Anyone ever get the "There's something watching me" feeling?

kdcknves, Thanks for giving us that glimpse in to your childhood. That sounds like a neat place to grow up. That's quite a story about the dog guarding you. It doesn't surprise me though. Great story!

I have been accused of being hyper-paranoid a time or twelve myself. I've also had some pretty scary incidents, though nothing ever really happened. Maybe my hyper-paranoia isn't such a bad thing afterall? Hmmm...

The one that really comes to mind right now is the last time my wife and I stayed at a particular camp site. It's in a state park but it's one of the "primitive" sites. This means you have to hike in and there's no running water or electricity. I prefer it for tent camping because it gets us well away from the RV'ers. This one particular weekend, we had neighbors in the site next to us the first night (can barely see each other through the woods in daylight) and nothing untoward happened. The next night we were alone in the primitive area.

Around about midnight or so, I woke up and could tell something woke me up because I was instantly alert. I don't know what it was that woke me, but I knew something did. I nudged my wife and she said, "I'm awake". I asked her if she heard something and she said she wasn't sure, she just woke up. I thought that was strange that we would both wake up. So I laid there for a bit just listening and didn't hear anything. My fire had died down to just embers and I couldn't really see any light at all outside the tent. I was just about to doze back off when I heard footsteps.

Now here's the problem: nobody has any business being on the trail to our site unless they are coming to our site. It's the last one on the trail (only four total) and it just stops at our site. As I listened, I could hear the faint steps growing slightly louder and louder, which meant they were coming towards us. I was sitting up, gun/light in hand at this point, waiting to zip open the tent and confront whoever/whatever it was (if it was legit, they would have announced themselves, had a light, made more noise, this wasn't legit sounding at all and my hackles were up).

As the steps got the loudest (and when I say "loud", I really just mean the most audible. Whoever it was it was obvious they were trying not to make any noise.), they stopped. I was literally holding in a breath, waiting to shout out some loud obscenity as I lunged out of the tent, planning to do who knows what! But for some reason, I just froze. In what seemed like hours, but I am sure were just a few short seconds, the footsteps started up again heading away from us, in the opposite direction from which we originally heard them coming in (on the trail). This meant they were now in the woods and the funny things is, they weren't making any more noise than they had been on the trail!

So there I found myself, frozen in wonder/terror at this strange apparition which had seemed to be toying with me, or just oblivious to me even being there at all. After a few seconds of composing myself, I packed up my kit and my wife and hi-tailed it out of there! My wife thought I was crazy, but my hackles never went back to normal until we were well clear of that place.

I have to admit, hauling all of my kit back down that trail at midnight was not fun. Nor was it fun cleaning/sorting it all the next day at the house. But looking back, I stand by my decision and know it was the right thing to do.

The funny thing? In about two weeks we'll be back at that same campground, in that SAME primitive site! Ack!!!!! I think this time I might rig up some motion detector lights or something. Of course, that may not work at all....
 
Sulaco..... great story..... made my hackles stand up just reading it at my desk.
It is always worse when you are with others... others that depend on you to keep them safe.....I probably would of been ok if it was just me.. . But would of
Been the same way you were if my wife was with me.
By myself I would of been ready for a conflict....:)
 
rivertamer said:
Sulaco..... great story..... made my hackles stand up just reading it at my desk.
It is always worse when you are with others... others that depend on you to keep them safe.....I probably would of been ok if it was just me.. . But would of
Been the same way you were if my wife was with me.
By myself I would of been ready for a conflict....:)
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Yeah, no wife totally different scenario!
 
I'm not too fond of going backcountry (even I am working in a 4 years old 'town' in a remote tropical forest - West Papua, Indonesia). but there's one time where I went for fishing with a group of natives, it was nice, and we're going back by a speedboat at midnight. I got this creepy feeling, and then followed by a sound of rythmic flaps. It was a good deal of noise since the speedboat motors are noisy enough. then I look up and I (and the rest of the crew) saw this great BAT! It flew about 3 meters above us and it was the biggest bat I've ever seen in my life. the wingspan is approx 3-4 meters I think.

Well up until now all the "someone's watching you" feelings I've encountered are mostly made by wildlife. but in the past 3 months there's serial killer roaming around in my town, I need to raise my awareness...

sorry for my bad english.
 
