Your weirdest woods encounter

silenthunterstudios said:
The Eastern Shore is a great spot to go camping, hiking etc. It's a real shame that a bunch of low lifes have destroyed it. I have been told to steer clear of some areas out there, general "knucklehead" goings on :grumpy:.
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Yep - there are some beautiful areas, infortunately the population tries to make it look like sh!t. Generally, around me, if it looks like a sketchy place to hike then it is.

I hike some in the Pine Barrens with Primitiveman a few months ago. We were on a gorgeous trail leading to a fire tower. We got to the fire tower to find piles of trash that some idiots threw off the top of the fire tower. It's truly a shame.
 
Driving thru the Mission/ Stave Lake area of BC, going up the logging roads, came around the corner and found a "shooting range". The ground, about 100' x 300' size, was over 6" deep in spent shells of all kinds. The hill where everyone was shooting at, was packed solid with lead/copper. Most disturbing was the amount of small (cat, dog) and large (horse sized) animal skeletons, with multiple holes in the bones.

Same area I drove down a overgrown spur road,all of a sudden a smell of death and rotting overcame us. We were gagging it was so strong. Crested a small hill and did a double take, the ground was moving. WTF? got out, covered our noses with hankies and took a look. A pile of moose hides, bones and skulls littered the road. Billions of maggots and flies were feasting on the remains. With the engine off you could hear the maggots slishing and chewing, it was quite freaky. All the skulls had multiple entry holes near the eye sockets and head. Some looked like they had been blasted with #6 shot in the face.

the smell was something else.

that same area is home to hundreds of grow ops, meth labs, there are just certain roads that one does not drive down. Stick to the main trunk line to the lakes, you are fine. Go off those and get deeper into the mountains and your in dangerous territory. There are squatters, crazies, druggies, meth cookers, grow op security etc etc.
 
I have a couple wildlife moments that I think qualify.

My buddie Kirk and I were leaving the BWCA a night early because a storm was coming in. We made it back to the vehicle, pitch black out and calm. We load up and hit the road in Kirks little Nissan with my 17.5 foot canoe on top, buzzing down the Gunflint trail, a cow moose runs out of the forest into the road coming right at us, Kirks doing around 40MPH give or take, the moose does a 180 and starts running next to us. This was not a wide road. All ended well but man that will make you pucker.

Right up there with the moose was grouse opener a few years back.

Radar my grouse dog locked up on point and I got ready for the first grouse of the season. Told him, "get it" and he came out with a black bear. I called the dog and shot my gun in the air. The bear ran like hell. Nobody or nothing was hurt. I leashed Radar and we didn't go back out until all the cover was down that season.

Of the two I'd say the moose scared me the most. Reason being, I was a passenger watching it all go down and had no control over any aspect of it.
 
I was a seasonal state park ranger and one the oddest thing I ever saw was one evening I was locking up the park, doing one last patrol to make sure all cars and people were out of the park. All the cars were gone but I caught a glimpse of someone hiding near a trail head so I hopped out of the truck to investigate. I got a few feet up the trail and I see a guy trying to hide behind a tree so announced my presence and ask him to come out. Well when he did, much to my chagrin he was in a pink lingerie, barefoot, and holding high heels. I asked him if he needed assistance. He told me he had gotten lost and needed to use my phone. I did not want him to use my phone so I gave him a ride in the bed of the truck up to the ranger office and hooked him up with some lost and found clothes and let him use the office phone. While he was doing this I called the state police on the radio and advised the Trooper of the situation just in case things went bad and he said he would have someone swing by. Lingerie guy told me he could not reach anyone on the phone and asked if I could give him a ride into town. I offered to call a taxi (which would have taken a long time) he declined. He tried the phone again this time he contacted someone and got into a heated argument with whomever was on the line. While still on the phone lingerie guy said he had a ride coming but it would be great if I could drop him off at the rest area about five miles up the road. I said no but I would drop him off at the parks front gate where he could be picked up. He agreed and told the person on the phone to meet there. I gave him a ride, again in the back of the truck, to the gate and dropped him off. I left him there to drive back to the office to pick up my car so I could go home. Well by the time I got back to the gate to leave the state police had lingerie guy in the back of his curser. The Trooper told me as the he was driving up lingerie guy was changing back into his lingerie on the side of the road.
 
