[Music] foreign [Music] Boy Scouts together back in the day like to plan camping trips out into the woods every once in a while since we have that history together things have always gone pretty smoothly however we've run into something that our Daisy Scouts didn't prepare us for we were always trained to watch out for wild animals poisonous plants and venomous spiders and that sort of thing but we are never told to consider that even in the Deep Woods you could still run into people I've got quite a few stories about encountering strangers in the wilderness
and while some of them are funny I have two experiences I would like to share that are far more disturbing the first encounter took place in my home state of Florida in early January two buddies and I booked a cheap primitive campsite for the weekend but when we got there we realized that the place wasn't exactly secluded it was right on a dirt road just a few miles away from a rural Highway there were dozens of campsites lined up against the path all around us most of them were empty but about a quarter mile farther
down was a family that looked like they were set up to live out there right across the dirt road from us was a strange man who was by himself camping out of his Subaru he didn't say anything to us while we were setting up but all three of us made note that he was watching us not only that he had a large machete holster to his hip from his General demeanor we figured he was some kind of societal reject who chose to spend most of his time alone on the woods for his own comfort and
the safety of others the entire first day he kept his distance you weren't that far apart though maybe 30 feet from the edge of our campsite to his we had to accept that he would probably be listening to us all night luckily the first night went fine and on the second day he started warming up to us a buddy and I ventured into the shrubs to gather firewood and he came by and told us where we could get better material that wasn't all rotted out like the stuff we were getting he said we would consider
it but he was acting way too suspicious for us to actually do it he stuttered and drooled a lot fidgeting his hand over the hilt of his machete like he was nervous even scared stiff of us it seemed like he was completely unadjusted to being around people but after he tried to help us out during our first real interaction we allowed ourselves to relax a little bit if anything he would be an entertaining neighbor for the weekend and since we outnumbered him three to one we felt like he didn't pose a threat to us as
the day wound down there was an unexpected development it started with just one car rolling through and parking in the campsite right next to the machete man immediately we all started to watch for his reaction he was clearly agitated by this but it wasn't over he looked on and all as one car became two then three then four eventually five it was a large group of purebred Millennial city Folk that booked three campsites right next to each other it was unfortunate for them that they had unwittingly encroached upon the personal space of the machete wielding
hermit the way he spied on us looks tame in comparison to the death glare he was giving these people he tried to act normal but it was clear his whole body was tensing up as he stared at them things almost got bad when the dog showed up there were two dogs actually but the owners of one were letting the animal roam off the leash it was only a matter of minutes before their dog ran over to the machete man's campsite and started to jump on him with typical puppy-like excitement we heard the machete man literally
barked back at the dog and we all looked over to see this happening the man was frozen stiff like he was taking everything in his power not to snap palada's machete and shot the dog's head off right then and there quickly the dog's owner ran over and contained their pay and that's when we heard him say something alarming next time that damn dog comes over here I'ma shoot the [ __ ] he thought this would give the city Folk the impression that they shouldn't just act like they own the whole place but surprisingly they were
pretty unfazed they kept their dog on the leash after that encounter but as night fell they became even more intrusive their dog sparked constantly and there were several simultaneous conversations out of the 10 or so people there which were constantly shouting over each other so they could be heard to the point to where we could make out every single word some of them were saying we spent the whole night in hush tones making fun of the ridiculous out-of-touch things we heard from them my friend came up with a pretty good impression of the most obnoxious
of the bunch and we repeat everything he said with a mocking tone once our fire died down and the temperature dropped we called it a night and crawled into our hammocks it was pretty frigid by The Floridian standards so when I woke up at Daybreak I was too cold to get up so I shut my eyes to sleep in the next time I opened my eyes I saw that same friend crouched by the fire pit trying to get the coals from last night to catch on I wasn't in the mood to get up until the
fire was going so I shut my eyes again then a bit later I heard voices my eyes shot open when I realized that one of them was a machete man he was standing over my friend who was crouched by the pit well into our campsite with his hand resting on the hilt as usual I pretended to stay asleep and listen to their conversation from my hammock which one of you is doing that dumbass voice he asked my friend stammered and eventually replied that was me a brief silence caused me to choke up half expecting the
