Strangest Camping Encounters

[ArkansasDon]

was curious what was your strangest camping encounter?

this happen back in 1996 in California when the wife & I were camping in the Los Padres National Forest in between Fort Hunter Liggett & Nacimiento Fergusson toward Hwy 1. We were sleeping in our truck camper when I heard the camper door knob jiggling. I always carried a handgun with me even though that state isn't the most gun friendly state. I grabbed my 1911 (even though I already had one in the chamber with the hammer down) I racked the action (the sound of a 1911 slide slamming shut will make anyone think twice) & I spoke with a firm loud voice "I will fire on you!" I didn't hear any foot steps running or walking away. I pop out on top of the roof of the truck camper from the large roof vent above the sleeper with a flash light & my 1911 didn't see or hear what was jiggling that camper door knob.

Photo was the actual trip

 

[dblack]

That’ll wake a person up for sure.

I was camped in the middle of nowhere one time sleeping in the canopy of my truck with a group of friends when someone (not part of our group) showed up at 2am. They wanted to be camped close to the top of the falls where we were so they pitched their tent literally extending under my truck. Like wtf?

The next day the 3 people in the tent roused at noon. Drank a flat of beer. Passed out for 3 hours. Got up again. Burned a hot dog each. Drank a flat of beer and passed out again.

Ok. They might be idiots but at least they can’t hold their liquor and sleep a lot.

The second day they stagger out. Go down to the creek and pick a fight with a dozen cowboys enjoying the falls. [emoji849]

The fight eventually ends up back in our camp when the dummies next door pull a rifle. We finally intervened. Calmed the participants down and sent them in their way. We kept the rifle for safe keeping.

At midnight that night when the doozers were yet again passed out, the cowboys came back. One urinated in their cooler... then stole the cooler. That had to be the funniest thing ever.

Next day with no beer. No cooler and no brains. They loaded up and left. [emoji849]

 

[pl626]

A buddy & I were camped out @ Teddy Roosevelt NP. The next morning I woke up and looked over at my friends tent, only to see a large bison sniffing his tent. Thankfully, he didn’t like what he smelled and left....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Anak]

Several years back we camped in a campground on Lake Folsom. It was fall, after school was back in session (one of the benefits of being a homeschooling family), but not particularly late into September.

We had the entire campground to ourselves.

There was absolutely no one else around.

I expect this when I go boondocking, but to have this in a developed campground was odd. It had a post-apocalyptic feel. All these campsites, and no one using them. We didn't even get a drive by from a ranger.

 

[Michael Kinnett]

Just a week ago in Pisgah National Forest at a dispersed campsite on a very out of the way dead end forest road I setup my camp. It was a pretty cold night, got down to a low of about 12 in Asheville so it was quite a bit colder there. The road literally dead ended into a valley with mountain on 3 sides and only a creek running on one side. It looked like a fairly used camp with a great fire ring but there hadn't been anyone there in a while. So I pop the RTT, eat, hang out for a bit, and head to sleep early. I'm a light sleeper so when I hear someone walking around my truck, it startles me awake. I sat very still for a while listening to them. I didn't fasten down the outer door of my tent, so all I have to do is open the flap and I can see out on the side they're on. I fling it open and there's no one there. No more noise, only one direction to go quickly that isn't into the creek. I climbed down, looked around the entire area and walked up to the forest road which was a very soft dirt/sand mix. Two sets of vehicle tracks, one in and out, and mine in, no footprints. I used the restroom and went back to bed. After a bit I just had that feeling that I was being watched... I absolutely could not shake it. Camping alone is not a big deal for me, it was not even relatively close to my first time doing it. I laid there for about 2 hours before I finally got back out of the tent with my 550 lumen flashlight and spotlighted everything in the area and didn't see a thing, not even animals eyes. The odd thing is, I expected that to make me feel better but it was bad enough to give me chills while I was outside looking around. I don't frighten easily, I'm always armed, and trained, so vigilance isn't a problem. Whatever it was, it was just telling me to pick up and move on, so I did. About 20 minutes to break camp and with every light my truck has I made my way about 4 miles out to the main road. No tracks, no one else anywhere close. It's an odd experience being spooked like that, surreal at best, even less freaked out being followed by a bear in the Rockies.

 

[Kevin108]

Pisgah? It was just bigfoot. I was in GWNF around Harrisonburg, VA last fall and a local showed me this while I was gassing up.

