Speaker 1: Last year, I went out on my own into the
forest about an hour from my house to go camping
for a night. I wasn't planning anything special. I just
wanted to spend some time outside for a day and
then go home, and although inexperienced, I didn't see the
harm in being out for just a day. When I
got to the camping trail, there were three cars parked
on the road right next to it. I really didn't
want to talk to anyone or spend the day around
other people, so I kept driving until I found a
different trail down the road. There were no places the park,
so I had to go further down and then walk back.
This trail was very thin and was all dirt, no
gravel or anything, so it definitely wasn't a popular spot.
Started down it, going through relatively flat terrain with nothing
but trees and bushes around. As I got about two
hours in, the trail slowly started thinning out until it
was getting difficult to even tell if I was still
on it or not. I had a feeling this could
happen at the beginning, but I was two hours in
so I wasn't even worried about it by then and
had completely overlooked it. I turned around and started to
make my way back, trying my best to find the
more defined portion of the path. But just five minutes
later I saw something that made me stop in my place,
a cabin sitting right in the middle of the forest.
My first thought on seeing it was that I was
one hundred percent lost because I hadn't seen it on
the way up. But then my thoughts shifted toward the
eerie feeling it was giving me. What was a cabin
doing way out here? I approached it slowly, and, seeing
as it had no door, I looked inside. It was
a full of old garbage. The longer I stayed, though,
the more creeped out I got. I turned around and
started going back to the trail, but was interrupted by
a loud thump from behind me. I looked back at
the cabin and through the doorway, I saw a man
appear from behind the wall. He was middle aged and
wearing torn up clothes, pretty much looking like he lived there.
He looked at me with a creepy, emotionless face. I
nervously said sorry, then quickly walked away. I looked back once,
seeing him staring at me. As I got further away.
I spent the next hour on edge, looking everywhere for
the trail, while also making sure I wasn't being followed.
As the sun began to set, I got increasingly more worried,
but thankfully, just before the light was gone, I found
the middle of the trail. I debated just going back
to my car, but chose to stake out the night
just to be sure I didn't lose my way again.
I unloaded my bag and got my tent set up,
then went inside and laid down. I had planned to
get a fire going and do a bunch of other stuff,
but at this point I wasn't even in the mood
anymore and just wanted to rest. I closed my eyes
and drifted into sleep. When my eyes opened, it was
pitch black, and all I heard was the forest creaking.
I tilted my head and my eyes locked on the
entrance to my tent. Staring back at me was the
shadow covered face of the man, with his head sticking
through the half opened entryway. I jumped back, and the
man did the same. I heard his footsteps hurrying away
as I got out, and looked, only seeing the back
of him running into the woods. With my heart still racing,
I undid everything and shoved it into my bag, then
carefully followed the trail all the way back to my car.
I hadn't even begin to think of what that man
was about to do while I was sleeping, but his
eyes looking back at me through the dark was a
horrifying sight that has yet to leave my head. I
of course never went back, and have mostly refrained from
talking about it, just because I know I won't ever
get any answers. I was taking a summer hiking and
camping vacation a year ago to a small river near
my parents' house. I was visiting them for a few days,
then going out alone to camp along the river for
a night or two and head back home afterward. I
don't live in the most adventurous state, so I always
try to get out in nature whenever I'm in my
parents town. After visiting them, I set out on my hike.
The trail I took to get to the river was
around four hours at a steady walking pace, But the
best part about it was that nobody else ever used it.
The river wasn't huge or anything, and there were plenty
of trails that were more scenic and actually labeled. This
one was just some thin dirt path that wasn't very defined.
When I got to the river, it was basically dark,
so I pitched my tent and got a fire going
so I could relax before bed. As I sat there
for a few minutes, I started hearing footsteps coming toward me.
I looked over, and after a minute a man appeared
from the trees. He waved at me and came over
to my campsite with a smile. He looked like a
normal man in his early thirties, though a bit dirty
and unkempt, like he'd been camping out here for a while.
After introducing himself as John, he made small talk with me,
telling me that he was camping not far from here.
I went along with the talking just to not be rude,
but the whole thing felt off. Eventually, the man said
good night and walked away. I watched as he went
along the river with his flashlight, but after a minute
the light shut off and there was nothing else after that.
I didn't think that much of the encounter initially, but
the man definitely had something off about him. What worried
me the most was how he had come up just
a few minutes after I got the fire going. He
had to have been really close by, like he was
following me or something. I chalked it all up to
my nerves and told myself it was just dumb luck
that he was out here. After all. He came up
and introduced himself, which I assumed he wouldn't have done
if he had any bad intentions. I smothered the fire
and stayed up in my tent for a while, then
fell asleep. I woke up at sunrise and spent the
day hiking along the river. Strangely, I never saw any
other campsites, though, no signs of fire or tents being
set up, not even in the direction i'd seen the
man walk in. I figured he must have been further
into the forest, but it only made me slightly more nervous.
I got back to my tent just before dark and
was surprised to see John sitting next to my unlit campfire.
Can I help you, I said. He smiled and said
he was waiting for me to come back because he
had found something down the river. He got up and
started walking, urging me to come with him and see
for myself. I hesitated, I'm gonna stay here, John, I'm
just a bit tired. He turned around and looked at
me with that same smile and asked me again to
go with him. We looked each other in the eyes
for a long couple seconds, and I knew for sure
that something wasn't right. His smile began to fade, and
he asked me one more time in a less friendly tone.
