April 12, 2025 • 23 mins
🪓🌲 TRUE Hiking & Camping Horror Stories | Terrifying Encounters in the Wilderness 🌲🪓 Welcome back, brave souls… Tonight, we’re venturing deep into the heart of the wilderness, where the only thing more chilling than the cold night air are the true stories of those who lived to tell the tale. These terrifying hiking and camping encounters are NOT for the faint of heart. From mysterious footsteps outside the tent… to encounters with things that shouldn’t exist… these real-life accounts will make you think twice before your next adventure into the great outdoors. 🎧 Grab your headphones, turn off the lights, and prepare yourself for an eerie journey into the unknown. 🔔 Subscribe for more true horror stories every week! 👍 Like if you enjoy creepy outdoor tales 💬 Comment below: What’s your scariest experience in the wild? #TrueScaryStories #HikingHorror #CampingGoneWrong #CreepyNarration #TrueHorror #WildernessTerror You can also listen in podcast form "Scary Stories from Bad Vibes" Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6WCjzGChSiOtskaZjonvqz Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scary-stories-from-bad-vibes/id1614005565 iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/53-bad-vibes-nightmares-94022380/ Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/show/3497187 Podcast Addict: https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/3868720 Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/bad-vibes-nightmares-4264713 JiloSaavn: https://www.jiosaavn.com/shows/Scary-Stories-from-Bad-Vibes/1/A7Unzn6te1Y_ Become a CHANNEL MEMBER for early access for as little as 99 cents a month: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7N-0n6MRuhtRVfCpj_oArQ/join Perhaps buy some MERCH: https://teespring.com/stores/bad-vibes-storytelling Follow me on Social Media: TWITTER: https://twitter.com/BadVibesYOUTUBE INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/badvibesstorytelling/ Send your TRUE story in: badvibes760@gmail.com Music by Pianogeist: https://www.youtube.com/user/Killtastrophe001 Music by MYUU: https://www.youtube.com/user/myuuji Rain sounds: https://t.co/nQiu86WD20 Time Stamps Story 1 Dead Body: (00:00) Story 2 Creep in the shower block: (10:03) Story 3 Camping experience: (12:48) Story 4 Something was tailing us in the woods: (15:28) Stories by: 1. https://tinyurl.com/48273duw 2. https://tinyurl.com/4c7883p6 3. https://tinyurl.com/2p8y39j2 4. Jessica V
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
This started when I was at my childhood friend's apartment
for what was supposed to be a little fun movie night.
We hadn't hung out in a while, and we're catching up.
Her place was cozy, a little disorganized, and full of
girly decor. We were in our coffeest sweatpants about to
watch Princess movies. Her apartment isn't the tidiest. Things are
(00:30):
a bit scattered around, but it's clean and so authentic,
which always made me fill out home. We decided on
ordering pizza for dinner. She mentioned that Sherwood, someone I
hadn't met yet, would bring the pizza over. At first,
I was not happy to hear that. I thought that
she meant she had invited other friends a boy over
(00:53):
to join us, which wasn't what I had in mind,
but I was in for surprise. Sherwood turned out to
be our delivery guy that night. He wasn't joining us.
When he got to the apartment, there was this awkward
air about him. He was obviously nervous, fumbling a bit
(01:13):
with the pizza boxes and not quite making eye contact.
My friend introduced us quickly, and it was clear from
her overly thankful demeanor that Sherwood did a lot more
for her than just fetch dinner. After handing us a pizza,
there's a brief moment of for small talk. My friend
(01:33):
was super nice to him despite his awkwardness. He wasn't
the best conversational list and seemed really out of place
than Sherwood. As for my number, I was in a
tough spot because our mutual friend was sitting right there,
so I just gave it to him. We chat it
for maybe five minutes before my friend gave him a
(01:55):
queue to leave with something like that, he's so much
for dropping this off. He seemed to get the hint.
We both gave him a hug before my friend said
something like drive safe, giving him another queue to leave.
When I asked my friend what was that all about,
she basically explained that Sherwood was her unpaid personal assistant.
(02:18):
He did her grocery shop being he dropped off pizza,
and did all this other stuff. I think Sherwood was
just a really lonely guy desperate for interaction, especially female interaction.
My friend and I were both young and immature back then.
We were about twenty three, but I think we both
(02:38):
knew that there was something seriously wrong with Sherwood. It
was a little hard to articulate because we couldn't exactly
point out what his problem was. Sherewood started a group
chat with my friend and me. He just sent a
meme or two every week. It felt like he was
trying to stay relevant without being in truth of maybe
(02:59):
he would she used to being sidelined or even blocked
by other girls in the past. It felt like he
was trying to make me remember him, but also carefully
not trying to give me a reason to block him.
I can't speak on his behalf. That's just what it
felt like. Sherwood also offered to help with Aaron's the
first time. I said, thanks for asking, but no, he
(03:23):
asked every weekend after that. One day, I made a
mistake of accepting his help. I knew better. I had
recently found a great deal for a new washing machine
on Craigslist, but I had no idea how to pick
it up and install it. When I mentioned it in chat,
Sherwood excitingly volunteered to take care of the whole thing.
