FEAR in the Woods! Top 3 SCARIEST Backpacking Encounters | Camp Fire Story 

I was car camping with my family, it was about midnight. My wife and kids were already in the tent and I was cleaning up around camp. I hear a man say "Nice night" and have no idea where he is because I had just put out the fire and my eyes were adjusting to the darkness. Finally I see he's standing in our campsite near our picnic table smoking a cigarette. He continues, "It must be scary camping here with your family, lots of sketchy people around." I was carrying a .45 handgun on my hip under a jacket, I don't think he had seen it. So I showed it to him and replied, "Yeah that's why I'm always armed. Never know when a bear or something might cause trouble." His tone quickly changed from intimidating to friendly and he laughed nervously. "Well that's smart of you, have a good night." Then he walked away. The next morning the camp host came to our campground with a very concerned look on her face and ran over to where I was cooking breakfast. She says "Did you guys get hit last night, are you missing anything?" Apparently someone had gone through and robbed almost every campsite that night. Every camp site except for ours

My scary story wasn't really scary, just evidence I'm a dorktastic spaz. On one of my very first solo camping trips (Tennessee in the late fall, btw). I woke up in the dead of night hearing something snuffling around my tent. I also heard a "cracking" noise, like the sound of bone being bitten through, coming from the same spot. I'm my half-asleep mind, I determined a wild boar was outside my tent, its powerful jaws crushing the bones of some poor bunny or squirrel. I then remembered the granola bars in my tent, and how animals can smell food. By this time, I was convinced that the boar was going to smell my granola bars, and tear into my tent at any moment. I laid perfectly still for some reason (it made sense at the time) and waited for the wild boar to go away. A few moments later, I heard the cracking of bones again, this time from a bit farther away. I finally summoned up my courage and peeked out the flap of my tent. At which point I discovered my ferocious wild boar was actually a fawn deer, probably 40 pounds soaking wet, munching down on acorns. It gave me a "what're you looking at, stupid?" look and went back to eating acorns. I sunk back into my sleeping bag and tried not to die of embarrassment.

Back in 1997 I got my truck stuck on Flaming Gorge in Wyoming. I left the truck and started walking the pitch black dirt road back to the main road. It was so dark you couldn't see anything. As I was walking something snorted and growled at me. I fired a shot in the air and waited and the growling actually got closer to me. I ended up shooting in it's general direction 3 times and each time it moved closer, and the growling got louder. So now it's closing in probably 15 yards away to my 2 o'clock as if it was trying to flank me. I fired one last shot in it's direction and after let out the loudest most blood curdling scream that I could. After that I heard something heavy sprint off it sounded like it had hooves but I can't be sure. Luckily about an hour later a guy was driving in to do some cat fishing and was nice enough to drive me back into town. I will never forget being that scared with a rifle in my hand.

Coming across a meth trailer in the middle of nowhere...That was my scariest moment.

I was bow hunting bear in the middle of nowhere in the UP of Michigan with my buddy. Some dude showed up at our little camp site in the woods, and my buddy proceeded to tell him his life story. He had that bad habit of oversharing. Why did this guy show up at our camp site. We hadn't seen anyone in days. Be wary of the people. Yeah, we heard wolves, but hey, we were sleeping outside in the woody forest. It's the people. Watch out for the people. They are the apex predators.

Running into people is always the scariest. Animals are rarely dangerous. People are

One who lays in silent dark forest will be frightened by 3 oz. Bird walking through leaves.

Scariest thing for me. 2013 hiking alone in Yosemite and I see a huge curved tail going over a log to my right. I could only imagine it being a mountain lion but then was like no way. Later down the trail, I ran into two women who were waiting for me to catch up. When I asked if they saw a mountain lion, they said "yeah, there were three".

I few years ago i was day hiking in Harriman State Park in NY 45 mins away from NYC during a weekday. I did not see ppl that day and my plan was to do abt 15-20 miles. As I was ascending to 1200 feet on the right was a thicket of rhododendrons as i got midway past the thicket a roar came from the thicket. I sounded like a lion in a movie. I was about 20 feet away and the roar vibrated my stomach. I froze looked at the thicket and walked away when i was out of sight of the thicket i ran like hell till i couldn’t run anymore. Years later ive been looking up known animal roars and haven’t found a similar sound yet. BTW in Harriman park there are 3-5 BFRO bigfoot reports. I still dont know what it was. After that i started hiking in groups.

Everything rustling leaves at night sounds like a stegosaurus moving through the forest.

Here’s what I am afraid of in this order. 1.Human males 2. Grizzly 3. Cougar

I once biking with my bro in Topanga National Park and we was racing until we get specific spot marked as finish. I told him if one of us going to be the last in the line, do not wait just keep on goin meet each other when we both reach the finish spot. He was ahead of me n was out of sight, then i heard how he screamed my name n i got worry i thought maybe something happened so i speed up even more and saw him down the little hill, he was ok and i asked him ''did u just call my name?'' and he said ''no, i stopped cuz i thought u called my name'' so basically i heard him calling me, and he heard me calling him, thats why he stopped n waited on me, but it looks like not me nor him didnt call each other. It was creepy n sinister.

On a canoe trip with my young sister in Algonquin Park. Stopped for lunch on the shoreline, sitting with my back to the forrest, my 8 year old sister sitting in front of me, facing into the forest. All of the sudden she starts crying, I say "whats wrong?" - she says "there is a wolf behind you" - my heart kinda stops.... I slowly turn around, to see a friendly dog with tags looking for treats who musta been from a local backcountry cottage 😂

venomous snakes! that's my biggest fear. it's the reason i gave up on tarp camping. i was never able to get a good nights sleep thinking about one of them crawling in with me.

