Forest Rangers Describe Creepiest Things They've Seen - AskReddit

it had its head covered with a few white plastic bags that look like they were tied together for strangers what are your unexplainable and downright creepy stories I have been a ranger in the USFS for almost 15 years but this takes place about three years after I joined we were getting calls about a lone wolf with a collar on hanging around campsites weird since wolves aren't known to be in the area but when you work in the field long enough you start to realize anything is possible no calls had mentioned violent behavior from the animal thank God I departed from the station around noon to check out the places that it had been sighted wandered around for about three hours no further calls during that time until I took a break for water sat down had a snack drank some water and was getting ready to go again when the thing was about 20 feet out trotting near the tree line it seemed friendly and had the collar so I whistled to it and he came over to me getting a closer look I could see it wasn't a wolf it was huge but it was dark and didn't have the right body structure though I could see why it would be confusing from a distance i radioed in and reported that I had the dog with me but as soon as I said I'd bring it in the dog took off like he was playing to see how far he could get me to chase him typical dog behavior I went after it and I swear it was a game of chase for at least five minutes as we steadily ran through the forest please don't go running through woods unless you know the area like the back of your hand the dog finally slowed down near a rock bed area and started pacing around a spot I drew closer and didn't see anything off at first then I noticed it the overgrowth had almost disguised what appeared to be bones I called it in immediately and another team was sent to recover the remains when I went to retrieve the dog he was just gone but honestly it wasn't a priority at that point he was friendly enough and I figured we'd catch up with him later the bones were identified as a teenage males dive by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head he'd been reported missing in the area long before I became a ranger and there had been pretty much no hope of finding him I spoke to his mom on the phone she called to thank me personally and she asked how I'd found her son I mentioned the black dog then thought I'd said something since there was a pause on her side of the line after I gave a couple details about the dog she quietly explained that her son who struggled with making connections had sunken into a deep depression after the death of his best friend the very dog that had led me to him I think I spent the rest of the day stunned I continue to be in disbelief in a way but I know what happened not a ranger but I lived on the outskirts of a national park in a cabin it was a four mile drive from the main road just to get to the property and we had no plumbing or power this property was right next to where the park started to call it the middle of nowhere is an understatement my roommate at the time was interning with the Park Service but he is a city kid every evening at the dead of night I had been hearing noises in the woods what I thought was someone walking but then they just stopped in particularly overgrown areas of the jungle so your mind starts to doubt itself is it a pig a cat is it just the wind the cabin didn't have a locking door and the owners didn't want me to install one so I began sleeping in my car now this is a huge property and I'd parked my car over an acre away from the cabin and where I was hearing something I started hearing those footsteps again I moved out my roommate who thought I was bonkers Staton still slept there without a locking door he got robbed not once but twice after I moved out so he finally put up motion-triggered cameras there was a man with a long rifle who'd hike up to the property set up in the bushes and watch us I have a friend who is a Trail Ranger basically a ranger who can't get you in trouble he told me about this time he was gathering illegally placed wildlife cameras and knocking down hunting Stan's feeders and blinds with another actual ranger the other Ranger wasn't feeling well so he said he was going to head back as it's a one-hour ATV ride friend finished up the last one when he heard voices keep in mind he's far off the beaten path he called out a no one replied as it was getting dark he started to head back and found that his ATV wouldn't start he then noticed that the battery was not connected anymore he reconnected it and started to drive but it wasn't going fast at all less than a half mile later the hole thing died he radioed back basically saying hey guys I need someone to come pick me up they told him they would but it would be an hour he asked if the other guy got back and they said no he settled down and started a small fire but before long he heard voices again it's dark he's not happy the voices sound like an argument now someone was angry and yelling at someone else who sounded more scared he called out and asked if anyone needed help the voices didn't seem to care he guessed they had to be less than a 1000 feet away he radioed again and they said they were having trouble finding what path he might be on and haven't left yet he asked them just to get the other ranger to tell them about where they are because he left with the iPad that had the map they said he still isn't back about three more minutes go by and he hears the voices start up again he decides to walk to them hoping maybe they can stop being drunk hey holes and maybe have a map he walked in their direction but the voices seemed to be getting further as he got closer finally after 20 minutes he gave up and walked back he got a radio call and this said the other guy was found passed out