Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[505Wapiti]

That said, I guess I will share my own story. Back in 2014 I was packed into the Gila Wilderness with a couple of buddies for an elk hunt. On the second day we decided to split up and I opted to hunt alone the remainder of the day. We were camped about a 1/4 mile below a natural spring with fresh water running out of the ground so every morning we would stop at the spring and stock up with water for the day and depart from there. My buddies took off to the South West and I took off to the East to work a different area.

I worked my way a mile and a half or so on the south facing side of a step cut headed east and was moving along slowly glassing ahead and checking out the nice aspen parks across the draw from me. I stopped at one point to look into the aspens across from me and spent a few minutes checking things out and decided to move on. I proceeded to cover another quarter to half mile and was looking over across to the south at some more areas and heard something take off to my left (North) and it startled me as I had been diligently looking ahead and was certain there wasn't anything close to me at all. I stopped for a minute and glassed around and looked everywhere, and nothing. No smell of elk or anything else, and nothing visible at all anywhere. Just when I was starting to think I was losing my mind, I looked down and I was standing over an enormous scat pile that looked like it was only a couple minutes old. As I looked at it trying to determine if it was a cat or bear, I noticed what looked like bone and hair in it. I grabbed a stick and in my best CSI mindset began to mash around to see how fresh it was and what was in it. IT WAS WET FRESH like whatever I heard run just pooped it out on the fly, LOL! Well I'm getting a little uneasy by this time trying to decide what kind of animal this is that I kicked up unexpectedly and as I turn to scan all around me I turn to my left and less than 5 yards from me is this really nice Mule Deer buck lying there with tongue out staring at me dead as a door nail. It startled me because I was not expecting that, and then my heart really starting racing because I realized I had just walked up on some large predator that had just taken down this deer a short time prior, rigor mortis had not even kicked in yet.

Now that I'm on high alert I poke around it a bit and take some pics and mark the waypoint on my GPS as I also have a bear tag and the wheels are turning. I continue to scan the area, glass heavily in all directions, and yes even above me in the pines, LOL, and nothing at all. I decide all is well and press on. Needless to say my senses are heightened the rest of the day as I press on in my quest for elk. I continued on for a while to the east and worked my way around back to the North and up on top of the flat to start my way back toward camp. I figured by this point in the day it would be an easier route back to camp and I could cover a lot of ground more quickly. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful sans a few deer and turkey. So I'm cruising along and my senses are calmed down and back to normal by this point. Well, I end up about 1/4 of a mile directly due North of where I'd jumped whatever it was off of this deer and am cruising when I get to a bit of water and some pretty good sized boulders. I'm cautiously maneuvering through the rocks and water when something lets out this deep guttural growl and I froze in my tracks immediately. This growl was unlike anything I've ever heard in the wild and was so loud and felt so close that I could not even really convince myself what direction it came from. It literally felt as if it were right on top of me. Heart rate in full on tachycardia mode, I'm once again looking everywhere as hard as I can as thorough as I can in all directions and nothing. Not a sound, not a movement, no visible bear or cat, nothing. Trust me I'm looking hard as I want to fill the bear tag as well as the elk tag and I was hoping this was my moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing. I'm getting frustrated at this point because I'm dying to know what killed that deer, I'm curious if whatever killed that deer is what just growled at me and if it had been following me. Lots of things running through the mind, but no answers.

I finally move on and make my way back to camp just after dark. My buddies come rolling into camp about 20 minutes after I did and we got the fire and dinner going and I proceeded to tell them about my encounter. I showed them the pics and the next day we hiked back by the carcass again and nothing. To this day I don't have an answer but believe it to most likely be a big mountain lion. Whatever growled at me was no juvenile by any means, have never heard anything like it. I've seen many bears in my life, have had a black bear sulk up and clack her teeth at me, and I've see a couple of cats in the wild but I've never heard a growl like that ever, so can't say with any certainty what it was. Not really a creepy story in the true sense of creepy, but damn sure unnerving to say the least. Will follow up with pics.....

 

[505Wapiti]

 

[The John]

Don't you mean Vitamin R?

you mean Rhen-wierr?

 

[CT Barrett]

Just read all 28 pages... Here is my spooky story.

