Strange Encounters in the Woods, Mountains, or Desert

this happened not so much in a wooded setting but was super creepy and I screamed in terror. 

I used to play music (drums) in a band when I was just out of high school. My guitarist and good friend was Pima Indian and lived on the reservation near phoenix.  He had this awesome music room/guest house that had a wall of speakers and a stage set up for shows. needless to say that's where we practiced and threw parties on the weekends since it was miles from the next house and we could be as loud as we wanted.

one particularly big show we threw there ended up with about 100 people crammed into this smaller guest house. I had to park my car about a half mile down a dirt road to make room for all the other cars.   After the show I had to make the trek back to my vehicle alone on the res in the pitch black around 3am. At that age I hadn't spent much time outdoors walking around at night so I was already on edge.  I used the flashlight on my  phone to catch a glimps of some coyotes running past me just out of the light. 

Then a pickup truck full of guys in the bed comes barreling down the road and as they pass me they yell "SKIN WALKERS!! RUUUUUNNN!!!"   I  involuntarily screamed like an opera singer and ran so fast back to my car. 

To this day I think that's the most terrified I've ever been. 

Not climbing related:  many meth labs in the back woods of MN.

I do a lot of scouting for places to grouse hunt in Aug. and early Sept. and have come upon numerous sites with all of the waste products and garbage associated with a DIY meth lab. 

One time was walking down an ATV trail with my dog and we all of a sudden heard a terrible growling sound from a very large dog or possibly a wolf coming from off of a spur trail. My spaniel starts to get a little hinky, and I hear a child's voice off in the brush, coming towards me.  Just then a young woman pops out of the bushes and yells something, I assume to the girl that I heard, but then I hear a mans voice and the large dog coming towards us.   My dog is now going nuts, and I am getting a little bit scared as well (I have a Security 9 on my hip) and get prepared to defend myself from what turns out to be a VERY large Pitbull on a leash and he is dragging a tweeker behind him. The woman grabs the kid, and the dude asks me what the hell I am doing.  I said I am looking for grouse, what are you doing?  He replies that they are just "having a picnic"...right. So I tell him I am turning back and that should his dog "accidentally" get loose, I will shoot it and call the police, otherwise he should have a nice day...they were no doubt making meth.

Yeah greg I've been shot-toward shot-at while bouldering near a local road side shoot em up area. The sound of a bullet passing pretty close over head.... unforgetabble. A tumbling, angry bee sort of sound, its unmistakable once you hear it. Dude fired several shots over us, on purpose. We exited the other side of the formation and slunk out like refugees and got the hell out of there.

I met Hobo Greg 

Solo canyoneering in the San Gabriels (CA).  Heard loud noises behind me.  Thinking it was a bear.  My heart started pounding as I reach for my knife.  All of a sudden I hear something jump out of a blind spot. Out comes some dude with a bow and arrow.  He said he was deer hunting.  

Two hitmen walking in the woods:

"This is creepy!"

"Think so? I gotta walk out alone."

Christian Eatonwrote:

I work at a summer camp taking kids on canoe trips for a few days at national parks. One night after setting up campsite and quenching the fire I was doing last check of the campsite. I looked at the lake and saw this lone man paddling a canoe. I thought it was pretty strange but it’s not out of the ordinary, the only weird thing being that he was alone. He waved so being polite I waved back. Went to bed in the staff tent and everything was normal. I had a bit of trouble sleeping that night so I decided to go star gazing as that usually calms me down. I exit the tent and see this man on our campsite, looking through our tarps and bags. For what I don’t know, maybe drugs or food but that’s not important. This stranger is by the campers I am responsible for. We make eye contact and this guy stands up. He is tall as all hell and I am quite short so I quickly grab the first thing I can think of. A can of bear mace. This stuff is meant to fend off a charging bear so I hold it ready to spray and tell him to gtfo of my campsite. We don’t really speak just like Oh…I…didn’t…see…you…guys. when he is leaving I immediately wake up the other staff and we make sure he leaves. We use our SAT phone to call park rangers with our position, the guy’s characteristics and tell them the story.

