Anybody ever have a spooky experience?

[Engine]

One night last week we were camped at an old home site in GSMNP. Caboose and I were drifting off to sleep right after dark when we both heard voices entering the camping area around 9pm. The voices quieted down after a couple minutes and I assumed the new arrivals had seen our tent up the hill and had hushed themselves on our behalf. The next morning I awoke early and got up to stretch my legs. I found no other tents around and thought maybe the other group had left early, but when we left ours were the only tracks in the trail.

No one had been there even though we both clearly heard a male and female in conversation. The camp site was over 1/4 mile into a ravine from the trail, so I don't think we heard people passing by. It was kind of weird and I wondered if anyone else has had similar experiences? I know the Appalachians are full of ghost stories but I am beginning to wonder...

[Phoenixdadeadhead]

Promise not to laugh at me, but in 94 maybe 95 I was hiking between yuma and sandiego pretty far north of any roads and one of the guys I was with pointed out a light in the sky. As we watched the light sit perfectly still we conseidered it to be a helicopter, but it then appeared to drop 2 other lights which formed a triangle and for 20 to thirty minutes these lights sat motionless or at least appeared to. The 2 lights which had dropped seemed to dissapear and then the 3rd took off with an exceptional burst of speed. I was raised military and have been in and around almost every aircraft the military uses, I had thought the 2 lights might have been a new long lasting extremely bright flare, but the speed that the main lights left at and the fact it had been statonary really throws me off.

[Engine]

Promise not to laugh at me, but in 94 maybe 95 I was hiking between yuma and sandiego pretty far north of any roads and one of the guys I was with pointed out a light in the sky. As we watched the light sit perfectly still we conseidered it to be a helicopter, but it then appeared to drop 2 other lights which formed a triangle and for 20 to thirty minutes these lights sat motionless or at least appeared to. The 2 lights which had dropped seemed to dissapear and then the 3rd took off with an exceptional burst of speed. I was raised military and have been in and around almost every aircraft the military uses, I had thought the 2 lights might have been a new long lasting extremely bright flare, but the speed that the main lights left at and the fact it had been statonary really throws me off.

That reminds me of my first night camped in the Shirley basin in Wyoming. Looking toward Elk mountain to the south west we saw strange flickering lights right after dark. After about an hour we realized it was a wind farm and the blades were causing the red beacon lights to appear to flicker. It was strange for awhile, but that doesn't sound like your experience though...

[CaseyB]

Sound can do weird things in the mountains, most especially traveling uphill & downwind. I was waiting in a road gap for about 35-40 mins a couple weeks ago for a friend who had lost a dog and kept hearing ~things~ ...noise got stronger & stronger until finally two guys on horses showed up. If you figure they were going 2-3 mph that means I was hearing them 1-1.5 miles off, talking. As soon as they were through the gap, not another sound.

[JokerJersey]

Eh, I guess it all depends on what you believe. I don't understand how someone can believe in an afterlife, but no believe in ghosts or wandering spirits. If you can get lost on a trail, why couldn't a soul or spirit get lost on its "trail"?

When I was younger and used to hike and camp alone in the woods close to my house in South Jersey, I often ran into situations that couldn't be explained. In one area that I had to hike through to get to the one of the "spots" I love, there had been a murder/suicide. Many times while going through there, I had the feeling of being watched or followed, often times to the point of being physically oppresive. No matter how long it went on, there was never anything "there". At first, I chalked it up to fear of being alone or a simple case of nerves. As I grew older though, it happened too frequently and too distinctly to be that. I had long ago lost any fear of being alone and had spent too many nights to count sleeping under the stars to brush it off as "nothing". The feelings persisted until I left for the military and left that trail/area behind.

Whatever it was, I still believe it was something outside of the norm and something that wouldn't fit into accepted definitions of science. Others may scoff at that notion, but I believe what I believe.

