Strange or unexpected things you've seen in the backcountry

[Longhorn92]

I've only been out west three times so I'm sure there are good stories out there with you guys.

I was out in the Ruby Mountains last month and we'd just sat down on a rocky knoll to glass an opposite ridgeline. The sun had just come up.

We heard a plane approaching at pretty low altitude and looked up to see three planes in formation. At first, I thought I was seeing things but a look through my binos confirmed three Japanese Zeros. They flew right over us and as I watched them disappear over the mountain, I thought, that can't be normal.

I guess there was a show nearby that weekend, although this was mid-week.

The last thing I thought I'd see in the Rubies in the middle of absolute nowhere was some Japanese fighters. I saw more Japanese Zeros that morning than bucks.

Tora! Tora! Tora!

 

[jtw]

All kinds of weirdness. Naked people, human remains, sculpture made from elk bones, about 20 foil balloons, sculpture made for a table, satelite dish and plates, model t all rusted out, doll headz hanging from a tree, a crashed ww2 plane just off the top of my head. The doll heads creeped me out the most. More so than the remains.

 

[slick]

Ahh. I would have killed to see that. You're a lucky man longhorn! I'm assuming those were the Tora Tora Zeros. T-6s, which were US trainer planes. Those Tora Tora's are heavily modified to look like the real deal. My family's great friends are in the aviation restoration business and they restored a Japanese Zero a few years back. The A6M2 Zero. He fly's it for the Texas Flying Legends. There are only 5 known flying zeros in the world today. That was an incredibly rare and exciting sight!

 

[Ray]

Large flashing orange meteor falling through aurora leaving tendrils of green light in its wake. If I had not been staying up through the night to wait for a ram to wake up and feed out of his cave I would not have seen that. Ram never showed up as he was over sensitive to plane noise and did not move when any aircraft noise was in the general area.

Falcons diving down the cliffs above us. Moving too fast to see, but could hear the wind ripping through their feathers. Then seeing a ptarmigan exploding down in the canyon bottom.

 

[BroodBuster]

I was once leaning up against a pooping log enjoying the great outdoors when a dozen or so mice appeared at my feet scurrying hither and fro. About the time I thought wtf a bald eagle swooped down and snatched one of them. Not sure how that baldy missed me as it was literally within an inch of me when he made his catch. As quickly as they appeared they were gone leaving me to finish my business in piece.

 

[Longhorn92]

Ahh. I would have killed to see that. You're a lucky man longhorn! I'm assuming those were the Tora Tora Zeros. T-6s, which were US trainer planes. Those Tora Tora's are heavily modified to look like the real deal. My family's great friends are in the aviation restoration business and they restored a Japanese Zero a few years back. The A6M2 Zero. He fly's it for the Texas Flying Legends. There are only 5 known flying zeros in the world today. That was an incredibly rare and exciting sight!

I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. They looked authentic to me.

As quickly as they appeared they were gone leaving me to finish my business in piece

I had somewhat of a similar experience. I was in the army and out at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, CA. I went out late one night to conduct some business and I felt like I was being watched. I had not heard anything. I switched on a red lens flashlight and not a foot away was a big fox staring at me. He scared the hell out of me. He looked at me for a few seconds and then walked off.

 

[MuleyFever]

Falcons diving down the cliffs above us. Moving too fast to see, but could hear the wind ripping through their feathers. Then seeing a ptarmigan exploding down in the canyon bottom.

Falcons are fast.
[video=youtube;Y3cWE0UpI3g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3cWE0UpI3g&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[colonel00]

We had this guy walk into camp while we were on a fishing trip. I was first up before light and I was trying to get the campfire going when I noticed some eyes watching me. He was pretty curious and obviously not afraid of people. We even had a little game of tug of war with a sock I had taken off. He hung around for quite a while.

[video]https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMAyvyC5ZBZ2O-bvsdER0Dm3c2nl98bDr1COM3y[/video]

 

[Dukejb]

I came across the remains of an old moonshine still with some broken blue depression glass scattered around. I was fishing my way up a small brook trout stream in the Smokies when I found it.

