Creepy experiences in the backcountry

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….
 
bigunit said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
MedServ60Driver said:
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.
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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 said:
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! “.
Click to expand...
I would agree. But hiking into a place in the dark on a morning hunt never has bothered me one bit. Even if it's 3hrs in the dark before sunrise. I actually like hiking in the dark on a morning hunt. It's the evening hunts that get me sometimes. End up 4 miles from the vehicle at sunset and get uneasy sometimes. It's all just a mind game, but it happens to a person (me included). And sometimes it's just like hiking in the daylight. 2 yrs ago my dad shot a bull several miles in right at last light. It was dark but almost a full moon, so could see fairly well. I hiked it all without ever turning my headlamp on. Actually enjoyed the hike. No weapon other than a knife. Probably didn't bother me since I had my mind occupied with elk..
 
KsRancher said:
I would agree. But hiking into a place in the dark on a morning hunt never has bothered me one bit. Even if it's 3hrs in the dark before sunrise. I actually like hiking in the dark on a morning hunt. It's the evening hunts that get me sometimes. End up 4 miles from the vehicle at sunset and get uneasy sometimes. It's all just a mind game, but it happens to a person (me included). And sometimes it's just like hiking in the daylight. 2 yrs ago my dad shot a bull several miles in right at last light. It was dark but almost a full moon, so could see fairly well. I hiked it all without ever turning my headlamp on. Actually enjoyed the hike. No weapon other than a knife. Probably didn't bother me since I had my mind occupied with elk..
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Do you think it’s just a fatigue deal as to why you’re more bothered at sunset? I’ve noticed the same thing as far as in the morning I can just throw a tree stand on my back and start walking in the dark with no concern, but coming back after sunset I’m checking every sound out.
 
bigbassin said:
Do you think it’s just a fatigue deal as to why you’re more bothered at sunset? I’ve noticed the same thing as far as in the morning I can just throw a tree stand on my back and start walking in the dark with no concern, but coming back after sunset I’m checking every sound out.
Click to expand...
That’s an interesting question. Perhaps going from dark to light has a different psychological aspect to it as compared to from light to dark ( ? ).
 
bigbassin said:
Do you think it’s just a fatigue deal as to why you’re more bothered at sunset? I’ve noticed the same thing as far as in the morning I can just throw a tree stand on my back and start walking in the dark with no concern, but coming back after sunset I’m checking every sound out.
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I have noticed this as well. My guess is that it is the psychological effect of light to dark vs dark to light.
 
Warmer temps (thanks to that star that going to burn out in 5B years; we are all doomed) and the safety of daylight no more than three hours in the future is my guess why hiking three hours before light is more better than three hours after dark.

The cold is usually not too bad, but 10-14 hours dark being a disadvantaged human can be a little intimidating.


Eddie
 
I went on a cow elk hunt in Oregon in 2021. This was my first big game hunt ever. I drove about 15 hours from home and didn’t know anyone in camp so I was already feeling about as uneasy and awkward as anyone could. The next morning we were paired up 2 hunters per guide and I drew short straw so my cohort hunted first. We left out at day break and drove trails til about 7 am when we came upon a heard and pushed them down the mountain. We waited a while and eventually were running a trail road in our guides jeep when he spotted a herd down hill from us on the road. The guide laid out the game plan for us. They would hike down make a stalk and get into position to make a shot. My job was to wait at the jeep, wait to hear the shot and watch the herd.

Before they headed downhill as I was glassing I saw what I knew was a mountain lion skirting the heard to the far side from us. I mentioned what I saw to the guide and when he looked nothing was there. I just chalked it up to my imagination seeing a calf or something and registering it as a cat. 45 minutes or so goes by and I hear the shot. The herd jumps the fence and I head down the trail in the jeep to meet the other who guys as was the game plan . We head back to camp grab another guys truck and then head out to collect the kill… lo and behold as we come upon this down cow elk something had been eating the keister out of it, which means I definitely saw a mountain lion following that herd.

Later that day we head out again and now I’m up to make a shot. Mid afternoon we get on another group of elk moving downhill being pushed from another set of hunters and they are headed towards us. The guide and me make our way down this ridge to try and head off the herd and get into position and after about a mile we get there. I set up make a shot which hit her a little high and watch her run behind the canopy of some trees on the hill across from us… didn’t even get a chance to make a follow up shot. We give it a few minutes and then head to try and find a blood trail. I’m feeling extremely deflated because I made a bad shot and now I think there’s a wounded animal out there and also knowing my hunt is over at this point. Luckily we find the elk and she dropped right behind the canopy of trees we lost sight of her and it ended up being a good shot. We celebrate for a few minutes and I’m riding a high I’ve never felt before.

