Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[2ski]

I went to the gulf of Mexico with several buddies about 20 years ago when we could camp on the beach in tents.

After a day of drinking beer it got dark and my buddy and I weren't up to partying at the bars anymore with the rest of the guys. It was still pretty hot out at 10pm so my buddy and I decided to wade into the ocean on our boogie boards. As we paddled out the lights from other camps got dimmer as we got further from shore.

The ocean was dark and calm and paddling further out became kind of a game of chicken competition between my buddy and I. We were talking about the days events sipping on Coronas, floating 15 to 20 feet from each other when something bumped my board from underneath.

I was about 240 pounds and it pushed me a foot or two in the air. I was surprised by the bump but feeling pretty chill from a day of drinking. I called my buddy an a-hole for kicking my board and he didn't say anything. It was like someone trying to dump me off an air mattress in a swimming pool so I figured it HAD to be him messing with me.

Without saying a word my buddy started paddling toward shore and I followed him. He gradually increased his speed and even though I tried to get him to slow down he wouldn't stop. Eventually we made it to shore and back to camp, my buddy never said a word the entire way.

When we got to camp I asked him what the hurry was, he said with big wide eyes "I didn't kick your board dude". I asked him if he didn't did he see who or what did? He said don't worry about it. I tried to get him to tell me what he saw and he never spilled the beans. I know he was too far away to have kicked my board.

I lost touch with that guy years ago but still wonder what he saw that caused him to paddle to shore so fast and appreciate that he didn't tell me the full story and cause me to panic when we were floating a quarter mile from shore.

He was a scuba diver so I don't think a dolphin or seal would have alarmed him so he must have seen something pretty sketchy. I tried to bring up the subject a few times with him years later but I felt like whatever he saw left him with a little PTSD or something so I stopped asking.

Probably a shark? I mean as soon as you said night time paddle our I thought 'that's dumb sharks feed at night'. You're not supposed to snorkel at night because you're on the surface. Scuba is okay because you aren't on the surface.

 

[Pharmseller]

I’m betting a big dorsal fin.

 

[3Esski]

always like logging on and finding stories added to this thread.

 

[204_ruger]

I enjoy all the stories.

 

[ZAP035]

When my dad and I went on our first elk hunt in Colorado, we got about 8” of fresh snow during the night. Next morning we climbed to our glassing spots around 9800’ way early (wanted to be there at least 2 hours before shooting light). Still snowing until about 30 minutes after sunrise. I got up from my perch on the bench I’d chosen and walked towards two small pines to my 5 o’clock position to take a leak at about 9am. In a figure 8 pattern around and through those two scrubby trees were perfect, crisp, and fresh child-sized (maybe size 6 or 7) footprints from what looked like mud boots. No tracks leading to or away from them. And I looked. Wasn’t seeing elk, and got more than a little curious/creeped out (it was like 15°) so I gridded for a good ways and never found any sign of anybody on that mountain apart from us. I think about that a lot

 

[JDT1982]

Had a covey of quail flush right underneath my feet as I was walking back to my campsite in the dark. It took a few minutes for my heart rate to get back to a normal rate.

 

[Mattyq17]

I was 12 or 13 and my dad and I were driving to our deer hunting spot. It was still about an hour before daylight and as we round a corner there is a mountain lion walking down the road. It turns and looks at us and being the first one I had ever seen in the wild I swear it had a 6-foot tail!! He walks off the side of the road and we continue to our hunting spot about 2 miles up the road. We pull off and wait till it starts to get light. I open the door and a covey of quail flushes out right next to me, I thought for sure the lion had followed us and was going to jump in the truck and eat me!