I chose to not say anything, and after a moment,
he turned around and started walking toward the river. As
I watched him, I saw the outline of a small
gun poking out of his shirt, like he had shoved
it in the back of his pants. While not uncommon
to bring a firearm out in the forests, I'd never
known any hiker or camper to have it uncomfortably in
the back of their pants belt with their shirt on
top of it. The only reason would be to have
it concealed from other people's view, which as far as
I know, shouldn't be the main concern when going deep
into a forest. After seeing that, I started getting everything
together and was walking back within the hour. Thankfully, I
was able to stay on the path in the dark
and made it back to my car after four and
a half hours of walking. The more I think about
it now, the more terrifying that encounter was. I'm almost
sure he had followed me to my camp site, but
I don't know for how long or if he was
stalking me the entire time I was there. Him trying
to lure me out to the river was almost surely
an attempt at something awful, and I think that if
I hadn't left when I did, he probably would have
come back later in the night and I never would
have been seen again. Me and one of my good
friends I'll call him Jesse, would go on camping trips
once or twice a year. We used to more when
we were roommates in college, but we both work full
time now. Jesse was the one who actually got me
into camping, having done it his whole life. I hadn't
even been camping once before I met him. This happened
two years ago on one of our yearly camping trips
that we went on in the summer. To specify, we
didn't go far out or anything. We basically went down
a trail maybe two hours out, then set up our
tents and everything. The whole point of it was to camp,
not to hike, and usually for around four to five days,
When we got to a good spot, Jesse and I
put everything together and relaxed. The next three days were
just as you'd expect. We sat at the campfire and
had some drinks and just talked. We went for some
walks and played some board games as well. But to
sum it all up, we really just relaxed. I mean,
that was the whole point of it. Anyway. On the
fourth day, we agreed to wrap it up and head back.
The next morning, as the sun was starting to set,
we prepared to get the campfire going again. Jesse said
he'd go for a short walk and collect some dry sticks,
and he asked me to get the food out and
prep it for cooking. I did as he said, but
as the sun faded out, Jesse still wasn't back. It
had been maybe thirty minutes, which wasn't a long time
for a walk, but it was a long time to
be collecting sticks. I figured he must have meant he
was going for a walk just to walk and not
necessarily for the sticks. I waited another thirty minutes. The
sun was now fully set and it was getting really dark.
I had turned on our heavy lamp for a light source,
but I knew it would run out of batteries if
I left it on too long. I was getting really
worried about Jesse. He was the one who was experienced
in everything, so it just didn't make sense for him
to get lost like this. I figured it best to
at least start the fire, so that if he was lost,
maybe he'd see the flame and to find his way back.
I took the lamp and collected a bundle of sticks
and started the fire with some matches. By the two
hour mark, I was really losing it. I didn't know
what to do. I was trying to decide between looking
for him, or going back and calling for help, or
just staying put. Every scenario was running through my head.
What if he'd gotten hurt and wasn't far away, then
looking for him would make sense. But if he was
far away, then me getting lost would only burden everything more.
Two hours and thirty minutes after I'd last seen Jesse,
and two hours after nightfall, I heard a gun shot.
It was far off, somewhat in the direction Jesse went in,
But what really scared me about it was that neither
of us had brought a gun. I stood up and
paced around the camp site for a minute, before grabbing
the lamp and going out to try and find him.
It didn't take long before I heard steady footsteps running
toward me. My hand was trembling holding up the lamp,
but the light only reached a few feet ahead. I
saw a figure getting closer, and I barely recognized them
to be Jesse. His eyes were wide open and he
looked horrified. I'd never seen anyone's expression be that visibly
scared before. He told me, in a sharp, hushed voice
that we needed to leave right now. We ran back
to the camp and got our backpacks, but left the
rest behind. I questioned him, but he refused to answer
until we made it out of the woods. He said
some one else was there and approached him on his walk.
They held him at gunpoint, making him be quiet and
follow them somewhere. Before they reached wherever it was they
were taking him, Jesse tried for his escape, and that's
when I found him running. That's all he told me,
and ever has told me every time I ask. I
can tell he's purposefully leaving out some important details, but
he still refuses to share them. One he specifically leaves
out is the gun shot. He never mentioned it personally.
I know Jesse is a capable guy, and it wouldn't
be far off to assume he tried to overpower the
man holding him up. Maybe he got the gun away
from him and did what he had to do to escape.
It would explain Jesse's traumatized state and why the man
didn't chase him. Know what happened back there, but ever since,
Jesse hasn't wanted to go camping again. Honestly, neither do I,
but I just wish I could know the truth about
what went down that night. I owned an RV that
I would use all the time as a camper in
the woods behind my house. It was a piece of junk,
but I would only drive it out a couple miles,
then park it and hang out for a few days,
so it didn't need to be anything special. Around four
years ago, I took this RV out into the woods
for a normal weekend of camping. I drove out on
the dirt road about a mile, then pulled off into
a small plot in between all the trees and set
up camp. I made a small fire and brought out chairs,
then sat back and had some drinks. I'd take friends
out with me a lot but they weren't always able
to spend several days away, so this was just some
time I was spending with myself. As nights started coming in,
I put some more fuel in the fire pit. Just
after the sun had fully gone down, I heard something
moving around outside my camp. It didn't sound like any wildlife.
It sounded more like a person walking somewhere out in
the trees. I looked out in that direction, but didn't
see anything. This went on for around twenty minutes. Hearing
what sounded like someone walking around my camp, I put
out the fire and went inside the RV, locking it
up for the night and checking out the windows over
the next hour, but still never seeing anything. From all
the times I'd come out into the woods, I'd never
once had someone come across my camp, so this was
not a normal occurrence. Also, knowing that they were wandering
in the dark without a flashlight was even less normal.
I double checked the locks before going to bed, and
thankfully I got a good night's sleep. In the morning,
I got up and made coffee ate breakfast, and spent
a couple hours in the RV before going outside. I
wanted to take a hike around, but I wasn't too
comfortable with leaving my RV there knowing that someone else
was out here, so instead I went for a short walk.
I went out where I had heard the person from
last night, looking for any shoe prince to confirm that
I was actually a person. But from my quick search
I didn't find anything helpful. I don't know if it
made me more or less uneasy, but when I got
back to the RV, I brought out my handgun and
strapped it to my waist just to be safe. When
it was night again, I started up the fire pit
and tried to take my mind off of things. I
sat outside for a while, I want to say probably
an hour, and was relieved to have not heard anyone.
