What's the strangest/scariest thing you've ever experienced in the woods?

[TheGrumpyGuy]

Umm... not really. One may venture here from neighboring states occasionally, but they never last long.
Recent unusual sighting - caught a guy who said he was (illegally) hunting morels in the park, but actually had a handful of ramps. Really bad at ID, I guess.
I go out in the woods frequently at night, and the most unusual things I see are the state insect (Say's Firefly), usually in May, and railroad worms:
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Only heard about it 1 time, 20/25 years ago. Black bear out in New Pal

 

[BigRed]

Saw a revenuer once, but took care of it.

 

[ZurokSlayer7X9]

I have a bunch of these stories. Me and some of my friends sometimes do night hikes to test and run gear. You'd be surprised about the weirdness and silence @ 2:00 in the AM.

One time we were stalked by what we believe to be an emu. It seems odd, but I know of two properties around where I live that raise a few emus. I was showing a cop friend how a PVS-14 works, and while we were out in the woods, something bigger than a coyote was following us in some tall cattails. Then is growled at us with what I can describe almost like what a motorcycle engine sounds like in the distance, but it emanated a few feet in front of us, and it was also 1:30 in the AM. Couldn't see through the cattails with the NVs, and is why I eventually got a thermal scope. We could see eye shine that was around 5 1/2 feet high.

Another one was when I was hiking through a forest break behind my house (also past midnight), I saw what looked like a giant opossum (walking around 3 feet tall on all fours) through thermal running right at me. It may have been a coyote, but it wasn't a bobcat because it had a tail.

 

[ZurokSlayer7X9]

Another one that didn't happen in the AM was one time my uncle was throwing a party at his house, which has a lot of open rolling hills with an abandoned railroad bridge on it. Anyways, some of the little kids were playing around the bridge and left for the swing set. Around ten seconds after they left, a massive coyote walked out of the bushes where they left. This thing was larger than most German Shepherds I've seen. Despite its size, it was likely scared of the kids and waited for them to leave, but still that was unnerving. If it had decided to munch on the kids, it would have taken us at almost a minute to respond due to distance.

 

[Jaybird1980]

I don't have any paranormal stories.

While I was out predator calling one night I had an owl swoop down and grap my caller. Didn't hear anything until the caller was just snatched up and carried about 20' before it dropped it. Startle me good.

I once crossed paths with a bear in Tennessee. I was out hiking and it was going up and crossing the trail I was on. I thought oh that's a smaller one, I'm going to try to get close and take a picture. I got pretty close and it stood up and slapped the tree it was next to, all of a sudden it didn't seem so small. The sound of that smack has stuck with me.

 

[Mark-DuCo]

Scariest thing I've ever experienced in the woods is opening day of gun season on public land. Nothing will make you get out of your stand faster than slugs wizzing past hitting trees around you.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

One of my scariest memories was when I was in Boy Scouts. We were at summer camp down at Camp Ransburg on Lake Monroe. Our troop had gone out on "patrol" one evening, but a buddy and I stayed back at the main camp because we were working on Firecrafter stuff. We had walked up to the trading post and were walking back to camp just after dark. The road we were walking was on top of a ridge overlooking the lake.

A little background... we had just seen "The Legend of Boggy Creek" a couple of weeks before going to camp. So keep that in mind.

As we were walking, we suddenly heard some short, low gutteral grunts/growls on the lake side of the road. We instantly grabbed each other by the shirt and froze.

We heard it a couple more times... and then the guy's outboard motor finally started and he was on his way.

 

[jwamplerusa]

We were at summer camp down at Camp Ransburg on Lake Monroe. Our troop had gone out on "patrol" one evening, but a buddy and I stayed back at the main camp because we were working on Firecrafter stuff. We had walked up to the trading post and were walking back to camp just after dark. The road we were walking was on top of a ridge overlooking the lake.

Man, that brings back some memories!

 

[flyingsquirrel]

It wasn't me, but several girls I knew wouldn't go skinny-dipping with me because they swore there was banana snakes in the water.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Man, that brings back some memories!

Right?? I would still make it a point to cruise by the swimming docks when I was on the lake these many years later. Lots of good memories there.