BA_Colt said:
I was a seasonal state park ranger and one the oddest thing I ever saw was one evening I was locking up the park, doing one last patrol to make sure all cars and people were out of the park. All the cars were gone but I caught a glimpse of someone hiding near a trail head so I hopped out of the truck to investigate. I got a few feet up the trail and I see a guy trying to hide behind a tree so announced my presence and ask him to come out. Well when he did, much to my chagrin he was in a pink lingerie, barefoot, and holding high heels. I asked him if he needed assistance. He told me he had gotten lost and needed to use my phone. I did not want him to use my phone so I gave him a ride in the bed of the truck up to the ranger office and hooked him up with some lost and found clothes and let him use the office phone. While he was doing this I called the state police on the radio and advised the Trooper of the situation just in case things went bad and he said he would have someone swing by. Lingerie guy told me he could not reach anyone on the phone and asked if I could give him a ride into town. I offered to call a taxi (which would have taken a long time) he declined. He tried the phone again this time he contacted someone and got into a heated argument with whomever was on the line. While still on the phone lingerie guy said he had a ride coming but it would be great if I could drop him off at the rest area about five miles up the road. I said no but I would drop him off at the parks front gate where he could be picked up. He agreed and told the person on the phone to meet there. I gave him a ride, again in the back of the truck, to the gate and dropped him off. I left him there to drive back to the office to pick up my car so I could go home. Well by the time I got back to the gate to leave the state police had lingerie guy in the back of his curser. The Trooper told me as the he was driving up lingerie guy was changing back into his lingerie on the side of the road.
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Was this in RI? I've read about some situations going on in some parks that I would not want to encounter...




...and no I'm not the lingere guy :barf:
 
I'm not sure if it counts as weird or funny. But in ~1974 I was backpacking with a college group in Havasupai Canyon. We were on the trail headed out and met a fella on a mule coming the opposite way. As he passed, one of the guys said, "Hey, how's it going?". Guy looked at us and said, "Beer? Never drink beer. Only drink WHISKEY. Good stuff!"

This phraseology became locked into our collective consciousness and we used it frequently until graduation.
 
Don Rearic said:
No kidding, let'em have the Orwellian Fantasy. Someone sticks their nose in my business and I will always do my best to see that they suffer some degree, no matter how small. Ideally, once upon a time, you could smash their nose flat until the powers that be found the value in having a nation of informants. :rolleyes:
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Damn Don! You're taking it a little too personal. I'm wondering if kr1 didn't ruin your backwoods illegal camping, fish trapping, kid beating, meth lab operation.




Not too weird or anything, more like learning my lesson on keeping my mouth shut. A couple of weeks ago we had taken a little vacation to the Cloudcroft / Ruidoso area of NM to get away from this Texas heat. I wanted to do a little hike with my 7 year old son, so had found a dirt trail of an old logging road into the Lincoln National Park that was supposed to have some trails.

We drove in about 10 miles just ooohing and ahhhhing over the large trees and mountain views. Saw a couple of deer and a little chipmunk, I was stoked! Found a clearing with several trails leading off and pulled over. I grab a day pack with the essentials and my wife and son put a couple of bottles of water in their pockets and we were off. About 3/4s of a mile in and I'm having a great time. The weather and scenery couldn't have been more beautiful. Then we hear the crash of something fairly large leaving the area up mountain from us. I'm peering upslope trying to catch sight of it while my son was asking what the noise was. I said "Well, it was probably just a deer because we just saw a couple down the road." Then I added "but maybe it's a bear." . . . . . .Yup, we had to turn around and go back!
 
AUYUITTUQ_LOC.jpg


I was working on Baffin Island, and had been for about three months straight doing a regional helicopter water sampling programme, and claim staking. I took a 10 day break and flew up to Auyuittuq National Park for a solo hike in one of the most remote parks in the country. To get to the park's trail head, you must fly from Ottawa to Iqaluit, then Pangnirtung, followed by a 30km boat ride; this is not an easy place to get to.

I spent a very relaxing and enjoyable week hiking in the park, only seeing perhaps six people the entire time.

On my way out at the trailhead, I was waiting for a boat to arrive and pick me up to take me back to Pang. When it arrived three or four eager hikers hopped off the boat.

