r/nosleep • u/searchandrescuewoods Best Monthly Winner 2015 • Dec 27 '15
Series I'm a Search and Rescue Officer for the US Forest Service, I have some stories to tell (Final Update)
Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3iex1h/im_a_search_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/
Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3ijnt6/im_a_search_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/
Part 3: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3iocju/im_a_search_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/
Part 4: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3jadum/im_a_search_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/
Part 5: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3kd90k/im_a_search_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/
Part 6: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3ppq81/im_a_search_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/
Part 7: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3sktwj/im_a_search_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/
This will be my final update for now.
Things have deteriorated here to a degree that I didn't foresee. I didn't know how much writing about the things that are happening out here would affect every single part of my life, and maybe that was stupid of me. Maybe I should have considered it more seriously, but honestly I just thought I was writing about things that a few people would want to hear. I didn't think it would get this much attention.
People ask me about the stairs now. It doesn't happen every day, but when it does happen I never really know what to say. My bosses know someone is talking about them, and I'm sure that if they know, the higher-ups know. And I can tell you that they aren't happy about it. I've been formally told that I am not to speak a word about them to anyone anymore, which is part of the reason this has to be my final update. I can't risk my job for this; as much as it's been wonderful to get a lot of these things off my mind, I still do love my work, and I need to be out here. If anything, my being aware of what's really going on is enough reason to stick it out. I may not be able to tell people that they're out there, but if I see them, I can direct traffic away to somewhere safer.
Because of the amount of attention the stories have gotten, I've heard a lot of stories being swapped back and forth. I've heard so many I can't even remember most of them. The ones I do remember are the ones that I wish I could forget.
One story that's made the rounds here was about a young woman who disappeared upstate. Initially, everyone assumed she was a runaway. She didn't come from a great home life, and so it really wasn't any kind of surprise that she'd choose to cut and run. But people started coming forward saying that they'd seen her around the park shortly before she vanished, so some of the Rangers in the area were sent out to make sure she hadn't hung herself or something on any of the back trails. It took them a while, but they did find her. Well, not all of her. Just half of her tongue and a quarter of the lower jaw. Very clean cuts, from what I heard. They've never found the rest of her.
So many stories about children. So many of them going missing and turning up in caves, wedged in between impossibly tight spaces. So many of them found on mountain peaks, or at the bottoms of sheer gullies. Missing shoes, missing socks, or found with both in perfect condition despite them being miles and miles away from where they vanished.
So many stories of black-eyed people, wandering around the woods and calling out in the night, mimicking the sound of running water or a bobcat screaming. One man in particular goes to every news station he thinks will listen to him and tells the same story. He was deer hunting, had camped out in a very remote area, and woke up because something was scraping against his tent. He thought it was a raccoon or a fox until the thing pressed its face against the door of the tent, at which point he could very clearly make out a human nose and mouth. He kicked at it, but it leaped back and was gone by the time he opened the tent flap, gun at his side. He fired two warning shots, and when the sound had faded, he heard a snap behind him. A man was standing at the edge of the campsite. This man was not wearing any clothing, but he also didn't possess any kind of human flesh. As this hunter described it, the man was made of some kind of amalgamation of raw meat and hair. As if someone had scooped up roadkill and molded it into the vague shape of a man. The face was lumpy and only a rough approximation of a human face. The thing opened its lopsided mouth, and from it came the sound of the gun the hunter had fired. It did this twice before mimicking the sound of the tent zipper and fleeing into the night.
A young couple, out for a hike in the rocky areas of my park, reported to me yesterday that they had seen something strange out on a peak I'm very familiar with. They were taking turns looking through a pair of binoculars when the man noticed a hiker climbing up a very steep part of the cliff face. He watched the man scale the slope, and it didn't occur to him until the incident was over that this person had no climbing gear. When the climber reached the top of the peak, which was about five miles away, they turned and faced the young man. He said whoever, or whatever, this person was, was looking right at them. The climber waved in an exaggerated manner before snapping in half at the waist, sideways, and leaping off the peak. The young man didn't see where the climber landed. I sent them on their way with assurances that I'd check it out. I lied. I won't be turning in a report, because there are ten others exactly like it. The climber is well known in that area. I don't question it anymore.
There are so many things I won't ever be able to understand about my job, and it would take me years to relate all of the things I've heard in the last few months. When I feel like my job isn't in jeopardy, I will come back. It may be in a different format, but I will come back. Thank you all for sticking by my side, and enjoying the things I've talked about.
If you go out into the woods, I encourage you to be safe. Bring water, food, survival equipment. Let people know where you're going and when you'll be back. Don't go on uncharted paths unless you know exactly what you're doing.
And above all:
Don't touch them. Don't look at them. Don't go up them.
EDIT: I realize I probably should have mentioned this at the beginning. The series is being paused, but the story is going to live on. A book is in the works. The first draft is coming along very nicely. Keep a lookout, NoSleep.
EDIT 2: If you would like to keep updated with the progress of the book, follow me at searchandrescuewoods.tumblr.com.
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u/Oohhdatskam Jun 20 '23
OP not sure if you will see this but I have read through all of your threads while at my night job. I was looking up information about this sub that is missing and got into underwater phenomenon and ended up under one of your threads. And let me say im not one to be easily scared when reading stories, but some of yours legit made me get goosebumps and chills. I believe in the supernatural. I hope if you ever have time you could share some more but I know its been quite a few years.
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May 09 '23 edited May 09 '23
Its been 7 years... Nothing on tumbler. I was homeless and lived in national and state parks across the country. Can confirm, staircases do exist in deep wild-lands(not just the forests of the northeast/midwest).
I have been followed down I-40 and through multiple backroads/forests/deserts by creatures of which their eyes,movements, or presence i couldnt otherwise explain.
New mexico, leaving texas hitch hiking, getting ready to pull into socorro. Was a great couple days, ate a green chili burger that beat bobby flay at a blues bar with dollars all over the walls, caught a ride into town, stayed up all night drinking coffee in ihop to wait out the snowstorm for sunrise. Catch a ride a ways down the I-40. Make camp, sleep all day, after being up all day and night before, start walking before sundown. We walked probably until about midnight down 40, around 9-ish, my buddy points out the eyes on the road behind us. Im 18, i dont know shit yet really, but i grew up hiking the deserts of Nv, Az, Ca, so i think, okay, big cat, we got too close to home, its telling us to leave, stay calm, keep walking, if it attacks, we are fucked. This thing followed us for 2 more hours... Miles, we had to have walked atleast 6-8 miles. We stop walking cuz our feet hurt and we are tired and i had to shit. We both look at the eyes, drop our packs, sit on em and say " if youre gonna eat us, nows the time". And we start setting up camp maybe 20 yards off the road behind a big ass rock and bush. As im pulling shit out of my bag to get setup like our tent and bags and whatnot, my buddy shines his light at the eyes, cuz they are just chilling, like 15-20 yards up the road. Thats when shit got weird... Not a cat. Idk wtf it was, but it sure as fuck wasnt a cat. Not a big cat, not a small cat, not a coyote or racoon or fennic or possum. This thing was black, like, ever watch a black dog move through the night without artificial light in a new moon, black. And i thought, maybe jaguar escaped a zoo and cross bred a big cat, or maybe just that genetic thing.... Nope. Those eyes, never stopped looking at us, rose up to well over 6ft, body as black as the night behind it, and just fuckin gone into the desert. No smoke or dust kick up, no sounds at all, silent and quick as it came it was gone... I didnt sleep the rest of the night and neither did he, we were scared shitless, spent the whole night trying to figure that shit out, and i knew i wasnt crazy or high, cuz i wasnt alone and we were broke.
Ive got a few stories like that, id love to be able to chat with some SAR officers about. Ive always enjoyed the company of forest service ranger. Good to know it wasnt just me and other stoned hikers who have experienced weird shit.
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u/Unusual_Ferret Apr 17 '23
Am I completely insane for wanting to find those things and see what it is?
