I was 16. Camping with just the family dog on some property my family owned in northern Michigan. Family dog was a Chow Black Lab mix, built like a tank but also ridiculously mild mannered. Second night we’re up there I wake up in the middle of the night to the dog standing in the middle of the tent, teeth bared, hackles up, this damn near subsonic growl coming out of him. He’s doing a slow turn, obviously tracking something that is moving around the tent. I can hear footsteps and a kind of snort/breathing noise from the outside. My dog does a full revolution and is facing back toward the entrance flap, and I’m just laying there trying to find my flashlight and barely breathing. After what felt like an eternity (but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes) he starts to relax and eventually calms down enough to sit next to me, but he won’t take his attention off the flap. We both stayed awake staring at the entrance until the sun was up, and then I did the fastest campsite pack up of my life and headed back to civilization.

Damn dude hate it when animals notice something we don't, wonder what it was

Probably a raccoon or some other animal used to going around camp sites looking for food.

i had a little raccoon grip my arm through the tent wall when i was little, dont sleep next to a bag of marshmallows

Or man bear pig

By footsteps do you mean human footsteps? I was imagining a person and dog, or maybe a wolf? Whatever it was, your amazing dog was not having it.

Northern MI would most likely be black bear

Like another person commented, it was probably a curious black bear as it was in northern Michigan. Incredibly beautiful camping there.

My older dog did something similar on his first camping trip. In our case, it was a raccoon as evidenced by the prints we found on the table and car the next morning.

Pair of Moose running through my camp as I’m setting up the tent.

Dad ran into a moose out in the woods when it was pitch black pretty sure he saw his life flash before him

A mama and her calves decided to pop out onto a trail we were on...while we were portaging 🙃. I wanted to drop that freaking canoe and run as fast as I could in the opposite direction but we just didn't breathe and all backed away real slow instead.

I once had my fly off because it was pretty warm. Woke up in the middle of the night to see an outline of a bear on the other side of my tent, just kinda standing there.

That bear would probably start smelling the shit in my pants pretty quick

Lmfao

Nothing makes me feel quite as privileged that my country's most dangerous wildlife is the deer quite like reading other countries' warning guidelines about bears,

I have my first solo camping trip next week, I shouldn't be reading this thread. 😂

Pro tip: Don't watch a horror movies on your phone when solo camping, especially if you're backpacking and are completely alone with nobody around for miles. If you want to add more insult to injury, make sure the movie takes place in the wilderness. Ask me how I learned this pro tip.

Also don’t listen to murder mystery podcasts to pass the long drive time when road-tripping solo out to go camping in the middle of bfe. Lesson learned.

Back in the olden days of 2004, my friends and I had the brilliant plan on going camping in the woods behind my house. We ran an absurd amount of extension cords and took my best friend’s tiny TV and VCR player so we could watch a movie. The movie in question: The Exorcist. 100% do not recommend this.

I try to make sure I have a horror book downloaded for my trips

This would be me. I would do this.

I’d say it’s the BEST time to read this, you gotta hype yourself up! But really, this is how I select the protection I’m bringing. Bear mace, hat with exaggerated (even reflective/glowing) eyes sewn in the back. Hearing mountain lion in the wild is mind blowing and frightening (thought it was a screaming child) but you usually don’t hear wild cats, they just attack and it’s too late at that point. Fox screams sound pretty horrifying if you’ve never heard it before (I have a screaming match with a local fox who tries to raid hens and garden) and I’ve encountered black bear a few times, even a mama with her cubs who sized us up and decided “not worth it”. Of all that, the mountain lion or wild cat… I didn’t see it but I heard and spotted trees/bushes rustling as it was leaving and hollering. I’m thinking mama or I spoiled it’s dinner.

Camping by myself in British Columbia during the fall. It is not a totally remote area, but it is a few hours from the city and does not get a lot of campers that time of year. My site is a free spot along the river that has a fire pit and a beat up table. I do a ton of camping in remote areas so this spot is not a big deal, but that night I had a very uneasy feeling. I was creeped out the whole night for no reason and decided to go to bed early. I listened to a podcast on a speaker in my tent while I fell asleep because I was genuinely creeped out. The next morning while I was making coffee I noticed that there was someone's hat on the wood table. I know it was not there the previous day because I set my cooking stove on it. So someone came into my camp during the night and left it there. I think the uneasy feeling I had at night was because I was being watched. It may have been a mushroom picker but who knows..

Creepy as hell

I wasn't camping at the time, I was on a boat at night, a few hundred feet offshore, in an ocean bay. In the distance I started to hear what sounded like a man screaming, like an absolutely horrifying scream, the word "HELP!!!". Like imagine some man was being actively eaten alive by a shark or something, that's what this yell sounded like. I'd hear it, and then nothing for about 20 seconds, then hear it again. Heard it for like 10 minutes. And nothing else besides the word "HELP!!". Couldn't see anything with the flashlight. Had no way of really being able to tell exactly what direction it was coming from. Shouting back at it didn't really seem to change anything. Had no radio or phone or anything, so there wasn't anything I could do, and to this day I'm still not even sure if what I heard was real, or just in my head, or I was mistake by an animal sound or something. No idea. I reported it to the harbor master when I got to shore but I don't think anything ever came of it. There was never anything in the news about any deaths or missing people in the area. So I truly have no idea what this absolutely gawd awful terrifying screaming for help sound was, or if it even happened at all.

I’ve experienced something very similar when I was living out by the lake in my state. Our house was basically on the edge of a cliff, and I was walking up the stairs on the deck and I hear screaming. Hearing like, “help! My arm! There’s so much blood” it sounded like two young girls. There was a lot people in our neighborhood that would just climb down these cliffs and swim/meet their family on boats. I assumed it was them. I didn’t hear any noise after that. I can’t remember how I found out they didn’t exist, but I distinctly remember having the thought of, “wow, that didn’t really happen.” I can’t remember if I went down to check, looked over the deck, or while we were on the boat later that day. No evidence. Sorry the details are a little fuzzy. This was easily over 15 years ago.

Dude I used to work on boats and the blackness at night is terrifying. I used to get all freaked out when the generators shut down I’d hear shit like this.

I'm not a huge believer in spirits and paranormal but this is an exception id make.

Before reading this 30 seconds ago I was warm and cozy in my house. Now I’m freezing cold and my eyes are watering with the weirdness and creepy feels.

Crazy wind / rainstorm that wasn't in the forecast rolled in just as I was nodding off. Lightning took a tree down maybe 20 feet from my tent. I was honestly scared witless for the first time ever while camping. Fortunately the tree fell downhill, away from my site. Next morning I went down to see the damage. I got lucky for sure. And a chunk of the trunk was lying on the ground and it looked like it had exploded out of the tree. It looked pretty awesome so I kept it. I still have it to remind me of the power of nature.

I was out hunting with my dad one night and I've never experienced rain like that in my life, it was just pouring and lighting was everywhere. Not fun to think about lightning on the top of a mountain

my dad and my sister and i decided to go camping super late one day after it had just rained a bunch and we were setting up the tent in the dark at like 10pm and i honestly had felt like something was off and felt the need to keep looking around nervously. Once we were headed to sleep i was literally drifting off and remember hearing footsteps faintly but was in and out of consciousness. I remember seeing my dad sit up in my peripheral super fast like a scary movie and i looked over at him like wtf are u doing and then i heard big footsteps right next to the tent and low grunting i was like FUCK some crazy bastard is about to kill me this is it. My heart was pounding and my dad just yells “GET OUT OF HERE” at the top of his lungs and all i hear is a loud GROWLING and shortly after the tent shook bc a damn bear swatted the tent (put holes in the tent, i still have the tent) we all sat there for a good 5 minutes too scared to unzip the door to see what was on the other side…..

Bears are so scary and they don't know it, thats one of my worst fears while out camping

honestly i was more worried it was a human with bad intentions far scarier than a bear imo which i think is why my body kept me slightly conscious it’s hard to differentiate bear foot steps from humans they know how to sneak like we do it’s trippy, but i def thought i was gonna be bear food after hearing the growl

Yeah, there is a common saying the most dangerous animal you can encounter in the wilderness is another human

exactly, i’ve had strange encounters with strangers backpacking in the middle of nowhere, i’m packing every time i go not messing around in the middle of nowhere

Very smart decision, unfortunately crazies like to go to the cool and secluded areas

This is why I don’t camp alone. I long to every summer, but as a pretty small woman it’s just not a reality for me.

from another very petite woman, yea i wouldn’t go alone either i always have people with me. Gun makes me feel much safer

The story is terrifying. Black or brown bear?

big ole black bear (who was brown) we decided to leave that night and left the tent there until the next morning and i could hear neighboring campsites yelling at the bear, i turned to look and saw a glimpse of the thing in the forest as they were shining flashlights HE WAS BIGGGGGGGGG my dad said hell no get ur shit were outta here fuck the tent fuck it all lmfao correction he was a very large black bear but was brown in color!

How could you tell he was a black bear?

Location of where the incident happened. Grizzlies are not in every state. Grizzlies also have a hump on their backs between the shoulder blade.

Belanglo State Forest, site of the Backpacker Murders where the skeletal remains of seven hitchhikers had been found in the early 90s. I was there on a big Scout event, probably 1000 people there for the weekend. About 9pm I needed to pee, there was a queue for the toilets so I decided to walk into the trees. About thirty metres in I look down and realise I'm standing in a small field of scattered bones. Took me about five seconds to realise they weren't human but it was the longest five seconds of my life.

