The Most Frightful Stories of Nature From the Campers and Hikers Who Lived Them
People often go camping as a way to get away from their busy lives, but they may find themselves in a terrifying situation anyways. In spite of the forests’ outward appearance of peace and tranquility, dangerous things might lurk there. Noises in the night that sound mysterious.
Someone is walking around outside your tent. Fear of being seen by a wild animal. The goal of this Reddit thread was to provide a forum for people to discuss their worst camping and hiking disasters. Good luck going into nature after reading these tales.
1. I’ve Never Been So Scared
Breathing…just heavy breathing right outside my tent loud enough to wake me up. Very intense clear breathing. Middle of the night, no animal sounds, no grunting, no foot-steps, just breathing from something large.
I loaded my shotgun and pointed it in the direction it was coming from and waited for what seemed like a lifetime—probably two or three minutes—until it just stopped.
I did not sleep for the rest of the night and I didn’t go out until the morning. No signs of any animals or people in my camp, no footprints, nothing disturbed. Still to this day I don’t know what it was.
As an experienced hunter who has chased away bears from my camp, I have never been so scared.
2. Back Into the Woods
I was at a rest stop somewhere in Nebraska or South Dakota along I-29 and I couldn’t sleep so I was kind of roaming around, checking out the rest area ground. Behind the facilities were some woods. A black lab-looking dog came out and sat down, and watched me.
I kept my distance and it would reposition when I paced to keep me in front of it.
I finished my smoke and pulled out my phone, and the dog stands straight the heck up on its hind legs like a person and walks backward into the woods. I’m sure I was just wrong and it wasn’t a dog, but I went right back to the car and didn’t sleep until we were on the road again.
3. Hiking Alone
Hiking alone in Washington during late fall so it’s cold and there were few people on the trail. I’m halfway up a steep, switch-backed climb and laying down to take a break when two guys come along descending the trail. I wave and they wave back.
As they get close one of them suddenly says, “Oh, you’re alone!” and then smiles at his friend.
I get a little freaked out and I guess my dog sensed it because she stood up and stared sternly at them. She’s an 80lb. black lab and full of love, but can look very intimidating. The guys saw her and completely changed and quickly hurried on their way.
I’m not sure if they were going to do something creepy, but I picked a much less obvious campsite that night.
4. Unnerving
I was hiking deep into a National Forest and I found a campfire in the middle of nowhere at night. Not weird or uncommon by any means, people tend to pop up where you least expect them outdoors.
But upon further examination, in the fire there was a US army uniform and what seemed to be some of their possessions. I tried to pull out the wallet with their military ID, but It was pretty much a glob or plastic.
Something just felt unnerving about the situation.