That's wild. You glitched into a parallel reality.
Creepy experiences in the backcountry
- Thread starter Teaman1
- Start date
That's wild. You glitched into a parallel reality.
AK Troutbum
WKR
My buddy and I were on a remote, fly-out, sheep hunt in northeastern AK, and he found a wallet half buried in the silt in a drainage we were hunting. Inside was a $20 bill, some papers that were unidentifiable (but one looked like it was a hunting license), and a driver’s license that expired 14 years prior to him finding it. The date of birth on the license was the exact DOB of my buddy who found it. It was very disappointing to find out that someone else had been in there hunting before us…probably spooked all the sheep too!
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- Nov 22, 2025
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Wow, crazy same bday
KurtR
WKR
Chris in TN
WKR
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- Jun 17, 2025
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- 1,424
Speaking of deceptive road noise - there's a place I sometimes squirrel hunt a few miles from home. You park on a frontage road that parallels the interstate and walk more or less perpendicular away from the interstate.
I learned - the hard way - that for reasons I still don't understand, it's common to hear road noise more clearly from the south, in this spot.
To back up a bit - the interstate (it's I-65, FWIW) runs almost straight north/south here. The land in question is east of the interstate. So you can be, say, half a mile to the east of the interstate, in the woods, and if you try to walk back towards the road based on sound (not a compass or the sun) you'll head south when you should be going west. I did this *twice* thinking I could easily walk back to the car when I first started hunting this spot. I eventually figured it out well enough that on my next trip there, I sat in the woods in several places and noted that in every instance, the road noise sounded like it was strongest towards the south of me, even though the interstate was almost straight west of me. I assume it's something about the way tires make road noise, makes the noise most intense in front of the car, so you hear the road most intensely in the direction traffic is coming from (south) not the direction the road passes by you (west). I don't know. Maybe someone else has some insight into the science of tire sounds. It's totally out of my wheelhouse to speculate on this. But I learned that I had to either use my compass or the sun or at least ignore road noise in order to get in/out of this spot without walking in circles.
Now, the closest thing I have to a creepy public land story:
Circa 1996(?). We used to go fish on some land adjacent to a lake here in the southeast. There was a creek we'd also fish, on some land that TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority, the southeast's government-backed electric power generating company) owned next to the lake. One weekend a buddy of mine decide to go camp on this land. Back then nobody cared - we didn't have permission to be there, but everyone treated the land as if it was open to public access. We'd go in via 4x4 or ATV fairly often. Everyone did it - on a busy summer weekend you might see dozens of ATVs riding through the area in a day.
So he asks me to go too, and we took his boat and he and his wife and I set up a camp in a place we fished often. We boated across the lake, beached the boat, and set up camp maybe 50' up the shore. The plan was to fish that night in the lake, maybe fish the adjacent creek the next morning, then go back home the next day.
That night we've caught some fish and we're grilling them over the campfire. Where we were camped, we were on a point, surrounded by lake on three sides, and the land on the fourth side, led straight to a steep hill, the only way to get there by land. It's quiet and we hear a vehicle stop near the top of the hill. Then we hear a 4-wheeler stop somewhere in the same vicinity. Then the 4-wheeler cranks up and heads slowly down the steep road down the hill, that leads to our camp. The driver parks, gets off, and stumbles over towards us. He's obviously drinking or something. He starts asking us questions about where we came from and how long we'd been there and he tells us he's lost and looking for his buddies and wondering if we'd seen their car. Along the way he mentions that he'd looked all over and hadn't seen anyone (when we knew he'd drove past, and stopped near, a car up on the hilltop). He seems really interested in how we were camped and if it was just the three of us. We're adamant that we hadn't seen his friends. He's really close to us - within a few feet of us.
All of this time we're cooking and eating and my buddy had made it a point to get between the guy and my buddy's wife. For my part, I'm fiddling with the fish over the fire left-handed and my right hand is glued to my waistline at my 5 o'clock. The guy can't see what I'm doing, but I think he eventually noticed that my right hand wasn't visible, and hadn't been for a long time. Once that sank into his brain, he suddenly remembered some reason that he needed to leave, and off he went, back towards his friends(?) parked at the top of the hill.
It was well after dark when this happened, so we had to pack camp into the boat in the dark, but we did so lickety-split and within a few minutes the boat is headed back across the lake to civilization.
I have no idea what he wanted but it looked for all the world like he was sizing us up to come back later that night. We could have stayed but we wouldn't have slept at all. I'd camped there many times but never did so again after that.
Thinkingman
WKR
OU was a great place to be in the mid-eighties.
We had so much fun.
My uncle from SW Ohio hunted Athens County for years and always had a booner buck on opening day.
In the spirit of the thread, I cannot watch Blair Witch Project(filmed not too far away) and not think of the times I spent in those hardwood forests and the semi-locals that would appear during the Halloween festivities.
