8 True Scary Hiking / Backpacking Horror Stories

about nine months ago me my partner had just bought a new six month old boxer doc to keep our three year old Labrador company and decided it would be a good idea to take them for a walk in the countryside we live close to a large city called hall in northeast England and decided to go for the walk an auroral ish area north of the river Humber that ran through to the sea upon getting to a village close to a local landmark a world war two army fort we decided to walk close by and through the small patches of forest close to the Nature Reserve we walked along a grass bunker toward the forest and suddenly my partner pointed out two young men had began walking up the bank from the woods and a diagonal manner as if they were trying to cut us off from close by I wondered if the young men were attending some sort of World War 2 reenactment as they were both wearing camouflage pants and were also covered in dust and dirt I thought nothing of them both as I was sure that they would pass us by but as they grew closer it appeared they were aiming ly walking towards us there were at least 10 feet away when they stopped and one of them spoke up the way he spoke still bothers me to this day as he seemed to have a disregard for manners or even trying to make sense the young man wanted to know where we were planning on walking and we told him we were not really sure and would just see where we ended up the young man looked disappointed by this and suggested we take his route which went through the forest to what he described as a great place to sightsee and sit as there were benches to sit down while the young man was telling us about this the other boy kept watch of our two dogs almost constantly as if he wanted to make sure they were always in his sight at all time we didn't have much knowledge of this area and had not seen any other dog walkers so we took the young man's advice too after they pointed to an opening in the woods and so we walked on the woods cast out about 30% of the sunlight and as I looked back I saw that the young man had not walked off but were watching us walk into the forest the track looked as though it was man-made as it seemed to be the only walkable area throughout that forest about two minutes into the trek our Labrador began sniffing behind a burrow Bush which at first we thought nothing of is both dogs sniff everywhere that can we walk them but however she began sniffing in one spot and rolling on the floor we went over to her and Sasha began sniffing some sort of shattered rubber pig mask with brown red liquid on it it looked disgusting and my partner forced the dog away from it as it looked as though flies were crawling all around it further into the walk the woods had turned into a long path of trees and bushes that become very narrow but we could see a turn far ahead and we agreed that if it led nowhere we would turn back I walked ahead and was saw my phone preparing to take a photo of the woods so when I felt several small pricks in my neck chin and part of my face I let out a gasp to alert my partner and he told me to stand still an alarmed way followed by him carefully removing thin pieces of string away from my face as it turned out someone had timed fishing hooks on lines to a tree in the walkway it's safe to say that we were both terrified confused and angry after this point and hurried back to the car and left back to home I don't want to sound cliche or anything but as we drove off I swear I could see something through the back mirror peeking out into the road [Music] last year I was hiking Shenandoah Virginia it was a plan to day hiking trip myself and two friends late into the first day one of my friends grew ill and decided to turn back the second friend joined him just in case it got worse they told me to go on and seeing as I'd been looking forward to the trip I did as evening approached I came upon a clearing into the forest on a table surrounded by tools and several cans of spray paint was an elaborate dollhouse it was large perhaps three feet tall its walls and windows were open as if it had just been built and was drying that lingering smell of spray paint still hung in the air around it on the back of the house a photo had been affixed it was a family picture Oh perhaps taken in the 80s everyone in the picture looked very uncomfortable like they didn't want to be taking the picture or were forced to not scared just very uncomfortable I left it and continued on so that I might reach my planned campsite by nightfall the wind had picked up considerably and the distance I heard a branch give and fall crashing to the forest floor startling me I found my campsite but was a bit unnerved by the dollhouse in the middle of nowhere I realized I didn't want to camp out in the open and where whoever was working when it might stumble upon me I had one of those little one-person tents that stand just tall enough for a person to lay down in I set it up behind a thick stand of brush one side blocked off by a tall stand of rocks that was glad for this because not only was I now hidden but the rocks effectively blocked the heavy winds which had now turned cold as the frigid air tumbled down from the mountains at night the sound of wind turned forest was relaxing and I think I fell asleep right away have you ever been awoken by a loud sound and