3 Scary True Deep Woods Horror Stories That Will Chill You to the Bone

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
A few buddies and I who were boy Scouts together
back in the day. I 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 days of Scouts didn't
prepare us for. We were always trying to watch out
for wild animals, poisonous plants and venomous spiders and that
sort of thing, but we are never told to consider

(00:31):
that even in.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
The deep woods you can still run into people.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
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

(00:57):
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, and 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

(01:19):
three of us made note that he was watching us,
not only that he had a large machete holzer 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 in the woods for his own
comfort and the safety of others.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
The entire first day he kept his distance.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
He weren't that far apart, though, maybe thirty 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

(01:59):
that wasn't all right out like the stuff we were getting.
We said we would consider it, but he was acting
way too suspicious for us.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
To actually do it.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
He stuttered and drooled a lot, visioning 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

(02:30):
outnumbered him three to one, we felt like he didn't pose.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
A thread to us.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
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. We looked
on in all as one car became two, then three,

(02:56):
then four, eventually five. It was a large group of
pure bred 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 looked
tame in comparison to the death clare he was giving
these people. He tried to act normal, but it was

(03:19):
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

(03:39):
man literally bark 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,
pull out his machete and chopped the dog's head off
right then and there. Quickly, the dog's owner ran over
and contained their pet, and that's when he heard him
say something alarming. Next time that damn dog comes over here,

(04:02):
I'm gonna shoot the bitch. We 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 lee sh
after that encounter, but as night fell they became even
more intrusive. Their dogs barked constantly, and there were several
simultaneous conversations out of the ten or so people there,

(04:23):
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.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
We heard from them.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Our 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.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
It was pretty frigid by the.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Fortian 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.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Then a bit later I heard voices.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
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.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Which one of you is doing that dumb ass voice?
He asked.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
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 now what happened, thankfully, Instead,
he laughed awkwardly. Man, he shouted, you guys had me
rolling in my tent last night. My friend sighed with
audible relief. Yeah, that's cool, man, We thought it was

(05:59):
pretty fun, 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 have got me laughing
last night like that, I was about ten seconds from
going over there with a nine milimeter and making them
shut up. My friend was unable to come up with
a response of this, understandably, so the men kept talking.

(06:23):
I hate when those goddamn city people come out here.
They ought to stay in Orlando. You guys ain't from there,
are you?

Speaker 2 (06:31):
No?

Speaker 1 (06:31):
No, no, we're not from Orlando. My friend lied, We're
from Gainesville area. That's not too bad, he said, Well, anyway,
I'm gonna go back and try to get them to leave.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
See y'all later.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
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.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Asked, did you hear that? Yeah? Man, good thing. We're
leaving today.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Right right around then, our friend woke up and crawled
out of his hammock, totally oblivious until we filled them in.
After that, we unanimously agreed to call off the trip
a few hours early. She skipped breakfast at camp and
packed everything up, leaving well before ten 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.

(07:20):
I don't remember who said it, but one of us did.
But if we get home and we see on the
news that some guy shut up a whole camp site
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 dread to think of
what might have happened if we hadn't brought a sense
of humor to that situation. We were definitely caught off

(07:43):
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 was in our
last experience with the woodland Hermits. The second time I

(08:05):
encountered a person unexpectedly in the woods could have gone
much worse. I was camping with the same two guys
as 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 camp out. We drove to South
Carolina for four nights in five days, and this time

(08:25):
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

(08:47):
only ankle deep in most places, while some way steep basins.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Vegetation was diverse, and.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
The terrain was mountainous, which made it quite alien to
our floority in 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

(09:14):
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

(09:34):
where we made a pretty stupid mistake. In boy Scouts,
they teach you about the buddy system, where if you
were 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
forty eight hours, so we came to the decision that

(09:54):
the three of them would go for their little half
day trip and I would stay behind and watch the
campsite 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

(10:15):
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 send it to my friends.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Then, with a filling of luck.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
On my side, 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 small mouth bass. Everybody was only catching small
fry since the water was so shallow. After setting that
one free, I decided to take a little rest and

(10:54):
I sat in one of the rocks in the gentle rapids.
I was enjoying the scenery when I felt that 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

(11:14):
of the river bank to my right, and I stood
up quickly, looking for movement.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
I didn't see anything, but when.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
I looked down at myself, I noticed my legs and
groin region were covered in dozens of tiny little leeches.
I freaked out and started frantically picking them off. Then,
when I felt I got all of them, I hoofed
it back on to 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

(11:42):
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 young in
the mirror. We had a camp to check myself over

(12:02):
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
we regaled 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

(12:23):
our phones for a little while. We were gone for
about forty five minutes, and when we hiked back into
camp we saw him. He was standing in the river
right by camp where i'd trumped the water with Chris earlier,
and he was talking.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
To our two other friends.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
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 we 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

(13:00):
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 Bo,
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

(13:21):
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 eyed up our entire campsite was suspicious. He seemed
a little delusional and unpredictable. I'm immensely grateful that he

(13:45):
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. I want my friends
who talked to him said they were very uncomfortable with
the way he was slowly stepping closer to our camp

(14:06):
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 at

(14:26):
banjo and someone in 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 Bo
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.

(14:58):
I took a break from camping for a couple of 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 fiance. I booked
a familiar campsite, but in the time I was away,
it became different from how I remembered it. The trees

(15:18):
were healthier, the shrubs were thicker, and in general, the
foilage 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 into to take it right back. However,

(15:39):
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.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
In nature's domain when you're in the wilderness.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
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 and to the rest
of the campsite just to play with the fire by
watching it catch and stamping it out. Moments before I

(16:23):
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. While everybody else sat around

(16:43):
the fire, I turned in early. I was restless, even
though I wasn't even that physically tired in the first place.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
I was just in a bad mood, and they.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
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. I laid there listening to the
bugs for a while, long enough to be the only
person left awake. Then I got up to pee one

(17:13):
more time. I crawled out and walked to the tree
line around the campsite on zip. 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 till
I saw something else, a pair of eyes looking straight

(17:33):
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 that move 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.

(17:55):
There was something bone chilling about them. I knew I
had to call them out, 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,

(18:18):
they had moved again a full ten feet or so,
and now there was only thirty 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 fiance. She was in the same clothes i'd seen
her last swearing, looking exactly like she normally does, except

(18:41):
the abnormally reflective whites of her eyes and the way
she was standing like she was being held up by strings. Hayley,
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.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (19:01):
They copied not only my words, but my voice too.
They sounded exactly like me. But Haley was not an impressionist.
She didn't have any party tricks like that. So in 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

(19:21):
to get a better.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Look at them.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
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.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Haley. It's late.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
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 mind,
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

(19:55):
walked backwards towards the tents, keeping an eye on Haley
as they followed me. Step for stef up, almost gliding
through the.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Air like a marionette.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
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.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Your ass up.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
The flap on zipped 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.

(20:40):
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

(21:02):
in an outburst. I don't know what the hell I
just saw, but there's nothing there. Bro Stephen 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.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
He shut me out of his tent, but there.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
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

(21:42):
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
as many complaints.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
None of them took me seriously.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
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

(22:21):
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 thanks for sure, I don't
think I'll be getting back into camping