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

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

A hundred years ago I was pretty good at sneaking through the woods. So much so that I excited the curiosity of some of the local coyote population, who stalked me to the edge of the woods. I stood erect, and they melted back into the woods. That was fun.

 

[Cameramonkey]

A hundred years ago I was pretty good at sneaking through the woods. So much so that I excited the curiosity of some of the local coyote population, who stalked me to the edge of the woods. I stood erect, and they melted back into the woods. That was fun.

Back when I was a kid in the early 80s, Dad and I used to squirrel hunt with a coworker of his. Dude was a Vienam vet, but of course didnt talk about it.

Dude hunted in cowboy boots. I swear that guy could walk through the fall leaves and not make a damn sound. It was spooky.

Like the one time, it was a quiet morning, with a slight breeze. I was sitting under a tree quietly waiting for a tree rat to appear again and all of the sudden, he's behind me asking how I'm doing. Scared the crap out of me. I swear the dude levitated to me because not so much as a crunch.

 

[johntheplinker]

Thanks to everyone who has shared so far. Hopefully we can keep this thread going, though maybe I should have waited until Halloween. Feel free to post!

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

@johntheplinker I'm happy to see you share your tale. I know some people very close to me that have similar stories in SE IN, they are not tall tale tellers. I am not at liberty to share those stories here, maybe they will give me permission and I will share them then. I only have a couple personal experiences that pertains to that phenomenon on that property.

I was walking out along a fence-line hedge looking for a rabbit that was getting at the garden, I had my Sears 520 (Ranger Model 30) double hump pump with me and this was broad daylight. Probably about 2pm on a hot summer day. When I got to this particularly gnarly corner of the hedge that was THICK with briars (no person could walk or even crawl here) I heard what sounded exactly like a person snoring. I immediately started feeling hot on my ears and my heart started beating extra fast. The only think I could think to do is say "Hey!" in a stern voice. When I did, the snoring stopped and I started feeling pretty uneasy so I retreated.

(It was probably nothing but it was kinda weird to me in the moment.)

The other time was about 1am we were wrapping up after spending the evening by the fire pit sharing stories and shooting the ****. As we were walking up the porch into the house we stopped to have a cigarette before turning in. When my buddy and I fell silent in our conversation we heard it: A wood knock...unmistakable. I have heard widow makers fall and I have heard limbs snap many times in this unmanaged acreage of woods. This was very different, the closest sound it resembles is similar to a louisville slugger hitting a home run. It has an almost "PING" quality to it and this sound came from over 400 yards away.

We tried replicating that sound with my buddy (6' 4" 280 lbs) hitting a tree as hard as he could from 100 yards away with various limbs/sticks and none of it was even close.

I have heard whooping on several occasions. There is a neighboring property who owns hounds, they bay all night during the summer on certain nights. Well something shuts them up, and gets them all wimpering... I don't know who/what.

I've heard that whack sound a couple of times in the same time frame of my experience. It was always a fair distance off so didn't think much of it at the time. Now you got me thinking...

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Back when I was a kid in the early 80s, Dad and I used to squirrel hunt with a coworker of his. Dude was a Vienam vet, but of course didnt talk about it.

Dude hunted in cowboy boots. I swear that guy could walk through the fall leaves and not make a damn sound. It was spooky.

Like the one time, it was a quiet morning, with a slight breeze. I was sitting under a tree quietly waiting for a tree rat to appear again and all of the sudden, he's behind me asking how I'm doing. Scared the crap out of me. I swear the dude levitated to me because not so much as a crunch.

LOL. I was floating on my back one night in vortex springs FL , just watching the stars, about 20 feet deep. All of a sudden the sky went dark, and I couldn't figure out why, until my gaze refocused on my instructor, above me, inverted in his fancy black hand-built tech rig , staring into my eyes. I about let out a little cloud of brown water that night. LOL

 

[johntheplinker]

Your description definitely falls in line with what many describe as a Sasquatch encounter. I know there are some who will read this and scoff at the idea, but if you really go down the rabbit hole, it becomes clear there are things that cannot be entirely explained as myth or hoaxers. I've personally have never encountered anything resembling these encounters (and God do I hope I never do), but I have had people that I trust say they have, here in Northern Indiana.

What many skeptics don't realize is that there are tens of thousands of individuals across America who risk their names and reputations with speaking of their encounters. Many in these areas, especially people with indigenous ancestors, who don't believe but know these creatures exist. It is also is backed by many Native American legends. Is there a lot of hoaxers? Yes there are, but it doesn't explain the frequency of encounters.