you're unsure what it is exactly but some remnants of it echoes in your mind for a moment after waking that's what happened to me some time later in the pitch dark I had the sensation that someone was near I listened intently trying to hear over the wind I heard a man's voice somewhere in the distance harsh rapid then becoming softer it was too far away from me to discern what he was saying but close enough that I could hear inflection and cadence that sounded like a crazy person scolding himself then his voice became softer answering as I listened his voice grew louder and louder and so I could hear his clumsy footfalls crashing towards me he walked by where I was camped just several feet away from the brush that concealed me by now my eyes had adapted somewhat to the pale moonlight but I still couldn't make out anything more than a large massive shape he was probably about 6 6 heavily built he was carrying something long beneath his arm a rolled-up tent I guessed he was angrily talking about someone's face and how it haunted him his voice then became childlike and his conversation with himself turned to the topic of cheese and crackers the dude was clearly off his rocker after a moment he continued on his voice receding until I could no longer hear him I slept little at night afterward at first light I booked it back the way I came back to town and I noted that the dollhouse was not in the clearing when I passed back by [Music] so this happened a few years ago I believe it was a summer going into my junior year of high school I had been going to sleepover camps since I was very young and that summer was no exception however I was in a different option of camp this year where I would be hiking the Appalachian Trail for two weeks as opposed to staying on the campgrounds this was a new experience for me but I was very excited because I'm an adventurous person so on this trip was me the two female counselors and nine other girls this happened a few days after our trip began so we were still getting to know each other a little more but we were also pretty comfortable around each other we stopped her lunch around this water fountain our spot was on the trail but just happened to be by a portion of the trail where a road went through while we were eating we all noticed one of those stereotypical creeper vans driving back and forth in the same portion of the road none of us really said anything but we all noticed it after about five minutes of this van driving back and forth it pulled onto the trail close to where we were eating it just sat there I guess we all figured the driver was lost or was looking for a bathroom because none of us said anything about it finally a man got out of the car ran up to us and started screaming does anyone know CPR my half-brother has the shakes immediately our two counselors got up and ran to his van and they were gone for a few minutes and we started getting suspicious people began saying I could have sworn I saw his van drive by a few times and if it was an emergency why would he take the time to say half brother our counselors finally came back with these blank looks on their face we began asking him a bunch of questions but they wouldn't talk this man walked up to us with these weird puppet things who was one of those plastics statues people put on their porch for Halloween only there was no bowl full of candy he began asking us questions but no one answered we just kept eating our lunch in silence in a creepy way he said my puppet likes girls he also told us his puppet could talk and press the button on its foot I guess he got the hint because he went back to his car and sat there for what seemed to be an eternity he just sat there with his door open blasting music eventually left and quickly packed up her bags and booked it out of there no it wasn't outright scary but it was just the first part of some very strange occurrences on that day we continued our hike down the Appalachian Trail we talked about the creepy man we encountered for a while and then began sharing scary stories until we reached our campsite once we reached the campsite we set up our tents and we're just hanging out we reached the campsite pretty early that day so there was plenty of daylight left being a group of teenage girls we got bored easily and began walking around the campsite we flirted with a group of boys until they got bored of us and eventually left then we decided to play a game called elephants and gazelles and the premise of the game is unimportant but the game is best played with large group of people and it just so happens that three guys walk over to our group to introduce themselves not the guys we previously were flirting with since they came over and seemed friendly one of the girls in the group decided to invite them to play and this is when things got weird during breaks in the game people would share personal stories and just get to know each other more even us girls who have been talking nonstop for a few days out of nowhere one of the guys reveals that two of them are trans when you put it out that I have absolutely no problem with people changing their genders and believe people have the right to openly be who they are but I just had to put that out there because I think it's weird not that they are trans just that it came out of nowhere they then began to talk about how they are