I had a beer and listened to the calming sounds
of the woods at night until I got sleepy. I
stood up and went to put out the fire when
I saw a figure in the corner of my eye.
My head quickly shifted to look at them. They were
standing between the trees, maybe twenty five feet away, glowing
in the faint light of the fire pit, and just
watching me. Only a moment passed before they turned and
walked away, leaving the light. I was really creeped out
and not hearing any more footsteps or movement only made
me more paranoid about where they could be. I picked
up everything I had outside and put it in the RV,
then put out the fire and locked myself inside again.
I was even thinking about fully packing up and heading
home in the morning, because this just wasn't going to
be a nice time anymore. Whoever was out there had
now come by my RV twice, and neither time did
they say anything or introduced themselves. I stayed on watch
for a couple hours, checking the windows multiple times and
listening intently. It was during the third hour, while I
was knotting off in my chair, that I heard footsteps
approaching the RV. They were walking quickly, going right up
to the door. I stayed quiet, clutching my pistol and
hoping for them not to do anything. There were a
few odd seconds of them not making a sound, but
just standing on the other side of the door. Then
they slowly walked around the RV, then quickly ran away.
I stayed awake until the sun came up, and as
soon as it was clear enough to drive, I got
the RV ready and drove home. Whoever was out there
had to have some sick plans for them to be
coming up to my RV like that in the middle
of the night, and I knew that if I stayed,
it would likely have ended up really bad for one
of us, and I wasn't going to take my chances
for it to be me. I was on a camping
trail in the Northern Appalachians, I believe five years ago. Now.
It wasn't anything special, just some new trail I was
going along. I'd done many trails on this mountain range
before and was confident in camping and hiking them based
on my research beforehand. I planned to be on trail
for three days, camping the two nights. The first portion
was a decently beaten path, but the further route I got,
the less apparent the path became. I continued still until
a few things caught my attention and I started to
wonder if I was even on the right path anymore.
I checked my mapping compass, as well as some directional
notes I made on my phone when I was researching.
After looking into it, I was ninety percent sure I
was on a different path. However, the map showed and
no alternative paths on the route, so I was really
unsure where I was. I turned around and followed the
path back to try and get on the right trail again,
but it was starting to get dark and I was
worried that I'd venture off and get further lost, so
I set up camp where I was. I didn't go
through the effort of doing a full setup. I just
put down my tent and that was about it. I
bundled up in my sleeping bag and fell fast asleep.
A few hours into the night, I woke up. To
the best of my knowledge, it was for no other
reason than having to use the bathroom, But when I
unzipped the tent and went out to the trees, I
noticed a glow in the distance, an unmistakable flickering glow
of a campfire. My first thought was maybe someone had
coincidentally followed the wrong path as well, but as I
thought it over, I realized the chances of that were
extremely low. It was also around two am, so having
a fire going in the middle of the night like
this was very unusual. I knew I wouldn't be able
to sleep knowing someone was nearby, and I wouldn't feel
safe unless I knew they were just fellow campers. My
big idea was to start a fire of my own,
hopefully showing them that I was nearby. If they didn't
already know, and if they were planning something, then it
would show them that I was awake and aware. I
burned up a flame big enough for them to see,
but only a minute or two later they put their
fire out. My face went numb. There was no way
this was a coincidence too. I waited the night out,
checking frequently for any sign of whoever was out there,
but there was nothing else. In the morning, I rolled
up my tent and got my gear ready, but my
curiosity got the best of me. If they were just campers,
maybe they'd know the way back too. I had my
handgun holstered to my chest just in case, and I
approached the site. It was empty, but there were clear
signs of a fire. There were also multiple shoe prints
all around, and not far off a small hut or
maybe a cabin, not something temporary. I approached with caution
and looked inside the open door. The place was old
and musty smelling, but inside there was tons of camping gear, tents,
hiking sticks, everything. A camper or hiker would need expensive
gear too, not just some cheap junk. The way was
piled up, though it didn't seem like it was from
one person or even from one time frame. Some of
this stuff was new and some of it was older.
I turned away and started quickly going back. By some miracle,
I happened to stumble by a boulder that I remembered
passing on my way up, and from there I found
my way to the right path. I took it back
to the way I came and got out asap. I
notified the police just in case, but nothing came of it.
I don't think they ever searched the area, but I
think whoever was out there was stealing people's camping equipment
by getting them to go off the main path. I
don't know how they did it, or if anyone who
fell victim was able to make out, but I think
I was extremely close to finding out firsthand. Every year
as a kid, my family would go on these big
camping trips. I was always really excited because we lived
in Arizona, where there's pretty much nothing, and we'd camp
in Washington. Seeing trees and grass was my favorite part,
but I also got to see all my cousins, and
even though we only saw each other a couple times
a year, we were really close. My favorite cousin, who
was more like a brother to me, was Luis. He
was a year older than me, and we were inseparable
when together. Because of what happened, we became even closer
after that camping trip. I think it took us both
a while to understand what really went on and what
more could have happened to us. It started when we
had been there for two days. Already most of our
family was either in the lake or by the campfire talking.
Louis didn't like to swim, so we decided to play
in the woods instead. We played a version of tag
called Bandit. We'd switch off being the cop and chase
the other one who was the bandit until we'd catch them.
We would play for hours, but in the woods it's
easy to just keep running and not know where you're going.