TreeDux
Lil-Rokslider
Chris reminded me of one I’ve been meaning to write about for a while. Early 2000s my girlfriend and I were doing a cross-country road trip. The end destination was Wyoming for hunting and camping, but we stopped a couple places along the way. On the second afternoon we were somewhere in Missouri when we decided we wanted to break from the road and thought it might be nice to find a camping spot for the evening and have an early supper.
At that time, we did not have GPS in our cars and probably still had a MapQuest print out somewhere. The only map I had was the big Rand McNally truckers atlas that had a single page or two for each state.
I I located what appeared to be a parcel of national Forest land south of the highway. It did not seem to be contiguous with the entire forest, but big enough piece just the same. And it looked like we could get to it in about three turns from the interstate so we went for it.
15 minutes later, we turned onto a dirt and gravel road . There wasn’t much of anything around and no national forest signs, but we were undeterred. After driving a little ways, we came upon a section of shacks, what looked to be seasonal camps or hunting shacks . Even though it was fall and hunting season there weren’t many people around.
As we drove through the camps, we did notice that there was one couple just kind of hanging out. The guy was raking and burning a few leaves and his lady was sitting on a truck tailgate nearby. There were also a couple of cold beer sitting on the tailgate so I instantly thought hey, my kind of people and throw a hand up as we drove by. I didn’t really get much in return but a blank stare, but I was OK with that, we kept driving.
After another mile or so we realize we didn’t seem to be finding any indication of public land or any camping spots that we could use so we turn around. As we drove back by the couple at their camp, I came to a stop, roll down the wind and tried to start a little conversation. That went nowhere so I went right to the point and asked the guy where the national forest was. With that same blank stare, he kind of raised his hand up on his left side, swinging it slowly towards the distant woods from left to right and put his hand back down. He never said a word. At that point, I looked him square in the eye and said it’s probably best for us to get on out of here, isn’t it? He nodded slowly up and down. I had seen and heard all I needed and we did in fact get out of there.
We headed back towards the interstate, making a stop at the next crossroads where there was a little country store. We made a pretense of walking around picking up a couple of items and as the lady at the cash register was ringing us up I casually mentioned the experience we just had. She seemed rather surprised and insisted that everyone around there was super friendly. Then she asked what kind of campsite I was looking for as there weren’t many campgrounds around. I told her we just needed a place to stay for tonight just something to put a tent up on.
She said well if that is all you need there’s a place right down the road here about a mile and a half on the left. It would be perfect and nobody cares if you’re there. It only took us a few minutes to find it and it did seem like a good set up. There was a fairly well worn path that led about 70 yards to a circular turnaround. There was a small pond and all the grass was pretty short with plenty of good tent space. We got camp set up quickly and I mixed a beverage and then grabbed an ultralight spinning rod made a few casts in the pond. I didn’t catch any fish, but it was a beautiful afternoon andwe quickly forgot the encounter we had on the other road. After that we made supper and went to bed shortly after dark.
Sometime around 1am, we were both awakened by the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. When we sat up and looked out of the tent, the headlights were naturally focused right on our tent and our truck. I fully expected the car to back out of there and go on its way. That didn’t happen. Instead, after sitting there for a moment, the car started to inch forward. I immediately put my hands on the only weapon I had accessible, a Ruger wildcat 22 magnum revolver. It took another moment for the car to cross that 60 or 70 yard stretch, but it seems like we were frozen. I didn’t want to get out but I didn’t want to be stuck in the tent either. So I huddled half in and half out of my sleeping bag with a flashlight and pistol.
As the car got closer, we were completely blinded by the headlights. We could tell very little about the car and certainly couldn’t tell anything about who was inside of it. It just kept creeping forward slowly. My heart was easily going Much faster than the car was.
They stayed on the path and slow rolled right beside our tent so close that if they had opened the door, they would’ve hit our tent. I could have touched the car from my sleeping bag.The only good thing about that I felt was that they would have to open the window or door to see in the tent at that point. I reasoned that at least at that point they would be exposed. But the car never stopped, just slow rolled around the turn around and crept back out to the road where it stopped for another moment before turning back onto the blacktop and driving away.
We sat in silence for another minute or two trying to wrap our heads around what just happened. Eventually, my nerves calmed, and I rolled over and crawled back down into my sleeping bag to go to sleep. I could very much feel that my girlfriend was not taking similar measures and that she was still sitting upright. A minute later in the darkness, she says to me, you know they never caught the zodiac killer, right?
Knowing that sleep was out of the question, I did not say a word. I just got up, packed the truck and we were back on the highway by 2 am.
At that time, we did not have GPS in our cars and probably still had a MapQuest print out somewhere. The only map I had was the big Rand McNally truckers atlas that had a single page or two for each state.
I I located what appeared to be a parcel of national Forest land south of the highway. It did not seem to be contiguous with the entire forest, but big enough piece just the same. And it looked like we could get to it in about three turns from the interstate so we went for it.
15 minutes later, we turned onto a dirt and gravel road . There wasn’t much of anything around and no national forest signs, but we were undeterred. After driving a little ways, we came upon a section of shacks, what looked to be seasonal camps or hunting shacks . Even though it was fall and hunting season there weren’t many people around.
