12 People Share Their Most Terrifying Stories from the Woods

1.

I was backwoods camping in Canada with my ex. Deep forest, we'd been out there a day or two and hadn't seen anyone. That evening we were in the tent playing cards and heard something in the bushes, making a giant racket. It was getting steadily closer. It got to the area we were in and stopped. We debated what to do but finally opened the tent, both completely freaked out, and found... chickens. Three chickens, en route home to an organic farm we dint know was nearby. -Worldly_Salamander_

2.

I work in the bush and sometimes spend months out there...most terrifying was seeing a bear start to circle me right as the helicopter pilot radioed me to say he couldn't get to my location because of the weather. Luckily I had a shotgun with me, and eventually the pilot got down to me, but yeah, sitting there in the sleet while watching that grizzly slowly and sneakily try to cut around my position in the fading light was absolutely terrifying.

The whole time I was trying to come up with possible ways to keep from being outflanked and to keep visual contact with it in case I had to shoot it. This was in the late fall, so the bear probably hadn't put on enough fat for the year and was looking to supplement it. Spooky stuff! -Psychological_Put395

3.

I go around Australia looking for the most venomous snakes on the planet, because of that I camp and stay in some pretty remote places but the “weirdest” experience I’ve had was close to home. Was driving on a bush track in a state park that’s about 10 minutes from my house, was about 10 minutes in to driving the track when in complete darkness there is a barefoot guy walking with a hammer. He had no light and was walking as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

This state park doesn’t really connect with anything or anywhere, there are no houses within it and the closest houses are about 2 kilometres from the entrance, he was nowhere near the entrance. Weird stuff. -GTP2023

4.

I was backpacking with my dog and about 12 miles from the road and trailhead - so pretty far from people though popular enough that other hikers might be around - though we saw no-one all day.

About 2 a.m. my dog started this really low deep growl and wakes me up. Turn on my headlamp and see his teeth showing and he's right on top of me. I hear heavy footsteps (black bear / moose?) near the tent. I leash my dog so he doesn't tear thru the tent and the footsteps move further away, but keep circling my tent. All of my food and toiletries are hung in a tree in a bear bag - nothing in the tent to draw a bear's attention. I clap my hands - something is still slowly circling - not something a moose would do, and a bear might if he wanted food - but I've got nothing and a really big dog with me. I decide to step out of the tent with the leash in one hand and bear spray in the other - yelling "hey bear"...

The footsteps stop - dog's nose is in the air telling me to look right - but nothing in my headlamp that I can see. Didn't hear anything run off, but it's quiet. I give it 5 minutes or so, get back in the tent, and it starts up again - slowly circling maybe 50 feet from me. Maybe an hour later, I hear the footsteps wander off into the woods.

At dawn, I take the dog, and the bear spray, and start looking for tracks. I find a clear path in the leaves that had been trampled, but no tracks. The dogs nose is on the ground, and I follow his lead - and he follows the loop around our campsite. We final see a few human footprint - not shoe tracks - a regular size (not bigfoot) bare human foot. Plus - yup a human piece of you know what.... and toilet paper. Some ahole was wandering around the middle of nowhere, near the tent and circling my tent for an hour or more, and left a dump for me to find. -BionicGimpster

5.

An after dark flash flood that roared through camp. Twelve of us...five of them were sleeping in the canyon bottom. It's amazing nobody died. That was 32 years ago and I still sleep lightly and always pack clean underpants. -BrunoGerace

6.

A few years ago, a teenager on the next road over went missing. They said he was autistic, and ran away from home on foot. We're in a very rural area, they had cops and people walking in the woods for a couple weeks looking for the kid, never found him.

The following summer, I found a jacket, some empty pepsi cans, a knife, and a lighter, at the base of a tree in the woods on our property. They came and looked again, didn't find anything else. It was confirmed to be his jacket. -notTomHanx

7.

