Nothing supernatural but I was out in the gulf wade fishing for speckled trout. One end of my stringer had the sharp end and the other had a float. The sharp end was wrapped a couple times through my belt but not tied, so I could drag my fish along behind me as I fished and get quick access as I caught more fish. All was going great. I had several fish on and was catching them one after another. Completely ignoring everything around me as one would do when the fishing is hot, I felt a little tug on my shorts. When I looked down to see what i must have bumped into, I noticed my stringer was only a few inches long. So I started scanning around me and there I saw it ..... an 8ft bull shark circling right back around straight toward me and the stringer float parting water just like the buoys in Jaws! I must have looked like one of those Jesus Christ lizards sprinting across the top of the water. At least that's how I felt lol
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Let's hear you creepy stories
- Thread starter BClark66
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Biggun4214
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I was on Christmas break from college one year, my Dad, some friends, and I were coon hunting around Dale Hollow. As we were crossing the lake bottom the sky lit up as bright as day for about 15-20 seconds. I thought that Russia had started bombing the US. I was expecting to hear the explosions. I never found out what caused it. We were a couple of miles from any type of power lines. Dad said he thought someone was shining a light in his face.
When I got back to college I was talking to a professor about it, he said he was I-40 near Crossville and saw the same thing.
When I got back to college I was talking to a professor about it, he said he was I-40 near Crossville and saw the same thing.
BringBackThe80s
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There's not much that I enjoy more than slipping into the woods with a bow and treestand 2 hours before sunrise and sneaking a mile+ through the forest in the dark, or backpacking in the mountains at night using only the moon for illumination. So I've had exciting experiences that most outdoorsmen have--things that make your heart beat faster but are not really that spooky or creepy:
In the daytime alone in the mountains, I've run into a wild boar, which quickly fled, of course. Another day I got to watch a momma bear teach her two cubs how to find insects by shredding old logs like they were cardboard. Another time a great horned owl made a touch-and-go landing on my knit cap, apparently mistaking it for prey until I reacted to wings in my face. Again, cool and surprising, though not scary or spooky.
But 20+ years ago...
- Coyotes howling and yipping all around you as they work;
- Grouse flushing from nearly under your feet in the dark and making your heart stop at the sudden thunder of wings;
- Deer charging down the trail like they plan to run you over; and
- Multiple barred owls slowly converging from far away, cackling and hooting the all the way, until your ridgetop sounds like a whole troop of insane monkeys or tree-dwelling hyenas have surrounded you.
In the daytime alone in the mountains, I've run into a wild boar, which quickly fled, of course. Another day I got to watch a momma bear teach her two cubs how to find insects by shredding old logs like they were cardboard. Another time a great horned owl made a touch-and-go landing on my knit cap, apparently mistaking it for prey until I reacted to wings in my face. Again, cool and surprising, though not scary or spooky.
But 20+ years ago...
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BringBackThe80s
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20+ years ago, I did have a very eery experience in the wilderness. A New-Year's snowfall inspired my brother and I to backpack up a cove that cuts deep into one of these Appalachian mountains and plateaus. A century earlier, multiple mines had operated in that cove. But there had been no trails or paths to this spot for a long, long time by the time we explored it. We were bushwhacking off trail to a flat area shown on topo maps. Along the way, a pack of a half-dozen black coyotes popped over a ridgetop mere yards away, surprising them just as much as us.
It was deep dusk by the time we arrived, but we found the spot by following a creek to the one flat area deep in this cove/canyon. Inflatable sleeping pads were not a thing yet, so we made a "bed" of small boughs and leaves under the tent and spent a very cold night waiting for dawn. We had not seen any sign of humanity in the last couple of miles of our hike. So we both got goosebumps when we unzipped the tent in the morning.
All around our tent were over a dozen rock cairns approximately 18" tall. In the dark while pitching our tent, covered in snow, they did not stand out from the snowy boulders and brush of the hemlock creek bottom. But after some snow melt overnight, sunrise revealed these very unnatural stacks of rocks all around us. The sediment around them, how much they had settled into the hillside, and years of moss growing on them showed they had been there a long time.