So far the strangest thing for us has been the wildlife where we like to camp. I suspect it is one of the a microlimates, which isn't uncommon in the mountains, because there is a very limited time of when anything is active there. I think it's a spot that is much colder than its nearby surroundings so the animals stay away. We're people who've spent a lot of time in the woods, so we're pretty damn quiet when we camp. You can camp a 3-day weekend and it be so rare that you hear a bird that it almost startles you. Likewise, we've seen only a couple squirrels over the course of a dozen or so visits.

 

[Steve]

Strange occurrences and tales of the unexplained!

https://overlandbound.com/forums/threads/strange-encounters-in-the-woods.5627/

 

[Ryan Matthes]

this one is too funny to not share here:

@Chris Jones , @JORGE ELIZONDO , @Levidale and I were on a Southern NM trip last Memorial Day. We stopped to camp on Saturday evening trying to find a location a little sheltered from the bad winds that day - this area is all open grazing area (you can start to see where this is herded...uh, headed).

We setup camp with the 4 vehicles and as we are setting up, we hear a cow mooing angrily from up on a hill. Then she disappears into the brush only to reappear on the edge of our camp - about 20 yards - and not alone. Three heffers and a bull. The bull doesn't seemed pleased with our camp location. then another bull shows up. The two of them are snorting and hissing at us, getting a little closer. Then a third bull shows up - and this is where it got funny. The third bull had a deformed right horn, it turned downward and went along it's head like a telephone headset from the 90's.

all of us were looking at each other with the "ok, how do we handle this one" look. Now I've had bear encounters, deer, snakes, turkeys in camp, coyotes, even a lynx - but never an encowter like this (see what I did there?)

We got a fire started quickly and they backed away, although one of them apparently grazed Kevin's tent that night.

Was more funny than anything - but definitely a unique encounter.

 

[JzzR83]

A few years ago we were in the Medicine Bow NF in S.E. WY. The three kiddos were in bed fast asleep and the wife and I were about to climb in the tent and go to bed. She needed to to to the bathroom and wanted me to walk with her 40 yards to the campground pit potty. We were almost all the way there and she freaked out and said, "There are eyes in the bushes!". I thought she was making it up so I turned on my much brighter head lamp. (mine was around 300 lumens and hers was around 20). Oh, boy, something is staring at us...probably a raccoon as the dumpster was nearby I thought. It then started walking toward us. We backed up and it kept moving closer. Now I can see it is much larger can cat like...crap. It was still in the trees and bushes so we could not tell what it was, but it started to move quickly and seemed to want to go around and circle us. We started to make noise and throw small rocks at it but it kept coming closer. We ran back about 20 yards toward our tent and when I turn around it was even closer and in the open coming toward us still. My wife has a great arm and chucked larger rock at it an smacked it in the face, and the damn thing still came toward us. I hit it again with a rock again and it refused to run away. (this is getting long, sorry) I then hissed very loud like an angry cat and it jumped and ran away. It was pretty fast so I could not tell what it was. Thankfully not a mountain lion like I first thought it was. WY must have very curious foxes that are freaking huge or perhaps a coyote. My wife did not pee until the sun came up.

 

[Billy "Poserlander" Badly]

Several years back we camped in a campground on Lake Folsom. It was fall, after school was back in session (one of the benefits of being a homeschooling family), but not particularly late into September.

We had the entire campground to ourselves.

There was absolutely no one else around.

I expect this when I go boondocking, but to have this in a developed campground was odd. It had a post-apocalyptic feel. All these campsites, and no one using them. We didn't even get a drive by from a ranger.

I've had this happen off-season around Bend, OR and it is kinda weird. One night in particular, we were all alone in a seasonally closed campground on the Metolius River, and I was awake for some reason around 2 am when a pair of headlights rolled thru the campground. As the lights hit our tent, the vehicle stopped... after about 20 seconds, I poked my head out, and they rolled off. Beyond that, I've had mostly pretty mundane experiences.

