Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[idelkslayer]

Not a super exciting story but one that creeped me out nonetheless. It was more so a scaredy cat moment on my part haha

Me and my girlfriend, now wife, did a road trip out to Haida Gwaii back in 2017. We walked on the fairy and rented an older ford truck on the island. The whole island kinda gave me an eery feeling, just being in this weird overgrown rainforest environment that i was not used to. Lots of people seemingly squatting on crown land everywhere as well.

Anyway, after a day of crabbing, we jumped in the truck and were looking for somewhere to set up a camp. we had been just setting up down old logging roads. We took a turn off the highway onto one and kept following it, thinking we might get a good spot with a view. The trail kept getting narrower and narrower the farther we went. Way the hell back in there, we hit a small clearing, with a very narrow trail exiting the back. It seemed like a good spot and the trail looked like it would lead to a river. There were no tracks into the clearing so it seemed we would have some privacy. We got out of the truck and it was just impenetrable regrowth on every side of the clearing, and I was getting that hair standing up on the back of my neck feeling. Kind of a hills have eyes feeling. The sun was going down and the thick brush accelerated it. We decide to check out the narrow trail down to the river but i get maybe five steps down the trail and glance down and sitting in the middle of the trail, on top of the grass and soft soil, is a single kids cats eye marble. it looked like it could have been dropped moments earlier. Freaked me out for some reason and we got out of there.

It was probably the fairies playing tricks on you since you walked on them earlier.

 

[NickKreutz]

It was probably the fairies playing tricks on you since you walked on them earlier.

Hahaha damn i knew i was spelling that wrong as I was posting it. FERRY.

 

[Trackerbacker]

2 days, halfway through.

My God I'm not telling the wife about half of these.. life insurance policy would be to good a motive for her to have me hunt more!

 

[PacNW]

This thread is a gem

 

[Forestryguy]

Not hunting related. When I was in the Army in GA we got to move into brand new barracks. One night while we were all hanging out a handle of Jack slammed into the wall. We were all in a room and it was on the counter in the kitchenette. Come to find out supposedly the area had been a village or burial ground.

I have heard from my cousin that there are some areas North of Fort Collins that are pretty creepy. So much so that some of the Wildland guys refuse to stay the night in certain areas.

 

[quaggy25]

Not hunting related. When I was in the Army in GA we got to move into brand new barracks. One night while we were all hanging out a handle of Jack slammed into the wall. We were all in a room and it was on the counter in the kitchenette. Come to find out supposedly the area had been a village or burial ground.

I have heard from my cousin that there are some areas North of Fort Collins that are pretty creepy. So much so that some of the Wildland guys refuse to stay the night in certain areas.

Ok I need more of a description than this. How many there, what were you doing and what happened when a bottle of Jack slammed into a wall?

 

[JPD350]

I was going to write a big long story but I don't have the time right now so this is a condensed version of my hopefully once in a lifetime creepy backcountry experience.
So I was packed in the Gila wilderness a few miles on a solo elk hunt, this was an area that you had to pack water in so it was not a friendly place. On the 11th day of the hunt I was approaching my Sawtooth tipi at the end of the day and right before dark. As I neared the tipi I noticed that it looked like the door was opened up, my first thought was that a bear ripped it open because there are plenty of them in this area. The hair on my neck immediately stood up, I had no side arm so I grabbed an arrow out of my quiver and continued towards my tipi, to my surprise the door was not ripped open but just unzipped, I was thinking WTF! so now I am about 20ft from the tipi and the evening light had about 5 to 10 minutes left until dark. As I am looking into the tipi I see movement.......then some person sits up inside........again I was like WTF!! at that point I yelled who the F are you and WTF are you doing in my tipi and WTF are you doing in my sleeping bag!! he replies I wasn't in your bag I was just laying down on top, I got lost and I thought the owner left it out here and went to town. So he starts to come out of the tipi and as he did I was pointing my arrow at him, I said put your hands where I can see them which he did. This guy looked wicked crazy!! long scraggy black hair, big yellow teeth and blood all over his clothes, he was also muttering over and over I didn't do what they said I did.........................
Lol just kidding, he looked like a 6ft tall 55 year old balding white guy wearing glasses, dressed in street clothes, sneakers, no backpack, no jacket, no gear at all. He said he was with his friends who had killed an elk earlier that day and he got separated. I fired off a few questions trying to make heads or tails of his story but it went in a couple directions and didn't make much sense, something was not right. As I was questioning him he just started walking away, I am like hey you can't go without a light, I have a spare light and you can just put it at the junction of the main road and I'll find it but the dude just kept walking away. Now this place is a rocky SOB and the nights at the time were super dark until about 2am, a person would not do well trying to walk around without a light.
So the dude started walking away and wouldn't take any help, at that point I thought oh shit check your gear. I quickly go in the tipi and notice that all my stuff had been moved from where I had placed them and then I see that my dinner water was gone and the F'er wasn't on top of my sleeping bag he was in the darn thing!! I ran out of the tipi and shouted some things towards his direction, I was basically out of water and not happy about him drinking my last water for dinner, I know he probably needed it but I needed it as well, I had just covered a bunch of miles that day plus I had been out there busting my ass for 11 days.
To rap this story up, I cleaned my gear the best I could because just the thought of someone in my bag bothered me very much, I had some wet wipes and paper towels but even after that I still felt violated. Now this guy was out there in the darkness and probably wasn't very far away so I left my light on inside the tipi then sat about 20 yds away just watching and listening for about an hour incase he came back, I didn't get much rest that night.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