As we gathered wood to cook breakfast, we found some old cable, some collpsed rock work and a nearly eroded away rail bed leading to rock shelves that probably served as headers for a mine adit.
A visit to the local library later confirmed our suspicions about that spot. There was mine entrance in that branch of the cove. It ceased operations after a collapse trapped and killed numerous men under that ridgeside.
We could not find any records about the old, forgotten cairns. But my brother and I are convinced we spent a fitful winter's night in the midst of crude memorials, a mountainside graveyard marking the final resting place of the men who never left that mine.
It was deep dusk by the time we arrived, but we found the spot by following a creek to the one flat area deep in this cove/canyon. Inflatable sleeping pads were not a thing yet, so we made a "bed" of small boughs and leaves under the tent and spent a very cold night waiting for dawn. We had not seen any sign of humanity in the last couple of miles of our hike. So we both got goosebumps when we unzipped the tent in the morning.
All around our tent were over a dozen rock cairns approximately 18" tall. In the dark while pitching our tent, covered in snow, they did not stand out from the snowy boulders and brush of the hemlock creek bottom. But after some snow melt overnight, sunrise revealed these very unnatural stacks of rocks all around us. The sediment around them, how much they had settled into the hillside, and years of moss growing on them showed they had been there a long time.
As we gathered wood to cook breakfast, we found some old cable, some collpsed rock work and a nearly eroded away rail bed leading to rock shelves that probably served as headers for a mine adit.
A visit to the local library later confirmed our suspicions about that spot. There was mine entrance in that branch of the cove. It ceased operations after a collapse trapped and killed numerous men under that ridgeside.
We could not find any records about the old, forgotten cairns. But my brother and I are convinced we spent a fitful winter's night in the midst of crude memorials, a mountainside graveyard marking the final resting place of the men who never left that mine.
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BringBackThe80s
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Does being completely lost in the dark count as creepy?
I've lived most of my life in East Tennessee's mountains and ridges, where major land forms provide an ready sense of basic direction and make it pretty difficult to get really turned around. When I was 16, though, my dad and brothers and I drew permits for a shotgun hunt at AEDC--very flat country by comparison. One of my Dad's friends (we'll call him Bob) made a trip there to scout one afternoon and let me ride along. After he scouted his areas, he drove me to a creek that I thought looked good on the topo map. It was close to sunset when I hopped out, and Bob kicked his seat back to nap while I looked for my spot. I took only my pocket knife, flagging tape, and canteen. The woods were wet and I wasn't going far, so I left my old paper topo map in the dry truck.
The gravel road was bordered by rows of scrubby planted pine trees so dense I had to turn sideways to push through them. When I popped out into the hardwoods after about 15 yards, the road was almost completely hidden. But the creek or stream was only 100 yards away and ran fairly parallel to the road. It provided the only significant variation in the flat land around me.
While I explored downstream, clouds blew in and the temperature dropped enough that my short sleeves were a bit cool. Then it started to drizzle. I started back up the creek as dusk settled. But the cloud cover brought darkness much sooner than expected, and I knew I would not get back to the place I started before complete darkness. I decided that I should return to the road while there was still enough gloom to see trees and shapes around me, then road walk back to the truck. I left the creek bed at right angles to its basic direction of travel and stumbled through the hardwoods to the planted pines bordering the road.
It was nearly pitch black when I headed into the dense, young pines. After pushing through for about 40 paces, I was soaked but had not hit gravel. I kept going after another 40 steps or so, I knew something was wrong. I stopped, shivered, and tried to figure it out. I knew not to to turn at all from the direction I was facing lest I lose all sense of direction. I didn't think I was walking in circles, but I grabbed the longest straight stick I could find and walked with it threading through the pines to reduce any tendency to make slight turns.
