4 DISTURBING Forest Service Stories | Darkness Prevails

working for the Forest Service is a tough job people do some sketchy things in the woods so there's no telling what kind of people you might run into better yet it's not just people you have to worry about there are dangerous animals out there like bears moose coyotes and wolves that are sometimes ready to end your whole career but if you venture too deep into the woods you start seeing creatures and entities that aren't of this world things that will drive you insane if not in your life here are four disturbing forest rangers stories if you have a story of your own shared with us at dark stories org for a chance to have it narrated the lost hiker from an anonymous 4chan user I'm a forest ranger for a large amount of dense wooded forest just north of the US border at 1200 hours one day and I just signed on to my shift I got a call on the radio for a ten forty nine which is a missing person in my area apparently they were last seen wearing a sweatshirt hiking shorts and a red backpack they had been missing for two days now but was just now reported I mount up fuel up and head out onto the area he was last known to be I cruised for about an hour and a half then decided it would be a good idea to start out on foot as he wouldn't be on any service roads otherwise I would have seen him by now surely but first I made sure to notify dispatch to send an additional unit I waited for half an hour until backup arrived the guy who showed up was a good guy and I enjoyed working with them so we headed up onto a trail that's known for people getting lost a bit of a hot spot if you will because halfway up it splits and goes further into the woods instead of curving around and heading back toward the service area people get confused here often thinking that it will lead back when it doesn't but usually they make it back or we find them we hike in for about an hour calling out the person's name keeping an eye out for clues or signs I wind around a bend and find the remnants of a campsite I shot out for my partner to come over then start shouting for the missing gentleman again my partner doesn't come though I go back around the corner and now my partner isn't there I tried the radio I wait a minute for a reply but there is none well crap I think I begin to inspect the campsite it's fairly recent within a week I think but there are no new footprints or indents in the mud surrounding the fire pit except what appears to be from animals I decide to wait for my partner to come back he may have gotten lost himself I tried the radio again after a while officer again there's no response I began to look around the trees listening for any sounds out of the ordinary I wait for maybe another 45 minutes for my partner while walking it a little circle around the campsite but my partner still doesn't show up of course I'm beginning to get worried I go back around the bend in the trail past a little rock outcropping I head back the way we came in and I'm looking for any sign of my partner now as I come up onto the trail I hear footsteps up ahead of me boots on a rocky path I immediately go to my radio and try again officer but still nothing so I run up ahead to get a good look at whoever is on the trail there's a guy in with a red backpack he seems to be walking strangely no swing to his arms when he goes kinda like you would do if you were pretending to be a robot excuse me sir what's your name I'm 20 feet behind him by this point sir he seems to be ignoring me still walking weird like that Hey he finally stops and turns around lightning fast it kind of startles me I asked him if he's the person we've been looking for but instead of replying not ibly he just stares at me I see it again asking if he has the same name as the person we're looking for but he still doesn't speak he does not his head though slowly I'm relieved we've been looking for you let's head back to the trailhead another 40 minutes go by and he's oddly quiet we reached the trailhead mine and my partner's vehicles are still there now I'm going to put you in the back of my truck you're not under arrest just relax and catch your breath okay once he's back there I go to the radio and I try again calling for the other officer but this time through the speaker this is officers sorry for not responding I was out of range got separated one of the trail Forks what I remember thinking I reply that can't be right I've got the missing hiker he is in the back of my truck right now there's silence for a couple of minutes before he comes back lock the truck and grab the 12-gauge from my Jeep why I ask just do it don't let her sight all right then I unlock his Jeep and grab the 12-gauge inspecting it to see if there's a round in the chamber I calmly walk over to the truck and peek in through the window but the man I just put in there is gone and the cage that surrounds the backseat was severely damaged bent and the driver's side door is open I swing around the other side of my truck and peer into the cab but there's no one there I closed the door and climb into the bed sitting on the roof for the hour and a half ready to see anything and anyone and utterly terrified until finally my partner comes back with the injured hiker he looks at me you let it go what do you mean by it I asked but he just gives me a passing I'll tell you later he never did tell me after we got back to the station even if I was dying inside to know what he was talking about I would later talk to that partner as we were both on the same service road again one day and assigned to the same area I asked him about that odd incident a few months back I had pulled up next to his Jeep as he was filling out some paperwork hey how's the shift so far a couple of idiot kids decided to get drunk out there some of them even going at it if you know what I mean but nothing too serious he answers so about that incident we had a month ago I've been trying to figure it out and it just keeps confusing me you never really told me what it was or why you had me lock my truck and grab a 