Creepy Tales from the Bush.

i have had quite a few of those especially as a young boy. would be trying to get to bed and get the weirdest feeling that someone was watching me. these wern't isolated incidents either i got them quite often but nothing happened.

just this year i was walking my dog late at night and got this feeling that i was being watched. i had a flashlight with me so i shinned it around and then i saw a reflection in the neighbor's yard. i then realized that it was around ten sets of eyes! i thought that it was coyotes, because we had tons of them around, but i got a little closer and realized that they were all deer. but they gave me quite the scare.
 
These tales are great reading! the only time I've really had a few scares was out surfing in remote areas. The first time I was in a large bay getting some big waves at the southern end. My mates had gone in on the last set and I was stuck out waiting for the next one to role in. At the time, big schools of salmon were running pass and into the bay. We were eating fresh salmon for lunch and dinner everyday thanks to one of the guys fishing all the time (still can't top that for taste no matter how much I pay at a restaurant!). However about 2 out of every 5 fish he caught were being shredded by sharks so we knew they were around as well. Anyway I was out waiting for the next set and in it came rolling in. At about 20 meters away I saw a very big dark shadow in the face of the wave heading straight for me. My heart stopped and I was thinking ok..here we go, I turned to see where my mates were and they were some distance in climbing up the steep rocks on the point. At about 5 meters now the big dark shape was still coming directly towards me and I was just stuck in a numbing dread kinda feeling...that was when the three bloody dolphins leapt out of the wave and swam underneath me. Man I was relieved there!!!...Great Whites are common in this area as well. Similar thing happened another time and it turned out to be a Southern Right Whale, which I swam next to for a lil bit. Both were amazing encounters, but the whale was pretty special because he was checking me out as much as I was checking him out.
 
In college I took an evening class during the summer. It was dark by the time I left, but I decided to take the scenic route home. Despite living in the city, there's a nice little wooded area along the river not far from both campus and my house. I'd been through the woods many times during the day. Anyway, I reached an area where a trail led into the woods and decided to take it.

...that was one of the creepiest times in my life. The trail isn't exactly wide, but in the dark it was completely claustrophobic. There were some motorcycles that kept idling in the middle of the street outside of the woods and the riders were yelling something unintelligible. They sounded angry, so I didn't want to leave the woods and potentially get involved in that nonsense. I continued through the woods and it kept feeling like I was being watched. The path bends often and it always felt like something was peeking out at me from behind each bend. It didn't help that a fellow student had fallen into the river nearby and died just months earlier. I made it out just fine when I got as far as I needed to, but it was creepy as hell nonetheless.



Having been a Psychology major, I'm well aware of all the tricks the mind can play on us, especially in the dark. I know full well that nothing was different about the woods that night, and that my brain was probably dealing with the lack of visual stimuli by just making **** up (see the Ganzfeld Effect). The brain's really quite mysterious, so it's entirely possible that even an experienced outdoorsman could fall victim to its tricks.

...that or bigfoot wanted some of his beef jerky.
 
almasy87 said:
In college I took an evening class during the summer. It was dark by the time I left, but I decided to take the scenic route home. Despite living in the city, there's a nice little wooded area along the river not far from both campus and my house. I'd been through the woods many times during the day. Anyway, I reached an area where a trail led into the woods and decided to take it.

...that was one of the creepiest times in my life. The trail isn't exactly wide, but in the dark it was completely claustrophobic. There were some motorcycles that kept idling in the middle of the street outside of the woods and the riders were yelling something unintelligible. They sounded angry, so I didn't want to leave the woods and potentially get involved in that nonsense. I continued through the woods and it kept feeling like I was being watched. The path bends often and it always felt like something was peeking out at me from behind each bend. It didn't help that a fellow student had fallen into the river nearby and died just months earlier. I made it out just fine when I got as far as I needed to, but it was creepy as hell nonetheless.



