Top 12 Eerily Unsettling Things Hikers Experienced Hiking or in the Woods

Solo outings into the woods add a layer of stress. Sounds of nature take on sinister forms. But group hiking trips can be just as chilling. At times there are odd or even comical explanations, but not always. Some of the stories will stick with you.

1. Stranger Danger

On a camping trip, one individual and their family go lost. Trying to find the road, they encountered a “weird place.” A tent made of a tarp, stick walls, and a deer’s body was in a fire pit. But what loomed large among the other eerie items was the “Do Not Enter” sign.

After returning to the campsite, they told the other family they were staying with what they’d seen, to which the other family questioned if the man had spotted them. After telling them no, the other family was relieved and only said the unknown man wasn’t “fond of strangers.” Yikes.

2. Birds Have Jokes

A few people posted about the prank birds played on them in the woods. Whether this is intentional or not, the terror they experienced is real. While traveling through the woods, two friends heard crunching steps in tandem with their own. Each time they stopped, the sound would cease, but when they continued, so did the sound.

A couple of years later, they heard the same sound while walking on the road this time. They saw a little bird hopping around when they peered into the forest. All that stress over a “4-inch tall hopping bird,” as the user summed up. Let’s hope it was a bird all that time.

3. When You Gotta Go

Forests have a lot of things, but toilets are not one of them. So is it any surprise that someone saw a man relieving his bowels in a 5-gallon bucket? The man had nothing else on hand except the bucket. Someone else pointed out this is common depending on where you are, so brace yourself if you traverse the woods to witness or experience it firsthand.

4. A Prank or A Threat

On a solo canoe trip, a poster made camp, listening to unnerving nature sounds before falling asleep. When they awoke, three arrows “gouged out of the ground pointing to the lake.” Wisely, they packed their stuff and departed. About fourteen miles later, they made camp again, only to see the same thing outside their tent when they awoke.

It could’ve been a prank, but fortunately, that was their last day and final solo camping trip.

5. Surprise Meeting

As it was getting dark in the desert, a commenter decided to turn on their UV light to search for scorpions. It didn’t take them long. They were already ten scorpions about five meters from him. Needless to say, they race out there fast.

6. The Woods Don’t Like You

A person had an unsettling encounter in some wood in upstate New York. Deep on the trails, an older man approached them and asked if they were Celtic. After replying no, the old man lamented that it was unfortunate because the woods were watching, and they’d like the person better if they were—an eerie and unforgettable encounter.

7. Is It Human?

While on a camping trip with a large party, a person had a shock. At a forest in Sydney, Australia, known as the location of murders in the 90s, they needed to relieve themself. Given the line for the restroom, they opted to duck into the woods and do their business there. When they look down, they see a “scattered field of bones.”

It took them several seconds to realize these weren’t human remains but animal bones.

8. A Lucky Escape

Despite being warned to stay out of the woods by authorities, this person and some fellow high school friends decided to check out a ravine in the woods. Since they loved breaking into abandoned homes and recording to capture “ghosts” on video, a few friends were down. Three others opted to stay behind.

They only turned their flashlight on occasionally to see. But when the user felt a chill, they looked around, listening. Their friend turned on their flashlight and saw people running around them, and they all jetted to the car, started it, and fled.

9. Ghost House

Since there were trails nearby, a person went there and, seeing a fork with an arrow pointing to another trail, followed that path. After half an hour, they saw an old home in the “middle of the woods.” Though the lights were on, there was no sign of life. Unnerved, they returned home. Checking Google Earth, they found the trail they’d traverse but no house.

When they went the next day, there was no home, only a dead end at the trail’s end.

10. Lights in the Sky

A group of five friends went for a walk in the woods on Halloween. The user, 16 years old at the time, noticed a light in the sky when one friend went to the bathroom as the others kept walking. As they stared, it grew bigger. When their friend returned, they pointed to the light, and their friend saw it too.

Then the light shrank and dashed across the sky impossibly fast before disappearing entirely. They tried to tell their other three friends, but none believed it.

11. Loud Silence

Starting in August 2019, this person spent seven months traversing the wilderness. Over time, they got used to the sounds of the forest; crunching branches, chirping insects, and howling coyotes were not an issue. They were unfazed. That changed in September. While in Montana that night, there was nothing. No animals or insects made a sound.

No rushing water, not even a breeze. Just dead silence. They said it was as though the whole forest “was trying to hide from an equally silent predator.”

12. Encroaching Shadows

Similar to the previous story, this person went hiking in Wisconsin with the Boy Scouts. Around one in the morning, their friend suggested they all go hiking. About twenty minutes in, they came to a clearing. Despite a cacophony of insect sounds, everything suddenly went silent. Even the sound of leaves crunching as they walked vanished.

As they looked, the shadows in the clearing grew and moved toward them. Fortunately, they all ran track and dashed back to the campsite in under five minutes, but no one slept that night.

This thread inspired this post.