Scariest moment alone in the woods?

First of all I hope this topic is in the right forum, please forgive me if not. I'm kind of new here and I thought this would be the most appropriate forum, so I hope I am correct on that.

Without further delay, has anyone here ever had a very scary or horrifying experience with a creature of some sort while being alone in the woods? Please share!

For as much time as I've spent in the woods in my life, I haven't came in contact with anything unusual. My father once told me about a time he was on an old tractor coming out of a swamp into a forested area, it was pitch black except for the little lights on the tractor. Out of nowhere he heard the loudest, most horrifying scream he's still heard to this day. He put the old tractor in high speed and got the hell out of woods, nothing happened to him and he has no idea what it was that screamed. He figures it was a wildcat of some sort, which are actually pretty rare in this part of North America. Nevertheless, it's always a fun story to hear him tell.

[edit on 7-9-2007 by BigSteam]

reply to post by BigSteam


Haven't had that experience yet. I'll let you know when it happens though. I've been within 30 feet of a cougar, seen black bear and coyotes and once in a while a bobcat. If anything, the scariest thing out in the woods that I've experienced is my own imagination. When you're tired, or lost, the human mind can be a very scary thing.

I'm part owner of a family owned property in northern Michigan, and we're surrounded by thousands of acres of federal forest. The seclusion would allow for things to go unseen indefinitely. We have had some odd experiences up there, though. I guess the real test will be when I see that 8 ft wookie in my path.

All of my outdoor woods experience has been in Michigan and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and other than a few bears and big cats, I've never seen anything that scared me. I've spent weeks at a time, I love the Michigan woods

The only things that scared me in the woods are things that my mind had generated, which one can quickly move past.

reply to post by Ionized


Glad to hear it. Michigan is a beautiful state, especially in the fall. People here do what they can in the fall because winter tends to drag on once it's here.

I didn't realize your location was Michigan. Hello fellow Michigander.

[edit on 7-9-2007 by DamnedDirtyApes]

I was bailed up by a Cassowary once while walking in the rainforest near Cairns. Not exactly a mythical beast, but pretty intimidating when it tries to kick. Fortunately somebody came jogging along the track after about 10 mins and the bird took off after him

I was 11 yrs old and in the woods just outside of the island town of Ketchikan Alaska.
I was enthralled with finding what I thought were chunks of gold in a stream!!! They turned out to just be iron pyrite
Anyway.....I heard some serious crashing and deep grunting noises, that were clearly warning me of what I thought was a bears approach.........I climbed the fattest and tallest pine closest to me......
I heard the thrashing/grunting sounds recede away in a different direction....but I stayed up in that tree a good couple of hours.
I never did SEE any bear, and for all I know it could have just been a grunting dog chasing after something.......I was not all THAT far out of town and within whistleing range of my uncles house.........it COULD have been just a dog but I thought it was a bear.
I was a scarred little girl alone in the woods.



[edit on 7-9-2007 by theRiverGoddess]

About 15 years ago, my brother and 2 of his friends were playing "army" inside a quarry at night which was located in scrub (Australian woods). When they left they jumped the 6ft mesh fence and heard a noise behind them. 2 "dogs" came running out of the darkness and approached the fence. I remember all of them saying that all they could really see were their red eyes and they (half jokingly) called them "devil dogs". They then ran off.
The most logical explanation would have been a couple of foxes, but foxes would not come running up to humans. There were no guard dogs etc (I now work for the quarry in question). To this day, as much as we try, we cannot come up with any explanation except that maybe someone's dogs somehow got out of their yard and into the quarry (which was completely fenced off), but all three were convinced that they were not "normal" dogs.
Probably a logical explanation for this one, but it still makes us think to this day.