I had just bought and finished the missing 411 hunter book a couple years ago and was headed out scouting for mule deer in summer. My destination was about 25 miles by atv from my house and I was determined to be at the top of a 2000 ft climb on foot by 1st light. So I made the trek in the dark on the atv nervous and seeing weird stuff like shadows in the corners of my eyes. I got about 1/2 way and noticed a white figure running along side my atv at about 20 mph only a few feet away. I panicked and gunned the throttle to get away screaming like a little girl. Then I realized I was riding through sheep and it was a sheep dog.

Later I came across a bear hiking up the mountain in the low light. I lally gagged hiking up the mountain in the dark being spooked, needless to say these stories can really get to your mind when solo.

Then I setup my solo tent the night before opening day on top of the mountain and got spooked by noises all night around the tent. At one point getting out with the pistol and flashlight to see nothing.

 

[Lionhound1975]

View attachment 214584
View attachment 214585
View attachment 214586
View attachment 214587
View attachment 214588
View attachment 214590View attachment 214584View attachment 214585View attachment 214586View attachment 214587View attachment 214588View attachment 214589View attachment 214590

505Wapiti,
I agree that it is was a lion from the photos, the long elongated scat and the plucking of hair on the ground both indicate a cat.

 

[Gen273]

Great stories guys, I love this thread!

 

[Buffinnut]

Wow this was an awesome thread. Thanks for the stories everyone!
I don't have anything "spooky" but last September I was having a screaming match with a herd bull on a saddle. I never got a shot and the bull pushed his cows out and I decided to take a break and let them settle down.
I'm on this bench having a snack and a drink of water when I see an older gentleman spot me and walk towards me. He's carrying nothing but a long bow and one wooden arrow. No pack, no water, e.t.c. I give him water and turns out him and his buddies had parked the truck and walked a little ways to check out a water hole and heard a "bull call". They just ran from there without getting their gear and made their way to the top. I think they followed me up the canyon as I located and zeroed in on the elk. They had split up and somehow swapped phones and he didn't know the unlock code. He was trying to kill one of the "2 bulls" (me and the actual bull) and ended up a little lost with no supplies.
I spent a few minutes showing him my phone map & trying to find out where their camp was or where they had parked and he couldn't tell me. I thought I knew the water hole he had mentioned though so i told him we can hunt together on the way out. Ended up finding them a ways down the canyon and hunted with them that night. Nice guys but got in a bit of a sketchy spot. Glad everyone ended up safe.

 

[actionshooter]

I have another one, this isn't really "creepy" just more of a bone headed dumb kind of thing.

I did my 1st AK hunt in 1997 and I was 25 years old.... had done a few back packing backcountry hunts but was still a little green to "real" backcountry.

My buddy and I did a drop camp in Mulchatna for caribou when it was a huge herd. Got dropped by a Beaver on a little lake, set up camp and did a little looking around the 1st day. We had determined that the main heard was up on a ridge a LONG way from camp so on the 2nd day we started out of camp in that direction, short story is I saw a great bull right off the bat and shot it about 500 yds from camp. We broke it down and got it back to camp pretty fast.

One of the cool things was that there was a really tall beaver dam at the end of the lake and we crossed it every day heading out to hunt and from the top I could see the gut pile from my bull, about the 4th day, It was gone! How cool is that?? I decide to check it out and proceed to Be-Bop right on up to the missing gut pile like I was walking into Mickey D's for lunch and realized that I just walked up on the biggest bear tracks I had ever seen.... the realization that I had just screwed up hit me like a ton of shit. Rifle on my pack and the whole works.... got my rifle out and backed out really slow and every noise I heard sounded like a jet breaking the sound barrier....

The funny thing is, afterwards that evening getting back to camp about dark, we had noticed that the meat was gone from our meat pole and we were on full alert until I found a note from the pilot that was flying over and notice the bags and stopped to grab it for us.

 

[Thunderer]

The wife and I got around to finally watching Missing 411 last night on Amazon. I would recommend it to people for the lessons learned in the first hour of the show. Take a PLB if you're out hunting alone, even in familiar territory.

Now, I previously read that David Paulides was a squatcher who was a born-again normal person, so I went in watching the show with an open mind, hoping it would be just a presentation of evidence in missing persons cases (or lack thereof). We found it pretty interesting up until the Sierra Camp part where they start playing audio recordings of sasquatch. You lost me right there, David. Then to double-down on the sasquatch claim by having an "audio expert" testify that the recordings were of a pack of 7-8 ft tall creatures... And if that wasn't enough to turn the entire show into non-fiction, we dive deeper into the rabbit hole of cryptozoology with the next story about a woman claiming she saw something like the predator (yes from the Arnold movie) crawling in the trees across from her tree stand in Ohio.

