Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[Turkeytider]

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

I would agree that they are two different animals. The poster to which I and some others were responding didn`t specify, I don`t believe, the type of bear with which they were confronted. The comment I made and to which you refer was in reference to the whole notion of the advisability of carrying protection ( firearm ) when in such areas . And no, I`ve never been face to muzzle with either an Alaskan brown bear or Colorado black bear. Thank goodness.

 

[bigbassin]

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.

I had a similar experience to this working night shift in Jacksonville a few years back.

We were patching drainage structure on the side of the road and all of the sudden the box and pipes had a slight blue glow going on around 2 AM Jumped above ground and saw a meteor/comet that was just massive, certainly bigger than the moon glowing blue as it passed by. Street wasn’t lit up like noon, but maybe similar to first light.

Awesome experience to see and some crazy colors for the next minute or two until everything faded back to darkness.

 

[def90]

I would agree that they are two different animals. The poster to which I and some others were responding didn`t specify, I don`t believe, the type of bear with which they were confronted. The comment I made and to which you refer was in reference to the whole notion of the advisability of carrying protection ( firearm ) when in such areas . And no, I`ve never been face to muzzle with either an Alaskan brown bear or Colorado black bear. Thank goodness.

He said he was hunting Northern Colorado in his story. There isn’t a bear that I’ve seen in Colorado that didn’t run in the opposite direction as fast as it could once it realized that a person was near by.

 

[Turkeytider]

He said he was hunting Northern Colorado in his story. There isn’t a bear that I’ve seen in Colorado that didn’t run in the opposite direction as fast as it could once it realized that a person was near by.

Well.... I guess that`s good! Might well apply to 99 out of 100 Colorado bears. With my luck I`d meet up with #100!

 

[def90]

Well.... I guess that`s good! Might well apply to 99 out of 100 Colorado bears. With my luck I`d meet up with #100!

Three years ago opening day of archery elk season I stopped to take a lunch break at treeline on a mountainside that looked over an open meadow area that ran downhill a bit. I was sitting with my back to a clump of trees and bushes and decided to lay back and take a nap. Was having one of those lucid dreams and woke up. I kind of groggily looked over to my right and saw something sitting about 10 feet away that wasn't there before I fell asleep. I sat up and as I realized what it was it also realized what I was. It spun around and side hilled the 150yds of open meadow faster than I could get my phone camera out. Anyway it was a black bear. As it ran away the sun glistened off the tips of it's coat and made it look silver as it ran. That was one of the closer interactions. Either way they always end up the same. I do carry while bow hunting but I do it because of the 2 legged creatures out in the woods, not the 4 legged ones.

 

[Jimbee]

I threw rocks and yelled at this Colorado bear, he wouldn't go. He was between myself and my destination. I walked way around him.

 

[c1steve]

Once I was on a two week backpack trip on the John Muir Trail, in the California Sierras. This is in National Forest. At night we put any food in our packs, and pulled them way up in the air on a rope of a branch. Occasionally we would see bears, but there was no food for them so they left us alone.

The trip ended in Yosemite, and the last two days we were in the park itself. First night in the park we camped in Tuolumne Meadows. Beautiful place, but as we were close to the end there were a few other persons around. Woke up in the middle of the night, with my right hand, stomach, and left foot hurting. As I looked out over the meadow past my feet, I saw a bear cub running off that had walked on top of me. The bear was probably 125 lbs. or so, and was probably more scared than I was.

Spoke to a friend in the morning, and he mentioned that he saw the mother bear, and it measured 14" from nose to back of the head. So, it was pretty big for a black bear.

I have told others about this experience from time to time. Some people are amused, some are shocked, and some do not believe it. European women visiting North America are often in awe of the story. One day I related my experience to a woman, and she was not impressed.

This woman explained that her mother was camping in the same area, Tuolumne Meadows, and also had a bear experience. The weather was warm, probably 80 degrees during the day, and her boots became fairly sweaty after the day of hiking with a pack. When she went to sleep, she undid the lower slide of the sleeping bag zipper and left her feet out to dry off. This is commonly done when it is warm, to keep the bag cleaner and drier.

Her mom woke up after a while because a bear was licking the salt off of her toes!. She did not move, she stayed motionless until the bear finished and left.

 

[def90]

Yeah, the bears in Yosemite are pretty habituated to people and their food. There are certain bear bags and canisters that aren't allowed in Yosemite because the bears in certain areas of the park have learned how to open them.

 

[Pharmseller]

Her mom woke up after a while because a bear was licking the salt off of her toes!. She did not move, she stayed motionless until the bear finished and left.

Where I come from that costs extra.



P

 

[Sunshine40]

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.