We tried our best to stay within viewing distance. But
when Louise started chasing me with a huge stick, I
guess my adrenaline kicked in the hyperspeed. I don't know
how long I ran for, but eventually I ended up
at an old looking trailer. Louise wasn't far behind, but
I remember him throwing the stick down his folk now
on what we both assumed was an abandoned trailer. We
discussed investigating it further, and I'm not really sure why,
but we decided not to. We started walking back, but
we didn't really know where we were going. Probably about
ten minutes into our walk, we saw a couple coming
towards us, pushing a shopping cart full of stuff. The
woman approaches us and is really nice, while the man
stayed back. She asked if we were lost, who we
were with our names and ages, and I remember when
we told her how old we were. She looked back
at the guy and then to us again. She told
us we don't have to be scared, and she'll help
us find our way home after they drop off their
stuff at their campsite. She said we could also make
s'mores if we wanted. Louise and I were hesitant, but
she seemed really nice, and it was still daytime, so
for some reason, that made everything way less suspicious in
my seven year old brain. Bad people only do things
at night, so we were fine. We walked with them
for a while, following them back to their camp. While
her and Luis were talking, I glanced over at the
shopping cart. It was filled with a bunch of rusty
metal things in what looked like to be nothing new.
Nothing was in bags. Everything just looked like trash they'd
found somewhere. I started to get really uncomfortable, and I
could tell Luise was too. Every time I'd look over
at the guy, he was never smiling, and sometimes he'd
be staring at me with a blank stare. This was
eighteen years ago, and I still remember how creepy he looked.
We walked a bit further until the trailer came back
into view, and the woman grabbed Louise in Mine's hands
and asked if we were excited for s'mores. I heard
Louise's name being called, and then mine. We all stopped
for a second, and the lady squeezed my hand a
bit tighter. She asked something to the guy along the
lines of what they should do. He responded, but I
don't remember what he said. The lady started to turn
us toward the trailer while holding us tighter and tighter.
She started to speed up as well, into sort of
a fast walk. I looked back and saw my sister
through the trees without hesitation. I yelled her name, and
the lady immediately let go of my hand. Louise and
I ran to her. As she made her way towards us,
my sister yelled to the others that she'd found us.
My mom and dad thanked the couple who had told
them this elaborate story on how they've been trying to
find our parents for a while now, and that were
such sweet boys and everything. I remember my parents inviting
the couple over for burgers, but thankfully they declined. I
think because the lady was so nice and that we
were found safe that my parents didn't think twice. I
do recall my dad and uncle talking about how creepy
the guy was, though my cousin and I ended up
telling my sister who found us, that the couple was weird,
but I don't think she understood what we meant. It
wasn't until my cousin and I were old enough to
understand that some people have really bad intentions. We talked
about it again in depth, and we both came to
the conclusion that by the looks of it, they were
tied on money and were probably going to sell us
or something. For years growing up, I had kept this
from my parents because I was supposed to be the
strong man of the family, and thinking about that time
made me feel gross and preyed upon. Luis also felt embarrassed,
as he was older than me and felt he had
failed to protect me. We eventually told our parents a
few years ago, but I wish we had told them
immediately and maybe something could have been done. Nowadays, I
never let my kids out of my sight and always
let them know that they can tell me anything without
fear of being judged, especially my son. I went on
a camping trip with my buddy from college. I'll call
him Andrew to keep both of our identities private. We'd
been friends for a little less than a year and
both enjoyed the forest and going for hikes, but really
hadn't ever stayed overnight in nature before. This was during
spring break at our school and we'd been planning this
for a while. We chose a trail we were familiar
with and even and got a basic idea of the
area we would set up at, and come the day
of we headed out without thinking twice. We were happy
seeing that nobody else was on the trail in fact,
we had chosen this trail for that very reason, knowing
it was never a busy attraction. The trail took us
about six miles into the forest before we got to
the general area where we wanted to set up and
pissed our tents, then had a small meal. Just before
the sun was about to come down, Andrew and I
collected some large stones and sticks to make a fire
with and got it going just as it got dark. Irresponsibly,
we'd brought a pack of beers and started drinking while
talking and just hanging out by the fire. We had
some good conversations and had fun, but a couple hours
in we were ready to call it a night. We
put out the fire, then got in our tents to
go to bed. I actually fell asleep really easily because
of the calm sounds of nature. But throughout the night
I kept waking up. It wasn't due to any noises,
but I would just jerk awake for some reason. I
assumed it was just me being unfamiliar with being out
in the forest at night, but it still gave me
an uneasy feeling. Then, on maybe my fourth or fifth
time waking up, I heard Andrew's tent on zipping. I
thought he was probably going out to use the bathroom
or something, but he only took a few steps until
I heard him open up his backpack and start searching around.
Another thirty or so seconds went by with no other noises.
It was like he was just standing right outside of
his tent. I sat up and eventually unzipped my tent
and looked out. As soon as the sound of my
zipper began, I heard Andrew's footsteps rush away from the
front of my tent, and by the time I stuck
my head out, Andrew was ducked down and quickly shoved
something back into his backpack, then turned and looked at
me with a concerned face. Is everything okay? He looked
at me for a moment, then nodded his head. Something
about this immediately felt off. I climbed out of my
tent and stood up, asking what he was doing out here.
He responded by saying he was having trouble sleeping and
just came out for some fresh air. But while he
was talking, I looked down at his backpack. Sticking out
of the top was the back end of a handgun.
I felt my face turn white as I looked back
at Andrew and tried my best to hide my reaction,
but he already knew what I saw. We stared at
each other for a strange few seconds before he turned
and went back inside his tent, not saying another word.
I'd never seen him act like that before, and his
face gave a way that he was guilty of something.
It was already strange that he never told me he
was bringing a gun, but the way he was acting
just made it even more unsettling. I stayed up for
the rest of the night, sitting on the ground outside
the tents and waiting for the sun to come up.
When it did, I packed everything up and left. After
that day, Andrew never contacted me, which I guess proves
that something was going on that night. I don't know
for sure what would have happened or why it would
have happened, but I know that I was lucky to
get out of there before finding out. I'm twenty nine
and I live along the Appalachian Range in lower West Virginia.