trying to start their own reality show about three trans men who live in New York and the third member of their group who is not trans will just pretend to be on the show again I just thought it was weird that they brought it up out of nowhere I just found it kind of strange especially since we barely knew them later in the game I guess they were talking amongst themselves and start laughing loudly in the one shouts that's funny because your dad is in jail I think everyone is just getting kind of uncomfortable at this point to break the ice I suppose one of the girls begins telling them the story of the creepy puppet man we encountered earlier in the day they start laughing and tell us it's their uncle who dropped them off earlier in the day eventually they said they were tired and were returning to the tent for the evening we were all relieved and went on with whatever it was we did later when a few girls went to the bathroom they walked past their tent on the way to the bathroom they said that they heard them singing Justin Timberlake songs and on the way back they heard one of the guys yell tickle fight it rained very hard that night the next morning we woke up in their tent was nowhere in sight we were very surprised because we typically got up around sunrise right before we left the campsite I saw a piece of paper folded up on a stump near our tent it read we got rained on and Peter our pants and we will miss all of you the great friendships we had heart the creepy guys who get no respect I guess I just don't know what was worse the fact that they were just weird and told us all of those things for no reason or that they were related to that creepy puppet guy [Music] I'm a 33 year old female from Los Angeles three years ago my boyfriend and I as planned for five years turned 30 sold everything we owned including my car took his Trailblazer and decided to just travel around the states in Canada I guess you could call us backpackers as we tend to chase good weather find a state park and back country hiking to the wilderness for a few days at time my brother likes to joke that we are anti-establishment hippies we don't necessarily live off the grid but between the two of us we have one prepaid phone we use for emergencies or checking in with family and friends and one Macbook which i use for work i'm a freelance writer and content creator and I am on retainer with a robotics company I mostly write boring white papers on web content the whole point of our living situation is to live debt-free and have as few bills as possible I only use free Wi-Fi so one to two times a week we have to go to a city with a Starbucks this background info is only important so you know more about who we are and how simply we live neither of us is involved with social media and know very little about different programs like Instagram or using the apps last summer we decided to do some back country hiking in Arkansas it's one of those states you don't ever really hear about other hikers visiting but we read that it had some beautiful natural landscapes and it does the rules of this particular park were pretty lacks we didn't need a permit there were a few basic laws and guidelines but there was no check-in needed we had all the basics and had planned to do a six-day hike 3n3 out the whole time we were out there we didn't see or hear another soul but on one day we were prepping to move off trail and find a camping spot as it was getting near dusk 1/2 mile off trail is usually the standard for us we took what looked like kind of an animal trail and about half a mile out we saw a green two-person tent it was almost camouflaged in the foliage so we came on it almost by accident some backpackers prefer privacy others are more social were the more social type we've had some great experiences camping near other backpackers sharing stories food and just building relationships around thirty yards away from the tent there was zip closed so my boyfriend shouted a greeting to make our presence known no movement and no sound we assumed green tent guy either wasn't around or didn't want to be bothered so we started off in a new direction to get some distance between us we camped never heard a peak they moved along the next morning completely forgetting about green tent guy until nearing the end of the day five on our trek back we were again looking for a spot to camp off the trail when we came up to the green tent again this isn't that unusual but normally backcountry hikers keep moving so we really weren't expecting it the tent flap was opened so my boyfriend yells is greeting again and nothing my boyfriend wants to go check it out saying it's weird and maybe someone is hurt I didn't like the idea from the gecko because even though we hadn't had any bad experiences personally we've heard enough stories from other backpackers about Hermits and mountain men that want privacy carry guns etc but my boyfriend assured me that we'd be fine and if all else fails offer him some smokeable x' to keep the peace and we'd go on her way as soon as we get within 20 yards of the place the smell of decomposition is intense my boyfriend has been hailing his greeting over the last twenty yards and once the smell hits him he stops and turns and says to me if we find a body my skin crawled I was immediately afraid I have never seen a body before and don't want to the