Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[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.

 

[Wolfshead]

My wife and I were staying at my wife’s, friend’s cabin in the Adirondacks with them for the weekend. It is an old hunting cabin built in approximately 1900, late 1800’s, for a family relative.
We were staying in an upstairs bedroom which you had to pass through another bedroom to get to.
Our first night, during the middle of the night I needed to use the bathroom which was down stairs.
I headed down the stairs which led to a short landing to turn to three more stairs into the bedroom which I had to pass through to get to the bathroom, which I did.
Upon returning as I approached the stairs I noticed what looked like the image of a small figure(?) on the wall. I could see from about the chin to the waist of this figure which looked like it had a buttoned collar with buttons all the way down and a pinstripe pattern to the clothing (?). It was so odd to me that I reached out to touch it and when I did I hit a mirror that was on the wall.
I went upstairs and laid there trying to figure out what I had just experienced and fell to sleep.
My Wife and I are early risers and we woke up before light and went down to make coffee and watch the sunrise over the lake.
As I came around the landing I looked at that mirror and noticed that it was reflecting the leaves on the trees outside.
A completely different pattern than a straight pinstripe.
As I thought of it was this something that was outside? In the mirror?
When my Wife’s friend got up that morning and we told her about what happed she showed us a picture of her great grandmother sitting in a rocking chair with what looked like the dress that was in the mirror. Apparently, the cabin was built for her while the men hunted there….

 

[Mr. October]

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.

Reminds me of the owl that landed on Col. Paterson's head when he was sitting on the macan in the fog trying to kill a man eating lion.

 

[Turkeytider]

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.

Your feeling of discomfort in the dark, in the woods, is primal. We are, to a great extent, not creatures of the night. Our senses ( or in this case lack thereof ) put us at a distinct disadvantage when compared to other animals. If we were honest, I would submit that there are few who, in the woods in the dark, have not had a thought akin to, “ I’m not really sure I should be here right now! “.

 

[Turkeytider]

Reminds me of the owl that landed on Col. Paterson's head when he was sitting on the macan in the fog trying to kill a man eating lion.

The Ghost and the Darkness?

 

[Mr. October]

The Ghost and the Darkness?

Yeah, It was one of the few factual bits in the movie. But both the macan and the owl landing on his head really did happen.