man to pull out his machete that's not what happened thankfully instead he laughed awkwardly man he shouted you guys had me rolling in my tent last night my friends side with audible relief yeah that's cool man we thought it was pretty funny he said that's when the machete man leaned in and muttered something else I'm serious guys I was this close if you guys hadn't got me laughing last night like that I was about 10 seconds from going over there with a nine millimeter and making them shut up my friend was unable to come up
with a response to this understandably so the men kept talking I hate when those goddamn City people come out here they ought to stay in Orlando you guys ain't from there are you no no no we're not from Orlando my friend lied we're from Gainesville area uh that's not too bad he said well anyway I'm gonna go back and try to get them to leave see y'all later at last he turned around and walked back to his campsite once he was out of earshot my friend looked at me noticing my wide open eyes and asked
did you hear that yeah man good thing we're leaving today right right around then our other friend woke up and crawled out of his hammock totally oblivious until we filled him in after that we unanimously agree to call off the trip a few hours early she gives breakfast at camp and packed everything up leaving well before 10 o'clock we tried to pass it off as a joke but when it was said it sounded more serious than we wanted it to I don't remember who said it but one of us did what if we get home
and we see on the news that some guy shut up a whole campsite full of people from Orlando thankfully that never happened but when we left it really felt like we were abandoning those people to their fate I tried to think of what might have happened if we hadn't brought a sense of humor to that situation we were definitely caught off guard by it and I couldn't think of any other way to handle it nobody expects to be overcrowded when they go primitive camping but unfortunately this wasn't our last experience with the Woodland Hermits the
second time I encountered a person unexpectedly in the woods could have gone much worse I was camping with the same two guys the last trip I talked about except this time there was a fourth person Among Us who wasn't a former Boy Scout but just a good friend this was a much more serious campout we drove to South Carolina for four nights in five days and this time we had a very secluded site to ourselves after driving on a dirt road for a few miles the road came to a loop at the end and we
parked our cars then hiked downhill we hiked a short distance to our campsite which was on the upper Banks of a river I forget what time of year was exactly but it was hot and dry so the river was only ankle deep in most places with some way steep basins vegetation was diverse and the terrain was mountainous which made it quite alien to our flirty and sensibilities but all the more enjoyable for it we'd brought some fishing gear along with plans to explore the river and test the waters on some group escapades unfortunately as a
beginner fisherman I wasn't having any luck while I was going up against my friends we were all enjoying the trip though but by the second or third day we were all starting to wear on each other a bit that's when somebody had the great idea to cross the state line to North Carolina which wasn't far off and go to this place called Sliding Rock it didn't seem like a bad idea but I wasn't too interested in it everybody else wanted to go though and here's where we made a pretty stupid mistake in Boy Scouts they
teach you about the body system or if you are ever in any Wilderness of any kind you never go out alone you always have at least one person with you in case you run into trouble however we hadn't run into any sort of danger in the first 48 hours so we came to the decision that the three of them would go for their little half day trip and I would stay behind and watch the campsite while they were gone I know it's not the safest or smartest thing to do considering my phone was about to
die but they left me the keys to the other car in case I needed help although it was actually very relaxing while they were gone I made some cheesy grits on the fire for lunch then I read for an hour or so and then I washed out the pot in the river right by Camp and I casted my line into the lingering cloud of food which is how I caught my first ever fish a little catfish that came to eat my grits I took a photo and sent it to my friends then with the feeling
of luck on my side I set the catfish free and ventured down river to try for another I went down about a quarter mile and cast off over some Rapids eventually catching a baby smallmouth bass everybody was only catching small fries since the water was so shallow after setting that one free I decided to take a little rest and I sat in one of the rocks in the gentle Rapids I was enjoying the scenery when I felt the hairs in the back of my neck stand up I had the thought that I was completely alone
