Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[Pdzoller]

Just this august during my fall bear hunt I was glassing from a cliff that overlooks a very large berry patch. I was right on the edge of at least a forty foot drop. It was getting pretty late in the day and I was glued to my optics. Out of nowhere a robin tries to land on my binoculars. I seriously almost fell off the cliff.

 

[Pdzoller]

About 8 years ago I was on a backpacking trip in the western sierras in Central California above Huntington Lake with a group of 5 guys from the bowhunters league I was running at the archery shop I worked at. We had packed in the first day about 9 miles to our first camp and had no issues. We had archery gear and had tags for deer and bears. When we woke up the next morning we hiked to a small high country lake to refill the water and head up above tree line to glass for deer. We were about a half mile from the lake and we heard what sounded like a limb snapping off a tree. We all joked about bigfoot and carried on.

The lake was in a big bowl surrounded by thick timber. As we were filling up our camelbacks and nalgenes all 4 of us heard the same sound we heard on our way to the lake. It was five consecutive tree knocks from 5 different locations around the bowl. We finished filling up our water and got the hell out of there.

We stayed another night without incident and headed home when one of the guys had a sleeping bag. break and night time temps in the high 30's.

On our way to the trail head the first day we stopped in Shaver lake and the area has had sightings in the past. Once you spend enough time out away from civilization you see and hear things that are not simply explained. I have had a few other experiences with strange lights and "apparitions" on separate occasions. I believe in most of it but I don't let it take up too much real estate in my head.

Not saying that this is the explanation but I’m curious, where there any conifers that bear large cones in the vicinity? Noble fir especially? I had a similar experience and was sure it was tree knocking. Out of the corner of my eye I caught movement and spotted a noble cone dropping to a large lower limb and crack! Squirrels were cutting cones everywhere and causing the same noise every once in a while but rarely in my line of sight. I can’t help but wonder how many people are duped every year by this?

 

[KY_Whitetails]

Y'all's crazy

 

[jnawalaniec]

A few weeks ago nu buddy and I were elk hunting in an area with tons of bear sign, poop, scratched up trees everywhere. We spike camped in some timber, I was on the ground he was in the hammock. In the middle of the night, I woke up to something walking around outside my tarp, I listened to it mill around for a bit then fell back asleep. The next morning when I wake up I ask my buddy if he had heard whatever it was walking around. Whatever it was walked into his hammock, he heard it approaching then hit the strap on his hammock before it moved off. We’re not sure what it was but a little unsettling, more so for him than me.

 

[The Worst Hunter]

Halloween night… dark forest.. raining… deer had got caught in a bear hang and looked like it was hanging from a noose with its eyes bulging and swaying. Nobody else around. I got him loose after about an hour of dancing.

 

[lyle_destroys]

Halloween night… dark forest.. raining… deer had got caught in a bear hang and looked like it was hanging from a noose with its eyes bulging and swaying. Nobody else around. I got him loose after about an hour of dancing.

What in the world is a bear hang?

 

[bradyhunt]

^^ and did u get it out alive?

 

[sndmn11]

I once thought I saw a UFO. Middle of the night in the mountains and a set of lights in a straight line comes silently running across the sky and disappears right in front of me. No clouds in the sky. Thought town might be obliterated when I got back to civilization.

Turns out it was Elon Musk's satellites. Kinda disappointing actually. A UFO would've been cooler.

Same thing to me this year! 12 miles from the trailhead I thought we were being invaded.

 

[def90]

What in the world is a bear hang?

I believe it is when you hang your food from a tree to keep it away from bears.

 

[Headwatermike]

Same thing to me this year! 12 miles from the trailhead I thought we were being invaded.

We were camped in the desert with no service when these satellites came online apparently. The first night they were in a similar trajectory to each other and came by one after another. The second night they were in a line. It seemed so sketchy and it left me wondering what people around the world who wouldn't even know what a satellite is were thinking. I think it was a weird, creepy, and unnecessary flex by Elan.

 

[Gseith]

I once thought I saw a UFO. Middle of the night in the mountains and a set of lights in a straight line comes silently running across the sky and disappears right in front of me. No clouds in the sky. Thought town might be obliterated when I got back to civilization.

Turns out it was Elon Musk's satellites. Kinda disappointing actually. A UFO would've been cooler.

I saw the same thing in Colorado this elk season. It was right before first light, and we were both like WTF. He actually joked it had something to do with Elon.

 

[Pdzoller]

After our grandfather passed my cousin and I decided to take up elk hunting (the beginning of the end).
It was our very first trip out. We did everything wrong. Cotton, hammocks in 20 degree weather, cheap summer sleeping bags, packed everything but the kitchen sink. I’m sure our packs were every bit of 90 pounds lol. Anyway, we didn’t sleep much.

Our last night out at about 2am we were sitting by the fire and making plans when we heard whispering. We both looked at each other puzzled.

We grew up together and a lot can be said without speaking. So we listened and sure as hell we heard it again from a different direction and then again from another. It was definitely guys whispering. There were at least six and had us surrounded.

We both had pistols but were at a HUGE disadvantage being in the fires light. I decided to send him and our families a group text message telling them the situation and my plan.

If shit got hairy he was to grab my bino harness with my keys in it and make a break for the darkness and then to the pickup. He is by far the faster runner. I also said to follow my lead and I would try to get us out of this.