Try having a black figure peeping out around a tree about head level and then hearing a loud scream that made you stop breathing then 4 guys walk over to the tree and nothing there

Scariest for me was definitely the bear that walked over my tent in New Mexico twenty years ago. It stepped on me but when I yelled and punched the nylon it took off. It left some scratches in the rain fly and a little bit of slobber. 🐻⛺️⛰

Your 1st fear was realized with my dad when we were younger. In a tent, he heard something barreling through the brush, sat up and smack, he and the bear smashed heads. My Dad was ok, huge shiner, but it was something I’ll never forget. We all slept in the car after that.

I was alone and about 100 miles from civilization way out in the mountains.. had something stalk my camp one night. I could only see it's eyes through the trees. Scariest night if my life.

While getting camping permits in Yellowstone for a four day pack trip the ranger informed us (a fellow fisherman) would be hiking through three of the five areas in the US that were “grizzly infested”. My buddy and I were obviously concerned but held on to our plans. After listening to a half hour presentation on the do’s and don’ts we were assigned a camp site in a campground. We were told that we had to stay in our assigned site “incase they had to come and get us out”. The first night at ~2:00AM I was awakened by heavy breathing and loud footsteps outside my tent. This was obviously not a raccoon, it walked around my tent snorting and clawing at the ground. Eventually it walked about twenty feet away and laid down. I could hear it breathing. I was wide awake with my fish cleaning knife in hand the rest of the night. At dawn I unzipped my tent as quietly as possible and could see a buffalo. My buddy in his tent slept through the night.

Only once: outside canyonlands in January. We drove in very late on a Friday after work. Set up camp in the dark. I woke up at some point and heard footsteps, clearly bipedal, approach, walk around the tent, and walk off. I didn't sleep much that night. We were miles from the nearest dirt road, let alone pavement.

1) First wildcamp I woke up to a farmer lamping rabbits so random flashes of light and the sound of an air rifle. 2) hearing something rustling (fox) while I was in my hammock but then feeling its nose run down the spine of my back 🥶😂

I was stationed at Naval Hospital Millington Tn back in 1975. After working the mid-shift we would go drive through Shelby Forest along the Mississippi to spot wildlife & unwind. There was 5 of us in the car & as we drove past a picnic grove on the way to the public boat launch we saw a Bigfoot/Sasquatch casually walking along the tree line. A few moments of panic ensued but we turned around to get a second look. As we drove past in the opposite direction Squatch was still doing his stroll & looked at us as we stared back at it. It didn't seem to be concerned by our presence. Anyway, we had a hard time believing what just happened but around 10 days later we were driving thru the forest again and a Shelby County Sheriff pulled us over. He asked us what we were up to that late at night & I told him we were Navy corpsmen out for a drive to spot game & the next thing he says is "Have y'all seen Bigfoot yet?" Three of us were in the original group & yelled YES! and the cop spent the next 10-15 minutes telling us stories about the most recent sightings. So he confirmed what we & everyone else had a hard time believing.

I began backpacking in Ohio at age 10, 64 years ago. Slept many a nights alone in the woods next to the Scioto River, Black Walnut Creek and the Olentangy. I was awakened by a stray horse while cowboy camping under a tree once...nothing scary. Most of my scariest incidents happened on night hikes. In Germany while hiking not far from an old barn. This long deep menacing growl sound literally had me shaking. my heart pounding and my pace almost turned into a run; but I knew if I ran the animal instinct in whatever it was would kick in and it would chase me. It never left the barn but every few seconds I would stop and turn to look on the trail behind me. I was using my Volksmarche hiking staff and I was prepared to use it. What made the situation worse was it was overcast and a slight fog was settling on the ground. Eerie feeling overcame me. Another incident happened on the Mogollon Rim in Arizona. I stopped to take care of nature's call and as I stood next to a tree I felt as though I was being watched. You develop extra sensory perception after years of hiking and camping alone. I slowly turned and as I did so I could see the outline of a very large cat, a mountain lion, not sixty yards up on a rock ledge. I immediately raised my arms and started shouting. Fortunately I was with two Air Force buddies and they ran back to my position. The cat turned and ran out of sight. While hammock camping at Grayson in Virginia, I was awakened by a curious pony that stuck his nose up against my bug net near my face. It shocked me but I realized it was a pony and and said something stupid, go find someone else to sleep with or kiss :)

Winter on the AT. Only one sleeping in a shelter. Woke with a flashlight shining in my face. Finally realized it was the moon.

At half moon state park in Vermont I saw an apparition across the lake of a woman right as the sun was coming up. I guess I believe in that sort of thing now.

It was raining hard outside Damascus VA on the old AT loop and a bear started sniffing my tent. I punched him in the nose. He left. I lived.

When I camped with Bryce Newbold a few years ago was my scariest. 😱😂

My first camping trip as a kid in the Boy Scouts, mid-70s. Upper Adirondack region of NY. The youngest kids were sent to get water sometime after sunset, down a short trail then down a longer trail to a well. So three of us went, two of us had flashlights, and we each had a jerry can that we filled with water. On the way back, the other kid with a flashlight happend to shine it into the woods to the left, and swear to God, we all saw a pure white face staring at us, attached to a human formed figure maybe 25 feet in the trees. Needless to say we flew up the trail back to camp. Honestly have no idea what that was, could have been a prank or overactive imaginations, but we would never have seen it unless we actively shined the light there, and we all described the same thing afterwards.

When we were in Zaleski a few years ago, we heard a chorus of coyotes. One started howling, then others joined in. It reminded me of the "children of the night" line from the original Bela Lugosi Dracula movie. It was cool, but spooky. Even my dog looked at me like "WTF was that?!?!" He saw one in the morning and angrily barked at it and scared it away. He's a dachshund.

There is 100% wolves in Ohio!

Cats are what scare me out here in the west.

