Creepy experiences in the backcountry

Tried spot and stalking some hogs this weekend. Pretty sure I was within 20 yards, just on the other side of a palmetto thicket.

Took a step hunched over down a trail leading into the palmettos and about stepped on some birds that flushed straight up into my face. That got the blood flowing
 
Tried spot and stalking some hogs this weekend. Pretty sure I was within 20 yards, just on the other side of a palmetto thicket.

Took a step hunched over down a trail leading into the palmettos and about stepped on some birds that flushed straight up into my face. That got the blood flowing
That has potential to create a need for sacrificing a sock.
 
We’re all worried about bears, wolves, and lions. It’s the friggin owls we gotta watch out for!
You got that right. I killed a buck back in the 90's up high in the Ruby's and overnighted up on a ridge under a juniper. I woke up and needed to roll over off my hip that was killing me and something seemed to be fluttering above my head. Grabbed my headlamp and flipped it on only to about have a heart attack with a giant owl hovering over my head at arms reach. I scrunched deeper under that little tree after that!
 
My brother once saw a giant wolf, So big you'll think it was a black bear. It looked at him and walked pass. He has never been in the woods alone since then.
 
About 12 years ago my sister and I were camping outside of Moab. Hanging out by the fire all of a sudden we start seeing these lights floating across the sky. No roads back there so they are not cars lights. Just keep seeing one every half hour for the rest of the night. A couple years later I watch Hangover 2 and realize people were setting off floating lanterns and they weren’t some type of alien spacecrafts.
 
The only thing worse than hearing banjos in the woods is hearing electronic music lol.

Hog hunting a WMA I went back in there DEEP (for Florida standards) and was about 1.5 miles back. Crossed a swamp, went across a 100’ wide knee deep, grassy, black water river (think prime gator habitat), crossed some more swamp.

Find a tree dropping persimmons with sign all around, find a comfortable tree to sit against, and think how I probably have the place all to myself considering everything I had to cross to get there.

Then the EDM music starts blaring, had to be within 100 yards of me. I’m pissed, but also impressed because of the logistics and dedication it would have taken to get it out there. Sounded louder than double 15 subs, no clue how they dragged it that far back and across the river.

Music gets closer, until I can hear people screaming over it. Music turns off and sounds like about 3 people are moving pretty close to me but not talking.

Music turns on again after about 10 seconds, I hightailed it out of there circling way around.

Very weird deal, most likely just some weird folks throwing a weird party. And if that is the case, while I didn’t appreciate it, there’s a chance they didn’t see me and they have just as much right to be on public land.

But my gut was really leaning towards something was off. I didn’t see any reason to argue it.
Ive also pushed myself to the backside of some remote WMA's in Florida just to find a bunch of bubbas partying in their airboats....... I need an airboat :)
 
About a decade ago, I went looking for deer sheds in a new place here in NE Oregon. I had a pretty good day and picked up a few buck horns. As a chronic sufferer from next-ridge-itis, I was still a few miles from my truck as it was getting dark. I had stupidly left my headlight in the truck, so I knew it was going to be a long evening fumbling in the snow and deadfall timber.

Right at dark, I heard a wolf howl in the bottom of the canyon maybe 3/4 mile directly downhill (big country). I thought to myself “well that’s pretty cool,” then heard another respond a few hundred yards closer. I was really enjoying the experience until another responded ~100yd behind me in the pitch black timber with a much deeper, gut-wrenching howl.

After a moment of silence, the surrounding area ignited with howls in every which direction. No longer really enjoying the experience, I unstrapped a 4pt shed to protect myself, and began the trek towards my truck—which was right in line with the source of the deep, commanding howl.

So off I go, in the pitch black timber, in a remote area I had never been before, with nothing but a 60” shed to protect myself. Meanwhile the wolves were communicating back and forth, until the alpha would howl and shut them up momentarily with the eeriest howl you can imagine. This continues as I make my way through the woods, however every time the alpha would howl it was still ~100yd behind me. After this happens a few times, I get a solid idea of what is taking place—it’s following me. All I can do is keep hiking.

After a while, I make it back to a trail, and scoot pretty quickly back to my truck. Upon reviewing google Earth later that night and identifying landmarks, I determined that the wolf stayed right behind me for ~2.5 miles as I fumbled my way in a V-shaped line back to my truck. The next day and subsequent weekends, I went back (properly armed) and counted at least 10 wolves in that pack, and was able to identify the alpha based on his howl—a big old gray colored one.