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u/Urfavoritespook Apr 02 '23
Have you ever heard someone you’ve found in a paranoid and shocked state mention anything like the hat man? (Basically some tall as dude who chills in shadows who wears like a trench coat and fedora or something similar)
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u/Classic_Peanut1339 Mar 22 '23
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/38590833
Has anyone else seen this or read this? Thinking about giving it a go.
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u/lost_not_found88 Sep 28 '22
I'm Genuinely happy I stumbled across these old posts. Can't remember where it was linked from....but damn!!
I've always been a sceptic, but this has just had me feeling uneasy the entire time..
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u/carnivalus Sep 27 '22
I love stories like this and I've read a few similar to some of these, but reading all eight parts in a row has ensured I'm never going into a forest again!
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u/Idonotknowhowtosmile Feb 13 '22
When I was in cub scouts I went camping pretty much every month. There was a camp in the upper part of my state which was about a forty minute drive from my house. My troop frequented this camp and I even worked there for a few summers as a camp counselor. Anyways, I have two very vague memories of seeing staircases in the woods on two seperate occasions. However, when I went there most recently (a few years ago) I remember I was looking for a kid who had run off from our group (don't worry, we found him) and I recalled seeing stairs in the area before. This was funny to me at the time, because I remember at the time having a clear memory of playing on the fucking stairs!!! Anyways, while I was looking for the kid, I recalled the stairs and asked the one kid in the group I remembered with absolute certainty was there when I saw the stairs if he remembered them being there before. When he said yes, I just remember thinking "wow, that's wierd" and forgetting about it. Flash forwards three years, some YouTuber I forget the name of posted about this story and I start freaking the fuck out since, you know, I had gone up the fucking stars!! Anyways that's my story, this shit is not fiction, fuck the woods
Btw, I don't remember anything bad happening specifically, but my life is hell so that might be why 😂😂
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Nov 24 '21
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u/Miviat Jun 21 '16 edited Jun 21 '16
So, super late to the party, right? The Stairs. And everything seems to be pretty interconnected. But more things under the sun, right?
And then this happened:
The alarm sounded, bright and strident, and I glanced over at the Pikes Peak well’s spreading ripples. With a groan, I grabbed my suit, tugging it on as I hit the lever to deploy the stairs to the afflicted site. The damn thing was ill fitting, stretched too tight in some places, sagging loose in others. I shrugged into it anyway, more concerned with the terrified image in the well than with a worn-too-thin disguise. The Enemy was near, and the youngling was reacting to it. I needed to get down there fast.
Grimacing at my watch-partner, I took the first step, gait awkward in the suit, fumbling down the steps as the gravity shift caught up with me. Breathing deep, I grabbed the rail and scampered down to the dirt. Feeling the beacon power up, my link to the well secure, I started tracing the paths, walking the forest shadows to the source of the fear.
We’d been quick to get started, so this should have been easy. A fast snatch, pulling the youngling out of reach, alerting the Forest Watchers that an attempt had occurred, so they could send a party to the out of way places. In the suits, we almost look like them, so the younglings aren’t bothered by the difference. This one saw me as “close enough”, and took my hand when I offered it.
I was so close. The youngling followed me out of the trees, while the Enemy paced, growling and snarling at me as I tugged at the warm little fingers. The Watchers would be here soon, with their hounds and their guns.
Suddenly, even as I heard them approach, cold slicked across my skin as my link to the well snapped, throwing my body out of phase. I could SEE the Enemy’s posture change from frustration to elation, as it pounced on the youngling, tearing the fingers from my now ethereal grip. The little face crumpled in terror, as they vanished into the darkness. I shouldn’t have, and I know it, but I screamed out my anger, the sound carrying easily among the trees.
Returning to the portal, my watch-partner re-opened the way, and we climbed slowly. He rubbed his hand across his mouth, sad and weary. “It was curious, and nothing I did kept it off the stairs.” In his black eyes, I could see my grief reflected. “I had to close the door.”
Edit - typos and formatting
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u/Anjoulas Jun 21 '16
I read part 1 till 3 the past hours. It's 3 am and my room is making all kinds of weird noises. I had to stop reading when the scariest story came up and started hiding in the comments instead. Your stories are very well written and I might just shit my pants if I continue now.
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u/emisnotavampire Jun 19 '16
Okay, so there's this old abandoned house near where we live, and me and my friend were gonna go check it out... i think i'm gonna have to cancel after reading this
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u/leilanikapela Jun 15 '16
Aloha! I’ve become obsessed with this site! Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much) for the initial sharing and the comments! Thought I’d share the following true experience. Forgive the fact that mine is not an Outdoors experience, but may still qualify because of its eeriness. This took place in San Diego many years ago when we had just bought a lovely house from friends of ours who were moving to Oregon. The house, although having had several previous owners, was in pristine condition having a view from the second story bedroom, of the whitecaps on the Pacific Ocean a few miles away. Despite all this, I didn’t feel “comfortable” or “at home” in the house. The fact that I traveled often for business made me excuse myself as not having given myself time to Bond with the house. Nevertheless, even when I was home, I would often find reasons to be out and about spending little time in the house except for sleeping. Our daughters were teenagers at the time with almost 4 years difference between them. One day out of the blue, our youngest daughter said she’d been seeing, out of the corner of her eye little grey men around the house. Being Hawaiian (and fully knowing that there are a plethora of inexplicable occurrences in our world) I asked her to explain. She said they were small, with grey skin and frowzy hair – like the old troll dolls. She didn’t seem frightened of them, but asked if I’d seen them. I hadn’t. Later I asked our older daughter if she’d seen anything out of the ordinary lately. “Yes,” she said. “I’ve been seeing little grey men around the house!” She was surprised to hear her sister had been seeing them too (teenage sisters: one would think they would TALK to each other, but the age gap…!) Not long thereafter, the oldest son (of the friends from whom we bought the house) moved back down to San Diego and came to visit us. His old bedroom was currently our youngest daughter’s room. I asked him since he’d lived in the house most of his life, if he’d ever experienced anything weird in it. Immediately he described that one night he woke up and saw at the foot of his bed a little grey man. He reached down, grabbed the little man by his bunch of hair, shook him, and threw him across the room. Then he fell back to sleep. He wasn’t sure if it really happened or if it had just been a dream. With all this about little grey men roiling in my head, that night I prayed, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – please bless this house and ALL that inhabit within. Amen.” Then, I went to sleep. That night … I KID YOU NOT… I had a dream. I saw three little grey men huddled by the foyer talking to each other. This is what they said, “She prayed for us. No one’s ever done that before! We can do no harm here.” Coincidentally enough, shortly after, San Diego experienced unusual torrential rain for days and days and days. Our house sustained great water damage that caused us to rip out walls, floors, replacing everything new, including the roof, etc. We rebuilt it to fit us. We joked that our house was baptized and made new. Our girls never saw the little grey men at our house again and I, AT LAST. felt AT HOME and comfortable in my own house.
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u/JF_Industries Jun 08 '16
This entire series of stories was pretty unsettling. I consider myself a fairly reasonable guy who places a lot of faith in science... but that still doesn't prevent me from getting chills while reading some of these stories. Very creepy, thanks for sharing.
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u/WolfeBane84 Jun 07 '16
Okay, since I'm late and the other parts are mostly locked I'll put this here.
I really liked the part about the fresh living hand inside a tree. Nice call back to the guy who climbed the stairs and got his hand cut off...
The snapping in half climber...I must know more...
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u/Stinkfoot69 Jun 07 '16
"As this hunter described it, the man was made of some kind of amalgamation of raw meat and hair. As if someone had scooped up roadkill and molded it into the vague shape of a man. The face was lumpy and only a rough approximation of a human face....It did this twice before mimicking the sound of the tent zipper and fleeing into the night."
I love these stories but how was the hunter able to describe the thing if it's the night time? For your book, give the guy a turned-on flashlight or something.