My wife said that it reminded her of children who tell stories about fascinating things from their imaginations, and these adults just never grew out of it.

 

[b_schwin]

The wife and I got around to finally watching Missing 411 last night on Amazon. I would recommend it to people for the lessons learned in the first hour of the show. Take a PLB if you're out hunting alone, even in familiar territory.

Now, I previously read that David Paulides was a squatcher who was a born-again normal person, so I went in watching the show with an open mind, hoping it would be just a presentation of evidence in missing persons cases (or lack thereof). We found it pretty interesting up until the Sierra Camp part where they start playing audio recordings of sasquatch. You lost me right there, David. Then to double-down on the sasquatch claim by having an "audio expert" testify that the recordings were of a pack of 7-8 ft tall creatures... And if that wasn't enough to turn the entire show into non-fiction, we dive deeper into the rabbit hole of cryptozoology with the next story about a woman claiming she saw something like the predator (yes from the Arnold movie) crawling in the trees across from her tree stand in Ohio.

My wife said that it reminded her of children who tell stories about fascinating things from their imaginations, and these adults just never grew out of it.

The one in Ohio is quite interesting as well. I’m from the area. Know lots of people that live and hunt in that neighborhood and no one knew anything about it. And the date she said it happen deer season wasn’t even in yet. Kinda fishy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TonySkyline]

How do you explain all the stuff from 411? Their has to be something else going on. People speculate that this thing has advanced camo technology and stalks people until its to late. Lots of people say they feel tired before they vanish. I've had a similar experience that is 100% real and can not explain as I am a total night owl and am only ever tired in the morning when I have to get up for work (hunting ill get right up tho). Long story short my family and I were camping in the Adirondack mountains and I fell unusually tired right as the sun went down. We heard what sounded like cult music (i really can't explain it) and both kids, fiance and both dogs heard it. It was up the mountain where it goes 20+ miles until anything else and this was on a Sunday night, we were the only ones out there to my knowledge based off the sign in sheets at the trail head/dirt road. The creepy music/sounds kept getting closer and it put all of us and dogs on edge. My dogs are quite large and NO one would be OK with walking up on us if they seen them (pitbull and dogo argentino) . They were jumping in the car crying to leave which is super odd. By 11 it got really close and the sounds stopped and turned into rustling in the forest all around us. Not gonna lie we fired shots off and blasted the car radio. Everyone wanted to leave but I was spent. To tired to clean up the camp site and massive tent. Kids were freaking out and yelling at me to leave and for whatever reason I just didn't care and finally gave up and said go to bed. It calmed down and just when I fell asleep, something next to the tent let out what I can only describe as a gorilla sound (sounds dumb I know) and was very deep and guttural sounding. My youngest shrieked and I got up and told him it was me and to go to bed. The next day I woke up to piss, and fell asleep face first with my legs hanging outside the tent. Woke back up around 1 and almost took a dive into the fire I was so tired (fiance grabbed me and tossed me on to a chair). Had a pounding headache all day, like migraine bad. Where I'm getting at is, alot of these bodies that they find have the date rape drug or something similar in their system when they do autopsy. Ive read the next day you have a horrible headache and no i wasn't on drugs and was not drinking (i usually would but was to tired already by sunfall). I was more tired that night than taking nyquil/benadryl and trying to stay awake. The whole thing was weird and didn't realize the connection until I watched 411 and did research on the area I was in and found out multiple people have gone missing in this area. Not many were found. I think if it wasn't for the dogs, guns, and the amount of people (4 people and 2 dogs), i mightve gone missing and been a victim of body experiments and anal coring. Lol, for real, thats how some people are found. Now that would be the worse way to be found dead. I have since gone back and nothing happened the second time but also brought more people because, well duh. Weird thing happened on the first day also while we were setting up camp. A DEC officer stopped by and asked if we had our permit. I said what permit, he said u need a permit if staying for a week or more. I told him we are only here for 2 nights and then asked him what was down further into the deeper wilderness. He acted skittish of the question and said you have a good spot, stay here! He jumped in his jeep and took off quick. I just thought he was being an a$$ for whatever reason cutting me off short and borderline yelling at me in front of my kids like that. I believe he has witnessed whatever the heck it going on out there and thankfully prevented us from going deeper into the woods.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Antarctica]

Skyline - you get the prize for just about the craziest story on this thread!

