My husband and I went camping for the first time ever in Arizona as part of our long trip out west I had picked out this really cool place that was on a mountain overlooking a beautiful landscape it's next to a cliff and in a really isolated location I'm talking at least 20 mi out on gravel roads in the middle of a national forest so we get there and we set up our tent and Hike a little bit and take pcks of the Surrounding area we see a few cars parked around 210 and we decide to
stop and talk to other campers that were nearby because we had heard that there was going to be a bad storm that night these were four guys who were from Arizona and they told us not to worry and that the storm didn't get that terrible around this area that was all the persuading that we needed to stay later on while walking a bit further down the campside we see a woman there With her dog and another lady we smile and wave and continue to hike down a bit further into the forest let me elaborate that
because of the storm We Are One among a total of seven campers that decided to stay with sand the night we watched the sunset when we get back to our site and make sure our car was only a few yards away and we go into our tent when it gets too dark to see there are no stars tonight due to the storm clouds and it hasn't begun to rain yet so we Decided to try to sleep right away so that we could possibly sleep through the storm when it does hit it was an insanely windy
night though so it's hard to sleep but eventually we get a bit of shut ey I wake up at 10:30 p.m. to the sound of some crazy thunder rolling through the mountains and rain hitting down on our tent I'm a little freaked out because they get a lot of flash floods out here and I didn't want to fall off the side of the cliff but I Tell myself to try to sleep and eventually I doze off again it's now around 12:00 a.m. and I'm awake again this time because I hear something heavy hitting the side
of our tent like full on sounded like someone could have been punching our tent and sliding something down the side of it I opened my eyes and I couldn't see anything it was completely dark the sound continues every couple of minutes and at this point I'm [ __ ] bricks suddenly I Hear footsteps right next to the side of my tent they are slow but steady I feel my entire body freeze up I seriously start thinking about how this is probably it and that I'm going to die my heart was beating so fast that I
am certain whatever is out there can hear it then whatever it is lets out a deep side right on the opposite side of the tent I'm thinking it's a bear and realizing that I might actually have to face this thing so on a desperate call From my husband's mind reading powers I squeeze his hand really hard repeatedly and he wakes up but instead of reading my mind he blurts out what's wrong why are you squeezing my hand right as he says this the footsteps stop so after a while I break out of my frozen State
and I tell him what I heard we decide that it may have been an animal passing by but whatever is hitting our tent continues every so often I'm starting to go a little bit insane wondering what's Going on we convince ourselves that it's just Pines falling from the trees above us and we try to sleep again we just need to make it through one night then we can laugh about all of this in the morning I thought a couple of minutes go by and suddenly the tent caves in on my husband's side right on his
head he whispers that it feels like something is pushing the tent down I feel my heart instantly sink I'm freaking out thinking it's a bear that just sat on his head But he decides to push back and we hear the familiar noise of something sliding off of our tent that we've been hearing for the past few hours we then realized that it's been snowing outside and that the noise we heard hitting our tent it was Heavy ice falling from the trees onto our tent our tent is covered in thick ice and my husband pushes the
tent from the inside until all the ice slides off still determined to make it through the night and a little relief that it Was just ice and not a bear we Tred to sleep and make it to Sunrise we keep on a small light that my husband had luckily brought with him just to calm us down a little bit things are starting to seem normal again we both close our eyes it's 3:00 a.m. at this point not even 30 minutes after we are settling down my little worst nightmare happens out of the pitch black KN
we hear a woman screaming we distinctly hear say what the hell oh my God what the hell Followed by some other non-tangible words that sounded something like help the way that she screamed doesn't sound like anger it sounds like pure Terror and a sense of panic my husband and I are both Frozen looking at each other I quickly shut off our light and I started panicking and asking what we should do because how the hell is this really happening right now while we are trying to decide what's it do for the next few minutes we
hear her again but this time She is screaming no no no no no no as we hear a car speed off into the night I was legit in tears at this point we had no idea what was happening it's dead silent now except for the icy rain hitting our tent it definitely sounded like she wasn't in the car but more like she was desperately yelling after it or begging not to be hurt and this this was the breaking point because I could take the bad weather I could take the possible bear outside of my tent
I could Even take the ice falling on our heads in one of the warmest states in America but one thing I can and will not ever be able to handle is a screaming person in the middle of the pitch black woods at 3:00 a.m. we decide to book it out of there and we contemplate leaving our tent and just going straight to our car but instead we try to stay level-headed and grab our valuables and put them in the car first we frantically gather our things and stay close as we Shuffle to The car I
closed the door and keep the lights off for a while scared to attract any unwelcome visitors and while my husband goes back to grab the tent I start the car and I call 911 I tell the them what I heard and where we are and they say that they're sending someone to the campsite to make sure everything is okay only thing is we are literally in the middle of nowhere and it will definitely take them more than an hour to arrive not to mention The storm left those gravel roads in some pretty terrible conditions so
my husband and I decide to start driving and it's like 3:30 now as we drive out the campsite my husband notices one last Eerie detail that stuck with me the four guys that we had talked to earlier had left all three of their cars were gone while they're tents remained whatever scared them off they sure left in a hurry it was only after we started driving that the thought occurred to me Whatever was walking next to my tent may not have been an animal it very well could have been someone lurking around in the dark
who decided to go after the girl that we had previously seen on her hike I'm not quite sure what went down on the Lone Mountain that night and I hope that everyone got out okay [Music] [Music] to understand my story you sort of have to know a tiny bit about trespassing Laws on our country meaning that we don't really have any so long as you're respectful and nondestructive you can walk over any Hills you like and in my case camp on any Beach of you're choosing so long as once you leave the area is how
you found it I used to love camping when I was little our family would go multiple times a year with a large group of my parents friends and their kids on average there were maybe 10 of us at time which was a bit of a Logistical challenge since we always headed out to this one really remote beach on the coast actually we weren't the only ones there were always Yachts bobbing just off the shore with people in them and other campers lining up and down the beach most of them also had children or teenagers so
