One bow hunting season in northern mn I heard wolves in the area. I had a half mile walk out of the woods, quite certain I was the one being stalked. Ever since then I carry a G29 when I’m bow hunting.

At our old cabin back in the woods I remember laying awake late at night so aware the bedroom window was open and I felt vulnerable. It was hot in the summer and we always slept with our window open. I whispered to my wife and she said she was awake too worried about the window being open.

We tried to shake the feeling but a bit later cops showed up on our road. Turns out a drink bum feel asleep in our woods, 20 yards from our window and we were aware he was there subconsciously. His bike was in the road and somebody called on it so the cops searched the woods for him.

Sometimes the feeling is there for a reason.

Maybe no mountain lions in the Southeast, but there are certainly other bigger cats. Cougars, panthers, etc.

Sounds perfect to me!


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I like the night. Nothing out there in the night that’s not there in the day time. My only real concern walking around in the dark is stepping on a rattlesnake.

Not really. But I saw weird lights under NODs in a rural field/woods when I got them.

On occasion, yes, absolutely. Primal flight urge is scary and hard to overcome, even when you're being completely logical about it.

Right on, and the more you do it the stronger it comes back, on a primal level.

There is stuff out there watching, I've had those experiences too. Roll heavy and be smart. Watch territorial animals, it's all a big dick measuring contest.

The only time I get creeped out is wondering if my next step will bust my ass.

That's your lizard brain talking to you.  4 billion years of evolution vs. a few thousand years of logic and reason.

About 15 years ago, my girlfriend (and soon to be ex-wife) and I drove from our college to my family's farm to go watch a meteor shower from the back of my truck.  While I was driving, about halfway there, she said "...are there BEARS out there??!??!?"  I told her the truth -- we'd seen evidence of bear activity (tracks) but never actually seen a bear.

So we get there, and it's around 10-11pm.  I start slowly driving down the field road, and we come around a slight corner.  I have to slam on brakes because sure enough there's a large black bear slowly walking across the field road right in front of us.  This was before good cameras on phones, so no pictures unfortunately.  It was just lit up by my headlights.  It stopped and stared at us, then got up on it's hind legs and kept staring at us.  I slowly put my truck in reverse and started backing up. It continued lumbering off into the woods.

We picked a different spot in the field to watch the meteor shower, a few hundred yards away.  I didn't own a gun at the time....every few minutes I took my flashlight and quickly surveyed our surroundings.  Eventually we saw a pair of eyes waaay down the field road close to the ground, then we watched them rise up a bit.

We left after that.

I used to. Now not so much.. I still will get senses of urgency and a gut feeling to keep my awareness up. I don't get that sense when I'm hunting. I'm equipped with all the right tools for the job. =)

Hundreds of nights in the woods alone hunting but only once was something hunting me that I was aware of and I’ll never forget it. Was very intense for a couple of hours.

Thick brushy woods. NV, 300 Blackout SBR & pistol and still felt vulnerable. Hair up on my neck the whole time.

Was on foot. All the summer night creature sounds stopped. No breeze, hot & humid. Creepy feeling arrived when I crossed a creek & sounds left at the same moment. I pressed on for my loop. Relief from feeling & return of critter sounds when I recrossed the same creek somewhat later on my return. Moonless night.

I love the night.

Only been spooked enough to unass a location once.

Was camping alone, was already in a bad mood.  Set up shelter, got some dinner cooked and was sitting by the fire.

Wide open field surrounded by woods. It was state property of pretty good size. No neighbors within miles. This wasn't a popular location so I was on the site by myself.

After sunset I was fine, but when it got dark it was darker than usual.  Overcast and still.   Just got the feeling of being watched, and unable to put my back towards anything solid.

I didn't hear anything or see anything, but couldn't shake the feeling.

After an hour of that I guess I decided that whatever was bothering me at home was less concerning than what was bothering me in the dark.  Packed it up and got out of there.


I suspect my mood primed my brain for extra imagination or caution.  There was nothing material or physical about what I was feeling.  Just needed to get home.

I was a little shit growing up, can't even count how many places I snuck into and out of in complete darkness going fishing. Biggest fear I ever had at night was electric fences, those really sucked.

A long time ago due to my own stupidity I spent a night alone the woods in simply my hunting clothes in Southeast Alaska, land of the Big Round Brown Furry critters.   For a long time nights in the woods spooked me a bit.

First time that happened to me was in the day time. I was about 11yo and used to walk way back in the woods with my ten pump Crossman.

Was just walking to the stream I would frequent sometimes and all the sudden this wave of fear washes over me. I stop and drop to one knee just listening and looking all around. I remember my ears stared to ring but not steady. It was a pulsing ring.

Something else I remember was this tingling feeling in my mouth. Like I could taste the fear.

