Creepy experiences in the backcountry

Bowhunting elk in Idaho, solo backpacking about 3 miles in, and I spent the late morning cow calling to a bull who wouldn’t budge from the thick timber across a draw. We called to each for about an hour before I decided to just back off and come back with a different approach in the afternoon.

I was heading back to camp and come across a nice wallow in the timber. I wanted a photo so I took my pack off to get to the camera and then started walking back the way I came several yards to get one showing the whole area. As I’m holding the camera out, I notice movement off to my right.

A mountain lion was walking away from me at about 15 yards. It walked to maybe 40 yards out, stopped and looked at me for a moment. It then started walking towards me a few yards and stopped. That’s where it became an “oh $h!t” moment as my pistol was on my pack, laying 15 feet away. I almost turned to run and grab it but caught myself, knowing that was a bad move. Instead, I kept facing it and walked backwards and was able to get the gun. I then took a few steps towards the cat, which then began casually walking away. I took a shot towards it, not to hit it, but to discourage it from even thinking about turning around.

It's possible the lion was already near that wallow and we just happened to meet. Or, the creepier feeling is that it came in to my cow calling and followed me for 300-ish yards though the timber. And that whole time I didn’t have any idea that cat was just a few leaps away behind me. No ‘felt like being watched’, no ‘hairs standing up’. Just clueless me zip-a-dee-doo-dah-ing my way through the trees, thinking about my Mountain House lunch and taking a nap.

I did take a photo when it was at its farthest point. I have a red box around where it is. The second image is zoomed-in to that box. You can see sunshine splashed on a big, downed log between us… that’s where it walked to and put both front paws on the top while watching me. Pretty bold for that cat knowing what I was… knowing I was looking at it… and still felt comfortable approaching.
 

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My personal one from duck hunting with the in-laws a few months ago:
We're in a boat, and start hearing some odd sounds behind us..almost like yodeling.

We vaguely see someone walking back there, in a white coat (clearly not hunting). Later on after firing a shot off at a bird..we hear someone yelling from that direction "go home, you're not supposed to be here"...then more weird yelling/yodeling.

Behind that area was what looked like a cabin with a caved-in roof..most likely a meth den unfortunately.

Definitely on the creepy side.


not my personal, but read about this one last year.

Scantily clad 'witches' caught munching on deer carcass in bizarre security cam footage​




witches1.jpg



​

​

 
This happened yesterday. although i wasn't in the back country we were pretty far back off the beaten path. went to look at a large property that we are putting a bid together to develop (350 acres). we had to go about a mile down a gravel road, that was more of an old logging road no houses. got to the gate and i open it and close it back but dont lock the gate and leave the chain just hanging. we were in there for over an hour. one road in and out, no turns before where we parked at. going back out i go to open the gate and the chain is back around the gate and locked now. we never heard or saw another vehicle. give me a little chill.
 
AleksanderSuave said:
My personal one from duck hunting with the in-laws a few months ago:
We're in a boat, and start hearing some odd sounds behind us..almost like yodeling.

We vaguely see someone walking back there, in a white coat (clearly not hunting). Later on after firing a shot off at a bird..we hear someone yelling from that direction "go home, you're not supposed to be here"...then more weird yelling/yodeling.

Behind that area was what looked like a cabin with a caved-in roof..most likely a meth den unfortunately.

Definitely on the creepy side.


not my personal, but read about this one last year.

Scantily clad 'witches' caught munching on deer carcass in bizarre security cam footage​




witches1.jpg



​

​

Click to expand...
Guess the old man said he wasn't going to take the girls out for a meal.
 
Had a few strange encounters but nothing scared me as much as when I was a kid walking an old logging road. I was just walking normally and literally from under my foot exploded a grouse and took off. I couldn't even form any words it scared me out so bad, only gibberish came out lol.
 
One weird one was about 2 or so years ago, just walking in the forest mushroom picking on a beautiful and calm day. Out of nowhere a small tree fell or was tossed about 30-40 yards away. I just said out loud we're leaving and we did. Was pretty strange since there was no reason I could see that that would happen with the tree. No one else around except my young cousin and me.

About 18-20 years ago I was moose hunting on a river. I went off of the logging road and was going to follow it to the next spot the road was by the river again. Lots of moose and grizzly tracks which isn't unusual. I got to the spot where I would go up a steep brushy hill and be on the road again when I caught the strong smell of a bear. I instantly knew I need to back off and go the way I had come. Less than a minute going back I noticed fresh grizzly tracks on my tracks so that bear had followed me and might have jumped me had I gone farther.
 
