Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[loganwayne]

This seems a bit harsh. I didn’t read the story as self defense but rather just getting a hunting opportunity on a cat that also happened to be following them.

same. If i had a tag and turned around and saw a cat id shoot it with out thinking twice

 

[longrangelead]

Wow. So scary. 70 yards? And following you. Man I'm surprised you didn't pee your pants that a curious juvenile cat was following you. 70 yards. You're so brave. Guys, this dude's a hero.

I'd have shot it if it was 50lb or 500. I didnt know or care its size or age. my tag fits all sizes and they all taste about the same. I was surprised to see it following us but not scared, come on man!
how bout a 90lb 10 year old female? would that make a more intimidating story? personally I wouldn't want to tangle with a bobcat let alone something 5x bigger regardless of age.
you do understand yearlings kill and eat full grown deer right?

 

[3forks]

This is one of the more popular and long running discussions on this forum.

If the guy had a tag and was legal, let’s move on before this gets shut down or moderated.

 

[7mm-08]

Wow. So scary. 70 yards? And following you. Man I'm surprised you didn't pee your pants that a curious juvenile cat was following you. 70 yards. You're so brave. Guys, this dude's a hero.

Or, you could just scroll on by and not make a derogatory comment to a fellow hunter to make yourself feel good. Maybe you just had a bad day (and I try to treat everyone with grace), but what are you hoping to accomplish with this kind of response - vitriol from others?

 

[rayporter]

an apology should be made..

 

[longspeak74]

Not back country, but took the dog for a run on some public land close to the house.
Still a bit of snow on the ground, but not much. Came across a set of boot prints that after about 20 yards, just stopped.
Got me thinking some...

 

[Turkeytider]

Not back country, but took the dog for a run on some public land close to the house.
Still a bit of snow on the ground, but not much. Came across a set of boot prints that after about 20 yards, just stopped.
Got me thinking some...

I think that would indeed bring one to an abrupt halt.

 

[longspeak74]

I think that would indeed bring one to an abrupt halt.

I am hoping that they had walked through an area of prairie then picked up the trail. But yeah, gave me pause.

 

[jaredg]

@2ski Tell ya what, you go f#@* with a 90lb tom and tell us how it was. I've done it. 90 lbs or 180lbs those animal are ferocious. A juvenile tom is about twice the size of a badger with as many teeth and claws. Think about that...

Anything stalks my wife and I is probably getting shot.

Just curious tough guy, how many cougars have you killed? Or do you just hunt baby seals for the meat?

 

[NRA4LIFE]

If I have a cat tag (which I always do here in WA as they are OTC and cheap) and I see one, following me or not, regardless of size, it's getting shot. Saves a lot of other wildlife. Plain and simple. Same with bear and coyotes.

 

[elkliver]

Not back country, but took the dog for a run on some public land close to the house.
Still a bit of snow on the ground, but not much. Came across a set of boot prints that after about 20 yards, just stopped.
Got me thinking some...

I was out elk hunting opening day a few years ago and took a hike up the draw behind camp. 3 or 4 inches of Fresh snow on the ground, so good tracking. looped up the ridge on on the one side of the draw and circled around the head of it to come down the opposite ridge . I dropped down into the bottom and there was fresh looking boot prints headed down the trail all of a sudden when it had just been my morning tracks a minute ago. I was surprised because i hadn't seen any sign of anyone else, not another human track and they just appeared.... Pretty sure someone would have had a tough time hunting that draw without me seeing sign or seeing them ...

Took me a minute to figure out what had happened. Someone had walked down that trail after a previous snow and the snow was perfect temperature to save a perfect crisp track and then it had frozen, and then the fresh snow had come down on top of it. With the day warming up the fresh snow melted some and the old tracks started showing through but still appeared nice and crisp. So in some spots my track showed crisp and clear and other spots the strange tracks did.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

If I have a cat tag (which I always do here in WA as they are OTC and cheap) and I see one, following me or not, regardless of size, it's getting shot. Saves a lot of other wildlife. Plain and simple. Same with bear and coyotes.

This is why I never go out without some sort of firearm. Because you never know when your'e going to come across something that is better off dead.

 

[BigK421]

@2ski Tell ya what, you go f#@* with a 90lb tom and tell us how it was. I've done it. 90 lbs or 180lbs those animal are ferocious. A juvenile tom is about twice the size of a badger with as many teeth and claws. Think about that...

