Bumps in the night

[Kingbee]

Anyone have a good story/experience of weird creepy happenings on the trail?

The only one I heard about was on a PATC work trip many years ago, that my Dad was told about. The cabin that was used as a base was full, so several folks slept outside in tents. One man woke up in the middle of the night with what felt like strong hands gripping his hair and shaking his head back and forth. This was accompanied by a deep, wordless muttering. Needless to say, he spent the rest of the night indoors.

That was many years ago, and I don't know the location.

[ljcsov]

This is why I shave my head.

[Incahiker]

Hahah... sounds like one of his friends was drunk... but I have heard the screams of demon women in the woods that sounded like something from hell... oh wait those were cougers, still scary though and they do sound like demons from hell. Also, I heard the strangest noise on cowrock mountain once... sounded like something from a science fiction movie, very hard to explain, like a laser being shot, but reverse that sound and you have something of what it sounded like. It sounded like it was coming from the air about 2 feet from my head, but there was nothing there. It was crazy. Could never figure out what it was.

[FlyPaper]

This happened to the friend of the sister of someone I know. (Close enough chain of acquaintance that I believe it, but not so close that any of you are going to believe it).

Anyway, this woman was hiking alone, and although she observed nothing overtly wrong during the hike, she had this vague sense that someone was nearby and perhaps trailing her. She made it home okay and then developed the film in her camera. Every night she was on the trail, someone had sneaked into her camp and taken a picture of her while she was sleeping.

[Datto]

One man woke up in the middle of the night with what felt like strong hands gripping his hair and shaking his head back and forth. This was accompanied by a deep, wordless muttering.

On my AT thru-hike I woke up one morning in a crowded shelter in New York with the adjacent female hiker snuggling up on top of me. I don't mean that in a bad way, Ha.

She was very apologetic -- didn't know what had come over her. I was going to ask here which shelter she was headed to for the following night but I didn't think of it fast enough to get the laugh at the shelter.

I can tell you this -- it beats the heck out of having a skunk run up the top of your sleeping bag and look in the breathing hole at you eye-to-eye on a very cold AT night. I will take a snuggling girl thru-hiker any night of the week.


Datto

[Capt Nat]

This happened to the friend of the sister of someone I know. (Close enough chain of acquaintance that I believe it, but not so close that any of you are going to believe it).

Anyway, this woman was hiking alone, and although she observed nothing overtly wrong during the hike, she had this vague sense that someone was nearby and perhaps trailing her. She made it home okay and then developed the film in her camera. Every night she was on the trail, someone had sneaked into her camp and taken a picture of her while she was sleeping.

That made the hair stand up on the back of my neck!

[Pedaling Fool]

In 2007 I was at Watuga Lake shelter and the next morning two people (who didn't know one another) claimed to have seen orb-like lights all around the shelter that night (in front of the shelter).

I was in my tent behind the shelter, so I didn't see anything, but they were adamant about what they saw.

[Chaco Taco]

This happened to the friend of the sister of someone I know. (Close enough chain of acquaintance that I believe it, but not so close that any of you are going to believe it).

Anyway, this woman was hiking alone, and although she observed nothing overtly wrong during the hike, she had this vague sense that someone was nearby and perhaps trailing her. She made it home okay and then developed the film in her camera. Every night she was on the trail, someone had sneaked into her camp and taken a picture of her while she was sleeping.

Thats f***ed up right thar

Heard a hog in the Smokies get chased and slaughtered in the middle of the night by a pack of coyotes.

[moytoy]

Many years ago (I was about 12 yo) I was with a group of BS and some leaders in the GSMNP. We were hiking along either Eagle Creek or Hazel Creek I don't remember which but we were all in tents except for one adult who was in a hammock. Sometime in the night we woke to a great commotion and came out to find a bear had slapped one on the boys packs out of a tree and was heading up the mountain with it. We did get most of the pack back and were heading back to bed when my dad just casually remarked to the guy in the hammock that he hoped that the bear could tell the difference between a pack and a hammock. My Dad told this story for years. He said that everytime he looked out of the tent the rest of the trip that Mr. Childress had his flashlight shining out into the woods. Mr Childress never went on any camping or hiking trips with us again.