Without a doubt the scariest moment I had on the job. I’ve learned not to fear animals, as for the most part they are predictable dumb and not malicious… But people on the other hand. The scariest and most dangerous thing to encounter out in the wilderness is a person.

Weirdos in the wild get my spidey sense tingling. Last fall I was boondocking outside Zion NP with my family. We set up our tent at a decent pulloff about 100 yards off the road. Once it got to be absolutely dark a dark Dodge Challenger drives into the pulloff and parks. The driver was a young bearded dude. First red flag is no tent. The dude is sleeping in a Challenger. I assume he was trying to save money but still - just buy a sleeping bag and cot!  Second red flag is driving a Challenger in that park of Utah. 

The real sketchy part is at about 10:30 PM. We were all trying to get some sleep and my wife/son are in the bed of our truck stargazing. This dude gets out of his car and walks 100 yards up the hill to our camp area and starts wandering around. I'm like WTF! I challenge him and he said he was looking for a bathroom. Then he starts asking me all kinds of questions about what we're doing, etc. I couldn't sleep all night and kept my weapon on me. Next day we went to Lamb's Knoll and normally I would crush, but my lack of sleep and the persistent smell of shvt made me bail on easy routes. 

So which one of you fine MPer's was it?

While exploring a old mine in the middle of the Mojave we came upon an active meth lab on one of the mine levels.  Fortunately the proprietors were out for the day.  We made a quick exit worrying that as we poked out of the mine we would be met by a gun pointed at our heads.   When I got home I notified the local law enforcement who thanked me and said that old mines are a favorite location for meth producers and that we were lucky, most are booby trapped.  

I might be able to conjure up some other stories from the recesses of my memory, but this one is still fresh.  

I have numerous regular places that I camp around here in Central Oregon.  I was at one of these camps the other night, a quiet little spot near the Deschutes.   I was settling in for the night in my car when I first heard the noise.  Someone on the hillside yelling a distinctive, "Yoohoo!"  I didn't think anything of it and proceeded to lay down and throw on a podcast to fall asleep to.  

Then I kept hearing it every few minutes...and it got closer every time.  Eventually, it sounded like the voice was within a couple hundred feet of my car..."Yoohoo!"  

It didn't stop.  I just locked my car and slept with my Bowie knife next to me.  I haven't been back since.  

Saw a guy standing in the middle of the road down from Mt Diablo mumbling to himself and staring off into space. He was wearing an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt and shorts, no shoes, and it was cold, raining and windy. I notified a ranger, and he said, “Yeah, I talked to that guy earlier, he asked to be left alone.” I replied, “Well, he’s going to need an ambulance eventually so you might as well call for one now.” The ranger didn’t seem too happy to be told how to do his job, so I just left. Hawaiian shirt guy, I hope you’re ok and doing better now.

Another time I was sleeping in the back of my station wagon at a large and empty rest stop in the middle of nowhere, Nevada. It’s probably 3am and I wake to see a beater sedan with 3 people in it drive up. Something about them just seemed off, so when they started backing into a parking spot a couple places from me (again, this place is deserted, they could have parked anywhere,) I noped outta there fast. I didn’t hang around to see if they were going to rob me.

This occurred on the North Shore of MN on the Superior Hiking Trail.

It was January and I was snowshoeing from Gooseberry Falls State Park north around 10 miles. Abound mile five I encountered a wide section of the trail with a deer carcass on it. The carcass had been stripped clean from mid neck down. All the bones where still in place. The snow had been licked smooth for 15 feet around the carcass.

At this point a grey wolf stepped out from the trees behind me and just stood there staring at me. I left the carcass slowly, never making eye contact. As I hiked away I glimpsed several other grey wolves off in the brush. They were running ahead of me,  parallel with the trail I was on. I did a quick look back and now saw three grey wolves standing over the deer carcass.

I hiked on and the wolves left me alone. I didn’t feel comfortable again until I’d hiked about 1.5 miles out of the small valley where the deer carcass had been. 

Chad Miller wrote:

This occurred on the North Shore of MN on the Superior Hiking Trail.