reply to post by BigSteam
Scariest moment in the woods for me happened back in 1988. We were in Northern Manitoba 200 miles from the nearest road. I did forestry work as a college student doing timber quotas, better known as timber cruising. It was an August afternoon (we worked for 3 months) and we had walked in to the bush about 10 miles. My partner, who was the compass man, said it was time to turn around and get back to the boat. We had inventoried our last point. I didn't recognize any landmarks on the way back. About 5 miles later I asked my partner if we were walking in the right direction. He put the compass on the aerial photo and to our horror, we had been walking on the back bearing. So, now we are 15 miles from the boat, standing in a floating bog, surrounded by densely treed Black Spruce. It was thick and only about 4 feet high. All of a sudden we hear a crunch sound behind us. The sound circled us and came into a small opening in the brush. It was the largest mother of a Black Bear I had ever seen. It walked right up to us and stopped 5 feet away (it was upwind of us). We were at a loss as to what we should do now. The bear must have got our scents because in the blink of an eye he turned and ran away. It happened so fast, we thought we were going to be toast. Needless to say, it was a long walk back to the lake, but that was the scariest moment I have ever had in the bush.

Scariest Moment?

Two of them.

Day Hike:
First one, we were walking up a stream in a rural mountain valley, sloshing around in the water, looking for pools to dive into. So basically little or no clothes on, tennis shoes.

I looked up to my right where the path enters the clearing (you can't always see the river from the trail and there was the perfect silhouette of a bear, standing on all fours, sideways.

Well being a city slicker at the time (first year away from home at University), I panicked and took off, climbing the opposite hillside (lotta good that would do). Remember, completely defenseless, not even a pack to interpose if he attacked.

After a while got up the courage to go back, and walked up past the point.

When we came back, no bear.

A few yards later I looked over my shoulder and there the 'bear' was again!

Yikes!!!

However, it looked completely motionless and unnatural. We crept up to it with our freshly cut staffs...

Turned out to be a perfect outline of a black bear, but was indeed a broken outcropping of rocks, turned black by campfire smoke.

Seeing Eyes
Getting to the wilderness area late, we just parked and set up the hammocks. Being poor college kids, the 'hammock' consisted of that ultra light 'pocket design' with just netting. I put my mummy bag in it.

We camped in a forest of silver alders, which meant no forest floor vegetation, just this stand of thin trees which just went on and on around us.

About 2am, a strong breeze came up and the forest was swaying and blowing - quite noisy.

SUDDENLY, the full moon came out nearly over head, and we heard a howling or some kind of loud noise that woke me up with a start.

Though we always had felt at one with the woods, this time it was different, for off in the distance to my left and ahead, were a pair of glowing objects, spaced similarly like eyes, only quite high off the ground (8 feet?).

With the trees swaying the wind lightly howling and the Moon seeming to swim, shadows going crazy, these glowing orbs (not red, but white or gold) were just too much.

I woke up my companion and said, 'let's pack up, we're out of here'.

Laugh if you will, but there wasn't even any argument from my friend who really wanted to camp out that weekend.

Phsaw.

Thats nothing. I've got the story that will keep you up at night. Its one of the clearest and most fearful memories of my life.

We were just young pups, my cousin and I. Both us into boy scout type things. We snuck off to the woods near our houses, close to the national forest, with our shiny new official scout mess kits. All we'd found to cook in them mess kits was a can of pork N beans, but that didn't sway the excitement. Sure, we'd camped out and eaten in the woods before, but with a real mess kit? Man, that was somethin!

Being good scouts we went pretty deep into the woods and set up a right proper stone ring campfire. Nothing large, just enough to warm up some beans. While the beans warmed, we kept busy by pokin the fire and gettin the thermos and a treat we brought. Thats when it happened.

Looking back I don't think we even noticed it at first, and even when we did begin to notice, it weren't no big deal. It sounded like it was maybe a few hundred feet away, near the old cemetary, where the headstones were broken and worn so badly that you couldn't make out a name.

See-un's-how we'd snucked out, we was kinda on the lookout for one of our brothers to come track us down and take us home. But that ain't what we heard. So we probably kinda ignored it a bit. Till the sound gots closer.