As for what Phoenix said, having served in the military myself, I would put more weight on the idea that it was an experimental aircraft being tested by the military. Even more so, considering the area that you were in. Yuma, El Toro, and other bases of that type that are far out from places of habitation are often the best test sites for new technology. Not that I'm one to discount the possibility of extraterrestrial life, since I think if we are the only sentient beings in the universe then God wastes an awful lot of space for just us, but in the place and time that you saw these things, I would be more likely to chalk it up to military testing than UFOs.

[StarLyte]

Hope to meet up with you guys around campfire some night....

[Blissful]

There are a few spots on the trail I would consider unsettling.

The trail between Paul C Wolf and Rockfish Gap by some old homesites. That place feels strange to me.

And the place in PA where the hikers wer killed. Yes the shelter is gone (Thelma Marks, I think), but that area too doesn't feel right. I went through there in a hurry.

But the most unsettling places off trail are Civil War battlefields, namely Antietam by the bridge. You can smell gunpowder. In the trenches at Wilderness, the leaves are a different color, like brownish black than the rest of the forest. And Spotsylvania battlefield, that place just feels awful.

[DAJA]

I’ve had several odd encounters in the woods, but there are two that definitely stand out. I’ve told both stories’ here on WBs, so I’m just going to cut and paste rather than re-type them.. Since we survived both, they’ve become staples around the campfire since..
First:
I used to use ear plugs to sleep at night... Up until week long trip in the Ontario Northern Region, north of Algonquin National Park. We'd been hiking on old trading routes, mainly following the coastlines of the many lakes in the region.. Anyway, on the third night of the trip, we stopped, set up camp, it was raining and had been all day, the ground was soft. We built a small fire to dry out some of our gear, had some supper, had a dip in the lake, sat around the fire until about 10pm then both turned in to bed in separate tents.. As was my usual method, I popped in the earplugs and was out for the night..

I awoke the following morning, and as I climbed out of my tent I froze in fear as I see perfect size 12 boot prints right to the door of my tent... I quickly scan my vestibule and realize my boots are gone (oddly, I wear a size 10) then look to our clothes line and realize both our sets of raingear are gone..

Once I woke my buddy up and explain we'd had a visitor and that some gear was missing, he got up and realized his boots where gone as well... We put on our sandals and followed the tracks to where we had hung our bear bags, which where both gone as well...

So here we were, 40kms from our car with no food, stoves (they were in the bear bag) no boots or raingear and it was still raining hard...

We made it out fine, but it was an uncomfortable hike both physically and mentally. This was not a blazed commonly used hiking trail. Rather, it was old overgrown trading trails used 50yrs ago... So it was first shocking that someone else was out here with us, but more so that they where malicious enough to make off with our stuff.
That final night camping on the way back to our car was a long night... We sat around the campfire trying to ease our imaginations from taking us to the worst possible places. My buddy did admit that he'd heard my vestibule unzip and movement around camp, but assumed it was me getting up to go to do my business...
Since that night, I no longer sleep with earplugs... I've learned that the only thing I fear in the woods travels on two legs...
Second:
Losing my boots, rain gear and food may seem a tall tale but I assure you it is not, in fact, that trip was mild compared to a group of 4 of us essentially being held hostage by "Sh%thawk" and "Boner" while camping when we were just punk teenagers.. These two winners had just been released from prison for robbing a liquor store, and had got in some trouble at a bar in a nearby town and where looking to lay low for a while... They had ditched their camero (i'm not kidding) in a gravel pit down the road from the trailhead and decided to hike into the woods to "live off the land for a few weeks". They stumbled upon our campsite near 2am and that’s when the fun begins... Long story short, we spent 3 days babysitting these two, against our wishes... They had no gear, just jeans, leather coats, and work boots, and hinted heavily at being armed... Lucky for us, not with a brain... We convinced them we were planning a clam feed, knowing full well the flats had been closed due to red tide... These fella's where so impressed with our menu when we dug and cooked up a pot of clams in salt water and seaweed... We all got such pleasure watching them savor their dinner. Within an hour these two where in such a world of hurt that we just packed up and walked away... When we got to town we explained to the police where to find them...

