Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[2ski]

We can't let this thread die!! It is the GOAT!

No. The manscaping thread is thr GOAT. But you have to be an OG to remember that one.

 

[2ski]

I had a strange experience a few months ago. I am currently posted in Kyrgyzstan and in May-June I took a few weeks off to just explore the backcountry and get into some of those far away mountain ranges to the south and east of Bishkek and the Lake Isu Kul region. We loaded up our 4Runner with our dog, an SO 8 man tipi, stove, vehicle recovery gear, etc. and headed south and east down towards the Chinese and Tajik borders.

We went to Tash Rabat, an old stone fortress that was used by traveling caravans for protection in the 1400s on the Silk Road, in May there were no tourists there, so we had the place to ourselves except a herd of yaks and the elderly woman that lives next to the ruins in a little house. Against the snowy peaks it looked like something out of the Lord of the Rings movies. We tried to drive over the Fergana range on some old Soviet dirt roads to Jalabad but finally reached a river that was icy and too swift to ford. We also went to the big mountain country south and east of Enilchek, a Soviet mining ghost town at the base of the glaciers and several 7000-meter peaks.

On one trip we headed down to a lake called Kol Su down on the Chinese border. It is in the frontier zone, so you need to get a permit from the Kyryz border patrol to go past their last outpost and into the unpatrolled region. The lake is about 45 miles south of the Kyrgyz border patrol station. There are no towns for at least 40-miles on the Chinese side so the KG southeast border is a 300+ mile long belt of wild unpopulated country with no roads, towns, or settlements except for some nomadic families that winter in the valleys and run their stock in the mountain pastures during the spring and summer.

We were about 20 miles south of the border patrol check point and it was getting dark and raining fairly hard. I found a rocky bench to drive off of the dirt road and we parked the truck about 100 yards off the side of the road. Since we were just going to continue driving the next day i didn't want to set up camp in the rain to just break it down again, so we slept in the 4Runner. About midnight my dog started snarling at something, waking my wife up who then woke me up. Copper is a Redbone Coonhound who does not like strange men (he loves women and children) and is a good watch dog. When he alerts to something, there is something out there. I turned the ignition and lights on and standing about 20 yards in front of me was a man wearing a blanket and some type of hood. The rain was coming sideways but the person just stood there staring at us. I lowered the window and called out to him in Russian to ask what he wanted of if needed help but he didn't respond, he just stared at us. I watched him for about 30 seconds and then put the truck in drive and drove off. I had just woken up and to see some hooded figure staring at us when i knew there were no settlements around kind of unnerved me. We drove for another 30 min and then parked again figuring he would never cach up to us if he was on foot.

The weird thing was that no one in that country travels on foot. Everyone we came across outside of some valleys was on horseback. So why the person on foot approached in the darkness without calling out or anything is beyond me. Maybe he was going to see if we were OK. The people of that region are generally very reserved but friendly. We helped pull out a few stuck vehicles during our travels and one night we got 2 feet of wet snow dumped overnight (bent the pole of the SO 8 man tipi which SO replaced, great customer service!) when we were camping up around 11,500. After we got unstuck a few times, we got to a lower elevation and found a family with yaks living in some valley in a yurt and a wood shack. We asked if we could wait the storm out and set up camp a little ways from their homestead. They insisted we come in and eat with their family during the storm. I offered a sizable amount of money several times to pay for the food each time, but they refused the money each time since hospitality is an important part of the Kyrgyz nomadic culture. So all of the people we met during those 4 weeks were very hospitable. But waking up to see a figure looking at us in the darkness where there was no village within 40 miles and any cowboys would have been tucked away in their yurts during that storm was pretty unnerving.

I just looked up the area and it sounds like a cool place. Peaks at 14k and lakes that are over 2k ft deep. Is it a safe place for someone to visit?

 

[SoOreHunter]

I've posted this here before, but we ran into this super strange little...structure? Gave me the creeps the first time we found it last year.

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My kids build those things...

“Wisten to the whythmic whythm of the woodwinds as it wowws awound and awound…and it comes out here!” — Elmer Fudd

 

[Warmsy]

Ok I have two stories:

June 2011. Camping with my girlfriend's in the yolla bolla wilderness in Mendocino national Forest. We backpacked to a nice little beach along the creek. I drank quite a bit of rum, she did not. After dark, we saw a bright, insanely bright-way to bright to be an airplane- flash in the sky. About the size of a quarter held at arms length. It would flash, disappear, reappear somewhere else (within like a 30°cone, not from horizon to horizon or anything). Did this several times. I don't remember how long this "display" lasted, but it was long enough for us both to question it, decide it just be a UFO, and remark that it's so cool that we're seeing a UFO. At the end, it got even brighter, and it seemed to [leave into orbit]. Not sure how to explain the last part. It was summer solstice and a full moon.