We looked at each other a little worried, and kinda stood up a bit to see what it was. A kinda shuffling thru the leaves noise. It was headed our way, but we couldn't see it, even though it was broad daylight. It sounded sorta like sswwwhhhp sswhhpp scuurraacct, sswwwhhhp sswwhhpp scuurraaaacctt, real slow, almost creaping toward us.

I whispered to my cousin that it sounded like somebody was takin two steps, and then draggin somethin. He agreed, and strained to see what the heck it was. We could tell by the sound that it was comin our way, and our young minds struggled to figure out what to do. Of course, there was nothin to be ah-scared of, nobody lived round hear for many a year. We decided to stay put with our lunch.

That didn't stop it from comin our way though. Soon it was close enough that we were pretty darn near scared to death. Still we waited. Weren't nutin gonna stop me from cookin on my new mess kit! But still it came.

What to do, what to do. Panic set into us when the sound was close enough that we should've easily seen it. Whatever it was seemed to be purdy near right beside us. But there was nutin to be seen. Nutin. I couldn't comprehend what could sound like someone walkin, and draggin somethin, but yet not be seen.

Bout the time it was clear to us that we should be able to reach out and touch it, but still couldn't see it, we lit outa there like scared rabbits. To heck with the fire and the beans, I wanted to live! Run, RUn, RUN, I screamed like a little girl. But we couldn't pull ahead. It was still right there beside us as we ran, you could hear it crashing thru the brush close enough to touch, feal it breathing down our necks. But there was nutin to be seen. Nutin. Run, run, run, was all I managed to get out as we hightailed it down the trails.

I'd never run that fast before. I didn't even know I could. We finally broke free of the woods and into the field near where we had parked our bikes, but we kept running. Next thing I know there is a terrible ripping, crashing sound. It was so loud that we both stole a glance over our sholders while we ran.

It was a tree. It must've been 50 foot tall or so. It went straight up out of the ground about 4 feet. Root ball and all. I'm tellin ya, it went straight up in the air. Trees don't normally do that you know. Then we heard a strange crying yell and we saw the tree coming our way. It tried to throw the dang tree at us! I couldn't even manage to yell at this point, but my mind was screaming Run Run RUN.

Well, we managed to escape to our bikes and ski-daddle. We talked about it at home. Panting and sweating like we were, our folks were gonna wanna know what was goin on. So we snuck in, cleaned up, and pretended nothing happened.

Oh, we went back, don't you worry. I ain't gonna leave my new mess kit out there for nothin. It took about a week to gather the courage up to take a few buddies and go gather our stuff. The fire was out, the beans were still there, badly burnt of course, but no sign of the, uh, whatever it was. The only sign left that anything had happened was that tree, uprooted and layin there partly in the field. The root ball was about 15 feet from the hole in the ground.

I never went back to that part of the woods after that. Years later the developers moved the few headstones that were left, ripped out that part of the woods, and built nice houses back there. For some unknown reason people never stay in them houses too long though.

A couple weeks ago I found an old article from 2002 with pictures of footprints in that same area of the national forrest. The men in the pictures were adament that they saw bigfoot. They described hunting, hearing strange noises, a strong sense of fear, and finding the footprints later. A cold chill went up my spine.

I showed the article to my cousin a few days after that. I didn't tell him anything about it, he just happened to be over for a visit. I just said, "hey, come look at this for a second". The boy is now a grown man. 6'2', strong as an ox, and happy as a clam. But as he read the story, his demeanor changed from jovial to tense. His color changed from well sunned to pale, in the span of a minute. You could actually see a shiver run up his spine, and his hair stand on end. His eyes got watery and he cleared his throat.

He looked at me with a strange look and simply said; That area is just about where it happened. We haven't talked about that day for well over 30 years. Do ya think thats what it was? A bigfoot?