 

[indyblue]

At summer camp when some dufus decided to throw a bunch of poison ivy onto the campfire.

Diarriah.

 

[tmschuller]

Cranes.. at times especially at night they can make some strange sounds. And chupacabra or nachos can make some strange nighttime sounds…;(

 

[duanewade]

I had just put up a new tree stand a couple of week before deer season about 20 years ago. Made sure it was good and solid and the platform was nestled into 3 of the tree's trunks. Opening morning, sitting nice and quiet and as the sun starts to come up I have something scurrying all over my head. I've got an old tanker's helmet liner on to keep my noggin warm and I am thankful for that as the squirrel was not having me there in the tree. Little did I know that there was a small hole up about 5-6 feet above my head. I about peed myself trying to get out if that tree stand.

 

[Sigblitz]

Another one that didn't happen in the AM was one time my uncle was throwing a party at his house, which has a lot of open rolling hills with an abandoned railroad bridge on it. Anyways, some of the little kids were playing around the bridge and left for the swing set. Around ten seconds after they left, a massive coyote walked out of the bushes where they left. This thing was larger than most German Shepherds I've seen. Despite its size, it was likely scared of the kids and waited for them to leave, but still that was unnerving. If it had decided to munch on the kids, it would have taken us at almost a minute to respond due to distance.

I was loading rail on a skid steer to make a track repair and one come within 6 feet of me and stopped. He was bigger than a shepherd, like you saw. I said hi buddy. He hiked his leg and peed on a tree and took off.

 

[johntheplinker]

Banjos...

 

[shibumiseeker]

I was 15 and camping by myself when a bunch of screaming started nearby. About pissed myself as it happened off and on all night long. Found out the next day the guy who owned the adjacent property raised peafowl.

Another time camped out in the open when I was 14 on family property. Woke up the next morning surrounded by squirrels.

Camped in a rock shelter and had a woodrat running over me all night long until I moved over ten feet after I figured it was following a scent trail it used.

 

[HHollow]

Elk hunting, Montana Rockies, Wall tent on public land. Was 2 miles from camp, walking uphill on shady side of mountain. Mid afternoon. Noises. Unexplained rustling. Followed a worn path and then the stench. The smell of death. A light smell, not extreme, but everywhere and from all directions. More rustling. No a small animal because medium sized branches were breaking. Normally that would mean an elk. But after looking around it was apparent the smell of death was due to the area being littered with mostly eaten dear and elk parts. Then it was crystal clear that I had walked into some grizzly bear's favorite lunch spot. Ok, maybe it was only a large black bear. But now the rustling noises and twig breakage had new meaning. Back to camp in record time./

 

[BR8818]

Banjos...

Haha, I bought a welder off Craigslist in KY. I didn't know the guy lived down in a holler. It was almost dark when I showed up, and I didn't stop at the last gas station even though I was about to bust. The guy talked forever so it was pitch black when I finally got to leave. I got lost had no idea where I was GPS had no signal I said screw it I'm stopping and going right here. As soon as I start to "go" a banjo starts playing...NOPE ZIP

 

[Mij]

FYI, we got bears here in Indiana

OK, guess I’ll just have to take your word for it. I only know I’ve been hunting, fishing, trapping, trapped as a profession for a decade. For over 73 years and I’ve never seen one or any sign of one. But that’s just my experience, YMMV.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Not really scary as much as puzzling. Back when I was in HS in the early 90s.

I was floating on Cordry lake after dark relaxing with my buddy on his family's ski boat. we were in the middle of the big open section of the lake toward the levee. There is a road across the levee that goes up the hill to the north into the woods.

As we were laying there watching the stars talking, we kept seeing lights to the NE. They appeared to be headlights coming south down the hill/road. Over the course of 30 minutes or so we kept seeing headlights in the trees every few minutes. But none of the cars ever drove across the levee. After about 45 minutes it started getting weird that NONE of the cars crossed the levee.
Then we motored out closer to the levee and waited. Thats when we realized what was going on.

It wasnt headlights. We were looking toward Atterbury. They were illumination flares. It wasnt cars coming down the hill, it was flares floating down and they were far enough away we could see them, but due to the angle, their apogee was still below the treeline. And it just happened to line up with the road.