It was January and I was snowshoeing from Gooseberry Falls State Park north around 10 miles. Abound mile five I encountered a wide section of the trail with a deer carcass on it. The carcass had been stripped clean from mid neck down. All the bones where still in place. The snow had been licked smooth for 15 feet around the carcass.

At this point a grey wolf stepped out from the trees behind me and just stood there staring at me. I left the carcass slowly, never making eye contact. As I hiked away I glimpsed several other grey wolves off in the brush. They were running ahead of me,  parallel with the trail I was on. I did a quick look back and now saw three grey wolves standing over the deer carcass.

I hiked on and the wolves left me alone. I didn’t feel comfortable again until I’d hiked about 1.5 miles out of the small valley where the deer carcass had been. 

Similar story from the Gunflint Trail in the BWCA: February 2003, Wife and I are doing a four day yurt to yurt X Country ski tour, about 20-30 k per leg, and we come upon a moose kill, right on the trail. Hair and blood everywhere, the ski track is tore up, and there are wolf tracks everywhere. The carcass isn't even frozen yet, so it happened in the last few hours...wife is pretty upset (she loves moose). We get out of there pretty quick. The trail goes across a small frozen lake, where we see at least six wolves heading back towards the kill site. Hard to tell exact number because they were in the woods along side the lake. The drama of that fight must have been incredible. Based on the amount of trail tore up and the amount of fur we found, the struggle took place over about a half mile before they brought it down.

Probably pretty tame for this thread, but one time a few years back my buddy and I were whacking around in Juniper Canyon in Red Rock, looking for the slab approach to the Rainbow Wall. In short, we missed it and had to backtrack, and downclimb a section of large blocky steps that we had just come up. On our way down we discovered a carcass of a fairly large mule deer that had not been there ten minutes prior. No signs that it had been attacked by any kind of animal, nor man, so our only theory is that it was booking it down towards the drainage and launched off of this 20’ pile of blocks and broke its neck.

Can’t imagine seeing that in person, or having a large animal fall on you back there…

Not my story, but how has no one brought up the infamous Sonora Pass Monster at Lost World and the entertaining Supertopo thread it spawned?

"So, a few years ago I was climbing at an area up on the pass called second quarry (also close to The Lost World). I had never been there and was with my friends Nic and Dean. On the way down the road, Deano (who's from Sonora) says "I don;t want to mess with you, but...something lives here." At the the time, I was like 'whatever.'

We climb at second quarry (which is okay, not great) and camp near our cars the first night. During the night, I wake up to Nic's dog's barking. This is a 120 lb. pit bull, the thing never barks. Later on during the night I wake up again on my stomach. I feel paralyzed. I can't move. I felt a 'presence' holding me down. Eventually I went back to sleep and woke up without really giving it a second thought.

Climbing on day two went off without a hitch. I managed to get up some .12 and onsight an .11. The night is a different story. We cook dinner and proceed to indulge in PBR's. I decide to go to bed early. I get kicked awake a little later and Deano is telling me: "Wake up dude! We are getting the f%ck out of here!" My first response was "F@ck you! you woke me up." When I got up, I saw Nic, who is from Alaska, where they have bears that routinely eat people, standing enguarde with a knife facing the darkness. He says "Get the shi!t in the car." I knew they were serious.

This is the story as it was relayed to me. Dean was brushing his teeth by the car and he heard a loud THUD. Yes, there are large pinecones there, but it kept happening. THUD THUD THUD. Next he hears "something" let out a loud SQUAAAAAAKKK! like a giant bird.
At this point Nic hears this and they proceed to get freaked out. The THUDS and SQUAAAAAAKKK! noises are getting closer and closer. At this point, I get kicked awake and we high tail it to Dardanelle. Dean and Nic are good friends. They were genuinely scared and were definitely not messing with me.

My question to y'all is: has anyone familiar with the Sonora Pass had a similar experience? Some other quasi famous climbers have given me similar acounts.