I was shocked. I knew he was talking about that day. But, over the years I had tried hard to convince myself that it didn't happen. Just a boys imagination I'd say. I'm a full grown man with a family I'd tell myself. Hell, I'm Airborne, thru and thru I'd say. I've done things people will never even consider doing, let alone get the chance to try.

But deep down I knew it did happen, and I know that there's something out there in the woods. Something that causes me to tremble even as I write this. Something that'll leave a mark on your soul. The kind of mark that makes even the strongest men shiver when he's thinks of it.


P.S.
Thats a true story of my scariest day in the woods. I've never told it to anyone. Ever. I rednecked up the writing a bit, since thats how my cousin talks, and wrote it in the format of a story, but thats it.

Nothing remotely like that ever happened to me again, though I'm quite sure thats how I wound up at ATS. Deep down I'm still searching for an answer to something that happened to me decades ago.

Some days when I let myself ponder it, I wonder if maybe, just maybe this is the reason why they can't find bigfoot.

He's invisible!

reply to post by makeitso


don't have anything to contribute to this thread, sorry. just wanted to say thats one fine story (made up or true, i don't care, its still a damn good story).

I ran up on a black bear one time on a bike

he was bout 75 yards from me when i promptly turned around and
left, real slow like

another time i was squirrel hunting and a huge great horned owl
swooped by me and nailed my quarry and flew up in the top of the tree
i was under

amazing but scared the mess out of me , big birds and if he hit
a man from behind in the head it be game over

My "scariest alone in the woods" moment happened when I was about 10 or 11. I lived in a rural area that had a dirt road going up to a big wooded area. The road went through a field for about a half mile.

One of my favorite things to do was take my bicycle up to the woods with my friends. A house had burned down in there years back and we could find all kinds of things, like old jars and doorknobs and stuff. That was about the coolest thing a tomboy could do.

One day one of my friends got hurt up there, and we had to call my parents to come get us, so they drove up to the trees and picked us up. It wasn't until that night that I realized I'd done something really stupid.

I hadn't brought my bike home.

Since I knew I'd get a lecture from my parents if I admitted that I'd left it up there, I decided to walk up there (it was around 9 p.m. in summer, so it was just about dark at that point) and get it without telling them. I couldn't leave it up there overnight, after all.

After I was supposed to be in bed, I went out the back door and started walking. We had a yellow lab at the time that came with me.

By the time I got up there, the sun had set. I easily found my bike in the last of the sunlight and was getting ready to jump on and ride home when the dog started going crazy. He was snarling and growling and barking at something in the trees (my bike was right at the edge of them) that I couldn't see. It freaked me out, so I started pushing my bike out to the dirt road as quickly as I could.

The dog got really quiet suddenly, so I turned to call him and saw another dog - a much, much larger one - running full-blast at me. Of course, since I was still fairly young, it looked like a monster to me. All that I can recall now was that it had a medium-length black pelt, a long snout, huge teeth, and extremely long legs.

I froze and just watched it come. My brain shut down, it seems, and I just stood there like a deer in headlights. It was probably about 30 feet from me when my yellow lab ran between me and the other dog. My lab distracted the other dog, and it took off in the direction he was running.

That brought me back to 'the real world' and I jumped on my bike and pedaled home as fast as I could. My dog came home, too, no worse for the wear.

A few years back I found out that someone who lived on the other side of the woods ran a puppy mill. That made me think that what I saw was probably just some large breed turned monstrous by my 10-year-old mind. I own two Great Danes now and the long legs are just about right, but I've never seen a dog that had the same overly-long snout and fangs. The closest I saw was a college friend's dog - a Great Dane/something mix that had shaggier fur than purebreds.

It remains a mystery!

Alright, well nothing really "Supernatural" happened or anything, but..