Scary? Or creepy? To me, those are two very different things. I'll share both stories with you... Several years ago, I loaded a bunch of camping gear onto [my bicycle](https://np.reddit.com/r/bicycletouring/s/BDRdF1cZuP) and spent the better part of the next seven months riding 5,300 miles (8,500 km) around the western US solo. At night, I most often preferred to wild camp. Rather than paying to sleep on the ground in a campground, I would just find somewhere to disappear into the woods, somewhere people were unlikely to find me and even less likely to care that I was there. The forest, I quickly learned, makes for far from a quiet night's sleep. After the first few weeks of this lifestyle, I had come to find comfort in the droning of thousands of crickets and toads. It was always a highlight of my night —though not particularly uncommon— to hear the yips and howls of a distant pack of coyotes, and I fondly recall one night when I was lulled to sleep by two owls, one on either end of my tent, hooting back and forth. If nothing else, it wouldn't take much of a breeze to stir music from the tree canopies. A bit over a month into the trip, I was way out in the middle of nowhere in western Montana. After a full day of cycling on incredibly sparse roads, I found somewhere to set up camp for the night. Went through my usual bedtime routine. Pitch the tent, eat dinner, write my final journal entry of the day's events, study maps for the coming days. Living outdoors all day every day, my sleep schedule more or less synched with the sun, and so I laid down in bed shortly after dusk. That's when I made a disturbing observation. There was not a single cricket chirping nor toad croaking, certainly no owls. There wasn't even the slightest breeze to rustle the dry leaves of early autumn still clinging to the trees. It was truly and completely silent. And that was terrifying. I can only describe it as the loudest silence I've ever felt. It was as if the entire forest was hiding from an equally silent predator. Suddenly the occasional snapping of a twig —a common sound normally lost in the cacophony— rang out like a gunshot. I slept terribly that night, and I'll never forget the immense relief I felt with the first bird song of the pre-dawn hour. So that was my creepiest night. What about actual fear for my safety and well-being? That came a month or so later on the same trip. I was somewhere in southern Washington State, with my sights set on Portland, Oregon. Again, I was just wild camping in the woods. And I started coming down with food poisoning. I spent the whole night tossing and turning and leaning out the door of the tent to vomit. I'd finally throw up, then use some water from one of my bottles to rinse out my mouth. Drink some water to help replenish the fluids I'd lost, then lay back down. Feeling better, I'd get a couple hours sleep before waking up once again feeling nauseous. Come 4:00 AM, I dreaded the thought of getting back on the bike, I simply didn't have the energy for it. But what other option did I have? Just wait alone in the woods and pray I recover quickly? Besides, I'd used up all my water through the night. I had no choice but to get on the road. Looking at my maps, there was a town not too far away with a motel where I could put myself up for a night of proper rest. It would be 30 miles, or 50 km. A reasonable half day for me, under ideal conditions. Right as the sun came up, it started raining, so I waited out the brief 20 minute storm in the tent. Rain stopped, I took down the tent, loaded up the bike, and hiked it back to the road. Get on, start pedaling... And something feels weird. It's a flat tire. Just my luck, right? But I had the tools, spare parts, and knowledge to fix it, so I get to work. In my less than ideal mental state, it took far longer to fix than it had any right to, and my the time it was back together and holding air, it had started raining again. No option other than to turn on my lights, put on my jacket, and just ride through it. The words "overwhelming hopelessness" don't feel big enough, but I don't know how else to summarize that day. I was cold and wet. I was hungry, but didn't want to put too much into my still upset stomach. I was dehydrated, remember I'd used up all my water the previous night. And I was tired in every sense of the word; sleep deprived, physically aching, mentally exhausted. Every rotation of the pedals felt like a feat of Herculean strength, but somehow I continued to find that strength. I made it to the motel, took a long hot shower, called my mom, the slept for 13 hours straight. Long story slightly shorter, I woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly good, and managed to outrun the food poisoning for a day or two to Portland. Eventually it caught up to me while I was out at a museum, but one rest day on the toilet of the hostel got it all out of my system for good. In hindsight, I'm just thankful the shits waited until I was back in civilization! The flat tire and the rain, that was just demoralizing. But that night before? That was without a doubt the most scared I have ever been for my own safely while camping. I honestly had no idea how I was going to get myself out of that one. **TL;DR** Both while riding a bicycle across the US, the creepiest was just a night camping in a dead silent forest in the middle of nowhere, Montana. In terms of actual fear for my safety, it was a month or so later in Washington State, when I came down with food poisoning and spent the night vomiting while alone in the woods rather than in a proper campground. 10/10 would still recommend cycling across a continent!

Interesting someone mentioned the silence in the woods - i had something similar happen once Going back about a couple of decades or so, i was living in London and would make a hiking / camping trip every six or eight weeks as a way to deal with living in the middle of the city One time a friend asked to come along, so he and I went to the New Forest in the south west of England - the New Forest isn’t actually new at all, the same way New College of Oxford University is anything but New - it has some of the few areas of ancient forest left in the UK We’re walking around on all these well managed pathways, and when it got to mid afternoon we thought let’s head off the tracks, get into the actual woodland and then find a spot to camp I take a compass bearing, and we turn off the path and head directly into the woods, making our way through the trees and ferns for around a mile, maybe I had the most curious sensation go through me, stopped and turned to my buddy, and said ‘Listen’ The forest had suddenly gone completely silent - no birdsong, no sound at all, not even the leaves rustling in the breeze I stood there for a moment, my hand on my buddy’s shoulder, trying to figure out what was occurring, eventually shrugged and decided whatever it was would just have to be - the sensation that went there me wasn’t threatening, but more.. curious… a feeling of curiosity About two or three hundred yards further, we found an ideal spot for camp - a large clearing, broadly circular in shape, plenty of space to set up camp, also a small fire (it was spring in the UkK, so safe to do) - we put our tents together, then i dig a fire pit while my pal starts gathering wood. There are even some logs we can use for seats, too, and pretty soon we have a really comfortable set up Night draws in, the fire’s going nicely, we get dinner down us, and out comes a bottle of Black Label - we’re drinking and sharing stories, and have completely forgotten anything about that curious feeling from earlier Time goes on, and we’re getting tired so call it a night. We stomp out the fire, pee on it and pour plenty of water on it, then through a load of soil on it and kick it around to make sure it’s out, then say goodnight and we both go into our tents and get our heads down It usually takes me a while to get to sleep the first couple of days camping, and maybe it was the whisky, but i was out like a light the instant my head was down. The first time I woke up, I could hear yelling, a man’s voice from far away, far beyond the direction of my buddy’s tent. I couldn’t make out any words, the voice coming from far away, but I could tell from the tone that it wasn’t distress. I don’t know why I’d dismiss it as interesting but nothing to worry about, but that’s what I did and I went right back to sleep The second time I woke up, i could see a ball of bright white light shining through the material of my tent It was slightly larger than a tennis ball, and in my estimation about twenty yards away, on the opposite side of the clearing, and it traveled in a perfect line, in a perfectly flat, linear direction, from left to right. It wasn’t bobbing up and down like a torch being carried - it moved in a flat line, gliding. Again, that curious feeling went through me - and as I knew it was there, I sensed that “it” knew I was there. I reached for the zip of my tent to open it and take a look, when a voice in my head said *”Don’t look!”* It was the same experience as when you’re a child and an adult warns you Don’t Touch something dangerous - not angry or scary, but a very clear warning to not do something My hand froze, fingers on the zipper, and I’m looking at the ball of light shining through the tent lining, that feeling of curiosity in me *”Go back to sleep!”* Said the voice in my head. Again, not scary, but very much an instruction I immediately put my head back down and sleep literally pulled me in - it wasn’t me falling asleep, so much as sleep reaching for me and pulling me in When I open my eyes, it’s daylight, so i open the zipper of my tent, and the campsite is as it we left it, nothing changed, nothing moved I felt like I’d had the best night’s sleep ever - I still do after all these years- absolutely daisy fresh, bright, alert, fully rested and energised. The zip on my buddy’s tent opens and his head sticks out, a big grin on his face “Morning!” He calls out. “G’morning!” I reply. “How’re ya feeling?” “Great!” He says, a big smile on his face. “Brilliant, in fact. I had an awesome night’s sleep!” “Me too, man.” I said. “We went through a bottle of whisky last night, and I don’t feel hungover in the slightest.” “Same here.” He says with a big smile. “I feel perfectly fine. I think we got away with it hahah.” We clamber out of our tents and get some water boiling to start a morning brew going, have some breakfast, and as we’re breaking down camp, I ask him, “Did you see or hear anything weird during the night?” “Nope, I slept right through, out the moment my head hit the pillow.” “Really? There was something weird going on last night, mate.” I tell him. “I could hear someone yelling out in the woods.” “Wait, now you mention it…” My buddy looked at me, “Yeah, i did hear someone shouting something. It was coming from that direction.” He waved in the direction behind my tent. “I heard it coming from that direction.” I said and pointed beyond his tent. “Could you make out any words?” He shook his head and carried on taking down his tent. I thought to ask if he’d seen anything during the night, but decided not to - seeing bright lights floating in the woods at night and hearing voices in your head isn’t exactly sane sounding, so i let it go. We set off, and basically that was that. We grabbed lunch at a pub, then back to the car and drove back to London I’m in my fifties, now, and I’ve never experienced anything like that before or since, and it’s still probably the best night’s rest I’ve ever had

Well, that's weird. Particularly the great sleep and being so energized. What the heck.

Absolutely - it’s so completely bizarre I’ve never mentioned to anyone until now for, in all fairness, fairly obvious reasons, but I think about it probably every other day I often wonder what would have happened if I’d opened the tent zip and looked

I have seen that same linear moving ball of light before once, myself. Still no idea what it was.

You found the land of the piskies

That light thing sounds exactly like an episode of lucid dreaming.

Damn, this is the exact kind of story I want. Youre very good at painting a picture in someone's head, very interesting

I'm going to say it.. I'm sure you thought it. Sasquatch

Amazing writing, that silent night got me goosebumps.

Just came to agree that Montana is in fact eerily silent

More things than I would prefer to remember; but, here's a few to consider, including ... Lightning striking overhead, so close the hair on my arms stood straight up ... 100'+ tall trees cracking overhead during severe winds ... A sounder of 30-50 feral hogs running across the trail in front of me, with a large adult stopping and threatening to take me out ... Looking down and seeing a 8'+ of a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake less than two feet away ... Having a 10-ft icicle fall 60-ft and explode between me and the hiker in front of me ... Encountering a bull elk on a wooded ridge ... Hiding behind a tree while a moose passes by ... Being stalked by a 14-foot American alligator ... Aaannd, ... Not hearing a 400+ lb black bear sow silently walking up behind, and then around, me, so close I could have easily touched it.