 

[Blowdowner]

When my dad and I went on our first elk hunt in Colorado, we got about 8” of fresh snow during the night. Next morning we climbed to our glassing spots around 9800’ way early (wanted to be there at least 2 hours before shooting light). Still snowing until about 30 minutes after sunrise. I got up from my perch on the bench I’d chosen and walked towards two small pines to my 5 o’clock position to take a leak at about 9am. In a figure 8 pattern around and through those two scrubby trees were perfect, crisp, and fresh child-sized (maybe size 6 or 7) footprints from what looked like mud boots. No tracks leading to or away from them. And I looked. Wasn’t seeing elk, and got more than a little curious/creeped out (it was like 15°) so I gridded for a good ways and never found any sign of anybody on that mountain apart from us. I think about that a lot

Snowshoe hare doing a morning warmup routine?

 

[lak2004]

Had a covey of quail flush right underneath my feet as I was walking back to my campsite in the dark. It took a few minutes for my heart rate to get back to a normal rate.

This is why I wear my depends on the way back to camp at dark. Grouse!

 

[coastalyeti]

I've posted this here before, but we ran into this super strange little...structure? Gave me the creeps the first time we found it last year.

View attachment 113226 View attachment 113227
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A Sasquatch bivouac?

 

[coastalyeti]

Ten plus year ago I was hunting quail with a buddy north of Tucson. We were ten plus miles in driving down a dirt road and came across a mom and her young son walking down the side of the road with only the clothes on their back. We stopped and she told us they had been held captive by some backwoods hick that lived out in the sticks. She said she just wanted us to drive them to the paved highway. We called the cops on the way there while they were in the back of the truck. Super creepy.

You watching the hunters one? The Sierra sounds portion is the creepiest language ever.

We were hunting in the Siskiyous, (my nephew, cousin, uncle and I) and we dropped my nephew off first, where a road ended at the beginning of BLM land.
Two dogs over-friendly began following my nephew as he went up the hill..
Later, with my son on one side of a ridge, and me on another, I heard a Bunch of dogs start barking, whining and going wild, from the other side of the hill where we dropped my nephew off.
I thought: “Damn, he’s pissed off every dog on the whole mountain!”
But..
-Then I heard a Huge-sounding, deep and guttural voice, going wild on the dogs, and they were silenced. Then started again, and so did he. I’m thinking; Wtf?
NOBODY has a voice that loud and Deep!
And, what the hell, language is THAT?
It was all gibberish, but really angry, and the dogs started sounding more terrified than aggressive. I kept on down the ridge, and when we picked Shane up, he was white as a ghost, said there were bigfoot bothering him, popping there teeth, and running after the dogs, which had grown to a pack after we left.
I gave him some crap, and he just took it.
And wanted In the truck without taking off his backpack, -said he’d just “hold the door till we got a bit down the hill, but I gave him some more crap & he finally slipped it off & jumped in.

A while later, my son read me the Riot Act for giving Shane a hard time.
—Because we, had had “experiences” many years ago on our ranch. And, of course, a lot of a-holes mocked me, Shane, his brother, my brother, my kids, and several friends who went through seeing & hearing shit that’s “not supposed to happen” that involved those “things.”

Then, that night in camp, Shane, who was the only guy who had cel service, played a clip of “Sierra Sounds.”
It sounded EXACTLY like the thing I heard threatening the pack of dogs.

I met Ron Moorehead (the guy who Recorded the Sierra Sounds) years later on the Sekiu reservation, and told him the story. He just shook his head.
Nobody believes that crap, till they have to. And they're better off, if they live their whole lives Not having to know that stuff really is out there.

 

[coastalyeti]

The strange disappearance of Aaron Hedges from the Crazy Mountains in Montana — StrangeOutdoors.com

Aaron Joseph Hedges, Disappeared September 7, 2014, Remains Found August 8, 2016, Crazy Mountains, Northern Rocky Mountains, Montana. Aaron Joseph Hedges, a 38-year-old hunter from Bozeman, went elk hunting in the Crazy Mountains in Montana in early September 2014 with his two friends, Greg Leitner

www.strangeoutdoors.com

-- Scott

The strange disappearance of Aaron Hedges from the Crazy Mountains in Montana — StrangeOutdoors.com

Aaron Joseph Hedges, Disappeared September 7, 2014, Remains Found August 8, 2016, Crazy Mountains, Northern Rocky Mountains, Montana. Aaron Joseph Hedges, a 38-year-old hunter from Bozeman, went elk hunting in the Crazy Mountains in Montana in early September 2014 with his two friends, Greg Leitner

www.strangeoutdoors.com

-- Scott

That is a Pay site. No thanks

 

[coastalyeti]

Ask Jauwater his story about that sort of topic.