Junior year 3 buddy's and I were taking spring break. One friends Father lived near Tampa he hadn't seen him a coupla years so we drove there first. We decided to take the old highway from Tampa back up and west to Panama City. We're on Hwy 98 about midnight heading west not far from ST. Marks FL. this was in 1974 and the area was pretty desolate. We stopped at an old historical marker to take a leak. One of us said whats that light we were all already seeing it. First it looked like a neon blue the size of a basketball then it started moving through the little trees and bushes that lined the road and either a river or inlet. The thing was moving fluidly and the closer it came the larger it became and had changed color's 2 or 3 times now it was purplish. I wasn't driving when we stopped but one instant we all had jumped back into my car with me driving. I pulled back on the Hwy as I was picking up speed to maybe 40 mph everything about my car died. The motor , the lights , the stereo I mean it shutdown I put it in neutral and started coasting. That was it next any of us knew the car started itself without my touching the key , the lights and stereo fired back up. I've always been one to figure time and distance (this was way before GPS) I had our ETA figured I can't recall exactly just say 3AM. We were an hour and 45 minutes later than expected. Strange thing we never talked about this amongst ourselves , if two of us were in a room and one started talking about it invariably the other would get up and leave the room. Two of my buddy's have died and the other one will not answer any type of message from me. I asked his sister to ask what he remembered he told her he remembers the light very well and that's all he would say. Another odd thing is about two weeks afterwards I was working out and noticed a small round knot in my right forearm about the size of a BB. I can still feel and see it but I used to be able to move it a very little. One more thing several times through all these years I lose a little time. The time is always close to an hour and 45 minutes also a few times as I'd be getting out of bed I'd be sore like I had fallen out of bed or something and my hands would be swollen. This is something I have never been able to figure out. If anyone reads this and has had a similar occurrence let me know. I have another weird thing while bow hunting years ago but maybe for a different time. OK before anyone asks this might've been the mid 70's but no drugs or drink was involved two of us were athletes and the other two stayed in shape also.

I was camping in Paradise Valley in Banff NP when, just after going to bed, I had large porcupines circling my tent (3 or 4 of them). I looked out my front window/vent and there was one and I looked in my back window/vent and there was another. They did this all night and would even come up to my little tent window/vent and take a big sniff. Freaked me out especially as I was lying on the ground and they were huge. I had to keep turning my head lamp on and banging my camping shovel to scare them off. They circled all night until about 3am when what sounded like a satanic worship was going on near my tent really freaked me out. However, I had heard a similar sound back home that was told to me to be raccoon's mating so I think I had accidentally set up my tent in the porcupine's mating area. I couldn't wait for the sun to come up so I could get out of there asap. I thought about leaving in the middle of the night but the place was also crawling with grizzly bears which I never saw or heard but didn't want to bump into in the middle of the night. It made for a very interesting night with a very restless sleep.

Nothing will get you in Ohio, just the grass man .

Bryce - I’m curious on the scariest/most dangerous people you’ve come across & how you handled it.

My scariest hunting trip was in Southern Ohio I forgot my flash like that morning and I walk to my tree stand with the moonlight there was something in the woods growling at me I couldn't see it but funny thing I tried to track whatever I heard I could not find any tracks and it sound like a truck going through the woods breaking brush but I could not find them pass that it took

Very,very strange incident when I was much younger., maybe 19. Out with my girl friend in the florida everglades at night. Found a spot to stop, there are no roads at this point, driving dodge ram,4x4. We are sitting on the ground ,on a blanket, getting cozy when we both see a glowing, perfectly round sphere "floating" about 4 ft off the ground and about 10 yards away. I got the feeling it was inspecting us as it went by. No sound, completely silent. We were a bit surprised and didn't stick around to find out what it was or follow it. Amazing experience.

Scariest for me. Solo backpacking..in a hurricane, watching the trail turn into a waterfall, 6 miles downstream there was a landslide that took out parts of a town. In Colorado, found an Elk leg on a trail, and a half mile later, there was a little lake with elk prints and mountain lion prints, our camp was about 2 miles from there. In New York, I saw an animal in broad daylight, face of a hyena, body of a hairless dog, tail of a cat..ran out of a cornfield. Definitely a chupacabra. Recently was in Cades Cove, one night heard coyotes, next night saw 2 of them run through the campsite, about 50 feet away. Only reason it was scary is because my 10 pound Yorkie is coyote food.

Camping when I was a teenager near a swamp. My camp was attacked in the middle of the night. I mean torn up! My tent was down on me and I heared grunting. Too scared to come out. No gun. In the morning I finally inched out. My gear was everywhere. My story was Bigfoot but now much older and “ wiser” I think territorial buck. No tracks! Scared the bejesus out of me! Lower west Michigan.

Camping in the Witchita mountains, Oklahoma. Heard a sniffing noise next to the tent. I opened the flap and was staring in the face of a bison. I could have touched his face. He was not alone. The herd decided to bed down with us. The car was close by so tip toed to the car and slept there the rest of the night.

When I lived in Alaska a coworker went salmon fishing on Kodiak Island. He was camped in a field, when in the middle of the night he heard large animals moving around the tent - knowing that Kodiak Brown bears are immense,. He laid quietly through the night, scared to death. In the morning they were still there, so he opened the text zipper and took a peak and was shocked. It was a small herd of cattle. After that he rented those $19.99 U-Haul trucks and slept in the back of that.

OK let me start by saying this did not happen to me I sought on RU-vid a long time ago and it was a scary story about a guy that was hiking alone and he was going to go fishing and have a relaxing time at the lake and he was walking when all the sudden he felt like somebody grabbed his backpack and jerked it so he starts running and now he can he can hear something behind him chasing him and sometimes it’s close and sometimes it’s far and then again something grabs that backpack and just jerks it so he said he must’ve run a half a mile scared to death and they finally got the strength to turn around and his fishing pole had unhooked and fell on the ground and I don’t know how it engage but I did so it kept hooking on things and then releasing itself so that’s his story I thought it was hilarious

The scariest thing I've ever had happen in the woods was stumbling onto a super creepy group camp that had clearly been there for a while. People were obviously living there but no one was present that I could see. I had that eerie feeling like I was being watched and I thought I heard some twig snaps coming from the other side of where their tents were set up. I noped out of there as fast as I could and ever since then I concealed carry my pistol when I go out into the woods alone. A second creepy thing I experienced was more my friend than me, but we went camping with a few guys in a pretty remote area. My buddy snuck off into the woods to relieve himself. He was finishing up when a couple of the guys noticed a copperhead snake getting into the striking stance right next to the tree he was hiding behind. They alerted us and we all yelled for him to run and so he did. He almost got a butt cheek full of venom that day.