Having been a Psychology major, I'm well aware of all the tricks the mind can play on us, especially in the dark. I know full well that nothing was different about the woods that night, and that my brain was probably dealing with the lack of visual stimuli by just making **** up (see the Ganzfeld Effect). The brain's really quite mysterious, so it's entirely possible that even an experienced outdoorsman could fall victim to its tricks.

...that or bigfoot wanted some of his beef jerky.
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Don't mess with Bigfoot, he'll get ur jerky!
 
A few more from my youth...


-This one's not really creepy, but still...: In junior high, I spent a few days at an environmental learning center. It was about an hour north of Duluth, MN along Lake Superior. Anyone who's been up in that area should know how beautiful it is, and also how "magic" it can feel when everything goes quiet. Anyway, being kids, we got tired fast. I remember going through a wilderness survival lesson where the instructor demonstrated the proper way to make a fire, create a shelter, etc. We were all pretty tired on the hike back to the main building, so no one was talking. It was the middle of winter one one of those clear, crisp days where it seems like you could hear a deer shift in its sleep from miles away. There was a point on our hike at which I couldn't seem to hear our footsteps anymore. Instead, it was like I had become hyper aware of the way the light was shining through the ice crystals in the trees and it was almost like the trees were talking to me. It was certainly a surreal experience, and one that you really can't get anywhere else.

-Creepy time again. In my teens, I spent a few summers at a camp somewhere in the middle of Minnesota. It was a wooded area next to a lake, and really quite lovely. However, those woods weren't anything like the ones in my previous story. First, there were Native American burial mounds on the camp's property. In fact, one activity we did every year involved a campfire gathering for the older kids. From where we sat around the fire, any one of us could have thrown a rock and have it land on a burial mound. It didn't help that the oldest kids always liked to play a prank on the youngest that were allowed to go that involved bowing over the mound and doing a fake chant. Every year that I went, it felt like the mound was watching me. I always ended up with my back to it (just how the seating turned out) and, like has been described time and again in this thread, I felt like I was being watched. I also continuously felt compelled to glance back at it, and I couldn't help but keep my eyes on it upon both our arrival to and departure from the area.

-At the same camp, there was an old legend of a female ghost that would wander the woods, searching for something. Apparently, she was most often seen as a phantom light (her lantern) bobbing among the trees. I never saw her, but the trails in the woods did take us past what was supposedly here house, and damn was the house creepy. It was more of a cabin and was getting rather old and dilapidated. It's one of those places that you couldn't even pay me to spend a night in. Looking over at the woods at night, I always felt like there was something just beyond the treeline that was looking out at that camp. Even during the day, I saw something unseen scare the hell out of a horse...it took off at full gallop. We were on a hill surrounded by the woods, but I couldn't help but notice that the creepy house was behind us and the horse had taken off in the opposite direction of it.

-Same camp. The oldest kids got to spend a night in what was essentially a wood shack in the woods. No modern conveniences whatsoever...just an empty wood structure. The first and only night I got to go (it was canceled in subsequent years...probably because on my trip, the counselors took the truck that was there for emergencies for a joyride and then spent the night together in it...the windows fogged up pretty fast ;)). We stayed up for a good portion of the night. One guy was using a flashlight to do a dirty shadow puppet show and I was enjoying some snacks, having been the only person with the foresight to bring some food and water. We all settled down eventually and all of the flashlights were turned off.

At some point after having fallen asleep, my eyes snapped open. It was almost pitch black (the moon had been out but the skies were now a bit cloudy) and I had no clue where I was. That's when I noticed what I thought were footsteps and very muffled conversations that seemed to be coming from just outside the thin walls behind me. I strained my ears for a good few minutes but it never got any clearer. Finally, and what is the creepiest part about the whole thing, the moon came out and the sound abruptly stopped. The windows of the cabin were positioned well enough that enough light was coming in for me to see that nobody had left the cabin. I needed to relieve myself and I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep unless I checked anyway, so I slipped outside and walked around the cabin a few times. Naturally, nothing was there.