 

[MTarrowflinger]

I was fishing this summer in the middle of nowhere and a random hippie looking fella came walking up from out of the woods wearing an old Union army cap, basketball shorts, a carhartt jacket, and flip flops. He was trying to fly fish and wasn't having much luck. He saw me hook 2-3 during the 5-10 minutes he had been standing there. He walked over and started talking and just outright asked if he could use my rod. I didn't care, I just wanted to see where this went so I let him. He spent the next 5 minutes talking about God knows what while guthooking a small trout. When he finally reeled it in, he thanked me for providing him dinner and offered to trade me some mushrooms (that he produced from the pocket of said jacket) for the fish he'd caught on my rod. He proceeded to beat the holy hell out of the fish and I politely declined the mushrooms. He vanished back into the woods, never to be seen again.

 

[mallacootasmoothie]

Falcons are fast.

Yep they are, I got hit in the head by a falcon while sitting in a tree stand.

 

[Keneboy]

My buddy and I were sitting enjoying the sunshine and our lunch this past September high up in the Sawtooth Mountains. Out of nowhere came this noise like an avalanche was coming down on us and right in front of us appeared two F-15 Eagles flying through the mountains at eye level. We could see their helmets they were so close to us...the Sound of Freedom! We assumed they were out of Mountain Home AFB...

 

[colonel00]

My buddy and I were sitting enjoying the sunshine and our lunch this past September high up in the Sawtooth Mountains. Out of nowhere came this noise like an avalanche was coming down on us and right in front of us appeared two F-15 Eagles flying through the mountains at eye level. We could see their helmets they were so close to us...the Sound of Freedom! We assumed they were out of Mountain Home AFB...

Was one of them listening to "Road of the Gypsy"? (Obscure reference. We'll see if anyone gets that.)

 

[Where's Bruce?]

My buddy and I are 8 miles from the Mexican border at dark thirty with our bows and FoxPro FX5…a little outing of predator calling in the Cleveland Nat’l Forest in eastern San Diego County. It’s a hilly area with lots of chaparral, perfect for close and personal coyote action with a bow. We sneak in 40 minutes before grey light, place the caller 25 yards out and settle in awaiting the first rosy fingers of dawn to pierce the morning sky. Other than a few birds, there is nothing moving.



Wearing 3D and tucked into the scrub brush, we are seated about 8 minutes or so when I hear movement directly behind me. I freeze, unsure what is approaching. I nock an arrow and remove my knife from its sheath…not sure exactly what to expect. The sound of heavy weight moving thru the chaparral is unnerving…whatever is coming up behind me is big. I lock eyes with my buddy, they are wide open in fear and now I am filled with dread. When you see sheer terror on your hunting buddy’s face, you know you’re in deep sh*t.

The sound is moving laterally behind, not more than 15-20 feet. I’m thinking about jumping up so if it’s a mt. lion I am not such a small target but realize if it was a something like that, my pal would already be up on his feet and you don’t hear lions coming in. He’s not moving. I follow his lead. He can see what it is, I cannot…not until the sound turns again and move past me at 20 yards. At first all I saw was the gun, an AK47 slung over the shoulder of the dirtiest man I have ever seen. Then I saw his buddy, equally filthy and toting the same firearm. In tow were 34 others, all Latino, most likely Mexican. We sit perfectly still and watch as a total of 36 aliens pass by without a word. The “train” was completely male and no backpacks, which I thought was strange. Not at all like the videos you often see posted online with a mixed bag of men and women of all ages moving past a surveillance camera hidden along the trail.

[video=youtube;KD-OPWEmHp8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD-OPWEmHp8[/video]

It isn’t until they had passed a quarter mile away that my buddy and I broke silence. He calls the Border Patrol and gives em the GPS numbers, head count and weapons description. We beat it outta there ASAP.

Later my buddy is told we were extremely lucky. Just ahead of the group that passed us was another of equal size carrying backpacks of dope. The second group was the relief group. We had slid in right between the two. When we retrieved the game caller, there were shoe prints 5 feet away from it.