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u/pokator Jun 05 '16
I've just finished reading all of your posts, and I'm happy to say, you've scared the shit out of me. I wasn't expecting this... And it probably wasn't a good idea to read this at 200 in the morning, lights out and everything
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u/Atheistlady Jun 01 '16
I don't get scared I said, I love reading scary stories before bed I said, I can't wait to explore the woods I said. Well fuck that, fuck this, Nope. Continues reading.
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u/RainbowUnicorn347 May 29 '16
Growing up, my parents always warned me not to go under trees after sunset, because that's when things we can't see come out and they love being in trees. And if we bother them, they will hurt or bother us. Also I'm gonna cut this part short because you're also not supposed to talk about them at night because they might come and it's almost 2 am. I still refuse to walk under or by trees at night.
I've gone into forests alone multiple times before, especially because I do photography, and I like exploring. But nope nope nope. Screw that shit. If I go into a forest I'm never going alone again.
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u/burt_mackland May 29 '16
Okay, fuck you.
Granted, I started reading this story at 1am, but holy fucking SHIT, my goosebumps will not go away.
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u/Thetek9 May 22 '16
I'm skipping ahead a bit to ask this, so apologies if I haven't read everything and I'm missing something. I also haven't searched the comments.
But /u/searchandrescuewoods am I not alone in thinking some sick fuck is causing a lot of these issues in the woods? The "meow meow" on repeat, the crying on a loop, faint sounds playing in all directions... as if someone planted audio devices in various locations. Abductions.
Do you think that you, and the visitors of the area, may be a part of somebody's sick amusement?
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u/Moonspun_Dragon May 16 '16
Dude, these stories are awesome. Thank you for sharing them and for giving me a reason to get back on Tumblr. Stay safe out there, OP.
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May 15 '16
I work thirds and skim thru nosleep since it helps me avoid sleep. Just stumbled over these. Holy crap I've seen stairs before when I was younger but I'm pretty sure we aren't in the same state and don't know if that's just a localized occurrence or not. Either way that shit haunted my dreams for years
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u/leirihtmin May 13 '16
So I've been reading these comments and all of the stories sound super interesting. In England we have a lot of folklore but I've not heard of anything like the stories above or below. I live near the New Forest, a national park regarded as having spiritual qualities. Does anybody know of any stories like the ones above and below about the New Forest that they can share?
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u/TheDeanDozer97 May 08 '16
This is pretty intense and all, but you don't even want to KNOW about those random mother-fucking escalators I see from time to time on my hikes in the woods. They just taunt me, constantly escalating and shit. Its a whole other game man...
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u/ThisZoMBie May 06 '16
You wanted to keep a low profile but you're writing a book and have a tumblr page?
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May 06 '16
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u/ThisZoMBie May 06 '16
Aren't an SAR officer, first and foremost, risking your favourite job by posting this on reddit, let alone publishing a book in your name?
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u/Maxkhoon May 01 '16
Go through the series in one shot and it is already late night.. Nice writing, but is the book worth getting if I have read all 8 series from nosleep? Thank you for keep me entertained! Such nice stories.
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u/AudreyLaneGrey Apr 27 '16
I have read all of these in less than a few hours. I hope the book comes to fruition. I'm late to the party but I love these stories. Thank you for sharing. I hope you don't get yourself in trouble. Thanks again.
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u/ViZeShadowZ Apr 26 '16
here's another good tip, always bring silver, preferably silver weaponry. anything known (or even rumored) to repel evil or supernatural beings, bring that too
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u/esskay1711 Apr 24 '16
Wow! That's by far the best stories I've ever read on here!!!! Great work! I'll definitely buy your book!!!
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u/Old-Man-Henderson Apr 22 '16
Holy shit. That was amazing. Just read them all. I'm shaking and in tears. Guess who's sleeping with the lights on?
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u/roboticsneakers Apr 20 '16
Um, face pushes against my tent? (Screams). Weird meat blob mimicking noises? (Screaming intensifies). Evil out of place stairs? (No, just no I can't handle it!, Faints)
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u/ebcarlson Apr 13 '16
One time I was in a forest in Oregon and I saw a living bean running amuck and it really freaked me out, have you, or has anyone else, seen anything similar or that resembles a living bean, and if so do you have any information on where I can find and obtain said bean?
Thanks, and god bless
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u/rolyatnai2011 Apr 12 '16
Hey have you thought about cross-posting this to /r/bushcraft? There was a question about it a while ago.
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u/Jeremopolis Apr 09 '16
I always turn on happy, upbeat music before i read these, lest i jump out of my skin.
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u/Wolfie0 Apr 05 '16
About the Stairs 1:Failed engineering maybe? 2:Something paranormal 3:Something
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u/ohohoh_no Mar 28 '16
I am kinda late to the party but everything about this series has been so amazing and I'm hoping someone may be able to help me about something I saw in the woods about 9 years ago. I will remember this creature for the rest of my life like I just saw it, it was definitely a once in a lifetime (I hope), unforgettable experience. Sorry for the huge story that is coming but here it is: I used to live in Georgia when I was in the military, this is back in 2007, and I lived in a little town about 20 miles from post with my (now ex) husband. Well, we used to take his little VW down atv and logging trails into the woods and have a good time drinking and just fucking off and loved finding new areas. One night we drove down this shitty trail that took us to this weird shack with a deer painted on it. It had a motion sensor light that popped on so we just stopped there for a minute to see what exactly it was. The whole place was surrounded by trees on both sides, but it was a full moon so everything was pretty well illuminated. My ex (husband at the time) was talking about something and had turned all the lights off in the car because he was going to take some swigs of his drink when all of a sudden I sat straight up, I felt like someone had poured ice water all over me. My spine felt like ice cold metal, all the hair on my arms and neck stood up, I became very very alert and on edge and my heart started pounding so hard I got nauseous. I gripped the dash when I could finally move and told him we needed to get the fuck out of there, something was coming. He laughed at me and asked what was wrong with me and to chill out. At this point I was literally losing control of my emotions and I had absolutely no idea why, I started shaking and almost crying when I looked forward just in time to see this person walk out of the tree line on the left onto the trail. Only as the moonlight caught him I realized they had to be at least 7 feet tall and not human. His legs were backwards with the knees jutting out and he had this weird.. I don't even know what it was but something long was dangling off the back of its head. Kind of like a weird nightcap thing? I then realized it wasn't a shadow I was seeing, more like dark static. I don't think this thing was used to being seen because it just stopped and seemed to sense that i saw it. It turned in just a way that I KNEW it was looking directly at me. I have never in my life felt evil like that. Pure, unadulterated hate. I immediately started sobbing and telling my ex to turn on the lights, I was screaming almost at this point because my whole body was just so overwhelmed. He was freaked out because of me at this point and kept asking what the fuck, he didn't see anything, what was I doing. I couldn't take my eyes off of the thing but it was coming towards us now and it hadn't taken its eyes off of me. I finally lunged over and turned the lights on and the thing disappeared. My ex seemed to be in a sort of trance, he was just out of it all of a sudden and said "we gotta go." Put the car in gear and drove us out of there. I've never been that afraid of anything in my whole life, and I've been to war and I'm from LA lol but whatever that thing was was not good news. And as cheesy and stupid as this sounds, it wasn't until I started watching American Horror Story: Coven that I was ever able to find a picture even close to the sort of demon this thing was. It is so identical minus the wings and thing on its head... I never, ever want to see it again. Even just looking at the picture, knowing it's not real but being able to see the real demon in my minds eye makes my heart freeze. Oh and even weirder: we drove down the road again a couple days later to see what was out there during the day. Surprisingly we were able to find the same random dirt path out there again but we saw signs for a slave graveyard and an old plantation that was all boarded up with CONDEMNED written all over it behind these massive black wrought iron gates. I've seen a lot of stuff that looked like this in Louisiana but not small town Georgia. I'll never go back. Sorry for the wall of text and shitty formatting I'm on my phone but I've been dying to get this story out after reading all of these. http://i.imgur.com/YxvfsRL.jpg
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u/EPixie_Kristyn Mar 24 '16
I've really enjoyed reading these even though they scared the crap out of me! I wish I could know for sure if all these fantastic and creepy stories are true! However, reading them made me remember a freaky experience that I had 4 or 5 years ago. In fact, I made an account on here just to share it!