it wasn't really a wild party scene it was very much an informal family holiday spot there was even a small building with toilets and showers installed nearby Even though this was the middle of nowhere I guess the local Council must have figured figured it out and got sick of people peeing behind bushes we took a trip up in Spring 2011 I'm really bad with time but I know this because I got my dog in Winter of 2010 after picking her out that November from the shelter as a birthday gift from me to me as I
paid for her adoption fee let me tell you a little bit about her parmesan came to me as a 6-month-old Puppy who had been rescued from a dog fighting situation you're not entirely sure what breed she is but my best guess is a lurcher staffy mix she is a wonderfully well tempered dog with people and most dogs but you absolutely do not threaten her she'll have you so by the time of this camping trip I'd had Parmesan for a few months she'd never come camping with us before but as far as my family are concerned
dogs go on camping trips so when we all piled into The car she came too unusually though none of the family friends could make it so it was only me my sister my dad and my mom but I didn't mind I wasn't that attached to the other kids I'd rather play with my dog and I'd still have my sister the drive took the best part part of 6 hours and because we left a bit later although I don't remember why we left later than normal we arrived at Sunset not a good time to be building
a tent but we'd expected to arrive to Other campers already set up in the beach illuminated in campfires but the beach was empty in spite of this my parents started taking stuff out and trying to build the tent they asked us to fetch some of the lighter bags from the boot of the car I rolled down the window of the car for parmesan before getting out because it was pretty hot for that time of year as we were fumbling about in the dark on on a beach in the middle of nowhere it's pretty Spooky the
one road that led to this beach was circular and had a bridge over the water meaning you could basically circle around the beach like a big oval shape if you really felt like it after maybe 15 minutes of my dad trying to nail the tent into the sand my mom's asking him had you seen that car drive around it's been a few times my dad kind of shrugged her off he sort of like that I don't know if he said anything back to her but after a few more minutes A car Pulled up next to
ours on the road and someone one got out it was maybe 15 or 20 ft from the Cars to where we were and the light was pretty low except for the Torches we weren't expecting to see anyone else out here at this point and I think my mom said it must be security I don't know why a random Beach would have security I think what she meant was the wildlife trust or something as they do occasionally come down to do their checks the guy was walking pretty Unevenly though he must have been drunk or high
because he had that stagger to him there was absolutely no no way this guy was sober cool a junkie not an unusual find but it's rare to see them in the wild as he walked into flashlight range we realized he was carrying a large knife at least 15 in although I was small at the time so maybe my sense of scale was off I don't like my dad much but credit to him once he saw this he got up immediately holding on to the Camping Mallet and put us all behind him the man began to
shout wildly at us that we can't Camp here and he was just letting us know my Dad tried to initially be a bit lowkey with the guy and told him that was fine that we'd leave but this didn't work he kept coming closer to us so my dad started shouting and the man kept shouting back my sister and I were crying I remember shaking I was utterly terrified as I'm sure anyone would be in that situation It really did seem like this guy and my dad were going to fight and I'm going to be honest
I didn't fancy my dad's chances while it's scrim to consider I'm absolutely convinced that he would have killed my dad and possibly us as well once he was done as I don't think my mother had the most common sense to run with us I love her but she's always put dad in relationship with him above us this isn't how it went down almost like a wolf parmesan was the apex predator She got him good by the arm and clamped down hard ripping his jacket and shredding the skin underneath he dropped the knife as it had
been in the arm that she had got him by he kicked her he punched her and eventually got her off he grabbed the knife from the sand and ran back to his car and drove off and Parmesan didn't follow him quickly as we could we gathered our things and all got back in the car all pretty shook up by the incident I looked Pary over she was Okay but the car's window was much more open than I left it we think what happened was when the shouting started she must have put her paws up on
the Gap I had left for her as it was an old car and had the rolly down Windows and not an electric button we think she must have been able to hit it with her paws to force it down enough to squeeze out but this is not the end of the story we were all pretty scared and since we had the dog with us we couldn't book a hotel For the night my parents decided to just drive home so we could all feel safe but first I had to drive into the nearest town for gas
as we were kind of low I spent the time trying to clean parmesan up a little bit I'd always Lov dogs but what she just done for me blew my mind as we drove into town we came across a gas station but it looked close my dad drove up closer to get a better look and stuck his head out of the window to get a better look at the sign my mom asked Him what on Earth he was doing and he told her he was trying to see when it opens my heart sank parked in
the corner behind a van so we hadn't seen him at first was the man with a knife he was sitting on his car using some tissue paper to clean up his arm it looked really bad without stopping to refuel or look anywhere else in town my dad drove right out of there he decided to go to the next town over but this situation soon changed the next town was 60 Mi Away and we didn't have enough gas for that we realized as we began driving we were going to break down that's fine dad said we
had AAA cover they' come to us or at least somewhere acceptable for the night better than staying in the last town after driving for maybe 5 minutes lights flashed up from behind another car it was the same car that the man had been driving and he was following us he must have realized that we were low on gas the next half hour was one of the Worst half hours of my life I had a complete and utter breakdown as did everyone really I could tell my parents were trying to keep it under wrap so it
wouldn't upset us but we weren't really little kids we were both in double digits at least and we knew how dangerous the situation was my dad turned off the radio and the man followed us for 50 mil before he peeled away into another road our fuel meter was on the big red e for empty for the Last 10 miles we were driving on fumes practically I don't really believe in God but if he does exist that was definitely one of his miracles we managed to find a gas station and refilled to a full tank before
driving the rest of the way home my sister and I slept in the car after that I only woke up once and we made it all the way home just Greatful nothing worse than had happened than that after getting some sleep my mom found a non- emergency line For the police and reported what happened they never got back to her after that but apparently the woman she spoke to said they may wish to in the future as he matched the description given of a suspect wanted in relation to a murder charge no idea if he
was actually that guy or just a random psycho as I said they never got back to her so what's the takeway then for me it's that I love my dog she's still with us now I don't know why she did what she Did that day I couldn't tell you what her thought process was this is an experience that I had a couple of years ago it started with my best friend and I mentioning that we need to go camping again soon we spend a lot of time outdoors and we try our our best to camp