Anyway I didn't see anything and the feeling went away so I continued to the stream and everything was cool.

Like how infrasound makes people see ghosts in cities because their body translates it as "super-low rumbling means a tiger or alligator going to eat us we should un-ass this place most hastily", but their concious modern brain wants a "why" so it fills in the gap with nonsense.

Same thing in the middle of nowhere.  I've gotten cold and spooked due to temperature shift at night before, been perfectly cognizant of it, and known it's an emotional/mental response to a physical condition that's illogical - get cold, fur stands up, same as it does when threatened, thus body feels fur up, tells brain "feel threatened"... but I also know I'm not going to get much sleep because my body is ignoring what my brain says and knows, so fuck it I'm driving back down the mountain to someplace warm.  It's like the theory of EMDR therapy - move the eyes like you're getting REM sleep, body thinks it got REM sleep, starts processing REM sleep chemicals and effects, get effects of good sleep despite being awake, functionally program the mind by giving it the body's end effects... like roll-starting a manual car.

Usually when I start to get wary of things in the dark, I know it's time to flip on the lights, because while I know I'm not going to get jumped by a xenomorph, my body may be hinting at something more like "skunk", and I'll trust those instincts to avoid being in stink.

In my early teens I was walking down a logging trail in the middle of the woods coming back from an unsuccessful evening hunt.  It was dark and all I had was an incandescent light and a bolt action rifle.  As I'm walking I start to notice the resonance of my steps sounds off.  I stop and hear, for a split second, something else step a few feet away in the woods beside the path.  I shine my light over there but being the days of the dim incandescent it doesn't penetrate far, especially since the edge of the woods were covered in hanging vines.  Started walking again and a few steps into it I could hear the resonance change again.  I stopped again and heard the split second step again a few feet away.  Only thing I could do was keep waliking with my rifle at the ready.  When I arrived at my 4-wheeler, after about a mile of walking, I quickly started it and got out of there as fast as I could.  The next day, or may have been a few days later, I went back during the middle of the day to see if I could find any evidence of being followed and see if I could tell what it was.  Didn't find any noticeable tracks, but did find some Mason jars buried under the leaves full of what looked like blood.  Showed some friends and after that they disappeared.

I had it happen once in Washington State.

Will elaborate further when back at my desktop and not on a phone.

Bump for the night crew.  Lots of good responses here.

False positive is good for survival, better safe than sorry.

False positive, believing something is there when it ain't: no harm no foul .

False negative, believing something isn't there when it is: you're screwed

I believe that fear of the dark is not only genetic but also learned. Scary movies and simply living in a modern world of artificial illumination can make us fear the dark.

This can mostly be un-learned by immersion. Or just get some fancy equipment and see for yourself how much stuff isn't there.

Your brain plays tricks at night, as do your eyes. It is common to see "something" in low light which does not exist. Usually described as an unknown object which is "darker or blacker" than background. I think this may be caused by after image . Also may be that our rods are mostly in peripheral vision, which makes the center image appear dark.

There's a wiki on the subject right here .

I was coyote hunting one night, not my first time. I worked 2nd shift so I was getting home around 1130pm and getting out to my spot in the far back field of my grandparents' farm across the road by 12-1215am. I would call and hear the responses and thought it was cool. I always sat more or less in the same hedgerow overlooking the field, the hedgerow behind me was thick and had a deep drop off on the other side so nothing could circle me to try to wind me easily. I'd hunt a few hours and either shoot something or not, the coyotes were suspicious since just about every farmer in the area would shoot at them if they saw them.

This one night I'm sitting there, and after about 30 minutes of calling and not seeing shit, I got an overwhelming feeling of dread, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, and I became acutely aware of any little noise happening near me, I have no idea what it was that caused that response but I unassed the area quickly, and kept glancing behind me a few times a minute the entire time I walked the 3/4mi back to the farm.

Hows your anus?  


And , no.  I am what hunts the night.

Hear Him

Implying what?  Aliens?  The "predator"?  Sasquatch?

Many have felt the awe, an insidious presence, and the overwhelming feeling of an imminent and ferocious attack.

Does that mean something is there?  Or is it the lizard brain, the link to our cave man ancestors, and just self-preservation instincts firing in practice mode?

I am undecided, but I have calmly vacated some areas while remaining in others.  Once, Camping on a friends property in the woods, I woke with a pounding heart, listening hard and slowly sat up... a wolf walked right up to me in my sleeping bag in the open night, locked eyes with me, then trotted away.  It was like a religious experience.

Try crossing a river in waste deep water alone in the dark. Done it many times to get to a good fishing spot before sun up or coming back after dark. Knowing in Indiana they're are no gators, pythons, or bull sharks; I never could shake the feeling of something coming to grab me from beneath. Once on land I was fine, dark and alone on land is my peaceful place, in water not so much.