Also...hearing bugling elk out in the woods in the fall can be really scary sounding if you don't know what it is. Thankfully...I was quickly informed at the time of my first encounter of that now wondrous sound.

A group of 12 friends out of high school were camping about 5 miles out of town. Full moon out, sitting around the campfire about midnight. The moon light lit up the pasture and we saw a tall black figure flowing through the field about 50 yards away. We were all freaking out. We watched it slowly zig zag its way closer to us. This thing turned out to be some 50 year old long haired hippy with a long grey beard wacko with a black blanket over his head with his arms folded tight against his chest. He walked up to our group, the fire was dancing five feet high and really lit up his face. He quickly opened his blanket spreading the blanket open like a bat with a hatchet in one hand and yelled, " HATCHET MAN!" We all screamed and one of my buddies jumped up with a machette and yelled, "MACHETTE MAN!" The guy froze like that for 30 seconds, slowly closed his arms back into his chest and turned and floated off into the night. Not many of us got much sleep that night.

Ok, you wanted a Bigfoot story, you got it. I’m Mike from Trigger Warning Channel, and this happened to me and my cousin Jeremy some years ago, but it’s as scary and intimidating to me today as it was that night. We had secured deer hunting tags for C4, which at the time was a prime deer hunting zone near Mt. Shasta in Northern California. We drove from Southern California, arrived early in the morning, set up camp near our truck, and spent the rest of the day still-hunting. It started to get late and neither of us spotted any bucks in their prime, so we headed back to camp, made a nice campfire and sat around in our camp chairs roasting some meat on sticks for dinner. I kept hearing noises in the forest, slight sounds like footsteps coming from one side of our camp, then another, then another. It was pitch black at that point and we couldn’t see anything beyond the edge of light given off by our campfire. I knew that some forest land in California is leased for cattle grazing so I pretty much assumed perhaps the sounds were from cattle browsing around our campsite. I was wrong. The sounds stopped around the two o’clock position from where I was sitting and for a few minutes I didn’t hear any more sounds and then I distinctly saw eyes. I had been looking intently at that area of the woods where the sounds stopped, half expecting a cow’s “moo”, and I was looking at what I estimated to be about the height of a cow, when I saw the glow of red eyes about five feet higher than that. Whatever was out there was either perched on a branch about 10 feet off the ground, or it was 10 feet tall. The sudden appearance of red eyes opening and looking at us was startling to say the least. Neither one of us could make out any shape in the darkness except the eyes, but we could clearly see that whatever it was looked left, right, back at us, blinked, and was clearly not imaginary or a trick of light. The eyes were wide apart, and we knew they didn’t belong to a bird both because they were very large and very widely spaced. The edge of the forest was about 25 feet from us and that meant that whatever it was, it was big. The creature made no aggressive movements, nor did it growl or “umph” as I’ve heard in other stories, nor were the eyes particularly predatory. They were even gentle, and aside from being red, they weren’t particularly scary, but despite all that I felt intimidated. I had a feeling of dread like the creature was imparting that feeling directly into me. To simplify the feeling, I felt like it was simply putting a thought into my head to leave. I know it sounds weird to say that, but that’s what I felt: Leave. Being stubborn and a bit young at the time my response was to stand my ground. We both picked up our deer rifles and my cousin let off a shot into the air to try to scare it off, but the creature didn’t even blink at the report of the rifle in the quiet of the forest. It just continued to stare at us. I keep wanting to say it glared at us, but that word would imply some aggression on its part, but at no point did it turn aggressive. It just was not intimidated by our guns or by us. It had a superior confidence and my feeling of dread was increased with the realization that if this being wanted to harm us, neither us nor our guns would win this fight. I made what I consider to be the wise decision to put out our fire, take whatever we could carry on our person and book it to the truck a few hundred feet away. We left our tent, our camp supplies, even our extra boots behind in that meadow. The feeling of dread completely left me the further away from the area that we drove, but I kept looking into the forest all along the dirt road half expecting to see something chasing us down. Again, None of the encounter was physically aggressive. All the feeling was in my chest and in my head, and I didn’t talk about it even with my cousin for years, thinking that I’d be laughed at. However, over Thanksgiving dinner some ten years later I talked with my cousin only to find out that he had exactly the same experience and feeling of dread as I did, down to the minute detail of the thought in his own head: “Leave”. I claim this as my Bigfoot encounter despite never seeing a physical Bigfoot creature or any shape other than those eyes. However what convinces me more is those involuntary feelings. We’re both big guys, trained individuals, not much scares me, and we were armed with 30-06 rifles. I for one have spent many nights alone and in groups in forests and jungles, both sheltered and under the open sky, yet we were both driven out of the woods that night like boys scared of the dark.

There's quite a few of sasquatch and dogman sightings in and around the Shawnee area

Had a creepy experience myself last October. For background, I've got a subaru forester that I have set up for overlanding and I'll sleep in the back. Was in the Appalachian mountains, 30 miles deep on a backwoods road, was already kind of uneasy in that spot but decided to stay since I wasn't familiar with that road and the campsites I had passed miles down the road were in use. But it was about 8:30 at night, coyotes were starting to howl so I decided to let my dog do his business and then we climbed into the car to get ready for bed. At around 9pm, the forest went dead silent, no bugs, no frogs, no coyote howls, nothing, when moments before their sounds were almost deafening. A few seconds later, I hear something walking down the road, the hair on the back of my neck stood up, and my gut told me to stay absolutely still, and to not make a sound, was filled with a horrid feeling of dread. I don't know what it was, but it sounded very large, and sounded like it was walking on two legs. After it walked away, the forest came back to life. Since then, I've looked up different sound clips of various large animals walking down gravel trails, including those not native to the area I was in, like grizzlies and mountain lions. You can obviously tell that they were on 4 legs, and even a grizzly didn't footsteps that sounded as heavy as what I heard. Ever since then, while I've gone down that road, I am NOT going to camp there, and I feel rather uneasy being in that area. Hell, I feel uneasy just recalling it.