closer we got to the tent the worse the smell got I knew for sure we were going to walk in and see some old campers rotting corpse what we found was worse than that outside the tent was a dead dose legs all four of them covered in flies it looked like the legs have been cut most of the way and then ripped off the rest of the way it was a mess inside was the body and head of the deer but the middle portion was swaddled in a blue fleece blanket that was blood-soaked at the bottom where the legs used to be it was lying on its side bottom facing the tent entry the tail had been cut off and the orifices were covered in dried blood in a gape like something had been penetrating it the same with its mouth the bottom portion was bent down in the scary broken looking angle the tent was opened so we could see everything without having to go inside not that we could have anyway because at this point the smell was almost debilitating there was a dirty almost empty clear bottle of Jergens baby oil and a stained green and white fringe - kitchen towel that was it I immediately started crying and begged him to go all my boyfriend could muster was what in God's name and we turned and ran we ran into the trail and dropped down for as far as we could until dusk was fully on us and we had to set up camp we didn't go very far off the trail and neither of us left we didn't start a fire or use headlamps after full dark we just sat up whispering to each other going over and over what we had just seen every little noise startled us it was like our brains were on red alert I kept thinking that at any moment this dead deer having man would come back to his tent see our footprints or something know where we were and track us back to our tent I've never been so scared in my entire life just before dawn we tore down and started out my boyfriend stopped at the ranger station on our way back out of the park to report what we had just seen the Ranger was a young guy around her age and he looked as freaked out by her story as we were telling it he wrote most of it down and my boyfriend showed him on a map approximately where it had been we asked if he knew how the deer was killed and at that point we hadn't even thought about it we just assumed it had been shot but because of the blanket we didn't see a wound but we weren't exactly giving it an autopsy either we have since shortened our backcountry hikes to a maximum of four days we've also been a lot less eager to call out to other campsites and had never approached another unmanned tent again this happened about six years ago I was about 12 and my brother was 26 at the time my brother had been serving in the US Army for several years when this happened and was deploying to the Middle East on a second deployment if I remember correctly also of note was that he is a green beret and had recently three or four months prior to this trip completed the Army's Special Forces qualification course Robin sage and all that and by then was an active duty Special Forces engineer sergeant definitely not someone he want to mess around with given that we both grew up with a passion for the outdoors he thought it would be nice to take me on a backpacking trip in northern Alabama the Sipsey wilderness for those unfamiliar with the area before he left for nine months the trip agun smoothly up until the third night we were camping out around 8 p.m. we had our camp set up eating dinner and were sitting by the fire talking about typical boy crap like guns and girls for some reference our spot was about 50 yards from a large stream and about 50 yards downhill adjacent to the large path our camp the stream and the path formed triangle of sorts this is summertime in Alabama so it wasn't quite dark yet when two guys who looked to be in their late 20s wandered up and asked if we had seen any hogs while we were hiking around given that this is rural Alabama we actually had seen some farther into the wilderness area and told them so even though they were relatively polite my brother called them good old boys I got a seriously creepy vibe from them dirty clothes greasy hair scraggly facial hair etc I think they probably looked like they belonged in the movie deliverance they kind of hung out for a few minutes maybe a little longer than they should have looking around asking us questions like how long we been out there how long we were staying and what looked like them kind of sizing us up they then abruptly said goodbye and walked away I didn't necessarily feel threatened by them and I know for sure my brother didn't but I still felt uneasy about the whole thing fast forward three or four hours my brother and I had gone to sleep and were nestled in our tent when I woke up to the sound of multiple dogs barking I've always been a heavy sleeper and they sounded like they were only about a hundred yards away my heart immediately started pounding and I kicked my brother through my sleeping bag and asked if he was awake and had heard the docs he responded I'm awake I've been getting closer for the past hour so just lay still and don't make any sounds needless to say 12-year old me was about to crap my pants we would also hear sporadic shouts from several different sources but neither came any closer a few minutes later my brother whispered they're just hunting for Hawks the use of dogs to pin them down and then the shoot him this