

Yes, yes I do know what that means. Another one of those wonderfully dumb things to come from any of the BYUs. I will shoot him a PM and explain it. I had to move to Utah to get away from Rexburg...and it was a good decision.

 

[EastHumboldt]

I’m a skeptic about ghosts, but I’ve heard so many many stories from rational rock solid people that it leans me towards convinced. I think it’s entirely possible that the phenomena people experience don’t occur in the world of Newtonian physics, but rather are induced directly into the minds of those people. Like there’s some leftover “mind energy” from the departed that gets right into your head telepathically, directly inducing hallucinations.

can’t prove or disprove any of it.

I hear coyotes at least once a week (real ones not ghosts) and pretty much every single night when I go hunting. they sound pretty eerie but never like people. OTOH I have heard that a cougar can sound exactly like a human scream. The feral neighborhood kitties fighting in the street can sound pretty human sometimes for sure. Ohhlongjohnson!

 

[Timberline001]

I was hoping corbland would elaborate, but urban dictionary is probably the best source for finding out what “soak” refers to

It answered the question well. Growing up in the church I never heard that one as a loop hole. The “back door” was the loop hole most used lol


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[lyle_destroys]

I’m a skeptic about ghosts, but I’ve heard so many many stories from rational rock solid people that it leans me towards convinced. I think it’s entirely possible that the phenomena people experience don’t occur in the world of Newtonian physics, but rather are induced directly into the minds of those people. Like there’s some leftover “mind energy” from the departed that gets right into your head telepathically, directly inducing hallucinations.

can’t prove or disprove any of it.

I hear coyotes at least once a week (real ones not ghosts) and pretty much every single night when I go hunting. they sound pretty eerie but never like people. OTOH I have heard that a cougar can sound exactly like a human scream. The feral neighborhood kitties fighting in the street can sound pretty human sometimes for sure. Ohhlongjohnson!

Bobcats make some crazy vocalizations too now that you mention cougars, I don't have enough time around them to know

 

[Kobuk]

I have another kind of creepy but not ghosty story. We were boat camping out in Prince William Sound and I had to get up to take a leak. We have a small boat so it's pee in a bucket and pour into the ocean kind of thing. So I lean over and pour into the water and all of a sudden there were all of these small flashes or sparkles where I poured! It wasn't scary other than wondering what the heck was in that beer I was drinking. When I got home I was doing a bunch of google searches about urine reacting to water but what I found out was that it's some sort of bioluminescence or phosporous that glows when you disturbe the water. I have had it happen again a few times but not everytime I pee in the night. I guess in some areas the surf will glow or a boat wake will glow. Pretty cool.

 

[Antarctica]

The above ^^^^ post reminded me:

I was on a ship going from Dutch Harbor to Hawaii, or possibly Hawaii to New Zealand. It was a nice evening/night and I went up on the bow to take in the air and the ocean. I looked over into the water and as the ship cut through the water, these bright luminescent orbs were lighting off all over in the water. Pretty sure they were squid. It was very cool.

 

[bcv]

The above ^^^^ post reminded me:

I was on a ship going from Dutch Harbor to Hawaii, or possibly Hawaii to New Zealand. It was a nice evening/night and I went up on the bow to take in the air and the ocean. I looked over into the water and as the ship cut through the water, these bright luminescent orbs were lighting off all over in the water. Pretty sure they were squid. It was very cool.

That's a fairly common occurrence in the waters of the Florida Keys. It's bioluminescence organisms in the surface layers of the water.
If you run a boat at night your prop wash is lit up. Pretty much any disturbance will create the light.

Phosphorescence of the Sea

Encyclopedia article about Phosphorescence of the Sea by The Free Dictionary

encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com

 

[Antarctica]

That's a fairly common occurrence in the waters of the Florida Keys. It's bioluminescence organisms in the surface layers of the water.
If you run a boat at night your prop wash is lit up. Pretty much any disturbance will create the light.

Phosphorescence of the Sea

Encyclopedia article about Phosphorescence of the Sea by The Free Dictionary

encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com

Yeah - I ve seen that, but this was different. There were large, and individual - If I had to guess, each was 8-10 inches in diameter, and there were hundreds of them.

 

[Scoot]

Mermaids?!?

 

[def90]

Yeah - I ve seen that, but this was different. There were large, and individual - If I had to guess, each was 8-10 inches in diameter, and there were hundreds of them.

Some jellyfish are bio luminescent.