Whenever I’m out there solo I haaaaaate getting out of my tent at night to pee. For some reason I always feel like someone is gonna run out of the darkness while I’m doing my business 😂

First time I went camping/backpacking into the woods I was alone and around 3 AM I woke up to something rubbing against my tent right next to my face, scared the shit out of me lol. Probably 10 years ago my cousin and I were on our way back from storm chasing in Southeastern Kansas. It was probably around midnight and we were out in the middle of absolutely nowhere on the highway and we spotted some thing on the side of the road that we swear was the chupacabra. It was a little smaller than a coyote and it looked like it had mange because almost all of its hair was missing but it had like a cats head. Like with coyotes they have a snout and the skull was more flat like a cat on this but it was way too big to be a cat. We turned around to see if we could find it with the spotlight but it was already gone. Honestly not sure what it was but we always joke around and called that spot the chupacabra spot.

Authorities say that we don't have puma in Ohio. My brother and his wife have seen one twice when they owned land out in the country. We don't have bear in Ohio either. The first night we encountered sasquatch we saw bear tracks that the farmer pointed out to us. Yes I said (posted) sasquatch. They exist and when our encounters occurred southwestern Ohio took the top sasquatch hot spot in the nation from the whole state of Oregon and held it for 3 to 4 years. Yes I know Washington normally has the most sightings.

Thanks, this was just what I needed. Some encouragement and assurance it's not just me. My last solo overnight was terrifying. Because I've only done it twice, There are all sorts of new sounds at night. There was a pack of coyotes very near by that made the most incredibly loud sounds I've ever heard. And it went on for quit a long time. I grew up spending loads of time in the woods, but not alone at night. Thanks for mentioning that over time, this will abate some!

My first night camping I saw Sasquatch.

I'm in columbiana county ohio..hunted all my life. Country Boy.... yes we have hybrid wolf coyote dogs in the woods..

Your first one described one of my bigger fears. Whether in a hammock or tent, I often get nervous about some big animal on the run not seeing my hammock or tent in time and running right into it or tripping over a corner of the tent or a guy-line and bringing my tent down with it. Last summer with Devin, I had a desert rat hopping all around the leaves around my tent that I found myself trying to scare off with my own noises because it kept scaring me, er, annoying me, until I finally caught sight of it with my flashlight. But my all time scariest moment was also last summer when I had my boys out backpacking with our hammocks. I had hung our food out the proper distance and all that, but didn't do a proper bear hang because there were no good trees to do a good hang from so I relied on my odor proof layers for securing my food as I often do. There was a loud snap and thud in the middle of the night that awoke me from the direction our food was. I figured it was tree branch thad had fallen, but couldn't shake the thought that it was a bear that had pulled our food down from the branch I had hung it on. My heart pounding, I mustered up just enough courage to unzip and walk over with my flashlight to check the food bag and was relieved to find it untouched. Turns out there was a bear in the area messing with other camps just a few miles away over that same week though.

I've had a few weird things go bump in the night but in general I'm pretty comfortable in the woods. Confidence in my skills helps. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

i *really* like these sorts of videos. not sensationalized or polished, just honest stories from the woods. the woods at night are creepy enough, these stories don't need embellishment. thanks for sharing!

Absolutely wolves in ohio. Saw a small pack (3?) while hiking in Southern Ohio. Huge, daunting beasts but awesome to see. I want to say it was John Bryan s.p. but it was a long.time ago. Was guiding a group of teens in a summer camp program and they ran across our path. Kids were stoked to see them.

I once managed to call some coyotes to my camp by blowing a predator call. It was kinda creepy hearing what sounded exactly like 2 or 3 dogs quickly moving through the brush within 50 feet of the light of my campfire. But I'd totally try doing that again!

You should look up the narrator "Let's Read" here on RU-vid, he narrates an absolutely terrifying true story about a man hiking the Appalachian trail. Something happened to him while he was in his hammock. It is one of the scariest things I've ever read.

On the first night of my first solo trip, I was at the Twin Valley Trail near Germantown, OH. I had what I assume was a group of pranksters come through the area. They must have been fans of the show "Finding Bigfoot" because they proceeded to make the sounds they made on that show for nearly 30 minutes. I believe they were trying to scare me off and take my gear. I have to say though, they were talented at vocalizations because it did creep me out. I even caught some of it on video. Not a fun experience on my first solo, but I love it now.

Of all your vids I love the most when your Moms dog shows up. I mean really, it is not like you live in your moms basement but the fact he shows up on your camp trips is just so heart warming. Luke on Outdoorgearreview, Cody on Wranglerstar, David Pearson on Reallybigmonkey1, have had dogs just show up and It is such an addition to the Vids.

I don't know if it was Bigfoot, but some years ago my wife and I went on a dirtball "overlanding" excursion in my T100. We left pavement east of Eureka, Ca and ventured up Route 96 - the Bigfoot Scenic Byway which took us through the Hoopa Reservation into the Six Rivers National Forest. It was probably midnight. It was dark and smokey, we were in the middle of nowhere and we had to answer a call of nature. I pull over, we get out and just off the embankment of the road, down the slope of the mountain we start hearing this eerie sound of something big moving through the undergrowth. It sounded like it was headed right for us. We hop back into the 'Yota and scamper before whatever it was got too close. We never saw anything, and it could have easily just been a bear or even a person, but it just wasn't something that we were in a position to deal with. A think a year or two later in about the same location, a bear jumped off the embankment above the road and knocked a cop car over. So it could have just as easily been a bear that was checking us out, but I still kind of hope that it was Bigfoot.