gave me some relief but not much somehow I managed to fall back asleep the factum that were doing this at night was a huge red flag my brother later told me but I think he was just trying to calm me down fast-forward what was probably another three hours around 2:00 a.m. I had managed to sleep pretty well after first hearing the hog hunters when I woke up to my brother's squeezing my shoulder firmly saying wake up put his shoes on quick and follow me be as quiet as you can my heart immediately went back to racing because I heard the dogs and voices in the distance farther away than before but still distinct not asking any questions I did what he said and as soon as we were out of the tent he told me to get on his back this was a breeze for him after rocking with God who knows how much weight in the army we snuck about 50 yards into the woods towards the junction of the path and a stream and crawled into some bushes it was up the hill so we had a pretty good elevated view of our campsite and remember as we were laying there how loudly I was breathing and how quiet he was when I heard the very distinct sound of a pistol slide racking I looked over and my brother had his pistol in HK USP that he gave to me a few years after the story took place and was watching the campsite and surrounding area I started to whisper to him when he put his hand over my mouth and pointed to the campsite the group of hunters had been steadily approaching our camp and by this time 30 or some minutes and reached it there were five of them and like three or four dogs they all looked relatively young but two had either rifles or shotguns and the dogs were going crazy obviously having smelled our scent for those of you who are backpackers and campers nobody who comes up on a random campsite in the middle with dogs and guns as good intentions I knew this and my brother knew this I was scared out of my mind I couldn't make out what they were saying but my brother later told me they were talking about us although he hadn't heard any specifics either they lingered for about 20 minutes shining flashlights around and talking to themselves my brother put his mouth to my ear and said they come towards I want you to turn and run as quickly as you can don't stop don't look back stay off the trail and look for the flashing lights I didn't know what he meant by this but that'll come later I knew I could make it back because he taught me land nav pretty well he then handed me a flashlight and told me not to take the red filter off he told me later the red filter helps preserve night vision and cuts down ambient light so it would be harder for someone to see from a distance at this point I was so scared I almost started crying but at the same time had a rush of adrenaline and what I think was now confidence that he thought I could handle myself we laid there for a little while longer when out of nowhere they started screaming where are y'all at and firing into the woods at random my brother dragged me behind the crest of the hill and threw himself on top of me thankfully because of our position on top of the hill we were protected from any gunfire a shot maybe five or six more times and then started walking back the direction they had come they got maybe a hundred yards away when I heard a blaring siren and saw emergency lights flashing through the woods turns out my brother had called the Forest Service Office on a satellite phone my family had for emergencies while I was asleep and they had sent our Forest Service officers and game wardens to our area of the wilderness and the Sipsey wilderness is about 25,000 acres in size so it took them a while to get there on the dirt roads and we saw the game warden truck my brother signaled them with the light and pointed them in the direction the hunters had gone and the guy sped off shining his spotlight through the woods as soon as they were all gone we went back to our camp packed up our stuff and waited by the pack for the game warden to come back who then gave us a ride in his truck bed back to the main staging area on the drive back my brother told me how brave I had been and that we would talk about it with our parents the next day if I wanted to I asked them not to do that because I thought they might never let me go camping again my friend was solo hiking the Appalachian Trail now for those of you who don't know this is a fairly popular trail and there is a whole community built up around it with beer and food made available a popular camping spots in fact another friend met his wife while he was solo hiking the trail so knowing about the sense of community my friend believed that she would be safe on her trek for the first 3 or 4 nights she camped with different groups of people she met along the way and everything was fine the Campton told stories strengths and beers smoked made s'mores you know the cliche camping activities the first night she decided to stop and camp at a spot without anyone nearby and was kind of weird she was a little nervous but wrote it off his nerves and the fact that she had such a good time surrounded by those other people she spends the next three nights camping by herself in each night the feelings of nervousness were getting worse and worse it crystallized into a feeling that something was watching her she also thinks that some of her things aren't in the exact place in