Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[Steelhead]

Regarding the 411 stories in the Stanislaus part of the Sierra’s. I used to roam a lot in that area, never hunted it, but a bunch of backwoods fly fishing and off-trail exploring. It is a massive area of land, tons of varying terrain, granite cervices to deep timbered draws. There’s a million places for a body to get stuck and “disappear”.

Also, even with all that remoteness, there are a lot of “critters” in that area. The 2-legged kind. I’ve been in some tense situations down some backwoods roads with some rough characters. Played a game of bluff with a couple very “institutionalized” dudes, both of us acting like we were chatting about the fishing while they were casing me and my truck and doing some risk/benefit analysis on me while I’m evaluating defending myself.

There’s a few localized stories I’ve heard too, stuff like a small group of campers seeing a distressed looking guy driving into a dry camp spot, getting out of the truck and marching up the path never to return, never found him.

Again if someone wanted to abduct a couple women there’s a million random fire-roads to take them to and make them disappear. I was always on guard up there. Never felt at peace.

The whooping stuff out at deer camp? Whew, nothing to say about that but..gnarly!!

 

[Antarctica]

I used to stomp around the Stanislaus quite a bit years ago, in particular fly fishing along the Tuolumne. Beautiful area. Once passed a truck on a skinny fire road that runs along the river. They were poking along, and I asked them what was up. They were glassing for bear on the other side of the river a neat way to cover a lot of ground. Saw my first cat tracks on that fire road too.

 

[cacklercrazy]

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.

A hunting trip that had a spooky night, but different from all the rest. Me and two buddies decided to go on one of our elk hunting trip. One of my partners dad came along for the hunt. The first night in the tent sleeping i was awoke from someone screaming and cussing then a laughter that was totally child like. I realized it was my friend's dad who was next to me in the tent making the noise. He finally stopped it,but wasn't sure if he was going to kill us or what. Next morning I ask what all that was about last night. Come to find out a few years back the old guy had some head trauma. Now some nights he screams and talks in his sleep. He doesn't remember any of it at all. Boy I sure did sleep that night. Especially when he told us to get out of the barn or he was going to kill us. Then start laughing.

 

[22lr]

Few things beat laying in a UL single wall tent all night playing "porcupine or bear."

 

[SIontheHunt]

Five years ago in the Wind River Range of Wyoming I had something repeatedly breaking logs approximately 100 ft from my tent. I was over ten miles from the Trailhead and my car was the only one there when I left and the only one there when I got back a week later. This is not an area that is well connected to other trails or used by thru hikers and they would have to go way out of their way to come in from other Trailheads. Not impossible, but very unlikely for other people to end up at this small lake I was at from a different starting point.

It was a perfectly calm night in mid June and I had just climbed into the tent for the night and started reading a book when I heard the first crash in the woods behind the tent. It sounded like maybe a tree falling, or if a large person stepped on a log and the entire thing broke. It happened again a minute later which to me ruled out "tree falling". Then it happened yet again. Then whatever was doing it was suddenly in my camp walking around the tent. I couldn't tell if it had two or four legs because my heart was thumping out of my chest and I was quickly planning my self defense if it tried to get in the tent. After awhile it was gone and nothing tried to get my food bag hanging outside of camp that night. I've never been more frightened while alone in the backcountry for sure. I'm almost certain it was a bear though. A buddy and I actually encountered a big black bear at that same lake a few years prior to this and that bear actually stood its ground while foraging right on the trail. We couldn't get it to amble away by yelling at it from a good distance away, he just looked at us and continued his business so we ended up hiking way around instead. I have always thought that was strange behavior for a Wilderness Bear. Also, someone had carved an inscription into a tree in the campsite I was at that said "Adventures with Yogi" so maybe that bear frequents the area and scares the crap out of people that camp there. Still seemed strange for a bear to be breaking logs in half repeatedly though. . . I'll never know what it truly was because I was too frightened to unzip the tent and shine my light around.

theyll break open rotten logs to get bugs out. still unnerving in the middle of the night

 

[Jxferg7]

If my wife watched that I think she would chain me to our house.