Never go camping without guns take guns and ammo keep it with you

Girlfriend and I were lying on the ground in a Colorado Aspen grove. We were maybe 3 or 4 feet apart. Yellow leaves flashing gold filtered light on a warm autumn day, just magic. The ground started to rumble and a second or so later a huge bull elk ran right between us at a full speed dash and was gone. It happened so fast that it was hard to even understand what had happened at first. Picture a horse at full run. He was a couple feet away from each of us. After we just started laughing in shock. I still don't know if he ever even knew we were there.

Regarding wolves - wasn't camping but driving through a very remote part of Maine early one morning. I saw 2 large canids crossing the highway. From nose to tail it was from almost the dashed line to solid white line - took up most of one highway lane stretched out. They were lean and lanky with very built chests and angling downward to the hind quarters. One was black, the other was grey, white mixed. I'd say they were wolves by the way they were built. It was more than double the size of coyotes, very large. Also not many coyotes completely black. That remote I don't think they were a hybrid coyote-dog mix either because this was so rural there wan't even a town on the map. It was T2R9 to be exact, which is a map grid and what they put when there is no organized township. I'd hate to encounter them hiking without a gun and one reason why I always carry one in the woods.

I was on AT in my home state solo. I heard what sounded like Ric Flair with his wooo,I kept hearing it over and over. I ended up reading the book at the shelter and a bunch of people were talking about the owls. I have heard owls plenty of times, I swear it was Mr Flair. Wooo

People also say we don't have big cats here in Northeast Kentucky but we do 🤣🤣

My $0.02: I’ve heard that people get scared when they think things are being thrown at them. Big rocks? 100% human. Small things like acorns are flung/thrown by squirrels and birds. I’ve seen this with my own eyes multiple times. And, I don’t know about y’all but coyote howls are just about the most terrifying, primal fear I’ve ever experienced. Mountain lions make no sounds if they are hunting, so…. They’ll crouch for hours in wait for their prey-your dog or cat. Hearing the grunting and snorting of bears is pretty scary but awe-inspiring too. Also feral dogs do run around in packs. Wild pigs are very noisy in general. The saddest thing is the sound of an animal dying after some bone-head human has shot it in a bad spot. Extremely sad. Animals really don’t want to eat us, we stink. If you are in an open area surrounded by woods, of course it’s going to be a game trail. I’ve only hiked/camped in CA. :)

I'm hammock camping in the Catskills in upstate New York In the middle of nowhere sleeping soundly when I'm woken up by someone flashing their light on me. You know how you can put your headlamp on strobe light? Well that was it. WTF I say because there's no one within miles. I'm laying there wondering what is going on when I noticed there'sn there's an electrical storm going on. Thunder, lightning torrential rain the whole works. now I'm trying to figure out if a lightning bolt hits the tree that my hammock on will I be burnt to a crisp? Will some other hiker find my burnt body? Yeah I survived though wasn't a good night.

O my gosh, back in the 70s , my husband with the Kids decided to go for a walk. The sky was blue with occasional white clouds. Everyone was talking at the same time.. so I thought maybe if I turn around and walk backwards I might be able to get more control over all the talking.. So I turn around and and am walking backwards. just a few moments after I turned , something in the distance of maybe half a mile from us catches my attention. It rose up into the sky from behind the cluster of trees and I just stopped. Everyone was still talking and walking. As I'm looking at the saucer rising up, I'm trying to tell them to shut up and look. I tried to face them to say look at that. But by the time they DID, it was gone. I did have an experience tho'. While I was staring at the saucer I see a big window. I was wondering if I could see who's piloting this craft.. All I know is I saw the pilot. An American Military man in a Captains uniform. For some reason he was startled to see me looking at him. He was having problems thinking fast enough to make a clean getaway. I almost hit the ground because they were walking all over me.. I started to fall down. My husband caught me. I never heard any news on it. I decided not to tell anyone. I finally did in 2013. I still have surprised feelings about seeing it.

Here in Australia we have a lot of "wild dogs" Dogs that have gone feral, possibly dingo/domestic hybrids and often live in packs. Several times I have come across them when remote camping. Once I was about to pack up in the morning when a couple of dogs just walked into camp ahead of me. I heard some noise and more were being me, about maybe 6 in total. They slowly moved in on me until I shouted and waved my arms around. That felt pretty dangerous and scary.

I was in the middle of nowhere, deep into the forests of risnjak national park, it was night and I could not sleep because of all of the events of the day. So I thought it might just help listening into the "silence", so I put out the earplugs and then just a few seconds later I heard sniffing, some heavy footsteps and a deep grunt. My heartbeat instantly rose and I kinda knew what I was dealing with, so I tried to make my self heard as big branches cracked and the footsteps came closer.

My only backpacking experience consisted of my wife drinking wine in the tent while I was outside having bourbon and eating a stew after a 10 mile hike. We got swarmed by giant hornets, I’m talking an inch and a half long and they sounded like fighter jets. It started to get really intense and I literally could not get into the tent, so I started spraying bug killer in pretty much every direction. Problem was that we were on this really nice, sandy dirt padded area so I was barefoot. The area became completely covered with these huge writhing beasts rolling around in the sandy dirt. I thought I’d made my way through them when I stepped on one and oh my god it was the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life. Like someone took a hot metal nail and drove it through my foot. My foot was swollen for at least a week. And honestly, I’m lucky I didn’t die with the swarm that hit us. It was a scenario you’d see in a sci-fi movie or something. These things were HUGE and there were probably 50 of them.

My first-ever backpacking trip was a solo night in the Uwharrie National Forest! It's infested with Bigfoots!

My wife and I hiking a local trail had a mountain lion cross the trail in front of us. It stop looked at us and it kept walking. Was amazing to see. Stay safe keep out of the woods booger will get you

Type 2 fun! Lol! It’s the best... and worst! Thanks for sharing!