the morning that she had left them the night before but isn't sure about that the feeling gets so real that she purposely makes her camp with other people for the next couple nights feeling silly about it she camps by herself again the next night she doesn't know why but the feeling is back and so severe that she calls off her attempt to solo the trail at the next town she makes it home and makes up an excuse about spraining her ankle because she feels so ridiculous about calling off the hike due to a feeling a couple weeks later she is feeling nostalgic about the trip and starts going through the pictures of the hike on her digital camera which she hasn't touched since she returned home she sees the picture she remembers taking of scenery and the people she met from her first days of hiking then a picture of her sleeping in her sleeping bag inside her tent weird but someone she met must have picked up her camera and taken the picture as a joke because she can't see anything to distinguish the night or the campsite then more pictures of her asleep in her tent and this time she recognizes the campsite is one where she was camping by herself as she flips through more and more of these pictures she realizes that there are pictures from every site where she camped by herself of her asleep in her tent needless to say she set aside her dream of solo hiking anything the story happened a few weeks ago on a hiking trail that my girlfriend Lauren and I randomly decided to take while in the Malibu area our original plan was to hike at a different location but we realized that it was farther than anticipated due to traffic so we settled with a nearby trail that we found using Yelp after locating the entrance to the trail we started our hike to a basically non-existent three-tier waterfall being that there was a drought in California in the middle of her hike we passed by three guys two of them shirtless and dirty that said hi to us and because of that my girlfriend joked that those guys looked shifty and were probably up to no good for that reason I handed my girlfriend my spare a knife that I always take with me for safety measures after we reached the fall we turned back and as we were hiking back we heard the sounds of leaves being moved and stomped on aggressively in the direction of the ravine by the trail this caused us to stop and turn to look at the direction where the noise was coming from I told Lauren I think a tree might be falling since there was a couple of trees that had their roots exposed I think making it easier for them to fall she responded by saying Blair that doesn't sound like a tree falling Shh the swoosh swoosh noises starting getting louder and more frequent as whatever was making noise it was getting closer to where we were and sounded as if it was going to go up the ravine towards us the minute I saw some tall plants moving as if though someone shook them near where we were at old Lorenz run we both started running while whatever was making the noise started chasing after us through the ravine at one point it sounded as if though it wanted to cut us off from the only path that leads out of the trail in the middle of the sprint I thought my girlfriend should be in front of me since I knew she was a sprinter and his lighter than me wala Homme an endurance runner and way far less than her I turned quickly in yanked her arm and pushed her in front of me and told her to keep running as we ran away from the scene of where this happened I did what people in horror movies do where whoever is running keeps looking behind them to see whatever is chasing them has stopped big mistake because when I looked behind me I saw a bush taller than me I'm 5'4 move aggressively and I just quickly turned around and ran faster by doing this I didn't see that there was a dip and injured my recently recovered sprained ankle slowing me down Lauren slowed down but I told her to keep going until finally she stopped we looked around where we were and started drinking water and talked about what exactly happened we tried to remain calm as we walk the rest of the trail telling Lauren to take out the knife I gave her well it took out my dinky pocket knife I started discussing with her if something were to happen and she was to remain in front of me since I knew I would slow her down we both agreed that she would be able to reach for help faster than I could while I hold up a fight better since I practiced martial arts and we walk the rest of the trail I joked to Lauren that this type of crap is where your sprinter jeans come in handy and at that moment Lauren sprinted as we heard the swoosh swoosh noise again we ran as fast as we could away from whatever was following us this fart makes me laugh is when we were running down the trail up ahead we saw these two guys Lauren had already put away her knife while I was running behind her telling her to stop while I had the dinky pocket knife found right away I tried to hide the knife so I wouldn't look like some crazy chick trying to chase another trick down with a small knife we walked the last mile out as we felt safe since we started seeing more foot traffic and people with their dogs going towards the Falls as we exited the trail and hit the streets we drank water and discussed what the heck just went on Lauren speculated that maybe it was one of the three guys from earlier and