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gerry35 said:
Had a few strange encounters but nothing scared me as much as when I was a kid walking an old logging road. I was just walking normally and literally from under my foot exploded a grouse and took off. I couldn't even form any words it scared me out so bad, only gibberish came out lol.
Click to expand...
When I was stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO., got into turkey hunting. The base is in the Mark Twain National Forest and lots of deep, dark woods. Went out early one morning before light, so dark you couldn`t see your hand in front of your face, literally, that morning. I made the mistake of watching a TV special the night before on the Missouri Monster ( MoMo ), Missouri`s Sasquatch. Got all geared up. moving through the woods. About 6' from me a whippoorwill sounds off!! Gun goes in the air, seat cushion goes about 10 ft. up, I must have gone 5` in the air myself! That was in 1975. I think I`m still recovering!
 
Turkeytider said:
When I was stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO., got into turkey hunting. The base is in the Mark Twain National Forest and lots of deep, dark woods. Went out early one morning before light, so dark you couldn`t see your hand in front of your face, literally, that morning. I made the mistake of watching a TV special the night before on the Missouri Monster ( MoMo ), Missouri`s Sasquatch. Got all geared up. moving through the woods. About 6' from me a whippoorwill sounds off!! Gun goes in the air, seat cushion goes about 10 ft. up, I must have gone 5` in the air myself! That was in 1975. I think I`m still recovering!
Click to expand...
Haha I can picture that. Can also relate to watching sasquatch stuff before going out hunting and then wondering why I was on edge lol.

Have to say birds are the worst sometimes.........
 
gerry35 said:
Had a few strange encounters but nothing scared me as much as when I was a kid walking an old logging road. I was just walking normally and literally from under my foot exploded a grouse and took off. I couldn't even form any words it scared me out so bad, only gibberish came out lol.
Click to expand...
Don’t feel bad Gerry, uncle Joe Biden sounds like that every time he gets in front of a microphone.
 
I do not want this thread to die out so I will add another creepy experience in the back country.
A good buddy and I were deer hunting a really awesome lease in the Texas Hill Country just West of Austin, Texas. It was really a beautiful place just off Barton Creek . We had been on this lease about three years. Probably around 1979-1980. We had a hillside we loved to sit on in the mornings looking to the West. There was a little rocky limestone canyon between us and the opposing hillside. In the bottom of the canyon was a wet weather creek and it was surrounded by a thick cover of Texas Cedars Trees and Live Oak Trees. We would sit on that hillside looking westward across a valley that slowly rose up and away to the neighboring hill top. We called it "Death Valley" because we had harvested so many deer in the early mornings while the deer were filtering back through the valley to their bedding areas.

As the morning sun would rise tin the East the sunlight would slowly start to peak over the top of our hill over to the valley across from us. As the sun rose higher, it would slowly illuminate the hillside across and creep down the side of the opposing hillside lighting the whole place up as the sunlight crept down the valley . Anything over there was illuminated and anything over there had a hard time seeing us hidden in the brush on our side, as the sunlight would be directly in their eyes.

So on this day it was close to the end of the season and we decide to go ahead a take a few deer. It was a slow morning and it was around 11:00 am before we shot two a piece. We tagged the deer, field dressed them and dragged them down below in the creek below where we would hang two of the deer in the cool cover of the thick Cedars while we packed the other two deer out. We tied the two deer up on a big 2 "diameter cedar limb we had previously used when doing this before. We ran the 2" limb run across two of the larger Cedar trees and pulled it up high into the trees . There are really no bears or wolves down in Texas and this area. We just wanted them up high enough to keep wandering feral dogs or coyotes off the deer. The heavy Cedar cover would help keep the meat cooled down.

It was nightfall before we got back to retrieve the other two hanging deer. As we were approaching the deer that evening with our headlights coming up through the creek bed in the heavy cedars we heard the loud crashing sound of tree limbs in front of us followed by a incredibly loud and vicious heavy guttural ground shaking growl. I mean the ground literally shook and we stopped dead in our tracks. Every hair in my body went straight up and chills and goose bumps ran up my back and down both my arms! We threw our rifles up and in both said in unison" What in the hell is that!". We froze peering into the darkness as we heard more brush snapping as it came crashing nearer with another thunderous growl. It was all we could do to keep from running but we had no choice but to try to shoot this thing. It stopped out about 30 yards away. It had gleaming fiery red eyes and a chill went up both our spines. I am talking RED ASS DEMON EYES!.

I told David to keep his light on its' eyes and I was going to shoot it. I had to turn my headlight off so that the glare from my headlight was not obstructing my vison through the my scope in the dark of the night. I had a TASCO 3x9 with a heavy post reticle in it. I cranked it to 3 power, place the point of that post right between the eyes and I pulled the trigger. David exclaimed with laughter " BOOM BOOM OUT GO THE LIGHTS!". We both had funny sense of relief and let out a stressful sigh and started up the trail to where the Fiery Red Eyes had been glowing. I racked another round in my rifle immediately. I turned on my headlight and we slowly walked up. NOTHING! NO BLOOD! TORN UP GROUND! THERE HAD BEEN NO NOISE AFTER THE SHOT RANG OUT! NO CRASHING BRUSH!