It was about 11 PM, and I was walking back from a friends house. I decided to go on the trail that goes through a mini section of a forest. I I'm walking through this pitch black tree area (Of course there were some houses backed up along it) when all of a sudden *RING-ING-ING!!!!* I hear a chainsaw being turned on. The chainsaw keeps revving, and so of course I',m gonna assume there's a murderer with a chainsaw on the loose in the woods. I literally thought that at the time, so I ran as fast as I could through the forest area and back onto the street. I kept running until I reached my house.

I thought it was somebody cutting something in their backyard, but who would do that at 11 PM?

I still don't know who was doing it or why.

My scariest moment in the woods happened about 10 years ago. I was out riding my white arab and I would like to stress that he was a white horse; I was wearing a hot pink windbreaker. I was riding along minding my own business when a bullet impacted about 6 feet away. I shouted at who ever was shooting. Around the corner came three mighty hunters who said "we heard the noise and we thought you were a deer." Yeah right a white deer with a person in a hot pink windbreaker. Scared the crap out of me and I never went riding in the woods during hunting season again. I'd also like to mention at the time of the shot I was about 250 yards from a house.

This is a brilliant thread! Some excellent reading. Can’t believe it isn’t booming with activity!

Anyways, I have a few stories to include (I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods over the years).

Jester in the woods –

10 years ago or so (mid nineties), stories of a bizarre ‘jester’ character living in the local woods started spreading throughout the schools in my home town. A few of us witnessed this ‘jester’ first hand, and a particular friend of mine was the first to encounter ‘him’.

The rumours started with children; many claimed to have heard a flute being played in the woods, and this was when the friend of mine encountered ‘him’. He’d been strolling through the woods alone (as many of us did back then), and had heard a flute being played. Finding that a little strange he decided to head on home. (We were all synonymous with Stephen King’s IT at the time) As he crossed a bridge in the woods, he heard the rustling of foliage and galloping footsteps some distance behind him. He turned around to see what appeared to be a ‘jester’, running towards him. My friend (around 10 or 11 at the time) ran across the bridge and straight up what we used to call ‘Devil’s Drop’. This ‘jester’ character repeatedly tried to grab his ankles as he climbed the steep slope. Luckily he got away. However he was in a bit of a state; his parents had to keep him at home for a few days. The shock had done a number on him!

After this of course we were all aware of this ‘jester’ and wanted to see him for ourselves. We started visiting the woods in groups, day and night, ALWAYS hearing the flute. The first time we heard the flute we ran at full speed and left the woods behind. But kids being kids, we grew braver with every visit. Eventually we encountered this ‘jester’. I recall hearing the flute and we managed to figure out where it was coming from. My heart was in my mouth as we approached an area of dense conifers. We must’ve been almost on top of this guy when he emerged from the conifers, took off down the side of a large hill and disappeared into the denser woodland below. Needless to say we ran like cheetahs.

A few attempted rapes took place soon after in those woods. The police had to cordon the area off for a few weeks as they attempted to flush out the perpetrator(s). The police also caught wind of the ‘jester’ stories and said that it was most likely a paedophile attempting to seduce children. I cannot possibly imagine what kind of mentality this guy must’ve had if he thought children would be seduced by a maniacal flute-playing jester living in the woods.

Ouija board in the woods –

Going back 9 years now. A friend and I were obsessed with Ouija boards. We were fairly convinced they were capable of something but that something usually eluded us. One evening in particular we took the board with us down to the woods. We climbed under the White Bridge (the same bridge mentioned in the previous story) and started asking the board the usual questions. Nothing happened. As the evening went on, the Sun began to descend and the shadowy woods began to develop the fear factor. We relocated to a bench to continue our Ouija board activity. This bench was located in a clearing in the woods; facing a small fissure down to the stream. As we continued to ask questions, my friend noticed something dark coming up out of the fissure. The edge of the fissure was a mere 20 metres away, but in the ever darkening woods, it was difficult to make out what we were seeing. This ‘darkness’ climbed up out of the fissure and started moving into the clearing. The clearing was considerably brighter than the tree lined fissure, so when the ‘darkness’ crawled into the clearing, and remained blacker than black, we fled. To this day I can’t recall if we left the Ouija board out there though…

Anyways, looking forward to hearing some more stories, I’ll probably contribute more when I have more time!