I've been going backpacking and camping for years, exploring different
trails all around the nearby mountains. My best friend, who
lived just a few miles from me would often join
me on these hikes. We usually planned one big trail
every year in the fall, being anywhere from a few
days to a whole week of backpacking and camping. In
twenty nineteen, we planned to take a trail across the
range to a small lake at the top of the mountains.
In the days leading up to the trip, though my
friend had to call it off because of an emergency
at his work. I'd already taken the whole week off
of work and had everything ready to go, so I
decided to just go alone. On Monday morning, I drove
to a nearby trailhead then started my route. This wasn't
a regular recreational trail like you typically see on a
four hour hike. These backpacking trails didn't have defined paths,
so you have to use maps, compasses, and landmarks to
navigate where you're going. Typically, there's a large landmark in
the distance, like a specific rock formation, that you hike toward,
and when you get there you could see your next
landmark and so on. I spent the first two days
hiking toward a ridge in the mountains. When I got
dark on the second day, I set up camp several
hours from reaching the ridge, I pitched the tent and
got a fire going, then heated up some of the
food I brought in my bag. The sun had already set,
and it was around eight o'clock when I laid in
my tent to rest and read. I left the fire going,
planning to put it out before actually sleeping. Twenty minutes
into reading and through the fire crackling outside, I heard
the strong sound of a stick snapping right behind my tent.
I joked it up. My first thought was a black bear,
possibly having smelled the food I cooked earlier. I didn't
hear anything else, though. I crawled out of the tent
and shined a flashlight into the tree line behind my tent. Nothing.
I called out aggressively to scare away any predators, but
again there were no sounds of anything running away. It
was really strange because the stick snapping was very distinct,
definitely being from something stepping on it. I stayed outside
the tent for a while, looking around constantly, before putting
out the fire and going inside. I found it really
hard to sleep that night because I was so focused
on listening for more sounds. In the morning, I was
almost surprised to have even slept through the night. I
packed my tent and everything else at the campsite, then
continued along until I reached the ridge. From there, it
was a straight shot to the lake. I was moving fast,
trying to get there before dark so I wouldn't have
to move my campsite again. The next day. I arrived
with about an hour despair before sunset. The lake was beautiful,
very much worth the hike. I walked around it, enjoying
the scenery, then pitched the tent and set out my
camp on the tree line beside the lake. As I
sat by the fire, I kept turning around, hearing soft
noises somewhere between the trees behind me. I figured I
was just being paranoid, but it was really creepy. It
almost sounded exactly like footsteps. But I knew nobody would
be out here. I would have seen their tent when
I walked around the lake. It was too dark at
this point to see anything further than a few feet,
so looking around wasn't an option anymore. An hour later,
I got in my tent and laid down. Every few
minutes I would hear footsteps again. They were barely too
quiet for me to tell for sure. What they were, though.
Eventually I got so tired that I fell asleep, and
what I think was only an hour after I fell asleep,
I woke up to the sound of someone running away
from my tent. I jolted up and grabbed my flashlight.
Rushing out of the tent and looking in the direction
of the footsteps, I saw the the bare back of
them running away in the distance. My heart was beating rapidly.
I looked down and saw footprints all around my tent,
like they had been walking around me and searching the campsite.
I tried to get the campfire going again as fast
as I could so I could see better. I was
terrified I had nowhere to go and nobody to help me.
I sat at the fire all night, keeping my head
on a swivel, but I never saw or heard anything else.
In the morning, I snapped a few pictures of the lake,
then started the hike back. I had planned to stay
for a whole day. I wasn't comfortable anymore, feeling like
I was being followed. I was able to make it
back without any more trouble, thankfully, But along my journey
I began noticing several things missing from my back small
things like food, a few tools, et cetera. But I
always had my bag with me. Even today, I wonder
if whoever had been outside my tent that one night
had actually snuck inside and stole from my bag while
I was asleep. Even the thought of it makes my
whole body shiver. My family owned some cabins in Oregon
that all of us liked to stay in sometimes or
have family get togethers there. But for this trip, I
was going solo. I had just turned twenty, and I'd
never been camping alone, and I figured camping somewhere near
the cabins would be perfect in case something were to happen.
I drove an hour there, then walked thirty minutes down
a trail that led to the cabin I would be
daying by. As I walked up to it, I noticed
one of the windows was missing. There was no glass
on the ground. It looked like the entire window had
just been taken out, which was a very unexpected thing
to see. I didn't plan on entering the cabin, but
I had brought the key for emergencies, and this felt
like something I should investigate. But I was even more
confused when the door opened without me unlocking it. I
walked in and right away it was obvious that the
place had been broken into. There were muddy footprints all
over the floors, and some more expensive stuff was missing.
It was unfortunate to see, but there was no way
of knowing how long ago it all happened. From what
I knew, it had been months since anyone was at
the cabins, and even then they may not have even
come to this cabin. I tried to lock up the
place as best I could and set out to find
a spot to camp. I had no service, but I
didn't feel it was absolutely necessary to let my family
know right away, or even to call the police yet.
I walked thirty minutes down the hill from the cabin
and found the flat enough spot to set up. Rain
started pouring down, and being new to this, it took
me a couple hours to get everything set up the
right way. Already being soaked, I sat outside on a
nearby log under a tree and started eating some prepackaged food.
Went out of nowhere, I started hearing someone talking. I
immediately spotted a man walking behind me. He was drenched,
walking up the hill toward the direction of the cabin
and didn't seem to have noticed me. The way he
was speaking was really weird because it made no sense
and he was obviously talking to himself. Soon he walked
out of sight, but something about seeing that gave me chills.
An hour went by and I took a quick hike
back up to the cabin to see if he was
maybe staying there. But from i'm afar, it still looked empty,
so I went back. Once it was night. I used
a fire kit to start a small campfire and used
it to heat up some of my food. The rain
made it difficult, but once the fire was going, it
stayed up pretty well. Not long into it, I heard
footsteps coming from up the hill. I stared at the trees,
seeing nothing but pitch black beyond the reach of my campfire.