My only regret is we didn't think of the clam boil on day one instead of day 3... Worst hiking trip ever!

And to be fair, they only threatened to be armed, never saw so much as a knife... But as youngins, we were too frightened to push our luck on grown ups...

In the end we all survived, the Mounties got their men and we all got a fun story to tell when we get together...

[Engine]

I’ve had several odd encounters in the woods, but there are two that definitely stand out. I’ve told both stories’ here on WBs, so I’m just going to cut and paste rather than re-type them.. Since we survived both, they’ve become staples around the campfire since..
First:
I used to use ear plugs to sleep at night... Up until week long trip in the Ontario Northern Region, north of Algonquin National Park. We'd been hiking on old trading routes, mainly following the coastlines of the many lakes in the region.. Anyway, on the third night of the trip, we stopped, set up camp, it was raining and had been all day, the ground was soft. We built a small fire to dry out some of our gear, had some supper, had a dip in the lake, sat around the fire until about 10pm then both turned in to bed in separate tents.. As was my usual method, I popped in the earplugs and was out for the night..

I awoke the following morning, and as I climbed out of my tent I froze in fear as I see perfect size 12 boot prints right to the door of my tent... I quickly scan my vestibule and realize my boots are gone (oddly, I wear a size 10) then look to our clothes line and realize both our sets of raingear are gone..

Once I woke my buddy up and explain we'd had a visitor and that some gear was missing, he got up and realized his boots where gone as well... We put on our sandals and followed the tracks to where we had hung our bear bags, which where both gone as well...

So here we were, 40kms from our car with no food, stoves (they were in the bear bag) no boots or raingear and it was still raining hard...

We made it out fine, but it was an uncomfortable hike both physically and mentally. This was not a blazed commonly used hiking trail. Rather, it was old overgrown trading trails used 50yrs ago... So it was first shocking that someone else was out here with us, but more so that they where malicious enough to make off with our stuff.
That final night camping on the way back to our car was a long night... We sat around the campfire trying to ease our imaginations from taking us to the worst possible places. My buddy did admit that he'd heard my vestibule unzip and movement around camp, but assumed it was me getting up to go to do my business...
Since that night, I no longer sleep with earplugs... I've learned that the only thing I fear in the woods travels on two legs...
Second:
Losing my boots, rain gear and food may seem a tall tale but I assure you it is not, in fact, that trip was mild compared to a group of 4 of us essentially being held hostage by "Sh%thawk" and "Boner" while camping when we were just punk teenagers.. These two winners had just been released from prison for robbing a liquor store, and had got in some trouble at a bar in a nearby town and where looking to lay low for a while... They had ditched their camero (i'm not kidding) in a gravel pit down the road from the trailhead and decided to hike into the woods to "live off the land for a few weeks". They stumbled upon our campsite near 2am and that’s when the fun begins... Long story short, we spent 3 days babysitting these two, against our wishes... They had no gear, just jeans, leather coats, and work boots, and hinted heavily at being armed... Lucky for us, not with a brain... We convinced them we were planning a clam feed, knowing full well the flats had been closed due to red tide... These fella's where so impressed with our menu when we dug and cooked up a pot of clams in salt water and seaweed... We all got such pleasure watching them savor their dinner. Within an hour these two where in such a world of hurt that we just packed up and walked away... When we got to town we explained to the police where to find them...

My only regret is we didn't think of the clam boil on day one instead of day 3... Worst hiking trip ever!

And to be fair, they only threatened to be armed, never saw so much as a knife... But as youngins, we were too frightened to push our luck on grown ups...

In the end we all survived, the Mounties got their men and we all got a fun story to tell when we get together...