I then told him in a calm normal voice that I was really thinking the elk had moved on and we should probably pack up and find a different hunting area. He agreed.
We sat and listened inconspicuously for a minute and heard a couple more whispers.
I told him that I thought we could possibly get out of there before sunrise and to our other spot in time for a morning hunt. Again we listened to the whispering.
I sent another text to tell him to be ready to explode into action if things got worse.

I casually got up and stretched and said I’m going to start packing. We got everything packed up with no issues but did hear a couple more whispers. It was extremely hard to act like we didn’t hear them but I was sure if we did, things would go down hill and fast. I distinctly heard “those f*ckers” and “fast”.

Once we got our packs on I sent him another text telling him to get his eyes adjusted to the dark. I quickly dumped my water on the fire and we made our move out of there. We rapidly hiked for the first mile in dark silence and didn’t hear anything behind us.

After a another mile or so we made it to the truck. There wasn’t another vehicle in sight anywhere. Nothing happened thankfully but I don’t trust people and who knows what their plan was. Were they hoping to catch us sleeping?

I kinda thought it may have been a group of poachers and were going to call their ride once they got something.

Called the sheriff in the morning and they said that they weren’t even going to check it out due to low staffing and the remote area.

 

[sndmn11]

I saw the same thing in Colorado this elk season. It was right before first light, and we were both like WTF. He actually joked it had something to do with Elon.

Was it the Tuesday after Labor Day?

 

[Jstumbaugh]

The starlink satellites came over upstate NY Monday night about 7:50pm. Just about shit when I let the dogs out and saw the stream of lights crossing the sky.

 

[4ckb]

This is a fascinating thread!

Not a backcountry experience but a creepy one none the less. 35 years ago, I was perched in a valley treestand, during archery season, in a tract of hardwoods near my parents' home. This tract bordered on of the state's largest mental health hospitals. Growing up in the area, us kids would build forts, etc in the woods surrounding the hospital and occasionally run into patients who wandered off the hospital property, as it had no fences. Most of the folks were harmless but this facility did house a number of folks who were truly disturbed.

Anyway, getting back to being perched in the treestand one evening, I got that strange sensation of being watched. That feeling proved to be correct as I saw a figure moving through some thick brush on the hillside about 100 yards in front of me. Thinking it to be just be one of the 'wanderers', I didn't pay it any mind for a few minutes. Upon just beginning to relax, I was again overwhelmed with that feeling. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man walking on the storm sewer cut behind me about 60 yards. He was wearing sweatpants (typical of the hospital patients) and a blue flannel button-down top. I wasn't sure if he had seen me or not but I had a feeling that this man wasn't one of the harmless patients, as he began to pace back and forth along a 30 yard length of the cut, speaking and cursing loudly to no one, balling his fists, and hissing/spitting like a cat.

It was getting close to sundown so I though it best to climb down and slip out of the woods, knowing I had a steep hill climb back to the house and didn't want to alert this man to my presence, as he was between me and my way out. I waited until he had walked in the direction away from me, lowered my bow and pack, climbed down, and started to do a long loop up and slightly around the hill in front of me. I dropped out of the woods against a pasture field, crested a short rise, and was surprised by the same man sitting on a fallen tree, massaging his bare feet (with no shoes anywhere in sight!). I remember thinking 'there's no way that guy could get here before I did!' I was stuck and had no choice but to go by him. As I approached him, he looked up at me with eyes like Vincent D'Onofrio's character in the bathroom scene in Full Metal Jacket. As casually as I could, I said hello and kept walking by. As I passed, he asked me if I was in the Army and 'on maneuvers'. I said 'no' and kept on walking. Behind me, he hissed loudly and that put a hop in my step. I went about 100 yards before looking back behind me. The man was gone from the fallen tree although I didn't know which direction he had gone. I double timed it up the hill and out of the woods towards home!

Spooked me enough that I didn't go back there anymore that year and, not long after, the land was sold and a housing development sprouted up. While the man may have been harmless, his actions and me being an 18 year old kid at the time, still make the hair stand up on my arms as I type this!

 

[Gseith]

Was it the Tuesday after Labor Day?

It sure was. Did you see it also?

 

[sndmn11]

It sure was. Did you see it also?

Yes in the south sky about 530am mountain

 

[rclouse79]

Same thing to me this year! 12 miles from the trailhead I thought we were being invaded.

Saw something similar to this the other night throwing our led ball for our dog at night. Crazy!

 

[AKBC]

I was hunting caribou in eastern AK a couple weeks ago and headed up the trail at dawn in the rain when a man came down the trail on a four wheeler. He stopped us and asked if we had a satellite phone. Said his girlfriend was dead in their tent when he woke up and he needed to call the troopers. Later that day we saw a trooper on a four wheeler with a side by side following with EMS on the side head up the trail.

I watched the State Trooper daily dispatches for a while but it never showed up.

 

[TheGDog]

Just this august during my fall bear hunt I was glassing from a cliff that overlooks a very large berry patch. I was right on the edge of at least a forty foot drop. It was getting pretty late in the day and I was glued to my optics. Out of nowhere a robin tries to land on my binoculars. I seriously almost fell off the cliff.

Last year during rifle season I'm up in D14 taking an ambush sit in the leafy gear... then outta nowhere I'm like WhatF!? A bird landed on my head in the leafy boonie hat! HA!