 

[Bouncer]

Only thing I have is when I was probably around 11 I was camping with my mom and aunt. We were camping on core land on lake Eufaula Ok. It was spring break probably as I recall it was still chilly in the am, but I was not in school at this time. Some how (details from my mother are still a little fuzzy) her marlin 336 in 44 mag discharges as she is pulling it out of the cab of our f150 and goes through the firewall somehow missing the engine block but taking out the heater core and radiator. We are at least 3 miles from anything and mom tells my aunt and I to stay in camp while she goes out to get help, this mid morning. About 9 that night she comes back and says that someone will be there in the morning to take us home. We packed up camp the next morning the preacher from a church in town shows up In his single cab Toyota pickup. We break camp down it all barely fits in the bed of the truck, and we squeeze 4 deep in the cab. not a word was spoken all the way to Tulsa. about 2 weeks later the truck just showed back up at the house running. Ohh the days of no cell phones. how I don't miss you that much.

 

[Boort]

Thankfully not a mountain lion like I first thought it was. WY must have very curious foxes that are freaking huge or perhaps a coyote. My wife did not pee until the sun came up.

I've had interesting nights with Bears ( https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/bear-country.8176/#post-123955 ), Mtn Lions ( https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/bear-country.8176/#post-123988 ), and one with Coyotes.

The night with the Coyotes wasn't even camping, I was out in rural Boulder CO, taking pictures of a Lunar Eclipse over the Rockies. Got Up about 2 AM and drove out to the site that I'd scouted before hand, I'm standing on farmed Openspace shooting when I hear a some chickens making a commotion at the farm nearby, A few minutes later another sound about 10-15 yards away. I keep taking pictures and listening intently It's now closer, another shot and closer and now behind me. About done with this. I pull out my superbright LED Torch and shine it on the source of the sound. 2 Coyotes at my 10-o-clock and 1 on my 6. Well 2 doggos is fine but 3 make a pack, and packs can take down prey a lot bigger than me. Make a lot of noise and put the light into strobe mode on their eyes. Luckily they decide to move on. Walked back to truck and pick up my larger fixed blade knife and 4D-cell Maglight just in case. No further adventures that morning but was uneasy for the rest of the shoot.

Someday you'll have to ask my friends about the night in Rhyolite, NV. That is a story best told in person and with the proper campfire setting...

Boort

 

[GEARS]

About 10 years ago I was backpacking in the Hoosier NF with my dog and a buddy. About 5 miles from the trail head I noticed a guy walking towards us on the trail, in what looked like buck skins or something. As he got closer you could see he had no shoes, no gear,and NO CLOTHES. He looked like he just fell out of the sky. As he passed us my friend got out his camera (likely a whole 2mp) and took some snaps. I knew nobody would believe us without the pics. About an hour later 2 rangers rode up to us on horses and asked if we had seen anything strange. Apparently a family hiking with small girls didnt appreciate the show. We advised his last location and moved on. Edited pic so you can lol.

 

[Eric Neal]

Back in the mid '80s I was camping with group (backpacking) at Dolly Sods in WV during the late summer. Blueberries were in full fruit - so you can probably guess where this might head... We'd been hiking and munching on blueberries all day and it was so cool to step around a bush or tree and see an adult white tail deer just standing there inside 10 feet from you grazing away on berries.

As evening came and the darkness finally settled in I heard someone pretty far off banging pans together. I immediately think - black bear feeding and perhaps poor camp/food hygiene. So I check our food storage, secure a few items and head to the sleeping bag - but since it was warm I was not inside a tent. It was a really warm so I ended up doing my normal warm weather "trick" - I unzipped the bottom of my bag and stuck a foot out for a "radiator" cooling effect.

Sometime in the early hours of the morning, in total darkness, I wake up to what sounds like footsteps among the tents... I'm thinking someone headed to pee without using a light. Head goes back down and back off to dreamland. I guess about 20 minutes later I hear "crunch crunch and sniffing/snuffling sounds" really close - and - as I reached for my flashlight - I feel a damp nose touch the bottom of my "radiator foot"! I snap the flashlight on as I extend my arm out of the bag and find myself "face-to-face" or really more like "muzzle to flashlight" with a black bear! I tried to scream but nothing came out except a pitiful squeak!!

The most difficult thing to figure out was who was more frightened, ME? or the Black Bear? The bear made this awkward grunting sound like the Disney character "Baloo" from Jungle Book as he/she put it in "reverse", 4 wheel drive, pedal to the metal!! The bear backed up so quickly it uprooted a small blueberry bush and knocked some of the bark off of a pine tree right behind that.

Of course everyone in my group is sound asleep and as I'm running around naked and cursing, they all think I'm an idiot and out of my mind. Next morning we discovered the paw prints, the uprooted bush, and the pine tree bark with black fur scattered at the base.