Second, a few years later I was working for a ranch, cutting down trees all day and then camping on their back 40 next to the creek. My dog was with me as usual.

Middle of the night I hear what sounded like whimpering. Unlike any sound I had heard before. It gave me chills for no logical reason. I was going to lay there until I noticed my dog was on alert and about to go on a barking rampage.

I touched her neck to get her to calm down down. I was curious so I turned on my headlamp and shined it outside the tent and behind me, about 20 yards away, were 2 reflecting eyes starting right at me, same direction but way closer than the sounds had come from. I barked or yelled, it didn't move and I couldn't see a body.

I didn't know what else to do so I closed the tent and said "who is it?!" And let the dog go nuts. I felt calm after that.

Talked to a guy later that said some predators learn to mimic a hurt animal to attract smaller predators and scavengers. I assume it was a mountain lion based on the height of the eyes. Pretty tense couple minutes.

 

[Scoot]

No. The manscaping thread is thr GOAT. But you have to be an OG to remember that one.

I remember that thread well. It provided some good entertainment. However, this thread is the real GOAT IMO. Some crazy and fascinating stuff in this thread. Not as fun and frivolous as the man scaping thread, but many great reads included here.

 

[Sinko]

I knew a guy that went missing in Colorado a few years ago. Has never been found. Some strange coincidences involved like two different tracking dogs followed "his trail" to the same spot which was a FG forest road and it dead ended there.

 

[Lionhound1975]

Awesome story and sounds like an awesome adventure! Did you by chance tell any of the other locals that you came across about this to see if they had any ideas?


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Yes, I asked few local contacts about it but got different responses. Several told me that it would be normal for a local cowboy or shepherd to go to an isolated vehicle if they thought people were stranded. But they would do it on horseback and call out. Approaching on foot, in the darkness, and not calling out would indicate less than noble intentions, such as trying to steal stuff from the car.

Others told me stories that some people still believe in about wild men that live in the mountains of the southern Kyrgyzstan. Mongolia and Tajikistan have similar legends. Some of the stories describe a yeti-like creature, but some of the local beliefs are that the wild men of the South are actual humans but speak a different language and only hunt for food. There are records of Soviet soldiers or Kyrgyz hunters capturing a wild man or woman that spoke no languages known in the area and their clothing made from furs was of a different design than the local hunters use. Others thought it was some type of hominid. And others a demon that lives in certain canyons.

 

[Lionhound1975]

I just looked up the area and it sounds like a cool place. Peaks at 14k and lakes that are over 2k ft deep. Is it a safe place for someone to visit?

Kyrgyzstan is very safe to visit from a crime/terrorism standpoint. I have spent most of my overseas assignments in Latin America, Africa, and Afghanistan, and Kyrgyzstan is by far the safest place I have been assigned. The people in general are very friendly and helpful, especially in the rural areas.

The highest mountains are over 24,000 feet with dozens of peaks in the 16-23 thousand range. It is an incredible place to explore, with lots of virgin peaks according to the Kyrgyz and Russian alpine clubs (most rural Kyrgyz won't go anywhere they can't ride a horse). But medical care is pretty limited even in the cities and non-existent outside of the major cities. Once you are in the back country you are on your own. There is very little SAR capability outside of some private climbing guides who require payment before starting a search, so travelers outside of the tourist areas near Bishkek or Karakol need to either be with a hunting/hiking guide or be very experienced in vehicle recovery, wilderness travel, etc.

 

[khart_6882]

Yes, I asked few local contacts about it but got different responses. Several told me that it would be normal for a local cowboy or shepherd to go to an isolated vehicle if they thought people were stranded. But they would do it on horseback and call out. Approaching on foot, in the darkness, and not calling out would indicate less than noble intentions, such as trying to steal stuff from the car.

Others told me stories that some people still believe in about wild men that live in the mountains of the southern Kyrgyzstan. Mongolia and Tajikistan have similar legends. Some of the stories describe a yeti-like creature, but some of the local beliefs are that the wild men of the South are actual humans but speak a different language and only hunt for food. There are records of Soviet soldiers or Kyrgyz hunters capturing a wild man or woman that spoke no languages known in the area and their clothing made from furs was of a different design than the local hunters use. Others thought it was some type of hominid. And others a demon that lives in certain canyons.

Interesting stuff…it’s always cool to learn about local folklore from different cultures.

The wild men bit reminds me of the movie “Last of the Dogmen”, if you’ve ever seen it.


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[172]

I’m not one to speak of my experiences in life, but after reading all of your post, I feel like this is a good place to share. Additionally, there was en earlier post where someone mentioned seeing a dark figure around a camp fire, which brought back some of my experiences from years ago.

The stories are not about the backcountry, so I’d understand if my post is deleted.

