Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[EastHumboldt]

Not a clue. I guessed maybe a meteor or something but it doesn't quite explain how it lit everything up like it was broad daylight for a split second. It is pretty wild to see though.

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I had the same experience on the yak river in Montana about 45 years ago. I’ve heard that the military has extremely powerful strobe lights mounted to planes. This seems like a possible explanation. I didn’t hear a plane or any kind of engine. As William Shatner would say, it remains a mystery!

 

[Dougsch28]

Not a clue. I guessed maybe a meteor or something but it doesn't quite explain how it lit everything up like it was broad daylight for a split second. It is pretty wild to see though.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

Not a clue. I guessed maybe a meteor or something but it doesn't quite explain how it lit everything up like it was broad daylight for a split second. It is pretty wild to see though.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

I experienced the same thing, but during a snow storm on the ridge in NW NJ. Luckily the next day the paper ran an article on the rare "thunder snow storm" we had. But there was no thunder.....just the entire woods lighting up for what seemed like 30 seconds at a time.

 

[smoke]

Can't let this thread die.

Not creepy but weird. My wife and I were on our property on the Little Lost River range. Desolate. No noise or light pollution. When cows came down and were 2 miles away it sounded like they were right in camp.

We were sitting around a campfire about 10:00 at night in the fall. The whole sky lit up. For miles. We were able to see the mountains 4-5 miles from camp as plain as day. Whole event lasted less than a second. The light had a very blue / violet tinge to it (think lightening).

We waited for thunder (the sky was clear, no clouds), but there was no noise associated with this event. One of the weirdest things I've ever experienced outdoors.

I'm glad my wife was there to witness it with me or I might have chalked it up to a little too much "smoke inhalation". I've got another story where there was a smoke inhalation issue and a mouse in the tent.

Had that happen to me 2 years ago. The light was very bright and lit up everything but persisted for 3 or 4 seconds - long enough for me to watch it - a meteor. It was so close you could see see the smoke trailing behind it. If quickly faded and must have burned completely -

 

[omicron1792]

Two that come from my grandfather.

He was a rural mail carrier. One time driving down a country road at like 5 am 3 miles from any house. A lady ran across the road from woods to woods in a white night gown. Stopped and looked for her but never found anything.

Second was he was fishing in a rural catfish pond and saw a colorful fabric in water. Fished it in and was a parachute with a dead guy on end. Military jets had crashed that day and this was one of the pilots.


You spend enough time in the woods I guess you’ll see some weird stuff.

 

[7mm-08]

I had the same experience on the yak river in Montana about 45 years ago. I’ve heard that the military has extremely powerful strobe lights mounted to planes. This seems like a possible explanation. I didn’t hear a plane or any kind of engine. As William Shatner would say, it remains a mystery!

Satellite flare? I had one happen when I was in a remote area a good eight miles from a road. Certainly not lightning, no noise from a passing aircraft, etc. I researched the hell out of the event at the time (15 years ago) and came up with this determination.

 

[Cliffy65]

Can't let this thread die.

Not creepy but weird. My wife and I were on our property on the Little Lost River range. Desolate. No noise or light pollution. When cows came down and were 2 miles away it sounded like they were right in camp.

We were sitting around a campfire about 10:00 at night in the fall. The whole sky lit up. For miles. We were able to see the mountains 4-5 miles from camp as plain as day. Whole event lasted less than a second. The light had a very blue / violet tinge to it (think lightening).

We waited for thunder (the sky was clear, no clouds), but there was no noise associated with this event. One of the weirdest things I've ever experienced outdoors.

I'm glad my wife was there to witness it with me or I might have chalked it up to a little too much "smoke inhalation". I've got another story where there was a smoke inhalation issue and a mouse in the tent.

About 35 years ago I was fishing off the rocks before sunrise with my father and uncle. They were facing south and I was facing north east when I saw a distant, extremely bright white meteor fall straight toward the horizon. Before I could get any words out, it exploded with a blinding light flash and without any sound. Both my father and uncle saw everything to the south as if it were noon for second or so.

