Tell your creepy Forest Story

reply to post by llmacgregor


Well, probably an animal, but in some cases, that can be very dangerous! I would have freaked myself.

reply to post by DAVID64


That's super freaky! I would do, as someone else suggested, and check out missing persons stories from the area and time period. I just can't imagine people tossing clothing THAT high, no matter how "frisky" they were, and besides, how would they get it down? That black "hole".....creepy!

reply to post by flexy123


I have seen forests in Germany, and even close to towns, they can be pretty thick. Your story is bizarre! The picture is pretty creepy. I always worried about boars when we were in the woods there....didn't even think about something like that! Yikes!

Hey, LadyGreenEyes, since I gave you that personal disclosure on the exact sort of my former service on chat the other day, thought I'd drop this old ATS post on the creepy forest story thread - it'll make more sense to you. This is the seriously abridged version -

In a nutshell, we were in Germany at the time. Actually, my home base was in Germany about 200 km away, so it was sort of a short hop.

There was a Pershing missile battery not far from Neu Ulm, and the Greens had killed a missile maggot to get his ID. They also had put up a bunch of posters in the area offering a lot of money to kill an officer or one of the guard detail to get some more IDs, so they could get on the base and cause a nuclear accident or launch an unarmed missile.

That was taken fairly seriously, we were in the chute for the next wacky thing, and we got the detail to do some close watch. That night, they were in the woods near the missile emplacement watching the guards, and we were in the woods watching them.

Anyway, to cut out all the boring detail, what was later determined to be ball lightning came wafting through the trees, did a circle, picked me out of the half dozen guys in that area (the other half dozen were a few hundred yards off) and homed in on me from across a clearing that we were scattered around the verge of in the trees.

It made several course corrections to avoid stuff in the way, but it was very obviously heading for me. I got told to run for it, instead I stood up and stepped into the clearing. It floated about two feet off the ground, circling until it was dead in front of me and about an arm's length away, then floated up to eye level and stopped dead. We looked at each other for about half a minute, then it contracted to a point and vanished.

I got reamed for not running, applauded for not running, questioned on whether it was Russian spy ball lightning, reamed for standing up in the open, praised for standing up and being ready to carry out said running away order, and basically it turned out that there wasn't any by the book response for being personally singled out by an electromagnetic phenomenon and the whole thing was dropped.

But we weren't THAT near the weapons, it was several hundred yards away, so I'm not sure it applies to your supposition.

edit: it probably didn't help matters any that when I saw the damn thing drop out of the trees into the clearing that I keyed the radio and said "It'll head right for me, you watch", meaning that it would be my luck that something spooky and bizarre would pick me for a target. Later that was a big deal, how did you know it was going to head for you, and it was sort of hard to explain away. Thus do little comments cause unforeseen reactions, I guess.

I had a longer version of this posted somewhere on ATS but can't find it with samarai serach engine. The really creepy thing was that you could see it coming from a good way off, but it wasn't always THERE. It would appear way off in the top of the tree line, then a little closer, then at the edge of the clearing. There's a lot of spooky detail I didn't put in this version.

When I was in my tween's, I used to go smoke cigarettes in one of my hideouts. I had four hideouts. I lived in a very rural area in a valley. On either side of the "crick" there were mountains. A rolling rock river ran between. That river was the best sleep medication one could buy.

I had a cave, a rock outpost on the top of the mountain, a large underground tunnel under a freeway and a platform I built in a tree.

Back in those days I smoked more than cigarettes. It was the days when MJ was very good. Mostly, I would hike to the top of the mountain on the lookout and do that. I felt one with nature. Didn't want to get caught. Despite the mountain lions and black bears, copperheads, rattlesnakes. I was a kid and indestructible.

It was my platform that gave me the willies. I would climb to the top and usually light a smoke. I built a crude ladder that served it's purpose. However, that ladder would move up and down...like it was breathing on the ground. Going up and down by at least 6 inches on the ground. Sliding up and down on the platform.