A eerie feeling swept over us both and we went from relaxed and laughing to back on FULL BODY ALERT! As we scanned the area around us we could see about 10 yards ahead of us the two deer down on the ground and the 2 " cedar limb we had tied them up with was broken in half. Literally half of one of the whitetail does had been EATEN TO THE BONE! Half terrified and half too stupid to know better, we each grabbed a leg of other doe and left that other doe on the ground where it lay. We hurriedly got our asses out of the woods watching our back trail, terrified the whole way out of there.

I am embarrassed to say that neither of us ever went back to that area down there in those Cedars again. Some things are better left alone. David and I are still close friends and get together every few years. Whenever we get together, we always talk about the " Red Demon Eyes".
 
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Still Hunter said:
I do not want this thread to die out so I will add another creepy experience in the back country.
A good buddy and I were deer hunting a really awesome lease in the Texas Hill Country just West of Austin, Texas. It was really a beautiful place just off Barton Creek . We had been on this lease about three years. Probably around 1979-1980. We had a hillside we loved to sit on in the mornings looking to the West. There was a little rocky limestone canyon between us and the opposing hillside. In the bottom of the canyon was a wet weather creek and it was surrounded by a thick cover of Texas Cedars Trees and Live Oak Trees. We would sit on that hillside looking westward across a valley that slowly rose up and away to the neighboring hill top. We called it "Death Valley" because we had harvested so many deer in the early mornings while the deer were filtering back through the valley to their bedding areas. As the morning sun would rise tin the East the sunlight would slowly start to peak over the top of our hill over to the valley across from us. As the sun rose higher, it would slowly illuminate the hillside across and creep down the side of the opposing hillside lighting the whole place up as the sunlight crept down the valley . Anything over there was illuminated and anything over there had a hard time seeing us hidden in the brush on our side, as the sunlight would be directly in their eyes. So on this day it was close to the end of the season and we decide to go ahead a take a few deer. It was a slow morning and it was around 11:00 am before we shot two a piece. We tagged the deer, field dressed them and dragged them down below in the creek below where we would hang two of the deer in the cool cover of the thick Cedars while we packed the other two deer out. We tied the two deer up on a big 2 "diameter cedar limb we had previously used when doing this before. We ran the 2" limb run across two of the larger Cedar trees and pulled it up high into the trees . There are really no bears or wolves down in Texas and this area. We just wanted them up high enough to keep wandering feral dogs or coyotes off the deer. The heavy Cedar cover would help keep the meat cooled down. It was nightfall before we got back to retrieve the other two hanging deer. As we were approaching the deer that evening with our headlights coming up through the creek bed in the heavy cedars we heard the loud crashing sound of tree limbs in front of us followed by a incredibly loud and vicious heavy guttural ground shaking growl. I mean the ground literally shook and we stopped dead in our tracks. Every hair in my body went straight up and chills and goose bumps ran up my back and down both my arms! We threw our rifles up and in both said in unison" What in the hell is that!". We froze peering into the darkness as we heard more brush snapping as it came crashing nearer with another thunderous growl. It was all we could do to keep from running but we had no choice but to try to shoot this thing. It stopped out about 30 yards away. It had gleaming fiery red eyes and a chill went up both our spines. I am talking RED ASS DEMON EYES!. I told David to keep his light on its' eyes and I was going to shoot it. I had to turn my headlight off so that the glare from my headlight was not obstructing my vison through the my scope in the dark of the night. I had a TASCO 3x9 with a heavy post reticle in it. I cranked it to 3 power, place the point of that post right between the eyes and I pulled the trigger. David exclaimed with laughter " BOOM BOOM OUT GO THE LIGHTS!". We both had funny sense of relief and let out a stressful sigh and started up the trail to where the Fiery Red Eyes had been glowing. I racked another round in my rifle immediately. I turned on my headlight and we slowly walked up. NOTHING! NO BLOOD! TORN UP GROUND! THERE HAD BEEN NO NOISE AFTER THE SHOT RANG OUT! NO CRASHING BRUSH! A eerie feeling swept over us both and we went from relaxed and laughing to back on FULL BODY ALERT! As we scanned the area around us we could see about 10 yards ahead of us the two deer down on the ground and the 2 " cedar limb we had tied them up with was broken in half. Literally half of one of the whitetail does had been EATEN TO THE BONE! Half terrified and half too stupid to know better, we each grabbed a leg of other doe and left that other doe on the ground where it lay. We hurriedly got our asses out of the woods watching our back trail, terrified the whole way out of there. I am embarrassed to say that neither of us ever went back to that area down there in those Cedars again. Somethings are better left alone. David and I are still close friends and get together every few years. Whenever we get together, we always talk about the " Red Demon Eyes".
Click to expand...

Your encounter sounds very similar to mine in that there was no sound of anything leaving the area
The yelling growling screaming so loud it shook the ground is very familiar
My encounter didnt allow me to see but hear this thing and I waited in the tree until complete daylight and nothing could be seen
The area was an oak thicket with heavy leaf litter so that anything moving would be heard....Nothing !!!
 
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