at least a couple of times a month it was late November in Virginia Which can either be unseasonably warm or very cold it was very cold this season our girlfriends had been recently Picking at us about never taking them camping because frankly we do a lot of primitive camping in cold wet conditions and we were surprised that he even want to join us at all as far as we were concerned the harsher the conditions the better the trip just your average manly ego [ __ ] honestly I was stoked they wanted to come so we
made plans to go camping that weekend well Saturday rolls around and we are all packed up and Ready to get back to the Great Outdoors we had onto the highway about 2 and 1/2 hours West into the mountains as we approach our secret camping spot it's getting colder it begins raining I could tell my girlfriend was getting nervous about the dwindling light and setting up camp in what conditions my best friend and I do this frequently so we reassure her that'll be fine we arrived to the secret spot which is essentially a Scenic Overlook that
you can park beside To look at the beautiful mountains however by this point night has fallen so all you can see at this point is the flickering City skyline miles into the distance anyone that spends time in the mountains knows that it gets very dark very quick once the sun drops behind the Peaks it is still raining and cold now if I had a guess I'd suspect that it was about 34° the wind was violently whipping as we unpacked the car and I could quickly See our girlfriend's demeanors deteriorating from Once excited to why did
we we want to come to this to try to explain this camping spot there is a small trail that leads off the Scenic Overlook that then drops vertically down a huge Rock scramble which if I had a guess it's about 75 ft to the bottom of the cliff which the Scenic Overlook sits on top of this is not an official marks Trail and you can sort of visualize it as somewhere that teens would park and Go walk down to smoke weed or something you were not allowed to Camp there legally but we were young and
arrogant we had a secret spot so to speak and it is relatively difficult to navigate your way to the bottom and we always traveled down very slowly to avoid broken ankles Falls and Etc I had all of my gear out of the car and ready to start making our way down this Trail my girlfriend and I made our way about 50 yards away from the car to the beginning of the trail we Sat down our backpacks and waited for my friend and his girlfriend 2 to 3 minutes passed by and we are wondering what is
taking them so long to get their gear out of the car remembering it's raining and cold so we were feeling slightly impatient after about 5 5 to 10 minutes I was like all right what the hell let me see what's going on I left my girlfriend standing there and I walked back over to the car I can hear my friend and his girlfriend arguing what's Wrong what are you all doing I asked he locked the effing keys in the car she said well [ __ ] it's now almost 10:00 at night freezing raining and we
have no self service the nearest town is 20 M away immediately I'm annoyed because if there is one thing to not do right now it's what he just did I walk back over to my girlfriend to let her know what's up she unfortunately suffers from a joint disorder which makes her very sore when it's cold or humid and I can tell She's starting to winse in pain I yelled to my friend that we're going down to get the fire set up because she's obviously uncomfortable my main concern is getting her warm right now and I'll
be back up in a while to help him figure out this car situation we turn on our head lamps and start slowly inching down this steep Rocky decline remember it's raining but the worst part was the Mist it virtually renders your headlamp unusable it Illuminates all the fog around you which makes it difficult to see I'm helping hold her gear she'd go down and grab my gear I'd go down and we slowly repeated this process for about 20 minutes trying to make our way to the bottom even though this is a pain in the ass
system we're slowly making our way down again she hands me the gear then she comes down takes my gear and I go further down we're probably another 10 minutes from the bottom where we typically set up Camp what is that she says I could hear fear in her voice I looked down the rocky decline squinting throughout the fog I see a tarp I said oh hell yeah free tarp I figured someone at the top of the cliff had their tarp blown off and they never tried to retrieve it so I was excited I started inching
my way over to grab the tarp as I'm about 5 ft from it see something that catches my eye it's a handheld shopping basket from A grocery store you know the ones I can't make think out what's in it but it looks to be snack wrappers I turned around and my girlfriend looked like she was going to cry is that a person under the tarp I reassured her there is no way in hell I mean we are in the middle of nowhere we are the only car parked up there and it's freezing raining and this
person has no fire no gear tent or anything we are not near any major roads or Trails So there is no way it's a through hiker or homeless person out here there are no stores restaurants I mean nothing on top of that who could sleep on a 35° incline on slate Stones I inched closer to grab the tarp to snarkily prove to her she's being traumatic my light is shining on the tarp it moves we both freeze like statues and I silently stared because again my mind would not allow me to believe there Could be
a person sleeping on the side of this hidden Cliff with no gear in these conditions it just had to be the wind my eyes must be playing tricks on me I look back at my girlfriend and she's slowly backing up the incline I look back at the tarp it starts moving moving that's not the wind someone is waking up under that tarp my heart is now pounding I turn to my girlfriend and Shak Le whisper run before I could even say that she is hauling ass scrambling Up those loose Falling Rocks I heard a half
awoken gravel voiced moan and started busting ass up behind my girlfriend I stopped as she went ahead and turned my light off and listened I could hear that person down there shifting Stones around they were up and walking around we woke them up are they going to follow us now I try to stay reasonable despite my fear and wondered if someone is lost or hurt I called out are you okay we can help if you Need but dead silence hello they were choosing not to respond at that point I said screw this and continued up
we frantically made it up to the car and my girlfriend is in tears freaked the hell out for a good reason I'm pacing my mind trying to figure out what the hell this person is doing no gear no shelter no car no fire once we inform our friends what happened they're now freaking out because we can't even get into our vehicle to leave Thanks to Captain [ __ ] locking his keys in it love you by the way the rain is since picked up and we are sitting under a tarp huddling for warmth while my
friend walks around trying to get cell service I am sitting there dead staring at the trail head in case that person comes up finally my friend gets through to a locksmith you don't even want to know what he paid for after hours recovery but someone finally showed up we told The locksmith what happened and he told us to get the hell out of here and find somewhere else to Camp he lived in the area for a long time and then went on to tell us about the various mysterious murders that have happened over the years
hikers missing hikers found murdered he said something along the lines of some people hide away out here for a reason we didn't even camp that night everybody was so freaked out that we just drove back home the whole car Ride back was silent I still lay awake some nights wondering what that person was doing were they on the run from the police were they just a highly hardened yet unprepared camper how did they get there with no car why didn't they have a fire going if they were just camping they were just laying on the