Les Stroud of Survivorman created a series about this called Surviviorman Bigfoot, where goes is mainly a skeptic, but comes out as something else. I mainly like his reasoning when it comes to stories of encounters, as there are very few possibilities when someone you trust says they saw bigfoot or some other cryptid:
1. They are lying
2. Mistaken Identity and Power of Suggestion
3. They're delusional (in other words, gridlock the discussion)
4. Saw a hoax
5. It's real

Going further down the rabbit hole, some have suggested a supernatural or preternatural experience.

Yes, it does sound like a Sasquatch encounter but I'll be the last person to say that is what it was. The area I live in is heavily wooded and fairly rugged country. It may very well have been a bear, there was a few sightings not far from here, and a bear could easily disappear without a trace. Lots of folks don't realize how remote some parts of this area are and how sparsely populated it is. Once you get off the main roads houses tend to be few and far between. Perry Co. has less than 20,000 population, and half those live in Tell City and Cannelton.

 

[johntheplinker]

The scariest? Diarrhea and no TP on a BSA trip as a kid. That sucked.

I hope you didn't grab any poison ivy...

 

[ghuns]

Back when I was a kid in the early 80s, Dad and I used to squirrel hunt with a coworker of his. Dude was a Vienam vet, but of course didnt talk about it.

Dude hunted in cowboy boots. I swear that guy could walk through the fall leaves and not make a damn sound. It was spooky.

Like the one time, it was a quiet morning, with a slight breeze. I was sitting under a tree quietly waiting for a tree rat to appear again and all of the sudden, he's behind me asking how I'm doing. Scared the crap out of me. I swear the dude levitated to me because not so much as a crunch.

Went paintballing back in the late 80s with a group of high school friends. We were all farm kids who grew up hunting and playing in the woods. We showed up dressed for deer hunting, all real tree camoed from head to toe.

This place had multiple fields but one was just woods. We beat a team that was sponsored by one the big paintball companies on that field, with rented equipment. Though we were hot s**t.

The next team we faced was a bunch of 'old' guys in mismatched woodland, tiger stripe, and olive drab. We were warned by the guy who ran the place that they were a group of Vietnam vets who were "pretty good". We were like, sure. But they're old. They wiped the field of us in about 3 minutes and not one of us took a shot, or even saw/heard who took us out. They were like freakin ghosts.

I grew up in a family of hunters who never thought of using a tree stand. Learned from a young age how to move slowly and quietly through the woods, but I've never seen anything like those dudes. They could move quickly and silently.

At the end of the day when we were returning our equipment, looking like a bunch of Jackson Pollock paintings and covered in welts, those dudes were almost as clean as when they showed up.

 

[littletommy]

Not particularly scary, but a weird one that I still think about to this day. We were at a family reunion in the wilderness of south central Missouri, like 20 miles to the nearest little general store, it was in the early 90s, maybe 93. In the evenings we would all sit on the tailgates of our trucks, have a few beers and enjoy the fresh air of the woods that surrounded the old home place.

One night, shortly after sunset, someone noticed a bright light in the sky to the west of us, and commented that it was too bright to be a star. Another guy said he had noticed about 15 minutes earlier, and just thought it was a plane. So, by now, about a dozen of us are watching the light just sit motionless, and fairly low over a tree line that was maybe a quarter mile west. After at least a half hour, the light started coming towards us fast, and maybe about the edge of the tree line, just disappeared. Never a sound of any kind, completely silent! The sky was perfectly clear that night, we could have easily seen a blacked out aircraft, but nothing.

I’m sure it was probably some military gear from Ft lost in the woods, but it was a very weird experience, that fortunately, a bunch of us witnessed.

 

[two70]

Not particularly scary, but a weird one that I still think about to this day. We were at a family reunion in the wilderness of south central Missouri, like 20 miles to the nearest little general store, it was in the early 90s, maybe 93. In the evenings we would all sit on the tailgates of our trucks, have a few beers and enjoy the fresh air of the woods that surrounded the old home place.

One night, shortly after sunset, someone noticed a bright light in the sky to the west of us, and commented that it was too bright to be a star. Another guy said he had noticed about 15 minutes earlier, and just thought it was a plane. So, by now, about a dozen of us are watching the light just sit motionless, and fairly low over a tree line that was maybe a quarter mile west. After at least a half hour, the light started coming towards us fast, and maybe about the edge of the tree line, just disappeared. Never a sound of any kind, completely silent! The sky was perfectly clear that night, we could have easily seen a blacked out aircraft, but nothing.