covered in vomit and was being taken to the hospital but he crossed off everywhere they found a stand so they have a general idea where he is then the radio died then the voices came back bored out of his mind he decided to listen to what they were arguing about picking up things like well it wasn't yours to take I don't care you knew better and so on his guess was two hunters arguing over a kill then he heard the one shot something intelligible then silenced the bang a gunshot he doused his fire and hid after that he heard nothing just his breathing for the next half hour until he saw a TV lights he told the guy picking him up everything and they called back they had people looking for three hours and found nothing they came back the next day with police and dogs after about an hour a shallow grave was found and in it was a long dead man who had clearly been shot in the face thing was it was a skeleton who was there for years so either the argument he heard just ended with a bang in both parties went home last night where he heard the murder of someone from years ago I was a scouts leader for the age group eight to ten years old and we were out on a camping trip it was the first year we stayed on that terrain and it was huge normally we tend to explore the majority of a terrain before the kids arrived so we were aware of any possible dangerous spots to avoid this time it was impossible every camp we have what we call a night game it's usually a scary game in which the kids have to complete several tasks while the leaders scared the other loving hell out of them obviously we had one two during that camp we masked up his monsters and hid out in the woods close to the checkpoints they had to pass while running in between checkpoints I found an open stretch of forest with little to no foliage so it was ideal for chasing after them there was no real room to hide besides behind trees so I couldn't use my flashlight or they'd be able to see me from miles away it was dark like the unsettling kind of dark that plays tricks on your eyes and you start imagining things that aren't real during my stay there I saw a shadow that was around my size running past me a few times I couldn't see it very well so I just assumed I was imagining things because nothing was there when I turned my flashlight on the game was nearing its end and I saw the shadow again this time I could see it vaguely standing near a tree not too far away from me I thought it was one of the other leaders hiding to scare kids and decided to go over there as it was about time to go back I aimed my flashlight towards the tree and while getting closer I noticed that there was indeed someone standing there dressed in what looked like a torn burlap sack and had their head covered with a few white plastic bags that look like they were tied together I started to feel pure dread something felt really off I asked if everything was okay but they didn't respond the only thing I heard was this weird sound that sounded like someone knocking on wood nevertheless I went a bit closer until I was about 10 meters away from this person the knocking sound turned out to be that person smacking his head repeatedly into the tree and unnoticed he looked like a male he was barefoot in his arms and legs were covered with crusted mud his hands were in a weird cramped position I was convinced this was just one of the other leaders pulling a prank so I told them to knock it off he slowly turned his head and started walking towards me something inside me just told me to run it didn't matter if it was just a stupid prank and I ran away scared for nothing if this wasn't a prank it felt like I was in serious danger so I ran as fast as I could I heard him running after me but I didn't want to turn around to look as I'd probably run into a tree I arrived back at the campsite and every single person that could be dressed like that was already there they couldn't have gotten there before me and if they did they sure as hell didn't have the time to change into their regular clothes still I told them in that they gave me a good scare with that they just looked weird at me thinking I was trying to scare them and we left it at that next day I wanted to go check it out who knows maybe some weirdo ate the wrong mushroom and might be out there dying from hypothermia I took someone else with me just in case and there was nothing but endless trees we arrived at the tree where I saw the person banging his head and there was a dead skinned decomposing rabbit nailed to the tree we called the cops they looked around quickly and brushed it off as just a prank from another scouting group or some kids from the nearby town and left it at that we didn't notice anything weird after that so it probably was a dumb prank but seriously some people have a messed-up sense of humor one of my best buds from college was a geologist major that ended up becoming a ranger in the southeast us haven't spoken in years as is the case with age but I remember about eight to nine years back he was telling me about an old married couple that he had recently helped out he had seen them come to the park several days in a row and found out they were visiting from out west and they had gotten engaged there decades prior they had been searching for a spot they had taken pics of where he popped the question but we're having trouble after looking at the pics and figuring out roughly where they were trying to get to he escorted them in his vehicle then hiked with them to where he thought it would be they found it and he left them there and went back to his station at the entrance he said he got a weird feeling once he got back and felt like he needed to wait to see them whenever they left well once it came time to lock up at night he still hadn't seen them leave so he reported it left his assistant to wait at the shack at the