out there hundreds of miles away from home in unfamiliar territory Appalachian territory suddenly I heard a twig snap in the Steep Woods of the riverbank to my right and I stood up quickly looking for movement I didn't see anything but when I looked down to myself I noticed my legs in groin region were covered in dozens of tiny little leeches I freaked out and started frantically picking them off then when I felt like I got all of them I hoofeded back onto camp on the way I jumped onto a bank and landed my bare right
foot on a small Cypress knee bruising The Arc of my foot pretty bad I was starting to get concerned with my safety feeling like I stepped a little too far out of my comfort zone but I was more cautious from there on and I got safely back to camp I was still alone though and still worried about those leeches so I stripped down to nothing and used the only mirror we had at Camp to check myself over more thoroughly when I was sure there wasn't any more stragglers I got dressed and laid it in my
hammock with a beer and a cigarette and waited for my friends to come back a little while later they returned and re-regaliled each other on what our separate experiences were like soon after we decided it was time that I and our non-scouting friend returned to the car and charge our phones for a little while we were gone for about 45 minutes and when we hiked back into camp we saw him he was standing in the river right by Camp where I'd Trump the water with Chris earlier he was talking to our two other friends I
could tell by the way they were situated that they were on edge and had taken a defensive stance to wait for me and the other guy to get back so he could really outnumber whoever it was he was geared up like he lived out of his backpack and I'm sure he did he was a mountain man through and through I never got close enough to hear what he was saying but he was almost unintelligible from his lack of teeth anyway my friends eventually told me everything they could understand apparently this guy's name was Beau and
he claimed to own this entire region of mountains graciously he allowed us to stay with his permission as long as we continued to be respectful then he looked over to me and told my friend that he had seen me in the river earlier and was about to come talk to me until I got spooked and ran off that's when I realized he must have been watching me the entire time or at least for a lot of it he probably watched me strip naked too regardless the way he light up our entire campsite was suspicious he
seemed a little delusional and unpredictable I'm immensely grateful that he didn't approach me while I was alone things could have gone a lot differently if he felt like he had a chance at overpowering just one or two of us for a shot of getting some supplies or getting one of us he was most definitely armed as well he just had that confidence about him from what my friends who talked to him said they were very uncomfortable with the way he was slowly stepping closer to our camp till the rest of us came back and he
finally backed off that was a Telltale sign that you might have not had the best intentions in mind eventually though we were able to get him to leave but we never quite trusted that he wasn't lurking in the mountains all around us watching us pick our noses and piss on the trees and drop logs in the river waiting for a chance or an excuse to start playing a banjo and summon a Native American Cryptid or just straight up shoot us since there was no way that anybody else would be around to hear it for miles
and miles for the rest of our time there we traded off shifts of the night watch in case Beau came back he never did but I'll tell you the blood curdling shriek of an owl is not something you want to hear in the middle of a night like that I took a break from camping for a couple years but I recently went on my first trip in a while there were four of us going in total I brought some of the friends that have gone with me before and one of them brought their new fiancee
I booked a familiar campsite but in the time I was away it became different from how I remembered it the trees were healthier the shrubs were thicker and in general the foliage was more colorful and abundant the foot trails that used to snake through the woods around the site were completely overgrown people must have forgotten about that area for a couple of years through the lockdown so of course the forest moved in to take it right back however my fellow campers were not appreciative of this in the past we were all on the same page
about respecting the woods but this time around they were acting different I can't say I blame them the last few years have been tough and it's good to let loose but it's also always crucial to remember that you're a guest in Nature's Domain when you're in the wilderness unfortunately as soon as we were set up all of my friends started to act like a bunch of college kids they were snapping branches off of trees because they were supposedly in the way drinking excessive amounts of beer and throwing the empty cans Into the Woods and even
spreading hot coals from the fire pit into the rest of the campsite just to play with the fire by watching it catch and stamping it out moments before it got out of control they were literally breaking every possible rule I got upset with him and I told him to cut it out but they more or less just shoved a beer in my hand and told me to chill I tried to enjoy my time but as the evening wore down so did I [Music] while everybody else sat around the fire I turned in early I was