 

[Wallace]

Can't let this thread die.

Not creepy but weird. My wife and I were on our property on the Little Lost River range. Desolate. No noise or light pollution. When cows came down and were 2 miles away it sounded like they were right in camp.

We were sitting around a campfire about 10:00 at night in the fall. The whole sky lit up. For miles. We were able to see the mountains 4-5 miles from camp as plain as day. Whole event lasted less than a second. The light had a very blue / violet tinge to it (think lightening).

We waited for thunder (the sky was clear, no clouds), but there was no noise associated with this event. One of the weirdest things I've ever experienced outdoors.

I'm glad my wife was there to witness it with me or I might have chalked it up to a little too much "smoke inhalation". I've got another story where there was a smoke inhalation issue and a mouse in the tent.

I had this happen to me one morning waiting for sunrise while duck hunting in North Dakota. I always thought it was a meteor, but honestly don't know. We were in an area with rolling hills, and it literally looked like something came down and landed within a few hundred yards. No loud noises and we didn't see anything after walking over there when the sun was up.

 

[fencesitter]

I've got a few stories that I'll share over the coming days / weeks, some of which are off the beaten path, and others of which are more urban in nature.

In ~2019, I took my 12 year old (currently 17) into a spot that I'd previously killed an incredible bull elk in, during OTC archery season in Northern CO. I had trail cameras set up on a tiered wallow system, and from year to year, we were typically able to produce a good bull that frequented the area. We had a ground blind that we'd made out of dead-fall, limbs, and debris that was 35-40 yards up the north side of the hill from the wallow, that my son and I were hunkered down in.

Late one September evening, as shooting light was coming to a close, we noticed a bear meander up the very bottom of the narrow canyon. As the canyon opened up into the wallow system, the bear immediately keyed in on my camera, that was hanging on an Aspen about 20 yards below the wallow. In past years, I had secured a bear tag, but this was a year where I chose not to for whatever reason.

After approaching the camera, the bear immediately put both front paws up on the Aspen Tree, and began to assess my trail-cam. Keep in mind, that this was an area where I had another trail-cam setup in a very secluded area, on a different wallow, that had literally been torn off of the tree that it was mounted to by another bear. In that case, I found the cam laying face up on the ground, about a week after it had been torn off the tree, and had taken hundreds of pics of the trees swaying back and forth in the wind, as it was in a tight spot. Needless to say, I wasn't a fan of bears messing with my cams.

Back to the story... after the bear finished smelling / sniffing / licking my camera, he dropped back down to all fours, and within about a 1-2 minute window, had worked his way 45-50 yards up the hill toward directly toward our ground blind. As he got to ~20 yards from our ground blind, I was on my knees and had no choice but to go to full-draw, and even though we were just past shooting light, he didn't seem to have any intentions of stopping and the thought occurred to me that he may have designs of a pending charge. I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was just curious, as he wasn't making a peep, and I felt like we were also maintaining incredible composure. While I was as calm as could be, I told myself that if he gets any closer than 10 yards, he's going to be hating life, He presented a perfect frontal-shot, but at about 12 yards, he chose to do a 180* turn, and jogged back down the narrow canyon bottom that he had ventured up. It was a close-call, but he made the right choice, as an arrow was never released!

Needless to say, to get back to camp, we had to hike down the very canyon, in the dark, that the bear jogged down. Admittedly, I had an arrow knocked while hiking down the canyon in the dark, on that particular night. I've never been one to carry a side-arm, even while hunting AK, and am not one to get scared of much, but the stories in this thread have caused me to consider a purchase. My hearing is pretty poor and firearms don't help matters, which is one of the reasons I've never been prone to carry... that, and I've always felt like I could hold my own, but I'm certainly not as capable as I once was... just not nearly as agile and stable on my feet.