I guess my feet smelled so bad they seemed like a great "road kill" meal opportunity for the bear. So, having been "cold nosed" by a black bear is now one of my fondest but most startling camping experiences.

 

[Bouncer]

Back in the mid '80s I was camping with group (backpacking) at Dolly Sods in WV during the late summer. Blueberries were in full fruit - so you can probably guess where this might head... We'd been hiking and munching on blueberries all day and it was so cool to step around a bush or tree and see an adult white tail deer just standing there inside 10 feet from you grazing away on berries.

As evening came and the darkness finally settled in I heard someone pretty far off banging pans together. I immediately think - black bear feeding and perhaps poor camp/food hygiene. So I check our food storage, secure a few items and head to the sleeping bag - but since it was warm I was not inside a tent. It was a really warm so I ended up doing my normal warm weather "trick" - I unzipped the bottom of my bag and stuck a foot out for a "radiator" cooling effect.

Sometime in the early hours of the morning, in total darkness, I wake up to what sounds like footsteps among the tents... I'm thinking someone headed to pee without using a light. Head goes back down and back off to dreamland. I guess about 20 minutes later I hear "crunch crunch and sniffing/snuffling sounds" really close - and - as I reached for my flashlight - I feel a damp nose touch the bottom of my "radiator foot"! I snap the flashlight on as I extend my arm out of the bag and find myself "face-to-face" or really more like "muzzle to flashlight" with a black bear! I tried to scream but nothing came out except a pitiful squeak!!

The most difficult thing to figure out was who was more frightened, ME? or the Black Bear? The bear made this awkward grunting sound like the Disney character "Baloo" from Jungle Book as he/she put it in "reverse", 4 wheel drive, pedal to the metal!! The bear backed up so quickly it uprooted a small blueberry bush and knocked some of the bark off of a pine tree right behind that.

Of course everyone in my group is sound asleep and as I'm running around naked and cursing, they all think I'm an idiot and out of my mind. Next morning we discovered the paw prints, the uprooted bush, and the pine tree bark with black fur scattered at the base.

I guess my feet smelled so bad they seemed like a great "road kill" meal opportunity for the bear. So, having been "cold nosed" by a black bear is now one of my fondest but most startling camping experiences.

Are you sure your not forgetting the part about cleaning the scat out of your sleeping bag?, because I know I would be

 

[TRT87]

That’ll wake a person up for sure.

I was camped in the middle of nowhere one time sleeping in the canopy of my truck with a group of friends when someone (not part of our group) showed up at 2am. They wanted to be camped close to the top of the falls where we were so they pitched their tent literally extending under my truck. Like wtf?

The next day the 3 people in the tent roused at noon. Drank a flat of beer. Passed out for 3 hours. Got up again. Burned a hot dog each. Drank a flat of beer and passed out again.

Ok. They might be idiots but at least they can’t hold their liquor and sleep a lot.

The second day they stagger out. Go down to the creek and pick a fight with a dozen cowboys enjoying the falls. [emoji849]

The fight eventually ends up back in our camp when the dummies next door pull a rifle. We finally intervened. Calmed the participants down and sent them in their way. We kept the rifle for safe keeping.

At midnight that night when the doozers were yet again passed out, the cowboys came back. One urinated in their cooler... then stole the cooler. That had to be the funniest thing ever.

Next day with no beer. No cooler and no brains. They loaded up and left. [emoji849]

Ha, why would you steal a cooler full of your own bodily fluids...smh...that is a good story.

 

[Eric Neal]

Are you sure your not forgetting the part about cleaning the scat out of your sleeping bag?, because I know I would be

Actually, Bouncer, my "pucker factor" was so high that I couldn't have even passed gas if I'd wanted to! LOL

 

[Boort]

@Eric Neal

Damn! and I thought it was bad waking up eye to eye with a Big horn sheep.

Boort

 

[Eric Neal]

Boort, I wouldn't want to wake up eye-to-eye with a sheep either! Funny, when I was a kid I just "loved" surprises. Now?? Not so much LOL

 

[Kent R]

While camping at Casini Ranch in Western Sonoma County CA we were around the camp fire around 9 at night when about 10-15 flying objects came over the campground with flashing lights and silent then zoomed off to the west. Freaked all the kids out, we later found out it might have been the rich and famous at Bohemian Grove playing around.