Scariest Moment in the Woods?

[Ve3hbj]

I once woke in the night to heavy winds lightening and the mesh bug netting being the only part of my hammock I was supported by. In the heavy rain I had rolled over several times obviously subconsciously aware of the storm and the fact that I was tied to the tallest tree in the area of that I was swimming. Realizing I was perched over rocks I gingerly rolled back onto the canvas of my hammock only to realize it was a pool from the horizontal rain. Woke in the am to find out a tornado had touched down ~2km from me and the park I was in was a total disaster.

On the animal front I once woke to find a porcupine decending my head end spension lines towords me tail first. We both had accidental fecal releases (afr's) when my light went on illuminating the animal not sure if it realized I was even there till then. I still can picture the thought of going to the hospital looking like a dog with a mouthful of quils.

[GoatHanger]

I was riding my mountain bike down a trail in a local state park, when two men suddenly popped out of the woods onto the trail in front of me.

The startling part, is that their wardrobe consisted of a pair of sneakers and a cigarette, between them. One wore sneakers, the other smoked a cigarette. That's all. Both completely naked otherwise.

As I passed by on my mountain bike, the cigarette adorned gentlemen said "How are you doing today?"

I was miles away from the nearest trailhead.

I didn't respond.

Hands down, creepiest moment in the woods.

[runt13]

Although I have had many exhilarating events in the woods, I cant say I was never scared [as in for my life or immanent injury]. With that said, I have had some terrifying trips home from some awesome adventures in the Great Out Of Doors.

RUNT ''13''

[njsurfer]

My scariest moment occurred July 5th, 2014 while night hiking in the Great Gulf, NH. It was around 10:30-11pm and I was in a pretty thick section of trail, I made a sharp left hand turn on the trail and about 25-30 feet away saw what I belived to be two reflectors nailed on a tree about 7 or 8 feet off the ground. I was dead tired after about 16 hours of hiking that day and thought it was strange someone nailed reflectors up there but didnt think any thing else of it. I took another 6 steps and the 'reflectors' moved. I stopped dead in my tracks, turned my headlamp up to high, and there, only 20 feet or so from me is a moose. I figured for sure its gonna come at me or something, so I start yelling at it and backing up and it just lowers its head and keeps eating whatever it was it was eating before I got there. It took another 5 minutes before it wandered far enough off the trail that I felt comfortable continuing on. I really wanted to see a moose that trip, I just had no idea it would be so up close and personal.

Ive come across a bear foraging while in the Catskills too, but it wasn't scary. It was just flipping rocks and tearing up downed trees before it noticed me and ran off. I think having one come into camp at night would be unsettle me a bit though. Scariest animal encounter though didnt happen in the woods, but rather the ocean while surfing. Ive had some pretty large sharks come within a few feet of me and seen more than a few saltwater crocs while surfing river mouths in Central America.

Jon

[kathmorgan12]

I spooked a beaver with my dog while fishing once... My dog is a 75 lb pit bull mix and the beaver looked bigger. That was my first and only encounter with one (I don't think they're very common here) but I had no idea how big they were until that day.

[Jammer817]

I was day one on a 5 day trip and noticed I had not restocked my supply of toilet paper from the last trip :/

[MAD777]

I was day one on a 5 day trip and noticed I had not restocked my supply of toilet paper from the last trip :/

Now THAT'S scary! 😨

[Campdavid]

In the boundary waters of northern Minnesota canoeing/camping with my dad....late one night he and I heard "knocking" in the woods. You have to understand there were no people around for probably about ten miles. We had been out for three days and only saw one other canoe in that time. There weren't even any other campsites near us. Closest one was about a mile or two away on the other side of the lake and we knew they were empty from having traveled past them earlier in the day. The sound was exactly like two wooden bats being hit against one another.

My dad turned to me and said, "Well great, what the hell kind of animal could possibly make a sound like that?" To which I replied, "Dad, I have no idea." Took a little while to fall asleep that night.

[Jammer817]

Now THAT'S scary! ��

Luckily there was a porta potty that had like 6 half used rolls of the "finest" tp money can buy!

[gfortune]

I was halfway through the second day in some known rattlesnake country and I'll admit we let our guard down after seeing nothing to that point. I had been leading and a friend in the back with two of my kids in the middle, but since there seemed to be no rattlesnakes, the two adults were in the back chatting with my youngest leading the way down the trail.

My kids froze, screamed and then came running back when the 3'-4' timber rattler left the trail off to one side. Once the threat was gone, I got really scared. How was I going to explain to my wife why my youngest was leading the way?