Anything stalks my wife and I is probably getting shot.

Just curious tough guy, how many cougars have you killed? Or do you just hunt baby seals for the meat?

I agree 100%. I remember about 10 years ago when there were a few pitbulls that got cut up by a bobcat. Cut down to the bone on their legs....Not something I want to experiment with.

 

[mi650]

Another 'not backcountry' story, but pretty weird anyway.

When I was 18, my GF and I had an apartment in Tucson. Sunrise I think was the name of the complex, pretty much right outside the Wilmot gate of DMAFB. 1 night, 2 friends of ours, Annie and Mary-Lee stopped by for a few minutes then walked across the road to Circle K. While crossing the road, they were hit by a Domino's delivery driver. This was when Domino's had their 30 minutes or free delivery.

Annie saw it coming and tried to jump back, got hit in the leg and messed her knee up pretty bad. Mary-Lee was killed. Now where it gets weird.

A day or 2 later, my GF and I got into an argument, she left and stayed with another friend for the night. I got drunk and went to bed. I got up for work the next morning and our apartment was trashed, couldn't believe she came back and trashed the place while I was sleeping! After I left, she came back to get ready for work herself, and was pissed at me for the mess! I got home 1st and didn't clean up her mess, WTH should I? A couple hours later, she got home and was still pissed at me.

We got to talking about things and looking around, something stuck out. My GF had a plaque that sat on the dresser that said, "Your life is Gods gift to you. What you do with your life is your gift to God." Mary-Lee loved that plaque. We found it behind the dresser, face up. We looked at it for a while, and couldn't figure out any way it could have been knocked over and landed face up between the wall and base of the dresser. It had to have been put there.

A few days before they were hit, my GF went grocery shopping with Mary-Lee. Being piss-poor broke like most 18 year old kids, we were pretty frugal. Mary-Lee twisted my GFs arm into buying a roll of paper towels. A couple days after the funeral, we were sitting on the couch watching TV and both looked over at the dining room table, just in time to see that roll of paper towels tumble off of it. It had been standing upright.

Only thing we could think of was that our apartment was the last familiar place that Mary-Lee was before she was killed, got lost and she came back.

Neither of us were the most religious, but my GF had previously asked me to read my bible to her, cover to cover. I found an appropriate passage, no idea what chapter and verse, read it aloud and then left the bible open to the page overnight. We never had anymore issues.

We broke up not too long after, I enlisted in the Army, and we went our separate ways. But for several years, I'd get a call out of the blue from her still freaked out about it.


ETA: Annie and Mary-Lees family sued Domino's, and not too long after they changed their policy to 30 minutes or $3 off instead of free.

 

[Snowwolfe]

My weird encounter was in a hotel. Exwife and I had a small apartment in a local hotel when we were first married. Someone was playing games with us by knocking at the door then no one would be there when I answered.
I sat inside beside the door waiting for someone to knock. Someone knocked loud and I immediately opened the door (within 2 seconds) and no one was there. And the hallway outside was maybe 40 yards long.
The knocks never happened again.

 

[bigunit]

This one was scary at the time but funny later.

I was moose hunting Oct 2023. After a long and unsuccessful day, I was on my way back to camp near dark on my atv. It was cold and quite rainy. I saw a dark shadow on my left in the intersection of a trail and realized it was a bear about 20 yards away. It looked like a decent boar and I had a tag so I quickly grabbed and loaded my rifle.

Right as I was loading my rifle, the bear started walking straight towards me. I found that quite strange especially since I was still at the atv and it was running with the lights on. I shot the bear head on and he quickly spun and ran away from me.

I wasn't too keen on looking for a bear after dark when I was still quite a ways from camp and getting pretty cold. My dad and father in law would also already be back at camp and I didn't want to worry them so I decided to leave the bear and head to camp and retrieve it in the am.

The next day I still wanted to moose hunt so I thought I'd find the bear well before first light, gut it and be on my way for the morning hunt. We'll that's exactly what happened. I found the bear a few yards of the trail about 50 yards from where I shot. It was about a 200lb boar. I prepped all my stuff to start gutting, but some nitrile gloves on and got to work.

Remember this is still well before daylight and I'm in thick bush and can't really see anything out of the beam of my headlamp, so I'm a bit on edge but not too bad. As soon as kneeled down and was about to start the first incision, I heard the loudest scariest thing I have to date.