that one of them hidden the other side of the ravine to creeped us out to this day we don't know exactly what it was but the closest thing we could think of was that it could possibly have been a coyote after researching a bit about the area we found an article talking about how one was spotted a couple of months back however I don't believe it was a coyote I just convinced Lauren that it might have been once since she gets scared easily about things like this whatever it was moved too quickly and heavily as it chased us until we got out of the trail and whatever it was it was big [Music] my family has some property that backs up to Carson National Forest in New Mexico it's been in the family for years and my sister and I both spent our summers up there it's gorgeous well it is for people who lived out in Far West Texas nice and green cool mountain air in the summer it was always a relief to get up there and away from the dusty ranch my dad was ex-military and having two daughters let's just say we did lots of outdoor stuff he taught us survival skills and how to defend ourselves we hunted and fished and did lots of camping and hiking to us it was always a fun time but I guess he felt the need to pass on his skills to us we spent several weeks in the summer up there hiking with him and exploring the old cabins mining communities and checking the big ditch project that was built for a Red River back in the late 1800s I think that's the correct date for that project but I'm not sure anyways it's a great place to hike with some beautiful high mountain lakes streams and lots of wildlife this happened when I was in college and my younger sister was still in high school my dad was still at home having to work would come up every few weeks to spend time with us we were up there with her mom and she mainly spent time in town or around the property painting we spent our time on the Jeep trails our hiking and sleeping it was late June maybe early July I think and we had decided we were going to hike up to Lost Lake it's one of my favorite lakes up there because if you look at it from a certain angle it looks like a heart we set off in the morning and we're prepared we both had a small pack our water some snacks we both had a small hammock we plan to set up once we got to the lake so we could just enjoy the area for a while I will admit to being an outdoor type and swear when it's quiet enough you can hear the trees talk we also both always carried a knife and we hiked my dad always insisted we have something just in case an accident happened or we just needed it Mike was going good since the summer cabin is pretty far up the valley we just set out on the foot to the trailhead to get the Lost Lake you take another trail that goes up to Middle Fork Lake then you break off that trail for Lost Lake we run into a few other hikers but they're going to Middle Fork Lake and we were pleased because it looked like we could possibly have Lost Lake all to ourselves it's a pretty good leg with some long switchbacks at the end but totally worth it because the link is just beautiful and a very pretty emerald green in color we got there and saw that we did have the lake to ourselves we hiked around the lake and decided to hike back a bit and to find a good spot to set up our hammocks we walked into the tree line and first thing my sister said was do you smell that yep I did it was a dead animal with the strong scent of blood we had both done lots of hunting and knew that smell and that's when I saw it it was a deer carcass but what was around it was what disgusted me placed around the deer carcass in a circle where its organs and trails etc but it wasn't like it was being cleaned it's like they were placed in a certain arrangement with little piles of rocks in between everything now I know how some people get disgusting with their kills and I've had some guys try to gross me out but fall for crap like that but this made me uneasy it wasn't just being cleaned it was like it was set up in a certain meaning or it had meaning I stepped back from this weird circle and then my sister starts to say my name but stops because then we see the guy who had done this and he looks like he just climbed out from inside the deer because he is covered in blood and doesn't have much clothing on at first I thought he didn't have anything on but honestly I didn't try to check him out much he was standing back away from his gruesome little circle just standing close to a group of trees that were pretty close together it was maybe 20 feet from us I think he was maybe trying to hide not for sure but my dad had always taught us that but we ever found ourselves in a situation where we didn't feel in control to do everything in our power to try to take control of the situation do something that is going to take the other person by surprise don't do what they expect you to do so this is raging through my brain and I also could tell my sister was about to freak out so I stepped up and said hey pretty good kill you got there use a bow the guy just stood there his eyes all crazy wide like he was stoked out of his brain of planet Pluto so I'm thinking great we ran into a guy getting his hunt on and he had lost it and was getting blood crazy with his deer he was staring me down and I was staring right back when my sister was getting ready to run I still don't know what