I was going to write a big long story but I don't have the time right now so this is a condensed version of my hopefully once in a lifetime creepy backcountry experience.
So I was packed in the Gila wilderness a few miles on a solo elk hunt, this was an area that you had to pack water in so it was not a friendly place. On the 11th day of the hunt I was approaching my Sawtooth tipi at the end of the day and right before dark. As I neared the tipi I noticed that it looked like the door was opened up, my first thought was that a bear ripped it open because there are plenty of them in this area. The hair on my neck immediately stood up, I had no side arm so I grabbed an arrow out of my quiver and continued towards my tipi, to my surprise the door was not ripped open but just unzipped, I was thinking WTF! so now I am about 20ft from the tipi and the evening light had about 5 to 10 minutes left until dark. As I am looking into the tipi I see movement.......then some person sits up inside........again I was like WTF!! at that point I yelled who the F are you and WTF are you doing in my tipi and WTF are you doing in my sleeping bag!! he replies I wasn't in your bag I was just laying down on top, I got lost and I thought the owner left it out here and went to town. So he starts to come out of the tipi and as he did I was pointing my arrow at him, I said put your hands where I can see them which he did. This guy looked wicked crazy!! long scraggy black hair, big yellow teeth and blood all over his clothes, he was also muttering over and over I didn't do what they said I did.........................
Lol just kidding, he looked like a 6ft tall 55 year old balding white guy wearing glasses, dressed in street clothes, sneakers, no backpack, no jacket, no gear at all. He said he was with his friends who had killed an elk earlier that day and he got separated. I fired off a few questions trying to make heads or tails of his story but it went in a couple directions and didn't make much sense, something was not right. As I was questioning him he just started walking away, I am like hey you can't go without a light, I have a spare light and you can just put it at the junction of the main road and I'll find it but the dude just kept walking away. Now this place is a rocky SOB and the nights at the time were super dark until about 2am, a person would not do well trying to walk around without a light.
So the dude started walking away and wouldn't take any help, at that point I thought oh shit check your gear. I quickly go in the tipi and notice that all my stuff had been moved from where I had placed them and then I see that my dinner water was gone and the F'er wasn't on top of my sleeping bag he was in the darn thing!! I ran out of the tipi and shouted some things towards his direction, I was basically out of water and not happy about him drinking my last water for dinner, I know he probably needed it but I needed it as well, I had just covered a bunch of miles that day plus I had been out there busting my ass for 11 days.
To rap this story up, I cleaned my gear the best I could because just the thought of someone in my bag bothered me very much, I had some wet wipes and paper towels but even after that I still felt violated. Now this guy was out there in the darkness and probably wasn't very far away so I left my light on inside the tipi then sat about 20 yds away just watching and listening for about an hour incase he came back, I didn't get much rest that night.

So he was covered in blood from the Elk his buddies supposedly had killed earlier? Weird story man, I may have packed up camp and moved a good distance after that.

