Creepy experiences in the backcountry

[AlabamaMountainMan]

Had been going to the same fishing spot for most of my youth life with my dad. Just a spot on the river where you can park by a bridge and walk down to the sandbars. Nothing special, but fishing was good most of the time and no one was ever there. Dad worked nights, and I have never slept well in my life so we often were out late at night on weekends. Waffle house at 2:00 am, fishing at midnight, etc. Pulled up to the usual parking spot one night and found a pentagram with candles in the tips (not lit). The pentagram was some kind of white-ish powder. Don't remember any other objects being in there and there was no one else parked there. I told dad there no chance I was staying so we left. My soul belongs to God, but I am not going to go looking for trouble.

With all that said, the most scared I have ever been in the woods was one of the first hunts I went on by myself on my grandfathers property. Walking back in the dark, no light, probably 14 years old and deer started blowing at me and crashing through the woods. I had never heard a deer blow before so it really startled me. I've never ran back to my house so fast.

 

[judders87]

Not knowing there was an aurora borealis occurring while in New Mexico led us to believe briefly that aliens were real and coming for us.

 

[IronNoggin]

Many years ago (like decades) I was engaged as a Guide for Churchill River Canoeing Expeditions in Northern Saskatchewan. As were a decent handful of my Buddies.

Between trips, three of us set off to establish a new route into areas we had not been offering to date. Assessing and marking good navigable water and portage routes.
Three days in, we camped after having drug our large freighter up onto the beach.

Set up our tent and were sitting around the fire after dinner.
Suddenly the fellow next to me let out a loud GASP and his eyes literally bulged.
I looked in the direction he was staring at, and felt a cold chill come over me instantly.
There, framed in the moonlight on the short trail to the beach stood a long haired & bearded fellow dressed in fringed buckskins, high top moccasins and packing an ancient muzzle-loader. A powder horn hung from one shoulder, and his belt sported a beaded large knife sheath.

Our third companion let out a loud WTF when he turned and saw the same.

My rifle was leaned against a tree shortly behind me.
I rolled to it and quickly snatched it up.
The fellow stood there and stared at us, but for some reason I no longer felt threatened.
Then he simply turned and strolled quickly away.

We went in short pursuit, yelling for him to communicate with us.
He did not.

The next morning we investigated where he had stood, and the direction he had left in.
There were no tracks.
All three of us were experienced hunters, but could find no sign of him.

To this day I wonder what or who it was we ran into.
We had no booze whatsoever, no drugs, and nothing that could have potentially caused all three of us to witness the exact same apparition.

Took a hell of a long time before any of would talk about this outside of the three of us.

I will always wonder...

Cheers

 

[Gen273]

Many years ago (like decades), I was engaged as a Guide for Churchill River Canoeing Expeditions in Northern Saskatchewan. As were a decent handful of my Buddies.

Between trips, three of us set off to establish a new route into areas we had not been offering to date. Assessing and marking good navigable water and portage routes.
Three days in, we camped after having drug our large freighter up onto the beach.

Set up our tent and were sitting around the fire after dinner.
Suddenly the fellow next to me let out a loud GASP and his eyes literally bulged.
I looked in the direction he was staring at, and felt a cold chill come over me instantly.
There, framed in the moonlight on the short trail to the beach stood a long haired & bearded fellow dressed in fringed buckskins, high top moccasins and packing an ancient muzzle-loader. A powder horn hung from one shoulder, and his belt sported a beaded large knife sheath.

Our third companion let out a loud WTF when he turned and saw the same.

My rifle was leaned against a tree shortly behind me.
I rolled to it and quickly snatched it up.
The fellow stood there and stared at us, but for some reason I no longer felt threatened.
Then he simply turned and strolled quickly away.

We went in short pursuit, yelling for him to communicate with us.
He did not.

The next morning we investigated where he had stood, and the direction he had left in.
There were no tracks.
All three of us were experienced hunters, but could find no sign of him.

To this day I wonder what or who it was we ran into.
We had no booze whatsoever, no drugs, and nothing that could have potentially caused all three of us to witness the exact same apparition.

Took a hell of a long time before any of would talk about this outside of the three of us.

I will always wonder...

Cheers

That's an awesome story! How long do you think the encounter lasted? And you saw him walk away, not just disappear, correct?

 

[IronNoggin]

That's an awesome story! How long do you think the encounter lasted? And you saw him walk away, not just disappear, correct?

Lasted perhaps 8 to 10 minutes - a stare-down of sorts.