Yes

 

[JayRoot]

This has been a great thread to read. It truly is amazing the things that go on out there. So in hopes of this thread staying up front I have two stories.

I set out to do some afternoon bow hunting around a swamp/pond edge that I had hunted in the past. I was hunting from the ground and got myself tucked into a good hiding spot. I was probably on stand for about an hour and everything was fine. When all of the sudden things didn't feel right at all. The hair stood up on the back of my neck and it felt like I was being watched. I looked around and didn't see anything or anyone. I also did not hear anything walk in on me. This feeling got much worse as I sat there, probably about 30 minutes. It got so bad and unbearably uncomfortable. So much so that I packed up my stuff and left. Keeping an arrow nocked the whole time and looking over my shoulder the whole way. These feelings stayed with me until I got about 100 yards away from the swamp. Hunted the same swamp after this happened, and never had the same feelings. There are no mountain lions where this happened, and bear were almost non existent back then. I still get the chills when I tell this story. Next one happened years later.

Opening day shotgun I was heading to my stand early morning. It was dark so I was using my headlamp. I was probably half to three quarters of a mile deep when I see a set of eyes looking at me, figured it was a deer. So I stop and wait a few minutes in hopes it just walks off without spooking. Nope! The eyes don't move, just stay there looking at me. So I start walking again, but the eyes are still not moving. Now I'm getting a little weirded out. At this point it occurs to me that the eyes are orange. What the hell has orange eyes??? And still it's not moving. It's just watching me. So now I'm really starting to get on edge. I'm not going to change my route because it would take way longer to get to my stand. So with the chamber open and a round in my hand I proceed forward.

But these orange eyes are still not moving and are looking right at me. I keep closing the distance, but cant figure out what this thing is. I get to within 40 yards and can't see a body to go with the eyes. I get to about 20 yards and I can see what creature the eyes belong to. It's a mouse on a sapling branch, about three feet off the ground. I laughed so hard and felt kind of silly. But was very glad I didn't re-route to my stand. Thing was probably wondering what this strange light was bothering it.

Enjoy

 

[ZAP035]

Snowshoe hare doing a morning warmup routine?

Crisp prints from boot tread, heel and all. Think the cheap blue/black/yellow rubber boots they sell at farm stores.

 

[Blowdowner]

Crisp prints from boot tread, heel and all. Think the cheap blue/black/yellow rubber boots they sell at farm stores.

Yikes. You looked up in the trees?

 

[EastHumboldt]

Yikes. You looked up in the trees?

Chucky!!

 

[elkliver]

Crisp prints from boot tread, heel and all. Think the cheap blue/black/yellow rubber boots they sell at farm stores.

that would certainly give me the creeps! Any Chance the snow had a crust on it in other areas? And was just soft under that tree? I have had that happen before

 

[Nickofthewoods]

Camper shares 'hair-raising' story of creepy late-night encounter in remote Colorado | OutThere Colorado

A hiker who was camping in the area of Rabbit Valley west of Grand Junction and near the Colorado and Utah border recently shared a creepy story about their experience

denvergazette.com

 

[crgchck]

I am working on a house in the country that has spirits present. Lots of strange stuff happening there. I have another 5 weeks of work to do...sitting in my truck eating lunch a week ago and hear the sound of someone tapping keys on the window behind me, no one was there. Other strange stuff also, the owner hears noises in the kitchen at 3am every night.

Yeah no