side of a cliff in the pitch black freezing rain I wish I could truly convey the type of area that we were in this is not not a place a homeless person could survive Any person that frequents the outdoors knows that humans are a bigger threat out there than most animals I'd always heard that but this was the first time I felt it it made me reflect on how many things I did wrong I never should have taken my girlfriend there at night illegally camping in an unmarked area the dark the rain the lack of
cell service I was confident in my own camping ability to the point I never considered any external threat like that Had something happen happened no one would have found us I was selfish arrogant and naive so much could have gone terribly wrong had that person wanted to hurt us I don't set up camp at night anymore and our girlfriend's no longer nag us for not inviting them we have never gone back to that spot in May 2009 I had just broken up with my girlfriend of almost 3 years we had moved from Calgary to Toronto
and we were still stuck living together after The breakup as we didn't know many people in the city yet needless to say the situation was pretty stressful and upsetting someone a buddy I was going to school with at the time suggested a weekend camping fishing trip I jumped to the chance he grew up in an area about an hour outside of Toronto called flamboro it's really beautiful loads of lush Forest Farmers fields and small rivers and creeks we decided to camp in fish along a creek Called grindstone Creek it's close to some wetlands and the
fishing is supposed to be great we ended up setting up our camp in what was probably a farmer's field I'm guessing it was trespassing on our part boarded by a gorgeous Forest we spent the evening fishing and shooting the [ __ ] and even drinking some quality craft beers as it got darker we made a little fire and roasted potatoes and hot dogs all in all it was really Good night we turned in just after after midnight we shared a tent my buddy fell asleep before me and I stayed up playing on my phone until
probably about 1:30 I must have drifted off because the next thing I remember was being woken up by a high-pitched yipping type noise I was kind of groggy and it took me a moment to fully wake up the yipping was incessant and it sounded like a weird coyote I laid there for a minute listening and then started playing on my Phone again the noise was annoying as hell I tried ignoring it but it sounded like it was getting closer finally it sounded like it had to be no more than 10 ft from the tent at
this point I was getting a little unsettled I had seen coyotes and Calgary before and I had thought of them as pretty harmless they never looked much bigger to me than a small dog but what if this one was rabbit or something what if it could smell our food I have a Pretty bad anxiety disorder so I'm prone to worrying about these types of things I nudged my buddy to see if he was awake and he was the noise woke him up too we discussed what to do about the coyote as we hadn't brought anything
to scare off Critters not a BB gun literally nothing finally he decided he would Shine the flashlight on it and holler a lot hopefully scaring it off he unzipped the tent and I watched him playing the flashlight out into the darkness but I'll never forget what happened next his leg suddenly went all wobbly and he sort of stumbled backwards into the tent he had a really dumbfounded look on his face when he looked at me and babbled it's not a coyote it's a dude it's some weird dude normally I would have thought he was messing
with me I'm a huge wimp and scare easily I won't even watch horror movies but I've never seen someone look that scared and I never want to see that Expression on someone's face again so I knew he wasn't pulling my leg the weird yeping and Howling type noises were still going on and in retrospect it didn't really sound like a coyote but I guess in our groggy States it was a way for our brains to make sense of it anyways he got kept telling me to just look out the tent flap to make sure he's
not crazy at this point I was having a full-blown anxiety attack and my heart was racing I felt like [ __ ] but I had to Look so I slowly peaked out the flap and I waited for my eyes to adjust and that's when I saw him he was standing only a few arms lengths away from the tent he was swaying a little and wearing a baseball cap what made it more awful though what was really really creepy was that he was wearing woman's lingerie that's when I knew there was most likely something very wrong
with this guy if making high-pitched noises at a stranger's tent in the middle of The night didn't give it away after I pulled my head back inside the tent my buddy and I discussed what to do finally we decided to yell at the guy to [ __ ] off my buddy started yelling excuse me get out of here we're trying to sleep here the noise stopped it was dead silent and that's when we heard footsteps running towards the tent they stopped right outside the tent but we didn't waste any time we started yelling again Seriously
get out of here we have cell phones we want to call the police with that we heard him walk by the tent and head off sounding like he was moving towards the road needless to say we lied awake petrified into the first sign of sunlight then we hightailed at the hell out of there we discussed our experience on the way home and we're both pretty embarrassed about how scared we got I guess it's definitely not mainly on either of our parts I think because we Were both ashamed of how we let some weirdo freak us
out so much we really haven't ever talked about it since that day so there you go that's my weird story but I always wonder what the hell that guy was doing out there or what was wrong with him sometimes I wonder if things would have turned out differently if we were a couple of girls I'm not saying he was some serial killer but seemed like he was testing who was in that tent guess I'll never know and for That I'm actually kind of glad I was somewhat popular in school at the time but I had
around four very very close friends Rose Lynn Noah and Zach were the main ones we went on Many Adventures around that time camping road trips the beach the whole thing Noah's family was pretty wealthy and all of our families were pretty lenient with rules one day the summer before 8th grade we went on a camping trip with Flynn's older sister Marco and Zach's older Brother Todd so there were seven of us Lynn Zach and I were 13 Noah and Rose were 14 and Marco and Todd were both 17 we decided to go camping in a
nearby Forest around 20 mi from Noah's house it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere Noah's house and his neighborhood were the closest homes and there were no signals for phones or any electronics at all we get to this spot easily and without problems and we make Camp the girls in one tent the boys in the other Maybe it was a bad idea to have several teens ages 13 to 17 with no phone in the woods but our parents were lenient like I said and confident that we would be fine since the woods were
not known for anything bad or dangerous so we set up the tents go swimming in a nearby lake and come back and make dinner over a fire which was about 20 ft away from the tents which we're 4T away from each other by the way we have s'mores and do all those stupid camping things before Lynn and Margo announced that they are going to sleep that left Todd Rose Zach and Noah and I as we joked around told scary stories and just overall had a good time then Margo walks up annoyed and tells us that
whoever is messing with the side of the tent to stop keep in mind no one left the group and Tents were far enough away to not bother anyone in the tents she explains that someone keeps on touching the side of it running something on it and we dismiss Her Todd states that it's probably just a tree branch and Rose and I decide to go sleep as well so we head back to our tent and Lynn is sleeping and we settle in me closest to the opening Margo next to Lynn who was at the opposite side
of the tent and Rose in between Margo and I I managed to fall asleep easily within 5 minutes until I woke up Suddenly for what seemed like no reason I checked my phone I still brought it in a portable charger just to take pictures and it was Literally the middle of the night like 2:15 I looked around my eyes getting used to the darkness trying to figure out why I woke up tapping sound on the tent was what I first noticed and a soft giggling it sounded somewhat deep like a male voice but I couldn't