After 10 more minutes of pushing through the trees, I had a bad feeling of being completely disoriented and unable to fathom how a narrow strip of pines had turned into an unending thicket. What was going on?? Then I heard the soft, muffled sound of a car/truck horn. Presumably Bob was honking for my sake--but it was coming from way behind me! I could not figure out what was happening. How was Bob in the opposite direction I was headed? Or maybe that wasn't Bob, but someone else or even some other road far away? If I tried to start toward it but it did not honk again, would I just be even more turned around and lost?
While trying to think and un-spook myself, I caught a faint glimmer of moving light ahead and to my right. I could not hear anything over the rain, but a few more glimpses through the pines showed them passing off my right side and disappear. It had to be a moving vehicle. I turned 90 degrees and started in that direction. And after a couple minutes I stumbled into the gravel road.
I turned right and walked nearly a quarter mile back to the truck. Shortly before I found the truck, the road curved far to the left--a fact I had completely overlooked before heading into the woods. When I looked at my old topo later, I realized that by exiting the creekbed early I had bypassed the curve in the road. Although it was too new to be marked on the map, the pine thicket I entered was an entire plantation, not just a road border. I had been close to the road, but traveling almost parallel to it and working deeper into the pine plantation that whole time. Things could have been bad that night if I had driven myself there or I was just a little farther from the road when that one set of headlights came past.
That was the last time I went into large or unfamiliar woods without map, compass, rain jacket, and some kind of light.
I've lived most of my life in East Tennessee's mountains and ridges, where major land forms provide an ready sense of basic direction and make it pretty difficult to get really turned around. When I was 16, though, my dad and brothers and I drew permits for a shotgun hunt at AEDC--very flat country by comparison. One of my Dad's friends (we'll call him Bob) made a trip there to scout one afternoon and let me ride along. After he scouted his areas, he drove me to a creek that I thought looked good on the topo map. It was close to sunset when I hopped out, and Bob kicked his seat back to nap while I looked for my spot. I took only my pocket knife, flagging tape, and canteen. The woods were wet and I wasn't going far, so I left my old paper topo map in the dry truck.
The gravel road was bordered by rows of scrubby planted pine trees so dense I had to turn sideways to push through them. When I popped out into the hardwoods after about 15 yards, the road was almost completely hidden. But the creek or stream was only 100 yards away and ran fairly parallel to the road. It provided the only significant variation in the flat land around me.
While I explored downstream, clouds blew in and the temperature dropped enough that my short sleeves were a bit cool. Then it started to drizzle. I started back up the creek as dusk settled. But the cloud cover brought darkness much sooner than expected, and I knew I would not get back to the place I started before complete darkness. I decided that I should return to the road while there was still enough gloom to see trees and shapes around me, then road walk back to the truck. I left the creek bed at right angles to its basic direction of travel and stumbled through the hardwoods to the planted pines bordering the road.
It was nearly pitch black when I headed into the dense, young pines. After pushing through for about 40 paces, I was soaked but had not hit gravel. I kept going after another 40 steps or so, I knew something was wrong. I stopped, shivered, and tried to figure it out. I knew not to to turn at all from the direction I was facing lest I lose all sense of direction. I didn't think I was walking in circles, but I grabbed the longest straight stick I could find and walked with it threading through the pines to reduce any tendency to make slight turns.
After 10 more minutes of pushing through the trees, I had a bad feeling of being completely disoriented and unable to fathom how a narrow strip of pines had turned into an unending thicket. What was going on?? Then I heard the soft, muffled sound of a car/truck horn. Presumably Bob was honking for my sake--but it was coming from way behind me! I could not figure out what was happening. How was Bob in the opposite direction I was headed? Or maybe that wasn't Bob, but someone else or even some other road far away? If I tried to start toward it but it did not honk again, would I just be even more turned around and lost?
While trying to think and un-spook myself, I caught a faint glimmer of moving light ahead and to my right. I could not hear anything over the rain, but a few more glimpses through the pines showed them passing off my right side and disappear. It had to be a moving vehicle. I turned 90 degrees and started in that direction. And after a couple minutes I stumbled into the gravel road.