It was crazy. I thought, did I put the ladder on some type of animal den? No. It would happen every time I went there no matter what the season. Many times I freaked out and left abruptly. Over several years of this happening I was convinced something supernatural was happening.

I have no idea what caused that. BUT....I lived on Braddock's Trail. A very haunted travel way by the military during the civil war.

It didn't dawn on me till much later in life that I may have found Braddock's treasure. 30K gold coins. Maybe the ladder was reacting to the wooden crate the money was buried in. If that is true......I'm a billionaire. It matches the coordinates of the Braddock Trail treasure story.

I wish I would have dug. I was too chicken. It scared me to death. I was always by myself...the nature of growing up rural.

reply to post by Bedlam


Wow! Very cool story! I am sort of jealous, as I have long wanted to see real ball lightening. Well, sort of.....

What a place for it to happen, though! Of course, if it was after you, what good would running have done? One can't outrun lightening! Will have to get into chat again one of these days. Maybe after I catch up more on Supernatural.....

reply to post by SinMaker


Heck...go back and take a look? Never heard of a ladder doing that! Buried treasure....I would find that hard to resist! Always had a fascination with hidden pirate gold.

reply to post by LadyGreenEyes


I'm half way across the country now from where I grew up. I'm curious however. It would look strange for someone to trespass on property that is no longer in the family.

Originally posted by teamcommander
reply to post by Philippines

 

If there is one thing I have learned in life.
There is nothing in the dark which is not there in the light. Some 'things' like the dark a little better for various reasons but there is little need to fear any of the natural things in the wild.
I only have a distrust of the motives of men.
I am just not smart enough to have much fear of anything.

Yeah, I was being very sarcastic at seeing the amount of people, usually Westerners, that are frightened of everything - especially nature. So for those people, just stay home and be safe.

People are what to be cautious about in nature (and anywhere for that matter), and sometimes animals depending on your location. Maybe it's something about the new world and a collective of frightened people are manifesting these "creepy" phenomenons just by thinking about them.

reply to post by SinMaker


Well, it would at that, but wow.....this has ME curious, and I haven't ever seen the location! Shame there is no way to check it out.

Originally posted by Frogs
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

Ahhh - the ability to blend I call that. I know exactly what you are talking about. That "being one with..." I've been able to do it a few times myself. It can come in amazingly handy on occasion.

Anyway, here is mine.

A few years back I hunted in a swampy area in GA. Not too far from the Okefenokee. If I stayed until last shooting light it meant the hike back to my truck was always in total darkness.

There was this one section of woods with towering pines and thick undergrowth. Even on a full moon the trail just looked like a little ribbon of "less black" against "total black" if you did not remember to bring your flashlight. I admit to often forgetting mine.

My first night going back I entered that stretch of woods and just off the trail to my left something started following me. I would step. It would step. I would stop. It would stop. I would speed up. It would speed up.

It scared the heebie-geebies out of me the first night it happened. I took the safety off my 30/06 and held the flashlight in my hand along with the forestock of the rifle. That way where ever the light shined my rifle was also pointed.

But I looked high and low, I never saw it or any eye-shine. I yelled and go no response. From the footsteps it sounded large and bipedal.

I never ran from it. I spend a decent bit of time in the woods and something told me that would be the worst thing I could do. When I got up far enough to see the moonlight reflecting on my truck it stopped following me.

This happened every evening I hunted that area. For almost a month. Eventually I talked to it, but it never answered. It never came out of the woods. It never did anything but trail me.

It wasn't another hunter. This was a 2000 acre lease and I was the only one on it. It wasn't a deer, hog, bear, bobcat, dog, or panther. I'm familiar with those and know their sounds.

cool story. Unless you are truly in danger I think it is wise to face the fear of whatever you are experiencing...in this case it sounds paranormal..who the heck knows what exactly it is (humans and their boxes). I find it is actually more frightening to run when confronted with something paranormal because then you feel truly vulnerable, you've made a statement saying I am vulnerable and scared come scare me more!