They continued walking until a man came into sight. I
couldn't see much of him, but he looked similar to
the man I'd seen earlier. Hey what do you want?
I yelled, trying to scare him off. He stopped and
stared at me with a blank face, having rain dripping
from his head. As he just stood there. I yelled again,
but he didn't move. We were standing just ten feet
from each other, and every second made me more and
more scared of what it was about to happen. Then,
through the rain, I heard the sound of a single
footstep behind me. I instantly sprinted to the side of
the hill and didn't stop until my legs gave out
under me. I don't think they chased me, but with
the rain and wind, it was too hard for me
to hear while running. I found my way up the
hill and walked the rest of the way to my
car in the rain with only my phone light. Once
I got in range, I called nine one one. In
the days following, a team was sent out to investigate
the cabin and my campsite. My campsite was gone, left
with only a few useless pieces of equipment, but in
the cabin they identified three unique shoe prints on the floor.
It had me shaking for weeks, knowing that there were
three unknown men out there hiding not far away. Nothing
else was found, and it was all said to most
likely just be a robbery because they didn't chase me,
But who knows what they would have done to me
if I had stayed there. I do a lot of
small camping adventures throughout the year. I try to keep
these adventures under three days long so that I could
do them on the weekend and only have to take
a day or two off from work. This was just
another camping trip of mine that I'd set to go
on one weekend in the middle of April. My plan,
so to speak, was to hike and estimated five hours
up to a small lake and set my camp right
next to it, then stay a few nights before going back.
On the morning of, I drove out there and started
the hike at eight a m. This lake didn't have
any trails leading to it, which was part of the
reason I chose to hike there. It was only a
five hour walk, so getting lost wasn't too concerning, and
I wouldn't have to share my experience alongside a bunch
of random people who also wanted to go camping at
the same spot. Four hours into walking, though I thought
I saw someone, I was just spacing out when I
saw something far ahead rush past my view. I frozen place,
trying to see what or who it was and where
they had gone, but there was no more movement. I
wasn't looking directly at it when it happened, so I
didn't have a clear enough view to know for sure
that it was a person, but I paid more attention
for the final hour of the hike. When I reached
the lake, I was taken back by its beauty. It
was the perfect place to catch a break. I didn't
spend long finding a spot to set up camp, being
in the trees just off to the side of the lake.
Almost as soon as I did, though, I saw someone
this time for sure. They were on the other side
of the lake, walking around by the trees. They had
no backpack or anything, they were just walking. I looked
around for their campsite but didn't see anything at all.
After a minute, they walked into the forest and didn't
come back. This definitely put me in a slightly nervous mood,
knowing someone else was out here at a remote lake
and making me wonder if I really did see a
person before while I was walking. I chose to spend
the rest of the evening at my campsite, and come nightfall,
I started up a fire. I kept it small to
not draw too much attention. It had been almost four
hours since I seen the person, but I was still nervous.
I heated up some food and ate, then took a
book out to pass the time. I got through a
few pages, but I couldn't ignore this feeling like I
was being watched. I knew it had to be my
brain being paranoid because of earlier but after a few
minutes I couldn't even get myself to read anymore. I
put the book down and packed my stuff in the tent,
preparing to go to bed. Right before I put out
the fire, I did one last look around. About fifteen
yards away, there was someone standing. Although it was really dark,
I knew they were watching me. They stood still, not
moving or anything, and we both just stared at each
other through the dark forest. We must have been like
that for a whole minute. When the person started backing up,
they still faced me, but walked back into the trees
until they were submerged in the darkness. I was physically shaking.
What were they doing and were they going to come back?
I built the campfire larger and stayed up through the
entire night. At the break of dawn, I packed everything
up and moved quickly, making my way back. There wasn't
a bone in my body that wanted to stay there
a second longer. During my hike back, I swear I
heard footsteps far behind me on multiple occasions. Even now,
thinking back on it, I feel my body tents from
the fear I experienced on that trip. I don't know
what that person wanted, who they were, or what they
were doing out there, but based on how they were
stalking me, it couldn't have been good. If I had
stayed there another night or had gone to bed in
the tent, I'm almost positive I wouldn't be here today.
Last year was the first time I'd ever had something
happen on my camping trip. I'd go camping alone several
times a year, usually going to the same spots, but
sometimes I'd try and find somewhere different. For this trip,
I decided on a four mile camping trail that I'd
never been on before. I drove out two hours from
my house to a remote location where I started the
hike from. Right away, I was not enjoying the trail
as much as I thought I would, mainly because some
portions of it were wet and muddy. Still, I continued
along and tried to avoid those spots. I went down
for a while, and around forty five minutes in I
saw something off the side of the trail. It was
a tent, but very worn down and had a few
rips in it. From afar, I could see that nobody
was inside of it, so I walked closer. There were
no signs of any intentional damage. It all just seemed
to be weathered over a long period of time. The
fact that it was still standing up was mind blowing
to me. I looked around it and inside of it,
but oddly enough, there was nothing else. I thought i'd
find a bunch of stuff left behind, but there wasn't
anything at all other than the tent itself. After a
couple of minutes, I went back to the trail. I
thought about it for a while, but couldn't come up
with any good reasons to leave a tent like that.
As I walked for the last hour and a half
of the trail, I came across dozens of left behind objects.
All of them were camping or hiking equipment. But seeing
all of this stuff scattered around a four mile trail
gave me an uneasy feeling. Who would leave everything behind?
It was definitely not an accident, and I was pretty
sure it was all from one person. When I got
to the end, I set up my tent a good
distance away from the trail, just to be safe. It
was getting dark already, so I stayed at my camp
site until I was ready to sleep. I felt a
bit nervous to go to bed, but I was able
to sleep through the whole night without issue. When I
got up, it was early in the morning, around four
or five, so the sun wasn't fully up yet. I
unzipped my tent and stepped out, but right away I
could tell something was wrong. I turned around and on
the other side of my tent a man stood just
a few feet away. He was tall and thin, wearing
disgusting clothes, and his face was covered in dirt and grime.