entrance and went back to where he left them he found both of them lying down spooning along the bank of the river neither were alive he called the cops went through the nine yards and went home the police were able to disclose to him their identities but weren't sure anything else initially he learned that the wife was terminally ill with cancer and they had both killed themselves by ingesting some sort of chemical or pill combination medley they just chose to do it where they had gotten engaged at my but wasn't torn up about it he was obviously sad for about them dying but said that he thought they hadn't asked for help earlier because they didn't want anyone to think they helped kill them I worked for a few months as a park ranger with the Florida Forest Service at my local State Forest the creepiest thing I saw was a poor young man who hung himself on my second week on the job the unexplainable though are obviously not as cut and dry we dove children's clothes neatly folded and left on the trails pairs of shoes in the middle of our dense burn blocks and just a general sense of eeriness my first few weeks on the job I was easily spooked but after I got into my groove of spending hours alone in the woods it took a lot to shake me when the forest goes silent pack up and move along I'm a ranger non peace officer and work at a pretty remote desert park this happened before I got there but the other Rangers I work with were there they went to do a patrol during summer our offseason at one of our seldom used campgrounds on a patrol our maintenance ranger found a burned-out car in one of the sites the desert is a weird place so he just calls the sheriff and waits sheriff arrives and it turns out there's a body in the driver seat with no arms and no legs just a torso and head burned sheriff's just marked it as a suicide and removed the vehicle we are close to Mexico and get a lot illegal drug traffic so I guess they don't even bother trying to solve those super sketchy not a ranger but here's a good woods story it's late spring heavy rain had flooded the Dyke and public hunting grounds so I get the idea to go fishing in the shallows with my buddy we have a good time didn't catch anything and it's getting dark so we light a fire to dry off before heading back as the sunlight has swallowed up we hear something I can only describe as a blood-curdling scream coming from the distance a little girl almost frogs we thought and kept talking twigs snapping then again but much closer we heard it could have been as close as 30 feet at the tree line we hightail it out of there and laugh it off once we get home fast-forward six years I'm on lunch break and I'm telling this story to my lead and he pulls up a video on YouTube and lets me listen the same scream he gives me the phone and I see a mountain lion they make that noise as a final warning to be clear I am NOT forestry I just have a related story my cousin is with the Forest Service in the Montana Wyoming area and I decided to go up there with her to literally test the waters she does hydrology and has to ride out to the middle of nowhere to test streams and snow runoff to ensure no contaminants so I thought that sounded fun and wanted to do a bit of a tour with her we were going to have to camp out there for two nights so we packed up all our gear and saddle bags or saddle bundles and started out the first day and night was amazing beautiful scenery and amazing air quality it really is so peaceful out there I love that area and wish I got to go up there more often anyway we started out on the second day and my cousin said you want to see something weird of course I said yes so she led me on a bit of a side journey into this tiny little ravine we ended up traveling about two hours away from our actual path we it laid out at the very end of this fold in the land she dismounts and tells me to get off my horse too we tie them up in this gorgeous little clearing and she tells me to follow this tiny wildlife path and bring our little rechargeable radio it is one of those you can plug in or wind up and it also acts as a lantern if you really need it to but that kills the batteries quickly I do end out in the middle of nowhere there is a huge coil of wire sticking out of the ground the wire itself was not weirdly large like some buried transmission wire but small like 10 or 12 gauge wiring for a house it trailed off into the brush and trees so naturally I decided to follow the damn thing out of curiosity my cousin trails behind me as I do and this wire after coming straight up from the ground is strung across limbs of trees then back to the ground then it snakes around rocks and finally dead ends into an outlet that outlet is mounted on the side of a desk it looks like a school teacher's desk from when I was growing up with a metal base in a pseudo wood plastic top thing no chair no building no nothing just this outlet in this desk I am staring confused as all hell at this desk in the middle of a forest when my cousin takes the radio pulls out the court and plugs it into the outlet it then lit up and started blaring static the wire was being fed from somewhere now the place where we were had no road access no buildings for many miles and no other people around and yet there was a live outlet weird as hell no spooky jump scares or bodies just one lone powered desk in the middle of the woods I wish I had taken a picture of it thanks for listening to radio TTS hit the subscribe button and activate the notification bell for more videos click the right box for the creepy videos playlist and remember strange things don't always happen in the forest but they can happen in the very room you are at [Music]

Channel: Radio TTS

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Id: lB7nf-Ow8F0

Length: 16min 20sec (980 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 27 2020