As you can imagine, that encounter in 2019, was an experience that a 12 year old will never forget, but it has never deterred him from getting after it in the mountains, in subsequent years. Great Memories that are only magnified when in the presence of your own children!

 

[Turkeytider]

"

I've got a few stories that I'll share over the coming days / weeks, some of which are off the beaten path, and others of which are more urban in nature.

In ~2019, I took my 12 year old (currently 17) into a spot that I'd previously killed an incredible bull elk in, during OTC archery season in Northern CO. I had trail cameras set up on a tiered wallow system, and from year to year, we were typically able to produce a good bull that frequented the area. We had a ground blind that we'd made out of dead-fall, limbs, and debris that was 35-40 yards up the north side of the hill from the wallow, that my son and I were hunkered down in.

Late one September evening, as shooting light was coming to a close, we noticed a bear meander up the very bottom of the narrow canyon. As the canyon opened up into the wallow system, the bear immediately keyed in on my camera, that was hanging on an Aspen about 20 yards below the wallow. In past years, I had secured a bear tag, but this was a year where I chose not to for whatever reason.

After approaching the camera, the bear immediately put both front paws up on the Aspen Tree, and began to assess my trail-cam. Keep in mind, that this was an area where I had another trail-cam setup in a very secluded area, on a different wallow, that had literally been torn off of the tree that it was mounted to by another bear. In that case, I found the cam laying face up on the ground, about a week after it had been torn off the tree, and had taken hundreds of pics of the trees swaying back and forth in the wind, as it was in a tight spot. Needless to say, I wasn't a fan of bears messing with my cams.

Back to the story... after the bear finished smelling / sniffing / licking my camera, he dropped back down to all fours, and within about a 1-2 minute window, had worked his way 45-50 yards up the hill toward directly toward our ground blind. As he got to ~20 yards from our ground blind, I was on my knees and had no choice but to go to full-draw, and even though we were just past shooting light, he didn't seem to have any intentions of stopping and the thought occurred to me that he may have designs of a pending charge. I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was just curious, as he wasn't making a peep, and I felt like we were also maintained incredible composure. While I was as calm as could be, I told myself that if he gets any closer than 10 yards, he's going to be hating life, He presented a perfect frontal-shot, but at about 12 yards, he chose to do a 180* turn, and jogged back down the narrow canyon bottom that he had ventured up. It was a close-call, but he made the right choice, as an arrow was never released!

Needless to say, to get back to camp, we had to hike down the very canyon, in the dark, that the bear jogged down. Admittedly, I had an arrow knocked while hiking down the canyon in the dark, on that particular night. I've never been one to carry a side-arm, even while hunting AK, and am not one to get scared of much, but the stories in this thread have caused me to consider a purchase. My hearing is pretty poor and firearms don't help matters, which is one of the reasons I've never been prone to carry... that, and I've always felt like I could hold my own, but I'm certainly not as capable as I once was... just not nearly as agile and stable on my feet.

As you can imagine, that encounter in 2019, was an experience that a 12 year old will never forget, but it has never deterred him from getting after it in the mountains, in subsequent years. Great Memories that are only magnified when in the presence of your own children!

" Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it." applies to lots of things in life IMHO. Also, I`m not sure what would constitute " holding my own " in the face of a determined bear attack(?). Maybe......just getting out of it alive with all limbs still attached?

 

[def90]

I've got a few stories that I'll share over the coming days / weeks, some of which are off the beaten path, and others of which are more urban in nature.

In ~2019, I took my 12 year old (currently 17) into a spot that I'd previously killed an incredible bull elk in, during OTC archery season in Northern CO. I had trail cameras set up on a tiered wallow system, and from year to year, we were typically able to produce a good bull that frequented the area. We had a ground blind that we'd made out of dead-fall, limbs, and debris that was 35-40 yards up the north side of the hill from the wallow, that my son and I were hunkered down in.