He looked at me with this empty stare. I stood
there motionless. In the moment, I was so shocked and
scared it almost didn't even seem real. Leave, he spoke,
in a soft, yet creepy tone. I nodded and quickly
started gathering my backpack, but he immediately rushed toward me.
I fell back, and all I could give myself to
say was okay, repeating it over and over. The man
stood over me, still with that empty look in his eye. Leave,
he said again. I understood what he meant. This time,
and quickly got up and rushed away, leaving everything behind.
I took one look back as I got out of there,
and the man was rummaging through my backpack like a
curious animal. I jogged as far as I could, then
fast walked the rest of the way to my car.
Thank god I kept my phone in keys in my pocket,
or this situation could have been a hundred times worse.
I drove out until I got service, then called nine
one one. I found out that there was an almost
identical case to what I experienced, but whoever filed it
chose for it to not be publicly announced by the media.
This was likely the person whose tent and belongings I
found on the trail. After a week of talking to
the police and going over everything, they were able to
organize a small search party of officers. They went down
the trail and came back with no sightings or evidence
of the man, but they found most of my stuff
nearby my campsite, tossed around like trash. After that, the
case went stale, just like the previous persons. The thing
I always come back to is how the man didn't
keep anything, He just scattered it all around the forest
with no intent of using any of it. Back in
high school, my house had a huge backyard that was
connected to a large forest. When we were kids, me
and my friends would go and play games far out
in the woods. There was always this small sense of
danger being out there, which made things more fun. As
we grew up, though, we stopped going out there because
there was no point. But then one day me and
my buddy Tyler were hanging out on the couch when
he brought up this idea of going out into the
woods late at night. Over the next few minutes, our
idea evolved from just a simple walk in the woods
to full long camping overnight. Tyler said his parents had
a tent we could borrow, so we walked down the
street and picked it up from his garage. Now's a
good time to mention that neither of us had ever
been camping before, so we had no idea what we
were doing. Honestly, I don't think either of us thought
anything of it though, because we would only be out
there for a single night. After packing a bag with
a bunch of snacks, water bottles, and a portable phone charger,
we set foot in the woods. We found out within
the first couple minutes that the flashlight Tyler brought was
really shitty, barely lighting up more than a few feet ahead.
It was enough to keep us from walking into trees
and bushes, but we couldn't see much else. During the
first fifteen minutes of walking, we talked about how excited
we were and how creepy it was going to be.
But then we walked for another fifteen minutes without really talking.
I think we were both memorized and a little bit
spooked by the eerie silence. A couple times I thought
I heard something walking nearby, but the flashlight would never
reach far enough to see anything. After our thirty minutes
of walking, we found a place to set up. It
was an open section of grass with trees around it.
Tyler wedged the flashlight on top of a bush so
that I lit up the area, and then we started
setting up the tent. He said it was an easy
assemble tent, but there was nothing easy about it. We
probably spent an hour to get the tent to stand
up without falling in on itself. It also didn't help
that every time we'd hear something, we'd have to grab
the flashlight out of the bush. And shine it around,
then set it back up and start over on the tent.
I don't know about Tyler, but at this point I
was regretting coming out there. When we did eventually get
the tent up, though, it was a lot less stressful.
We sat inside and listened to the sounds of the woods.
It would be completely silent sometimes then a minute later
there would be birds chirping or some other animal making noises.
It was a really cool experience until we both heard
a more familiar sound. We stayed in the tent listening
as these footsteps made their way around the trees. They
didn't sound like they were getting closer, but more like
they were passing by. One thing we were both sure
of was that they were human footsteps, not any other
their animal. After a minute, they were gone, but me
and Tyler stayed quiet, staring at the inside of the
tent as we listened carefully. Around ten minutes later, once
we were sure whoever that was was long gone, we
left the tent and sat outside instead. We both felt
a little too vulnerable sitting inside there without being able
to see what was going on around us. As we
sat and talked for a while, that same sound started
coming up in the distance. This time it was getting closer.
It eventually got so close that we were worried they
were coming directly at us. Tyler shined the flashlight in
the direction of the footsteps, but the sound continued. They
walked toward us slowly, and just when we thought the
person would come into view of the flashlight, they stopped.
They sounded so close enough for us to hear them breathing,
but just barely outside of the light. Both Tyler and
I were frozen, staring at the darkness beyond the flashlight.
Then we heard them take one step back, and then
they began walking away. A minute later, the footsteps had disappeared,
and the entire woods was silent again. We undid the
tent as fast as possible and immediately left. We were
so shaken up we didn't even follow the right way home,
and somehow ended up on a neighboring street. We walked
down to my house and stayed up the entire night
in my room, talking about what happened or what could
have happened. We never stepped foot inside those woods again,
and even today I stayed far away from anywhere, isolated.
Whoever that person was out there alone in the woods
at night had to be up to something awful, and
I think we were really close to finding out. It
was early March and i'd taken my camper out for
a midweek camping trip. The woods right outside my house
had plenty of dirt paths big enough to fit my
truck with the camper attached, so I would often find
myself staying out there for a couple nights a few
times a month. My favorite spot was down a small
trail that went out by a lake. The lake itself
was huge, but the spot I always went to was
secluded and far too random for most people to go to.
When I got out there in the morning, I detached
the camper from my truck and got my bag together
for a hike. There weren't any trails out here from
what I knew, but hiking along the lake was still
a nice walk and assured me that I wouldn't get lost.
Only a few minutes walk from my camper, though, I
came across something really strange. It was a trailer wedged
between a couple of trees, looking rugged and old, almost
like it had been out here for years. But I
had been this way before, and it definitely wasn't here
last time, so someone had to have moved it recently.