In the morning, I checked around the side of the cabin where it had sounded like the voices and footsteps were coming from. There were a few small animal bones, but I couldn't remember if they had been there when we arrived the previous day. Nobody else seemed to have heard anything.

-Another one that isn't really creepy. The last year I spent to the camp, one of the kids I shared the room with (rooms typically held 6-12 kids and were assigned by age and gender) was Native American. One night, we all noticed a daddy long legs crawling along the wall. One kid freaked and when to crush it, but the Native American kid told him not to and that his people believe that if you kill a daddy long legs, it will rain. The Native American kid left the room, and the scared kid killed it. You have one guess what the weather was doing the next day ;). ...and then the Native American kid almost died from an asthma attack later in the week (he completely stopped breathing multiple times). He was fine by later that night, but it still put a cap on everything I had ever experienced there.



All that being said, I'd take my chances with Native American and melancholy widow ghosts any day than experience some of the stuff I have in the city. The bush can certainly be creepy, but it can't beat the creep factor of drunks trying to pick me up for sex (I'm a male and so was he) or the guy on the train that was telling me about how good of a guy Satan is. Or the guy that seemed to be about a minute away from attacking me because he kept asking for a cigarette and I don't smoke. Or the guys that jumped my friends and I because when we ignored them when they drove up and asked if we wanted to see a car accident.
 
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Two weeks ago I did a campout to watch the solar storm... I had coyotes circling just outside of firelight range, howling and snarling and carrying on for a good 15 minutes-I've got some video. More curious than anything but it can be unnerving sometimes. Humans still have an ingrained predator/prey sense, like most animals do-it's just that living in four walls it's really not prevalant other than on the school playground. Quite possible that something spooked him and that prey sense kicked in... fight, flight or hide. It doesn't take one long to go from a rational "that was wierd..." to fear to total insane panic and paranoia, sometimes our minds just get the best of us.
 
I had the good fortune of doing some post-graduate work overseas, specifically at St. Andrews, Scotland (home of golf, for those of you who partake). Aside from golf, St. Andrews, has two old ruined cathedrals dating from the eleventh and twelfth centuries and a castle from the same time period. St. Andrews has seen its share of violence over the years, especially during the Reformation (people burned at the stake, rectors chased by bow carrying students, alleged witches thrown into the sea, etc.).

There is a castle sitting on a promotory in St. Andrews. You can take a staircase down from a public street to a small beach below the cliff-face from the castle. The beach is about ten yards wide, but gives some nice views of one of the cathedrals. This beach is near "Witches Bath", where the locals used to throw alleged witches into the North Sea.

One night, I decided to do some night-time photography (back in the day before digital). I had my SLR, tripod, and long exposure gear, hiked from my dorm to the castle and down to the beach. I clearly remember reading the clock on one of the banks as I went down the stairs. It read straight up 1:00AM. A few pubs were still open in the area, but there were not many in this area of town, and it was quiet. I went down the steps no problem and got my shots. I am pretty good about keeping mental time. I was down there about fifteen minutes. There was a bit of a breeze and it was quite pleasant as the water lapped at the beach.

Then it got quiet. Real quiet. The wind stopped. The water went smooth as glass. I was packing things up and was a bit shaken by the sudden change in things. As a side note, I have been bald for years. I have no hairs on the back of my neck. But I got tingles. I am usually very careful about camera gear. But, I definitely, said screw it, and tossed the rest of my gear into my bag and headed to the stairs for the climb (about seven stories). Again, I was the only person. I moved quickly and with purpose. About fifteen steps in, I heard steps behind me. It was a clear sound of sand grating on stone. I looked behind me...nothing there. I calmed myself down and kept going. Again, about fifteen steps, in and I heard it again. I look...nothing. At this point, I bolted. I ran up the remaining stairs and got to the bank with the clock.

The clock read 2:15.