I turned right and walked nearly a quarter mile back to the truck. Shortly before I found the truck, the road curved far to the left--a fact I had completely overlooked before heading into the woods. When I looked at my old topo later, I realized that by exiting the creekbed early I had bypassed the curve in the road. Although it was too new to be marked on the map, the pine thicket I entered was an entire plantation, not just a road border. I had been close to the road, but traveling almost parallel to it and working deeper into the pine plantation that whole time. Things could have been bad that night if I had driven myself there or I was just a little farther from the road when that one set of headlights came past.
That was the last time I went into large or unfamiliar woods without map, compass, rain jacket, and some kind of light.
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We used to have an abandoned mobile home on our lease with no front door. I had to walk by it on my way to the stand each morning. One time a guy from the club placed a scare crow in the door way the evening before my morning hunt. That next morning I saw a figure at the door and spooked me pretty good. @Knothead
Full disclaimer, I am a transplant and where I grew up we didn't have many bobcats (this will come into play in a bit).
When I left the military my wife and I decided to settle down here in God's country. Our first roots here in TN were up on the plateau where I spent my hunting seasons chasing deer in the Bledsoe State Forest. As much as I enjoy relaxing in a comfy Summit or Millennium, I spend A LOT of my time hunting from the ground. One November evening I found myself sitting on the ground with my back against a tree. I was overlooking a small gully with a hard edge of mature pines on the far side and some overgrown clear cut off to my right. I'm pretty stubborn so 99% of the time I sit until a bit after legal shooting light in hopes of avoiding spooking any critters too hard. Well on this evening sunset had come and gone, and I was just nearing the end of legal light. Now by this time it's pretty much dark dark, and I hear a bone chilling sound that I have never encountered before. The only way I can describe it is the bowels of H*ll opening and letting loose a creature from the nether. There I sit, on the ground, in the dark, while this guttural growl echoes around me. The growl persists a few times followed by some serious snarling. Each time this demon sounding creature repeats its auditory sequences it sounds like it's getting closer and closer. After what feels like forever I decide John Constantine is not going to come to assist so I take my leave, shotgun at the ready.
Looking back I kind of laugh because as it turns out the chupacabra that I swore I heard turns out to be a bobcat
. For those that have never heard a bobcat growl and snarl, I encourage you to look it up on YouTube because for a relatively small critter they sound ferocious….I just keep thinking back to sitting in the dark, in the woods, hearing that sound for the first time lol. Granted, now knowing what it is, it wouldn't creep me out, but in that moment not knowing what I know now, I was pretty creeped out.
Hope y'all get a good chuckle out of this because I certainly do when I think back on it.
When I left the military my wife and I decided to settle down here in God's country. Our first roots here in TN were up on the plateau where I spent my hunting seasons chasing deer in the Bledsoe State Forest. As much as I enjoy relaxing in a comfy Summit or Millennium, I spend A LOT of my time hunting from the ground. One November evening I found myself sitting on the ground with my back against a tree. I was overlooking a small gully with a hard edge of mature pines on the far side and some overgrown clear cut off to my right. I'm pretty stubborn so 99% of the time I sit until a bit after legal shooting light in hopes of avoiding spooking any critters too hard. Well on this evening sunset had come and gone, and I was just nearing the end of legal light. Now by this time it's pretty much dark dark, and I hear a bone chilling sound that I have never encountered before. The only way I can describe it is the bowels of H*ll opening and letting loose a creature from the nether. There I sit, on the ground, in the dark, while this guttural growl echoes around me. The growl persists a few times followed by some serious snarling. Each time this demon sounding creature repeats its auditory sequences it sounds like it's getting closer and closer. After what feels like forever I decide John Constantine is not going to come to assist so I take my leave, shotgun at the ready.
Looking back I kind of laugh because as it turns out the chupacabra that I swore I heard turns out to be a bobcat
. For those that have never heard a bobcat growl and snarl, I encourage you to look it up on YouTube because for a relatively small critter they sound ferocious….I just keep thinking back to sitting in the dark, in the woods, hearing that sound for the first time lol. Granted, now knowing what it is, it wouldn't creep me out, but in that moment not knowing what I know now, I was pretty creeped out. Hope y'all get a good chuckle out of this because I certainly do when I think back on it.
