I Thought I Was All Alone In The Wilderness: 18 Super-Creepy Encounters
1. I was not afraid until I saw this thing. Pasty-white, hairless, ugly.
“I was coyote hunting in the dark, maybe 3am. I am not one of weak stomach, I work with pigs. I smell this rotting, disgusting, horrible smell. I find a nearby small cave and look inside. There were maybe 6 dead coyotes and just GORE. Bloody shit and body parts. Some of it was human. I then heard struggled breathing and hacking/coughing. Armed with a Semi-Automatic Shotgun, I was not afraid until I saw this thing. Pasty-white, hairless, ugly. It was similar to the made-up Rake, but this was real. I aimed and fired twice, it was about 15 feet away. It recoiled and ran off, screeching as it ran. I paged a local ranger office, they sent out a recovery team and police showed up later. I was questioned and the cave was discovered and the human parts recovered. The area was locked off from public access for a while.”
2. Out at sea late at like maybe 2 AM and just seeing a fin pop up above the water near your boat in the complete silence and black ocean.
“Out at sea late at like maybe 2 AM and just seeing a fin pop up above the water near your boat in the complete silence and black ocean.”
3. I heard the faint sonar pings from the Russian subs in the middle of the night out in the Baltic Sea.
“Hearing the faint sonar pings from the Russian subs in the middle of the night out in the Baltic Sea.”
4. Just a bloated and sunburnt torso bobbing on an endless horizon.
“Seeing what was left of a man lost at sea. We were too far offshore to report it to any governing body and what would they have done anyway? Just a bloated and sunburnt torso bobbing on an endless horizon. Entrails dragging behind like jellyfish tentacles, and fish hanging out underneath, nibbling.
For me, the creepiest part was that there was no mystery. We all knew what happened, more or less, and we all knew we could be that guy.”
5. Saw an unidentifiable creepy blob underwater.
“I camped by myself in Northern MN by boat. Found my spot but saw an unidentifiable creepy blob underwater. Set up my tent etc., went fishing but curiosity lead me to the blob again and I finally figured out it was a large dead deer contorted and missing it’s abdomen. Later I noticed bark scraped off tree about 8 feet up (bear sign). It was getting dark.”
6. I had that feeling like I was looking at a person but it wasn’t totally human.
“I’ve written this story on a long-deactivated account and have written in to one of those YouTube horror narrators before, so if it sounds familiar that’s where you may have heard/read it.
I saw what I believe to be a wendigo or skinwalker.
I was driving back home from my friends place in rural western MA around 1-2AM. I was driving through this area that’s about 3/4 of a mile long that’s just a long canopy of dense trees. Dark even in the day but at night, it’s pitch black. You can barely see 20 feet in front of you even with high beams on.
Anyway, driving, about 6 feet away from the side of the road ~100 feet head of me I see something that looks wrong in a way I can’t explain. You know when something doesn’t make sense to you or you KNOW something isn’t right. Like the parasympathetic feeling we get when we see someone break their ankle, we KNOW it isn’t supposed to bend that way so it gives us the heebie-jeebies.
It was like that, but I wasn’t sure why until I was ~30 feet away from it. It was this coyote standing on its hind legs and was WAY TOO TALL to be an actual coyote standing upright. Coyotes are the size of a very small lab, like ~50lbs on a good day if that, this thing was at least 6 feet standing. It made me feel nauseous just looking at it.
It was too tall and its face was wrong. It looked humanoid, the same way we recognize human faces as being human. I had that feeling like I was looking at a person but it wasn’t totally human. It reminded me of Cat Eye syndrome but at least that is explainable. This wasn’t.
Anyway, I spent WAY too long being as close as I was to that thing as it stared at me, but I gunned it out of there and locked the hell out of my house when I got home despite being around 20 miles away from where I saw it.
I don’t know what it was, but it freaked the fuck outta me.”
7. All of a sudden a red dot pops up on my chest.
“A few years back I was in Costa Rica volunteering for a sea turtle conservative project way out in the middle of nowhere. We were on the coast, but we were probably 40-50 miles from the nearest village. Anyway, we collecting turtle eggs and reburying them in a protected part of the beach so poachers couldn’t take them. The protected part of the beach was a few hundred yards from our camp and it had to be watched 24/7. One of the other volunteers and I were assigned the 1am-7am shift. So it’s about 2:45am and I’m sitting there in the jungle ‘watching’ the protected are of the beach while reading Lord of the Rings, and all of a sudden a red dot pops up on my chest. Like the kind of dot you’d see if someone was pointing a laser at you. The other volunteer was asleep in the chair next to me. I looked around, sat perfectly still, and after about thirty seconds the dot disappeared and I never found out where it came from.”
8. We walked past an armed drug cartel in the middle of the night.
“So I worked at a ranch in southern Arizona, right on the border. I didn’t really consider it to be secluded because I had horses and cows. In hindsight, I guess it was really lonely because sometimes they’d talk back to me.