Now, I know I was not down there that long. I know how long what I did takes. I was by myself and did not waste a lot of time, especially when things got weird. To this day, I do not know precisely what happened or what happened during those minutes.
 
freq18hz said:
Here's some more 2 legged creepy, sorry if it's too long. Don't expect an amazing story or anything. If you all care though, the second story is actually what prompted me to discover bladeforums:

I had a bad experience once as a boyscout, camping out in the cut. Long story short, we thought the camp site was haunted because stuff kept moving around disappearing, then reappearing. Then stuff started falling from the sky, branches, pine cones, rocks. Took us about two days to figure out the yokels were terrorizing us. They eventually started using a slingshot, so we packed up, and packed out. Truthfully we were scared s***less, because we never saw them.

Recently, however (about 6 months ago or so) I had my creepiest run in yet. For the record, I don't get frightened too easily, especially by people. But since we are talking about hairs standing up on our necks, and things that just don't feel right:

*As a preface, early last season my pack was stolen, and my gear with it. I hadn't replaced it yet at the time.*

My Lady and I (we had only been dating a couple months) decide to go out on a hike, a pretty casual one, but in a fairly uninhabited by other hikers kind of area. It's one of those sunny, mild days, where the birds are all out, the air is crisp, and in the morning and the evening you need a jacket. Before setting out we stop to get a map, and a ranger mentions if we plan to be out long, we ought to take a light with us. I remember thinking at the time "we don't need a light" but decided better safe than sorry, so I went back to the car, rummaged around, and found this cheap first aid kit that had a worse than made in china plastic flashlight in it...I'm talking one of those tiny cheap flashlights that costs less than a buck, made out of translucent plastic so thin and brittle you could literally crush it into bits if you stepped on it, and the slightest whack and the thing would just crack into pieces...

So keep in mind, my pack had been stolen about a year earlier, and I hadn't done any hiking since. This was just supposed to be a casual hike. So we set out with two walmart hiking poles, the chintzy flashlight, and a winchester mini pocket tool with a pen blade, some water and some snacks. At the time, this felt like overkill. My Lady actually teased me about "we're not going to need a flashlight..."

In an effort to be brief, the hike was beautiful. The only things we were thinking about were the beauty of nature, the smell of the sea air, and each other. It was so nice, that we ended up hiking about 6 miles in from the nearest trailhead. Not to far at all. It was so peaceful, we only ran into a couple other people the whole time. It was just me and her. We continued to hike until we reached the end of the trail, and found ourselves on an outcropping staring out at the sea. We sat there and ate some snacks, had a great time. We ended up dozing off for a few, just laying in the sun relaxing and enjoying each other.

So we wake up, and eat some more. Keep talking. It's so private out here and removed, not one of those regular hiking trails with no privacy. We actually start foolin around a bit etc. Eventually I decide we ought to get moving. We have about 6 miles or so to hump back, and its getting toward late afternoon/early evening.

It is at this exact moment that I look up and see two men, standing about 50 yards from us with cameras looking right at us. I was really annoyed, because we were having a very private moment, and the area we were in was far removed. Also, it situated such that while being private and secluded, to get to it, you have to walk about 100 yards or so in a beeline where you can see exactly what is going on. Had I walked around the bend off trail, and seen a private alcove on an outcropping like this and two lovers obviously having a moment, I would have just turned around. It's a very private feeling spot that we found (no pun intended.) But these guys didn't turn around and head back. Also I know the area well, and this wasn't one of those "known about" spots, it's really removed. But then again I don't own the land, so its not my right to say who can and can't be there...