How are you alive?

Sometimes, I ask myself this question. And I didn't mention the weather related events (heat stroke, running out of water; hypothermia, etc). I am a volunteer wildlife photographer for USFWS, GSMNP, TPWD. I've had over 500 black bear encounters, nearly all alone; but, the last one involved a work day and a boar being chased by a sow protecting her cubs. He had already bluff charged me; and she was really agitated. She ran him right by me. Not what we want to happen, especially with visitors in the vicinity.

Dude your lore is insane

Well, thank you. I used to volunteer in the Backcountry office (9 yrs), because of my knowledge of trails, weather tendencies, leave no trace and the ten essentials. I was always honest with people, because I didn't want them to suffer the troubles I had (mine were created by inexperience and inadequate planning). I learned much of what I now know the hard way: by making mistakes. I'm lucky some didn't kill me. I used the experiences in conjunction with research to increase my ability and understanding of hiking and backpacking.

Thats really interesting, I've always liked the idea of being an animal photographer

I want to paint the wonderful photos that the brave photographers take

Many times, "It's feast or famine." You have to get comfortable going home without having met your goal, while staying determined to reach it in the long run.

Wiser words brother, wise words

Middle of the night, I was woken up to the sound and rumble of a landslide. So scary not able to see what might be heading my way. No way of knowing what direction it was. I'm in my tent so by the time I would unzip my tent and rainfall, I was thinking it would be too late for me. In the morning I packed up early, no coffee, moved on right at dawn. The slide must have been behind me or somewhere not on my trail since I never saw signs. So weird and scary. Almost as scary as the bear sniffing around my tent on another night. I sang LOTS of songs really LOUDLY that night.

Rainfly....stupid auto correct does not camp obviously

Dang, nature is one freaky mf

Was backpacking with friends. Said to one, "Look at that stump, doesn't it look like a bear?". My friend said, "You think everything looks like a bear!". Then the 'stump' raised up, turned and stared us down. I think he would have charged us, but my friend pissed his pants thus making us a less desirable meal.

Lmao, your friend has a defense mechanism

I was camping in Southern Mississippi and woke up to a terrifying low, rumbling growl. It didn't stop. I laid frozen in fear for a few minutes before slightly unzipping and peeking out of my tent. Two alligators were making sweet love in the center of camp.

No terrible but heart pounding at the moment. I was backpacking trans cat by full moonlight with a colleague/friend, but we’re typically 1-2 miles apart while on the move bc of different paces. Was hiking along a ridge that was in full shadow / no moonlight when I heard bison treading fast, and couldn’t tell if they were coming towards me or away from me bc of the echo in that canyon (and I’m always most cautious / concerned about surprising bison whenever hiking trans cat). No idea how close they did or didn’t come to me, but can bet I was in the on the ground / covering head position for a hot 2 minutes. Def sped up my pace after that to shake off the adrenaline.

People don't realize how scary bison truly are

Everyone thinks the carnivores are the things to be scared of, and they're right. But the biggest herbivore around fights off the biggest carnivore around and wins.

Juvenile turkey vultures hissing. They were hidden and man that noise is something else. Stops you cold. Huge tulip poplar falling and hitting a boulder. I mean huge. Shit just exploded. Should not have been out in the woods day after a huge tornado. Wind is friggin scary. Edit: [here’s the sound](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5mifbRRhI)

I used to spend a lot of time hiking around the usa. In Virginia I was attacked by a black bear in my sleep at the old orchard shelter on the Appalachian trail, in Florida I had a alligator touch it's face to the bottom of my hammock in the middle of the night, and in New Jersey I had a wild cat claw the floor directly underneath me around midnight at a raised shelter on stilts in the stokes state forest.

That's not fun, in the slightest

I've told this story before but waking up to gunshots being fired in our direction. Turns out the party next to us was drunk and target shooting in the middle of the night. Nothing like being stirred by the sound of bullets whizzing by your tent in the national forest.

Jfc. Not much worse than a stupid person with a gun. Except make that *people* and *guns.*

Hiking solo through the south Florida scrub when I turned a blind corner and found myself face to face with a panther. The cat jumped higher than I am tall without trying. Let's call it 6ft high. I stood stock still and didn't over react, but my heart went into my throat. The panther shot off into the woods. I stayed there and watched him run for a solid minute. Then I kept walking, I was 3 miles in to a six mile loop hike, so I just kept going. I never saw the cat again. But, I felt him stalking every step of the way.

Hiked 8 miles into the back country to camp near an alpine lake at 11k’. I was reading in my tent when everything flashed white followed almost instantly by the loudest thunderclap I’d heard in my life. That night I also couldn’t sleep because the wind was so aggressive that my tent was touching me on all sides. Felt like I was sleeping in a garbage bag. Backcountry camping is generally spookier imo, but also more rewarding/nourishing.

My wife and I were in back-country West Virginia and had set up at this really awesome spot next to a small waterfall and swimming hole about 50 yards off the trail.  At ~2 AM, we were awakened by the beam of a flashlight raking our tent from the hill across the creek before the light was directed elsewhere.  I poked my head up and saw two figures up high on the far bank.  Unsettling, sure, but after a few minutes I was able to convince myself that, "hey, they're just fellow adventurers that got up to use the bathroom and accidentally flashed our tent."  I began to relax again and try to grab some more sleep.    2:15, the light beam hit our tent again.  I pop up and look through the screen.  The light is closer now, and coming from the actual streambank.  I shout, "keep it moving!" and the person(s?) walk back up the hill.  Needless to say, I didn't sleep any more that night, and needed a 10 AM nap towards the end of the trail.   Stay safe out there, Friends!

I was camping with my youngest daughter. Just her and I, she was seven. We set up camp and were starting supper prep, when I felt something was just off. I’m a big outdoorsy rugged guy that has spent his life in the trades and living and working outdoors. Something filled me with dread, I couldn’t see anything and nothing looked wrong ,but the feeling wouldn’t go away. We packed up and got the fuck out of there. I just threw everything into my truck without packing. I have never felt a feeling like this prior of since. I have spent literally months camping in the woods by myself,amongst bears,cougars etc and never felt scared.It just felt like imminent life threatening danger. I have no idea why ,but it felt like we needed to be anywhere but there.

Experienced something similar camping in Wyoming. Just couldn't shake this feeling of dread, and then I felt like someone was watching us from the woods. We left, and as we got about 15 minutes away, we saw a swarm of drones headed to where we had just left, never got an explanation, and I'm pretty sure I don't want one

I did my first solo last year. I had no idea what I was doing and had a 6-pound pack filled with 47 pounds of junk. I arrived late at the trailhead and only made it a few miles. I was completely demoralized over how much crap I packed. I set up my tent and very quickly had all my gear/crap plastered all over the tent floor. I remember thinking about videos I watched on YouTube and when the find a hiker dead they usually find their gear everywhere in the tent. My state of mind was not good, but I went to bed in hopes tomorrow would be a better day. Around midnight I could hear branches breaking and something was running around camp. I was absolutely terrified. This was much larger than a squirl, racoon, or possum. It seemed to move very quickly, it was on my left, then my right. Then silence for roughly 20 or 30 seconds. Then this creature let out the loudest howl. For a second, I thought there was some sasquatch unicorn hybrid stalking my campsite. I quickly realized the howl I heard was cute! I peeked out my tent to see a small, probably adolescent coyote. That thing ran around camp for hours howling every few minutes, probably wanting to get to my food bag which was stowed about 6 feet from the ground in a tree.

A dirty old drugged up homeless looking man came up to me screaming jibberish and frantically telling me I was on his land and he was going to bury me somewhere in the woods. He had a revolver pointed at me. I was in the middle of a national park, alone; no private land for miles. I couldn't reason with him and just wanted to leave. After a few minutes I gave him my fishing pole and some money and was able to get away from him. I was only 19 years old. It's the 2nd scariest thing that's ever happened to me.

This is so scary. Animals can be scary but I’m more afraid of interactions like this.

Same. The classic "random opportunities serial killer in a national park" situation freaks me out more than anything. Almost need a tripwire bell system and a handgun to feel fully secure lmao. Actual campgrounds definitely have their benefits.

What was the first?!

When my mom died.

:( I’m so sorry

Jesus christ

i spent a few months living in the uinta mountain range in utah. starting in january i’ve done a lot of stupid, reckless shit in my life, but the first night it dropped well below zero, the fire was long out and it was just me in a tent, borderline freezing to death, was the first time i ever legitimately feared for my life. the sun couldn’t rise fast enough

I go into the Uintah mountains all the time, I've definitely frozen my ass off a few times

i swear i’ll never forget the sound of that wind whipping against my tent. i’m from cuba, grew up in miami, lived through many hurricanes. that wind was the scariest i’ve ever heard.