Shitfire - if any of that is true or if it happened to me, I'd never set foot in the woods again!

I might load the glock before I hit the hay tonight!!

 

[gelton]

I've seen some weird stuff but one sticks out. We were backpacked in about 3.5 miles in SW Colorado and not seeing any sign so instead of waiting until the morning we decided to book it to a new area at about 9pm. We packed up camp and headed back to the trailhead where a nearby basecamp was setup. There were three of us.

On the way back to the trailhead I noticed this strange light that would drop altitude at an unreal pace almost to nose high and then shoot back up incredibly fast to like what seemed like an altitude out of this atmosphere (like level with stars) way higher than any airplane etc. easily higher than 30K feet.

It did this more than a dozen times, almost like it was playing with us. I pointed it out to my hunting partner and his dad who both saw it as well. As we approached the trailhead there was a truck driving crazily around in what I can only assume was an attempt to get closer to whatever it was.

IMO it was most likely some technology that the guvmint was testing that has not been released yet (which could very well be based on alien tech according to recently unclassified docs). None of the anti-gravity movements horizontally but definitely vertically.

We ended up dropping about 1500ft and getting an elk the next day.

 

[The Ri Guy]

We heard what sounded like cult music (i really can't explain it) and both kids, fiance and both dogs heard it. It was up the mountain where it goes 20+ miles until anything else and this was on a Sunday night, we were the only ones out there to my knowledge based off the sign in sheets at the trail head/dirt road. The creepy music/sounds kept getting closer and it put all of us and dogs on edge.

Man I posted a joke response a few pages back but I had something similar to this happen this week that was my first real, WTF couple of days in the woods.

My ol' man and I hiked in ~4 miles this week in the Washington forests into this deep and thick black-timber area chasing pressured elk. Monday morning I was still-hunting in and around this rut-torn little glade surrounded by a half mile or more of black-timber on all sides of it, one of those spots you just instinctively know in your bones that only you and maybe a couple other folks have ever seen in the millennia it's existed. Anyways I called a bull in on the ridgeline across the glade from me while I was in the middle, maybe 150 yards from me max, and started stalking in on him.

I got about half way up the ridge and was almost knocked down by the sudden, overwhelming scent of women's perfume. For some reason I noted it but didn't think anything of it, just chalked it up to being some kind of fragrant mountain flower or bush I wasn't familiar with, and the smell went away instantly. After it didn't work out with the elk I sat down to refuel and wait until dark to see if they'd come back in, and a breeze picked up that was carrying that scent across the glade right into my face. I figured, okay, there's some lady up here that doesn't know WTF she's doing wearing perfume that I'm just not putting eyes on somehow despite the fact that this glade is 200 yards long and 100 yards across and she has to be point-blank.

Well, the breeze picked up and then I started hearing what sounded like whispering tongues all around me and in my head and I was suddenly onset by an immense headache behind my eyes, all of my leg muscles suddenly felt cramped and weak, and every fiber of my being was screaming at me to GTFO of that glade as fast as I could go. I made sure I had a round in the tube and a broadhead on the string and started backtracking as quickly and quietly as my now-cramping legs would take me, and as soon as I hit the edge of the glade I am 110% confident I heard a woman giggling and both the wind, smell, and sounds all stopped as soon as both legs were back in the timber. I got to camp with about 3 hours of light left and didn't say a word to my ol' man because he would say I lost my marbles and was being a big baby.

He went in to the same spot on Tuesday morning but came in from the South higher up on the ridgeline and worked his way down. I got back to camp early again that day still spooked and he was already there. This is unusual because my dad has been a hardcore hunter since he was a teen, that special type of "3 miles from camp? No factor, I'm waiting until last light before I leave my stand" kind of guy. Before I had even set my bow down he looked at me, calm but clearly confused, and says "I smelled a woman's perfume from the top of the ridgeline down but didn't see any sign anyone else is up here. You notice anything when you were in there?" I said yes I smelled the same thing, but we ended the conversation there.