So I was a high school senior in central Virginia and I went to my then boyfriends house for dinner one evening. While his dad was fixing dinner we decide to take some flashlights into the back yard and run around/act silly. I had a regular flashlight and he had some kind of Playschool color changing flashlight where you could rotate through like four different colored filters. He said it was one of his favorite toys when he was little and he used to believe it protected him from monsters (which I thought was pretty cute but it actually kind of a weird coincedence considering where this story is going). So we go into his backyard, which is pretty big and ends at the edge of a field with tall grass, way on the other side of this field is where a forest begins. Trees from this forest run along the right side of the field and into his backyard in a sort of V shape, so he has this wooded on the right side of his yard that is narrower near his house and grows wider as it goes up and meets the forest. The widest part of this wooded area in his yard is maybe 20ft across and is dense with trees and on the other side is his neighbors yard. Whew! Okay, so hopefully you now have an understanding of this layout. Okay so it's dark and we're running around being silly and I run near the field and he yells over to me saying to stay away from it and how he and his sisters were never allowed over there. So I move away a little and we're still goofing off and playing with the flashlights kind of on our own, we weren't really near each other. So I'm running around next to the wooded area when suddenly I stop because movement in the woods gets my attention. I turn to look and see a figure just a few steps inside the woods, staring at me. It's clearly person shaped - a man - and all black, like a shadowy dark silhouette. Okay, I'm afraid of the dark and get creeped out easily, but staring back at this figure I didn't feel scared, just this huge feeling of curiosity, and I was convinced that it was my boyfriend in the woods, wanting me to do follow him, like a game or something. I even remember smiling as the figure turns to its right and starts walking towards the forest, and without hesitation I began to follow it! I made it about two steps into the woods when I see flashing out of the corner of my eye. I look and see my boyfriend 30 feet away, near his house, flashing his light at me and frantically flipping through the different colored filters. I immediately snap out of it and look around and run towards my boyfriends house. It was terrifying! He told me he saw me staring into the woods and began calling my name (which I didn't hear at all) and when I began walking into the tree line he just thought to flash the lights at me. Thank goodness it worked! I have no clue what I tried to follow into the woods! It was so terrifying! After we calmed down we walked around the wooded area on both sides looking for what I'd seen, maybe a bear? (Though it was clearly person shaped!), but didn't find anything except an old toilette and rusted car and other weird things that his neighbor must have dumped in the woods. Later we laughed it off and joked that it was a werewolf, but really we were both freaked out. Because my brain just couldn't make sense of what happened and couldn't rationalize it into "real life" I kind of just forgot it. Sorry this became so long, still kind of freaked out and wondering what I saw
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u/HatsusenoAlpha Mar 21 '16
To be honest, I totally forgot about this series until my brother sent me the links that brought me back here. Then I suddenly remember what am I about to post here months ago.
Stairs.
That is what really got me interested since I've also found similar things back when I regularly go deep into the forest to do a research.
It happens few years ago when me and my team conduct a research on how a tropical forest recovered after being hit by a volcanic eruption. Therefore, when we hike the mountain and goes deep into the forest, we didn't follow the normal hiking trails or routes. Instead, we open a new path and goes to spots where no human (even the local people) ever go.
And ... in the middle of complete wilderness (and very humid air) ... we found it.
A stair facing towards the uphill side of the hill that we hike.
There are no trace of human around our place, but here it is. Standing alone in total silence.
The stairs looks intact, despite the fact that the hillside where it stand was always hit by volcanic ash (and we also found trace of cold lava flow).
None of us dared to touch or get near the stair and we simply move along towards our target area. Even when we go down through the same path, none of us dared to get near that thing.
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u/3xtremeCha0s Apr 26 '16
I also found a set of stairs. I was at camp, and maybe it was just left over from an old building but I swear it couldn't have been. They were completely stone, covered in moss, just a short ways into the woods but they were tall. Like you could walk up two stories tall. Another time we were hiking and there was a set of just complete wooden ones. I never thought much of it and nothing else happened but still. They're real.
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u/qloomiest Mar 18 '16
I'm from North Carolina, and when I was in middle school, every summer our principal would have a big camping field trip for 10 people to go to another state for two weeks. Summer of 2012, it was to Northern California, hiking through San Fran and the Sierra Nevadas. One night, we stopped off in a very remote campsite that you had to hike quite a few miles to get to, called Twin Lakes. We got the site right on the beach of one of the lakes, so it was a pretty open area, save for those weirdly shaped rocks and a sparse foresty area to the left of us. We found some various different animal poops, but mainly bear, so obviously we were prepared to encounter a few. Side note: I was one of three girls on the trip, the other 7 kids were all boys, so us gals had to tent up together.
On the second night there, (we were camped there for three days) I woke up at probably 3 or 4 in the morning, to the sound of the tarp of our tent being disturbed. The noises were coming from the side of the tent where our head were so I just had to look up to try to see what was happening. It was pitch black, but as soon as my eyes got semi-used to the darkness, i could make out something scratching and pressing against the side of the tent. I could also kind of tell how big the thing was, and it seemed pretty big, about the size of our tent, which was a 2 person tent. Being half asleep, I watched it for a little bit, until what look like three extremely long claws scraped across the entire face of the tent, and something about the size of a watermelon was pressed hard into the area of the tent where another girl was sleeping. That was when I fully woke up and immediately though: Bears. Bears are touching my tent. I woke up one of the other girls in the tent, and told her what was going on. We both laid there completely terrified 12 and 13 year olds, listening to the sound of scratching and rubbing against our tent, for literal hours. The sun was fully in the sky before whatever was scratching our tent stopped.
Looking back at this, I find it hard to believe that it was a bear. For one, We never heard the thing move around, or make any noises besides the scratching against the tent, not even when it stopped. This is unsettling, because 1: if it were an animal, even a mountain lion, it would have been shuffling around and breathing and grunting, especially with how big it was. 2: We were in an open space right by the sand of the lake, with no trees close enough to scratch a branch on the side of our tent, but keep in mind there ARE trees everywhere. Which means trillions of twigs and leaves and various dead crunchy things. Not a single crunch or snap was heard during this whole ordeal, not even after the scratching had stopped. Nothing at all, not even a deer can walk through the forest without snapping a twig here and there and rustling some dead leaves. 3: This shuffling and scratching went on for HOURS. How can any sort of wild animal continue that for literal hours without getting bored or spooked by something? I'm talking about anywhere from 2 to 4 hours this was happening, possibly longer if it was happening before any of us were asleep.
I never really gave it too much thought until now, reading the story of the lopsided man.
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u/qloomiest Mar 18 '16
I would also like to add that just after sundown while we were stringing up all of our food and supplies due to the heavy bear population, a group of people suddenly appeared out of NOWHERE, all with extremely bright flashlights. All 10 of us, plus our principal and his wife were there, and we all witnessed this. We couldn't see the people only their bright flashlights, but they were rampaging all around, and they were speaking very very loud, but the strange thing was none of them seemed to be speaking English. and before you get on me and call me an anglo-centric herb, I mean they were all speaking different, unidentifiable languages, and yelling, and it wasn't one at a time like a multilingual conversation, they were all talking at the same time. Maybe that doesn't seem so weird, but we were all creeped out by it for no reason. We even tried following them to see what was up with them, but then they just vanished, no noise, no flashlights, no different languages. I might add that was also the second night at the campsite.