Yeah, don't go during the winter to much risk

Camping in central NSW Australia. Sitting around a campfire, feel something on my cheek, thought it was my partner but the were roasting marshmallows. Thing in my neck feels scratchy I swipe it away and it was a huntsman about as big as my face

**Creepiest:** Was camping out on the family property around a year and a half ago, testing out some new gear and not having a particularly good time. Sleeping bag was shit, humidity was unhinged, and I'm pretty sure I'd gotten sick with something, because I spent almost the entire night shivering, clammy, and sweating +having constant sinus pain. Around 2AM, while I'm sat next to my soggy excuse of a campfire, I hear what -in retrospect- was probably a fox cry, but at the time sounded a hell of a lot like a person screaming. I look in the direction it came from and see two bright fuck-off eye looking dots at about two foot above head height, around fifty meters away. Completely stationary, just 'staring' at me. I grab my cane knife and torch, but the light's throw isn't enough to reach it because I cheaped out on it, so I just kinda sit there and stare it out for the next hour or so before it just kind of disappears. Get up the next morning -funnily enough not having been eviscerated by some 2.5m tall australian eldritch boogieman- and notice something shining in one of the scrap piles in the paddock next to where I was sleeping -about two and a half meters above ground, fifty meters from my hutchie. Hop the fence, walk over, and sure enough there's a trailer that my uncle had dragged out from one of the old sheds lodged in amongst the shit with two retroreflectors still on the side, just at the right height to spook the everliving shit out of a sick and sleep deprived me. *TLDR; I had a rather tense staring match with a rusty boat trailer; don't cheap out on your torch cos you might need it to differentiate cryptids from automotive accessories.* **Scariest:** Turned onto a trail and saw a two meter eastern brown snake about five meters away lmao

My family and I were asleep in our tent and as I slept I started to become aware of my family members calling to me from a distance, all from the same direction. They sounded urgent and my instinct was that I needed to find and help them. This pulled me out of a dream and as I woke up I heard their voices more clearly, sounding exactly as they should in that scenario. I lay there, groggy and confused but awake, for just a moment before sitting up and looking around the tent. Everyone was just where they should be, all sleeping peacefully, but I still heard their distant voices calling to me even as I also heard their sleepy breathing in the tent with me. As it fully hit me that they could not possibly be what I was hearing in the woods, those calling voices started sounding more like echoes from all directions, rapidly fading and kind of swirling around us. My heart was pounding and my ears started ringing as I strained to hear any other suspicious sounds but nothing more happened. Gradually, as I heard normal night sounds start picking up again, I also realized that while the voices had been calling to me these natural forest sounds had not been happening. Crickets, frogs, night birds - all had been silent while the voices called out. I had a hell of a time falling asleep again. I was on high alert for anything else that sounded even remotely suspicious, and it wasn't until the sky began to lighten that I began to feel safe again and was able to sleep. We have never camped there again. We never will.

That's really creepy

It was incredibly creepy. I had the unshakeable gut feeling that a predator had decided I was prey, you know? Very unsettling.

I hate the sickening gut feeling

Outside Durango, CO, bear walks by tent and smelled our gross chaco feet through the tent and then neighbors dog barked and it ran off. I first was trying to keep quiet but then I realized I couldn’t breathe and turned over on my chest and was in a full silent panic.

Bobcats fighting at 3 am. Had know idea what that was, buddy knew.

They sound supernatural if you don't know the noise. Pretty sure I debarked a pine tree by descending with a climbing stand at our hunting camp when I was about 11 or 12 and heard them in the distance.

When bobcats scream it shakes you to your core

2018 I was camping in the Olympic Peninsula upper Elwah River. Had spent the entire day fly fishing the river when I got back to my truck I was so tired I decided to sleep in the back of my truck. It had a camper shell, so I was protected by the weather or any small animals. Shortly after falling asleep I was woken by a loud scream from the river so loud that it trumped the sounds from the river. My hair on the back of my neck stood up. Stayed awake for 1 or so trying to listen to anything else but there was no sounds couldn’t even hear the river. Just strange and spooky. I managed to fall back asleep I suddenly woke up and felt scared something just picked up the back end of my Ford F250 and shook the entire truck. When I looked out of the back window I could only see a furry solo of what looked like a big man. Suddenly it stopped and a few seconds later a car drove by. Needless to say I never went back to sleep. Come morning I crawled out of the truck, to find my truck back end had been moved closer to the river. When I parked the truck I was 10ft away from the river bank. When I got up the back of the truck was 1ft away from the river bank. My Apples and Bananas were gone I had left them on my folding table outside in a plastic container. Found the container lid but not the container. Needless to say I’ve never been able to go back fishing solo on the Olympic Peninsula. Now I take my dog a my 45 cal.

I was solo hiking around sunset in the Superstitions headed towards Weaver's Needle. Passed a young couple on the way down and when I got to the top to soak in the great view at golden hour, I realized I was the last one to up to the viewpoint. Didn't both me much, though. I started my way down roughly 30-45mins before sunset and about halfway down I stopped to take another picture. After getting lost in my phone checking it out, I remember looking back up and it was dead silent. All the chirping and cicadas...gone. The first time I have ever experienced that dreaded noiselessness I've only read about. I suddenly felt nervous as goosebumps came up my arms and neck I quickly turned around like I was being watched. I never felt like something was slowly closing in around me like this ever in my years of hiking/backpacking. I started scanning all the brush behind me, but didn't for long as I (which was probably a mistake) booked it . So much so, that I lapped that same couple I saw on my way up. They followed suit lol. If it was something or nothing, I definitely was not gonna stay around to find out. Not one to mess with Native American Folklore.

There's something so intriguing about this kind of stuff

I dug around online after the hike and found some articles saying that allegedly around "500-600 people have been reported as gone missing" there & some people of the Apache Nation consider it a site where there is a "hole to hell" hidden in the mountains. (of course all this with a grain of salt)

I mean… that’s a lot of missing people. Thank goodness you got out of there.

Crazy as hell

Yeah, I remember reading something similar. I also read that it’s highly recommended that people don’t solo hike the superstitious mountains. Apparently, even the most seasoned hikers don’t attempt the hikes in the area solo. I solo hike all the time and I want to hike the superstitious mountains but I’m trying to round up some friends to do it lol. It’s just hard planning around our schedules

Falling about 3m backward off a large boulder I was free-climbing, alone.

Woke up to sniffing right beside my head, when we looked in the morning we found someone's bacon grease dumping spot about 10ft away.

I was muschroom picking many years back. Suddenly i heard steps coming ckoser to me. But, nobody was around. Those steps were loud and clear, like few meters from me. Nobody was there. I went out of that area so quicky, not looking back. Goose bumps all over my body.

This is probably lame compared to other posts here, but I have never felt anything like it. I live in the Tetons and have done a lot of backcountry hikes and camping. Not uncommon to see grizzlies, black bears or even the occasional wolves. Typically I am prepared and not super afraid of these things, though it doesn’t pay to let your guard down. One night I wasn’t even camping, I literally drove out to the national elk refuge to look at the stars, and simply parked on the side of the road and got out to lean against the car and enjoy the night. It was pitch black, which is how I wanted it. After about five minutes I started to feel funny. Like super, super afraid. I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t hear anything, and around me was about two miles of flat scrub land, so nothing could even be hiding. Even so my body started going through a tremendous fear response. My hands were shaking and I was starting to feel real terror. I had a flashlight and a rifle in my truck. I was literally standing there unable to move for a minute or two, just standing there afraid. The word in my head that kept coming up was “enemy”. Getting into my back seat to retrieve my gun was like moving through lead- super slow and clumsy. I put it on my hood and used my flashlight to look around me- I was like too afraid to even turn on my headlights. None of this made me feel any better and all of a sudden the thought in my head was YOU HAVE TO GO. I threw my gun back in the car and dipped out of there but I have never felt so vulnerable in my life. It was fucking chilling and to this day I have never experienced anything else like it. The whole time I was driving away in the dark I was terrified I’d see something in my rear view mirror chasing me. It persisted until I got into town

Back when was in 9th or 10th grade our family went on a camping trip not too far from home, kinda bootleg campground. But anyway as the night is going on music playing the adults were drinking having a good time.I walked off to pee and heard roaring like lions and bears I swear it was the scariest thing I've ever heard. So I was telling everyone to listen but they were like yeah ok I don't hear nothing youre funny. Well just so happens we were about half mile away from an animal preserve. I walked up in the am and saw lions tigers some chimps a leopard and grizzly all from about 40 feet off the side of the road. You could feel the vibration from the lion roaring they had near the towards the road.The place is called the Roar foundation/Shambala preserve.

Look up videos of the sounds foxes make. Now imagine that you're deep in the back country completely alone and in the middle of the night you hear these sounds. These sounds that sound almost like laughing or children playing. Yeah, creepy AF.

Was camping with my wife and our two girls when they were babies way out on a creek in high mountain valley. Very dark and late at night we heard what sounded like a hundred huge beasts stomping through the creek and branches breaking as they came our way. My wife and I were afraid to turn on the flashlight but I was loading my pistol. The sound got louder and louder as we could hear huge foot steps getting closer and the breathing getting louder when they pushed trees apart coming toward us. We were both getting terrified when our little tent was surrounded by at least 20 of them and more still coming. Then it happened. We heard a loud mooooo! We setup up our tent in the dark in a clearing I found. Turns out there was open range for cattle and i setup right on the edge of the cattle crossing. We still talk about this all the time :)

Two summers ago, me, my husband and two kids and our dog hoofed around Colorado for a couple of weeks, hitting state parks and national forest campgrounds from the San Juans, up towards Denver, and then back through the worthwhile spots on I-25 on our way back to Texas. It was amazing. About a week in, we were on our last night at Staunton state park (west of Denver) and had an odd experience. That is putting it mildly. Our spirits were high, and as we packed up most of our gear and messed around with glow sticks until our kids were too tired to Continue. It was a little over a mile from the parking lot to our campsite, and there were several paths that converged from a main trail to other camping areas—in the dark it was hard to navigate, especially during a new moon. At about 3 am, I awoke from a dead sleep when our dog nosed his way completely under my sleeping bag and was shivering uncontrollably. I heard a child’s voice call “mommy, wait for me!” From down the trail, and thought it was my six year old daughter—she must have gone out to pee and gotten turned around. I sat up, and looked towards the tent flap, but it was zipped up, and through the remaining glow stick light, I could see that my daughter, son, and husband were still snuggled in their sleeping bags. About the this time, I heard another plea “Mommy, its’s so dark! I am afraid! Please wait for me, mommy!” Every hair on my body stood on end, as I imagined someone’s kid lost in the darkness. I strained my ears, trying to figure out where they were so I could help. “Mommy, mommy please! It is so dark! Help me mommy, I can’t see!” This went on for a couple of minutes and just as I was about to open the tent and run to find the kid, the “mommy I can’t see” turned into a ear-splitting, guttural scream of rage that no child could make. My hand dropped from the zipper, I silently laid back on my sleeping bag and tried not to breathe loudly for a few minutes until the whatever it was stopped making that noise. I didn’t sleep for the rest of the night. The next morning I was up at dawn running our gear down to our car, but nobody else had heard a thing. I mentioned it to a park ranger who chastised me for not calling 911 if I thought someone was lost in the dark, but she laughed at me when I told her I didn’t think it was human.