Anyone ever get the "There's something watching me" feeling?
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Every time I go to a town or a housing development. Windows looking into windows and cameras, you can't help but feel like you're being watched. :D
 
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762cal said:
I'm not too fond of going backcountry (even I am working in a 4 years old 'town' in a remote tropical forest - West Papua, Indonesia). but there's one time where I went for fishing with a group of natives, it was nice, and we're going back by a speedboat at midnight. I got this creepy feeling, and then followed by a sound of rythmic flaps. It was a good deal of noise since the speedboat motors are noisy enough. then I look up and I (and the rest of the crew) saw this great BAT! It flew about 3 meters above us and it was the biggest bat I've ever seen in my life. the wingspan is approx 3-4 meters I think.

Well up until now all the "someone's watching you" feelings I've encountered are mostly made by wildlife. but in the past 3 months there's serial killer roaming around in my town, I need to raise my awareness...

sorry for my bad english.
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No need to apologize for your language skills. I promise you that your English is better than my knowledge of your native language. These things would be a bit spooky buzzing you in a boat at night!
[video=youtube;QUcHK3WhUzM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUcHK3WhUzM[/video]
 
Sulaco,

Enjoyed your story! You will never likely know if it was someone coming for you, or if it was just someone lost, maybe sleepy-eyed
and out for a pee (I'm hoping it was someone out for a pee). Glad it went safely for you.

762Cal,

That sounds like an interesting time! Stalked by giant bats! On a boat...can't run away on a boat..hehehe :D

555,

They're watching you! They're everywhere.. I hate cameras myself!! Blah, cameras have always given me the heebie jeebies,
something which can record and preserve your image or a moment in time for all eternity...kinda creepy when you think about it..
You know? :D

Good stories all, keep them coming!!
 
Codgers, thank you for the video! but I think that's not big enough :)

Bored2Deth, it was scary. moonless night, the boat don't have any light (besides my flashlight) and the sea was very dark. the boat captain was a native Papua, which is famed for their basic navigation skills using star 'constellation'? so we went full speed. me myself saw the bat by my flashlight, he certainly isn't handsome :) but another island natives told me that the bat is common and harmless .
 
bored2deth said:
Sulaco,

Enjoyed your story! You will never likely know if it was someone coming for you, or if it was just someone lost, maybe sleepy-eyed
and out for a pee (I'm hoping it was someone out for a pee). Glad it went safely for you.

762Cal,

That sounds like an interesting time! Stalked by giant bats! On a boat...can't run away on a boat..hehehe :D

555,

They're watching you! They're everywhere.. I hate cameras myself!! Blah, cameras have always given me the heebie jeebies,
something which can record and preserve your image or a moment in time for all eternity...kinda creepy when you think about it..
You know? :D

Good stories all, keep them coming!!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am glad I never found out! I guess we'll see how it goes in a few weeks when we go back!

I've been in on some conversations on other forums about things like what type of gun to carry concealed, etc. and then somebody adds that when they have to use it, they only wish it was a machine gun with unlimited ammo! It's events like this that kind of make you re-evaluate what you do or don't do for personal protection. And sure, I had a 357 magnum loaded with full-house loads, but it felt like a pop gun thinking of the boogy man coming for me! :P
 
Sulaco,

I can tell you from seventeen years of self-defense practice, there is no way to prepare for self-defense, even well-trained and experienced people can be caught off-guard or sucker-punched. You're right, conversations such as those do make you want to evaluate your methods, and even yourself most likely. It's like salsa--some like it hot, others like it mild. :D It's best to find what suits you best, what you feel most comfortable with, and go with that. Personally, I feel comfortable with my years of training, physical abilities, and a flashlight. I tend to stick to areas I know well, avoid poorly lit areas, and any place which seems sketchy. First rule of self-defense--avoid danger to begin with it all. I can handle myself very well, but I'd much rather avoid the bs to begin with and thus avoid all the legalities, hospital bills, and the like :D. What few times I've been forced to defend myself, they regretted it (and no one was seriously injured), and likely learned not to mess with a woodsman :D.