I’m sure it was probably some military gear from Ft lost in the woods, but it was a very weird experience, that fortunately, a bunch of us witnessed.

I had a similar experience except it was in southern Indiana. I was visiting my parents for a long weekend planning to do some duck hunting. While I was there my Mom mentioned seeing a strange hovering light from time to time when she would take her dog out in the early hours of the morning. Sure enough my lab had to go out early one morning and I saw the same light. At first, it was just hovering but then it seemed to drift closer to me before moving away very rapidly. There's no way to tell how high up it was but it made absolutely no sound and was capable of both hovering and moving pretty rapidly against the wind.

 

[ghuns]

...I’m sure it was probably some military gear from Ft lost in the woods, but it was a very weird experience, that fortunately, a bunch of us witnessed.

That area is also a short flight from Whiteman Air Force Base.

They could be flying more than B2s outta there.

 

[FNparabellum]

Camping with a few old friends a few years back on one guys private land.
It was evening and everything was making their noise. Cicadas, crickets, frogs, and even the cows across the road. Just a symphony of sounds.
Then a lone coyote did his howl for about 5 seconds and everything went silent. Not really scary but did make the hair on your back stand up.

Very similar. Every now and then while walking through the woods at night everything just goes silent and its creepy as heck.

 

[SSGT Rock]

City folk playing at woodsman. You've seen them, carrying $3000.+ rifles wearing Designer camo. Often seen with a guide or on the news being extracted/ rescued.

 

[Dirty Steve]

Out west .....
Walking up on grizzly bears multiple times in NW Wyoming.
Seeing a mountain lion slink around a waterhole I was watching in New Mexico.

Indiana......
Sitting in a tree stand on a property on the edge of Bloomington and seeing two people walk into the woods not 50 yards from me, look around and then start uh,,,,,going at it. What do you do?

Dirty Steve

 

[ghuns]

...Indiana......
Sitting in a tree stand on a property on the edge of Bloomington and seeing two people walk into the woods not 50 yards from me, look around and then start uh,,,,,going at it. What do you do?

Dirty Steve

Your name is Dirty Steve.

The real question is, what did you do?

 

[LtScott14]

I tell folks in these woods they need not worry about rattlesnakes and copperheads, it’s meth/crackheads you should look out for.

Yep, gotta agree with this. While deer hunting in an Indiana woods, came across a barrel of liquid Ammonia, and no farmer fields around. Found paths and tire marks and bricks stacked up like a oven/cooker so go figure. Antifreeze bottles, and sulfuric acid containers close by.
Left immediately, didn't want to engage anyone by myself with a handful of 12 ga slugs.
Notified DNR on leaving of location, and quit those woods for a season.

 

[Hkindiana]

I was in the middle of nowhere in California camping out and gold panning. On a particularly hot day I was tired and exhausted when I looked up and saw a beautiful naked woman walking down the stream towards me. I literally thought I was seeing a mirage, was it wasn’t. She sat down on a rock near me and said “Whatcha doing?” I explained it to her and she said “cool” and headed back upstream. Later that day I hiked upstream and viewed a campsite with her, another female, and two males all walking around bare naked. I later found out that the Menendez brothers (serial killers) had their death cabin about a half mile from where I was.

 

[Sylvain]

Not sure it counts ...

 

[w_ADAM_d88]

Northeast North Carolina in early October bow hunting on my dad's cousins property. HAD TO wear snake chaps, walking to the stand at zero dark thirty and hearing the rattle and then feeling the strike on your leg.

OR... The black bears that liked to sniff out your walking trail and try and climb the same tree you're up.

 

[Dirty Steve]

Your name is Dirty Steve.

The real question is, what did you do?

Waited a minute and hollered out "Go man go!"

Dirty Steve

 

[jbombelli]

When I lived out west back in the 80s a couple friends and I were backpacking through the Sierras on one of our summer trips. We stopped for the night at a place called Junction Meadow, hung our bear bags, set up camp, etc., and we were awakened in the early morning hours by the sounds of bears grunting. We exited our tents and saw a mama bear and her cubs eating all our food. I guess we didn't do a good enough job hanging our bear bags. We tried scaring them off by making noise, but it didn't work. We ended up with ONE 1 oz. packet of oatmeal to last the three of us for a full additional week.

Survival time.

We got through it okay though