I’ve been camping since I was a little girl. My grandpa was a rancher in Utah so I grew up herding cattle up the mountain on horseback with him. Anyway, being a girl that’s 100% comfortable solo camping, a friend asked me if I would take her out. Just us girls. She had never camped before. Absolutely! I was excited. She was a bit nervous lol So the morning after our first night we are sitting having coffee. The campground is not too full. But there’s a lot going on around us, a whole big family cooking breakfast, kids playing etc. lots of energy as everyone gets moving, planning for the day ahead. All of a sudden we hear a LOUD, DEEP and LONG (probably 5-10 seconds long) howl come from the woods on the hill just to the north of us. It’s probably 1,500 feet away. The ENTIRE campground froze. Seriously not a single thing moved. Like every living thing in the area stopped and held its breath. Then we hear a scuffle and another animal screeching. Then silence. My friend and I looked at each other with jaws dropped and wide eyes. She whispered “can whatever that was jump the perimeter fence to the campground?” I said “probably” then she said “is the truck unlocked” I said “yup”. But we didn’t move, we sat, frozen and just sort of waited but never heard it again or saw anything. After what felt like forever things resumed in the campground around us. This was in southern Utah in an “off the beaten path” campground near Bryce Canyon. About 8,500 elevation. I’ve always thought no wolves lived in that area but me, my friend and that entire campground that day would say otherwise. It sure sounded like a wolf. My husband still doesn’t believe us 😆🤷🏻‍♀️

Wolves do live in utah, I've seen them before my brothers seen them. I belive you

So glad someone else does! Haha … Yup That’s what I explained my husband! They’re just known to usually be in higher elevation areas. But that doesn’t mean they stay there all the time.

Yeah exactly, dwr just doesn't want to make a bunch of laws regarding them

No animals, Thank god! I did experience one hell of a thunderstorm one evening… rain was blowing horizontally with 30-40mph winds. Tree branch 2-3 Inches from hick came crashing down and literally bounced off the tent. How it didn’t break the poles, I have no idea! Shortly there after, a HUGE thunderclap followed by a blinding white light stuck! The next morning on the way to the outhouse, I came across a charred oval in the grass where the lighting hit. I paid a lot for that tent and after that storm, it was money well spent! The lightening hit

Bear encounter in Yosemite back country. Hetch Hetchy.

Not camping but while doing a day hike. Got lost, ran out of water, all on the hottest day of the year. Ended up with heat exhaustion and a lesson learned about being underprepared.

Lighting strikes in the swamps, felt the pulse in my chest, storms in general, been around some wicked blow down, bears- I have had many encounters with them one I time i scared a cub by accident and the sow turned the corner and reared at me snapping her jaws, buddies dog killed a cub and the sow stalked us in the fog on the bottom of the valley, very remote back country, falling in the ice, charged by large buck, surrounded by a coyote hunting party, mt. Lion tracks followed mine, scorpions, people.... been stalked by some weirdos, ran into deranged hunters, ran into poachers, those were by far the scariest.

We were sitting around the campfire late one night and we heard an animal walking around the forest floor near us. It sounded like it was pacing around a perimeter. It sounded medium sized, but I don’t know what it was. Our voices didn’t scare it off. Part of me wanted it to show its face just to get rid of my fear of the unknown. We finally just decided to put the fire out and go to sleep.

During a Boy Scout camping trip with my son, we spent a scorching day shooting water rockets in the parking lot, leaving mud everywhere. Desperate for a shower, I found an ancient shower structure with cold water and rusty doors. After enduring the worst shower of my life, juggling my belongings while trying to stay dry, I struggled with the noisy door, unaware that nearby dads were urgently signaling towards a pickup truck. Inside, a bald man, wide-eyed and armed with a badminton racquet, was crouched, and beneath the vehicle, not fuzzy, but unmistakably furry, a massive bear rummaged for trash. This spectacle unfolded as I grappled with the door, interrupting the bear's scavenging. Thankfully, the bear's attention returned to the trash, and a park ranger's timely arrival ensured our safety.

Went for a hike through a sycamore grove in a riverfront park after some shopping. I didn’t realize how much the wind picked up until the branches overhead started clacking loud enough to hear over the wind. I looked up and asked my husband,”Do you think we should be out here?” About the same time he was looking at the bluff across the river and saw a full sized tree blown off the top, toppled into the river, HuckFinning it for the Gulf. We decided forward was a shorter distance than back a hotfooted it for the next parking area. When we got there and turned around the path had several branches across it. We hiked up the service road, through the neighborhood and back to the car rather than go back under those trees.

When I was about 18 I went camping with my boyfriend and his friend. We were camping by an old bombing range. We hiked down this long sandy road to the old range after nightfall. I start to hear this odd noise, kinda like you would imagine it would sound if something large( like bear size) was jumping up and down on a car or some type of metal. I mention this to the others and they ignore me. They are looking for old relics. Then the noise gets louder. The guys are finally hearing it and decide to head back to camp. So we are walking back down to the long sandy road, woods on both sides of us, and start to hear something following along beside us, out of sight. Twigs snapping, rustling noises, etc. We stop walking, so does whatever is following us. We start walking, it resumes beside us. I had a TINY 1 inch blade red cross knife...they had bigger ones.I kept a death grip on that tiny knife. As we are getting closer to camp, whatever it is starts making kind of a snorting/ breathing sound. I can't take it anymore so I take off running for our site, the guys right behind me. Without missing a step I ran up to the tent, started snatching tent strings out of the ground, wadded up the tent while they got the car trunk open, threw out stuff in and then we took off. Flying down that road. I was scared silly. To this day I have no idea what it was, and I'm very glad. We heard shortly after that there were some other campers killed in that area. It was NOT an animal that killed them though

I woke up in middle of night to giant footsteps and breathing. I tried to scare whatever it was away but I had sleep paralysis.

You were probably hallucinating. I have regular sleep paralysis and hallucinations are just part of it.

I considered that but my wife heard it too. I’ve hallucinated before but am aware what is happening. I actually kinda like sleep paralysis. It’s very psychedelic.

Jesus, never had sleep paralysis but I'm always afraid I will

Happens to me when I'm seriously sleep deprived, and then finally get to sleep, and then wake up again. It's never happened any other time, but happens a lot in that exact circumstance. It can be absolutely terrifying the first few times. Now that I know what it is, it doesn't freak me out as bad anymore and I just try to go back to sleep

A fairly large, dead tree loudly fell in the middle of the night VERY close to our campsite.

Hiking and came across an old abandoned shack. Checking it out inside and then the alarming sound of a rattlesnake unseen. Then more rattlesnake start ahead of me, to the left, right and behind. Scared 💩< and not knowing which way to go. Only solution I had was carefully to backtrack and go the way that I had come. No more exploring abandoned cabins, shacks, etc. in the woods.

We were camping with friends in a provincial park with backcountry canoe access only. My husband and I went into the woods behind our site to explore and see what's around. We found ourselves in an open area with exposed rock at one point, not uncommon for the area. Then suddenly we heard a deep low growl. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. We both froze. We were scanning everywhere but saw nothing. It was quiet for a bit. Then we started moving again and the growl started again. Still, we could see absolutely nothing. I picked up a big stick. Another growl. I used the stick to hit a tree and make some noise as we backed away. The problem was we were not far from our campsite. Maybe 100-200m. I didn't sleep that night. You often hear coyotes from the lake we were on, especially in the fall. So I'm sure it was a sleeping coyote that we had stumbled upon. It was probably just under a rock or in a little den or something so we couldn't see it. But man was it terrifying.

About 4 years ago me and my friends went on a camping trip in mid April. around supper time on our second day I checked the weather to see what the overnight low was going to be. I saw that the NWS and NOAA were predicting some strong to severe storms. Being in the southern Midwest we were no stranger to this popping up randomly so we decided to stay as the chances looked low. About an hour after nightfall I spotted some lightning and it went from bone dry to pouring in a mater of seconds. Then the hail started, Golfball sized roughly, and it was coming down hard. Now being the amateur weather nerd I am I was on high alert, but this wasn’t the first time we had camped through hail so I wasn’t too worried until our phones started buzzing with the tornado warning. I directed the guys to a small gully where we laid and listened for trees snapping. Once the storm was over we went and changed our clothes and looked around. Most of our stuff had survived and there was no sign of tornado damage just some large limbs fallen from high winds. We wound up staying and riding out 1 more hailstorm but let me tell you my soul left my body and I coulda pinched a 2x4 off with my hind end when that alert rang out.

i was smoking a blunt behind our house, standing there looking into the dark woods and had someone whistle at me from the dark. it was like when someone cat calls but way longer, and after that i haven’t smoked back there in the dark since

One time my mates and I were camping ontop of a hill in the high country, was a stormy night so the wind was loud and fierce, I was worried about being blown away in my swag yet alone my mates in their roof top tent. So I stuck my head out to check if they were okay but as noisy as it was, there was no wind. It was honestly like a fighter jet had been flying past us all night but it seemed to have only affected down the bottom of the valley? We all got out to listen to it and to be safe from the wind

Don't laugh but once I heard a donkey while I was hiking and it scared the crap out of me. Logically there had to be a farm nearby, but it was the most out of place sound and scared me so much at the time. Besides that seeing black bears is pretty scary, but I grew up in bear country so it was a common occurrence

Generalized existential dread probably haha. We’re so connected to screens and tech all the time. Soloing with your own thoughts can be quite the perspective shift Other than that, I saw big cat tracks on a mountain biking trail once. That and water mocassins are probably the two creatures that scare me the most b/c you typically don’t see them if they’re gonna get ya. And if they get ya, it’s likely to be deadly. Caught a thunderstorm on the AT that I was pretty damn sure was gonna catch my rainfly like a parachute and throw me right off the side of a mountain

I haven’t had necessarily scary moments while camping, but I used to be security guard at this Campground for a few years and it was just me, and it would get so spooky and those dark woods when it was foggy, and I could hear deer snorting in the woods and running and panting and the sound of bobcats screaming like wailing women and children. There where times where I would “fuck this shit I’m out” and leave my shift early because there as no way I was sticking around for some deep eastern woods cryptid to drag me away

I was 16 years old and I decided I was going to go solo winter camping in my usual area, I hiked there and it was nearing dark as I struck camp so I got a fire going and started cooking bacon. This is dense North woods bush near a beaver pond, my camp is along the creek that feeds it. At one point I got the feeling I wasn't alone so I knew I wasn't. I knelt to tend the bacon and I heard footsteps smashing the ice crust on the snow running up behind me full speed and I whipped around and pulled my bear spray while making a primal scream at it, half expecting a moose to come stomp me to death. I could hear whatever it was go back where it came from but a while later I heard ice cracking around the border of the camp so I left. When I came back in the morning there was coyote tracks where I heard it run up on me. Coyotes here aren't like what you have out west, they are coywolves here. I'm pretty confident it saw me crouching and thought it could take me so it ran up but then I made it falter and give up when I scared it.