I've often carried pepper-spray, although, that is more for aggressive dogs than people. (Kinda wish it were safe to spray on food..)
Hehe. Spicey!! I'm more worried about attacks from aggressve pets, or marauding coyotes. Rabies!!

Well, in my own opinion, if I were you, I'd set up a small, discrete alarm system around your tent area before you lay down to sleep. There have been quite a few encounters lately of the human predator variety. There is an old addage, "Sometimes less is more",and "You can have too much of anything". And by this I mean, keep it simple and even a little training and preparation can go much farther than you think. Such as my own methods and yours -- I train in self-defense (quick, easy to learn, simple), you carrya .357 magnum (get a laser sight, point, click :D), we keep it simple :D.
 
Oh, while I'm at it, I was eating lunch on my break today. Got that creepy feeling. Looked up. There was my crazy dog preparing for a sneak attack! Got me with a sneak slurp to the face, snatched my chop, and it burned rubber outta there...my lunch with it..
Crazy dog.. I fed the goober before I even sat down to eat! Greedy greedy greedy...:D
 
In the woods this morning, winds were calm and the leaves were falling from the trees to where it sounded like something walking in the woods. No worries. We Wolves travel in packs. :D
 
Back when I lived in CO, a buddy and I would go car camping out in the National forests on the western slope. We would often take his little shih tzu. I know, bringing a dog that size sounds like we were hunting over bait. But this pup was seemingly fearless. This dog was ALWAYS the first out of the truck and last back in. Every trip but this one. When we pulled up to the site we had chosen, it was at the edge of a previously logged area, the dog did not want out. Even when it did, it wouldn't leave our sided by more than about 10 feet. We figured there it must sense a predator in the area, but after exploring around we didn't find any signs of anything. This site had several dozen acres of stumps on the mountainside, so we set up camp just inside the edge of the tree line so we'd have a great view of the full moon and stars laid out in front of us. We were dumb fearless college kids armed to the teeth so we just blew it off as nothing. As we often did, we would just lay our pads and bags down and forgo a tarp overhead when the weather was great. Collecting wood for the fire was an easy chore in the area as there were wrist sized branches and smaller scattered all over the area and plenty more just overhead. Walking around and checking things out lead to both of us constantly stepping on and breaking these branches constantly. While the site was quiet, his dog never quite settled down.

After the full moon came up and we settled into our bags for the night. The dog kept begging to be let back into the car and we finally obliged. Now usually this pup would make its bed right between my buddy and I, but it wanted no part of that this time. Again, something we should have payed attention to but we ignored. With the full moon, it was pretty easy to see in every direction for quite a distance around us. We settled in and we were both woken up a couple hours later to a large branch snapping at our right. Both looking around from our bags, we couldn't see anything and figured another dead branch had fallen out of the canopy. So after shining our lights around and not seeing anything, we settled back in. However before either of us nodded back off, we heard another branch break at our 6 o'clock and a while later again at our 9 o'clock. These snaps were spaced just far enough apart that we would just be nodding off again after the adrenalin wore off from waking to the previous sound. We each had a rifle and pistol and felt in our young confidence that we could handle anything. But this noise kept circling us on and off again. Around and around it would go. We couldn't see anything out there even with the full moon and our flashlights. Finally we stopped hearing anything for a longer duration. We figured whatever it was had finally wandered off. Knowing your being checked out or stalked by something and not know what it is or being able to see it certainly makes my hair stand up.

The next morning, I woke up and got out of my bag to stir the coals up and start some breakfast. But before I got 2 steps, I realized there were new tracks all over our camp and around our bags. Large elk prints were obvious within feet of our sleeping bags. There was a clear trail leading right up into our camp. The amount of them in one spot showed that it had not just passed through, but had stopped and shuffled its weight back and forth a few times standing close enough it could have leaned down and licked me!!! The prints then showed it turned around and wandered off.

An hour or later, we ended up hearing it bugle from across the stump field. What an incredible sound to hear!!!

I've always wondered what my reaction would have been if I'd woken up with this large animal standing over me... I figure I'd have ended up trampled or had elk steaks or a little of both.
 