[edit on 12/9/07 by thebox]

I've had several experiences in the woods at night ranging for wild dog packs to being shot at in the middle of the night.

I've told these stories before here as some might remember but don't have time right now. I may have some time later to tell them.

Box, do you think maybe that darkness coming slowly at you may have just been the evening shadows of darkness working their way up a hollow?

Originally posted by jbondo
Box, do you think maybe that darkness coming slowly at you may have just been the evening shadows of darkness working their way up a hollow?

Only a select portion of the darkness was moving toward us. These ‘shadows’ were very distinguishable from the surrounding natural shadows.

[edit on 17/9/07 by thebox]

I remember hearing a recording on coast to coast am a couple years back that freaked me out, but I cannot seemed to find it online anymore...


The story went something like this: Someone was going to meet friends/family (I believe it was a mother going to meet up with her son) in the woods. On the way there what she didn't realize was that they had in fact packed up and left, and had basically passed her at some point on her way up there.

She (for some reason) had an audio recorder on and got out of her car, and she got out and called for him/them. You can her her footsteps as she steps away from her vehicle. All of a sudden there is this speech like sound going "bu bu bu bu" almost as if someone was speaking. You then her her scream in fear as she tries, as quickly as possible, to get back into her vehicle and leave the area...

The sounds were supposedly assumed to be from the speech patterns of a sasquatch... I've tired to find the sound file since then (or even the entry for that specific episode on C2C's site) but have not been able to find this one... It seemed genuine to me and really freaked me out... I'm just glad it wasn't me...

She just happened to have an audio recorder on? Yea! This is quite normal as I often drive into the woods and turn on a tape recorder prior to opening my car door. Heck, how often are people jumped on for not taking a picture of an anomaly here? Almost every day! How are we to believe that there was an audio recording? Who was the woman? If she disappeared don't you think it would have been at least regional news? Please do try to find more on this one as....

It sounds a bit far fetched right now.

I have a similar story:

This was told usually while we were out picking blackberries in NWPA while I was growing up. It's the only place and version I've ever heard this story told.

Seems there was a family out picking blackberries in the Allegheny national forest. One member of the family was a young girl about the age of 12. She and her family were approx a quarter mile off of a logging road picking berries off several bushes. They split up, 2 people per bush and the mother was with the girl at the time. While the mother picked the girl worked her way around the other side of the bush. There was little sounds other than your normal birds and squirrels, occasionally dad would whistle as he picked. As the mother was finished with her side she called to the girl that it was time to round up the family and have lunch. When the girl didn't answer the mother walked around the bush and found no sign of her daughter anywhere. Strangely enough she had not heard anything and wondered why the girl would have left the bush as the kids were taught to always stay within sight of mom or dad. Angered that the girl had wandered away she called the rest in who were within 20 yds all around. Surely one of them would have seen her walk by but none had. The girl had literally vanished. Of course they searched and searched but to no avail. The police were called in and after a week of utilizing all the techniques (hand in hand searches, planes, dogs, etc..) of the time period the search was ended. The only things they ever found was the girls button down sweater hanged neatly on a tree branch right next to where the girl was picking and a half full bucket of blackberries sitting undisturbed on the ground.

This is supposedly a true story of the area I grew up in and happened in the mid 40's. I was told that it was a big deal at the time and there were newspaper articles to prove it. However, as a kid I never even thought about looking it up and I would probably have to go back to the area now to find any archived news articles if they are still there. As I grew up I dismissed it as a rural/urban legend but the adults swore to the validity of the story.

I do remember the hairs standing up on my neck as I listened to the story, usually while we picked. Girl vanishes three feet away from mother.....