And yes, he strode quickly away down the short trail and onto the beach.
Never did see him again after he hit the beach, but had brush between us at that point.

 

[Gen273]

Lasted perhaps 8 to 10 minutes - a stare-down of sorts.

And yes, he strode quickly away down the short trail and onto the beach.
Never did see him again after he hit the beach, but had brush between us at that point.

Wow, very intriguing. So you think he was real, and not an apparition of some sort? Btw, thanks for sharing your story.

 

[IronNoggin]

Wow, very intriguing. So you think he was real, and not an apparition of some sort? Btw, thanks for sharing your story.

I think it was a ghost or an apparition of some sort.
Between the three of us we would have seen his boot-prints on either the trail or the sandy beach.
There were none...

 

[tony]

Second story:

I believe I was 19 years old on this next one. My girlfriend and I decided to go for a little backpacking trip on the Morgan Sisters trail in Wayne National Forest. Even though this would have been 2019, I have a bit of a luddite streak and still didn't have a smart phone. We were way outside of signal range either way and relying on my windshield-stick Garmin along with some paper maps I had printed. Eventually we make a wrong turn down a road we thought was leading to the trail head. The brush closed in tighter and tighter and the path got muddier and muddier until my poor '99 ranger was well and thoroughly stuck.

Spent an hour or two doing everything we could to unstick it. Digging it out, walking back to get gravel from the road, pushing. Nothing doing. Fine, we're way out in the sticks but there has to be a house eventually. I leave my AR in the truck, I really don't want to go walking up to somebody's property rifle in hand. But I do clip my Glock 81 (knife) onto the back of my belt. So my gf and I set off down the road.

Before we spot any houses, we see a Red Jeep Liberty coming down the road. We wave 'em down and I see its the mail carrier. This was pretty novel to us, being flatlanders. Hadn't ever seen a mail jeep. We explained our situation and asked for a ride to town. Whether its true or whether she didn't want to pick up the dirty hitchhikers (wouldn't blame her), she told us she can't give rides in the mail vehicle due to some federal law or regulation. But she did kindly let us know NOT to ask for help at the next house we'd come across heading the way we were going. Didn't really elaborate but made it clear we didn't want to be caught on their property. Told us that a couple miles further down was the house of a good guy to ask.

So we walk down a good 4 miles or so and knock on the door. The guy calls down to us from the second floor that he'll be down in a minute. Took more like 8 minutes. I'm sure he was strapping on his CCW (again, don't blame him). We explained the situation and he agreed to help. We waited while he pulled around his Kubota tractor. We hopped on the back and directed him to where we were stuck.

Dude got us pulled out no issue. He also did not fail to point out that what we thought was the road, was private property. And the folks who owned it would not hesitate to bury us with a front end loader where they'd never find us. Also gave me a stern warning that I need to be more careful about this stuff, especially with my woman in tow. He was totally right. I asked if I could pay him and he said he'd take 40$ for the diesel. We didn't have any cash but we wrote down his address so I could mail it to him later (lost the address, I feel like an absolute POS to this day. If anyone thinks they know the guy please dm me).

He got us sorted out with the right trail head. By this point it was near dark. We probably hiked no more than 300 yards and set up camp. Ate our MREs around a small fire and hit the hay.

Sometime in the middle of the night my eyes shot open. I could clearly hear the sound of a horse and a rider circling our tent. The rider was talking in a low voice and at first I couldn't make out what he was saying. Laying there terrified and struggling to hear, I could eventually make out that he was describing our tent, our camp location, and us into a walkie talkie or a radio. I was straining to do something but I felt literally paralyzed by fear. I strained and strained and finally managed to jerk myself upright. I shouldered my AR inside the tent and swung towards where I thought he was an screamed out "Who's out there?!". This woke up my gf and obviously scared the piss out of her. She asked what happened and I told her that someone was outside our tent. I unzipped the door and went out muzzle first with my 1000 lumen weapon light on, hoping to get back a little advantage against the mystery rider. But no one was out there.

I shined my light all around the woods around us, nothing. No tracks. Nothing at all. Eventually, we started putting the pieces together that the rider was a sleep paralysis hallucination. This was only my second or third time experiencing it and it was still very difficult for me to differentiate it from reality.

Come morning, between getting stuck and the little nightime freakout, we decided we had had enough for one weekend. We packed up camp and started the 4 hour drive back to Toledo, 2 days ahead of schedule. Spent the rest of the weekend playing videogames indoors, haha.

Nowadays its much easier for me to tell when I'm having a sleep paralysis episode so this doesn't happen anymore. Especially since I learned I just can't sleep on my back.