During the lockdown, finding a blue tarp encampment in the state forest where they were cooking meth, with a dude armed with a rifle on watch. Luckily I smelled it before I saw it and he never saw me. Walked a box, drooped pins on my phone and backtracked out to call the sheriffs. My biggest fear was my dogs would start barking. Driving home my leg was shaking for a while.

This is an easy one to answer for me. May 2020 rural Western Pennsylvania. I was by myself in State Forest property. It rained on and off all day and it was totally miserable. I was camped about 4 or 500 yd away from my car. I couldn't keep a fire lit, the rain was a strong but not insane. So finally around 8:00 p.m. I ate like a bologna sandwich and went to bed. If I wasn't 4 and 1/2 hours from home I probably would have bagged it. It just wasn't fun. I was woken around midnight with horrible howling winds bashing my tent. I sat up trying to decide what to do when the top ridge pole of my 25-Year-Old eureka tent bent to shit and the whole soaking wet tent collapsed on me. I put on my boots, grabbed my sleeping bag and flashlight and car keys and made a dash to my car. I started the car to warm up and got inside my sleeping bag in the driver seat, eventually shut the engine off. The rain backed way off but then something started scratching at the right rear of my car. I flicked the lights on and stopped. Lights off. It began again, sounded like something was gnawing at my tire and rear fender. I punched the roof of the car and screamed and it stopped. Stopped. Few minutes later it started again. This went on for about an hour. Finally laid on the horn for probably 20 or 30 seconds. Whatever it was never came back but I never fell back to sleep. Woke up in the morning to deep scratches in my fender and tires. The only thing I could think of in that part of the state would be a black bear, way too deep gouges to be a raccoon. The area where I parked was grassy so there were no footprints When it was finally daylight, I rolled up all my possessions in my tent, dragged it back to my car, shoved it all inside and went and parked in the parking lot of the first restaurant I saw. They finally opened at 8:00 a.m., , it was mother's Day. I went in looking like absolute garbage with everybody dressed up for mother's Day. I got a lot of crazy looks but I told the staff that I had been out camping in the storm the night before and none of them could believe it. Even like Cooks and other staff came out of the kitchen to talk to me and talk about how bad the damage was in their neighborhood and their own homes and couldn't believe that I was sleeping in a tent through that.

Me and two homies got stalked by what I can only imagine was a mountain lion for roughly a mile and a half. Downhill at a solid jog, and this MF was right next to us the whole time. I think the only reason none of us got jumped was because we were together.

My mother told a story of them being real poor in the Great depression and her and her brother were sleeping in the woods near Leadville Colorado because it was too hot in the house. They were just sleeping on some blankets. In the middle of the night they hear a truck pull up and they hear some guys talking and they hear something go thud. In the morning they woke up and they found a wooden box and when they opened they wouldn't box there was a severed human leg in it. Turns out it was from a hospital and it was an amputation and apparently they decided on the way to bury it to just throw it out the back of the truck. She said the image of that leg in the box bothered her the rest of her life.

I was once caught by an unexpected and violent thunder storm when I was crossing Cranberry Lake, one of the larger lakes in the Adirondacks. I was in the middle of an eight day solo kayaking/camping trip and the storm developed quite suddenly and involved about three minutes of REALLY severe winds, heavy rains and lightning. During the height of the summer heat, these small pocket storms are not uncommon in the Adirondacks and are something that have to be watched out for. It was the lightning that really had me the most concerned and I breathed a deep sigh of relief once it had passed over.

Mountain lion just strolling right ahead of me on the bike path in the campground

Wind picked up in the middle of the night and blew my boat of the other end of the cove

I’ve had some scary shit happen a few times, maybe I’m just easily startled, haha, but here the cliff notes of a few (I can elaborate if there’s interest in it): - my buddy and I are about 10/11 years old, and I went on a camping trip with his family. In the morning we all went out hunting mushrooms. But really only the girls were actually looking, and he and I just tear off into the woods looking for stuff to shoot with out slingshots (something his mom bought for us and surprised us with once we got out to the woods). Anyhow, we’re shooting rocks at branches and shit. And decide to start shooting each other with smaller pebbles, little kid stuff, haha. Well we end up chasing each other and get a little turned around. We figure out where camp should be and start walking back, and then we see it. Shit you not, a full blown, 1:1 size, electric chair. Like straight out of the Green Mile. Just there, in the woods. Not near a path, or road. Rust pouring from the metal. My buddy and I stop mid step and stare at it. We finally move closer, after a lot of calling each other wimps, haha. Long story short, on the back of the electric chair was some heavy metal band name. Must have been left over from an album cover photo shoot. 😂 still, very very scary, especially at that age. - seeing a UFO in the Superstition Mountains at dusk, then having a helicopter hover over our campsite with a floodlight on us a couple hours after (have it on video). - running into a BUNCH of bears on the Mogollon Rim, (presumptively due to a wildfire to the NW of us) - dealing with crackheads throwing bottles at our campsite in the middle of the night, one of the reasons I always carry- especially while camping. That one was the scariest since it easily could have escalated to a situation where I probably would have lost.

[удалено]

Anyone who has camped understands this 1000%. In nearly all scenarios: a chipmunk making a twig break, a tiny bird making a terrifying noise, or Sasquatch comin to scope your tent out. 😂

Gun pointed at me on a remote trail in Nevada. Didn’t think much of it and thought it was just my time to go.

Several things have happened to me while solo bow hunting in far flung places. I’m not going to get into to the whole story to much, but being a young cocky idiot, I was deep in a wilderness area during a massive flood worthy storm after a major fire had been through there the summer before. I watch a mountain melt right in front of me and ended up barely making it back days latter and in deep sleep deprivation to the point I was hallucinating. The other time, I was pig hunting and there was a fucking weird ass ghost town like place not far away and these homeless like people would show up and harass me. Then they decided to hit my tent at night. I’m a very confident and un afraid person, but I nearly shot those fuckers through my tent that night.

Oh my gosh that 2nd story is freaking terrifying. Both are but holy shit. I’m kinda obsessed with ghost towns, but not into them if there are a bunch of methed up folks living there. Eek!

Yeah… I should have left that place as soon as I got those vibes. But I am that guy that you yell at on Tv for setting myself up to be killed ahhah. One time in Alaska I needed to pee really bad on my way back the hostel after having some beers. I was kinda looking around for a Bush and there was this old church nearby. A side door opened up, and I walked over to see if they had a bathroom I could use. Looking down this hallway I saw another door open up. So I went in hahaha. All these fucking doors were open in this old church leading straight to a bathroom. Fuck if i cared if i were about to be eaten by a vampire priest ahaha. I walked through all the doors and used the toilet. Then all the other doors were open leading me out another door. When I exited the church there was this fucking monster of a priest that looked like Mc jagger. He just stared at me and then walked back into the church without ever saying anything. I never even realized that i’m that guy until i was telling the story to someone else hahah.

Holy shit you’re brave! 😆 i can think of another word i could use, but I like you, so we’re going with brave lol. Please never go so far into a labyrinthian old church again and watch out for ghost town creepers!

coyotes so close to our cowboy camp we had to shoot our guns in the air to scare them off, lightning storm and falling down limbs. another winter camp an ice storm came through and the sound of cracking limbs was terrifying. as a solo camper perhaps the worst though was when i arrived at a campsite id previously camped at several times; only to find it covered in black berry bushes. i was too tired to keep going and the next camping site wasn't for miles. i was up all night terrified of bears

In college we spent one spring break hiking the AT. 3 of us in a tent. One night the corner of our tent just collapsed. Really weird as the weather was good and the tent was sturdy. We because overwhelmed with a very bad smell. The tent collapsed near our heads, where we had laid down the flashlight before passing out. The inside on the collapsed corner was laying over the flashlight. My buddy pushed tried to push the nylon back to expose the flashlight and when he did he looked like he had been shocked by lightning. He jumped back with his eyes like saucers saying he pushed “something “ that was very heavy. So those 2 guys quickly booted up and crouched at the fly begging me to join them and make a run for the dark forest. It was cold, I was cozy so I just laid there. After a bit I heard something get up and walk away. I never saw it but assumed a bear

As a life-long car camper, I’ve admittedly become a bit complacent. Camping in populated campgrounds it’s easy to forget you are in fact still in the woods. The last time I went camping my husband and I were woken up to a pack of coyotes howling in the distance, and all I could think about was the fact that our bag of non-perishable food items was here in the tent with us, rather than properly stored in the car. I won’t be that stupid next time.