be sure after what felt like an hour but it was probably a minute or two the tapping and giggling stopped I was convinced that it was my imagination or maybe one of the boys trying to prank us or even a tree Branch like Todd suggested earlier telling myself it was a tree branch and lack of sleep I fell back asleep until Rose woke me up around Dawn everybody was awake and we decided to hike a little bit we decided to go in the two groups because we planned on spending the night again and we didn't
want anyone messing with our stuff even though these Woods weren't popular with camping we didn't want to risk it Margo Lynn Rose and I left to go hiking for a Couple of hours while the boys opted to stay behind in fish or Swim and cook food about 2 hours later we came back to the boys not at the campsite a little bit annoyed Margo went down to the lake with Flynn to find them Rose and I made our way back to the tents and I'll be honest and say I screamed and almost wet my pants
the tents were slashed I inspected it closer after regaining composure because I was usually the more collected one of the two of us it seemed Made with a small knife as the cuts were small our tents were made of material that was pretty hard to cut into and it seemed like the person had a pocket knife I guessed the boys Margo and Lynn came running into our screams and we're obviously startled too we decided to pack up and head home early because for one the tents were ripped too much to use again comfortably and two
we were all creeped out even more so when Todd announced that his tires were slashed we Were all freaking out obviously there was no selfservice Todd's tires were slashed and there was no way any of us wanted to stay any longer luckily Todd reported that Margo's tires looked fine and Margo stated that she would take Noah Inland dropped them off to call 911 and their parents and come back for us she drove a car and there wasn't enough room for more than three people as the back was filled up with the camping stuff Zack Todd
and Rose and I we're Left to the campground s we decided to begin to hike back towards the main road so Margo wouldn't have to drive so far also Rose and I refused to stay anywhere near the camp area we began hiking my phone died the last time I looked at it it was 1:00 in the afternoon Zach and Rose both had working phones and constantly updated us on how far we had been walking I began to hear branches snapping from behind us and I got more and more paranoid as time went on I told
Todd and he seemed to get more wary of our surroundings constantly looking over his shoulder we had been walking for about 30 minutes and Marco was probably at Noah's house or at least almost there when Todd screamed run naturally I looked behind my shoulder before I began running three hooded Figures were running towards us two had knives that we could see and they all looked around 6' 3 or taller Todd was 6'1 but I doubted he could Defend all of us against them even though it was broad daylight I couldn't make out any facial features
they all appeared to be over 200 lb the shortest one was was maybe 6'2 but they all wore hoods and masks like ski masks it sounds totally fake and I don't care if you don't believe me but I was scared shitless we began running and the three guys finally gave up or decided that we weren't worth terrorizing because we lost them we made it to the main road Where we waited walking quickly constantly looking over our shoulders in fear until Margo arrived we told the police everything and they searched the woods nearby they never found
any evidence that we had been there were the guys at all or that anything happened besides the pictures of the lake around the area and the shredded tents I don't know what would have happened if they had caught up to us I'm fairly tall I was around 5' 10 during this time only 125 lb though Rose was around 5'1 and 100 lb and Zach was barely 5'9 at the time he probably outweighed Me by 10 lb maximum I'm so thankful that I told Todd about them I have no doubt that they would have been able
to catch us if he hadn't been looking over his shoulder constantly and I'm just so thankful that we all got physical activity regularly and that we were fast enough to outrun them and not they gave up I live in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Northeast Georgia it's a beautiful area with hundreds of miles of national forest some great state parks and a ton of fantastic camping places unfortunately my hometown is also relatively poor while there are some outof Town residents from Atlanta and other places a lot of people where I live are really
poor I do freelance work as a technical writer so I can do most of my work Online if I didn't have that going for me I'd have to move somewhere else it's just one of those small towns that will rob you of your ability to accomplish anything in life if you stay there too long without anything else going for you at least excluding a handful of doctors and lawyers and GE power company employees the only employment in the area is at Walmart fast food and a couple of grocery stores to the east of my town
There's a massive National Forest it's loaded with great camping sites and lots of relatively unused hiking trails I really enjoy hiking on them with my dog but it can be a bit of an unnerving experience sometimes it's about a 10m drive from town and there's no cell phone service or homes for miles in the past there have been a lot of vehicle break-ins at the trail heads the gravel parking Lots at some of them glitter with bits of broken glass from what I'm guessing were car windows Sometimes there are really Shifty people hanging around these
Trail heads or just driving around on the forest Service Roads these are really rough roads and you'll see these beat up $500 cars just barreling along roads meant for a 4x4 some of the people you see in the cards look like the guy that crushed by an ATM and Breaking Bad All that being said it's still a great place to Camp however you just have to be careful a few years ago two of my friends hi decided to go Play paintball in the National Forest probably not legal I know we decided to turn the paintball
Expedition into a camping trip so we could play the next morning too after a pretty uneventful day of shooting paintballs at each other we drive a couple of miles to one of the more popular camping spots unfortunately a church group or something had taken up all the spots in the area this was really the only camping spot that we were familiar with and it was getting Pretty late we decided to keep on looking so we drive for about an hour further and further into the Woods by this time it's getting a bit dark and we're
getting a bit worried about finding a spot we all had GPS on our smart phones but none of us had any service we turn off onto an unfamiliar road that isn't in very good shape in fact it looks like the four service Rangers used a back ho to block off the road with the mound of Dirt a broken metal barrier lay in the woods nearby that said it looked like 4x4 Vehicles had been going over the mound so it was pretty worn down rf1 50 had pretty high clearance so we decided to go over the
mountain there was an old Gravel Road on the other side and the Run was pretty much Clear of debris we drove a few miles down this road and came across an opening next to a small Creek there were some blue tarps hanging over a plywood table nailed to a tree Which kind of seemed odd that said it was pretty much dark at this point and we didn't want to keep driving around all night looking for a camping spot we left the truck light running and we set up the tent as we were setting it up