12-gauge he clicks his pin frantically all of a sudden then puts it back in his pocket closing his citation buck well it's not something that he need to know about and be in your best interest to keep your nose clean of it from now on you got it come on dude don't scare me with that g-man secret agent bullcrap just explained what he thought it was he looks at me solemnly from just below the brim of his ball cap after a long silence he speaks it's been here longer than before I took this job I used to live around these parts and at night I'd always hear my neighbors voices calling my name or the family dog barking when the dog was on my bed now I was interested but dispatch suddenly interrupted us with a report about kids firing pellets at animals and when we were done with that there was a call about someone breaking their leg then I had to patrol campgrounds and hiking trails I was just too busy to get any more out of them so that's all I was able to get but if I see him again I'll keep asking because otherwise I'm going to go crazy with curiosity and maybe fear what kind of bear was that from an anonymous 4chan user so I was hiking the Pacific Coast Trail this last week heading south towards Crater Lake near Lake Mido and as I cut across one of the other trails a couple of Forest Service guys hiked up from the east what is clearly an Elio and full kit with an ar-10 the other guy isn't Elio but he's got a rucksack covered in smoke canisters and carrying a massive saw with teeth an inch deep an odd sight to say the least as we're about to pass each other they stopped me they asked me how I'm doing and then they asked me if I had seen anything odd around here and I tell them I'm just hiking the Pacific Coast Trail and admit that I haven't seen anything weird of note lately but I asked them why they asked that they say something about a problem bear near one of the upper lakes that they've been chasing off with pepper grenades and to watch out since I'm alone out here I shrug and thank them for the info as I keep hiking I set up my camp a mile or so down the trail a bit after dark I hear these shots ring out they're coming from the west all night every couple of hours I hear these shots slowly circling around along the west to the south I don't get any sleep a bit before dawn I hear another volley of shots and a horrendous noise to the east honestly sounded like a pig getting stuck a really big one the noise stops a bit after dawn I climb out of my tent and begin to pack then I start hiking south I can smell this disgusting smelling smoke like half rotted meat and copper blowing in from the South the two Forest Service guys wander up from the east the Elio is pack is significantly lighter than before the guy with the saw has one smoker Nate left and the saw is now covered with black liquid I asked what the heck was going on all night but the guy with the saw just gives me the smug grin then says a bear the Elio nods in affirmation and adds it was just a bear don't worry about it we took care of it they're giving me no F's about the smell or the black crap on the saw that looked like it was smouldering they asked me if I needed anything and then wished me luck on the rest of my hike I couldn't get any good sleep for the rest of the trip though what on earth were they hunting out there and why couldn't they be honest about it it was very odd the kid from an anonymous 4chan user I was going camping with this group of about 10 to 15 people for some voluntary forest service and Ranger work there were only four other people around my age though the rest Rai they're really young around 13 to 15 or in their late 40s the four others I was with were pretty good friends of mine we usually didn't get much sleep whenever we were spending a weekend together the trip lasted for three days it was spring break and I hadn't slept the night before but I was used to going on known to little sleep so I had no problem when one of our four suggested that we go on a hike we decided to go in pretty late at night so none of the youngsters would follow us in unfortunately our plan did not work so we ended up with an entire pack of teenagers following us we had an obligation to watch them too because three vents of us were volunteers we really didn't have a choice now that they were with us that being said we decided to make it short we would take them on a pretty rough hike so they wouldn't come with us whenever we went hiking the next time this ended up being a bad idea we got split up into several groups I stayed with one group with one of my friends we had decided to go down a trail where we had spotted some deer earlier a deer ended up scaring one of the girls who screamed at the top of her lungs and was being skittish about everything out there and it was kind of irritating needless to say the hike was ruined we ended up quite far from the camp and while there were a bunch of annoying teens with us we were convinced that one of the kids from the other group was in the forest trying to scare us because several points during the night we heard rustling all around us and we kept hearing this same eerie scream deep in the woods which sounded like the girl who screamed earlier about the deer just like it anyway we got back to camp and told the kids to shut up and go to bed they were being loud the entire hike and I was done dealing with it we all set up base next to this trail that led into the woods we stayed there for several hours before morning and none of us were able to sleep when the big guy who left to hunt some deer joined us I began discussing with him how the deer seemed abnormally large out here he turned to me with a serious look on his face and said those weren't deer I almost got right next to one and all I could see were its eyes and it wasn't moving it was almost as big as me now keep in mind this guy was about six foot seven and he's one of those heavyset guys who looks like he could kill a man with one punch and he seemed very spooked about this I thought he was just messing around with me so I dismissed it fast forward