[Chummin' for Bear]

A couple of years ago, a couple of friends and I were backpacking from Sams Gap to Carvers Gap. They were sharing a tent and I was in my Bibler Bivy Sack. About 2:00 am, I awoke to heavy breathing on the back of my neck. I knew it was a bear. I had to make a decision of either lying there and take the attack or fight back and try to scare him away. With lightning reflexes, I grabbed one of my trekking poles, sat upright, whirled around to face my attacker and shouted "Get out of here!"

Much to my surprise, it was a hunting dog with a radio collar around his neck. He calmly lifted his leg, pissed on a bush, and disappeared into the night. I don't remember getting much sleep the rest of the night.

[chiefduffy]

My first night camping after about a 30 year haitus, I walked about 6 or 7 miles into Shenandoah and set up my tarptent about 50 yds off the AT. Finally fell into a nervous sleep after hours of hearing things. Was awakened explosively by a coyote or something(wolf?) right next to my tent that suddenly cut loose with a blood curdling other worldly howl at the moon..at about the volume of a jet taking off. No more sleep that night....

[vamelungeon]

My first night camping after about a 30 year haitus, I walked about 6 or 7 miles into Shenandoah and set up my tarptent about 50 yds off the AT. Finally fell into a nervous sleep after hours of hearing things. Was awakened explosively by a coyote or something(wolf?) right next to my tent that suddenly cut loose with a blood curdling other worldly howl at the moon..at about the volume of a jet taking off. No more sleep that night....

Might have been an owl. I was on a hike last year in the Jefferson National Forest, all alone and in the middle of nowhere in my tent. I had read a book for a while and everything was nice and quiet and was just about asleep when a damned owl that was in a tree a few feet away screamed like a panther getting shoved feet first into a woodchipper. I almost died right then and there. I've had the same experience deer hunting, getting to my stand in the pitch dark and sitting there quietly and then an owl screeches a few feet away. I'm sure owls have a great sense of humor and laugh their butts off about it. I personally have never found it that funny.

[James GAME2009]

I was camping on my own in California, staying in a small one man tent. I hung my food a good distance from my tent as I knew there were bears in the area. I also had no food or anything that smelled like food in the tent. At some point in the middle of the night a bear decided to check out my tent. He nudged it, rubbed up against it, but thankfully did not rip it open. I didn't move and hardly dared to breathe. The bear finally left and I went back to sleep. It was an interesting experience, but one I would rather not have again. It was certainly unnerving having a bear's head less than a foot from my head in the pitch dark with no one else around.

[Bronk]

The first time I ever went camping alone I was car camping in Allegheny National Forest. I woke up around midnight to a snorting noise right outside my tent. I had seen signs around the park all day warning to hang your food because of bears, but ignored them...mostly because I couldn't figure out how to hang a cooler in a tree and my car was parked at the top of a hill...I had carried all of my gear down a steep hillside so I could camp near the water. So I lay motionless for an hour listening as the animal opened my cooler and proceeded to eat all my food and make a huge mess. I was too frightened to open the tent and look. Eventually I drifted off to sleep...when I exited my tent the next morning it was just as I had imagined it. I cleaned up the mess and went back into town to replace the food I had lost. When I returned to my campsite later that afternoon I found a porcupine nibbling on a bit of food that I had overlooked. It didn't seem too frightened of me as I approached...in fact, I had to chase it with a stick to get it to run away...it got about 25 feet from the campsite and stopped running, turned around and looked at me in disguist, and then it snorted. It was the same sound I had heard the night before when I was awakened by the "bear" feasting on my food.

[Mrs Baggins]

Check out Amazon.com. There are several books on the subject of "Haunted Hikes."