Great stories, I just finished reading them all, (i prob shouldn't be reading these before bed) I can't wait for more to be posted

While not in the forest ,out in the country, i was working on the railway and i was on the loco ,we were passing through a small town about 3am ,out the other side of town was few houses and ploughed paddocks ,we were going round some bends ,when i saw about a dozen lights the same size as a flashlight bulb whirling in circles about ten feet in diameter ,this would go on for a few seconds then suddenly go out ,at first i thought it must be some young people messing around ,but the lights would go out ,then instantly appear 100 yards or more away and continue doing this ,i knew it wasnt humanly possible to do that, and knew it was some weird going on .
A friend of mine told me about a place they camped out in the bush which had aboriginal hand paintings ,he took me there to show me the paintings,which looked fairly recent to me ,he said ,his brother and he camped there and were disturbed by a light approaching the tent which they thought was car ,only that its impossible to get a car in there, he said next the tent was showered with rocks after which he said they packed and left in a hurry .The next story he told me was of a farm ,that had constant weird things happening ,machinery breaking down ,lights .haunting etc ,he told me there was an aboriginal burial area where bodies had been wrapped in paperbark and put up into tree forks ,in desperation the owner collected all the burial wrapped bodies put them all into a pile and burnt them ,after this is,it all stopped ,of course if you did that today and someone found out you would be sued to the wall for grave desecration .
The last one is my brothers farm which i always had strange feelings about ,there are these small stunted trees that i had a feeling were Faerie ,[spirit]domain and not to go near them ,sometimes when i was near there shooting different guns i had,they would not fire ,one night me a my father camped in a movable bungalow ,there is a small patch of bush my brother fenced off to preserve it under landcare ,that night after we went to bed there was this Menacing loud hissing noise coming from this patch of bush like something didnt want us there ,i thought if i had a shotgun i would have put a shot into the trees to scare it , whatever it was ,anyway that was the first and last time we camped there and the bungalow was moved .

reply to post by bronto


Nice additions! The light thing is very creepy! Sounds like some sort of toy, except for moving so far so quickly. Kids playing together wouldn't likely be spaced out like that, in the dark, either.

Originally posted by bronto
While not in the forest ,out in the country, i was working on the railway and i was on the loco ,we were passing through a small town about 3am ,out the other side of town was few houses and ploughed paddocks ,we were going round some bends ,when i saw about a dozen lights the same size as a flashlight bulb whirling in circles about ten feet in diameter ,this would go on for a few seconds then suddenly go out ,at first i thought it must be some young people messing around ,but the lights would go out ,then instantly appear 100 yards or more away and continue doing this ,i knew it wasnt humanly possible to do that, and knew it was some weird going on .
A friend of mine told me about a place they camped out in the bush which had aboriginal hand paintings ,he took me there to show me the paintings,which looked fairly recent to me ,he said ,his brother and he camped there and were disturbed by a light approaching the tent which they thought was car ,only that its impossible to get a car in there, he said next the tent was showered with rocks after which he said they packed and left in a hurry .The next story he told me was of a farm ,that had constant weird things happening ,machinery breaking down ,lights .haunting etc ,he told me there was an aboriginal burial area where bodies had been wrapped in paperbark and put up into tree forks ,in desperation the owner collected all the burial wrapped bodies put them all into a pile and burnt them ,after this is,it all stopped ,of course if you did that today and someone found out you would be sued to the wall for grave desecration .
The last one is my brothers farm which i always had strange feelings about ,there are these small stunted trees that i had a feeling were Faerie ,[spirit]domain and not to go near them ,sometimes when i was near there shooting different guns i had,they would not fire ,one night me a my father camped in a movable bungalow ,there is a small patch of bush my brother fenced off to preserve it under landcare ,that night after we went to bed there was this Menacing loud hissing noise coming from this patch of bush like something didnt want us there ,i thought if i had a shotgun i would have put a shot into the trees to scare it , whatever it was ,anyway that was the first and last time we camped there and the bungalow was moved .