I had to stop and do a double-take when the last guy jumped off. He was, at a guess in his mid to late 70's, maybe even 80, and travelling alone. He was wearing a formal suit jacket, pants and dress shoes, with white shirt and bow-tie and carrying a very old military issue ruck-sack that looked almost empty. He hopped off the boat and was gone, out of site up the trail before we pushed off.

To this day I still wonder what he was doing there. For some reason I had imagined that he was going there to end it all in one of the most beautiful, picturesque spots in the world (taking a long cold walk). I searched the local paper the next couple of weeks to see if there was news on him, but nothing.
 
Mckrob I have seen pictures of that area (used to work in Iqaluit) it is indeed a beautiful spot. But also one you want to be prepared for! :D
 
My most unusual encounter, though it is not weird in a sense, was hiking to one of my favourite places to read at the top of a local ski hill. While reading I noticed a Grizzly bear coming up the ski hill (I had seen it once before) which moved into the bush when I blew my whistle and shouted at it. About 20 minutes later a Lynx walked behind me coming within about 10 or 15 feet and although I am sure it saw me, casually walked into bush about 50 feet away. Then to top it off a cow moose and calf darted out of the bush about 10 miunutes later and came within about 40 feet of me.

It would of been a good day to have a camera.
 
I have told this a few times on this forum, but here goes again....

About 12 years ago I was doing a solo hike in a very remote part of the Mokelumne Wilderness that gets very little human traffic. It was middle elevation forest, mostly red fir. About seven miles in, as I approached a large deadfall with a bunch of fallen trees bunched together, I was met by an overpowering smell. The only way to describe it is to imagine a whole truckload of very dirty, stinky wet dogs all concentrated down to one spot. I could taste it very strongly in the air. I didn't see anything, so I carefully made my way past the deadfall. On my way back out a few hours later, the smell was completely gone. I have wondered what kind of animal would smell like that.
 
Not in the woods, but critters
I used to work for a cell phone co. Back in about 86 I was working in the bay area in Cali, I was on a site on the ridge on the penensula where its pretty desolate and fog shrouded most of the time. Inside the radio shack I was laying on the floor with my head stuck in a cabinet and I hear this snuffling sound, like when your dog puts his nose under the bathroom door. I look around anf there is a Fox right there in the shelter with me, sniffin around, checking me out and all the corners in the shelter. I followed hom outside and got my camera out of the truck, I'll have to dig up the pictures.
Annother site out west of LA, tower on a hill in farmland. I go thru the gate, close it behind me, get to the site and am doing my thing, I hear a noise in the door. There is 3 goats looking in at me. No animals anywhere in sight when I drove up. I run them out the door and the fenced compound and there are about 300 of them all around my truck and one standing on top of it. My brand new 87 S10 4x4!
 
lambertiana said:
I have wondered what kind of animal would smell like that.
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I've encountered fungi that emit very strong odors, the Net Stinkhorn comes to mind. Given the short life span of some fungi, could that have been a source?
 
lambertiana said:
I have told this a few times on this forum, but here goes again....

About 12 years ago I was doing a solo hike in a very remote part of the Mokelumne Wilderness that gets very little human traffic. It was middle elevation forest, mostly red fir. About seven miles in, as I approached a large deadfall with a bunch of fallen trees bunched together, I was met by an overpowering smell. The only way to describe it is to imagine a whole truckload of very dirty, stinky wet dogs all concentrated down to one spot. I could taste it very strongly in the air. I didn't see anything, so I carefully made my way past the deadfall. On my way back out a few hours later, the smell was completely gone. I have wondered what kind of animal would smell like that.
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I know th area you speak of , it can pretty darn remote and spare of humans. Not trying to make the thread odd but I have heard more than once that , that smell is exactly what Bigfoot smells like.

Really :)


\Tostig
 
Let's get this thread back on track.

I live in the NE where there are no bears at all and I don't ever have to worry about encountering one in the woods.

We were on a trip down in the Smokies hiking as many trails as we could in our week there. My head was on a swivel the entire time as I've never seen a bear in the wild and was kind of scared and excited all in one at the opportunity of a possible bear encounter. My wife was 5 months pregnant so it was a bit of a mixed feeling :)

Anyhow - we were on a single track trail with plenty of thick growth on each side so we couldn't see that far off of the trail. We rounded one bend and saw a shadow take off into the woods - crashing through the woods and making quite a bit of noise. Freaked me out pretty good..... I've still never saw a bear in the wild and am ok with that :)
 
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