Now we never hunt that area with sticks and strings…I carry an R25 semi-auto in .308 w/ ten rd magazines. There’s an armed invasion taking place on the border and people who do not live near the southern border cannot imagine just how real the threat is. I didn’t fully appreciate it until this encounter. Though this all happened years ago…I can see it like it was yesterday. The most dangerous animal in the field has only two legs.

 

[MTarrowflinger]

Yep they are, I got hit in the head by a falcon while sitting in a tree stand.

What kind?

 

[mallacootasmoothie]

What kind?

I'm not sure if that's a serious question or not but it was an Australian Brown Falcon.

 

[Dromsky]

Sitting in a deer stand in Louisiana, got buzzed by an A 10 Warthog at treetop level, bad ass.

 

[ethan]

Colonel, I get that referance!! lol

I've see moon shine stills and old cars from the early 1900's several times. Not to hard to find old homesteads here and there in our part of the country.

 

[Brock A]

My buddy and I are 8 miles from the Mexican border at dark thirty with our bows and FoxPro FX5…a little outing of predator calling in the Cleveland Nat’l Forest in eastern San Diego County. It’s a hilly area with lots of chaparral, perfect for close and personal coyote action with a bow. We sneak in 40 minutes before grey light, place the caller 25 yards out and settle in awaiting the first rosy fingers of dawn to pierce the morning sky. Other than a few birds, there is nothing moving.



Wearing 3D and tucked into the scrub brush, we are seated about 8 minutes or so when I hear movement directly behind me. I freeze, unsure what is approaching. I nock an arrow and remove my knife from its sheath…not sure exactly what to expect. The sound of heavy weight moving thru the chaparral is unnerving…whatever is coming up behind me is big. I lock eyes with my buddy, they are wide open in fear and now I am filled with dread. When you see sheer terror on your hunting buddy’s face, you know you’re in deep sh*t.

The sound is moving laterally behind, not more than 15-20 feet. I’m thinking about jumping up so if it’s a mt. lion I am not such a small target but realize if it was a something like that, my pal would already be up on his feet and you don’t hear lions coming in. He’s not moving. I follow his lead. He can see what it is, I cannot…not until the sound turns again and move past me at 20 yards. At first all I saw was the gun, an AK47 slung over the shoulder of the dirtiest man I have ever seen. Then I saw his buddy, equally filthy and toting the same firearm. In tow were 34 others, all Latino, most likely Mexican. We sit perfectly still and watch as a total of 36 aliens pass by without a word. The “train” was completely male and no backpacks, which I thought was strange. Not at all like the videos you often see posted online with a mixed bag of men and women of all ages moving past a surveillance camera hidden along the trail.

[video=youtube;KD-OPWEmHp8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD-OPWEmHp8[/video]

It isn’t until they had passed a quarter mile away that my buddy and I broke silence. He calls the Border Patrol and gives em the GPS numbers, head count and weapons description. We beat it outta there ASAP.

Later my buddy is told we were extremely lucky. Just ahead of the group that passed us was another of equal size carrying backpacks of dope. The second group was the relief group. We had slid in right between the two. When we retrieved the game caller, there were shoe prints 5 feet away from it.

Now we never hunt that area with sticks and strings…I carry an R25 semi-auto in .308 w/ ten rd magazines. There’s an armed invasion taking place on the border and people who do not live near the southern border cannot imagine just how real the threat is. I didn’t fully appreciate it until this encounter. Though this all happened years ago…I can see it like it was yesterday. The most dangerous animal in the field has only two legs.

That is absolutely insane.

 

[BroodBuster]

NE Wa and panhandle Id are free flight zones. The Navy uses that area for testing out new software and repairs. One time on a mountaintop near Curlew we got our own private airshow. The Lincoln had just returned home a week or so earlier and all the F18's (the jammer kind) were out buzzing around. They start by buzzing our camp and then go nap of the earth down the valley. Really cool being 1000 ft above them! They've been so close that you can read their name on the side of the cockpit. That's close. And looks like an awful lot of fun!

Another time fishing on the coast we saw two F22's dogfighting with each other. Those things are more like UFO's then fighter planes. They do things that defy physics!

With Navy Air Station Whidby in my backyard getting buzzed by fighters is a pretty common sight. And very cool!