Just curious, how do you know they watch you from the roads with thermals? How are they harassing you when outside or grilling, etc? They have threatened game wardens and nothing was ever done about it? Also, 35 vehicles doing it? Is hog hunting that popular to have that many vehicles riding around? I'm asking because I don't know. We don't have hogs here and hope we never do.
KTS
Well-Known Member
In the late 60's my friend and I parked beside a bridge over a small creek well before daylight. We were hunting a farm in Todd County Kentucky. It was clear as a bell, sky was full of stars and not a cloud in the sky. Then it was like someone had flipped a switch, everything lit up even brighter than full daylight but it was kind of a blueish light. It lasted for about 15 or 20 seconds like Biggun said in his experience.
Never seen anything like that before or since.
Sounds like someone is spiraling. I agree with you. Its a bit much.
kaizen leader
Well-Known Member
My best friend (brother) and I were sitting on our marina dock one night in the summer fishing for white bass. That's a common practice for me in the summer. It was a beautiful night without a whisper of a breeze. We are right on the Cumberland river channel in Old Hickory Lake. Every once in awhile something big sky dives out of the water and it sounds huge. Like someone falling in but it's probably a big gar. Nothing unusual though.
While sitting there enjoying the quiet calm perfect night all of a sudden small fish maybe around 6" long jump out of the water as far as we could see in both directions over the channel. Thousands of them all at the same time. We looked At each other like deer in headlights and said wow. We didn't hear anything. It was a clear night. We still talk about it years later. No idea what that was all about. Kind of freaky and definitely weird.
While sitting there enjoying the quiet calm perfect night all of a sudden small fish maybe around 6" long jump out of the water as far as we could see in both directions over the channel. Thousands of them all at the same time. We looked At each other like deer in headlights and said wow. We didn't hear anything. It was a clear night. We still talk about it years later. No idea what that was all about. Kind of freaky and definitely weird.
Planking
Well-Known Member
Because i started watching these suspicous vehicles that are stopping with thermals and night vision. Sometimes you can see the very bright display of the eyepiece on the handheld shining around the cab with the naked eye but usually you will need a thermal or night vision. They stop and watch me and whoever else is there with the thermals and also look for game wardens. If you've never had it done to you it's creepy as hell. They drive up my neighbor's driveway when he isn't home looking for the game wardens with thermals. Ive seen them do it. I dont think i said they threatened game wardens if i did it is a type o due to lack of sleep. Some do harass them when they spot them with thermals same as they harass us. They harass me by hitting their breaks at the places where they stop and scan with the thermals or when the see me out or they just stop and watch you. Some of them turn around in the road where they can shine their lights on us. Ive seen them twirl headlamps out the windows. Ive been hog hunting this property at night for five years and never seen more than the occasional stray boar until last year and had no prior problems with stalker weirdos in the street. I had no idea that road hunting with thermals was popular or that it was allowed. I found all that out the hard way when this large group showed up.
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Planking
Well-Known Member
Free country, believe what you want. This is what they do and are trying to do and are frustrated with anyone that don't want them around doing it.
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kaizen leader
Well-Known Member
Does TWRA have decoy hogs like Timex the decoy deer? If so that would be the way to catch them if they can make the decoy show up on thermal. I guess that would be hard. You've got a difficult problem unless you get friendly with them and let them kill all the hogs on you property but leave the deer alone. Good luck.
Planking
Well-Known Member
I appreciate it but i don't want anything to do with them. One has asked but it's a residential area and im not turning people loose on my neighbors with rifles at night and keep up with where they are and where we are etc. We just want to be left alone but it's too much to ask i guess.You've got a difficult problem unless you get friendly with them and let them kill all the hogs on you property but leave the deer alone. Good luck.