I was thinking the exact same thing watching the trailer....I’ll watch it without her ha.

 

[robtattoo]

Ever trap a mole cricket under a nylon ground sheet? That'll get your mind racing, REALLY quickly!

 

[Josh86]

Ran into some native inuit people on a recent trip north of the arctic circle in Alaska. They told us about the "little eskimos" that are said to live in the Alaskan bush. Each of the 3 natives had multiple stories of these people. One of them said he stood face to face with one but couldn't understand the native tongue. Another one told us he watched two of them build a fire on a river bank across from them 100 miles from any civilization. There was no doubt in their mind that they are real.

 

[Smithb9841]

Ran into some native inuit people on a recent trip north of the arctic circle in Alaska. They told us about the "little eskimos" that are said to live in the Alaskan bush. Each of the 3 natives had multiple stories of these people. One of them said he stood face to face with one but couldn't understand the native tongue. Another one told us he watched two of them build a fire on a river bank across from them 100 miles from any civilization. There was no doubt in their mind that they are real.

That’s something I’ve never heard of I’ll have too look that up

 

[Josh86]

That’s something I’ve never heard of I’ll have too look that up

Alaska Myths: The Little People

Pre-Script: Fantastical tales abound throughout Alaska. And much like the diverse majestic landscapes of the Great Land, its myths are equally singular and varied. Some are haunting, some humorous,…

alaskavillagetovillage.com

 

[Smithb9841]

Alaska Myths: The Little People

Pre-Script: Fantastical tales abound throughout Alaska. And much like the diverse majestic landscapes of the Great Land, its myths are equally singular and varied. Some are haunting, some humorous,…

alaskavillagetovillage.com

Thanks for posting kind of interesting not really what I thought it would be when you originally posted but it was an interesting read of a couple of the stories

 

[Oldffemt]

^^^ hahahahahahaha. The rare land whale sighting. You didn't stop for a pic? Lmao. That is gross and awkward as hell. Love this thread.

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They are definitely not rare around here!

 

[mikey1299]

I have wasted so much time reading these but they are awesome

 

[Tmuck44]

Planning on going hunting by myself in a few days, probably not the best reading!

 

[Yukon_Jack]

Let's bump this back up. These stories are great.

 

[Harpwilly]

I was hunting blacktail deer on Kodiak Island a couple years ago. We were dropped off on a beach at first light, and within five minutes saw a massive brown bear watching our every move about 25 years off the beach. Not being from Alaska and having minimal exposure to hunting in brown bear country it was eerie, even if it was expected. We carry on and end up getting to about 1000' of elevation and find a rare opening to glass from. The terrain on Kodiak is some of the most god forsaken on the planet until you get around 2000-2500' of elevation. We end up spotting a great buck at around 325 yards and decide to take the shot. He disappears over a ridgeline and out of view. 325 yards doesn't seem like a long distance, but in that terrain it took us about 45 minutes to and hour to finally track him. Knowing that we are in a race against time, we immediately get to work processing and packing it. About 15 minutes into it, we heard the bone chilling growl of a brown bear extremely close by. We immediately pop up and see what looked like a VW bus slowing walking our way. We grabbed what we could and got the F*** out of dodge. Even having spray and pistols for defense, you still feel helpless against that massive death machine. I know this is common place for folks in Alaska, but it was a hell of a first experience hunting Kodiak.

 

[505Wapiti]

Let's bump this back up. These stories are great.

yes please to this..... wondering if anyone has any stories from this season so far.

 

[Joshk358]

This is an awesome thread. I have been reading this on and off all week at work....love it!! Some super crazy stuff. Thanks guys!

 

[jlaner0408]

Found this a few years back while whitetail hunting. Ironically this is just below a place we call “The Dead Zone” since all the deer in the area funneled through this choke point during gun season in Ohio.

 

[TonySkyline]

Where abouts in Ohio is that? Maybe that is where the Wendigo sacrifice happens. You ever watch that documentary, Helltown USA?
Boston, in Summit County, Ohio

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