Now the game plan is the other hunter and my guide are gonna head back to camp and bring the can-am up to retrieve the kill…….. and I wait. And wait I did, taking pictures thinking about who I was gonna call first as soon as I got into cell phone service. Smiling ear to ear until I hear rustling in the brush behind me about 50 years away and then I realized. I’m out here with a fresh kill literally at my feet and I KNOW there is a mountain lion in the area…. Probably still hungry and I’m alone. And I sat there alone for what seemed like hours when it was really probably 45 minutes maybe an hour max. I could swear that daylight was running out and ever little leaf that fell from trees sounded like eminent death for me. I was never happier to hear the roar of a side by side from about a mile away

I never did see the mountain lion again but that was the most terrifying wait of my life. Hundreds of miles from home in the middle of the woods no phone service with fresh cat food at my feet just waiting.
 
Pharmseller said:
Um…

You still had your rifle, right?




P
Click to expand...
Negative. I dropped my rifle the day I left for Oregon and knew I needed to check zero before we headed out. The other hunter bought a brand new rifle and needed to mount and zero his. So our guide decided we would hunt with him and we would just use his rifle. So when he left to get the side by side the rifle went with him.
 
Long story I'll make as short as possible... not paranormal but reminder that we are not always the apex predators.

Last year a buddy and I doubled up on cow elk in the bottom of a steep draw, just near the end of shooting light. One cow was shot CNS high back that was DRT, the other a high lung shot that crashed about 40yds through brush into the bottom. We noted the location of the DRT cow and waited a bit before trying to locate the high lunged cow. While we were waiting, we heard quite a bit of howling withing a few hundred yards (sounded like coyotes but there are definitely wolves in the area), and heard the lunged cow do that heavy rattling exhale.

We agreed it was time to head down and start the work. Stuck low in the draw, there was little to no moonlight and everything was done on headlamp. We went from our perch down towards the cows, and during that short walk heard an elk off to our left, within 100yds, making the weirdest cry I have heard. Not a communication type "ee-ohh" but more or a frantic, panicked cry, "eeeeeEEEE-oh-h-h-h", LOUD. For some reason, we didn't put 2 and 2 together and didn't realize it was the CNS shot cow until later.

We were having a hard time locating either elk, though we were sure we should be right on top of them, and agreed to split up. Now solo in the bottom of a dark draw with a headlamp, I started a grid about 75yds from my buddy. Suddenly I felt like someone was next to me and my blood felt like ice. No explanation how but I knew I wasn't the only animal in that immediate area. With an audible "eff this" I headed back to where my buddy was also searching. When I reached him, he had found a cow that we believed to be the CNS shot one. We worked for a few hours and packed most of her out, then agreed to get a couple hours of sleep and come back in daylight to find the lunged cow.

Returning in daylight, returned to where I had made my shot from. I was able to walk my buddy via radio to the location the cow was hit. Over the radio he says, "we've got an elk!" Relieved I start down the draw. "On my way." After about 20yds he comes over the radio, "we have a problem." I make my way to him and see the CNS shot cow, swarmed in wasps and flies, chest cavity opened at the neck, lungs heart and diaphragm gone. Half of 1 backstrap gone, one front quarter gone. Tufts of hair pulled out and strewn all over the place.

Looking around I realized I was within about 10yds of this elk the night before in the dark. Exactly where my blood ran cold. And exactly where the strange elk cry/scream came from. I have no way to know for sure, but I get the feeling I was within a few yards of a cat with an elk neck in its jaws. My non-chalant flippant mentality about being alone in a draw with the possibility of predators has changed a bit.

sorry for long story, if you made it through thanks for reading.
 
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The Harbor Master said:
Long story I'll make as short as possible... not paranormal but reminder that we are not always the apex predators.

Last year a buddy and I doubled up on cow elk in the bottom of a steep draw, just near the end of shooting light. One cow was shot CNS high back that was DRT, the other a high lung shot that crashed about 40yds through brush into the bottom. We noted the location of the DRT cow and waited a bit before trying to locate the high lunged cow. While we were waiting, we heard quite a bit of howling withing a few hundred yards (sounded like coyotes but there are definitely wolves in the area), and heard the lunged cow do that heavy rattling exhale.

We agreed it was time to head down and start the work. Stuck low in the draw, there was little to no moonlight and everything was done on headlamp. We went from our perch down towards the cows, and during that short walk heard an elk off to our left, within 100yds, making the weirdest cry I have heard. Not a communication type "ee-ohh" but more or a frantic, panicked cry, "eeeeeEEEE-oh-h-h-h", LOUD. For some reason, we didn't put 2 and 2 together and didn't realize it was the CNS shot cow until later.