I’ve had cats creep up on me at night, had my share of supernatural experiences (none backcountry related, thankfully), but nothing will make a guy feel more vulnerable than walking through the pitch black woods, without a headlight, without a side-arm, not really knowing where he’s going (pre OnX or GPS for me), and being followed by the alpha wolf. Needless to say, I now always carry a headlight, batteries, and some form of protection on me at all times.
Sounds like he was escorting you out of his territory
 
Spill it! Can't just leave us hanging like that!;)

I think it was the summer of 1999. Rode horses back into the wilderness on the NE corner of Yellowstone Ntl Park to fish Crandall Creek (sunlight basin area) with my dad’s buddy that lived in Cody. It was bad enough I was scared to death of grizzlies in the area and lying wide awake next to the camp fire, but then next thing while gazing up at the stars, we spotted them.

Saw a couple shooting stars going straight across horizon. Occasional satellite moving too. But then we spotted I think 2 or 3 objects beyond the atmosphere traveling back and forth repeatedly and changing directions. It appeared like their route was like a box. They weren’t doing circles but were outlining a box with sharp corners when they traveled. All 2 or 3 of them did this for a few minutes.

And this wasn’t over a vast area of space. When looking up from the ground they only appeared to be moving within a few feet of where they originally were. You didn’t need to move your eyes much at all to watch the movement is what I’m saying. But you could tell it wasn’t airplanes because of how faint they were. They didn’t have blinking lights. They looked exactly like a star with faint light but they were moving. They blended in with the either stars except that they were moving. This went on for a few minutes and then they just either stopped moving or disappeared (can’t rem). But they definitely didn’t jet off across the horizon.

Every time my dad and I go hunting or fishing out west, he brings that up when we are star gazing at night.


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I think next time I go hunting out in some remote wilderness area I’m gonna bring my drone to mess with people :-)


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I think it was the summer of 1999. Rode horses back into the wilderness on the NE corner of Yellowstone Ntl Park to fish Crandall Creek (sunlight basin area) with my dad’s buddy that lived in Cody. It was bad enough I was scared to death of grizzlies in the area and lying wide awake next to the camp fire, but then next thing while gazing up at the stars, we spotted them.

Saw a couple shooting stars going straight across horizon. Occasional satellite moving too. But then we spotted I think 2 or 3 objects beyond the atmosphere traveling back and forth repeatedly and changing directions. It appeared like their route was like a box. They weren’t doing circles but were outlining a box with sharp corners when they traveled. All 2 or 3 of them did this for a few minutes.

And this wasn’t over a vast area of space. When looking up from the ground they only appeared to be moving within a few feet of where they originally were. You didn’t need to move your eyes much at all to watch the movement is what I’m saying. But you could tell it wasn’t airplanes because of how faint they were. They didn’t have blinking lights. They looked exactly like a star with faint light but they were moving. They blended in with the either stars except that they were moving. This went on for a few minutes and then they just either stopped moving or disappeared (can’t rem). But they definitely didn’t jet off across the horizon.

Every time my dad and I go hunting or fishing out west, he brings that up when we are star gazing at night.


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Shooting star traveling AWAY from earth? Kind of corkscrewing as it goes? Or was it really square?
 
I’ll share again I guess.
My cousin and I were on our second elk hunt. It was rifle season in the Oregon Cascades. We had been hunting hard and we’re pretty much exhausted from hiking and trying to locate elk. We decided that we would hit up a small valley that everyone else was avoiding due to terrain and vegetation. (Beginning of our backpack hunting)

We left camp at 3am and set out to a point that overlooked a corner of an old burn that had a small river flowing through the bottom. After a couple hours of fighting with rhododendrons we came out to the burn and shortly after we got to our destination.

About noon we were deciding that no animals existed in the area and were about to leave when I just happened to glance over at a patch of blowdown and saw a nice 5x5 stand up. I blurted out BULL! Thankfully he was far enough away that I didn’t spook him. After a while of trying to decide what to do, we got close enough (or so I thought) for a reasonable shot.
I missed twice. After a few minutes of looking around he trotted down to a meadow that was significantly deeper into the burn and valley.

We decided to get closer and try again. We made it to a little hill that looked over the meadow but were running out of light and the wind was all wrong. By this point the bull and his small herd had bedded down just off to the side of the meadow.

We were around four to five miles from the camp and had some really gnarly terrain to get through. I figured we probably wouldn’t get another chance at the bull if we left and thought the herd might stay and come back out to feed in the morning.

We went to the back side of the little hill and made a half ass shelter with rocks and sticks. I made a small fire and we went to sleep. I awoke in the middle of the night to my phone vibrating. It was a message from my wife on my garmin. She said that she hoped we were able to make it back to the truck because the weather forecast called for three feet of snow in the higher elevations of the Cascades.

I was thinking about how crappy the situation had become when I started hearing strange sounds coming from the bottom of the hill, down by the water. It sounded like a mix of laughter and crying with some noises almost sounding metallic. Think rusty gate hinges. I woke my cousin up and he was just as disturbed by it as I was. We stayed silent and just listened. It was down right creepy and lasted until around 4am. Needless to say we didn’t sleep.

We did see the elk again but didn’t take a shot because of the upcoming storm. Never figured out what the noise was either.
 
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