Last weekend my brothers were supposed to be sleeping out of town and I was the only one home and about 11 I started getting a feeling that something was going to happen so I grabbed my hissatsu and waited and 30 minute later I hear the back door open so I wait at my door and the walking started coming up the stairs and went right past my room so I crept out and hit in this small dark alcove by my bathroom and as the guy walked buy I slammed him into the wall and drew my hissatsu as I realized it was my younger brother and stopped in time to hear him scream like a girl haha...the adrenaline rush was crazy! not really a somebody warning but because about 4 houses were broken into recently near mine I was on full alert Lol...growing up with someone who became a navy seal I have had to wrestle and learn things from him so that he doesn't just kick my ass when we hangout lol. And my brother said he felt somebody watching him and he looked outside and saw a person in the backyard and then they ran off about a week ago.
 
Damn auto correct lol, I meant hid not hit and somebody watching not warning...and almost every single time I have heard about people with the feeling of being watched it is out camping or in the woods haha. It seems like though extra paranoia can help save you and I'm glad I have an extreme case of paranoia and I am also glad I have done things as boxing, karate, small self defense classes and for 3 years getting lessons from my buddy. I'm no badass but after doing classes like that I think it helped with my confidence in situations.
 
:-) Oso Grande,

Elk steaks! Oh boy oh boy oh boy!! Hehehe..just imagine if one single hoof came down on your eye socket or somewhere even more sensitive..ouch. Powerful animals. I'd sorely hate to make one angry. I'd whistle when the wind blows. I bet that was a fantastic trip though. Hehehe..poor little dog.

Dstocker,

Sounds like you had a good time, overall. Made your little brother squeal. If there have been breakins, I'd watch the perimeter, if you see a weirdo in your yard again, call the cops--let them deal with it. Too many legalities with robbers and such..it's funny...people have been SUED by their ATTACKERS
for fighting back...it boggles my mind.
 
bored2deth said:
:-) Oso Grande,

Elk steaks! Oh boy oh boy oh boy!! Hehehe..just imagine if one single hoof came down on your eye socket or somewhere even more sensitive..ouch. Powerful animals. I'd sorely hate to make one angry. I'd whistle when the wind blows. I bet that was a fantastic trip though. Hehehe..poor little dog.

Dstocker,

Sounds like you had a good time, overall. Made your little brother squeal. If there have been breakins, I'd watch the perimeter, if you see a weirdo in your yard again, call the cops--let them deal with it. Too many legalities with robbers and such..it's funny...people have been SUED by their ATTACKERS
for fighting back...it boggles my mind.
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Oh trust me I know I can't believe some stories I've heard, but from my navy friend and police friends they both told me that it was dumb and need to identify the target/subject before doing what I did lol. And we set up motion cameras in the yard now and told the police and they said because he wasn't inside of the house not to chase or attack because we would get in trouble.
 
bored2deth said:
:-) Oso Grande,

Elk steaks! Oh boy oh boy oh boy!! Hehehe..just imagine if one single hoof came down on your eye socket or somewhere even more sensitive..ouch. Powerful animals. I'd sorely hate to make one angry. I'd whistle when the wind blows. I bet that was a fantastic trip though. Hehehe..poor little dog.

Dstocker,

Sounds like you had a good time, overall. Made your little brother squeal. If there have been breakins, I'd watch the perimeter, if you see a weirdo in your yard again, call the cops--let them deal with it. Too many legalities with robbers and such..it's funny...people have been SUED by their ATTACKERS
for fighting back...it boggles my mind.
Click to expand...

Yep... Much as it sucks, in most places you can't afford to let an attacker survive a fight in your own home :\
 
555 said:
Every time I go to a town or a housing development. Windows looking into windows and cameras, you can't help but feel like you're being watched. :D
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Excellent point about the cameras. It used to be that those concerned were labelled as being paranoid. Now that society has caught up, they are now realizing the extent to which we are being watched daily in larger centers, regardless of net monitoring. I don't put a lot of effort into the whole scenario other than being conscious of it.......About the only times that I have found myself being directly watched in public was while metal detecting. I often use headphones and have people walk up behind me after I have absent mindedly muttered something to myself, farted, walked into something while ground focused. They were often watching me long before I knew that they were there. If in town and in a dicier area I will pull one ear muff off.
 
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