 

[chaza402]

This isn’t creepy but mysteriously awesome.
My dad and I were hunting a property that is down near the fires that happened on the front range last fall for elk. His leg was hurting him so we decided to go sit the water hole.
Earlier that afternoon we had set our lock-ones up, during which I had drivin my truck into to drop them off. I have a high quality trail cam on video record mode facing the road and it overlooks the waterhole.
I check my cam while my dad is putting the stands up. I have a few small bulls coming in at random times and then my truck entering the cam from moments before. Leave the card in as it has plenty of memory and shut the camera up.
It was hot, dry, and slightly Smokey that afternoon so we climbed up in the stand and settled in at about 5pm. My dad went promptly to his phone and I tried to mentally unwind.
About 50 mins before dark I heard that amazing sound of a limb break in a silent forest. Moments later there was another- I motion to my dad that an elk is coming but he is deaf and didn’t understand. We then see mahogany legs moving quickly through the young pondos and the elk swings around the side of the waterhole that we are on. Out steps this wide AF 6x6 which walks right into our side of the waterhole and stops right behind the tree that my camera is on. He stares directly at my camera with his head low literally staring at it for like 10 seconds. He then walks a few steps and my dad send an arrow into his lungs. The bull takes off straight out in front of the camera, through the waterhole and piles up about 70 yds on the other side.
We walk past the camera and go over to where the bull is and celebrate the amazing turn of events. After the bull was dealt with I check the camera expecting to see the point of impact and all the action after the shot but the video that was captured wasn’t readable- there is no recorded data. There is video of us walking in and one of us walking up to the bull after we shot but the video of the bull coming into water and receive a shot is there at that very minute but there isn’t any recorded data. Thinking through all of the videos this camera has taken- never have I received a video with no recorded data.
That bull put some hoodoo on my camera- if he can do it just think of what unknown creatures are out there with those same powers!

 

[505Wapiti]

Bump for more.... Keep it going folks!

 

[EastHumboldt]

This one is from late night drinking at a bluegrass festival in the back country of the Grass Valley CA fairgrounds. Me and a friend had been sitting outside his camper knocking back beers, and we decided to go visit another camp where we’d heard there would be some hot mando on fiddle action. I got out in front of him a few yards and stopped to wait for him. While I stood there I noticed a rather large black bear silhouetted against the yellow glow of some parking lot lights. He was very still and just stood staring at me unmoving. I said “ Git, bear!! “ in my most authoritive bear gitting voice, but he did not git. He continued to glare malevently, ... a dark bear shaped hole in the darkness. I said to my budddy “ There’s a big bear over here... you might want to hang back. I don’t like the looks of him and no sense in both of us getting mauled”. He bravely walked up beside me, picked up a small pebble and hucked it hard at the bear. I nearly shat... thinking this would be the provocation the evil brooding Bruin was waiting for. I looked about for a tree to climb and coldly calculated whether I could outrun my friend, fairly drunk and in the dark. The distinctive sound of rock striking wood echoed in the night. My friend started laughing. “Ya know that’s just one of those chainsaw carved bears and he hasn’t moved in the 20 years he’s been there. You’re cut off. “

I wasn’t cut off, the music was as hot as promised, and we had no more trouble with that bear.

 

[BeastOfTheTrees]

This one is from late night drinking at a bluegrass festival in the back country of the Grass Valley CA fairgrounds. Me and a friend had been sitting outside his camper knocking back beers, and we decided to go visit another camp where we’d heard there would be some hot mando on fiddle action. I got out in front of him a few yards and stopped to wait for him. While I stood there I noticed a rather large black bear silhouetted against the yellow glow of some parking lot lights. He was very still and just stood staring at me unmoving. I said “ Git, bear!! “ in my most authoritive bear gitting voice, but he did not git. He continued to glare malevently, ... a dark bear shaped hole in the darkness. I said to my budddy “ There’s a big bear over here... you might want to hang back. I don’t like the looks of him and no sense in both of us getting mauled”. He bravely walked up beside me, picked up a small pebble and hucked it hard at the bear. I nearly shat... thinking this would be the provocation the evil brooding Bruin was waiting for. I looked about for a tree to climb and coldly calculated whether I could outrun my friend, fairly drunk and in the dark. The distinctive sound of rock striking wood echoed in the night. My friend started laughing. “Ya know that’s just one of those chainsaw carved bears and he hasn’t moved in the 20 years he’s been there. You’re cut off. “

I wasn’t cut off, the music was as hot as promised, and we had no more trouble with that bear.

I like the way you write. Good story.

 

[EastHumboldt]

I like the way you write. Good story.

Thanks. I studied under the great Patrick McManus. By that I mean I read everything he ever wrote. I’ve been enjoying this thread for months.

 

[Voyageur]

Thanks. I studied under the great Patrick McManus. By that I mean I read everything he ever wrote. I’ve been enjoying this thread for months.

I take it then you are familiar with "The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw"? I still laugh outloud and uncontrollably whenever I reread that story.

 

[Kountry Biscuit]

Ran into some rough people in the Colorado wilderness. They had pack horses and camp set up about 5-6 miles from the nearest trailhead. There were obviously people in the tents that did not/weren't allowed to come out to speak. Just get a weird feeling in the back country after encounters like that. Watch too many movies like deliverance lol