Spooky Wilderness Encounters Part 1

Revised November 2023

Many hikers have posted stories of unsettling encounters whilst hiking or running in the wilderness. A previous article called Weird vibes in the wilderness - what causes them? explored the reasons for that sixth sense you get when something doesn’t feel right.

The forest or trail can go eerily quiet, birds stop singing suddenly, and there can often be a feeling you are being watched by someone or something. The sensation can be frightening and unsettling. Sometimes, there is someone there, and then it’s time to run like hell!

Some of the following stories that have been posted on Reddit certainly give you the creeps. Who knows if they are true or not?

Story one: “Do you know how to get to Bells Canyon?”

I was camping in the middle of nowhere in Washington near Mt. Rainer. Like, not an official campground, just way out in the forest where I wouldn't have expected another human for miles... One night I wake up and hear something, open my tent, and there is a guy sitting by where my fire had been right outside my tent. Nothing particularly noteworthy about the guy, just a fairly regular looking dude just sitting there a couple feet from my tent. No bag or pack or anything with him, just a guy. He saw me open the tent, his eyes got huge like he had just seen a ghost, and he took off. It shook me up pretty badly but over the next day I managed to put it out of my mind fairly well after writing it off as just some odd occurrence and a guy that was probably high or something and had somehow managed to set up a camp coincidentally not far from mine.

Then two days after that, and 10-15 miles away in totally random directions that nobody could take the same path as on accident, I was sitting by the fire that night and started hearing noises that I got more and more convinced were a person. I called out to them and out of the darkness someone was like "do you know how to get to Bells Canyon?" I said no. I don't even think that's a real place there. They kept talking from just out of my line of vision. I tried to see them with my flashlight but they yelled "aim that away" and, kind of spooked and not wanting to piss off a potentially crazy person, I did. After like 15 minutes of me being very freaked out and them talking and asking completely random questions from the darkness it sounded like the voice had gotten closer so I shined my light that way again, and it was the same dude who had been outside my tent two nights before. He had to have followed me almost 15 miles over two days because there is no way he could have just accidentally wound up in the same spot as vast as that wilderness is. No possible way. As soon as my light hit him he took off again. I started to chase him but didn’t want to get lost in the wilderness in the dark so stopped quickly after probably only 100-200 feet. This one couldn't be written off, because the only way he could have been in both places is specifically if he was following me.

I decided the trip was very over first thing in the morning and hiked back out over 3 days, constantly doubling back, trying to throw anyone following off my trail, and occasionally hiding and waiting to see if he would come by following me. I really can’t describe how terrifying it was to feel like I was being hunted through the woods and to actually have to brainstorm on things I could do to best avoid potentially being murdered.

On the first night of hiking out, twice I heard what sounded like a person walking circles outside my tent, but by the time I mustered the courage to look nobody was there. On the second night, I heard what I thought was an animal making noises at first in the distance but slowly decided sounded more like a human making animal calls, but could have actually been an animal, but I didn't actually see the guy again. But it really sounded like a person making howling noises... I literally almost cried when I finally got back to the car the relief was so strong...

To this day probably the most terrifying experience I've ever had. I have no idea who the guy was or what his intentions were and no way of getting an explanation, but I really can't articulate just what a terrifying few days it was.

Story two: “You look good”

I’ve been running in these woods for as long as I can remember, but this might make me change my mind.

The story began at around 6:30 PM, I had finished eating and decided to go on a run, as usual. I always use the same path, cross the street, run for about a kilometer, and pass the gate that goes into the woodsy. Something important to note is that the trail I use in the forests is separated about halfway through, one path is paved, and the other isn’t. I usually go into the unpaved path first and then turn into the paved one after about 3 KM

Nothing ever really goes wrong, I meet some rare people walking their dogs, but other than that I’m pretty alone. At least, I thought I was. I had been running for a while now when I heard a notification coming from my phone. An airdrop notification. Since I didn’t want to make it look like I was worried, I kept running for a couple of minutes and then stopped to “change the music”. I opened the airdrop dreadfully, who the hell was sending me stuff, I was pretty sure I was alone. I clicked on the drop and my heart sunk. It was a Snapchat picture of me running with the caption “You look good” I didn’t turn around. Instead, I kept running like nothing happened until I reached a certain point.