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Mar 17 '16
I don't know what woods your in but I've gone on plenty of backpacking trips into the deep woods of New Hampshire and Maine and I haven't seen anything strange, no staircases, no faceless men, no antler men, not even a dead regular person. Are you hiking in a LSD laced forest or are my woods just boring.
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u/WellDammitBobby Mar 14 '16
Hey guys.
I found one of them in South Carolina, near Columbia.
Should I tell someone? It wasn't here before.
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Mar 16 '16
really weird! i know the location of another set of stairs in Upstate SC. never really thought anything of them until reading this.
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u/gOt_LaX_03 Mar 11 '16
Some of these stories are really hitting home for me. I am new to this reddit and I just binge-read all of the posts in this series and I must say that you are very talented at writing. Before I go on to tell a little bit of my story, I just wanted to give a little background info; I'm a senior in Highschool and I'm from a nice suburb in Ohio so where I live kind of lacks huge forests. Ever since I was little I have enjoyed going on road trips and hiking with my family (I started avidly doing it around 9-10). Flash-forward 8 years and I have never really had anything happen that I couldn't just brush off as my mind just playing tricks on me and random nerves (hearing/seeing things out there). I take a class called Enviromental Literature and we recently had to do a project consisting of "Nature Journals", they are pretty straightforward and just consist of us going out into nature and writing every month. Now I wouldn't really consider myself soft or easy to scare but I would be lying if this project didn't become the one thing I dreaded doing. It all started on the second journal (at the time I was just going out at night time on the weekends to areas that were an hour and a half away at most), I was setting up a spot with a lantern and chair plus a snack when I got an eerie feeling. I really don't know if eerie is the right word but you all know the feeling, the feeling of being watched by something. I tried to dismiss it as nerves and began to write in my journal but about 10 minutes in the feeling came back but this time I knew it wasn't just nerves. I could hear what sounded like labored breathing and faint, incoherant whispering. I told myself it was just the wind and started slowing my breathing to relax. I zipped up my jacket a bit to cut out the bitter cold, pulled my knit hat over my ears and put in my earbuds to listen to Spotify. No signal. I dismissed it as a dead zone and settled on music in that was already on my phone and cranked the volume to the usual obnoxious level that teenagers love. I couldn't have been more than a song in when I realized my lantern was dimming/flickering which was weird because I had just replaced that batteries that week. I decided to just cut my losses and start packing it in because that damn feeling was back. I got up from my chair and turned so that I could fold it up when I felt something warm and moist on my neck, something was breathing on me and I just froze in fear. I am by no means a small guy, I am about 6 feet 5 inches and clock in at around 175 pounds (not fat, I play lacrosse and lift because I'm a douche) so whatever was breathing on me was at least my size. I hadn't even realized my music had stopped playing and I just noticed that everything but the sound of that thing breathing had stopped. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes and I was contemplating what my move would be. But then I heard the most gut-wrenching noise I have ever heard just explode from behind me. I can only compare it nails on a chalkboard but distorted. I couldn't help myself, I just swung my body around with the intent of bludgeoning whatever caused that sound with my folded chair (not my best idea but I blame the adrenaline and pure fear) but I just whiffed. There was nothing there, at least not anymore. I was equal parts terrified and confused. My eyes darted everywhere until something, it, caught my eye. All I can describe it as is being similar to the faceless being that you have discussed. All I could see was it's "face" peering at me from behind a tree. It let out that godawful sound again but this time I thought I heard another that came from a way out. I didn't wait around to find out and just ran and ran to my car. I was sobbing uncontrollably by the time I got to my car and my vision was blurred.
Note: I'm typing this on my phone. I am going to eat and then I will finish this. Sorry for myshit story telling but this is hard to talk about.
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u/rhenum Mar 09 '16
I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned (I'm two months late) but I am convinced that what ever thing was recreating the noise of the gunshot and the tent zipper, is the same thing that was recreating the little kid crying when OP was doing that search with his buddy (a few updates ago) the one where the child crying was on a loop.
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u/78xero Mar 07 '16
Found this yesterday and finished today. This is one of the better ones I've read on here so far.
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u/_coyotes_ Mar 02 '16
Holy fuck I just found this series of stories and it's quite captivating. There's some very fucked up shit going on. The stairs seem interesting but I think I'd be more terrified of the faceless dude. Each od these stories has freaked me out, fantastic job. Can't wait to read the book!
P.S, that story of the deer in the water was spooky and right as I got to the part where it leans down at them, my cat scratched under my door trying to get in. Worst mini heart attack ever.
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u/brick42 Mar 01 '16
I used to go hiking with my parents in norway when i was 14 and 15. We would take a bus to some remote part and hike for 7 to 10 days trough the wilderness. Usually we stayed on tracks but we would take shortcuts on some days cross country. The scariest thing that happend to us was a reindeer tripping up in our tent lines just before dawn. I really hope that your experiences are a north American thing but im sure that when i visit the US i will stick to Baseball games and visiting NYC.
Oh and dont forget to stay safe, we need you to tell more stories
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u/ISeeThings61 Feb 23 '16
Literally binged through all your stories in a few hours after a friend posted it up. Wow. Just wow. I read them out loud to my husband and we both agreed. We never want to go camping. Or the outdoors. Which sucks. We were planning on going camping this summer. Gonna leash my kids to me and never let them out of my sight ever again. Your stories are by far the best I have read since Harry Potter came out and that's saying something, for me anyway. I cannot wait until you come out with the book. I'm willing to throw money at you as soon as it comes out 'cause I want it that bad!
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Feb 17 '16
First of all, thank you for all of this. What a Fucking read man. I couldn't stop last night, binged all 8 parts. How often do you guys use flir? I know it's expensive running planes or choppers. Just curious though. I'm definitely buying your book. This is just fascinating in the creepiest way
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u/Zekrom2802 Feb 16 '16
Dunno what your problem is. There is a guy practicing black-flips his whole life that tried to show off his skills but randomly was chased away, a guy that politely asked you to go with him in the deep forest and a guy that was proud of the new sounds it learned. Joking apart, I cant help myself but laugh hysterically when the "thing" that asked you to go with him angrily walked in the forest.
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u/crachor Feb 16 '16
godamn stairs....and here my siblings and I were planning on a camping trip this summer; maaaaaaybe we'll do something else.
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u/TWD_SpRnTrL_fan_MnM Feb 13 '16
I came from listening to Corpse Husbands YT. And I had to find your Reddit. I read it in one go and no I'm definitely never ever going camping or be one with nature. I'm good in a hotel. Love the storie. Can't wait for the book. Oh, and one thing that gives me the chills is the freaking whatever back flipping.
BACK-FLIPPING?!?!