to the next night the previous hike took too much Vitolo on the teens saved two of them one of them was this loud check and I didn't mind having her around as much as the other kid the other was a complete idiot he was loud annoying and had a sense of humor equivalent to that unfunny eel meme he tried making jokes every minute there was never a moment of silence with this kid this time only the big guy and the two teens were with us we decided to go see some sights this time apparently when a few of them had gone camping before they had found the secret room next to an old fort type building while we were headed for that room the idiot kid got separated from us somehow don't ask he seemed to just wander off with his flashlight we ended up finding him and he got scolded for being stupid and wandering off at 1 a.m. when he didn't know the area instead of being whiny like he usually was he stayed completely silent in fact he seemed to just stare off in a daze at this point we hadn't snapped for two days and for me I was going on three I talked it all up to him being tired and not being able to handle the hike later on I would find out that the kid had slept the night before because I saw him go into his tent and crash with most of the teenagers the other girl hadn't however so we go back to the fort and head up to the top room and the chick decided to have a nap there but the whole way back that dumb kid was walking really awkwardly he looked like a freaking baby horse not to mention he was being completely silent and still on some occasions one of us had to walk behind him to make sure he didn't fall over onto rocks anyway when we got to that top room and a chick fell asleep the kid laid down and fell asleep immediately after we didn't mind they were 13 and 14 and they couldn't handle it as well as we could the rest of us entertained ourselves by making shadow puppets for two hours and at the end of it we were all kind of dozing off by then we were all in quiet sleep-deprived but I was the most alert out of the group probably because I was still sitting up and trying to keep watch at about 3 a.m. the kid stands up out of nowhere and the other guys snap out of it because we're thinking the heck is he doing now he starts stumbling toward me in this awkward jakie movement fashion and I'm standing there thinking he's going to freaking fall on me so I tell him to sit back down then the others join in and command him to do as I said at this point he starts twitching backwards and there's a Ledge not too far from him were yelling at him to sit down because he could fall off the big guy friend of mine is about to stand up and so am I so that this kid doesn't hurt himself but then he starts whimpering like he's trying to talk and I have no idea what the kid is trying to say and then his voice doesn't sound normal at all he collapses back down and just goes right back to sleep utterly confused we tried to not think about it we were tired after all so we decided to go back to camp then so we wake up the girl and say it's time to go as we try to wake the kid up though he won't budge my first thought is he's unconscious like had fainted instead of falling asleep but the big guy tries picking him up and he ends up standing up on his own then but still he's not moving normally so the big guy has to pretty much carry the tired boy back down along with his bag all the way to the truck we came in it wasn't too far the rest of us got our stuff and we got in now when the kid tries to get in the truck he twitches backward before getting in it was at this point that I noticed that he was really bruised up not on his head much just on his arms he didn't have those bruises the night before he's still being quiet so I checked his forehead to make sure he didn't have a fever plus I was sure that he hadn't done any sort of substance because the program we were volunteering on is one of those churchy drug-free programs so I have no idea what the heck was wrong with them when we get back to camp he gets out leaves his bag and his flashlight which was weird because he was being so pissy before about anyone touching his stuff he goes off toward the edge of the campsite his tent wasn't over there though but we don't care at this point because we think he's probably just taking a piss or something and back at the site after all he's not a responsibility anymore everyone else goes to sleep but me and the big guys stay awake for a bit discussing what happened with the weird kid as we were discussing it and analyzing the situation it just got more and more eerie and at one point he mentioned that while the kid was standing up all the crickets and crap would go quiet in the background I haven't noticed at the time we decided to keep watch though as we hadn't seen any sign of the kid coming back yet about half an hour later he decided that he needed his phone to keep track of the time and I needed a pee break so we left our watch he took my flashlight because it was brighter than has and I took the kids flashlight because I wasn't going that far before we went our separate ways he set his flashlight down on the bed of our friend's truck and as I headed back though I saw a few flashes from what I thought was my flashlight and it was just some flickering like someone was turning it on and off it was him signaling me where he was so he set back down and resumed our watch barely even a few minutes later he realized that his flashlight was missing we searched for it and turned up with nothing I told him to use my flashlight then but we were both pretty alert at this point 10 minutes later his dog which he left at the campsite while we were hiking lifts up his head and starts growling at the ones I'm watching that side because we were both keeping an eye on each other's blind sides when I look over to where the dog was growling I see flickering in the woods these woods are about 50 feet from our current locations so I let him know about it now we're both staring at this flickering in the woods and we realize that it looks similar to the beam of his flashlight