You see, the forest is surrounded by a fence to stop children from coming in unsupervised, and I didn’t like that rule when I was little, so my friends and I cut a hole in it. When I was aligned with that hole, I quickly turned and buried myself into the forest, aiming for my escape. I could hear ruffling behind me and I still didn’t turn back. When I finally reached the hole, I jumped through it and absolutely booked it to the fire station that was a couple of streets down. The last things I could hear when leaving the forest was an angry huff and metal meeting metal.

I still don’t know who it was or what they wanted from me, but I never ran in this forest again. So, creepy stalker guy or whatever you are, I truly hope we never ever meet.

Story three: Weirdo in the woods

A little backstory; my husband and I run a trapline (we catch raccoons for skins-and we make dog food from the rest).

We had been setting about twenty traps on my brother-in-law's property (a little over ten wooded acres with a creek) since the coons had been destroying his trash cans. Thin the herd a little.

Every morning, right around 5 am, we would load up the trap tools and head out to check the line. For a little over a week, we would hear sticks or leaves crunching just out of sight (the property is insanely overgrown in places and you are lucky to see five feet). We would brush it off and keep checking the line; after all, we both had guns, and there is wildlife out there that is perfectly capable of crunching on a stick.

At one point, right before dusk while we were re-setting traps, I told my husband quietly that I smelled cigarette smoke. It was getting dark so we headed out pretty quickly, since we rarely carried guns at night. By this point we were both annoyed and a little concerned, because whoever was out there had been close enough we could smell them...but not see them. Being watched is always a little unsettling.

Several days went by without issue until one morning I woke up feeling crummy. Dead of winter and I caught the flu. Well, when you farm and have a trapline, you don't get sick days. I bundled up and we headed out, but when it came time to cross the creek (always fun at 5 am, you had to balance on a dead tree while you carried a crap-ton of equipment) I stayed behind.

I walked along the creek where I could, and back onto the trail where I couldn't give my husband a heads up if we had caught anything. We are down to the last trap and I see something hauling off towards my husband, so I chamber a round into my .22 (for those of you who haven't been around guns, a .22 is basically rodent shot. It would take a darn good shot to kill anything larger than a medium-sized dog) thinking a stray dog is going after him.

But I stop short from yelling when I see something else moving. There is a man less than 10 feet from my husband, hiding behind a tree while his dog growls and snaps. He hasn't seen me. I kneeled down, put the safety back on so I could safely look at the guy through my scope. He was older, maybe mid-forties, in ragged clothes. I kept one eye on him and one on the dog, a large lab-mix who was still bearing its teeth. My husband had his pistol out and was very slowly chambering a round in case the dog lunged. It wasn't until the bullet clicked into place that the man stepped out very deliberately.

He didn't speak. Didn't call off his dog. Just stood there, staring at my husband. The dog is still growling. "Can I help you? You're on private property and you need to get your dog before I shoot her."

"I used to hunt here."

"Sir, please get your dog."

"There was a deer stand here. I used to hunt here. Are you on the lease?"

"This is my brother's property and you are trespassing. Please put that leash on the dog."

"I used to hunt here. You didn't bring your wife today."

I see my husband scan my side of the creek, looking for me, before answering, "No I didn't. She has the flu."

"You need to go home to her then. You know I used to hunt here."

Then he whistles, the dog walks to him, and they walk off into the woods (not back towards neighboring properties, but onto timber-land where there are no roads or houses for maybe thirty miles).

Before he completely gets out of sight he yells back, "Tell your wife I will quit smoking."

Needless to say, we jabbed sticks into the empty traps and got the hell out of there. When we went to pull the traps out for the season, there were cigarette butts next to every single one.

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Read about other creepy and deadly encounters in the wilderness

The strange mystery of the Australian Button Man and the Victorian Alpine Park disappearances

The disturbing story of David Shearing and the Wells Gray Park camping murders

The frightening case of the Trailside Killer David Carpenter

The disturbing case of James Jordan - The Appalachian Trail Murderer

Sources