I was annoyed, but I didn't give it a second thought. So the two men keep walking towards us to our private spot, we just keep talking, looking at the ocean. Eventually they arrive at the outcropping. And here is where it just isn't right. They don't look at us. They don't say Hi. Nothing. When hikers see each other, especially so far out, you always say Hi. These guys don't say a damn thing. And looking back...they didn't take one single picture. They just stood there staring out at the ocean, not saying a word, and not acknowledging us. Like I said before, I'm not afraid of people. But something just didn't sit right with me...she and I just kept talking away, but at the back of my mind my instincts were nagging me. So she asks me if I want leave now, but I said "in a few". I decided to wait these guys out, as I for some reason didn't want them behind us on the trail. After about 25 minutes or so, they headed out, back down the trail. FYI once back on trail, it is very linear without any intersecting trailheads for about 4 miles.

As soon as they leave, she looks at me and says "They sure were creepy." I paused for a second, but then continued our conversation. After about 25 minutes or so we decided to head out. At this point, I knew we needed to get moving because we were going to hit dusk if we had a slow pace. We get to it, and I purposefully try to keep our pace quick. We just keep talking away, laughing etc. After the 100 hundred yards I had already forgot all about our visitors. We keep our pace up on this linear trail we are on, not seeing a single other person the whole time. The sun keeps falling, we keep walking, it is beautiful..

With about three miles left to go, evening turns into dusk, and it starts to get a bit chilly. She puts on her jacket. We are both tired at this point. As the trail starts to descend toward the forrest (we had been under open skies thus far), all of a sudden I get the absolute CHILLS. The hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up, and I cock my head to one side. She looks at me and asks "what?" I tell her nothing and we keep walking. She is talking up a storm at this point, and I'm just listening to her talk. About 10 minutes later, I hear some branches cracking behind us. Not wanting to alarm her, I casually look behind us while she is talking. No one should be on the trail. We went to the end, and didn't see a single other person besides the two men that crashed our make out spot, and we left 30 minutes after them. So what do I see? About 100 yards back, two men, that look identical to the ones we saw (hard to tell as it was almost dusk out).

We keep walking, and then it suddenly hit me. Who could be on the trail? We didn't see anyone else. More importantly, we had been keeping a very spirited pace, you would have to try to keep pace with us with how fast we had been walking.

The hair on my neck and that "feeling" continued. Another minute and I look back, now I only see 1 person, but it is one of the two I had just seen a minute before. We were walking fast. My mind starts racing...something feels off...I decide to assess the situation. I take stock. All I have on my is a slip joint pen blade, and two super crappy hiking poles, and this crap flashlight. Suddenly I realize, while I'm probably over reacting, I'm not able to guarantee her safety against two. Assuming no guns, I'm reasonable confident against one person, no matter who he is, that at the very least they won't lay a hand on her. But two? Can't make that promise.

So I decide right then and there, that it isn't worth the risk to find out, and we need to lose these people. I don't want her to worry so I tell her casually "it's getting dark, we need to walk as fast as possible." She seems disconcerted by my change in tone, and me interrupting our conversation. So of course she starts to argue "what do you mean dark, look...there is plenty of light out! We are fine." So I stare at her and say "Better safe than sorry." She submits, and we start walking as fast as possible, almost a jog.

And this is where I feel a loss of control: My instincts had been firing off the whole time. We are tired, it's dusk headed for twilight, and as I look back, now there are two men again, except this time they are twice as close. We keep walking fast. She is still talking up a storm, totally unawares. I am aware that whoever these guys are, they are purposefully trying to catch up with us, because you would have to run or jog to do so. I'm a fast walker by default, and we were hauling ass. Not cool. I look back again about 30 seconds later...even though we were practically running, they aren't any farther away, by the look of it, even maybe 10 yards closer.