came over me but I then put my hand on my knife that I kept on my waist just to show him I wasn't completely helpless I don't know why I did it but something told me to let him know that I wasn't going to back down or be afraid I kept eye contact with him I would guess he was maybe in his early 30s but I am bad at guessing people's ages he was pretty dirty though he could tell that even with all the blood he had everywhere I started to back off and my sister had moved behind me so I spoke again and said so you having a great hunting day again the crazy didn't say a thing just stood there like he was a statue or something or like he thought I couldn't see him if he didn't move or make a sound we moved back to the lake side again and booked it around the lake my sister stayed up front and she was shaking pretty bad I was mainly angry at first because he wanted to get all crazy in the woods with his deer and he should have gone further back up the forest we get back to the trailhead and stop to get our bearing and looked at each other I was scanning the forest line make sure we weren't being followed and my sister was just in shock we started down the trail pretty fast and I was hoping I could keep my sister together until we could at least reach the middle fourth Lake Trail or that we could even run into some more hikers but the odds weren't good on this particular trail because you have to get an early start on the lost lake trail and by now it was late morning almost noon we were making good time and hadn't discussed what we saw just started hiking back down I started to get that feeling and just know you want alone I kept checking but didn't see anything or even hear anything at first my sister refused to look back and just kept going but I felt that I had to keep checking to make sure the idiot wasn't following us that's when the first stuff came flying at us it was some small pebbles but it really made me angry because it was obvious someone was throwing the us and it could have only been him my sister was almost running at this point but I am the mouthy smart aleck I blame the Texas upbringing and darn it this was my forest I'd grown up here and these were my lakes my trails and I wasn't about to let some crazy dude ruin it for me I started yelling back that he needed to go back to his Deere and leave us alone at this point my sister is telling me to shut up and just come on and I'm thinking no way this guy is just trying to scare us the pebbles stopped and then we started hearing barking and growling noises my sister said and he's growling at us and I just told her to get on down the trail and ignore it he was behind this pretty much the whole way growling and making these barking noises every once in a while but it never caught a glimpse of him hence we get close to where the trail joined in with Middle Fork Trail he seemed to back off I never caught sight of him behind us but I could hear him and I just knew he was there he started down the rest of the trail my sister refused to stop or look behind her so I kept checking every so often didn't see anything more hear anything we started to discuss what had happened and she felt like he was very sinister and felt like we had been in a dangerous situation I felt like he was just getting his kicks out of scaring two girls I mean he had to have heard us coming around the lake we weren't being quiet it was the opposite because there are black bears up there and we would always be pretty loud while hiking hoping to scare off any bear in the area so we wouldn't come up on one to this day she still thinks he was sinister and I think he was just trying to scare two girls and was getting his kicks out of it we told her parents and my dad didn't like what he had heard he did teach us some more up close defense skills after that day and forbade us from ever hiking alone or just the two of us again we didn't hike up that trail for several years with anyone that freaked my sister out and I just didn't like remembering a time I was scared in the forest that I considered my own I didn't know it at the time but after we had gotten back to the house and told my mom she had called some neighbors and a few of the men hiked up there the next day to check things out they did find the deer carcass and some empty hiking packs like what day hikers use but they were empty they also found a rustic campsite further back in the woods that have been cleared out as well no sign of the weirdo hey guys thanks for listening if you enjoyed these stories and wish to support me further please consider joining patreon where for only 1 dollar or more a month you can get early access to mp3s of all the future narrations and many other cool rewards so yeah we'll see you there thanks again and I'll see you again soon bye bye

Channel: Lets Read!

Views: 286,399

Rating: 4.8339601 out of 5

Keywords: true scary stories, scary true stories, true scary stories from reddit, reddit scary true stories, true horror stories, true horror stories from reddit, true scary stories reddit lets not meet, scary stories, horror stories, true stories, scary horror stories, scary real stories, horror, scary, stories from reddit, true scary horror stories, Hiking Stories, Backpacking Stories, True Scary Hiking

Id: NgcEnKbyPYc

Length: 41min 59sec (2519 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 11 2017