Been alone out in the desert, wearing NODS, carrying a rifle and pistol and a knife, and still felt like I was no longer at the top of the food chain.

Can't really explain why.

Speak for yourself...

Never had that feeling but being in a SxS might do it. You are exposed but don’t have all the awareness you would have if you were walking.

I've been greeted with reflective eyes by shining a flashlight in the direction of said spooky feeling camping deep in the mountains at night more than once.

I stalked four elk in the summer near Durango and they got the same feeling after nearly an hour. I know they never saw, heard or smelled me, but they eventually unassed the area very quickly out of nowhere. I'm pretty sure one or all of them got the same spooked feeling.

I'm used to being out in the woods after dark from bowhunting, it doesn't bother me a bit.

Seriously, though-

Above Index is only place in the world that I have felt that "fear of imminent death" from an unknown predator(s). I have been all over the place, in lots of hostile situations, and never have felt something like this before or since. But it gets better. First, some background:

To get to Index, you have to turn off the highway and cross a river which separates the town from the surrounding hills. In crossing the bridge, you get this creepy feeling that the bridge is the only way in or out (not true), and that the river is protecting the town from something...else...

The town itself is a nice little place under the shadow of Mount Index, which veritably looms over the town. There's an old wood frame hotel from the 1890's, a church, and some other architectural relics of the long-gone North Cascades gold rush. Index isn't a tourist spot, and is far enough off the highway that it doesn't get any drive-by business. People do live there, and they tend to look warily through their blinds at any vehicle they don't recognize. That's Index.

If you don't take the turn over the bridge into town, the road continues along the river. This is the Index-Galena road. There are cabins and old mobile homes and hunting shacks along the river side of the road. Go a little further, and there's a forest service road to the right. This is Forest Road 6310, or something like that. It climbs up towards Gunn Peak over a series of switchbacks. At the end of the road, there's an old clearcut, with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains.

My wife and I (I already posted the wife pics, go find them.) went up there in the early fall once to picnic with a friend, who wanted to get his new XJ Cherokee Laredo up into the mountains to try out his new tires. He was flush with cash at the time, and volunteered with several Search and Rescue groups. Because of this, he had a Whelan full-width light bar with amber strobes mounted on the XJ. (this is important later in the story). We got up to the clearing in the early afternoon, broke out the food, and enjoyed the setting. Did a little plinking, that kind of thing (We had one Glock 17 and an SP-101 in .38 Special between the three of us.) It was a bit cool (we gained a pretty fair amount of elevation getting there), and we knew the temperature was going to drop as soon the shadows deepened. It darkened even more quickly than we expected, and we began to pack everything up. About then, we heard the first howl. It was a distant wolf- but there weren't supposed to be any wolves up here yet (This was the early '90's- they had not yet been reintroduced to the area). "That was cool" we thought. Then I suddenly got a chill down my back. I wheeled around to look at the nearby tree line- although the clearcut was still in dusky light, it was now pitch black in the trees. It hit me right about then- that primal fear. "We have to go. Now." I said. Our friend looked at me and said something like, "You afraid of a stupid wolf?" Then- another howl- in the treeline- not more than twenty yards away. We all looked at each other, collectively blinked once, and didn't waste any time getting into the jeep. Somehow, it was now dark already- and full dark once the road down entered the treeline. We could hear them all over now- even over the noise of the jeep's inline six- but the sound they made wasn't...quite...right... He started picking up the speed on the single lane gravel forest road. I reached forward and hit the switch for the left side scene lights on the light bar. This caused a single halogen lamp to shine on the trunks of trees as they sped past- and showing the reflection of many sets of eyes in the darkness behind the trees, They were moving- tracking our vehicle- which was now doing about 40 on the narrow road. "We'll lose them on this straight" he said, now pushing fifty. I hit the scene light switch again- only trees. Phew! That was silly, I thought. We're in a car, and we get freaked out by some stupid wolves. Great.

Now out of danger, we approach the first switchback- slow down, make the turn- and there ahead of us- about a half dozen HUGE wolves in the road- waiting for us. They had gone straight down the hill to cut us off at the switchback.-then they were gone. What the hell? Now, we're ALL freaked out. Now tearing down the road, sending gravel flying, approaching the next switchback. I had left both side scene lights on at this point, but all they illuminated were the trunks of trees on the sides of the road. I turned them off. We make the turn- nothing -no wolves. Suddenly, I had an idea- I switched on the strobes. Frozen in disco stop motion of the strobes on both sides of the jeep - wolves - EXCEPT THEY WERE ALL STANDING ON TWO FEET, LIKE MEN! They bound off in frozen staccato stop motion- back down the grade- presumably to meet us on the next switchback- and then-

- I don't remember anything else. We were back on highway 2, heading towards Gold Bar. I turned off the strobes.