It's now dusk, and as the path continues we continue to descend and end up under a very thick tree canopy. The farther we go in, the darker it gets. I turn the flashlight on. Nothing. Shake it. Ok now light. The dimmest crappiest light I've ever seen. A keychain light is like batman's spotlight in comparison. We keep walking fast. I'm getting downright worried. Not wanting to alarm her, but wanting to keep as low a profile as possible, I ask her cooly "hey you know if we talk less and are more quiet, we might see some cool wildlife." She agrees and we stop talking, and keep walking fast fast fast. I continue to keep an eye behind us, nothing. They are gone. A bit of relief washes over me, I relax a little bit. Then she stumbles and annoyed says "why are we walking so fast?" Before I could answer, I hear a rustle, and we both look up and behind us. Coming around the bend, entering into the forest are two men. She appears startled. I tell her "Look, I didn't want to alarm you, but they have been behind us for awhile. We've been walking really really fast, but they keep walking faster. Don't freak out, but we need to keep moving as fast as possible. I'm sure it's nothing, but I don't want to find out." So she says "Do you think its those two creepy guys from before? Those guys gave me the chills." I told her I didn't know, and got us moving again, this time, basically a jog.

As we continue, it is now getting dark very very quickly, something I had forgotten: If its dusk out in the open, in a thick wood it is dark. And it started to get very dark, very quickly. We stop for a second look behind us with the flashlight, and they are even CLOSER. It is dead quiet out, and they aren't talking at all. With our back turned and practically jogging, I can hear them and it almost sounds like they are running to keep up with us. At this point she is very alarmed, senses my fear, and says "I'm scared baby! What if they have a gun?"

I don't know what possessed me to do this, but I turned off the flashlight, gave it to her, grabbed her hand and told her "If anything happens, you take the flashlight and your hiking pole, and you run down that trail carefully (she is a runner) and don't stop until you hit the road and find people." She replies "What's going to happen?" And I say "We aren't going to find out."

I take her hand, and we start running. After about 25 yards the trail has a bend in it, with a heavily wooded gully to the right. I grab her, pull her off trail with me, and push through the vegetation about 5 meters down toward the gully. I pull her down with me into the bushes and push her head low, I crouch as low as possible almost laying down, looking up and to my left at the trail. We wait.

Honestly I don't know how long it was, It seemed like forever we waited. The blood was pulsing in my ears. She tried to ask to me a question I said "Shhhhh...". She looks pale and scared. After what seemed like a lifetime, (probably only 45 seconds to a minute) we hear soft, quick footsteps. Around the ben two figures, barely distinguishable by the moonlight come towards us very quickly, with flashlights. They stop about 10 feet from where we went off trail and start shining their flashlights around. I hear them whispering...almost indistinguishable. The only words I could make out were "where...go?? ... "damnit.." ... "told you.." .... "hot ass." At the last one, she must have heard it too, because I could feel her breathing quicken. We waited. Finally after searching around for probably 30 seconds, they whispered something again and started jogging in the direction we had been moving. We waited 10 minutes or so, I can't be sure. I walked her down into the gully, crossed the small stream there, and up the other side. We followed a deer path in the general direction of the trail head being very careful to be quiet, she was very nervous. We made our way toward the road and where our car was parked. Upon spotting it, we paused before exiting the wood to make sure no one was around. We walked swiftly to the car, got in and drove off.

Sorry I guess this was a long one. But let me say this:

I've never felt so vulnerable before in my life. And it wasn't because of my safety. It was hers. I couldn't guarantee it. And yes nothing happened. In fact, after a few minutes of driving and the heater and some tunes, we were both laughing again and she was pondering if perhaps we over-reacted. Maybe so. Who knows? But I'm glad we didn't stick around to find out. I will never go out unprepared again. I immediately started building a new up to date survival/hiking/camping kit up. I found bladeforums, bought the best flashlights money can buy, and now carry a worthy blade again every day, and have a nice fixed blade in my hiking kit.

Thanks for listening, sorry again for the length.
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first off, great story telling.. second, glad you guys made it and you were smart. third, i would be carrying a gun from then on out. to hell with just a blade. you had my neck hair standing just telling it.

my guess was they were stalking you down and waiting till dark before they made their move. (assuming they were going to do something)
 
When I was younger I used to get up every morning and walk about 3 miles. I would bike about half a mile or so and then take this walk down in a nice little woods. I did this for about four years. The final spring I kept getting the feeling that someone or something was watching/following me. I tried walking the trail backwards, hunkering down and waiting and doubling back and I never could find anything. I even went back later in the day when the sun was up and looked for scat or sign and could never find anything. I thought maybe I was crazy so I invited a friend to go with me one morning and I watched him. Sure enough. We got to a certain part of the trail and all of a sudden he starts looking all around and checking behind us. He starts talking louder and suddenly was asking how long till the end of the trail. That was enough for me. I found a new trail.
 