I started to notice that there was a lot of trash in the woods surrounding the site I see a green bottle laying on the ground I take a look at the label and see that it's a bottle of hman garden insecticide I was really tired at the Time and I just thought that someone had been dumping their home garbage out here none of us thought it was weird that someone would be dumping garbage in an area that is far more than an hour from the nearest home we set up camp had some beers and made
chili from scratch by this time it was probably around 11:00 p.m. as we are eating we notice a faint glow from the other side of an nearby Hill at first we thought it was Moonlight filtering its way through the Trees however the angles didn't make sense it didn't seem to be a bright light and it wasn't moving it was kind of like that glow you see over a bright City we couldn't see the light source itself though since there were no other access roads in the area we decided it wasn't other campers the hill was
about a/4 mile from our campsite so we decided to go investigate under normal circumstances I know I wouldn't have done so however we All had a few rum and cokes in our stomachs and two of us Jacob and I decide to take a look my other friend Isaac decides to stay behind to pop some popcorn over the fire we start walking towards the light source and the situation gets even stranger all the trees in the area have their bark knocked off in a circle around their trunks we thought it could have been the work of
a beaver that lived in the creek but it seemed strange that a beaver Would go around all these trees and just knock the bark off in a circle Jacob and I start talking about the ghost beaver in pretty loud voice is probably due to our drunkenness as we were almost at the top of the hill Jacob tripped and yelled oh [ __ ] a few seconds after he yelled the light whatever it was went out we looked at each other and decided that maybe we don't need to see what that light was after all we
walk back in silence and Keep looking back every few seconds we decide to turn off our flashlight and just use the Moonlight to get back to the campsite when we get a couple of hundred ft from the campsite I can see my other friend Isaac walking around the camp he was wearing a hooded coat that I hadn't seen him wearing before for some reason he's carrying his paintball gun around in his hand that seemed a little odd to me the fire had started to die down so we couldn't see our campsite Very well at this
point we probably been gone for almost an hour from the distance it looked like Isaac was looking for something he kept walking around the site and was peering into the tent when we were almost back to the campsite we saw Isaac walk up the road we came in on we figured that he was going to use the bathroom and didn't want to wander through the woods like us when we got back we sat next to the fire and waited for him to come all of a Sudden we see him Lurch out of the tent he
stumbles a few feet and vomits after we left he had a few more rum and cokes he mumbles then we asked him why he kept wandering around the campsite with a paintball gun and he gets a strange look on his face they are locked up in the cab of the truck did you unlock it we go and check the truck enter the door code and see all of our paintball equipment just as we left it before the keys to the truck were still Hidden in a magnetic fob underneath I get a sinking feeling in the
pit of my stomach Isaac what were you doing after we left I asked um I was watching it moving on my phone then I fell asleep I guess but you were walking around with your paintball gun right did you just change jackets Isaac said he had been in the tent since we left and that he had been wearing the same unhooded fleece all night someone had been walking around our campsite and it wasn't Isaac At this point all of us are way too drunk to drive but we decided to go ahead and pack up and
go back to my house for the night we didn't bother packing up the tent we just fold it down with the sleeping bags and everything in it we jump in the fort and I start to drive out when we get to the dirt hump we see something gray blocking our path the metal barrier that had been lying in the woods earlier is now back on its stand right on top of the hump earlier By this point all of us has sobered up to the situation no one wants to get out of the truck to try
to move the barrier I had a metal guard in the front of the F-150 so I drive forward slowly tapping the metal barrier with the front of my truck it falls right off it must have just been balanced on top and we drive over it slowly we were terrified that it would pop one of the truck's tires as we drove over it but thankfully it didn't as we drove down the road we see a Vehicle following us with its lights off it's probably a th000 ft behind us we kept catching glimpses of it as the
moon reflects light off of it I start to drive as as fast as I can on the forest service road and the other vehicle keeps Pace doesn't get any closer though it just stays one or two turns behind us we can only see it when the road straightens out after about 45 minutes of speeding along gravel roads we make it back to the main paved Road I start To drive everyone back to my house but I decided to go a different way just to be safe I didn't get pulled over for a DUI locally camping
can be fun but very rural camping can be dangerous I've driven past that metal barrier since that time but it's always been in place I would never go down that road again though when I was 19 I was a Venture Scout sort of like Boy Scouts only for older kids and its gender mixed I decided to go to this week-long mixed Scouting crew camping trip with a friend of mine but a few days before going my friend from Venture Scouts Bel so I'd be going up into the mountains alone with a bunch of strangers which
was no big deal for me really I can handle myself when I got there I was the only Venture Scout and the only girl it was a little awkward but most of the Boy Scouts were pretty nice and easy to get along with although they weren't used to camping with a girl they happily Accepted me as just one of the guys but there was this one guy Danny and the first day of camp he wouldn't take his eyes off me he just stared at me it was a little uncomfortable yeah but I figured figured he
was just socially inept with girls or something and I tried to pay him no mind the next day while we were hiking we split off into Pairs and it turned out that I was paired with Danny he looked a little too excited about the idea of hiking with me Alone his eyes always seemed a little too wide a bit crazy looking but he was a really small guy spindly uncamp hair and a little shorter than I was at 5'7 I figured I'd be able to take him on in a fight if he tried anything so
I didn't raise a fuss about it before sitting out to the hike he kept asking me if I needed help putting on my sunscreen even though I kept declining he kept pushing the question trying to put sunscreen on me until one of the guys told him to cut It out while we were hiking together he kept probing me how old are you he'd asked 19 almost 20 I reply oh don't lie you must be 14 or something you're so innocent he kept asking innocent enough questions like where I lived if I had siblings and what
my favorite color was but then he started asking me if I've ever heard of BDSM I was taken back by this and I was more than a little uncomfortable so I pretended to not know what he was Talking about all while trying to give as many cues as possible for him to drop the subject but then he started going on about what BDSM was at this point I was kind of freaking out a little bit but keeping my cool I didn't want to show on my distress any Ching in my armor as I knew he'd
probably get off on making me squirm the only thought I could think of was what the hell is was wrong with this guy as I kept my eyes fixed to the path ahead of me then he started Complimenting my skin you don't see a lot of girls with pale skin do you use moisturizer he asked attempting to touch my hand but I kept my arms close to me held fast to my backpack I was incredibly tense and every muscle in my body was screaming I sorely regretted wearing a tank top as I could feel his