and it's going on and off like it was signaling us I then realized that the forest was silent again we just sat there and watched it because screw investigating something weird like that it stopped fifteen minutes later while after that my friend decided that he needed to get some sleep because he would be driving back the next day and I said alright and bid him goodnight I was going to stay up and patrol a bit so I do it was called as heck out there though and I was armed with nothing but a flashlight and a small ax by 4:50 a.m. nothing else had happened but it wasn't until the next day but the idiot k2 came back he hadn't come from his tent either he just walked right out of the woods as if he'd been there all night doing god knows what someone told him to get in one of the cars and he just went in and said there while some other people had to pack up his stuff for him no one else seemed to notice his weird speaking because everyone was busy packing their stuff and loading it up when we got back I headed home immediately to shower and get some sleep the next time I would go back for more volunteer work the kid wasn't there and the thing was ever since I'd started volunteering there the kid was there the kid had always attended but not this time and not one time since I have no idea what happened to a not in those ones but I have a feeling that the kid that came out of that forest was not the same kid that went in Ranger from Liam I worked for the Colorado Rangers as a seasonal Ranger and I took my job quite seriously I had done this many times before and it was a good way to enjoy the place and the nature around here I worked around the Rocky Mountain area well it was a cold summer night and we had a call about some fireworks around the West I set out and expected for it to just be some kids messing around but I was wrong and my life was about to change for the worse I made it to the campsite but it was empty by the time I arrived I looked around the area but could see nothing just when I was about to leave I heard footsteps behind me I could tell that whoever it was they were trying to stay hidden I turned around quickly but saw no one I began to walk away again as I'm walking up the small trail i catched someone in the corner of my eye I still remember the haunting image in my head I turn only to see a dark figure that I could only barely make out the guy was in a hockey mask wearing a brown coat with the great big axe lifted over his head after about 10 seconds of a stare-off he pulled it back further and began to run at me this guy was about 6 4 and I'm 511 a scared and quickly pulled my pistol and with one loud bang he fell over lifeless with a wound in his head I had killed a man turns out this may have been a prank his family was upset and pressed charges but I got off as it was obviously self-defense I don't think the kid knew that's forest rangers are officially law enforcement and carry weapons besides you shouldn't be playing those types of pranks on people if you do you should know that this might happen forest rangers have the creepiest jobs looking out for funny business in the woods but what they find is rarely ever funny it's horrific people go missing people turn up dead people who do return are never the same because out there in those deep woods they see and encounter things that we don't want to remember good night if you enjoyed this episode of darkness prevails be sure to like share comment and subscribe if you want your story narrated shared with us at dark stories org if you want to support the show check the links below you can donate on patreon or buy some merchandise now as usual here my five favorite early comments from the previous video about five haunted forest encounters the hunter 1277 says time to go camping who wants to go I'm all in my friend I'll bring my thousand cameras we can attach two trees to make sure we catch anything creepy ain't given any of those dang deer any privacy Sam Porter says gotta love this also I have a doppelganger story I want to submit do it so I can read it I love doppelganger stories they're so similar to this deep woods stuff and it's always creepy when the monster looks like someone you know Sam and trivia says finally I'm able to get a comment in the next video love the stories man well that's not really how it works I read the ones that are easy to reply to who are early but I'll reply to this just because I don't want you to feel bad the rebel outlaw 45 ACP says thanks for the videos darkness I just finished a deployment to Syria where I would download your videos and listen to them at night to help me sleep hey thanks for your service and I'm glad I could help at all while you were over there I know these scary stories are nothing compared to what you can encounter while out on deploy especially in times of war and Michael Bates says hey darkness everything about doing some horror stories on spiders heck yeah I want to do a video on scary insect stories soon because I've seen several accounts of people seeing giant insects I mean bugs are creepy so that shouldn't be too hard well that brings us to the end of this darkness prevails episode but don't you worry more scary stories are on the way soon so stay tuned until next time here are the credits to my patrons who continue to donate they're amazing people remember stay safe out there and stay creepy because this world is a strange one [Music]

Channel: Darkness Prevails

Views: 177,837

Rating: 4.8348985 out of 5

Keywords: forest service, forest service stories, forest ranger, national forest, national forest stories, national park, national park stories, park ranger, park ranger stories, park service, forest, woods, the forest, the woods, into the forest, into the woods, haunted forest, deep woods, backwoods, survival stories, wilderness, wilderness survival, bushcraft, camping stories, hiking stories, hiking, camping, horror stories, scary stories, darkness prevails, search and rescue

Id: WbzF7dC7LcA

Length: 30min 40sec (1840 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2019