Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[505Wapiti]

In an attempt to validate my story from when I was a teenager, all I'll say is that I was lucky enough to grow up in a place where sitting on the porch and listening to Elk bugle in the fall was a family pastime. This was nothing I had heard before and I had already killed my first Elk by then, and been on several Elk hunts with my dad and uncle. Could it have been a bull Elk? Yes. But if it was, something was wrong with him. I take all these stories with a grain of salt though, as should everyone. So yeah It certainly could have been an Elk, or a Meth-head, either way I was creeped out.

Meth head is a real possibility! I’ve ran into my fair share of tweakers in the woods, never a good feeling when that happens.

 

[505Wapiti]

I was on BLM land one time hunting yotes. Didn’t think there was another human for miles. Left a stand after about 45 mins and a couple hundred yards up the draw I ran across a dude tweaking out of his mind, looked like he’d been living out of his truck for a few days parked down in the bottom out of sight. I drove right up on him as I was leaving and he flagged me down all freaked out and asked if I’d heard a bunch of gawd awful screaming and crazy noises. I’m assuming he was referring to my FoxPro. I just said, “nope, haven’t seen or heard anything” and got out of there as fast as possible. Dude was all twisted up. I worry about those run ins way more than bears and cats.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Went camping with my girlfriend and my wife showed up. Near death experience.

 

[Howdoyoulikemenow]

Went camping with my girlfriend and my wife showed up. Near death experience.

That's the most frightening story of this entire thread. Made me laugh like hell though....

 

[NABG Hunter]

Yeah, I was born and raised north of Paulding a ways. Went there once with friends. I was a skeptical tough guy...but I still do t know what the heck those lights are. Are definitely not car lights reflecting , etc like some say . No way possible for that. Oh well, there's a lot out there we know nothing about!

I had family live in that area for years. When did you live there?

 

[Seeknelk]

I had family live in that area for years. When did you live there?

I lived about an hour and a half north. So not too near Paulding. I grew up in da UP...moved away in 2006.

 

[NABG Hunter]

Did you ever know the Sayles Family?

 

[loewmd]

Started reading this thread last week while on a camping trip with the family and really enjoyed it. Not wanting it to end I'll share some stories but unfortunately none involve the backcountry.

First one I was hunting in KS while stationed there. Decided I needed to get further away from my house so I hooked up my camper and headed a few hours away on a solo hunt and planned to stay at a city park near where I planned on hunting. Pulled up to the first spot and there looked to be a homeless guy sleeping there so I decided I'd try the next town about 20 miles away. Pulled into that city park and there was a popup tent camper that had one side pulled out but the tent end was collapsed and it looked to be in poor shape. Decided I didn't want to risk that spot either so I just ended up pulling my camper to the area I planned on hunting and slept in the back seat of my truck on the side of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Took off my glasses and fell asleep. In the middle of the night I hear a thump on the top of my truck. I'm a fairly hard sleeper but this woke me up. I lay there motionless and just listened while I grabbed my glasses as I'm about blind without them. All the sudden I hear it again. I'm starting to freak out a little as I haven't heard any vehicles all night so I reach for my 9mm when all of the sudden I see something come slowly sliding down my windshield. I squinted into the darkness and then realized it was a racoon. I hurried up and grabbed my keys and started the truck and the coon went running for the nearby cornfield. Freaked me out for a second but I had a good laugh and quickly fell back asleep. Not real scary but our minds can really get to us sometimes. I'll share some more later.

 

[loewmd]

Another one that happened to me while hunting in the Midwest. The moon was full or near full where it lit up most of the woods. I had an uneventful hunt on some public land and used my red headlight until I made it to a trail I used to get back to my truck. Now this trail is closed to hunting on it and closed to all other activities after sunset (often gets hiked and biked on) but it's the only way to access this hunting area. Just before I reached the trail I turned off my headlight and started to walk about 1/2-3/4 mile back to my truck when I noticed a small light headed towards me on the trail. I assumed it was a hiker with a headlamp or a bike with a light on the handlebars. No big deal but didn't think I'd meet anyone after dark on this trail (thought maybe a warden or something). The light didn't appear to be moving quickly but I could tell it was between myself and my truck and ruled out a biker due to the speed unless the bike had a flat tire and was being pushed. As I walked I'd look off to the woods in the moonlight and once I got about 150 yards from the light I looked back at the trail and it was gone. Since I didn't have my light on due to the moonlight I thought I better flash mine a few times so this person knew I was coming. The light never turned back on and I stopped and grabbed my knife out of my pack in the event this person had bad intentions. I stopped every 20-30 yards to listen for movement/noise on the trail or just off the trail. I never heard or seen anything the whole way back to the truck. I have no idea what the light was but I know it was not the moon reflecting off anything as the trail was dirt and no water on any of it and this light was in the very middle of the trail. I quickly packed up my stuff at the truck and headed home. After reading all these stories it makes me wonder if someone was able to jump off the side of the trail and watch me pass by without me seeing them. Not saying it was aliens or a ghost or anything but I never have been able to figure out what that light was that night.