Where about in North West NJ were you? I grew up banging around in the woods there. It's more treacherous country then people give credit too and I've experienced a few weird things there as well growing up.

 

[Dougsch28]

Where about in North West NJ were you? I grew up banging around in the woods there. It's more treacherous country then people give credit too and I've experienced a few weird things there as well growing up.

100%. This happened in the Delaware Water Gap, Whorthington State Park, just North of Blairstown. Still here today. People don't realize the amount of open space we have in NJ, the amount of wildlife or the ridge that runs the Northern line. 75K acres of huntable land in DEWA alone (we are in a battle to keep it from being a national park atm). It's certainly not Montana, but I have some stands 3 miles and 1,200 feet of incline from the nearest road. We pack our deer like Elk and go days without seeing another hunter. Assume you are talking about the same area?

 

[Crusader]

Any ideas on what it is? I still haven't figured it out. I've heard possible reflection from a satellite?

I had a similar experience in November of 2020, and posted it in this thread. Here's the post:

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?

A few weeks later a fellow Missouri hunter sent me a PM and said he experienced the same thing I did that morning, in a different part of Missouri. He did some research and discovered what it was, a fireball exploding, so bright that the split-second event was observed in multiple states. Here's a link to an article about it, on a site that tracks/records these things:

Bright Leonid fireball explodes over Missouri

A bright Leonid fireball exploded over Missouri, U.S. at around 11:24 UTC on November 18, 2020 (05:24 CST). The event was so bright that it cast shadows and momentarily blinded the Missouri Skies…

watchers.news

You might go to that site to see if anything was documented which might explain your experience.

 

[timekiller13]

So not really backcountry.

I hunt a small parcel of land in N.C. it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere but you can drive to it. I have a small dry cabin on the land.

The parcel I hunt has the ashes of two people scattered on it. They hunted the land religiously in the 80s and 90s before they passed.

More than once I’ve been awakened in the night by sounds of people “talking.”

I spend a lot of time hiking and camping, the wind and trees can make weird sounds. I’ve never heard them make the sounds I hear when I sleep in that little cabin.

Nothing sinister. Just conversations. And occasionally I hear something that makes me think twice about where I will hunt the next day.

For the record, it’s paid off.

 

[Sunshine40]

100%. This happened in the Delaware Water Gap, Whorthington State Park, just North of Blairstown. Still here today. People don't realize the amount of open space we have in NJ, the amount of wildlife or the ridge that runs the Northern line. 75K acres of huntable land in DEWA alone (we are in a battle to keep it from being a national park atm). It's certainly not Montana, but I have some stands 3 miles and 1,200 feet of incline from the nearest road. We pack our deer like Elk and go days without seeing another hunter. Assume you are talking about the same area?

Yes sir. Blairstown born and raised. Im on the west coast now but my parents still live in Frelinghuysen on a good piece of land I grew up white tail hunting.

One time when I was like 12 or 13 I got staked by cyotes out of a swamp on my way out of my stand back to my dad's truck. I was so scared I beat my dad back to the truck and curled up in the bed of his truck hiding.

That area is also rich in native american and revolutionary War history and grew up on property and a house with some really weird shit happening in it. We used to see figures walking in our fields sometimes during a full moon. We had plenty of stuff in our hose too.

That area is so under-rated for hunting and fishing.

 

[jonandy]

yeah....

Nice trailside, love the grips!

 

[WHALL]

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

Heading back to camp solo backcountry, in the dark and 50 yds above me wide eyes glowing in the dark, ( in grizzly country) quick draw on the 40 and heard the unmistakable moooooo! Dumb cow

 

[Snowwolfe]

Tag

 

[505Wapiti]

Is it bad to wish creepy experiences (without harm of course) on others so that we can read about them? Asking for a friend on the Slide.

 

[bigbassin]

Kind of a weird one scouting for turkeys this morning.

Started the morning out dark and early heading to a nearby WMA to go see if I could hear any turkeys gobbling. Unfortunately already raining by 5:15 AM rather than it holding out until noon like the forecast I saw yesterday predicted.

Started out driving through a clear cut towards a decent saddle connecting a drainage to a flat creek bottom. Parked the truck and as soon as I got out, a headlamp? started shining at me from right where I wanted to be. Kind of unusual in that it was flickering a bit and then looked like the guy started a small fire. Several trees were glowing orange but I couldn’t see the actual flame.

No clue what the guy was doing, but last time I was in the area I ran into a couple of tweakers. Not sure if that’s what I saw, or someone camping where they aren’t supposed to be and started a fire. Didn’t see any other vehicles out there.

 

[505Wapiti]

Was really hoping we could get to a minimum of 100 pages.