Man, you have had a lifetime worth of crap hiking luck in those 2 trips! Pretty spooky stuff btw.

[Ridge Rat]

I felt I was being watched once on the AT... Walked by a bush and it flashed.... Spent the next half hour messing with the hidden camera I suppose was there to count either wildlife of trail usage... About the closest ghost story I have... Well that and the coyotes screaming "help me" freaks me out sometimes

[Pony]

A few weeks ago I was camping alone at Zaleski S. F. in SE Ohio. There are only designated camping areas with water tanks and an outhouse. After dinner I was sitting around the fire and I had a thought that it would be strange if another person showed up. No more than ten seconds later I looked down the hill in time to see a guy walking out of the outhouse. He was wearing a flannel shirt, blue jeans and had a red mullet almost down to his butt. No hiking gear. I watched as he walked away and after about fifty feet he turned and looked at me and then turned back around kind of quick when he saw I was looking at him. He never said a word or waved, just walked back down the F.S. road that leads to the campsite. Probably just a local out for an evening walk, but it was creepy to say the least. I didn't sleep well that night.

[hiker33]

I maintained the section in NC from Big Stamp north to Little Bald, including Bald Mtn. Shelter, for about a decade. I made several trips a year to do trail work, and for all those years I always had a feeling of being watched in one particular section of trail, about 0.3 miles N of the shelter. There's a side trail down to a spring in a rhodo thicket and people sometimes camp near the junction. I always had a creepy feeling and would find myself looking behind me and going faster through that section of trail. Going down the side trail to clean the spring and clear the trail was the worst, as visibility in the rhododendron was very limited. I later learned that this trail continued down into Tennessee and was occasionally used by hunters and other locals to reach the shelter. One other thing was that this section was always very quiet, no birds or other sounds. The rest of the section had normal woods noises and you could hear barking dogs and vehicles in the distance.

I've hiked and camped alone for many years and have never experienced this feeling elsewhere. I've always thought that this was very odd since I'm not one to spook easilly or let my imagination run wild. Wish I could say that I actually saw something, but I never did. Just this creepy feeling that would come upon me even when I wasn't thinking about it. I recognized a pattern after the third or fourth time.

[Seeker]

There are a few spots on the trail I would consider unsettling.

The trail between Paul C Wolf and Rockfish Gap by some old homesites. That place feels strange to me.

And the place in PA where the hikers wer killed. Yes the shelter is gone (Thelma Marks, I think), but that area too doesn't feel right. I went through there in a hurry.

But the most unsettling places off trail are Civil War battlefields, namely Antietam by the bridge. You can smell gunpowder. In the trenches at Wilderness, the leaves are a different color, like brownish black than the rest of the forest. And Spotsylvania battlefield, that place just feels awful.

wow. and i thought i was the only one that happens to... Gettysburg did that to me, as well as a few places in europe... The Somme, Dachau, Normandy, and a few others...

[zoidfu]

There are a few spots on the trail I would consider unsettling.

The trail between Paul C Wolf and Rockfish Gap by some old homesites. That place feels strange to me.

And the place in PA where the hikers wer killed. Yes the shelter is gone (Thelma Marks, I think), but that area too doesn't feel right. I went through there in a hurry.

But the most unsettling places off trail are Civil War battlefields, namely Antietam by the bridge. You can smell gunpowder. In the trenches at Wilderness, the leaves are a different color, like brownish black than the rest of the forest. And Spotsylvania battlefield, that place just feels awful.

You're definitely right about the Cove Mountain shelter area(formerly Thelma Marks). My friends and I have discussed why it feels creepy there many times and we came up with-

The damage to the trees caused by moths/porcupines makes it seem, for lack of a better word, skeletal
+
the fact that the upper canopies are seemingly untouched(thusly blocking out the sun) makes it feel like it's darker than what it really is.
+
It's also very quiet up there

Add that to the story and there you go.