 

[Bighunt531]

Reading the last few has reminded me of a story from when I was about 15. I was visiting a friend of mine that I grew up with in a mountain community of Colorado at about 9,000 ft (location withheld so nobody shows up at one my best creepy experience spots).

It was a beautiful September day and my friend's parents had taken us into town to run errands and have lunch. We decided on a whim to walk back to their house instead of ride back with the parents. This was about an 8 mile journey that took us all afternoon, and to shorten our walk at one point we decided to cut across part of a large piece of an old private ranch that as far as we could tell then was unoccupied. There was an old ranch house that looked very run down but was otherwise a wide open valley with dense forest on all sides and perfect looking Elk habitat. As we were ascending an open mountainside through this property we passed closely by an island of Aspens approximately an acre in size. When we got to within about 75 yards of this aspen stand we heard the loudest most blood curdling scream I've ever heard, followed by large branches breaking, and the sound of something large just absolutely thrashing about in there. We stopped walking and stood there for maybe 3 seconds before breaking into a sprint up to the ridge. Once to the ridge we started descending a steep downfall ridden north facing slope at speeds that were unsafe and we are lucky to have not been hurt. We stopped when we had finally reached the dirt county road in the next valley. To this day I remember the scream and the incredible anger and volume. Most vividly though, I still remember not feeling safe at all in broad daylight. It's actually one of the few times I can remember feeling like my life was just threatened, and I could be in real trouble. Not a good feeling at any age. Whatever made the scream was clearly directing it at us as we were talking loudly and walking out in the open and clearly came too close to its Aspen stand. We were only 15 to be sure, but we had grown up exploring the woods, hunting with our dads and encountering bears and other wildlife so we weren't complete outdoor idiots. That area has since been acquired by the county it's in and turned into a popular open space with biking and hiking trails, but back then it was a very seldom if ever visited area.

Could of been a cat

 

[DuckDogDr]

Several years ago, had an annual trip to Northern New Mexico for antelope hunting. Ranch we were hunting was huge..far more land than I can fathom. Like 10k+ acres, and the farmer had just purchased another 3k acres 20-30 miles away for additional cattle and grazing etc.

Most of us had tagged out and were hanging around the camp house, when the rancher offered us to shoot prairie dogs smaller property tract...
Now this tract was not connected through main routes was through all back country. Just miles of woods /grassland

On the way out there (about 18 miles) ..we passed an abandoned house ..looked like something from the 1800's.. farmer had never checked it out ..we got out to look around

There were pentagrams and a hanging sheep hide from the rafters...we quickly got out of there..rancher didn't seem as rattled as us, but needless to say I didn't use all my bullets on the prairie dogs....and I didn't sleep well that night.


Crazy thing is...I now have 5 devil worshippers I work with ...

 

[Rusty Shackelford]

This is a great thread. Following to make sure I don't sleep too comfortably on my hunts.

 

[Rokbar]

Another one that happened to me while hunting in the Midwest. The moon was full or near full where it lit up most of the woods. I had an uneventful hunt on some public land and used my red headlight until I made it to a trail I used to get back to my truck. Now this trail is closed to hunting on it and closed to all other activities after sunset (often gets hiked and biked on) but it's the only way to access this hunting area. Just before I reached the trail I turned off my headlight and started to walk about 1/2-3/4 mile back to my truck when I noticed a small light headed towards me on the trail. I assumed it was a hiker with a headlamp or a bike with a light on the handlebars. No big deal but didn't think I'd meet anyone after dark on this trail (thought maybe a warden or something). The light didn't appear to be moving quickly but I could tell it was between myself and my truck and ruled out a biker due to the speed unless the bike had a flat tire and was being pushed. As I walked I'd look off to the woods in the moonlight and once I got about 150 yards from the light I looked back at the trail and it was gone. Since I didn't have my light on due to the moonlight I thought I better flash mine a few times so this person knew I was coming. The light never turned back on and I stopped and grabbed my knife out of my pack in the event this person had bad intentions. I stopped every 20-30 yards to listen for movement/noise on the trail or just off the trail. I never heard or seen anything the whole way back to the truck. I have no idea what the light was but I know it was not the moon reflecting off anything as the trail was dirt and no water on any of it and this light was in the very middle of the trail. I quickly packed up my stuff at the truck and headed home. After reading all these stories it makes me wonder if someone was able to jump off the side of the trail and watch me pass by without me seeing them. Not saying it was aliens or a ghost or anything but I never have been able to figure out what that light was that night.

