4 Scary Camping Stories I Rain & Haunting Ambience – a.k.a. Creekside & Backpacking Episode

Hi everyone. I just had a relatively creepy backpacking experience this last weekend which got me curious about what other folks have encountered while backpacking.

Follow-up comment by u/hammsbeer4life:

I've already posted this one on a different sub a year or two ago. So I'll just copy/paste it

A half hour from my house in the state forest there are backpacking shelters you can rent. Its like a single group campsite with a crude cabin with no door, a fire ring, and a single pit toilet outhouse. They are in the middle of nowhere, several miles apart. Not like a campground at all. Very secluded. There are 5 sites on a 32 mile trail.

About 15-20 years ago my parent's friends were staying out there partying for a few days. We hiked out there for a day trip to visit.

I was a kid, maybe 12 or so. I was hiking the trails around the campsite with my dog. I heard a very distinct cry for help "HELP ME!" Loud. Plain as day.

It was a soft higher pitched voice, either a woman or an older child. I didn't hesitate, I started running towards the voice with my dog. (Bad idea, should have grabbed an adult) my dog was acting weird as we searched for a half hour and came up empty. Nothing. Nobody out there. She seemed reluctant to continue further and we turned around.

I told my parents and the other adults at the camp. They just kinda laughed it off. I was distraught the rest of the day.

Fast forward a couple decades later to last year. I'm solo backpacking, which I do alot. I decided to rent that very same spot for my self. It was my halfway destination and place to sleep on a 15 mile round trip. Things are going good. I made camp and fired up the single burner stove. It was dark, almost time for bed, enjoying my delicious ramen noodles.

This uneasy feeling abruptly came over me. A feeling ive never really had before and can't fully describe. My body tensed up, I got cold. My hair stood up on the back of my neck. Right then and there I suddenly needed to leave. Idk why, just had to. I did not have time to properly pack. I half ass started stuffing my gear back into my pack. Then my LED headlamp with relatively fresh (or so I thought) batteries died. Theres absolutely no moon. Its dark. Very dark.

I pulled a tiny 50 lumen streamlight style pen light from my pocket and finished packing. I had a large heavy duty contractor garbage bag that I always keep packed away to use for a makeshift rain poncho. I finished stuffing my tent and sleeping bag in the garbage bag.

I hustled out of the woods with my poorly organized pack on my back and my garbage bag of belongings over my shoulder. The strange thing about my story was it wasn't quiet in the woods when things got "weird." I could hear a pack of coyotes yipping and going nuts in the distance when I was hiking out. But nothing else really.

Here I am. A grown ass man, who considers him self a proficient outdoorsman. Sprinting out of the woods? For what? From what? The dark?

As a legal permit holder I always carry a sidearm when doing long solo trips in the woods or hunting. People say with a good holster you forget the thing is on you.... well I was definitely very aware of the sidearm on my way out. Haha

I made it to my car in serious record time. I loaded up and sped off. It took me a while to shake the feeling. On the way back I did get lost, but google maps helped me backtrack to the fork in the trail.

I completely 100% forgot about the voice calling for help incident at that very spot a decade or so earlier.

Then it hit me once I got home and unpacked in the middle of the night. I remembered that voice, looking for that person screaming for help. Me and my dog. I got knots in my stomach.

For reasons I cant explain.. it all kinda started to make sense to me. Like there was some sort of correlation.

I do not venture into that area anymore unless I'm with other people. Something strange is or was out there, or something really bad happened there in the past.

I know this story isnt that crazy, but most of the real ones aren't. I looked online into missing persons or whatever and didn't come up with anything significant. There have been a couple murders but those predated my experience by 10+ years and although were in the same state land, they were not what I'd consider near by.

Perhaps something was attempting to lure me somewhere as a kid. That same thing was enough to tip me off as an adult. Maybe I was just a dumb kid with an active imagination. Maybe as an adult the stress of life got to me as I was left to my thoughts in the wilderness and I had a panic attack.

Who knows really?

Katie’s comments:

• Location: likely Wisconsin

Hi everyone. I just had a relatively creepy backpacking experience this last weekend which got me curious about what other folks have encountered while backpacking.

Follow-up comment by u/tofu1312:

Last year in summer I decided to spend one night in the wild in a nearby forest. So I packed my stuff and some food and went to the place in the evening. It was only 0.5h walk from my flat, and it wasn't the first night out in the wild on my own without a tent. So I ate some dinner and put my sleeping place up. When it was dark I started to sleep. But the night was very uncalm. Somehow I couldn't get very good sleep, woke up all the time. Probably because it was quite close to the city and I could still hear cars and people partying. So at around 4 o'clock I decided, that I will pack my stuff and go home, so I get at least some good sleep.

When I was on my way back, still in the forest, I saw a person (probably male) standing on the path I wanted to go. He was just standing there with the back to me not moving or walking. This already was scary. So I tried talking to him, asked who he is and if he could turn around. But he didn't moved at all. I continued talking to him, that he should please talk to me, or turn around, or do anything. I tried it in 2 languages, but he didn't react at all. He was just standing there not moving. I waited and talked to him for at least 10 minutes, really scared. Than at one point he started walking very slow the direction I wanted to go, too. So I know, if I go the same way, I rather had to walk very slow, or overtake him and be close to him at one point. So I decided to walk another way, which was a detour of at least 30-45 minutes. In the end, I knew that our paths will cross one last time, but at this time I could already see the city. But luckily I didn't meet him again.

Probably he was high, but it was very scary since it was in the night and dark and he wasn't reacting or moving at all

Katie’s comments:

• Location: woods

Hi everyone. I just had a relatively creepy backpacking experience this last weekend which got me curious about what other folks have encountered while backpacking.

Follow-up comment by u/deepblue10055:

I was in Sequoia with 3 friends a couple years ago. We had set up camp, made a fire and were just hanging out as it got dark. It was the first night and we were only about 8 miles from the trailhead.

I’m not sure why I did it, but I had my headlamp on and swung the beam through the woods uphill from us. There was a guy just sitting there in the dark with his pack. Alone, no lights. I was a little weirded out but figured maybe he was just waiting for someone. I ignored it and didn’t let my light linger on him or say anything.

30 minutes later I checked again and he was still there. At that point I told my friends, and not knowing if he had seen us hide our bear (beer?) cans, we sneakily re-located our food without using lights. When we checked again 10 minutes later we couldn’t find him.

Luckily we didn’t see or hear from him again, but the fact that he was sitting above our camp with a good view of everything and no lights to give away his location just gave me a bad feeling. I’m sure it was nothing, but it was definitely a little hard to sleep that night.

Katie’s comments:

• Location: Sequoia National Park in California // woods

Another follow up comment to u/deepblue10055’s comment by u/Puceeffoc (could provide an alternative perspective and possibly tie into the military / special forces story):

You're sure it was nothing? Lol. I don't know about that... Then again I remember in college I lived near a woods and I walked into in and would look out from the woods into people's backyards and would just sit sober and watch them. This was also after a deployment to Iraq so people watching wasn't uncommon for me, but I'd sit in the woods and watch people partying, no ill intent involved. Sometimes when watching I'd be like "Wait what am I doing just watching people what would they think?" Other times I'd get a backpack on full of useless things and just "patrol" the neighborhood late at night following the sounds of the night. Hear yelling I'd go that way, car squeeling tires I'd check it out, noisy dog better check on it... Maybe that's what that guy was on about? Just a vet deep in the woods with that thousand yard stare trying to decompress from war in a peaceful way. Hell if anything you probably were a bit safer if that was the case. ;)