Late one September evening, as shooting light was coming to a close, we noticed a bear meander up the very bottom of the narrow canyon. As the canyon opened up into the wallow system, the bear immediately keyed in on my camera, that was hanging on an Aspen about 20 yards below the wallow. In past years, I had secured a bear tag, but this was a year where I chose not to for whatever reason.

After approaching the camera, the bear immediately put both front paws up on the Aspen Tree, and began to assess my trail-cam. Keep in mind, that this was an area where I had another trail-cam setup in a very secluded area, on a different wallow, that had literally been torn off of the tree that it was mounted to by another bear. In that case, I found the cam laying face up on the ground, about a week after it had been torn off the tree, and had taken hundreds of pics of the trees swaying back and forth in the wind, as it was in a tight spot. Needless to say, I wasn't a fan of bears messing with my cams.

Back to the story... after the bear finished smelling / sniffing / licking my camera, he dropped back down to all fours, and within about a 1-2 minute window, had worked his way 45-50 yards up the hill toward directly toward our ground blind. As he got to ~20 yards from our ground blind, I was on my knees and had no choice but to go to full-draw, and even though we were just past shooting light, he didn't seem to have any intentions of stopping and the thought occurred to me that he may have designs of a pending charge. I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was just curious, as he wasn't making a peep, and I felt like we were also maintained incredible composure. While I was as calm as could be, I told myself that if he gets any closer than 10 yards, he's going to be hating life, He presented a perfect frontal-shot, but at about 12 yards, he chose to do a 180* turn, and jogged back down the narrow canyon bottom that he had ventured up. It was a close-call, but he made the right choice, as an arrow was never released!

Needless to say, to get back to camp, we had to hike down the very canyon, in the dark, that the bear jogged down. Admittedly, I had an arrow knocked while hiking down the canyon in the dark, on that particular night. I've never been one to carry a side-arm, even while hunting AK, and am not one to get scared of much, but the stories in this thread have caused me to consider a purchase. My hearing is pretty poor and firearms don't help matters, which is one of the reasons I've never been prone to carry... that, and I've always felt like I could hold my own, but I'm certainly not as capable as I once was... just not nearly as agile and stable on my feet.

As you can imagine, that encounter in 2019, was an experience that a 12 year old will never forget, but it has never deterred him from getting after it in the mountains, in subsequent years. Great Memories that are only magnified when in the presence of your own children!

Probably could have just said “hey bear” and he would have taken off running.

 

[fencesitter]

"

" Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it." applies to lots of things in life IMHO. Also, I`m not sure what would constitute " holding my own " in the face of a determined bear attack(?). Maybe......just getting out of it alive with all limbs still attached?

You're right, mate... better to be safe than sorry... I've had very few lion encounters in all my days in the Rocky Mountains, but have always found a lion to be much more intimidating than a black bear. Now, a grizzly on the other hand... that's a different story!

 

[fencesitter]

Probably could have just said “hey bear” and he would have taken off running.

Good point... I've just always been more of the silent / stealth mode type when elk hunting, unless I'm thrashing a tree to get an elk to close the gap!

 

[Turkeytider]

Probably could have just said “hey bear” and he would have taken off running.

You`re absolutely right, he might have. " Hey bear " was about it for a defensive strategy for Timothy Treadwell, AKA The Grizzly Man ", and his girlfriend, and I guess you could say it worked. Right up until they ran into the wrong bear. Which had added them both to the dinner menu.

 

[RockAndSage]

You`re absolutely right, he might have. " Hey bear " was about it for a defensive strategy for Timothy Treadwell, AKA The Grizzly Man ", and his girlfriend, and I guess you could say it worked. Right up until they ran into the wrong bear. Which had added them both to the dinner menu.

Yeah...I don't know why people keep using "hey bear" with the gentle tones they'd speak to a mischievous toddler with. It seems "F@$K OFF BEAR!" sets a more appropriate tone to the negotiations.