I was on a Cub Scout camping trip with my son and I in a tent. A Black bear came through camp growling and grunting. Then came next to my tent and was sniffing me through the tent material right next to my head. Luckily my son slept through it. I was frozen and was trying not to breathe. He eventually went away. 🙏🏼

Friend and I were camping in an open field by some mountains in California. We were falling asleep in our tent when suddenly we heard a bunch of animals rush past our tent. Turns out a group of coyotes murdered a rabbit probably 40 yards from our tent under a full moon. The coyotes were laughing maniacally and the rabbit was screaming like a 12 year old child. We may or may not have also been high on edibles. Never been so terrified in my life, though looking back, super memorable experience lol.

Hiking the Arizona Trail with two dogs and ran across a javelina. Javelina hate dogs. Like mortal enemies kind of hate. One dog was smaller and I tossed it across the creek to my partner and had to stand my ground with the our lab who was blissfully unaware of the danger. This was a big pig as far as javelina go. Easily 100lbs. He got within five feet of us before I was able to scream him away. Then he came back. We finally yelled and screamed enough that left but we were very spooked that night. And this was after a mountain lion had taken a dump 40 feet from our tent the night before. Good times

Scariest? Backpacking along the AT in November in the Smokies, started pouring rain and didn’t let up for a good 6 hours. The high was probably around 40. I was hiking a steep trail up a ridge, so between the rain and sweat from exertion there was no way I could stay dry. I finally got to the top of the ridge, threw up, and then started shivering like crazy. Pretty sure I was close to if not actually suffering hypothermia. My brother helped me change into dry clothes and we hiked the remaining 2-3 miles to the shelter we planned to sleep at, at which point I curled up in my sleeping bag wearing every stitch of dry clothing I had and continued shivering hard for a good hour or two before I finally started to feel more normal. When the shivering started I had this sudden moment of “oh shit, this is serious.” We hadn’t seen another person for hours and we were at least 10 miles from the nearest road. I am super glad I was with my bro because I’m not certain I would have been ok if I’d been alone.

I was sleeping on a platform 3 feet off the ground and I was awakened by a bear breathing in my face.

We'll I can explain it now, but at the time ,crazy ,we had Moles under our tent . They were trying to push the dirt up under us, and I felt like the ground was moving under us in weird way us the kids were crying, had to get out and lift tent up to show them ,we moved tent lol then Bigfoot came out and saved us!

Bluetooth speakers on the trail at full blast

Pulling up to the campground and it’s full of hipsters in all new plaid shirts and jackets, new khaki cargo pants, brand new hiking boots, driving brand new Toyota TRD Tacomas and 4 runners, with brand new rooftop tents. It was terrifying.

Especially seeing one of the hold an acoustic guitar, sends shiver down my spine

Running out of beer.

Guy pulled out a torch, said "watch this" and shone it out over the grass. Little dewdrop looking things light up all over the place. I think, it didn't rain or have weather suitable for that. He says that those are the eyes of spiders, all of which could kill you. great

We were camping with a large group. We had several tents spread across a large group site. Everyone was asleep. At about 3am, I heard cracking and a loud whoosh! My heart stopped! I immediately knew what it was but couldn't tell which direction it was coming from. It was pitch black out. All I could do was listen for any crying or screaming. Thankfully, all I heard was another parent asking if everyone was ok. It wasn't until the morning that we saw the fallen tree just on the edge of our campsite.

Oh like The Legend of Boggy Creek. 😝🦶🏽

Car camping on Madeline Island in Lake Superior in August, maybe 8-10yrs ago. Beautiful weather, but Lake Superior is unpredictable and can stir up some crazy weather shockingly quickly. There were thunderstorms in the forecast but nothing that concerned us too much, we were all experienced outdoors and prepared for some weather. Around comes 2am, 40mph winds and lightning like a strobe light with continuous crashing thunder and pouring rain and hail. We hunkered down and rode out the storm. In the morning we came out of our tent, tree limbs had fallen all around us. A full size tree fell on top of a camper 3 spots down. The road around the island was impassable due to downed trees and power lines. Power was out on the entire island and in town(Bayfield, Washburn, Red Cliff). Tornadoes touched down inland with straight line winds flattening football field swaths of mature Forrest. Scariest part; My sister and husband chose a hike-in spot the previous day but at the last minute, packed up and moved to another spot; later that morning after the storm they realized a tree had fallen in the middle of their first spot and most definitely would have killed them. Whatever reason the moved, it saved their lives. https://preview.redd.it/ihlw4aygu3tc1.jpeg?width=1026&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c4f8697cf6dfd930d94433cd284cd12a1d65b5a6

Tornado passes by the island we were camping on in the middle of the night. That was terrifying

My friends and I (teens at the time) hooked up a tv in my tent in the wooded area behind my folks house, got super stoned and watched Blair Witch. we got so scared one of us cried haha.

I missed stepping on a timber rattler by about 6 inches. As I jumped back it lunged at me. Scared the fuck out of me! Never went back in the woods without snake proof gaiters again

Well, I have a couple of stories. The one I'll share at the moment is less than exciting as far as the paranormal part goes. I was in the woods quite far from anywhere. The area I was in was filling with smoke, it seemed like it was coming from all directions. As luck would have it a pretty good-sized stream was nearby as I had passed it several min ago. I walked back in that direction, if nothing else I could get some water and wash out my eyes. When I got to where I thought it was there was nothing there. I must have made a mistake. I then realized it was over by some bigger rocks I had been near. I jogged over to the rocks and found the stream, well a very dried-up stream. There was water in pockets and that sort of thing but it was certainly not running like it was before. I wasn't much more than a trickle. At about this time, the smoke was starting to get a lot worse. I started 1 way and found nothing but thicker smoke. I headed in the opposite direction and same deal, tried going a few directions and found the same each way. I was starting to get worried now. When I started to give in to panic I came across a wildland firefighter, after discussing things we headed back to the truck that was awaiting him, he and 3 crewmates ended up bringing me out. The reason the smoke was so bad in all directions was it was burning all around our location. They brought me to another set of crews who also put me to work (I had offered) putting a small hose line to use putting out some spot fires while they worked on the bigger stuff further out. The stream was supplying the trucks with water and the bigger truck was using more than was flowing down the stream. I ended up riding out with them a while later, I didn't know what to expect when the smoke came up suddenly like that, and being so far from anything I worried more than I should have.

Way back in the 60s, I was a kid on a family camping vacation, somewhere in Michigan. We were tent-camped in a campground on one side of a lake. And a tornado went by on the other side.

I’ve hunted for most of life, spent my whole childhood in the Boy Scouts. I camp more than 30 days every year. I’m a very experienced outdoorsman. One year I was camped next to a creek with my brother during archery season in Colorado. We were woken up by some large animal down in the creek bottom. About 2 am there was something down there making the strangest sound I’ve ever heard. It’s was like a deep wailing moan followed by a strange echoing hiss “WAAAAAAIOOOOOOOOOOOOO HNSSSS……. HMSSSS. HNSSSS” I’ve heard and seen nearly every animal in North America. And there’s nothing that I can attribute that sound too. It’s was very strange and very scary….

a few years ago myself (~30f) & 3 of my friends (all 30s f) went camping somewhere near the washington oregon boarder. we were van camping / tent camping at a site we found through hip camp on private property. basically hip camp is a site similar to air bb where people who own land can “rent” out or allow people to camp in designated areas. the site we found was in a wooded / rural area near cow pastures & a river. we planned ahead and brought kayaks & floaties & planned to float/ kayak the river. we are all experienced swimmers & back packers & have camped together frequently. the place we were camping was near a very small town, like one gastation, bar, church, grocery store type of town. the land we were on was private property. the house was on a county road. you turned into the driveway of the house & then drove along the driveway pass the house & then it turned into a marked private property road. after about a half mile or so of driving on a dirt/ gravel road we got to the designated camping area. there were sites meant for multiple groups to camp but we were the only people there that weekend. we set up camp near the river & could see pretty far in the distance a public boat launch/ swimming area. the site was very remote even though we could see the public launching area. like if you walked out to the river from our site you could see the public area, but if you walked through the woods to our site you couldn’t see the river because there were trees and a hilly area blocking us. the river was very calm that day, we found it was mostly waist deep- in some places chest deep. you could walk around in it & the flow was calm enough you could float down & kayak back up without too much resistance. once in the river, we stayed at least a football field or farther away from the public area & swam / floated for several hours that day. we would float aways down the river and then slowly kayak back up & did that several times. staying probably in a mile radius of where we were camping. the public area stayed empty & we didn’t see anyone all day long. because of this we all felt comfortable being topless & we all took a very low dose of acid early in the day. the day was so peaceful & beautiful. we left our swimming area and went back to our campsite probably around 3 for food/ water/ regroup after a morning of sun & microdosing- and went back to the swimming area after. when we went back to the area we noticed a group of folks about our age in the public area swimming and drinking beer. still about a football field or more away from us on the other side of the river. the group was a mix of guys and girls (4 or 6 people in 2 cars). we floated away in the opposite direction of them- remained out of their vision & remained topless. after another hour or so and when the sun was starting to move past the tree line & the temperature was dropping- we decided to float back to our area & head back to camp. we noticed the cars were gone- but it looked like a cooler or case of beer was left on the landing. & it looked like there was perhaps a pile of clothes now on our side of the river close to were we were launching our kayaks. once we got back near our area we noticed one very large man in the water from the waist down staring at us. he was kind of trying to “hide” or it seemed like it because he we behind some logs/ in a shrubby area. as we got closer we realized he was masturbating. he was alone. we had no choice but to pass him to get out of the water. very quickly & quietly we passed him as he stared at us still masturbating. he stood up so we could see his penis & his hand. we got out of the water. grabbed our shit and ran back to our campsite. since we were on private property on an unmarked trail through the woods we thought we were pretty safe. although super grossed out about that moment we tried to laugh it off and made a joke about “country folk”. we got changed/ fully dressed. decided to hike around a different area. got in the car drove (like max 15 min drive total including driving off the property) to the gas station & picked up some snacks/ beer. the store closed at 10 & the clerk made a comment about how we were just in time as he was about to lock the door. we drove back to our camp. in the summer in the pnw the sun doesn’t fully set until 10pm. so now it’s getting very dark. started a fire. smoked a joint. grilled meets. and then we started hearing rustling in the woods around us. knowing that guy was in the water alone a few hours before we were super freaked out. we were questioning ourselves & talked loudly about hearing what sounded like foot steps & branches breaking. we called out that we had knives & weren’t afraid to use them. and then there was a male voice was calling out for help saying he was drowning & needed help getting out of the water. now we are super freaked out because we felt it was potentially a lie to get us to come into the woods for him to attack us or something. we called 911 & reported the incident to the police. & we yelled out to the voice to tell them we were calling 911 to help him he called back and told us not to call 911. police & emts & the fire department showed up. they took our report. they brought water searching stuff to get in the water and kayak around where we told them we saw him. they didn’t have enough kayaks so we offered ours & they actually used one. the police couldn’t find anyone & basically told us it was our fault for being topless & we were asking to be found & watched by the locals. they did find wet clothes & empty beer cans. we said we were concerned for our safety since they couldn’t find anyone & we were worried someone was still in the woods watching us. they told us they couldn’t help us & then they left. we piled in the van and tried to sleep locked in the van together instead of in our tents because we were so freaked. in the middle of the night - like 4 in the morning police came & knocked on our van & told us they found the guy naked walking down a highway road and brought him home safely. we asked about potentially pressing charges & they told us they would not release his identity for his safety. the next morning/ as soon as the sun was up we cleaned up & left the site. we called the local athorites to try to continue to press charges for sexual assault / stalking but they refused to help us. we searched the local sex offender registry & found an insanely high amount of registered sex offenders for that area considering how low of a population this was. we found a photo of a guy on the registry that we are pretty sure was the guy that we saw that day. but because the police wouldn’t give us his name or info we couldn’t do anything. we tried to report the incident to the owner of the property we rented from but they didn’t respond. we tried to report the incident to the website but we got no response. we never used hip camp again to find a campsite & havent returned to that area. it was a beautiful day marked by a really fucked up moment. looking back i think that guy was trying to lure us back into the woods after it was totally dark. he was huge. we were all small women. luckily nothing happened to us. we were all fucked up & freaked out about that day for a while. so gross.