eyes on me at all times he started telling me how beautiful my pale skin is since you can see the Rope Burns and the bruises better the way he said it sent Chills down my spine and the anxious knots forming in my stomach grew tighter he asked me if I was a virgin then he asked me if I fantasized about things I'd rather not go into detail about wide-eyed in disbelief I turned my gaze away from the dirt path and looked at him he was smiling a creepy childish sort of smile that was just chilling
I kept silent and quickened my Pace he felt Too Close far too close but I wanted to run He could probably see the fear of me at this point and there was no hiding it but then I saw that another pair of Scouts were ahead of us I ran to them telling them that the four of us should group up and go together at first they declined saying that we're supposed to be going in groups of two but upon seeing how panicked and distressed I was two guys changed their mind looking confusedly at Dany who
was silently glaring at them I was just glad someone Else other than Danny was there the four of us went up to the mountain and I tried to keep close to the other two boys and as far from Danny as possible upon reaching the end of the trail and regrouping with the others the two Boy Scouts offered to switch Partners to descend the mountain path Danny looked downright upset angry even he was looking at me as if he were betrayed but I didn't care if it pissed him off I accepted the offer of switching partners
And was able to get back to camp in relative peace on the way down the Boy Scout I was with asked me if Danny was bothering me or something but I lied and said he wasn't bothering me too much after all I was 19 I thought it would be pathetic to get so distressed about some weird 15-year-old kid I figured that so long as I got stuck with other guys I'd be fine but then that night I was alone in my tent everyone else got to sleep in pairs of two or three but since I
was The only girl I had to be alone in my tent it was always a little creepy being alone and isolated in the forest away from everyone else the Scout Masters insisted my tent be far away from the boys tents so that they wouldn't bother me but it only put me in a more vulnerable isolated position I sorely wish I'd been closer to the protection of the rest of the group late at night I heard rustling outside I figured it was just a deer or Elk or something as it usually was and went back to
sleep but then I heard my tent opening opening my eyes I peaked through the crack in my sleeping bag to see what it was and there I saw the white of an eye looking back at me looking through the opening of my small tent it was Danny just staring at me I froze holding my breath I held my dad's hunting knife close to me hiding in my sleeping bag not moving a muscle staring Dany down pretending to be asleep ready To fight at any moment should he take one step into my tent but he actually
didn't do anything he just stared watching me Breathing heavily and muttering incoherently to himself are you there I thought I could hear him say eventually after what felt like an hour he left the next morning exhausted I caught naps when and if I could and kept close to the other Scouts in my group it was difficult to maintain my calm and cool Composure the Scout leaders were a little frustrated with me since it seemed like I wasn't paying much attention to their instructions but at this point I didn't much care for it I was always
on some level of alert as Denny would sometimes creep up behind me and Crush my neck or play with and try to smell my hair and every night Danny was there watching one night he went digging through my backpack looking for something but Unfortunately for him I kept all my clothes and personals tucked away with me in my sleeping bag he left with nothing I grew up in rough situations and circumstances so I always felt I can only really rely on myself asking for help was never an option as a kid for me asking for
help meant you were weak so it hardly even occurred to me I was prepared to tough out the rest of the week but a little over halfway through the week Danny was called Away by the Scout Masters and sent home I got the feeling that the Boy Scout that helped me before saw what he was doing and sent me in a complaint as while everyone else was confused and happily saying bye he just crossed his arms firmly Danny looked so bewildered and confused by everything like he didn't understand what he did to deserve being kicked
out of camp it was really strange I tried my best to forget about it and the rest of the week went off without a hitch but The more I think back on it the more I realize how damn freaking bizarre that kid really was I fear he may end up being some kind of serial killer or something when he grows up but all I know for certain is that he was very disturbing I'm just glad my dad told me although knives weren't all lowed at this Camp to at least take his hunting knife with me
my father insisted I keep it for protection and I didn't regret it this event happened to me last summer It was probably the scariest story of my life and I wanted to shared so hopefully someone learns from it something I've realized growing up yearby year is that this world can be an amazing place but it's also filled with some super sick people and unfortunately I've seen that side of our world firsthand I'm a very social person and I love the opportunity to hang with friends whenever I'm also the type of person who's always looking for
the next Big thing I guess I should tell you I was a 17-year-old male at the time of this story and have a decent sized friend group of both boys and girls throughout high school we had done a lot of crazy [ __ ] together being just out of high school we wanted to do something insane together before departing for college and we all decided to go camping in the middle of nowhere for 3 days after for some miracle all of our parents thought it'd be fine so we had Six people going me and my
girlfriend Stephanie my friend Brandon and his girlfriend Kaylee and Steve and his girlfriend Sarah we decided to have three tents so that way each couple could have their own for reasons you could probably guess being a former Boy Scout I was aware on everything we need to survive for the 3 days food water and other essential supplies being rebellious teenagers we also stocked up on plenty of booze and Weed for our fun getaway so mid July we depart for our camping vacation after hours of driving and driving down back roads we eventually find a place
that looks secluded but not sketchy like some horror stories there were houses nearby but not too close again we weren't looking for a sketchy Woods to camp but unfortunately no service it took us an hour at least to get everything set set up Brandon and I took a look around while fetching Firewood we eventually came across a cool looking Trail because there were houses within a mile radius and we assumed that those people had used this Trail to hunt which was big in this area or animals used it if you're wondering about our car we
drove a Honda Pilot which was Steves that has plenty of room for us in our supplies we parked the car rather close to the site so we had eyes on the car at all times the first night nothing much happened we rolled a blunt And drank a bit and called it a night then the next day we decided to explore the woods a bit but Brandon and Kaye stayed behind to watch the site and spend time together we decided to go down the path we found earlier around 20 minutes down the path Steve spots a
metal fence we approach it to find a cemetery the cemetery looked old but there were signs of activity there and no not some Voodoo [ __ ] or cult like flowers and notes were left and Beyond The cemetery we saw a bigger trail that had tire tracks and a half-ass parking lot for the cemetery we ventured down the path a bit more to spot some deer then we head back because it was getting L that night we really partied hard because we were to leave the next day and didn't want to return with extra beer