I was in Baghdad during OIF when there were reports of death squads executing and burying people in a local cemetery. It was our job to setup an overwatch of the cemetery, and possibly engage or detain the reported death squads. I was laid up in an overwatch position which overlooked the cemetery. It was around 3:00 in the morning when I noticed a dark figure illuminated by a light from a nearby post. The figure was walking from west to east, and appeared to be wearing all black clothes with a hood over its head. I was concealed so I couldn’t be seen, but when I tried looking at its face, there was nothing but darkness. Like a black hole, no Indication that a mask was worn, and no facial expression. Wasn’t sure what to make of it.

2nd Experience: I was driving through Alaska miles from nowhere. It was dark out, and snowing pretty hard as I’m driving down some winding roads. At this point of my drive, I haven’t seen anyone or any town for a couple of hundred miles. Out of nowhere a dark figure similar to what I saw in that cemetery appeared in my headlights. I immediately stopped which made it about 50 feet in front of me walking in my direction. Same as before, the figure was wearing all black with a hood over its head however, there was no face, just darkness. I waited until the figure was less than a few feet from the truck in an attempt to see its face, though I still couldn’t make out any facial expressions. As the figure walked along the right side of my truck I rolled down my window and asked if everything was alright. The figure just kept walking. I then carried on with my drive when a pack of wolves cut across the road less than a mile later. It was my first time seeing wolves, and got pretty excited. Ended up watching them running around for a few before driving off.

 

[ROKnROAL]

I’m not one to speak of my experiences in life, but after reading all of your post, I feel like this is a good place to share. Additionally, there was en earlier post where someone mentioned seeing a dark figure around a camp fire, which brought back some of my experiences from years ago.

The stories are not about the backcountry, so I’d understand if my post is deleted.

I was in Baghdad during OIF when there were reports of death squads executing and burying people in a local cemetery. It was our job to setup an overwatch of the cemetery, and possibly engage or detain the reported death squads. I was laid up in an overwatch position which overlooked the cemetery. It was around 3:00 in the morning when I noticed a dark figure illuminated by a light from a nearby post. The figure was walking from west to east, and appeared to be wearing all black clothes with a hood over its head. I was concealed so I couldn’t be seen, but when I tried looking at its face, there was nothing but darkness. Like a black hole, no Indication that a mask was worn, and no facial expression. Wasn’t sure what to make of it.

2nd Experience: I was driving through Alaska miles from nowhere. It was dark out, and snowing pretty hard as I’m driving down some winding roads. At this point of my drive, I haven’t seen anyone or any town for a couple of hundred miles. Out of nowhere a dark figure similar to what I saw in that cemetery appeared in my headlights. I immediately stopped which made it about 50 feet in front of me walking in my direction. Same as before, the figure was wearing all black with a hood over its head however, there was no face, just darkness. I waited until the figure was less than a few feet from the truck in an attempt to see its face, though I still couldn’t make out any facial expressions. As the figure walked along the right side of my truck I rolled down my window and asked if everything was alright. The figure just kept walking. I then carried on with my drive when a pack of wolves cut across the road less than a mile later. It was my first time seeing wolves, and got pretty excited. Ended up watching them running around for a few before driving off.

Man sees Death twice lol

 

[OkiechasingElk]

After spending a week in South Central CO, I do have an add to this wonderful thread. A little creepy, but very odd....

Day 2, around 12,000 feet. Worked a Bull with a timid Bugle around 7am to no avail. Only confirmed Bull I hear bugle in 7 days. But that's a different discussion.

It's around 8am, chilly and sunny. I sit down in front of a Spruce tree to make coffee. Get everything out and start heating water. I'm sitting on top of a sloped meadow looking down over about 1/4 mile of grass, random trees, and about 200' elevation sloping drop. All of the sudden I spot the back 2/3 of a horse about 200 yards away. I pull up the glasses and see someone sitting on the horse and they appear to be holding something in their arms. It's a bundle in baby blue. I can't help but think it looks like a baby. Then the guy leading the horse clears the tree. So after full inspection: There is a guy in camo with orange beanie, carrying a Recurve, leading a horse with a woman (camo jacket and windpants), carrying what is now confirmed as a baby (I can hear it crying off and on now).

They dip in to a shallow creek drainage and trees (I hear him cow call before going in) and then pop out on a path that will take them right in front of me at no more than 25 yards. I'm not hiding, just sitting there against a tree making coffee. So I prepare for the oncoming awkward wave and obligatory "seen anything?" But they never look up at me. He's head down leading the horse, she's looking straight ahead. Baby crying off and on bundled in the baby blue blanket. They go by me and stop about 50 yards to my right, a couple trees between me and them. They tie the horse to a tree, get down and I assume the woman starts feeding the baby. It was crying and then all silent. The horse sees me and alerts some, I guess they don't notice. I finish my coffee, round up my stuff, and head off in the other direction.