 

[c1steve]

I was hiking in NorCal once, and came across a burn area. Mostly small trees, and appeared to have burned and not regrown for some reason. Kept going, and in the middle of it found parts of downed aircraft. Digging through what little wreckage there was, mostly small parts plus a large radial engine buried deep into the ground.

Most of the engine was too deep to inspect, but I could tell it was a two row radial with large cylinders. Being a mechanic at the time I estimated it to be about 1,400 hp.

Researched it went I got back. Two WW2 Corsairs collided in the fog, in the 1950's. The .gov retrieved most of the parts. Both pilots survived. Also with the super high octane gas available to the AAF, and other high performance features, the engines were rated at 1,800 hp.

 

[c1steve]

Many years ago, when Mexico was safer than the USA, I hitch hiked and back packed from Cali to Cozumel and back. Took 4 1/2 months, learned Spanish along the way. Stayed in a hotel one night/week to clean up. The other days camped out. Usually I traveled by myself, but sometimes I would go with another backpacker for a week or so.

After 2-3 months I was down in the Yucatan, and traveled with an English guy for a week. He told me about trips through Afghanistan that are as deadly as the stories you may have heard. He said, let's go to Palenque, which was about 6 miles off a paved road. Palenque was a large Maya city when the civilization ended around 800 AD. They did ritual human sacrificing on a regular basis in Palenque.

We after walking much of the way down the dirt road we come to the ruins. This area is 99% covered in Jungle, but one pyramid and a few buildings were uncovered and in very good condition. Like the other tourists who came in buses, we walked all over the open area and read about the Maya in the area. About 4 pm, all six of the tourist buses left, and we had the place to ourselves. We planned on camping off to the side of the dirt parking lot. So, we are standing there, taking in the view of what village that was uncovered, and it got really, really weird.

I could see, like a watermark on a piece of paper, a large group of Mayans that were there. However they were up in the air, maybe 15' off the ground. About five of them were close to us, perhaps 50' away. The main guy has his arms outstretched saying "get out of here, get out of here". I could partly see it, and partly hear it, like a watermark in the background. I stared into the jungle, could so nothing. No leaves were rustling, no birds were flying, the jungle was totally quiet.

I kept staring into this group of semi-visible persons, probably 200 total in the background. Most were just milling around, except for the front ones were were yelling the "get out of here". I said to the English guy, let's camp somewhere else, and he said "Yes!". We walked a quarter mile or so to the west, and camped. No more apparitions bothered us again, but we never spoke a word about it.

It appeared to me that perhaps some of the Mayans willingly sacrificed themselves because they believed in a phony story spun by their religious leaders. Now they were trapped their for eternity, contemplating their life choices. That is the best conclusion I have been able to develop. I am sure that neither of us had any expectations other than having a quiet place to camp after the tourist buses had left, but the experience was fully real.

 

[c1steve]

I went on Google earth, and did a screen shot of the Palenque N.P. area I spoke about. I believe the large building area to the left was still covered by jungle. The circled area shows where I remember the parking lot to be, and the pink X shows where we were standing and looking at the time.

I can see that over the years the park has changed, and they moved the dirt parking somewhere closer to the road.

 

[def90]

You`re absolutely right, he might have. " Hey bear " was about it for a defensive strategy for Timothy Treadwell, AKA The Grizzly Man ", and his girlfriend, and I guess you could say it worked. Right up until they ran into the wrong bear. Which had added them both to the dinner menu.

An Alaskan brown bear and a Colorado black bear are two totally different creatures.

I'm guessing you've never experienced an in person interaction with either based on your post

 

[Pharmseller]

A quarter of a mile would be about 1/50th of the distance I would have put between myself and the spectral Mayans.




P

 

[javihitter]

I have one more story that was scary for me and kind of funny, Not really creepy but I will share since it was on a hunt.