PS I am a skeptic. I don't beleive in god, ghosts, magic, or any other BS but we definitely encountered something up there. Sasquatch, spirits, bird monster...I don't know.

edit: I forgot to add: the whole time we at this place, the only living things we saw were insects and birds. No chipmunks, deer, or coyotes. Anyone familiar with SPH will tell you there are plenty of animals up there. wierd." -AllezAllez510

Lots more stories in the thread, along with some jokes by skeptics, defensive responses from the climbers involved, and wild speculation about a wonderful variety of supernatural creatures.

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/521578/Sonora-Pass-Monster-scary-TR

https://issuu.com/agrphoto/docs/cc18_fall16_master_1a_web/42

Buck Riowrote:

Similar story from the Gunflint Trail in the BWCA: February 2003, Wife and I are doing a four day yurt to yurt X Country ski tour, about 20-30 k per leg, and we come upon a moose kill, right on the trail. Hair and blood everywhere, the ski track is tore up, and there are wolf tracks everywhere. The carcass isn't even frozen yet, so it happened in the last few hours...wife is pretty upset (she loves moose). We get out of there pretty quick. The trail goes across a small frozen lake, where we see at least six wolves heading back towards the kill site. Hard to tell exact number because they were in the woods along side the lake. The drama of that fight must have been incredible. Based on the amount of trail tore up and the amount of fur we found, the struggle took place over about a half mile before they brought it down.

That’s freaky.

I was within 30’ of the wolves.  I was wondering for a few minutes if I was going to die. 

Years ago I was riding up the Arroyo Secco trail behind JPL in Pasadena.  Came upon what looked like a recent deer kill on the trail.   I road on another few minutes before my spidey senses told me something was watching me.  As I road back past where the deer had been it was gone.  I’m assuming the Mountain Lion was waiting in the bushes and certainly watching me when I stopped the first time.   After that incident I stuck those plastic googly eyes on the back of my helmet.  I read somewhere that Mountain Lions won’t attack if you are looking at them, total BS I’m sure but I’ll take it. 

Collin Hwrote:

Not my story, but how has no one brought up the infamous Sonora Pass Monster at Lost World and the entertaining Supertopo thread it spawned?

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/521578/Sonora-Pass-Monster-scary-TR

https://issuu.com/agrphoto/docs/cc18_fall16_master_1a_web/42

Wow that whole supertopo thread is great! Some really fun stories in there. 

not related to climbing, but in my younger teenage years, some friends and i got a hold of several Weird NJ volumes and started to check out some of the "haunted" and abandoned places around the state. needless to say, a lot of people who don't want to be found hang out in old abandoned places...

curt86iroc wrote:

not related to climbing, but in my younger teenage years, some friends and i got a hold of several Weird NJ volumes and started to check out some of the "haunted" and abandoned places around the state. needless to say, a lot of people who don't want to be found hang out in old abandoned places...

There are a bunch of "urban explorers" killed every year in old abandoned buildings in Minneapolis/St Paul. There is a reason they are abandoned, they are falling down.

Mark Bwrote:

Weirdos in the wild get my spidey sense tingling. Last fall I was boondocking outside Zion NP with my family. We set up our tent at a decent pulloff about 100 yards off the road. Once it got to be absolutely dark a dark Dodge Challenger drives into the pulloff and parks. The driver was a young bearded dude. First red flag is no tent. The dude is sleeping in a Challenger. I assume he was trying to save money but still - just buy a sleeping bag and cot!  Second red flag is driving a Challenger in that park of Utah. 

The real sketchy part is at about 10:30 PM. We were all trying to get some sleep and my wife/son are in the bed of our truck stargazing. This dude gets out of his car and walks 100 yards up the hill to our camp area and starts wandering around. I'm like WTF! I challenge him and he said he was looking for a bathroom. Then he starts asking me all kinds of questions about what we're doing, etc. I couldn't sleep all night and kept my weapon on me. Next day we went to Lamb's Knoll and normally I would crush, but my lack of sleep and the persistent smell of shvt made me bail on easy routes. 

So which one of you fine MPer's was it?

Could it have been the infamous Tristan Hamm on his EPIC road trip??