 

[Forestryguy]

Ok I need more of a description than this. How many there, what were you doing and what happened when a bottle of Jack slammed into a wall?

Four of us hanging out and playing video games. Bottle hit wall and shattered on floor. We all just looked at each other trying to figure out what just happened. Someone looked out and saw the bottle shattered. Everyone could see each other and no one had been out of the room for several minutes.

 

[PSA]

My somewhat scary moment was when I was camping at my very remote recreational 160 acre ranch which I did almost every weekend and usually alone. I was actually in a small toy hauler that is left there. I was sleeping with the ramp down to enjoy the crisp air. My bunk is right there where the ramp was open. It was totally black out, no moon. I could not see past my arm. I sleep very light and always have my .357 at my side and a shotgun or AR15 nearby. Something woke me and there was the foulest smell coming from the ramp area of the trailer mere feet away. I quickly got up with pistol in hand and seconds later by the time I was armed and shined a spot light outside, whatever it was took off. Not sure what is was, but there are tons of blackie's out there I have seen. Most likely a snooping bear, but that smell I will never forget. It must have been pretty darn close for me to get such a strong odor from whatever it was. I bought battery operated motion detectors and motion lights and put them in strategic places to alert me with more advance notice should that happen again. Those motion detectors came in handy on more then one occasion when it involved people (poachers) walking in. I personally feel safer when it is pitch black. Don't know why, but I never sleep with a light on or with any illumination at all if I can help it. I just feel safer in pitch black. Mostly because I don't want people to see any light from a distance and come into my camp. I just feel vulnerable with a light on. Remote, but there are people who show up from time to time nearby as there is a camp ground about a half mile from my pad and honestly, I fear people far more then animals in remote forest land.

 

[M-Wig]

I personally feel safer when it is pitch black. Don't know why, but I never sleep with a light on or with any illumination at all if I can help it. I just feel safer in pitch black. Mostly because I don't want people to see any light from a distance and come into my camp. I just feel vulnerable with a light on. Remote, but there are people who show up from time to time nearby as there is a camp ground about a half mile from my pad and honestly, I fear people far more then animals in remote forest land.

Completely agree. I do my best to stay invisible when camping. The thing I hate most about a tent is not being able to see out.

 

[JPD350]

Completely agree. I do my best to stay invisible when camping. The thing I hate most about a tent is not being able to see out.

No doubt about it, when you are blind to the world that is exactly what you are.
A few weeks back I was down by the NM border deer hunting, I had seen numerous drug smugglers and their spotters. Anyway I was sitting in the tipi eating dinner and thinking about the craziness I had seen over the past days and all of a sudden I start hearing a pretty heavy sniffing pattern right outside the tipi, it was going to town trying to smell my dinner that I stopped eating mid bite. I listened to it for a couple minutes then I growled at whatever it was and it went away. Lol I knew it wasn't a hungry drug smuggler but they were on my mind, I did think at one point it could be a mountain lion but the huffing was pretty loud so I figured it was some Javalina since there were tracks everywhere. The thing is when you are in the tent you are for the most part oblivious to what is out there. I do love the feeling of being out there in the wild, I just don't want people encounters.

 

[stonewall]

My close encounters aren’t necessarily creepy, one a little scary, one funny. Good enough to share I suppose:

I started hunting at 12. My dad and I had a archery lease in the TX hill country. My stand was about 1.5 miles from camp. I did have my fair share of seeing things in the dark walking to and from. But I guess at some point I got comfortable enough to not use a flashlight. It was a full moon. When I was very nearly back to camp, the “cow pie” I was about to step over in the road started rattling. Turns out it was a coiled up western diamondback

A subsequent year I was walking to my stand (with a flashlight) and out of the corner of my eye I saw a moving yucca plant. I froze. Shined light on it. Turns out it was a skunk with it’s fluffy tail up. The skunk just kept doing whatever skunks do. It ended up walking literally within a foot of me. I stayed motionless. It eventually meandered off. And I continued on my way.

 

[kda082]

I saw a skunk walking back to my truck through a cow pasture one night. My brain processed it as a small monkey as the tail was up and it was charging at me. it took a few seconds to process what it actually was and I got the hell out of there. A monkey, what the hell is wrong with my brain?