As we drove through the camps, we did notice that there was one couple just kind of hanging out. The guy was raking and burning a few leaves and his lady was sitting on a truck tailgate nearby. There were also a couple of cold beer sitting on the tailgate so I instantly thought hey, my kind of people and throw a hand up as we drove by. I didn’t really get much in return but a blank stare, but I was OK with that, we kept driving.
After another mile or so we realize we didn’t seem to be finding any indication of public land or any camping spots that we could use so we turn around. As we drove back by the couple at their camp, I came to a stop, roll down the wind and tried to start a little conversation. That went nowhere so I went right to the point and asked the guy where the national forest was. With that same blank stare, he kind of raised his hand up on his left side, swinging it slowly towards the distant woods from left to right and put his hand back down. He never said a word. At that point, I looked him square in the eye and said it’s probably best for us to get on out of here, isn’t it? He nodded slowly up and down. I had seen and heard all I needed and we did in fact get out of there.
We headed back towards the interstate, making a stop at the next crossroads where there was a little country store. We made a pretense of walking around picking up a couple of items and as the lady at the cash register was ringing us up I casually mentioned the experience we just had. She seemed rather surprised and insisted that everyone around there was super friendly. Then she asked what kind of campsite I was looking for as there weren’t many campgrounds around. I told her we just needed a place to stay for tonight just something to put a tent up on.
She said well if that is all you need there’s a place right down the road here about a mile and a half on the left. It would be perfect and nobody cares if you’re there. It only took us a few minutes to find it and it did seem like a good set up. There was a fairly well worn path that led about 70 yards to a circular turnaround. There was a small pond and all the grass was pretty short with plenty of good tent space. We got camp set up quickly and I mixed a beverage and then grabbed an ultralight spinning rod made a few casts in the pond. I didn’t catch any fish, but it was a beautiful afternoon andwe quickly forgot the encounter we had on the other road. After that we made supper and went to bed shortly after dark.
Sometime around 1am, we were both awakened by the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. When we sat up and looked out of the tent, the headlights were naturally focused right on our tent and our truck. I fully expected the car to back out of there and go on its way. That didn’t happen. Instead, after sitting there for a moment, the car started to inch forward. I immediately put my hands on the only weapon I had accessible, a Ruger wildcat 22 magnum revolver. It took another moment for the car to cross that 60 or 70 yard stretch, but it seems like we were frozen. I didn’t want to get out but I didn’t want to be stuck in the tent either. So I huddled half in and half out of my sleeping bag with a flashlight and pistol.
As the car got closer, we were completely blinded by the headlights. We could tell very little about the car and certainly couldn’t tell anything about who was inside of it. It just kept creeping forward slowly. My heart was easily going Much faster than the car was.
They stayed on the path and slow rolled right beside our tent so close that if they had opened the door, they would’ve hit our tent. I could have touched the car from my sleeping bag.The only good thing about that I felt was that they would have to open the window or door to see in the tent at that point. I reasoned that at least at that point they would be exposed. But the car never stopped, just slow rolled around the turn around and crept back out to the road where it stopped for another moment before turning back onto the blacktop and driving away.
We sat in silence for another minute or two trying to wrap our heads around what just happened. Eventually, my nerves calmed, and I rolled over and crawled back down into my sleeping bag to go to sleep. I could very much feel that my girlfriend was not taking similar measures and that she was still sitting upright. A minute later in the darkness, she says to me, you know they never caught the zodiac killer, right?
Knowing that sleep was out of the question, I did not say a word. I just got up, packed the truck and we were back on the highway by 2 am.
MTGunner
Lil-Rokslider
Cousin and myself were set up over a wallow for feral hogs. Green lights in place and just waiting for a good group to show. Half hour into the black night and a herd of hogs came into the wallow. The wind swirled and they were gone. Waited another hour and another group showed up. Wind in our face. We both set up and counted down from three. My hog went down like lead. Cousins hog ran off with the others. Lots of blood in the direction of fleeing hogs. But, dense woods to look for his pig. OK, if you have not done this it is NOT for the weak of heart. LED flash lite in one hand and my S&W .357 in the other. Cousin same as mine. So, we found blood on the edge and followed until it was mostly gone. From this point on it was leap frog to find blood. One stays on the last blood drop, the other searches for another. This went on for nearly an hour. BTW, we could hear the remaining survivors in the woods. Ears up, flashlight to the front, side, back and again. Finally found his hog. Big hole in that critter from his 300 Black out. Still ran quite a way. But, this truly is an adventure. Not sure if it’s smart. But, found his critter and then back to the blind to pack up for the night. Grand adventure. MTG
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2025
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- 166
You found one too ? hahahaha
loganwayne
WKR
we've had the same thing happen. we were setting up camp and planned on hunting and this group of guys showed up and started asking us a bunch of questions, when they left we decided to pack up and go to another area. ran into the game warden later that year and asked him about it and sounds like we made the right move. there had been a string of stolen stuff when people left their camp. those guys were looking to see if we had anything worth taking.
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2025
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Watch out for the children of the corn
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