Stay away from Index after dark

Seriously??? You have a weapon system with night vision,  in my case, I use a thermal.
I took a buddy coyote hunting with me once, he sounded just like you. Needless to say, he never went again..

When I was in 4th grade I would have something whispering my name in my ear at night when I would try to go to bed. It happened quite a few times and it was very disturbing as a child. I told my mom about it and we prayed for it to stop. It never happened again.

Then when I was 21, myself and 2 other friends witnessed together some demon like entities that manifested due to my friends sister practicing witchcraft from books she checked out from the local library. I don’t care to expound on the incident.

I’m 43 now and I’m terrified of being alone in the dark. I sleep with my bedroom lights on and my dog in the bed when my wife goes out of town with her mother.

It's just fear of the unknown.
Can't see so it makes your more curios that usual.

Ive definitely seen some wild shit at night up in the mountains at our old place.  Idk wtf they're called but I called them mountain werewolves becausethey looked like fkn werewolves. Older local folks confirmed its known and no one goes up there at night.  I was 100% ambushed by a group of something. Driving up the mountain logging road. A tree was pushed over behind me. I floored the UTV when I saw crazy fast movement to my left and saw the tree come down in my mirrors. I hit the log landing threw it in high, looped around and came back down full tilt. Jumping rain bars. Crushed over/jumped the tree and stayed WOT the couple miles home.

Ran inside, armed up, killed the interior lights as I locked and bolted everything. (We never locked anything ever)  i had a brush pile burning about 400 yards from the house in our gravel pit and watched the figures moving around up there.

Oddly enough some folks bought a camp WAY out there NE of my place. Like atv or sled access only. They used the heck out of it all summer and fall. Until one night all of a sudden one late fall early winter night I heard CRAZY gun fire. Not fun blasting like a fkn fire fight. Then saw quad lights coming down the mountain. Our land wasn't their access but logging trails patch work that whole area. I saw 2 quads rip down through my place, another through the neighbors field. The other lights followed the notch they normally took. All go flying down the road. Not like recreation quads with teenagers these were big 4x4 ones with racks loaded with shit. That whole group loaded the fk up and left. A few days later after talking with neighbors we decided this needed looking into. We found lots of brass, no beer cans, zero garbage. Random gear strewn around and a wide open camp. We bought this place shortly after. Old neighbors never saw them again. Whatever the fk is up there does not want people up there.  

I see these sasquatch hunter research trucks around. I laugh... I guarantee whatever the fk is up there aren't big foot. I'm now covered in goose bumps.

ETA not only did we sell our 100 acre piece. Our neighbors on both sides did too. So all total about 240 acres, 3 properties. With in idk 90 days

Nope, nope you got it on the first try.


Na, it's just a feeling ya get sometimes. Maybe it was too quiet for you or you passed through a quick temperature change spot, or maybe something happened earlier that stuck with you.

I went hunting one time and as I was walking a trail in the dark on my way in I flushed a grouse that was a couple feet from the trail. Damn I thought the only grizzly in PA was charging me! Damn near turn myself inside out trying to get away from that spot. Figured it out of course and laughed about it but from then on every time I passed that area in the dark I had a creepy feeling.

Same here, and I’ve learned to listen to it more and more as I got older. When I was a teenager or in my 20s that little voice could be screaming “DANGER DANGER DANGER!” and I’d be like ahhh don’t worry about it.

Now? When that little voice simply says “ahem” I am GONE. I trust that gut feeling and I won’t even question what felt off until wayyy later and it’s never misled me

Maybe you got a whiff of something (big cat) but it was such a low exposure it didn't make it to conscious thought.  A cat might be watching you at a distance well enough to not get noticed in the NV/thermal setup.

People in the wilderness open their senses to things after a while.

Listen to your lizard brain telling you stuff, sometimes it's important.

I don’t care for the dark, maybe I’m a pussy. I get creeped out or ears perked up feeling pretty much anytime I’m in the dark without a solid place to put my back to. Always hated I’m like that, my wife is fine about it but I don’t care for dark.

"In the mood"

Interesting

@waterglass

I read once that Golden Shiners will panic when they smell the poop from a predatory fish that had eaten Golden Shiners.  The hereditary nature of what scares us is fascinating, that our and other animals’ DNA can carry that information is rather amazing!

As was your encounter.... Which I read after posting mine! If someone offered me a million dollars cash and a squad of guys loaded for bear. I wouldn't go back up on that fkn mountain at night. Fun fact on the other side of that mountain is and old town. Completely abandoned. I asked about* it and was told they went feral. Feral.... wtffff do you mean feral? "Supposedly they all just walked off into the woods"

Here at this place i walk around without a care in the world. As I have my whole life in the woods.

Surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet but there’s a book all about this called “The Gift of Fear” that’s definitely worth reading

You should host a Cola Warrior there