[lunchbx]

I was camping near Delaware water gap the weekend before last with two of my friends. At around midnight I looked up and witness a very strange point of light in the sky. My first thought was "dang Venus is extremely bright tonight" I pointed out to my friends and the three of us watched as the light danced around in a weird fashion while blinking on and off and emitting a full spectrum of light. As we watched it was apparent that this was no celestial object and seemed to be no more than a mile away from our camping spot and under the cloud cover. My one friend had a laser pointer and decided to shine it at the object, shortly after doing this the light vanished and was not to be seen again. The spookiest part of this incident was the very strange presence that the three of us felt while the object was visible. The best way to describe it is the feeling you get when your looking at someone in the distance and you know that they are looking back at you even though you are not making direct eye contact. The feeling was gone as soon as the object was out of sight. My one friend had never believed in the whole UFO thing but was made into a believer that night. The whole experience was a little frightening but at the same time oddly comforting. Personally I have seen a few strange lights in the sky in my life but never had an experience such as this where there was absolutely no explanation for what I was witnessing..... I still tell myself that this had to be something that can be explained since I try to analyze experiences like this with a critical eye, but deep down inside I know what I saw that night was not of this world.

[MyName1sMud]

^^^^ I've seen a few "lights" like that myself. I don't what it is about me but "they" seem to love showing me "they" are up there.

Whats crazy is every time i go out to look at the night sky and bring a camera I never see any. The times I think about grabbing my camera and don't always end up being the times I do see them.

Odd.

[louisb]

getting to my stand in the pitch dark and sitting there quietly and then an owl screeches a few feet away.

lol, I had the same thing happen while turkey hunting one time. Thought I had found a roosting spot under some trees for a flock of turkeys. Snuck in before daylight and got set up only to realize it was owls and not turkey roosting there when about a half dozen owls cut loose at the crack of dawn. It was deafening but funny as 'ell.

My friend's granddad swears he saw Indian spirits while out camping near some burial mounds one night but we are pretty sure the only spirits he saw were in a bottle.

--louie

[Wise Old Owl]

Might have been an owl. I was on a hike last year in the Jefferson National Forest, all alone and in the middle of nowhere in my tent. I had read a book for a while and everything was nice and quiet and was just about asleep when a damned owl that was in a tree a few feet away screamed like a panther getting shoved feet first into a woodchipper. I almost died right then and there. I've had the same experience deer hunting, getting to my stand in the pitch dark and sitting there quietly and then an owl screeches a few feet away. I'm sure owls have a great sense of humor and laugh their butts off about it. I personally have never found it that funny.

Yes we dooo.....

I have noise reduction on our windows to knock road noise...and yet we had a tall tree out front one night I had a "woman" scream so loud it woke me and it was in the tree above the bed!

[Pedaling Fool]

Might have been an owl. I was on a hike last year in the Jefferson National Forest, all alone and in the middle of nowhere in my tent. I had read a book for a while and everything was nice and quiet and was just about asleep when a damned owl that was in a tree a few feet away screamed like a panther getting shoved feet first into a woodchipper. I almost died right then and there. I've had the same experience deer hunting, getting to my stand in the pitch dark and sitting there quietly and then an owl screeches a few feet away. I'm sure owls have a great sense of humor and laugh their butts off about it. I personally have never found it that funny.

lol, I had the same thing happen while turkey hunting one time. Thought I had found a roosting spot under some trees for a flock of turkeys. Snuck in before daylight and got set up only to realize it was owls and not turkey roosting there when about a half dozen owls cut loose at the crack of dawn. It was deafening but funny as 'ell.

My friend's granddad swears he saw Indian spirits while out camping near some burial mounds one night but we are pretty sure the only spirits he saw were in a bottle.

--louie

I had the same thing happen to me in 2005 on an east coast cycling tour. Stopped and stealth camped somewhere along the Blueridge Parkway, was really tired and got in my tent soon after sundown when all of a sudden there was this blood-curdling scream from above me, not more than 10 feet. I could have swore it was a female (human), never before this had I ever heard of an animal making such noises. All I could think of was the Blair Witch Project