Oddest part. Head down not looking around made me think they were headed out after a couple days camping. It was opening day of muzzy after all. The mountain I'm on can be accessed by ATV/UTV. It's over an hour ride with 2500'+ of rough elevation gain from the nearest road that could manage a horse trailer. They were traveling toward that upper ATV trail when I saw them. They had a bedroll on the horse and he was carrying a modest size pack on frame. Doesn't look like it could be more than a few days supplies at best.

Final Thought: Kid can't help to grow up with hunting in the blood. Likely less than a year old riding around in the Elk Woods with mama on a horse while his dad is chasing Elk with a Recurve.

 

[ROKnROAL]

After spending a week in South Central CO, I do have an add to this wonderful thread. A little creepy, but very odd....

Day 2, around 12,000 feet. Worked a Bull with a timid Bugle around 7am to no avail. Only confirmed Bull I hear bugle in 7 days. But that's a different discussion.

It's around 8am, chilly and sunny. I sit down in front of a Spruce tree to make coffee. Get everything out and start heating water. I'm sitting on top of a sloped meadow looking down over about 1/4 mile of grass, random trees, and about 200' elevation sloping drop. All of the sudden I spot the back 2/3 of a horse about 200 yards away. I pull up the glasses and see someone sitting on the horse and they appear to be holding something in their arms. It's a bundle in baby blue. I can't help but think it looks like a baby. Then the guy leading the horse clears the tree. So after full inspection: There is a guy in camo with orange beanie, carrying a Recurve, leading a horse with a woman (camo jacket and windpants), carrying what is now confirmed as a baby (I can hear it crying off and on now).

They dip in to a shallow creek drainage and trees (I hear him cow call before going in) and then pop out on a path that will take them right in front of me at no more than 25 yards. I'm not hiding, just sitting there against a tree making coffee. So I prepare for the oncoming awkward wave and obligatory "seen anything?" But they never look up at me. He's head down leading the horse, she's looking straight ahead. Baby crying off and on bundled in the baby blue blanket. They go by me and stop about 50 yards to my right, a couple trees between me and them. They tie the horse to a tree, get down and I assume the woman starts feeding the baby. It was crying and then all silent. The horse sees me and alerts some, I guess they don't notice. I finish my coffee, round up my stuff, and head off in the other direction.


Oddest part. Head down not looking around made me think they were headed out after a couple days camping. It was opening day of muzzy after all. The mountain I'm on can be accessed by ATV/UTV. It's over an hour ride with 2500'+ of rough elevation gain from the nearest road that could manage a horse trailer. They were traveling toward that upper ATV trail when I saw them. They had a bedroll on the horse and he was carrying a modest size pack on frame. Doesn't look like it could be more than a few days supplies at best.

Final Thought: Kid can't help to grow up with hunting in the blood. Likely less than a year old riding around in the Elk Woods with mama on a horse while his dad is chasing Elk with a Recurve.

You probably saw Remi and his wife lol

 

[Mtns2hunt]

I've posted this here before, but we ran into this super strange little...structure? Gave me the creeps the first time we found it last year.

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Looks like a cubby for a cat to me.

 

[Mtns2hunt]

Real random, just wondering if anyone has any stories from backcountry hunts that were unexplainable, weird, or just plain scary?

This type of thread is going to be very popular. Normally I find the responses from non hunters or "city" folk that have little outdoor experience the most interesting and hilarious.

 

[Anschutz]

This type of thread is going to be very popular. Normally I find the responses from non hunters or "city" folk that have little outdoor experience the most interesting and hilarious.

This thread has only been going for 4 years. I come back to it quite often to read new stories.

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[Mtns2hunt]

These threads never die. Gives real insight into individual's psychological state.

 

[49ereric]

Wasn't rocks, was beavers. I went through the same thing while floating Ruby/Horsethief Canyons on the Colorado. Camped on the opposite bank from a high cliff. Big splashes as soon as it got dark out as if someone was throwing rocks off the cliff and went most of the night. Everyone in camp was like wtf? The next morning when we shoved off we heard the same splash but this time we saw the beaver that made it.

Total different sounds so if he says it wasn’t beaver it wasn’t beaver.
since he grew up like lot of us hearing beaver tail slaps vs a kerplunk of a rock.

 

[def90]

Total different sounds so if he says it wasn’t beaver it wasn’t beaver.
since he grew up like lot of us hearing beaver tail slaps vs a kerplunk of a rock.

OK, I guess that the sounds of large rocks making a large rock kerplunk sound all night long until we actually saw a beaver do it the next day were imaginery.

 

[49ereric]

OK, I guess that the sounds of large rocks making a large rock kerplunk sound all night long until we actually saw a beaver do it the next day were imaginery.

You got Bad ears