My very first camping experience on my own I decided to go camping overnight on the side of Mount Wellington in Tasmania. I borrowed all my gear from my gf's brother and went hiking out into the forest. I've lived a very sheltered existence and really wanted to test myself.

Got everything set up outside an old hut that marks the cross roads between two trails and had decided to turn in early for the night. I had my fire going nicely a few meters away and could see it's comforting glow through the tent.

It was about 9 or 9:30 I think when I heard the most chilling sounds you'll ever hear in the bush. Screaming. Screaming like teenage girls were being slaughtered like in bad horror films. And it went on and on.

I unzipped my tent and peered out the flap but couldn't see anything beyond my fire. Pitch black. Surely something or someone out there was being chased through the dark by an unknown horror. The sensible logical part of me knew it was some sort of local fauna calling at dusk to others of it's species but right then it was sounded unconvincing.

It stopped after a while and I managed to get some sleep (after releasing the death grip I had on my new Kabar) but I was in for very cold night.

It was only later that I found out it was likely a couple of Tassie Devils. The very same creatures to strike fear into the hearts of Australia's first white settlers. Now I go camping on my own all the time and only jump occasionally from the wildlife.
 
almasy87 said:
.......

All that being said, I'd take my chances with Native American and melancholy widow ghosts any day than experience some of the stuff I have in the city. The bush can certainly be creepy, but it can't beat the creep factor of drunks trying to pick me up for sex (I'm a male and so was he) or the guy on the train that was telling me about how good of a guy Satan is. Or the guy that seemed to be about a minute away from attacking me because he kept asking for a cigarette and I don't smoke. Or the guys that jumped my friends and I because when we ignored them when they drove up and asked if we wanted to see a car accident.
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Sounds to me like you need another locale :D



Kind regards
Mick
 
I was camping with friends on the Mornington Penninsula outside Melbourne - at a beach campsite. We had put the young children to bed in various tents and the adults were enjoying a glass of red in another tent. Without any warning the most terrible screams of utter pain and total agony erupted with a terrible roaring. Most freakily from just above the ceiling of the tent.

Koalas mating - once heard never forgotten. Inoffesnive, sleepy, slow moving but what a noise!!


HandofCod. Thought you might be going there.

That said - I have been freaked out in the bush by total utter silence. Summer in the Northern bush is not meant to be silent. Only happened once but 20 years later it still readily comes to mind.
 
It wasn't camping but my brother and I were sound asleep in the middle of the night .We then were rudly awakened by a 'blood curdling scream' .Oh yes it was the very definition of the term. Right outside the window too . We figured that it was an owl that had grabbed a rabbit . Things that go bump in the night !
 
Foxes and martens can make pretty disturbing sounds, too.

Yesterday I was out collecting mushrooms, when suddenly a huge animal jumped towards me from uphill with high velocity. At first I thought it was a large dog (Rhodesian Ridgeback for example). When it was about 5-10 yards away I jumped behind a tree and identified the animal as a deer which recognized me at this moment. It tried to change direction, fell, got up again and ran away (that's when I saw the second deer that was with it).
Animal attacks are extremely rare where I live, but it got me thinking about animal attacks in general. What I experienced yesterday happened so fast, if it hadn't been a harmless, stupid deer, but a wild dog, big cat or whatever, I wouldn't have had the time to pull out anything for self defense. That's the scary part. :o
 
DocArnie said:
Foxes and martens can make pretty disturbing sounds, too.