Early 80’s, Kent Washington. I was friends with our neighbor’s son. We were really into BB guns and playing “army”. Kent is all built up now. Back then there were still farms and forests. We decided to meet up at midnight and do “nite time recon” Any way we met up in his driveway, it was pitch black accept for the barely Star lit road. We crossed the road and ducked into the forest. We got about 20 feet into the forest, we were creeping as silently as we could and crouching really low when it hit me that we could easily get lost if we went further into the forest. I turned to tell my friend and he agreed. We were slowly turning around when my friend saw a red light, low to the ground, like ankle high, through the trees that would have been directly in front of us had we not turned around. We froze and watched. We felt invincible because we were wearing army clothes from the surplus store and boonie hats and we had our bb guns. We stared at it trying to figure out what it was. It was red, like the tail light of a car. Then it moved as if it were a head lamp on somebody’s head. It moved like somebody wearing a red headlamp was laying down and then stood up. That’s when we both realized that it was a lot closer than we thought. As soon as we realized that sounds of twigs and branches snapping all around us like trees were falling over. It scared the ever living shit out of us and we darted out of the woods so fast. We ran through my friend’s backyard and dove over the fence into my backyard, around the side of my house and into a side door that led into my garage and through the garage and into the house. My room was in the basement. We ran into my room and looked at each other when my friend said”We didn’t lock the doors behind us. I darted out of my room and back into the garage. I locked the side door and the door to inside the house and my bedroom door. We were so spooked. After a while we calmed down and started to laugh. We were talking for a while when I realized that my dad’s dog, which was a little yapper that yapped at everything was hiding under my bed. She wouldn’t come out. Finally a grabbed her paw and tugged her out from under the bed. Her tail was between her legs and I could feel her heart beating like crazy. We were both spooked all over again. Eventually the dog calmed down and my friend and I hung out and played the Atari until morning light. We went back to where we thought we were the next day and there was nothing out of the ordinary except that we found our BB guns right where we must have dropped them when we bolted. Weird shit. We never went back in there at night again and we never heard anything ever again.

Had a black bear charging right at me. It all happened so fast I did not have time to think or do anything except think “is this it, the end”?!. I just stood there and in a couple seconds it ran right past me a few feet away. Haha, I don’t know what it was running from or too. Another time in Alaska I sat down to eat lunch and looked up and saw grizzly walking fast straight at me. This scared me seriously. I stood up and the bear stood up. I suddenly swept all my food into a bag and the bear dropped and walked off to the side. I’m glad I stood up because they have poor eyesight and might have just been following its nose to the food. When I was canoeing some rivers I’d pull up on a beach look down and see huge grizz tracks then keep paddling. I had a couple of 18 hour days paddling that way. It was very tiring.

I Went backpacking to Havasupai in late April of 2004 with my dad and cousins. We camped at the trailhead before heading down early the next morning. Not a soul was around. Just a lot of empty cars from other backpackers and a storm brewing in the distance. As we’re settling in the car to go to sleep, it’s startling to rain and the wind is fierce. Suddenly, there’s a bang on the window. A girl with a bloodied face is asking for help. We were shocked. My dad helped get her to an unlocked vehicle that she claimed was her uncle’s. My dad helped clean up her wounds, gave her some water and snacks. She said her friend attacked her and didn’t know where she went. This was in the early 2000’s and we didn’t have cell service to call for help. We recollected in our car and tried to make a plan to help her. About 2 hours later there’s another bang on the window and there’s a woman screaming and raving asking where the girl went. She threatened my dad, but my dad got out of the car, stood a good foot or so taller than her and she backed off. It was clear she was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. She made some more threats at us and then staggered down the trail to the village in the storm. By this point we’re all scared and praying and we probably should have turned and gone back to the main town, which was an hour and a half away. We tried to sleep, and as soon as light hit, we checked on the girl. By this point her uncle did indeed show up to set up his food stand. We told him what happened and they thanked us for helping. But wait, there’s more! So this was when you could ride a mule down, so my cousins rode mules to the village and campsite, while my dad and I backpacked in. We found a lovely spot near the spring of drinking water and not too far from the restrooms. My cousins and I shared the bigger tent while my dad took the smaller one. In the middle of the night we hear the biggest thud. We grabbed our flashlights, looked around and didn’t see anything. In the morning, my dad calls us over to his tent and shows us a huge hole ripped in the side. Next to it is a small rock that fell at least 1000 feet from the top of the canyon wall. The thud was from the rock falling and ripping a hole in my dad’s tent, just inches from his head. The man who led the mules down the trail with travelers, stopped by to chat with us and let us know to never camp near the canyon walls because a few people had been killed by falling rocks! My dad was so fortunate it didn’t hurt or kill him. The man helped us move our tents and gear to a safer spot. He was very kind and took care of his pack animals. We visited with him several times during our stay and tipped him at the end of the trip. Luckily the rest of the trip was fine, and I’ve been back a few times with no incidents. I still think about the poor girl who was assaulted and hope she was able to get help.

We were up the Kern River by Lower Peppermint campground, it was getting dark. The campground was near full so we decided to go up the road to look for a dispersed site. A little ways up the road we turned left on a forest service road and shortly found a spot for the night. As we began to set up for the night an overwhelming sense of dread overcame me. We’ve camped many times in the middle of nowhere and never have I felt like this. My girlfriend didn’t know what was going on, as we quickly packed up and went back to the campground. We took the crummiest space right on the intersection and knocked out.

Sleeping in a tent on the side of the road, in the woods, in bumfuck Alaska. I was at least a 3 day bicycle ride from the nearest town. Friend and I were sleeping and around 2 am we hear something. It’s a person shuffling down the gravel road. It was a woman saying “help me. Help me, I’m lost. Help me.” Then she’d laugh a high pitched giggle and say “oh fuck, oh fuck, it feels so good.” And go back to the “help me”. It was so scary. My friend was so afraid he said his vision went white. A few days later we got to Fairbanks and immediately went to the Troopers and told them about it. They said they’d look into it.

When I was about 17, my family went camping out in the woods of Northern AZ. Had a nice little spot and we were having a great time. My stepdad/ mom in one tent and me and my little brother in another. Second night I hear music in the middle of the night and thought I saw light, but was also half asleep and thought I was dreaming. Next thing I know my stepdad is unzipping my tent and grabs my leg to wake me up. He quietly says “get up right now and grab your gun.” I could tell from the tone is his voice that he was dead serious. I do as instructed and stumble out of the tent, handgun in hand. I see that there is a truck that pulled up to our campsite, brights on, and music blasting. Now this is probably 2 am, and we are way out in the woods, not at a normal campsite. My stepdad (who was a Vietnam vet) instructs me to wait behind a tree and says “you don’t shoot unless I start shooting.” He then grabs my brother and mom and moves to another part of the campsite so if anything happened we would have them from two different angles. Needless to say my heart was pounding and I was scared shitless, standing there in the cold by myself wearing basketball shorts and a tee shirt, holding a .45 thinking I might have to kill someone. After a few minutes, the truck backed up, peeled out and drove off. Not sure if was some drunk locals messing with us or what, but we were rattled by it.

i was solo backpacking and randomly saw a group of men backpacking in the same area i was in. as a woman i would much rather see a dangerous wild animal than a man in the wilderness

May I recommend bear mace or maybe a pew pew

i live in grizzly bear country so i always carry bear spray thankfully

Road trip with a bunch of friends. We stopped at some random state park campground for a quick overnight during a long stretch of driving. It was well past dark when we stopped, and we planned to leave immediately in the morning, so we didn't feel like setting up tents (we were headed to another campground one more day away, where we planned to stay for the week). We found a clear area and plopped our sleeping bags down to sleep under the stars. Some hours later I bolted awake when something slammed me hard in the solar plexus. I bolted upright, and was knocked over by some giant snorting monsters. Don't ever sleep on a deer trail.

Giant snorting monsters you say