 

[Anschutz]

My close encounters aren’t necessarily creepy, one a little scary, one funny. Good enough to share I suppose:

I started hunting at 12. My dad and I had a archery lease in the TX hill country. My stand was about 1.5 miles from camp. I did have my fair share of seeing things in the dark walking to and from. But I guess at some point I got comfortable enough to not use a flashlight. It was a full moon. When I was very nearly back to camp, the “cow pie” I was about to step over in the road started rattling. Turns out it was a coiled up western diamondback

A subsequent year I was walking to my stand (with a flashlight) and out of the corner of my eye I saw a moving yucca plant. I froze. Shined light on it. Turns out it was a skunk with it’s fluffy tail up. The skunk just kept doing whatever skunks do. It ended up walking literally within a foot of me. I stayed motionless. It eventually meandered off. And I continued on my way.

Man I hate nope ropes with a passion except king snakes. Those guys hate the same snakes I hate.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

[Zdub02]

This past deer season I wrap up an evening deer hunt and am walking the road out back to my truck. Head lamps on red light and I'm trying to be halfway quiet. I walk up to something glowing off the side of the road. I get closer and it's the embers of a fire. I don't see anyone immediately around but some creeper has got to be around to have trespassed on the property and built a fire right off the road. I triple time it back to the truck throw my gear in and high tail it out of there. Im driving back home and start to think.... there was no smoke, why would some random person build a fire there? I had my red light on. Then it hits me.... there was a silver mylar balloon off the road that reflected my red light to look just like a fire. I'm an idiot.

Moral of the story is, be careful reading creepy stories on an internet forum before you walk out of the woods with a red light on.

 

[505Wapiti]

Have we squeezed all the good out of this one yet? Bump for more.

 

[Gen273]

I agree; we can not let this thread die.

 

[OdinIII]

Picture a 10 year old Odin laying prone in full head to toe green woodland BDU style clothes complete with Boonie hat and trusty 760 Pump Master carried sideways across my arms. I was doing my best to emulate Carlos Hathcock as I crawled down a deep gully at the bottom of a valley. The gully started about 6' deep with steep sides then slowly became more shallow which was perfect to cover my movements so Charlie wouldn't see me as I eased toward my objective. I squirrel and rabbit hunted these woods daily mainly just enjoying the woods and to pass time. As I neared a house that aligned with the wash I knew that I would soon run out of room and would have to reverse course back toward home. Just as the shop behind the house came into view I heard a shot. My first thought was cool, maybe I'll meet a new friend to hang out with. Then back into sniper mode I decided to sit tight and see what happened. Soon, I heard foot steps coming my way in the dry hardwood leaves. Things were about to get real as I prepared to have to explain why I'm hunting here because I had no idea who lived there although I'm sure they knew my parents. I'm still a little too deep in the wash to see outside so I just wait and listen for the footsteps to get closer. Then I see a black bag land in the wash about 20 feet in front of me and then the footsteps begin going away from me. I do what any 10 year old would do and crawl toward the bag. When I get to the bag it is obviously a black trash bag. I'm laying there with my head only inches away from the bag. I guess I was hoping there may be some alcohol or adult reading materials inside. I poked the bag with my barrel and it seemed like whatever is in it was soft and flexible. I reached out and began looking for the opening of the bag. I begin rolling the bag and the object finally fell out exposing a bloody mouth complete with a large fang about 8" from my face. For a split second I remember thinking I had met my end. I don't think it would have scared me had I not been laying down and the fang so close. It turned out to be just a large black housecat that had crossed this neighbor. He never knew I was there and that's definitely the scariest thing I've found in the woods.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

When I was a senior in High School my buddy's and I went camping (we lived in mountains on Front Range of CO) and upon arriving to our campsite we walked to the edge of a nearby cliff where we found a .22 pistol tucked inside a manilla folder with with what looked like tax documents. I wanted to keep the .22 but my friends were freaked out by it and called the Sheriff's office. The deputy that met us told us to start looking around for a body so we did for about 30 minutes and then the deputy left which was a relief because we could finally start drinking beer.

I'm running out of stories, you guys need to step it up!