We picked up camp and moved about a mile down the mountain that afternoon on the same ridgeline. That night, despite being a ways away from that spot, something came thru camp and I swear I could hear voices in the woods. To make matters creepier, on one side of that glade I found a bird picked clean to the bone with the carcass mostly intact sans skull and feet. When I got back from the evening hunt Tuesday, there was an explosion of grouse feathers at the foot of my tent, carcass picked clean to the bone but missing skull and feet again. We packed up camp at 3:45AM and hiked all the way back to the truck in the dark and found a new spot to hunt.

I don't believe in ghosts, spirits, etc. and have convinced myself it was a strange series of coincidences, caffeine withdrawl, and lack of foliage knowledge, but it really makes a guy wonder sometimes in those deep dark holes, especially having an extremely skilled and knowledgeable hunter like my father experience it and have no answer...

 

[Huntinaz]

So, co-workers and I are going on a long hike through the Huachucas, starting in Carr Canyon, up to Carr Peak, across the ridge, top out on Miller Peak and then drop down to Coronado Pass and finish at the Border Plinths. That's a long way. We get up Carr Canyon no problem, hit the peak and then start making our way for Miller Peak. The ridge that runs between Carr and Miller has a nice aspen grove and box spring in it. At some point in the distant past, a prospector (there are a ton of old hand hewn shafts in the AZ mountains) had dragged a cast iron bathtub up there to collect water from the spring. We planned to grab lunch at "bathtub" spring and then head out for Miller Peak.

Now we are probably at 8-9k in elevation, in a Wilderness area and the only way in is to hike up from the trail heads at 4-5k. We get to the bathtub and we find two goth kids, in street clothes and shoes, splitting a subway footlong. They have nothing with them, not even a small backpack or water bottle. We tried to make some conversation with Wednesday and Pugsley Addams, but they weren't too talkative.

Another time we were in the Huachucas and came across some "backpackers" coming from the south. Those boys had some very full and very squared off packs. We just pulled off to the side, didn't make eye contact, exchanged a polite "good morning / buenas dias" and we all just let each other go on their way.

I was quail hunting in the Whetstones and was heading around the back of a hill when I spotted a Border Patrol truck. I didn't see anyone in the driver seat, which is kind of unusual because those guys usually have the attitude of death before dismount. I walk over and can hear the engine idling, but I'm still not seeing anyone sitting in the seat. I get up and look in the window and the agent has the seat reclined all the way back, is completely racked out and using a copy of "Jugs" to shield his face from the sun.

lol. I know that guy

 

[IN_Varmntr]

Threads like this are what keep my noggin whipping up ideas from little sounds from the mountain.

Last year I had a black bear come into my solo tent setup and huff at me. Messed me up for a few hours.

The following night after I reconnected with the other guys in my group, I was death-gripping my Sig convinced a lion was growling in camp only to realize it was my buddy snoring.

This year with my dad in CO on a dead still night, a tree fell over and made one helluva commotion. My mind had bigskinfootnightwalker written all over that.

Not hunting related, but my friend in jr high grew up in a house that was...inhabited by something else to say the least. His parents had windup clocks all over the walls inside the house. I'm talking 30 of the things or more. Used to bug me because I couldn't sleep because of tick-tock of them all friggin night long. I woke up one night to the house completely silent. I woke him up to show him WTF was going on and they all started going again. Same house, same friend, sitting at the table eating pizza one night and the pizza box slid about 6 inches across the table and stopped.

Haven't stepped foot in that house since. His parents still live there and he says they still have weird things like that happen.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[TonySkyline]

This thread has made me watch the 411 series... was up until 5am last night and it was hard to sleep....lol. freaky stuff. Did anyone watch the 411 the hunted one and hear the voices the hunters recorded in California? What the hell is that?? Sounds like some ancient caveman or something

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Nickofthewoods]

Skyline - you get the prize for just about the craziest story on this thread!

That story makes me think of possible Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Extreme fatigue and pounding headache with visual or auditory disturbances. @TonySkyline you mentioned you had a massive tent, any possibility you were running a propane heater or stove inside? Just trying to think of a logical explanation based on your description.

 

[505Wapiti]

That story makes me think of possible Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Extreme fatigue and pounding headache with visual or auditory disturbances. @TonySkyline you mentioned you had a massive tent, any possibility you were running a propane heater or stove inside? Just trying to think of a logical explanation based on your description.

Seems weird they would both have the same reaction on different days. Creepy for sure!

 

[505Wapiti]

Seems weird they would both have the same reaction on different days. Creepy for sure!

Sorry just realized you were referring to a different story.