Hello, I am new too. your Chanel. I want to share two spooky stories with you. The first happened about 7 years ago. I was camping with a friend near Petrolia Beach in Northern California. It was around 2:30 a.m. and we both spotted something zipping back and forth in the sky. I would say about two minutes total, then it suddenly plunged into the ocean. The second event occurred on June 8, 2018. I was hiking around the rim of Crater Lake and felt as though someone was watching me or possibly following me. That evening at the Campground, the one closest to the lake, my friend's dog started growling, so I unzipped my tent to see what he was growling at, but there didn't appear to be anything out there I could see, but he started growling louder, so I popped my head out the tent and saw an old, ghost-like a skinny naked man walk about 40 feet from my tent. I saw him for about 5 seconds. My friend and I both saw this man and told the camp host the following morning. He told us many, people have reported seeing spirits like this. Personally, I do believe in spirits and I live in Big Foot Country. I remember several older Natives in the 1960s who shared stories with my father and me about their encounters with Sasquash. Most of these Elders encourted them near the Hoopa Reservation. Thanks for allowing us to share our stories.

Dogman Sabe, all kinds of cryptids,be careful. Watch Steve Isdahl how to hunt. You tube

My scariest experience was moving from New York to California Camping was about 10 friends Hollyn sleeping bags I was in a money bag and I look up in the middle of the night and I see these eyes looking at me it must’ve been 10 feet in the air maybe 15 feet so I figured well that’s the bear that’s going to eat me because I’m the one that’s awake and I was at the end I actually propelled myself over 10 people and ended up at the other side of the line of the sleepers and then everybody woke up because I fell on them and they put on the flashlight and it was like a raccoon in a tree

Sounds like you need to stop bringing your wife! 😆 Scariest thing for me was camping in the Smokies--in the park, so an established site, picnic table, etc. Kept our food up, but boyfriend left 2 beer cans on the picnic table. Wake up the the sound of someone knocking the cans over. Unzip, ready for action, and then zipped right tf back up! One bear cub cub the table knocking the cans off for its sibling to investigate on the ground, while mama trundled past our tent to teach them a lesson about letting the humans sleep. That's what I tell myself anyway.

I lived on 47 acres in Franklin Ohio just below Dayton, and one night I had a fire going in the fire pit just off of our deck, and this huge we called them coy dogs came within 10 feet of the fire and started growling at me and I grabbed my dagger and made aggressive moves toward it and it finally left…we’ve seen packs of these dogs quite frequently…they were all a good size like bigger then German shepherds…

About five years ago, I was hammock camping in the woods along the side of Burke Mountain in East Burke, VT. I was over 200 feet off the Red trail, maybe 2 miles from the trailhead. During the night, two separate packs of coyotes ran by my site, turkeys were incessantly chattering on another occasion, and some random rodent was also adding to sleeplessness. Just as dawn approached, there were very heavy sounding footsteps on the trail downhill from my position. As I mentioned, I was well over 200' away from that trail. As I laid there, I could actually feel the footsteps as vibrations in my hammock. After maybe a dozen or so footsteps, there was a sudden, loud animal call. It was like a very loud call, but maybe with a elk-like sound. Whatever it was, it was loud and startling. I've googled sounds to see if I could figure it out, but nothing seems to match. I searched for moose, bear, and deer sounds - nothing. Luckily, it was my last night there so I didn't have to try another night weirded out by the local animal life - freaky!

I was camping with my best friend and our kids in the Grand Tetons, when I was woken up by a bear sniffing around right outside my tent in the middle of the night. I mean Right Outside. He brushed up against it as he walked by. I froze as I calculated what to do. Bear mace didn't do me any good in the tent. Could I make it to the truck with the kids, or should we just stay put. Should I alert the other tent or would that spook him. Should I scream to scare him away or would scaring it make it attack. By the time I finished going though all these possible options, he was gone. He was just making the rounds of the camp sites, looking for food. Please remember to always keep your food put away in a vehicle or up in a tree away from your camp site.

my mother was attacked in her tent by a swarm of bees while seven months pregnant with me

Canada has released hundreds of wolves of various species into the wild and it's possible that a pack has migrated south. We know that some of them have migrated into Yellowstone from Canada that weren't part of the grey wolves the US released. Its wierd that conservationists decided to rekease a bigger, more aggressive species than farmers in Montana had eradicated.

Joshua Tree...one week ago. Blinking floating lights Military helicopters....it was rad. That’s all I’m gonna say

Once i was car camping in a natl forest campground. It was nine miles up a dirt road, I was the only person in the campground. I was in my tent just dozing off, when something just outside my tent started snarling like the devil himself. Id never heard such a creepy angry snarling , cursing and growling in my life. I lay there petrified wondering what it could be, perhars a crazed rabid badger. Then to make matters worse something big jumped out of the fir tree two feet from my tent and landed with a thud that shook the ground and bounded off. After that i went and slept in my car. I did find out the snarling devil was a bobcat. The heavy thing that jumped out of the tree, who knows..

So about 5 years ago maybe longer I do not keep track of time . We had some neighbor move in that had the worst children ever it sounded like they were going to kill each other always fighting and screaming at each other . SO on some really bad fights I would take my dog down the trail a bit and sit in a sitting area that we set up not all the way down the trail but just to this one spot . I am sitting there enjoying the quiet I can not hear the hateful children when I noticed that is was too quiet for a gorgeous summer day hmmm no birds, no insects very still warm and quiet which was okay for me because again escaping a hateful fighting children . When my dog gets up and starts staring at something a tree a little further in my woods ... head cocked ears erect and just staring up in a tree since he was doing it for a really long time I thought I should investigate what he is staring at . SO I follow the angel of his head and look ...I see a circular rainbowish shimmering thing in a tall tree about 1/3 of the way up just after the branches start forming. Thinking it is my eyes I look away and around I am not seeing that rainbow shimmer anywhere else look back up at the tree and it is still there ... I did it many times and it was still there and my dog would not turn look away from the circle rainbow so with the uncharacteristic quiet and stillness I decided to go back to the house ...it was too unnerving