Restless even though I wasn't even that physically tired in the first place I was just in a bad mood and they were all talking Extremely Loud and needlessly yelling about nonsense I didn't check the time but I know it was late when they finally called it a night it was like the whole Forest took a breath when they all shut up and passed out foreign there listening to the bugs for a while long enough to be the only person left awake then I got up to pee one more time I crawled out and walked to
the tree line around the campsite to unzip naturally my eyes drifted off into the darkness of the woods looking up I could see the Crescent Moon peeking through the canopy then looking forward it was just all trees and shadows until I saw something else pair of eyes looking straight at me almost going White I immediately jumped in Surprise and covered myself up looking away for a mere Split Second looking back and I saw the eyes had moved closer close enough to make out the tiniest bit of detail in the Moonlight it was a person or
at least it seemed like a person just standing out in the open there was something bone chilling about them I knew I had to call them mo but I was nearly too afraid to speak hey who's there when they didn't respond I thought to shine my flashlight on them I fumbled through my pocket for the little one I'd taken out with me again looking away for a single second before clicking it on and shining the beam on them of course they had moved again a full 10 feet or so and now there was only 30
feet between us I cursed in fear but now that I had some light on them more details came into Focus I was in disbelief at first but I was looking right at my friend's fiancee she was in the same clothes I'd seen her last swearing looking exactly like she normally does except the egg normally reflective whites of her eyes and the way she was standing like she was being held up by strings Haley I called out to her what are you doing there was a brief pause then at last they said something but I was
taken aback by what I heard what are you doing he copied not only my words but my voice too it sounded exactly like me but Haley was not an impressionist she didn't have any party tricks like that so when confusion I took a step back and without hesitation they took a step forward matching my movement exactly I stopped back pedaling when I noticed this and I tried to squint to get a better look at them that's when I had the thought that maybe she was sick or something it was a hopeful thought because otherwise if
I wasn't looking at Haley I didn't know what I was looking at Haley it's late I said you shouldn't be out of your tent like that are you feeling all right do you need any help again she didn't reply in her own voice but in mine you shouldn't be out of your tent like that chill ran down my spine suddenly I knew whatever was going on I wasn't equipped to handle it on my own I walked backwards towards the tents keeping an eye on Haley as they followed me step for step almost gliding through the
air like a Marinette when I got to my friend's tent Haley was past the tree line and standing in the clearing I started rapping on the canvas and yelling at her fiance to wake up Stephen get up we gotta help Haley come on man get your ass up a flap unzipped and Stephen peeked his head out looking confused and annoyed what are you talking about man he groaned Haley's fine dude she's right here he pulled back the tent flap and showed me inside his tent where I shined my light and I saw Haley in her
sleeping bag just starting to stir from all the commotion what the hell I muttered dumbfounded but I swear she was just out there I turned around and shined the light back to where I'd just seen Haley but nobody was there nothing at all not a Trace are you all right man Stephen asked me you seem a little freaked out yeah I am really freaked out I shouted in an outburst I don't know what the hell I just saw but there's nothing there bro Steven pointed into the woods where there was indeed nothing there or at
least not any longer try to convince him that I seen something but he brushed me off and told me to go back to sleep he shut me out of his tent but there was no way I could go back to mine and relax instead I sat around the fire and stirred the coals back to life and that's where I stayed for the rest of the night on guard Duty in case that thing came back I was fraught with paranoia the whole time every sound I heard sent chills of pure adrenaline through my whole body convincing
me that I was about to see those deathly white eyes open up and stare at me all over again at first light I put my foot down I woke everybody up and forced him to pack their things and go home I made the executive decision to call off the trip much to everybody else's mini complaints none of them took me seriously in fact they all tried to convince me I was hallucinating but we had taken my car and half the gear they were using was mine so they had no choice but to go with me
the entire car ride back home was silent I haven't been on good terms with any of them since they all want me to get my head checked but I know I'm not crazy if anyone thinks they might have heard about anything like what I saw it would help me a lot to be able to research it the best that I can figure is something that lives out there got quite comfortable with all the humans disappearing for a while and the party I brought with me was not gracious enough to earn a welcome return that or
maybe I really am going off the deep end one thing's for sure I don't think I'll be getting back into camping