Anyways, doing fence borders with a guy from another camp and we had to go down into this dry river bed. As we round the bend we see a bunch of beat up trucks sitting there armed to the teeth. Turns out we ran into some kind of big deal for a cartel. The other guy told me to keep steady and we just walked straight through them on our horses. Everyone staring at us, looking like they were ready to shoot us up if we made one false move.
I asked about it when we got to the other side without turning into Swiss cheese and the more experienced rancher told me: ‘The Cartel only cares about Border Patrol and cops. They know this is a ranch, and they know we roam around here, and they know we don’t say much.” Reason being, if they ever assumed the ranchers were the snitches, they could easily find our little ranch houses. Only had 1 person to so many acres. Could have been offed and left there for many days before someone noticed. With all that in mind, I had a very passive relationship with those kind from then on.”
9. I nearly got shipwrecked in a storm in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
“I was on the bow of a sailboat crossing the Atlantic in pretty heavy winds, going about 15 knots. Crew had to be stationed alone on the bow in two hour shifts at all times, keeping an eye out for anything in the water. About 10 meters away from me I see a weird glint in the water. Then I realize it’s a partially submerged shipping container. Before I had time to even open my mouth, we passed it by, missing it by a few feet.
And that’s the story of how I nearly got shipwrecked in a storm in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.”
10. I passed something on the side of the interstate that looked like a mangled body.
“Driving through the middle of Montana one night, going about 100mph, passed something on the side of the interstate that looks like a mangled body. Turned around at the next pass, came back. Definitely a body. Put my lights on it and tried to call 911 on my cell. No reception. Got in the car to see if I could pick up cell reception (lights were still on)…nothing there but the blood splatters. Drove away QUICK.”
11. In the morning I found some big cat tracks right by my tent that were not there when I took my nap.
“I was on an Outward Bound trip in the White River National Forest in Colorado. A part of OB trips is a solo, which can be anywhere from 12-48 hours in which the participants are by themselves with a journal and some snacks.
I set up a sweet tent in a tree grouping. It had rained the night before so the ground was pretty soft. After setting up I walked around the area. I felt pretty tired, and decided to take a nap… for 8 hours. I woke up in the middle of the night to a bunch of twigs cracking. It turned on my torch to look to see if it was the instructors or any kind of animal. I even called out, ‘Hey, you good?’ (not sure why I said it that way). Nothing.
In the morning I found some big cat tracks right by my tent that were not there when I took my nap. It was really unnerving knowing that a mountain lion was near me when I was sleeping. I told the guides about it and they got really particular about keeping our food away from where we were sleeping.”
12. I noticed a large wolf step out of the forest about 50 yards ahead of me. It was just staring and I stared back.
“I was running on a logging road in central Wisconsin and stopped because I felt like I was being watched. It was just an instinctive feeling. That’s when I noticed a large wolf step out of the forest about 50 yards ahead of me. It was just staring and I stared back. After about 30 seconds of us checking each other out it just slipped back into the woods and was gone. I kept running in the same direction but never really shook the feeling of being watched. I guess it’s not that scary because wolves rarely attack people, but you betcha it was creepy enough being alone out there.”
13. If you’ve never heard a fox cry, it is the scream of nightmares.
“My parents bought a house in the mountains near national forest land around the time I was in 9th grade. I loved the woods and nature, so I would sneak out at night and walk through the forest all the time. A winter night in a forest in northern Utah is amazing. They can also be terrifying.
I later learned to identify some of the more common animal calls and cries, but at the time I knew nothing about any of that. So as I’m wandering alone through this forest one time I heard the most blood curdling and terrifying scream I have ever heard. I froze the second I heard it, lowered to the ground and didn’t move for what seemed like forever. Eventually I heard some quiet scuffling and turned to see a fox run across the dry river bed near where I was. Scared the absolute shit out of me. If you’ve never heard a fox cry, it is the scream of nightmares.
You see all kinds of cool stuff in the forest if you can be slow and quiet.”
14. I have no idea if that midnight fisherman was alive or dead, if he’d fallen asleep at the wheel or suffered a sudden heart attack or what.
“On a small sailing boat in the Pacific, sailing south from Panama to Ecuador in the middle of the night. Two people on deck – the helmsman and me, theoretically on lookout but really just there to keep the helmsman awake. It’s well after midnight and we’re away from major shipping lanes. We’re somewhere west of Colombia and we haven’t seen land or another vessel in at least a day (at least, not while I’ve been awake – four hours on, four hours off).
And then I see a light off the port bow. It’s far off and distant and under the sail, and therefore hard to keep track of, but it’s there. It isn’t moving. And it seems to flicker and dim but gradually I become aware it’s getting a little brighter, bit by bit. And then I realize it’s a boat, and it’s coming right for us, and by this time I can hear the engine and I yell to the helmsman: “Hard a-port.