[Phoenixdadeadhead]

As for what Phoenix said, having served in the military myself, I would put more weight on the idea that it was an experimental aircraft being tested by the military. Even more so, considering the area that you were in. Yuma, El Toro, and other bases of that type that are far out from places of habitation are often the best test sites for new technology. Not that I'm one to discount the possibility of extraterrestrial life, since I think if we are the only sentient beings in the universe then God wastes an awful lot of space for just us, but in the place and time that you saw these things, I would be more likely to chalk it up to military testing than UFOs.

Yeah for years that was my thought especially considering how close I was to Yuma, and my grandfather would neither confirm nor deny a plane that would react the way I saw (he worked there at the time and for many years prior) Once the F22 came out I was sure that was all it was was an F22 and some flares. I had not really considered anything else till about 6 months back when I saw a show on Discovery, and many people had described the same thing. Still like you I lean more to it being an aircraft, even though I do believe that out there somewhere there is life.

[snowhoe]

I hate this post. Two things I am SOOOO scared of Ghost and UFO. Engine I could barely read your post. I absoulty freak out. Uncontrolably freak out. I once went to one of those cheesy haunted houses with some friends one Halloween and I pushed a 12 year old kid down and a 9 year old kid into the Mike Myers he had a chainsaw and was asked to leave by the owners of the haunted house. I HATE IT !!!!

[Jayboflavin04]

This isnt my story but I will share it anyway.

My friend was hiking with buddy who was dying of cancer. They got on the trail at devils fork gap, and got off at sams gap(just to give you an idea of how slow they were moving). The second day they were out the gentleman with cancer said to my friend. "Do you see that." My friend responded "No." He then asked him what he saw. He said, "You really dont see those two little colored girls in their plantaion dresses right over there playing." My friend said this dude probably watched these two girls playing for about 5 min, and that the look on his face was the for real.

[World-Wide]

Back in 1993 I was stationed in Ohio at Wright Patterson, AFB. I friend of mine lived in base housing with his wife and they where returning home from a late night dinner. After taking several steps he realized that he forgot the left-overs and told his wife to go ahead and he'll catch up. After grabbing the food he started walking back to the house and saw his wife looking thru the window pane of the door. He was feeling friskey so he blew a few kisses and made some obscene gestures with his tongue. When he was about 15 feet from the door he realized it wasn't his wife and he could see the clock on the microwave in the background thru the women's face. Fearing his wife might be in danger he burst thru the door only to see the transparent women turn and swiftly drift out of sight. He never mentioned it to his wife for the sake of needless worry. He thought perhaps he just imagined it. The very next evening William was watching late night T.V. when he heard his wife scream in their upstairs bedroom. He rushed up there and his wife said that there was a woman standing at the foot of the bed. They left that evening for a hotel and two days later me and a couple other friends were helping him move out of base housing.

[zoidfu]

It would seem that the use of psychoactive drugs on the AT is vastly underreported

[World-Wide]

I solo hiked the Northville lake Placid Trail in the Adirondacks. The first night in the High Peaks Wilderness(10th day on the trail) about 40 miles from the finish I stayed in a shelter alone.

I woke up in the middle of the night and there was a ghost tent pitched in the shelter. It was whitish and spooky.
I thought about running but it was the middle of a dark night so I covered myself and just didnt look that way again that night. The next morning I was relieved to have gotten through the night.
What a scare!


A day or two later I camped by a river that had the rock that is supposed to be the same as that on the moon. I was alone again and
it was the late afternoon. I hung my pack in the shelter directly over my head; I lay down to relax and looked straight up at it.
This dull orange glow was coming from the bottom of my pack. I kept blinking my eyes but it would nt go away. It must have been there a good half hour and was really strange and a little scary. I couldnt explain it. The night and sleep went smoothly though.

I drank way too much snake-saki in mainland Japan back in "90" and saw an orange glow for a couple days, but never on the bottom of my pack!