This sounds like a post of pure fear. I hope for your sake you stay home and be safe. The outside world sounds much too scary and dangerous for you. Especially when you don't know what you're scared of.

Also, I'm glad you didn't have a gun. Shooting first and asking questions later is usually not the best response when dealing with any unknown.

Deep in an abandoned uranium with about eight other individuals, doing our ritualistic colorado stuff, we heard and felt the entire mountain rumble!

Thought we might lose it, it was super dark and wet three feet up at the entrance, but definitely good times.

I had a face to face encounter with a mountain lion, I'm lucky it didn't decide to eat me; it could have easily done so I was completely unarmed and unprepared.

Thanks @ all for sharing your stories! I really like this thread and also want to bump so that others will see it and share their stories aswell.

not really forest but more like foothills in a riverbed. me and my friends where hiking and decided to bush whack and take a shortcut off the hillside. after going through a bunch of bushes on a barely there trail we came to a camp site with a fire pit and tin cans around. a fork on a stick for extension hanging on a tree along with a knife stabbed into the tree.

my friends and i looked around a little i thought we shouldnt stay to long because it could be a crazy hobo living there as none of the stuff was old. we started walking the riverbed below the campsite and on big boulders where river rocks neatly stacked five high and on others in neat swirl patterns. i thought it was cool but my friends thought blair witch project lol. it was probably nothing could have just been people camping there for the weekend or something but it was a little weird.

it was late at night and again my friends and i were hiking in the foothills above a new housing tract. there is a chain link gate that goes across a trail. we went through it and closed it behind us. this whole time my friend was scared and thought a bear or something was following us. we stop a little past the gate and hear something but dont think much of it. on the way back down going through the gate it was wide open.

reply to post by madmark


Could you tell us exactly where all of this happened? If you have read missing 411, you know about the riverbeds.. They play a role in most of the disappearances. Also the stacked rocks on the boulders... mhh....

Thankfully you were not alone!! Im pretty sure there was someone or something around watching you!

reply to post by madmark


reply to post by hesse


In this case, the camp sounds like something a homeless person would leave. Caution isn't a bad idea, though, because, while many are simply poor, some are dangerous or crazy. The rocks? Hard to say. Someone could have done that out of boredom.

As for the Missing 411 stuff, well, valid warning there! I am working on the first of those, and some of the stories are chilling. Some of those people, you have to keep in mind, disappeared in pairs. Some were around a home or other people, too. Whatever happens, it can happen FAST. Be very careful. Bodies of water (lakes, rivers, creeks) play a role in many cases, as do boulder fields and rocky areas. Several with cameras were among the missing as well (and that point hits me, as I practically always carry one) Most of those located weren't located alive, either, though a few were.

No matter what opinions we might have on those cases, the danger is clear, and I would hope all would be very cautious. Never, EVER, let a child out of sight in a wilderness area. Don't walk alone in isolated areas, either. Armed is a good idea (with common sense), and company is good, but awareness of your surroundings is vital. Heck, that's key ANYWHERE, remote or not. Be safe, people, and I am also hoping for more stories.

the one with the campsite was in Azusa Canyon in California. it was just below the "Bridge to Nowhere"(look it up pretty cool!) its a long hike with rough terrain and lots of river crossings. i dont think it was a hobo really because its a long hike from the canyon road, and the canyon road is a long drive from the city. could have been campers like a said but they made a huge mess and i think some cloths were mixed in wtih cans. and they left there nice gerber knife in the tree. felt like the person(s) could come back at anytime.

oh forgot i got pictures of the knife in the tree and the stacked river rocks. ill upload them in a few minutes.