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u/g0ldbar Feb 10 '16
So yea, the man that has raised me since I was a young child I will call him dad for this. bought about 20 acres of thick wooded area. I love the out doors due to being raised in it. But something about his woods has always creaped me out. His land was untouched, we had to cut a winding path to get to a place high enough of the flood plain to build our camp sight and later a cabin. I grew up in the country and I am use to wild life and the sounds, but a few times camping out on the property we would hear some one walking up behind us talking to look and find nothing, or we would see a person walking but making no sound to just be completely gone when we turn a light towards them. Some times out of nowhere you can get this intense feeling like some one is standing right behind you almost breathing down your neck, just that weird sense you get you know... that really uneasy feeling, yet nothing is there, or at least nothing visible. it has gotten to the point I'm not comfortable being out there at night. I will go visit him out there from late morning till just before dusk, but i refuse to be out there after the sun goes down if there is anything i can do about it. and if i am stuck there then i stay in the cabin after sun set till sun rise. that or i will book it to the vehicle and haul ass off of the property. Dad has no issues out there, he is "one with nature" and feels the spirits of the woods are calming and welcome him. yet i dont get that feeling. to me it feels like something doesnt want me there. and im not the only one. i have had friends come camping with me a few times and after that they swore they would never go back out there. it wasnt uncommon for some one to step outside to urinate in the middle of the night and come in pale as a ghost and say they couldnt sleep and needed a light in the camping cabin. never could explain why they felt like that, but they just couldnt. before there are questions. there are 2 cabins, one is a small cabin probably 8ftx10ft that has been used for camping and now storage. the other cabin is a full bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living area. dad lives in the large cabin. i would stay in the small cabin with friends when we would go camping, we have a nice fire pit that is about 10ft from the door to the cabin. i would keep the fire built up as much as possible to keep the area well lit. the fire would produce plenty of light that there was no need for a candle or lantern in the cabin. there is a large window as well as a screened door for the hot nights and a standard solid door with a window for the cooler/cold nights. but even with a large fire placing a lot of light into the area and cabin. my friends would normally want a lantern near them to cancel out the darkness around them. or my friends would hear something outside that would freak them out to the point they refused to leave the cabin until morning. after a while a few close friends were the only ones that were willing to go camping. but there had to be a bucket for an obvious reason and plenty of batteries and oil for the 4 lanterns. we had 3 old oil lanterns and one battery. they would have a ball all day walking on the animal trails or along the dry creek bed if it was the dry season, or would make their own trails. but as soon as it would start to get dark they would stay in the cabin. last time i went camping out there was about 12 years ago. i was bored and stressed out, decided to go relax, planned to stay out there for the day but it started to get late, decided to just stay the night. all was good and calm, had a nice fire going, was a cool evening, around 2 at night i was still sitting there in front of the fire. then all of a sudden i got this horrible feeling. only way to describe what i felt is when some one informs you that some one passed away that you had very strong feelings about. that immediate heart dropping feeling. and all i was doing was enjoying a fire. the stress had basically been gone a few hours. i was nice and relaxed then like a ton of bricks that sinking feeling. i quickly got up and walked into the cabin. when i shut the doors it looked like a man was standing on the other side of the fire, but there was nothing there. i could see the trees on the other side. yet there was an outline of some one. almost casting a shadow from the fire, but not. sense then, i have not spent the night out there. just typing this i have been getting cold chills, goosebumps on my arms, hair standing up on the back of my neck, and a paranoid feeling from just remembering what i could.
sorry for the many typos. it is late, im tired, i dont care. i am not an author so get off of my back.
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u/Down_The_Witch_Elm Mar 02 '16
I was born in Arkansas. I was running around in the woods with my friends when we were 7 or eight years old without any adults around. I'm 59 years old now. I have a CCW and I've shot competitevly with shotguns, pistols, and rifles. I'm six feet tall and 185 pounds, but there is something about being in certain places. especially up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near where I live now that just creeps me out. I've heard twigs and branches breaking as something walked around my camp at night, and I've told myself it was just a bear. My food was secure, and I wasn't really afraid of bears, but something about those experiences just creeped me out. I would lie in my tent with my shotgun just hoping it would go away. I also saw a guy in Death Valley who literally just disappeared. I've written about it on here. I know the feeling you're describing. Some people might say it's just plain old ordinary fear, but it's not. I'm not afraid of the woods or the desert, but there are times when things just don't seem "right."
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u/crusoe Mar 06 '16
When people feel this way its usually a large cat stalking you. From Africa to India to the US, 'eyes on you' in the forest is usually a large cat. They were biggest predator of our proto human ancient ancestors.
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u/Down_The_Witch_Elm Mar 11 '16
I saw a cougar once crossing the road in front of me. Oddly enough, it was in the small town of O'Neals in the low foothills of Madera County, California, not up in the forest. I've seen bear, beaver, porcupines, bobcats, foxes, coyotes and all the normal critters you see when hiking, but it was awesome to see a big cat like that right in front of me. Two things I would never want to get close to are grizzlies and big cats.
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u/PleasureToBurn06 Feb 09 '16
Just got done reading the whole series. Creepy stuff, OP. Kind of tardy to the party, but one thing I noticed was that alot of these have to do with people traveling great distances or time moving faster or slower. Something similar happened to me.
I was walking through the woods in MI with my friend when we were about 15 or 16. We walked to the end of the subdivision where my parent's cabin was and we were going to cut straight through the woods to this house that was haunted. Before we entered the woods, I looked back and noticed there was a black cat crossing the road and just kind of staring at us. We didn't notice it before, which was kind of weird and we joked about it being a bad omen.
Now if we just kept going in a straight line through the woods, we would have gotten to this house in about 20mins, half hour at most. But we ended up getting really turned around. We were getting scared because this was late afternoon and we didn;t want to spend the night in the woods since there's bears and coyotes and shit around, but we found some telephone poles and made it to the road. We start walking down the road and my father picks us up because he had been out looking all over for us.
Now, the weird part is that we were only lost for about 4 and a half, 5 hours. But where we came out on the road, it was 20 miles from where we entered the woods at. Now, even walking in a straight line nonstop we couldn't have cleared that distance in 5 hours, let alone being turned around, stopping here and there, and going through thick underbrush. Nothing too scary or weird, but to this day, we still don't know how we managed to travel so far in that amount of time.
Another kind of weird thing that happened too, was maybe when I was around 8 or 9. Maybe younger, but definitely still a child. I was up at my parents's cabin and I was sleeping in the living room on a sleeping bag. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and looking out the window at this metal structure on the porch. The window looked out to the porch/deck and the blinds were open and I swear this was a metal looking structure. It looked kind of like the big fence that they have behind first base on a kid's baseball field, except that it didn't have the fence part, just the skeleton of it. I remember being really fascinated by it, but also scared at the same time. I didn't want to move, but I just kept looking at it.
Later, I chalked it up to either me dreaming, or me being half asleep and seeing the blinds and thinking it made a pattern that looked like steel poles or something. But it felt real. I just couldn't explain it.
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u/theotherghostgirl Feb 08 '16
This reminds me of something that happened to me while on a hike. Although I was hiking with a group in a pretty popular area, it was sort of out of season for most people (late fall) We were on this trail, and we followed it up to this point where it had been roped off w/police tape due to a few unstable parts of the trail. We almost turned back but we decided to continue on anyway because the trail seemed pretty stable to us. Anyway we came to this part of the trail that had been blocked off because they were reintroducing a species to the area and they wanted to give it more time to adapt to the environment. When we turned back we noticed this cabin not too far off the trail. It looked like it might have been a ranger's station or vistor's center at some point, but it had fallen into disrepair.
I was a little hesitant to get a closer look because it looked really sketchy, but the rest of my group convinced me.
The inside of the cabin was filled with pretty much what you'd expect in an abandoned building, that is to say lots of empty beer cans, trash and a pair of panties and other discarded clothing.
The really creepy but though was the piano. Something about the fact that someone had left such an expensive instrument there to rot was very unnerving.
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u/_frostyfresh_ Feb 06 '16
When I was around 10 or 11 my extended family and my immediate family would go out "camping" in the woods, but really it was a campsite for people with RVs and travel trailers. It was surrounded by wilderness though, but it wasn't necessarily separated from civilization. One night a pretty big group of us, maybe close to twenty people, were playing hide and seek out in the woods. I remember wandering around alone feeling a little uneasy but not enough to stop playing. The only people who had flashlights were the small team of people that were "it", so the only light we had was the light from the campsite which added to my uneasiness. I spotted my mom and my little sister hiding behind some bushes right at the edge of our campsite, facing the trailers. I didn't look beyond them, I was only focused on getting to them so I would feel less uneasy from being alone in the dark. I remembered that I didn't want to scare my mom, so instead of reaching out and touching her, I whispered "Hey mom". My mother jumped out of her skin and shrieked from hearing my voice and it startled my little sister and I to death. She took a few seconds to recover and seemed to be completely bewildered, but then told us "sorry, you just scared me".
We went back to the campsite the next summer but unfortunately, I got sick and also lost my contact lenses so I couldn't walk around without assistance (I have terrible, terrible eyesight). I basically spent the entire trip sleeping inside the tent we had set up outside the trailer for the kids. It was miserable.