Hymie3
Well-Known Member
I just thought of another incident that was a real head scratcher and made for a very strange morning in the woods. Bout five years ago, about an hour before daylight I headed in to my ladder stand in some pines that bordered large hardwoods. I got up in my stand and turned to hang my backpack on the hook and saw an orangish red light off in the pines about 150 yards or so. I immediately started thinking someone had put up a blind and the orange light I saw was a flashlight glowing inside the blind. Of course my blood pressure went up cause I didn't want anyone dropping anchor on my spot. It was still dark but I got my rangefinder out and was trying to keep an eye on the activity. Thirty minutes or so has gone by and nothing ever moved an inch so I was baffled. At this point I had decided it wasn't a hunter but something else. I wanted to get down and go look real bad but didn't want to mess up my hunt. The light was about three feet of the ground and right before daylight was glowing like a fire. This thing was starting to freak me out. I wasn't sure if the woods were about to catch fire or I was going to be rushed by some space alien. As the morning got brighter the light vanished and I couldn't pin point where it was at any longer. When I got down after hunting I walked over to the area I thought it was at, nothing. No signs of anything burning or otherwise. My best guess was either lighting had struck the tree or a meteorite had fallen and smashed in the the tree and buried up in the tree. I did manage to take a couple pictures on my phone. They are bad pictures due to darkness and a crappy phone but it shows kind of what I'm talking about. First is no zoom
Poker
Well-Known Member
These are some great stories. Thanks for posting them. I moved to Florida from Tennessee back in 2002 and had to learn the differences in terrain pretty quick. Unfortunately, I didn't learn soon enough. I got drawn for a quota hunt on Woodruff Wildlife Refuge. I had a doe come out just before dark on the backside of a large oak I was in. I made a marginal shot, but got a decent blood trail that I was able to follow for about a half mile. The doe finally disappeared into a swamp and I lost the trail. At that point I took a compass reading and started back to the road following the most expedient direction from where I was. What I didn't know was there was a large swamp between me and my destination.
As I entered the swamp, at first the water was only a foot deep. As I made headway, it got deeper until it was chest deep. My boots were full of water and logs crossed my path waste high and higher quickly zapping my strength to make it through the swamp. Every now and then I found a high patch of ground next to a tree that I could pull myself up on and rest. I was so tired I considered just leaving the bow and dropping my gear just to make it out.
As I slowly made my way though carrying my bow and holding the light while throwing my leg over a log, I dropped the flashlight. I encountered total darkness. I tried finding the light in the muck holding my breath and diving for it but no luck. I stood there scratching my head and wondering if I should just curl up by a tree and spend the night and finally remembered I had a pen light in my pocket. I pulled it out and was totally surprised that it still worked.
I made it out after several hours but not before losing all my arrows along with the flashlight. I always carry a backup light and a GPS now.
As I entered the swamp, at first the water was only a foot deep. As I made headway, it got deeper until it was chest deep. My boots were full of water and logs crossed my path waste high and higher quickly zapping my strength to make it through the swamp. Every now and then I found a high patch of ground next to a tree that I could pull myself up on and rest. I was so tired I considered just leaving the bow and dropping my gear just to make it out.
As I slowly made my way though carrying my bow and holding the light while throwing my leg over a log, I dropped the flashlight. I encountered total darkness. I tried finding the light in the muck holding my breath and diving for it but no luck. I stood there scratching my head and wondering if I should just curl up by a tree and spend the night and finally remembered I had a pen light in my pocket. I pulled it out and was totally surprised that it still worked.
I made it out after several hours but not before losing all my arrows along with the flashlight. I always carry a backup light and a GPS now.
Was hunting with a couple of buddies, don't even recall now where we were but I was up in a stand with a fairly high ridge behind me. A fairly strong thunder storm rolled in so I was standing with my back to the tree doing my best to stay dry. I happened to look over my shoulder toward the ridge when a bolt of lightening came along lighting up the sky and I see the figure of a man outlined on the ridge! Spooked me for a minute until I realized it was one of my buddies headed out.