Another hunter trying to avoid others?

 

[Sooner]

Not really creepy, just kind of strange. We were camping in grand mesa CO back in 06 or 07. We had fished all day and found a place to camp on one of the little lakes. As we were sitting up camp this little old man pulled up and started talking to us. (Everyone stops and talks to my dad, now this curse has been passed to me hah). He was telling us about Ghost grizzlies. He told a story of how there was two cowboys that had been attacked maybe back in the 1800’s or early 1900’s. Anyways the story went one of them was killed and the other got injured and ended up dying in a cave. Elk hunter’s years later ended up finding his remains and a journal where it told of what happened. Fast forward to just before dark. This little mule deer doe came up to camp. She started circling our tents. She started at about 20 yards and just continuously walked circles all night. You’d wake up and hear her. By the morning she was still circling we just figured she was protecting us all night. No telling what she was really doing.

 

[Wib]

Several years ago, had an annual trip to Northern New Mexico for antelope hunting. Ranch we were hunting was huge..far more land than I can fathom. Like 10k+ acres, and the farmer had just purchased another 3k acres 20-30 miles away for additional cattle and grazing etc.

Most of us had tagged out and were hanging around the camp house, when the rancher offered us to shoot prairie dogs smaller property tract...
Now this tract was not connected through main routes was through all back country. Just miles of woods /grassland

On the way out there (about 18 miles) ..we passed an abandoned house ..looked like something from the 1800's.. farmer had never checked it out ..we got out to look around

There were pentagrams and a hanging sheep hide from the rafters...we quickly got out of there..rancher didn't seem as rattled as us, but needless to say I didn't use all my bullets on the prairie dogs....and I didn't sleep well that night.


Crazy thing is...I now have 5 devil worshippers I work with ...

Where would one possibly work where you'd be with 5 known satanists, Facebook? I mean, they aren't all that common and I would guess most keep quiet about it. Or not....?

 

[Nillion]

Let me just say a red fox screaming in the predawn hours while you try to creep in the woods to set up on a turkey can scare the piss out of you.

For those not aware of how they sound.

 

[mattyharge]

Strangest experience I've had is coming across someone in the pitch black turkey woods who was clearly up to no good. Being that this was a rural and houses within a mile or less of here it had to be drug related. Once my buddy racked his shotgun, he moved out pretty quickly to the road and we didn't see him again. People are by far more dangerous and unpredictable than any animal you'll encounter IMO.

 

[loewmd]

Another hunter trying to avoid others?

Could have been. It didn't totally creep me out but I just found it really strange and haven't been able to explain it. The direction on the trail the light was headed would have had to be a few miles to the next parking area and there was no public in the direction the light came from. Most hunters who are strictly hunting private would not be on this trail as they would have better access and even if they did use it for access it would have made more sense to park on the road by my truck. It won't stop me from hunting there in the future but just odd.

 

[DuckDogDr]

Where would one possibly work where you'd be with 5 known satanists, Facebook? I mean, they aren't all that common and I would guess most keep quiet about it. Or not....?

Wib ..I agree I would think not that common myself..but the veterinary world in the big city gets stranger every year.
I live in the country but commute to the big city of Birmingham (not that big).

My technicians are pretty open about it..one brags about sleeping in a coffin and has a goat skull above her baby crib...
The other one who is really open about it brings her books to read during slow periods

 

[loewmd]

I'll tell one more hunting related story but not necessarily creepy but I think the experience would have scared almost any hunter. We were pushing a corn field towards a 80ac woodlot. About halfway through the standing cornfield I hear a very muffled gunshot. Heard some yelling but everyone was making noise during this portion so people knew where everyone was at and I figured the shot came from the standers way at the other end. Once the push was over I found out nobody on stand had seen anything worth shooting and come to find out it was my brother who had shot when he was in the cornfield. Someone had jumped up a black bear (should have been hibernating) and it ran across the rows until it got to his row and for whatever reason turned and headed right for him. My brother said he didn't even have time to get his gun shouldered and shot from the hip due to how close the bear was and closing even faster. Lucky for him he made an instantly lethal shot. He claims the bear was moving so fast it slid in the mud after he shot and came to rest 1-2 steps from him. He was shaking pretty bad even 20+ minutes later at the end of the push. Safe to say he was lucky that day. That's it for creepy hunting stories from me but I do have a ghost story that is non-hunting related if people want to hear it.