We were having a hard time locating either elk, though we were sure we should be right on top of them, and agreed to split up. Now solo in the bottom of a dark draw with a headlamp, I started a grid about 75yds from my buddy. Suddenly I felt like someone was next to me and my blood felt like ice. No explanation how but I knew I wasn't the only animal in that immediate area. With an audible "eff this" I headed back to where my buddy was also searching. When I reached him, he had found a cow that we believed to be the CNS shot one. We worked for a few hours and packed most of her out, then agreed to get a couple hours of sleep and come back in daylight to find the lunged cow.

Returning in daylight, returned to where I had made my shot from. I was able to walk my buddy via radio to the location the cow was hit. Over the radio he says, "we've got an elk!" Relieved I start down the draw. "On my way." After about 20yds he comes over the radio, "we have a problem." I make my way to him and see the CNS shot cow, swarmed in wasps and flies, chest cavity opened at the neck, lungs heart and diaphragm gone. Half of 1 backstrap gone, one front quarter gone. Tufts of hair pulled out and strewn all over the place.

Looking around I realized I was within about 10yds of this elk the night before in the dark. Exactly where my blood ran cold. And exactly where the strange elk cry/scream came from. I have no way to know for sure, but I get the feeling I was within a few yards of a cat with an elk neck in its jaws. My non-chalant flippant mentality about being alone in a draw with the possibility of predators has changed a bit.

sorry for long story, if you made it through thanks for reading.
Click to expand...
As I might have posted earlier in this thread ( memory not what it once was ! ), I’ll bet at least 85% of the creepy/ scary incidents reported in this thread occurred in elk/moose/big bear country! Enough to either deter me ( I’m 77, so if you call me a wuss….I don’t really care, LOL ! ) from heading out into those territories OR , if I did, I’d be more heavily armed than an infantry platoon! And some head out there with only a bow and some arrows….or nothing at all but a couple of hiking poles and a camera. Those folks, IMHO, are also known as a hot lunch!
 
I remember the first time I hunted in grizzly country. In the middle of the night I went outside to relieve myself and it suddenly occured to me, I’m a walking snack. That was one of the fastest wiz I ever took.
 
Back in the 80s I finished my Arizona hunter education class and my Dad took me for my first archery deer hunt outside of Flagstaff AZ. We drove up with my Dad's buddy and his son who was 2 years older than I was.

The area we hunted was more of an elk area than a deer area and we saw very few deer over the course of a weeklong hunt. We hiked several miles every day but we weren't very wind conscious and never got close enough to any deer for a good shot and we only saw a couple bucks inside of 60 yards.

The last day of the hunt we all piled into my Dads Jeep Wagoneer for our final evening hunt. As a 10 year old I was tired and my feet hurt from wearing hand me down boots all week. I told my Dad and he told me I could sit in the Jeep while the other three hunted on foot from like 3pm until dusk that afternoon. Dad parked the Jeep off a road in a big meadow surrounded by tall pines. him and the other two guys went for good hunt walk.

I layed in the back seat of the wagoneer as long as I could and it got boring really fast. I couldn't wait for the guys to get back but my Dad told me to stay as quiet as I could so I hung out in the Jeep as I was told. About 2 hours in I heard sticks breaking. Hooray, my Dad and the other guys must be back. I sat up and looked out the window and saw nothing so I layed back down.

About five minutes later I heard more sticks breaking and they sounded close. I figured the guys were playing games with me and decided to get out and look for them as the boredom was excruciating.

I grabbed my bow and surveyed the area and didn't see anything.. I could hear sticks breaking back in the tall trees and it was getting close to dark so I followed the sound across the meadow into the trees toward the breaking sticks.

I went into the trees about 10 yards and stumbled on two mature bulls fighting and pushing each other around with their antlers. They were big as horses, less than 20 yards away and surprised and scared the crap out of me. I ran back to the Jeep and locked myself inside. The most perilous thing was me running back to the truck with a knocked broadhead on my string, thank God I didn't trip.

About 15 minutes later I heard more noise outside the Jeep and it was my Dad and the other guys coming back. It was cold and my dad was pissed I took so long to unlock the doors to let them in. I told them about the elk I saw and they could hardly believe it. My Dad said that experience would probably hook me on elk hunting for a long time. That was my first elk experience and 40 years later I still get giddy about elk. My Dad was right.
 
Deer hunting on my grandparents farm one morning, about an hour before sunrise. I was sitting under an oak tree mostly surrounded by a burlap blind. There was a puddle of water 30-40' across too my left. I started to hear something walking thru the water, but between the blind and the darkness I couldn't see anything. As it got closer, I had my shotgun shouldered.

Eventually it got to where I could see what it was, a great big coon!! :ROFLMAO: It got downwind of me and very quietly left.
 
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