When I was around 3, I was with my parents in a campground right next to the road following one of my dad's softball games. The whole team was there, in a state of semi-passed-out drunken stupor as usual. It was hot and dry in the middle of summer, and I THINK we were in either southern Washington or just into Oregon, and didn't have the fly or a tarp on the tent. Given how sloshed everyone was, I'm actually surprised they all got their tents up and were inside them... I had fallen asleep, and the adults had gradually passed out in their tents here and there. In the middle of the night, I woke up to these awful animal screaming and snarling noises down the road a ways. They went on for what seemed like several minutes, then really abruptly ended, and I just laid there terrified, surrounded by unwakable adults. There were a lot of wet ripping sounds and gutteral slurps, then a big thud. Gradually, these squelching footsteps came closer and closer from down the road, and this viscous smell of blood and death washed over the campground. In the moonlight visible through the net top of the tent, something huge and dark loomed at the edge of the road, literally dripping blood, and I hid myself down into my sleeping bag and began silently bawling. It continued those disgusting steps as it sniffed around, and I heard it continue up the road. Eventually, the adrenaline explosion ended, and I fell back to sleep. Only to be borderline yanked out of the tent, sleeping bag and all, by my dad a couple hours later, and stuffed into the car. He told me everything was fine and not to look around. I did anyway. Everyone was working as fast and as quiet as possible to pack up and get out of there. Bloody footprints and bits of gore and hair were everywhere in a trail from where the screaming had come from. They weaved between the tents, circled here and there, before going back along the road and out of sight. My parents just kept saying we had to get to the next ball field for that day's game, and I got chewed out when I asked about what was on the ground. I only just learned a couple years ago that what had happened that night had been a bear had attacked and killed a horse just up the road. I still remember seeing it rise up on its hind legs to sniff around, and having no idea what it was. The only other time in my life I've had that hard of an adrenaline surge was when my then 2-year-old choked on something and turned completely pen ink blue going into a seizure.

On a very windy kayak trip on Lake of the Woods, I set the tent up on a high-ish rock knob. In the middle of the night I woke up to my legs being lifted. I thought to myself, "The aliens are taking me!" And almost as an aside; "And they're doing it wrong!" Turns out the wind had increased, was blowing up the slope of the knob, and under the tent. The older Meter Light tent stood up to this no problem. Me, not so much... LOL!!

studies show wolves can travel hundreds if not thousands of miles so, maybe there are no wolves in Ohio but they still were wolves that night

One of mine was while in Canada. I was around 12 years old with my bother. Two older teenage boys, who were friends of the family, took us camping. It was on a lake, so we took a boat out to find an island to camp on. The older boys saw an island with a tent already on it. Their dad dropped us off and left us alone on the island. He would pick us up the next morning. They were like cool let's camp here, and we don't need to set up a tent. We put our stuff in the tent and hung out on the island. Night time came and then a boat with like 6 people showed up. They were shining a flashlight on us, as they approached the island. The older boys told us to take the stuff out of the tents. Once the others landed they seemed a bit menacing and upset we hijacked their camping spot. Setting up a tent was the way people claimed their spot, and this flew over the heads of the teenagers I was with. Anyway, it later became friendly and both groups stayed on the island together. The scary part is that it was unexpected and we had no way to get off the island.

Went camping at a pond with my ex girlfriend a few summers ago at a local pond, we were the only people there. Woke up to a frog tied to a tree hanging by its leg outside our tent. Ive got a video of it somewhere.

Last September i was camping at Loch Doon in the Galloway Forest Park(Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland). I was sleeping by around 9pm, at some point through the night, i wakened enough to be aware the tarp i had up around the tent was rustling quite aggressively, but only on one side of the tent and only at the point directly behind me. I could tell it wasn't windy, so that wasn't the cause. As i lay there on my right side i felt a hand cup around my left shoulder, it began shaking me quite violently, this obviously wakened me fully, very quickly. The shaking continued for around another 5-10 seconds. I wanted to look round but instinct told me not to. The hand lifted off my shoulder and i heard both the tent, then the tarp rustle one after the other as though whatever it was, was now leaving and passing through both layers. It was then absolutely silent, not a sound could heard. I was alone, this, whatever it was entered and exited through the side of the tent, not the doorway. I lay awake for probably the next hour, just listening, eventually the sounds of bird calls started up, i'm guessing around 3am, but that was the first sound i heard. I then fell asleep for a few hours before wakening around 7am, when i promptly packed everything up and headed off...

Wolves are more intelligent than forest game regulators are. They don't ever notice what state they are in.

Man what a great topic. Think I'll have to share mine via a video! Everything goes bump in the night.

A preacher was down by the river cleaning up and saw a bear charging towards him. Preacher looked to the sky and said "God, please turn this bear into a Christian". There was a clap of thunder, the bear stopped, put it's paws together, and said "Bless you lord for this food I am about to eat".

My top 3 in no order: about the halfway point of sheltowee trace trail thruhike in 2016 in an established campsite I woke up in my floorless tent to what I thought was a mouse trying to get in my backpack (I use to elevate my legs -- my food was properly hung a distance away) ... nope, wasn't a mouse ... it was a copperhead strolling through. I just crossed my arms on my chest and went back to sleep figuring if its my time, its my time. Also on sheltowee trace trail between cumberland falls and laurel lake, I heard a noise and got bluff charged by a bear from about 100 yards away. It was standing 15 feet away before I even realized it was a bear. I just slowly walked away ... if its my time, its my time. 3rd ... on benton mackaye trail thru hike in 2018, I was on this sketchy narrow section on the side of this mountain and when it finally got wider I was in tall weeds over my head. I am making my way through the weeds and walk into this clearing and when I reached the clearing I looked up to another bear also entering the clearing from the opposite side about 50 feet away. We both stand there looking at each other for what seemed like forever but I'm sure it was just seconds because I didn't want to go back the way I just came and it was almost as if the bear was thinking the same thing. Eventually he moved forward, turned around, and slowly went back the way he came and then I had to stand there for like 2 hours to give him time to get ahead of me.

Bro, I'm always looking for UFO's and Bigfoot too Hahah I love it