I stayed for a little bit, keeping my distance, but
trying to see if there was any sign of someone
living there. In all honesty, taking just one look at
it gave me the feeling that this was purposefully hidden,
maybe to cover something up. From what I could see,
it had no signs of being lived in recently, which
only made my suspicions grow. Why would someone go through
the effort to move a beat up trailer through the
woods into such a secluded area. My gut was telling
me to leave, but something about it pulled me in
enough to get me to knock on the door to
the trailer. Nobody he answered, and there was no movement
from inside. I knocked one more time, with no more sounds,
I left it and walked back to my camper. The
trailer was on my mind for the next several hours
while I sat outside and got my campfire going. Once
the sun set and the stars came out, though, I
was back to enjoying my night. I was sitting on
a small chair and looking up, just taking in the peacefulness,
when the unmistakable sound of footsteps crunched the leaves from
somewhere out in the woods behind me. I turned and
saw a light steadily going between the trees as whoever
was out there walked through the woods. Seeing someone out
here was really strange, so I kept my eye on
them as they continued toward the lake, but then the
light suddenly shut off. I stared off into the darkness
for a while, looking for any movement, but couldn't see anything.
Then the faint sound of footsteps started again, coming in
my direction. They were subtle, clearly trying to be as
quiet as possible. I stood up, Hey, what do you want?
The footsteps stopped, sounding like they were just a few
yards from me. I waited for a response or some
kind of movement, but there was nothing for what felt
like an entire minute, until they finally started backing up.
I heard the steps fade out into the woods, and
I put two and two together, realizing he was going
in the direction of the abandoned trailer. After his really
strange behavior. In thinking about the trailer some more, I
was not going to risk staying the night. I packed
up and reattached my camper to the truck, then turned
my brights on and carefully drove down the path. It
took a while, but I made it out and decided
to call the police to report the strange behavior of
the man as well as the trailer. In the morning,
I took two officers out to where I saw the trailer,
but it was gone, And to make it all even
more crazy, there were clear trails on the ground showing
the trailer having been dragged all the way up to
the lake, where the marks faded into the waterline. Whatever
that trailer was hiding now sits at the bottom of
the lake, completely inaccessible, and no evidence ever came up
to warrant the retrieval of the trailer, so everything is
just left as a mystery. It's terrifying to think what
that man could have done to me had he caught
me by the trailer he was hiding, and unfortunately I'll
always be haunted with the mystery of what was behind
that door. I'm twenty eight and live in Ille. If
you've ever been here, you know this state is completely
flat and doesn't have much to do in terms of
hiking or camping, at least not with scenic views. This year,
I tried to go camping for the first time in
a secluded forest. I thought it would be the perfect
starter camping trip, since the land was flat and the
trail was mostly a straight shot. At the end was
supposed to be a small pond, so at least there
would be somewhat of a nice view. The hiking part
was short, being just under an hour, but the pond
at the end was very underwhelming, to say the least.
It was very small and surrounded by swampy mush, so
I had to put my tent further down into the
forest where the ground was dry. I'll admit though, after
an hour or two I was really bored. I decided
to get up and walk around the pond just to
see what was around. I wandered to the side, and
really there wasn't much to see. It was a peaceful
and beautiful forest, but there were no defining landmarks of
any kind, so it was kind of just the same
forest all around. I started making my way back to
my camp, and by then the sun was mostly gone.
I brought a small fire starter, so I used that
to get a campfire going and heat up some food.
But not long after sunset, I noticed a light across
the pond. It was in the trees, just outside of
the pond, but it was right where I had walked earlier,
and I knew there was nothing there just an hour ago.
While it was uncomforting being out in a forest with
some stranger or possibly strangers, I knew that this was
one of few camping trails around here, so the odds
of it weren't too crazy. I went about my night,
looking across the pond every so often. As it got darker, though,
this light that I thought was a campfire became more apparent,
and I realized it was a flashlight or some sort
of mechanical light. I wasn't sure what to make of it,
but an hour more into the night, I saw from
the corner of my eye the light started dimming, and then,
after a few flickers, it went out. I stared at
the dark and empty forest across the pond for a
good ten minutes, waiting for the light to come back up,
but it never did. It gave me chills, but again
I had no idea what to make of it. The
rest of the night was surprisingly quiet. I slept, and
as far as I'm aware, nothing happened overnight. As the
sun rose, I prepared for another walk. I was still
thinking about that light I saw and really wanted some answers.
I walked around to the other side of the pond
where I saw the light coming from, and sir around.
It didn't take long for me to find the culprit,
a hefty flashlight laying in the grass. The batteries were drained,
but it looked pretty new, no scratches or noticeable way
and tear. I looked around some more and saw nothing
else to indicate someone being here. After some thought, I
decided to leave the flashlight where I found it and
started heading back to my camp, but stopped in my
tracks when I saw someone across the pond. They were
standing by my fire pit in the middle of my camp.
Then I saw another person come out of the trees
and join them. It looked like two adult men, but
that's all I could tell from where I was. I
was too scared to yell or say anything, so I
just watched as they walked around my camp and looked
through my things. Then one of them stopped and turned
to face the pond. He stood there, scanning the tree
line where I was standing until he was looking right
at me. He only looked at me for a moment,
but it sent shivers through me. I watched the man
leave the camp and start walking between the trees. I
lost sight of him for a moment, until I caught
a glimpse of him sprinting through the forest. I ran
further into the forest, away from the pond. I knew
the chances of them finding me were near zero, but
I was too scared to think straight. I ran for
probably fifteen minutes before I stopped and turned in the
general direction of my car. Luckily I made it safely,
but I lost everything I had to put it shortly.
Nothing happened afterwards. I filed a report with the police,
but it all turned to nothing. That flashlight a lot, though.
Was it those men's or was it someone else's. I
hope the flashlight was just a ploy they used to
get me away from the camp. But if it was,
then why would they come after me. I keep trying
to convince myself that it was just a robbery and
they had no other intentions. But in my gut, I
know that I likely came close to never making it
out of that forest.