Northern Arizona, archery deer 20?? "The corral"

I was on a hunt with my Dad. We setup a nice tent camp in a pretty good spot where we saw plenty of animals. We also had many guides stop by regularly looking for intel since we seemed to be in the center of the action.

Earlier in the hunt we ran across some friends from an old archery club who were hunting the same area. They had tagged some bucks and mentioned things were going great other than a couple guys from their camp had been chased by a large black range bull.

I had hunted the area and passed a large bull matching that description while in my truck and four wheeler. The bull I saw had some kind of jaw issue and was grazing solo every time I saw him. He had some pretty big pointy horns and didn't seem aggressive but I never was on foot or got too close to him.

A day or two later I was in camp with my Dad when.young guide stopped by our camp in the early afternoon prior to checking his cameras. This guy was with a very prominent outfitting company and stopped by our camp somewhat regurlarly for a beer or a water. it seemed like he just needed some low stress regular people conversation. We were seeing game but the guide would make comments about specific deer in the area, particularly some weird ones.

He mentioned a nearby water hole had a long curly tined 3x3 hitting it very regularly. I like weird deer and this guide mentioned this buck previously so I wanted to lay eyes on him. I had passed the water hole where the buck was hitting and the guide told me where he thought I should position myself. I decided to hunt the weird buck that night.

I parked my four wheeler and made about a quarter to half mile walk down the road to the water hole which was within 100 yards of the dirt road. It was kind of an odd waterhole. it was medium sized but surrounded by a pretty sturdy corral type fence at the top of a fairly high burn. There was one gate leading into it and a small ground blind built on the backside. The guide told me to sit in the little tree branch debris ground blind.

I setup in the blind which required me to sit very low with my butt practically on the ground. This wasn't a very good position for archery but the sides of the blind were low and the blind was pretty out in the open. The small pond in the middle was pretty full but had I not been told there was a deer hitting it I never would have chosen to sit there. Very marginal looking water hole.

About an hour before dark I heard some noise behind me which was in the opposite direction of the road. i peeked over my shoulder and noticed it was a moo cow. Actually a big bull. He was noisy and my stomach dropped when I saw he was coming in solo. I prayed he wouldn't enter the corral and drink from the pond but he slowly strolled through the gate and started to drink from the pond. It was the bull with a busted up jaw and he made a ton of noise as he drank from the pond.

There was literally a couple finger size sticks and a limp strand of barbed wire between me and the berm surrounding the pond. If the bull meandered and circled the pond while he drank he would practically hit me with his tail. I prayed he wouldn't get any closer and tried to blend into the debris around me as motionless as possible.

The bull slowly circled the pond and made his way directly in front of me, within about 3 feet. As he drank I prayed his swishing tail wouldn't hit my broadhead and knock my arrow off the string. Ayer a couple minutes he raised his head from drinking and made a few short snorts.....oh crap.

He turned around to face me, head down, heavy breathing, pre-matador charge position. I was pretty much nose to nose with him, ready to be stomped to death. Flat footed and screwed, all I could do was sit motionless. After seconds maybe minutes he turned and went back to drinking. I was thankful but still terrified because he wouldn't get more that 5-10 feet away and I was cramping from being a statue for so long.

I heard the sound of a vehicle coming down the road. I hoped the vehicle would bother the bull enough to leave. As the vehicle got closer it slowed to checkout the pond, It was the young guides truck and he slowed down to glass the pond and clearly saw me in the ground blind. I waved my arms in a "please help me" position. He waved back and left the area faster than he drove in.

After another 30 minutes the bull left the corral and slowly worked his way back in the direction where my quad was parked. It was a scary walk back to my quad that night.

I talked to the guide later in the trip and said he thought my arm movements were more "get out of here" than "please help me". I think he may have played a joke on me and got the last laugh. I bet my terror makes for a funny campfire story for his clients. Curly horned three point mule deer...what an idiot I was. I probably had a better chance of seeing Taylor Swift on that pond.