There must have been an owl directly above me the whole time and as soon I was about to touch that bear he let a huge hoot out. I damn near shat and must have jumped back at least 4 feet. That was the creepiest thing to happen to me in the bush so far. I'm so glad it wasn't on film.

 

[Snowwolfe]

This is my “raise the hair on the back of your neck” story.
Took my son with me to hunt moose up on the Huslia River which flows into the Koyukuk. We were trying to call in a bull and he was tossing the bushes working towards us. He was about 30 yards away and making plenty of noise but was still hidden.
All of a sudden we heard a pack of wolves howling as they circled the bull. Some had to be within 15 yards of us. Then something alerted the bull or the wolves and they all took off. The bull disappeared but we seen some of the wolves lay down in a field 150-200 yards away.

 

[omicron1792]

My weird encounter was in a hotel. Exwife and I had a small apartment in a local hotel when we were first married. Someone was playing games with us by knocking at the door then no one would be there when I answered.
I sat inside beside the door waiting for someone to knock. Someone knocked loud and I immediately opened the door (within 2 seconds) and no one was there. And the hallway outside was maybe 40 yards long.
The knocks never happened again.

That’s some freaky stuff.

 

[MedServ60Driver]

This was actually backpacking in the summer in the Lost Creek Wilderness area with my girlfriend. Our first night on the trail we set up solo at a pretty well established camping area next to a stream. The night was beautiful, but I have never been completely comfortable out in the woods at night.

Anyway, I woke up at probably 2 AM needing to relieve myself something fierce. I zipped open the tent and peeked out a bit. A full moon painted a beautiful, almost otherworldly scene of bright silvery light, bright enough to read a book by, contrasted starkly with completely dark shadows from the tall trees and other vegetation. The bubbling stream and still air added to the ambience. After a moment I decided I couldn't hold it anymore, and got out of the tent with my headlamp to take care of business.

I mentioned previously that I am not completely comfortable in the woods at night. Call me a wimp all you want but that's how I am, despite numerous camping, backpacking, and hunting trips throughout the years. Anyway, I say that to preface why I had the headlamp: I shone it around to see if any eyes were looking back in our direction before I moved away a bit to take care of business (maybe a bad idea, ignorance is bliss after all). I didn't see anything, and satisfied enough to calm my overactive imagination I stepped off from the tent a bit towards some trees to take care of business. The area was so well lit (outside of the shadows) that I turned the headlamp off and took care of things.

Making my way back to the tent, all of a sudden, I heard crashing footsteps from a darkened area of the woods RUNNING RIGHT TOWARDS ME. Adrenaline took over, and before I could actively think about it I faced the sound, threw my arms out wide, and shouted "HEEEEEEEEEEY!" at the top of my lungs. I yelled so loud that I heard it echoing through the forest, and it immediately woke my girlfriend in the tent. I heard the source of the footsteps fleeing away from me and up a hill nearby.

It was right about then that I heard my girlfriend from the tent: "I can't find the bear spray, where is it?"

Heart still racing, I turned my weak headlamp on and shone it all around our campsite. At the crest of the hill where I heard the sound of the footsteps running, much to my chagrin, I saw two eyes staring at me. Not yet responding to my girlfriend's inquiry, I worked my way back to the tent and without explanation said "Give me your headlamp." (Her's is brighter). Fortunately, she did, and heart still racing I shined her much brighter light in the direction I had seen the eyes.

Silhouetted in the flashlight's glare was a yearling doe, staring curiously back down towards the calamity she (or maybe I) had unknowingly kicked off.

Finally able to calm down a bit, I turned the light off and flatly informed my girlfriend "It was a deer." After a moments pause we both broke down laughing.

We made sure after that night to have a designated bear spray corner in the tent, and I later bought a much better headlamp.

 

[ElkRangeTikka]

I was camping 10 miles into back country, with 6 guys on a fishing trip, and we had a stranger show up out of no where. It was about 10 pm pouring down rain. We had a fire going and this guy showed up out of the darkness with no head lamp, wearing all black and soaking wet. He didn’t say anything to us and started setting up his tent within 10’ of our fire, and between two of our tents. After he crawled in, with in 20 min he started screaming at us to be quiet, this caused me to keep the firearm ready. He finally got out of his tent and carried it about 30yds away, and got back in. By the time we woke up the next morning there was no sign of him being there. We all questioned if he really came into camp, and if what happened was even real. The mannerisms and the interaction was very odd.