(Yes, I used old-timey sailing talk in a crisis. I have no good explanation for this)
So we steer to the left, and the oncoming boat passes on the starboard bow. It’s less than 10 meters away, a big RIB with a massive outboard engine at the back travelling at full throttle. There’s enough light from the moon and our running lights to see that there’s only one person aboard, slumped upright over the steering column, and a load of fishing equipment in the back. Then it’s gone into the night, still travelling straight at maximum speed.
This was over ten years ago. To this day, I have no idea if that midnight fisherman was alive or dead, if he’d fallen asleep at the wheel or suffered a sudden heart attack or what. I don’t know if he powered on until the outboard ran out of fuel and was never seen again, or woke up five minutes later and steered back home. I don’t know what he was doing that far from the other fishing boats (we later saw other lights on the horizon and guessed that they were the fishing fleet), or whether he aimed for us deliberately or if it was sheer coincidence that brought him within spitting distance of our tiny boat in the empty sea. I still wonder sometimes.”
15. I found an abandoned hotel with an attic full of bats.
“(Serious) I was living in a dirt floor cabin for about 6 months. I would pack a lunch and hike out half a day in random directions. One day I found an abandoned hotel with an attic full of bats. The old kitchen was full of taxidermy. Not abandoned old taxidermy…current taxidermy, in various states of finish. There was a closet with stacks of dead birds, tools, woodworking tools and glass for the display cases, etc. I noped out of there in a hurry. I took my brother there later because he didn’t believe me…so I have a witness.”
16. I was scratching the head of a pretty big grey wolf.
“More mysterious than creepy. We were camping in Montana near Yellowstone park in a small campground. It was the off season and there were maybe 5 other people there, including a couple 3-4 spots down who had a large dog with them in their RV. I walked by and the dog was friendly so I petted it and talked to it and went on my way.
Later that night I am sitting watching the sun set and reading on my Kindle when a cold nose bumps up under my arm, like dog does when it wants attention. I figured it was the dog and started scratching its head. Before I could look around, my friend came around the corner and froze with a look of fright on his face. I was scratching the head of a pretty big grey wolf. I had no idea what to do, I didn’t want to keep touching it but I didn’t want to stop and piss it off either. I scratched for maybe 5-10 more seconds and it just looked at me like “Thanks, bro” and walked off into the woods. We went to a hotel that night…”
17. I start to feel the hair on my neck straighten out.
“Hunting on Thanksgiving, 2015.
I was at my in-laws’ house for Thanksgiving in NW Montana. They live about 60 miles south of the Canadian border. They are what I would call comfortable survivalists, and live waaayy off the grid. No TV. No cell reception, too far up in the mountains for that. Great people, just don’t like towns. (My wife was home schooled). You get the idea.
I decided I would go for a morning deer hunt on Thanksgiving. It’s a great location for it, as they are right in the middle of prime deer, elk, and bear country. Their house borders national forest land on 3 sides, so pretty easy to find yourself in the middle of nowhere, because you’re already there.
My FIL insists I leave the house at the butt-crack of dawn. (Where I hunt, the deer don’t start moving around until 8 to 9 am.) But of course, I agree with him and head out before light.
I’ve got a head lamp on, walking down a narrow trail in thick coverage and can see about 10ish feet in front of me. It’s super cold but no snow. Dark as hell. 20 miles from the nearest town. FIL says before I left that about 20-25 minutes hike you’ll come to a small curved valley that is a newly finished logging project. Perfect area for deer hunting as there is minimal coverage and you can see about a mile down the valley.
The trail meets up with a rugged logging road. As I keep walking I can start to see large slash piles from this logging project all over the place. I find a good spot over this little valley to sit and listen.
As I’m sitting there and it’s getting light, I’m looking all around me for deer. To my right about 200 yards away there is a slash pile with something moving on or around it. I pull out my little binoculars and look. There is a deer with its legs in the air, covered in dirt and blood. I start to feel the hair on my neck straighten out. The deer disappears inside the pile of branches and then I see a mountain lion come out from the pile, nose red with blood. He scrapes all around the area for a few minutes. I’m guessing he smelled or sensed me, because he was walking around in little circles and looking up in the air. I didn’t know what the hell to do. I kind of panicked because they are very territorial and will definitely attack people. So me being the cool guy I am, fired my gun in the air and walked back to my in-laws’ place in circles. I did see the lion run off, but still. That was the scariest walk I’ve ever been on!
And of course played it cool when I got back. Told my wife what happened that night.”
18. Elk are a lot bigger and menacing when you’re by your lonesome and they are within arm’s length of you.
“Falling asleep in my hammock while on a backpacking trip only to wake up in the middle of the night surrounded by dark moving objects. Flicked my headlamp on to reveal a small heard of elk now standing stock still staring at a very confused/frightened human with a light on its head. They all held that position for several seconds then bolted. Elk are a lot bigger and menacing when you’re by your lonesome and they are within arm’s length of you.”