I work for the county squad there in Gallia County very part time. That area is its own world.

 

[ozyclint]

Many years ago (like decades) I was engaged as a Guide for Churchill River Canoeing Expeditions in Northern Saskatchewan. As were a decent handful of my Buddies.

Between trips, three of us set off to establish a new route into areas we had not been offering to date. Assessing and marking good navigable water and portage routes.
Three days in, we camped after having drug our large freighter up onto the beach.

Set up our tent and were sitting around the fire after dinner.
Suddenly the fellow next to me let out a loud GASP and his eyes literally bulged.
I looked in the direction he was staring at, and felt a cold chill come over me instantly.
There, framed in the moonlight on the short trail to the beach stood a long haired & bearded fellow dressed in fringed buckskins, high top moccasins and packing an ancient muzzle-loader. A powder horn hung from one shoulder, and his belt sported a beaded large knife sheath.

Our third companion let out a loud WTF when he turned and saw the same.

My rifle was leaned against a tree shortly behind me.
I rolled to it and quickly snatched it up.
The fellow stood there and stared at us, but for some reason I no longer felt threatened.
Then he simply turned and strolled quickly away.

We went in short pursuit, yelling for him to communicate with us.
He did not.

The next morning we investigated where he had stood, and the direction he had left in.
There were no tracks.
All three of us were experienced hunters, but could find no sign of him.

To this day I wonder what or who it was we ran into.
We had no booze whatsoever, no drugs, and nothing that could have potentially caused all three of us to witness the exact same apparition.

Took a hell of a long time before any of would talk about this outside of the three of us.

I will always wonder...

Cheers

 

[SikaSeeker]

Not back country but a brief story from rural Ireland. Me and my bros used to sleep in an upstairs bedroom in direction of a neighbours farm. We were young and just tucked in for night [around 8pm]. Was summer so window was slightly open. All of us heard an incredible wailing noise soon after, didnt sleep well after.

Next day we found out our neighbour was attacked by one of his cows, he was checking in on her calf at 10pm. He died from heart attack in hospital shortly after being admitted due to injuries.

The Banshee wailing is considered an Omen of imminent death. Definitely made an impact on 3 young boys.

 

[WoodlandCritter]

I work for the county squad there in Gallia County very part time. That area is its own world.

Very much so. It would still be one of my top choices if I ever move back to Ohio

 

[WoodlandCritter]

Alright, I'll throw in a couple of my shorter stories all in one here.

First one, not so creepy, but it sure got my heart pounding:
My family had flown in to visit for the Fourth of July. My dad and I decided to do a little hike in the Cabinets one day. While up is some pretty thick, huckleberry dense brush, my dad was doing his clapping and "hey-bears" (much to my annoyance). Just as he finished a clapping and shouting sequence, an animal exploded out of the brush 10 yards ahead of us. It looked dark in the shadow. And having just been put in mind of bear attacks, I had my 10mm out of the holster and mid presentation by the time it registered that the animal facing us down on the trail was just a Mountain Goat, not an ornery Black Bear. Ended up getting some nice pictures and a good laugh from that one.

Second Story:
Another time yote hunting in Maumee State Forest, my buddy and I were walking an ATV trail at night. He had a pretty powerful headlamp and I had my PVS14 on. So we would alternate between him using visible light and me using NVG. At one point while we were walking in the dark he freaked out for a second because a tree right next to the trail had looked like a person. I looked under IR and saw that it was, indeed, a tree. But I said "Dude, that is a person". When I turned around my friend had literally fallen on his butt with his mouth open, not making any noise. I think its the most scared I've ever seen someone. Obviously I told him I was messing with him, felt really bad. It was a pretty mean prank but boy it was funny.

Third one doesn't have anything to do with the backcountry whatsoever, but still one of my most unexplainable:
My grampa had a 1915 Model T that he bought in the 70's and totally restored to factory new condition (except for kevlar brake bands instead of leather). Loved that car, spent just about every minute he had working on it. He died on January 1st, 2015, the year the T turned 100. When the family was going through his house picking out what we wanted to keep and what would go in the estate sale, we were all sitting around in his living room. The discussion of selling the T came up, and suddenly the doorbell started going crazy. My uncle went and checked the door, no one there. Discussion resumes, doorbell goes nuts. Happened I think 3 times total and eventually my uncle went and disconnected the thing. Pretty sure Grampa was pissed that the T was getting sold. I was too. Would really like to track it down one day and bring it back into the family.