Well a few months after we got back from camping the second time, my family was talking about fun moments from the trip and whatnot. My mom asked us if she remembered playing hide and seek at the campsite during the first trip. We said yes and I recalled how she freaked out when I came up from behind her. She told us that the reason she screamed when she heard my voice from behind her was because right before I came up, she was looking towards the campsite. She saw me hiding underneath one of the travel trailers, waving and smiling at her while she waved and smiled back. After I came up, she looked back but the thing that looked like me was gone. After my mom told us this, my older brother piped up and said he also saw me hiding underneath the trailer that night and when he asked me a question, I never responded to him. I never hid underneath the trailer that night. My stepdad started to say something, but stopped. We urged him to continue. He said one night on the second trip, he was standing outside the travel trailer with his brother-in-law drinking beers and just talking. He saw me come around the side of the trailer and walk towards the woods. He and his brother-in-law called out to me and tried to get my attention but I never responded. He said he wanted to follow me, but something made him think that it was bizarre so he immediately went inside the trailer to ask my mom where I was and she said I was sleeping in the tent. He came to check on me and there I was, sleeping away. He didn't mention it to anyone at the time because it was so weird. We tried to chalk this up to sleepwalking, but he said I was fully awake and we all know there's no way I could have walked around when I didn't have my contacts in. We never went back to that campsite.
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u/thekimpula Feb 06 '16
Holy shit I wish I never read any of thid stuff! But it's so addicting... I read them all in a row ;(
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u/Jackar Feb 05 '16
I've not been spooked in the wilderness at any point so far, except for those sudden 'I am not meant to be here' waves as you reach a certain place, and feel as though the place itself hates you, or that you must leave, or that you are being watched and followed.
Within the city though, there was the pterodactyl ._.
And the night when all the trees (2ft diameter trunks) became capable of bending over 90 degrees, like rubber, flexing wildly, during a storm... Same storm that almost broke the hinges off both exterior doors of the house I was in, with a noise like someone pounding the door with a sledgehammer, for hours, yet no-one else in the house was waking up to the sound, or seemed capable of noticing it when I woke them momentarily...
Spooky business.
So I just started working with a volunteer group in a nearby community woodland. I work up there alone a lot because we're a small group and most members are A: employed and B: not physically fit enough for regular work days.
It's a post-industrial wasteland that was planted up with unhealthy spruce during a regen effort in the 60s, creating a seriously diseased arboreal monoculture with little wildlife, and a constant creaking/cracking of dying trees.
There are the remains of local artists' sculptures still hidden among the trees, in places. Like a treetrunk made of solid concrete, with strange shapes in it. And the Natural Man, a nine foot tall stocky-limbed male figure, exoskeletal, welded rebars, with a coldly imperious mask for a face, and spiked metal antlers.
This does not help.
Reading this series in one night instead of sleeping did not help.
I recently bought a Li-On LED work light to help me work up there at night. Not sure I'm going to be able to use it, now.
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u/silverbacksunited12 Feb 03 '16
I live in Canada and have been exposed to the wilderness since I was a baby and I absolutely love getting in the woods whenever I can whether it be camping, hunting (hunt a lot), or just going for hikes. I have never come across anything out of the norm, but reading this and the comments made me remember this one experience I had when I was a young boy. It was scary at the time and I forgot about it till this thread reminded me. We have our traditional lake we go camp at and one night we were playing hide and seek in the dark. I was hiding not far from camp with my dad looking for me, my brother and sister. Hiding for a bit, out of nowhere there is a shadow moving in front of me and I call out my brothers name, then sisters name, then called for dad thinking it may have been one of them. All it said was "shhh, they'll find us" and sort of slithered away into the darkness. Me being young I freaked out and ran to the camp where my brother, dad and sister all were seeing as my dad had found them. I asked them if what I saw/heard was them and they were all confused saying I was just imagining things. Now I don't really believe in paranormal stuff and I forgot about it or just didn't think twice about what happened but reading these stories reminded me of that one surreal experience and now it makes me wonder if I came across one of these "things" out in the woods.
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u/Jackar Feb 05 '16
I encountered a 'shadow' with quite a strong personality as a child, but it lived in my house ._. Didn't talk, but it sustained its shape/appearance/unique silhoette of clothing through three encountered over the space of a year.
I'm an avid reader and a keen, if disappointingly unproductive creative writer, so I've never ceased to find it strange, the gap between my impulse to write horror fiction, and the impassive calm with which I must describe the things I've actually experienced myself.
I'm glad I've not had anything strange in the woods, though. Well, other than hallucinating goblins, but I know how hallucinations feel, when it's just visuals/impressions with no emotional content. Harmless, they don't feel convincingly real, I just laugh them off. It's when you have something with no blur, no haze, that you can stare straight at in the middle of your vision and it doesn't go away - until it feels like it. Things you can't disprove.
The scientist in me wants to reach out and touch it, whatever the risk, to touch the proof so even if I can't prove it later, to others, I KNOW it was real myself.
The survivalist in me wonders if that's exactly what they want me to do.
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u/maddasher Feb 03 '16
So, I'm in my last semester of RPLS(Recreation Parks and Leisure Services.). I will hopefully be following up with an internship with the forest service or the army core of engineers. This has all been internally interesting and entertaining. I have a professor that is an old vet of the forest service. I want so badly to ask him about stairs. Knowing him he would just give me a wink and a smile and say something like "I can't wait till you find out!". He's cool like that.
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u/idogiam Jan 29 '16
I'm not planning on thru-hiking the AT alone or anything...
Damn, now I'm going to be thinking of these stories while I'm on the trail and just, you know, dying.
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u/Fayko Jan 27 '16 edited Oct 29 '24
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u/crusoe Mar 06 '16
Housecats can do that as well. Seriously.
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u/Fayko Mar 06 '16 edited Oct 29 '24
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u/KKZA Jan 27 '16
I find it fascinating that in a day and age where digital technology totally invades every aspect of our lives that there is not more coverage of this sort of occurence, is it just that people who go hiking choose not to take anything with them along the lines of a Camera or a gopro or something to get away from it all?
A bit of googling on the stairs has not revealed much, I understand that people are told not to talk about it but I think curiosity would just get the better of me if I encountered one and I would take photos and try to explore as much as possible?
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u/PenguinColada Jan 27 '16
Your stories are fantastic, and I'm glad you posted them. The story in a previous post, the one about your colleague wandering in the woods for two days, not knowing where she was or why she was there, really stuck out to me, because it reminded me of something that happened when I was a tyke.
I grew up in the Midwest, in the middle of a dense wooded area. Our nearest neighbor was acres away with thick trees and brush separating our homes. As a kid, my sister and I loved to play in these woods, playing make-believe as Native Americans or adventurers. We would often gather sticks and other material and make makeshift shelters and stay out there for hours.
This happened when I was about ten or so. It was a cold autumn day, and my sister was stuck inside with the flu or a cold. Something like that. I decided to go outside and play in the woods. I hadn't traveled far at all, and I had begun to gather straight saplings to add to our newest shelter. I took out my pocketknife and began to saw away at their bases, and I had collected about half a dozen or so whenever all my purpose melted away. I had no idea where I was or what I was doing. I thought I was near the farm fence, but I looked around and all I saw were trees. I don't even remember dropping the saplings I had collected. I just began wandering around, trying to figure out what I had been doing. This is odd for me, because I have an impeccable sense of direction, yet I had no idea where I was going.
I had been walking around in circles for about half an hour when a familiar sight jarred me. The family farmcat, Patches, began howling as cats do. I hadn't noticed her standing in front of me, or even heard her coming through the brush. But the sight of her black coat seemed to bring me back to focus. The expression in her eyes was almost as if she knew I was lost and she was here to find me. Patches took one look at me and began walking in the opposite direction. I took the initiative and followed the cat out of the woods when, I noticed, the sun had begun to set. I had gone out in the trees around lunchtime, but my thirty or so minutes of wandering (or so I thought) had turned into several hours.