Many years ago, when I was about 14, I was hiking deep in the woods behind my house with some friends. We were miles away from home- further than any of us had ever gone before. And we came up to the edge of a clearing and a little further down the tree line, we saw a lump of clothes underneath an old deer stand. We got a little closer and we could make out legs and arms and boots...

They were wet from rain and had been there for a while. Obviously, our first thought was that it was a hunter who had an accident and fallen out of his stand and was dead. We were freaked out and it took us a little bit to get up the nerve to get a better look. It wasn't until we were practically on top of it that we realized that it was a dummy. We had wandered all the way up to the edge of a big Christmas Tree farm's property and the dummy was part of their decorations from a haunted hayride thing they did. They must have forgotten about it when closing up for the year. We had a good laugh but we were all scared shitless for a few minutes. -Ocksu2

8.

Was in my twenties growing pot in the coastal mountain range of California. Found a trash bag partially buried with a human torso missing its hands feet and head. -Inevitable_Shift1365

9.

As a Boy Scout, we found a bunch of scorpions in our Adirondack. We ran outside screaming our heads off, and then lightening struck a tree like 20 yards away. We turned on our heels and ran straight back to the scorpions. -captainkatalis

10.

My husband, kid, and I live out in the middle of nowhere on a plot of land that's about 100 acres. I'd say probably 95 of those acres are wilderness with ATV and hiking trails that we, and several of the previous owners, created by exploring. We use that land for camping, hiking, and hunting. We like to find a spot, clear it a bit, and camp over night. There's so much space we've never stayed in the same place twice. We've seen some kill sites, both old and fresh. Lots of animal tracks, places where deer bed down, etc. I've even spent a lot of time hiking solo while the kid is in school and husbands at work. Whether alone or with the family, we always carry a firearm for protection.

A few weeks ago, we decided to load up our camping gear and start a new trail. We mark the trails we make with spray paint on trees. We were pretty far in the woods, having hiked almost an hour when the atmosphere seemed to changed. I don't know who noticed it first but my husband, who was leading the three of us, turned around and gave me a concerned look. The birds had stopped chirping, the insects were quiet. There were no sounds around us. When in the woods, complete quietness is rarely a good thing.

We continued onward, hyper aware of our surrounds while our kid continued merrily talking. We came to the stream that marks the mid way point of our property. We stopped for a few minutes, my husband and I in a stare down with each other. We both felt something was off but didn't want to scare our daughter. I finally broke the silence and said I suddenly didn't feel good and that we should go home. My husband nodded in agreement while our daughter voiced her protest. Too bad kiddo.

We turned around and started back. After going a few hundred yards, still in silent wilderness, I looked to my right and saw a person crouched down in a ghillie suit about 150 feet off our trail. I'm positive they saw that I noticed them but they never moved. I cleared my throat to get my husband's attention and when he looked back, I put my hand on the gun in the holster on my hip which caused him to readjust his rifle in preparation of anything. I sped up my family and we hurried back home. I told my husband as soon as we were inside. We decided to call the police and report the trespasser. Filed a report and was told to call again if we saw anyone.

A few days later, my husband and I went out alone and set up a bunch of deer cams. We didn't go back out into the woods for maybe a week, then he and I ventured out to retrieve the cam footage. Out of the 9 cams we placed, we caught a person in a ghillie suit in 2 images. We handed copies over to the cops to go with our report. We haven't gone back out since except to check the deer cams. Haven't gotten any other trespassers. It freaks me out even more to think of the few times, while camping, that we heard walking near our tent in the middle of the night. We always assumed it was curious animals but now I'm not so sure. -worthlesscommotion

11.

Walking in the pitch black out to a deer stand. So dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Heard some circling around me of something large, it was trotting along. No big deal, figured it was a deer. Then it stopped and let out the most bone chilling howl i have ever heard. So loud it was like it was inside of me. A few wolves howled back in the distance and it ran off. Needed new underwear. -jubstep45

12.

Absolute silence. No wind, no animals, nothing. One second there were all the sounds of nature, then nothing. Lasted for a few seconds that felt like an eternity. -darthrio