Yesterday I was out collecting mushrooms, when suddenly a huge animal jumped towards me from uphill with high velocity. At first I thought it was a large dog (Rhodesian Ridgeback for example). When it was about 5-10 yards away I jumped behind a tree and identified the animal as a deer which recognized me at this moment. It tried to change direction, fell, got up again and ran away (that's when I saw the second deer that was with it).
Animal attacks are extremely rare where I live, but it got me thinking about animal attacks in general. What I experienced yesterday happened so fast, if it hadn't been a harmless, stupid deer, but a wild dog, big cat or whatever, I wouldn't have had the time to pull out anything for self defense. That's the scary part. :o
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I read that the Berlin area has been seeing a plague of wild boar.

I was sitting in a local woodlot when I heard running, looked over my shoulder, and saw what I thought were two dogs. I looked further back to see the kids I figured would be with them but then realized the "dogs" were two young does.

From the angle, I could tell they had just run across the highway, in midafternoon traffic!
 
Maybe not creepy, but more in the cool range, Hearing a Bobcat in the woods at night.

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freq18hz said:
Well, mine is a tough cookie, but she is headstrong and careless. I'm more of the prepared, cautious type.

She now has a first aid kit in her backpack that she commutes on her bike with. Also, although she refuses to carry her own gear while hiking, she does know all the pieces of my kit and how to use them in an emergency.

That being said. Were I able to carry a handgun legally, and keep it loaded. I would do so.

She is of the mind that she doesn't need to prepare for bad things, because only good things are in store for her. She is a very positive person. I am more of the cynical, skeptical, pessimist type. We balance each other out well in that regard. Then again though, bad things usually don't happen to her. So maybe by not worrying, or preparing, or being anxious about things, she manifests only good? Who knows...

I only know one way to be. So if you find me on a trail, I'll have a fixed blade with me, and probably a folder.

For the record, she does carry her pepper spray and pink Spyderco Native when she runs now (most of the time). =)


Oh and after getting my kit in order post this incident, we had a few outings where she teased me for being over-prepared. That is until of course, until we were out hiking and she desperately had to pee. She was freaking out, because "We need to hurry, I think I am going to die...if only I had some toliet paper."

Guess what I pulled out of my pack?

She doesn't tease me for being over-prepared anymore.
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i would carry a gun regardless legal or not.. the old saying has been repeated many a times "rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6".. btw if it were a federal land, you can carry concealed now. my life the life of my friends and family are far more important to me than a law. just sayin... glad she woke up a bit and you both are more prepared:thumbup:
 
SouthernCross said:
Sounds to me like you need another locale :D



Kind regards
Mick
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I think I'd have a tough time finding a safer major metropolitan area than the Twin Cities in MN :p

About the worst we have is a nasty Hmong gang (at least as far as I can tell from watching Gangland on the History Channel...never heard of them before that). Other than that, crime rates are fairly low around here compared to other cities. My leisure just tends to take me out after dark (though the sex guy was in broad daylight on a train platform). Additionally, lacking a car forces me to take public transportation which makes it more likely that I'll run into unsavory characters anyway.

I also met a drunk (read: completely smashed) guy at around 9:30 AM in Minneapolis once. He was talking himself into getting angrier and angrier (he seemed to like me at first but suddenly and inexplicably started accusing me of being a racist (he was Hispanic)) and actually grabbed my arm at one point to stop me from leaving. Eventually, he let go and I just walked away. He walked right through traffic on a very busy street...kinda surprised he didn't get hit. He didn't appear to be armed (once he started getting angry I paid close attention to his hands) so I didn't feel to threatened, though. I mean...a light push would have put his drunk *** on the ground and I wouldn't have even had to try to walk fast to escape.

I also went to school with a guy who ended up raping two women and another who got expelled for bringing a giant fixed blade to school. My favorite math teacher used to know a guy who turned out to be an axe murderer. Minnesota, man...we're hardcore, 'yo.
 
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