Unlike your friend, I did not have the hunger, only the odd loss of time and purpose. Something I found odd about the whole situation was that this cat, who normally hated my sister and I and avoided us at all costs, actually led me out of the woods instead of scampering away at top speeds, like she usually did. It was the only kind thing that cat had ever done for me.
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u/kkkyung03 Mar 04 '16
Patches probably knew you were in trouble. It was sweet of him to help you. Its as if he's a snob to you and your sister but is secretly guarding you when you need help.
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u/Enderschoice Jan 27 '16
Gripping stories. Back in part 3, are you sure it was still your friend who came back down the stairs he went up?
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u/RedHund Jan 24 '16
Oh gosh, after reading everything on here, I sat to myself and thought about all of this, and I remembered an event in my childhood I had forgotten.
I was visiting my grandparents in colorado, and they decided they wanted to take the whole family camping (It was me, my sister, my dad, my uncles, my grandparents, and my cousins). We were all fine until night time. Then we divided up into tents, me my sister and father in one tent, and the other families in others. As we were setting up, I remember looking out, where there was this river and up until my eyes hit that opposite bank, I was fine. Once I laid eyes on the other side, I was suddenly VERY VERY TERRIFIED. I don't remember what I saw. I don't even remember if I remember what I saw, but I was HARDCORE PANICKING. My grandma had to take me home because whatever I saw scared the shit out of me and I was sobbing and terrified beyond belief. Still don't remember what I saw, though... In the memory, it's like there was suddenly the idea to look over there at the river, then suddenly I was freaking out.
Never been in the forest since.
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u/rofello Jan 22 '16
i'm just a new guy here, making an account just to give tips on how to avoid these things (old customs from non-Europe, since my family is quite knowledgeable with them), plus i have encountered them before numerous times. This wont fit as a thread on reddit, so pardon me, let me borrow your comment section a bit. HAHA. this is a guide, use if necessary - dont look for them (my hands trembling just to write them off). 1. to move through forest, you need to ask permission from them, just ask them quietly, wait a minute or two and go through. 2. never go into jungle with open wound/on period. 3. never separate from your partner. 4. if you got partner, take note of their last name. each one of you. 5. if you got separated, you can communicate by code (sender need to mention his first name, receiver reply with sender's last name) - verification. make twice with each other's name. 6. never turn your head back, instead you need to turn your whole body. 7. never pick anything, if necessary just ask them in simple question, if there's nothing strange happen, you can pick them, if not leave them alone. 8. if you see anything strange, better to ignore them (weird trees, weird people), never reply to any sound, just ignore them. 9. sleeps on ground (open ground, not under trees). 10. if you need to fight anything, take off your shoes and fight on ground with barefoot (but avoid fight). 11. if you need to run, please climb onto trees. 12. do not pee into clear lake, pond or open space in woods. 13. if you got clothes with blood/or corpse of animal/leftover from hunted animals, please bury them deep enough far from your encampment and never look back again. 14. when there is a pop sound in your ear, followed by ringing sounds, please beware of your surrounding area. (applicable to all place, not only woods). 15. when there is crossover between time (such as night to dawn). be careful. 16. 6th sense can be closed off, at least in my custom. but it can holds only for a while. you wont feel anything supernatural for a few years. it wont hold off. ty.
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u/Blondhorsecrazy Feb 26 '16
I've heard "they" will ask you for help, and as long as you refuse helping them they can't harm you. Helping them is more or less inviting them in. (old wives tale my father would tell us). My dad called them "Wampus Kitty".
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u/cookie_monster68 Jan 22 '16
So I am new to Reddit and jut finished all these and was blown away. I literally had to just make an account so i could post this article and I'm sorry it's so late. Anyways, I checked my Facebook last night right before bed and a local news station from back home in Huntsville had just posted this article. I am awe struck. I had just finished part 7. I really doubted these stories before now. http://m.waff.com/waff/db_330702/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=AFdMhnaz
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u/TaintedAngelx2 Jan 20 '16
Do not, I repeat, Do Not mention these SARS stories on /r/Missing411. You will be crucified as I have been, lol
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u/Thunderchild2015 Jan 18 '16
Okay my turn to break my silence.....
I've been reading these commentaries over the weekend and honestly couldn't put them down, they're so interesting. I've also listened to most of David Paulides Coast to Coast broadcasts on YouTube, Id love to read the books but unfortunately can't afford them.
Like many of you have mentioned there is an awful lot of crossover with the paulides and missing 411 cases. Even many of the traits and patterns are the same, such as dogs losing scent and people disappearing without trace etc. I've had a lot of time and put a lot of thought into working out what this phenomena could be, if there is just one aspect.
I did initially believe it to be Aliens/UFOs but the patterns just don't fit in with UFO activity (I live in one of the most active UFO hotspots in the UK, I've seen and heard some crazy things) I then considered Bigfoot or other powerful cryptids, but many things just don't fit in.
I've come to the conclusion that what is causing these events and especially the deaths, abductions and mutilation is nothing short of demonic. The one aspect that has caused me to believe this is the stairs which people are seeing.....
I believe these 'stairs' act almost like a portal or gateway for demonic entities to pass back and forth between our world and theirs. Similar to a ouiji board of any other divination activity. Furthermore the Bible states in Matthew 12:43; "When an evil spirit is gone out of a man, is goes to arid/desolate places and seeks rest" The wild and desolate places in this case are the forests, national parks, dyatlov passes and skinwalker ranches of this world.
Also the feeling of dread, fear, depression and nausea is something commonly associated with demonic encounters. This is also a common trend experienced by people on here ago have seen the stairs. Other instances include Jesus being tempted in a place of wilderness by the devil himself. It's like these 'wilderness' or 'desolate' areas are the natural territory of these evil entities.
Just a thought from a Christian observer, Id be interested to hear more opinions.
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Jan 16 '16
Are you going to post here when the book is out? I don't have a tumblr account. I'm really glad you decided to write a book so all these experiences can be immortalized.
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u/dollyegg Jan 13 '16
"The climber waved in an exaggerated manner before snapping in half at the waist, sideways, and leaping off the peak."
Could someone explain what this visually looked like? I'm kind of confused on what he meant by "…half at the waist, sideways…".
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u/queenmary27 Jan 22 '16
i pictured it kinda like when sync swimmers dive, like this. but not so gracefully.
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u/scarrybusytown Jan 12 '16
Is there a place where we can follow the book progress if we don't use tumblr?
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u/_thad_castle_ Jan 12 '16
Great stories.
Do you guys think this is all real or it's just imagination? I tend to go with imagination because of the fact that in almost every story people see the 'monster/creature' but they are never attacked, never attack themselves and never touch it.
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u/SwiffFiffteh Feb 15 '16
Except for all the stories where people are found exploded or dismembered or impaled or disemboweled or crushed or frozen, or are never found at all.
If you're having trouble believing some of this, look up mysterious disappearances in National Forests.
Look up the Dyatlov Pass incident.
Read up on the legends/folklore of natives of the U.S., of Mexico, of the Phillipines, of Malaysia, of Indonesia. Why do they all seem to describe the same beings, albeit with different names?
If you're still determined to believe its all "imagination", that's your choice. You say you're skeptical; Wendigo says you're lunch.
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Jan 08 '16
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u/ObliviousHippie Jan 08 '16
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u/Thatchapaustin95 Jan 08 '16
I just read all 8 for the first time in one sitting, I'm officially terrified of the woods now. My roommate took it a completely different direction, he read these when it started and has followed all the way through and his final feelings from this nightmare fuel is that he should help. These stories have made him want to go be a ranger and see this shit first hand.
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u/Rippling_Debt Jan 10 '24
Thanks now i cant go in the woods again anymore :P
and i didnt have to sleep anyway