or weed now this night was the polar opposite of the other night the other night was peaceful and we assume the same about this night as we began to Turn in but boy we were wrong now you would assume there would have been warning signs earlier in our trip like a rusty knife on the path or foot tracks around our site but nothing all of us woke to a blood curdling scream coming from Steve and Sarah's tent as we hear the fabric being ripped by what we assume to be something sharp I guess Steve hit
the guy really hard with his flashlight and was able to get both himself and Sarah into his car Now here's the issue Steve's tent is closest to the car while the other two tents are closer to the trail so to get to Steve's car we had to get past whatever attacked Steve and Sarah luckily all of our drunken cells were gone because before getting into his car he yelled cemetery and it clicked into my head the trail on the other side of the cemetery so I quickly grabbed Brandon Kaye and Stephanie and start running toward
the trail I use my phone Flashlight to help see you might think why would you turn your flashlight on well last thing I wanted to do was Miss the cemetery and be lost in the woods with the guy who attacked us by the time we get to the trail Steve and Sarah had gotten the hell out from the site and we could hear the guy chasing us but from several yards behind we were able to find the cemetery rather easily and I hop over the fence first when we all get over the fence we noticed
Steve had not Arrived yet so we all head in the cemetery luckily to our advantage it was Pitch Black by time I turned my flashlight off and we all hid in complete silence my heart dropped when I heard the metallic shaking as if someone was climbing over the fence the guy had tracked us down probably due to the fact that Steve yelled Cemetery we all stayed still as we heard the ground crunch as the guy took slow Steps when in fight or flight moments you are capable of a lot more than you would think and
your brain has put on some super high alert mode or some [ __ ] as the guy approached I realized I had my small Swiss army pocket knife in my pocket as the guy's steps grew closer to me when he was right about on top of me I grabbed my knife and Lodge it into the back of his knee the guy tumbled to the ground with a shriek of pain as he dropped his weapon soon the pair of Headlights came around the corner Steve had made it we all got up and ran towards the car
while I got up the light gave me a glimpse of the guy he was tall bulky and had the look of pure hatred in his eye and he clutched the back of his knee by side a huge machete I was the last one to get in the car and even before I fully closed the door Steve floored out of there the girls were balling their eyes out we drove into the first house where we politely knocked And asked for directions to a motel it was a friendly old couple they told us there was not one
for Miles they took us in and gave us warm food in a place to rest for the remainder of the night in the morning the man brought his hunting rifle with us to retrieve our stuff from the campsite when we got there there was nothing stolen but all of our tents were slashed up the elderly woman called and made a report while we were gone and when we got back the officers were at Their home and we gave our statements the officer said there's not enough evidence to find the guy but they promised to search
we headed home later that day not one said a word on the way home we were all processing what really happened the police unfortunately never found the guy yeah College split us up a little bit but we barely talk about it as a group and it's been a year my advice to all of you is please find a populated place to Camp I don't care if It's some Yogi Bear Camp be in reach of help and the police stay safe guys please back in 2011 I was within a circle of friends that made it a
tradition to go camping at a certain spot for a long weekend the spot we chose was in a beautiful area right on the edge of a large lake and was was located on government land the lake itself had a dam on it so during May the water levels were always low if not completely empty making it possible to Walk across it people were allowed to Camp there as long as they weren't outside causing trouble and making a mess and it was generally a good time for everyone the spots themselves were spaced far enough apart that
you had your own privacy but not far enough that you couldn't meet other people in this particular year our spot was in the middle of a small hill with one campsite below us and one above us the first night of our trip happened without Incident during the second day the people staying at the site below us had moved in we didn't think much of it and continued drinking throughout the day and into the night at about around midnight the people at the campsite below us were really out of control they were yelling and screaming and
their music had gotten even louder so our friend Ben went down to ask them to turn it down he was promptly punched in the face and he came back to inform us that He was 90% sure that they were on drugs after that the vibe wasn't as relaxed and we were all somewhat on edge I was feeling very tired so I just decided to go to bed some of my friends were still awake including Ben and one couple Lily and Derek that were visiting another campsite we had made friends with that day I could hear
that the campsite below was still blasting their music and partying pretty hard but I just tried to ignore it and go to sleep I don't know What time it was when I jolted awake parts of this are somewhat of a blur all I know is that I sat straight up as soon as I heard the screaming and yelling coming from outside my tent I quickly ran outside to find our campsite in chaos one of my friends was clutching their chest and people were running around and screaming to call 911 I was quickly informed of what
happened apparently not long after I had gone to bed the people camping at the Site below us decided that they weren't finished talking to Ben and on their way up they had encountered Lily and Derrick walking back now Derrick and Ben are about the same height and have the same color of hair so they assumed that Derrick was Ben and they hit both him and Lily over the head with a glass bottle I don't know if it was the same guys that showed up at our campsite but I was told that everyone else was sitting
around the fire when two or Three huge guys appeared from the darkness and walked over to them one had a knife and the other had a butcher's knife in their hands Ben saw the knives and had gotten up to talk to them and had barely spoken a word when one of the guys stabbed him once in the chest at the same time some people from the campsite above had seen the guys coming and came down to help one of the guys Tim was coming down the hill when the guy with the butcher knce ran up
to him And also stabbed him in the stomach from there sheer Panic ensued people called 911 but the ambulance was over a half an hour away this is where I came out of the tent Tim's wound was bleeding profusely and he was losing blood way too quickly his friends ended up putting him back of his car and speeding off to meet the ambulance halfway Ben was also bleeding but his W wasn't as deep as TS and we were able to keep him calm until an ambulance arrived the guys with the Knives ran off into into
the darkness back to their campsites and took off in their Land Rover my boyfriend at the time and I had got to his car and drove to the entrance to try and flag down the policemen on their way to the scene once they arrived we were informed to stay in the car as they had released a k9 search unit to hunt down the people who stabbed our friends by the end of the night they had arrested the men they had tried to flee by driving their vehicle across the Lake bed where they got stuck in
a muddy section of the lake they were on a concoction of several drugs as suspected luckily both Tim and Ben survived although Tim had lost a lot of blood and took a few weeks to recover from his wounds Derrick and Lily had huge goose eggs on their head and possibly one person had a concussion but I can't recall it was definitely one of the scariest things I've ever experienced and a few of us had to Testify against him in court