(03:45):
He handled the whole pickup and installation like a champ,
which saved me so much hassle. I tried to pay
him for his efforts because I wanted to show appreciation,
but he wouldn't accept my money. I insisted did. Eventually,
he suggested that I could pay him back by joining
him on a hike. I wasn't easy about this. It
(04:08):
felt a bit too personal and almost like it could
be mistaken for a date. But Sherewood framed it as
nothing more than a friendly outing, like a transaction. To
balance out the favor, I agreed to the hike. I
rationalized it by telling myself it was a fair trade
for installing a washing machine and that it was generally
(04:29):
a form of payment, Especially since I didn't think he
had too much friends. The hike felt like it was
maybe a way for him to show companionship. I thought
it might be nice helping him. Part of me was
still uneasy about spending time with him in such an
isolated setting. The day of the hike, Sherewood picked out
the trail that was nearby. I had been there before.
(04:52):
It's gorgeous. As we were walking along together, he chatted
about ordinary things like work, the weather, and his hobbies.
Everything seemed normal until he suggested we go off the
main path to see something special. He wanted to share, like,
what could that even mean? We reached a secluded spot
(05:13):
in there was a dead body. My heart pounded so
violently as Sherwood stood there so eerily calm and nonchalant.
The calmness in his demeter made me feel even more uneasy.
It felt like he wasn't just showing me a dead body,
but also revealing a darker side of himself. It smoked bad,
(05:35):
but not like in the movies. I didn't know how
long it had been there. I'm not a biologist, but
my guess is it had smelled a lot worse before,
but now it's gone down. At that moment, I mumbled
some excuse about needing to get back quickly and started
walking briskly towards the main path. I was urging Sherwood
(05:56):
to follow me. I thought maybe this was some twisted
my game, like a way to intimidate me or show
me that he wasn't just some harmless little boy. Maybe
he was trying to send a message that said, you
should know I'm familiar with things like this. Maybe he
just wanted me to think about him more. Sometimes when
I talk to people, I feel like they only even
(06:18):
noticed me for the time We are together, and then
they don't think of me until the next time we meet.
It's possible that Sherwood felt that way with me, and
maybe he got showing me a dead body would make
him less forgettable. I have no idea, but on the surface,
he seemed oblivious to how inappropriate this was. As we
(06:39):
walked back together, I was in full fight or flight mode,
instinctively looking around to see if there was any other
hikers or rangers, anyone that can make me feel like
I wasn't alone. The moment I spotted someone else on
the trail, I called out, not to expose Sherwood, but
just asking for directions back to the parking area. I
(07:01):
wanted to make sure that Sherwood and I wouldn't be
left alone together. I asked this gentleman to walk us
back to the parking lot. I wasn't gonna take no
for an answer. I kept pretending like I was confused
about his directions, and eventually he agreed to just walk
us there. Getting help from that guy was away for
me to renchor myself to safety and normalty. While I
(07:24):
was still in shock of what Sherwood has shown me.
We got to the parking area. There I called my
friend and told her I was with Sherwood. I suggested
he could drop me off with her and that we
would be there in twenty minutes. Sherwood agreed that was
a way of making sure that if anything happened, it
(07:45):
was on record that Sherwood was the last person to
have been with me. Also, I immediately text my friend
what happened to get that on record too. When I
got to her apartment, we said thanks to Sherwood and
kindly told him to go away. I had already told
her through texts, but then I started going into detail,
the fact that the body had insects, the fact that
(08:07):
the face was decomposing but still recognizable. Her reaction was
pure horror, not just about the dead body, but also
how nonchalantly Sherwood had treated the whole situation. She confessed
that she always sensed something was off about him, even
though she never imagined anything this disturbing. We both agreed
(08:28):
that we needed to remove Sherwood from our lives. She
admitted that she felt stuck and that she had become
too reliant on Sherwood. Just to fire him called Turkey,
We planned out how we would do it. It was
this gradual phasing out plan. We would limit our interactions
to times when others were present. We would slowly reduce
(08:50):
our responses to his text I never asked for help
from him again, and my friend would ask for less
and less help. Sherewood kept texting during the weekends, offering
to run errands or asking if I needed anything, to
which my friend would reply, I'm trying to work on
being more independent, but you've really been such a help. Eventually,
(09:12):
as my friend started dating someone new, she introduced Sherwood
to her boyfriend, Chrewood never contacted her after that. I
had called the cops the same night of the incident,
but it was a while before we heard the news
about it. At least a full month later, a news
report confirmed discovering a dead body in the area where
Sherwood had taken me hiking. They had made an arrest,
(09:36):
not of Sherwood, but of this guy that Sherwood followed
on Instagram. I have no idea if Sherwood was connected
with the murder. Reflecting on everything, I think there's one
clear moral to the story. Trust her instincts. All prefaces
(10:01):
by saying, this creepy incident happened back in two thousand four,
when my family and I went on a camping trip.
I was twelve at the time, and my best friend
had came along with us. Up until this moment, the
camp had been pretty uneventful, just your typical fun outdoor stuff,
until everything suddenly took a dark turn. One evening, my
(10:25):
mother was in the kitchen area a TV room, while
my friend and I were taking a shower in the
bathroom block next door. The showers were built with concrete
walls that didn't go all the way to the ground. Instead,
there are shallow gutters beneath them that carried the water
outside to the drains. This men if some one walked
(10:46):
around behind the shower block, they could see our feet.
It was a weird set up, but no one ever
really went back there. It was fenced off and only
maintenance had any reason to be behind the block. Well,
part way through the shower, we start hearing this eerie,
calculating laughter coming from right behind the block. It sounded
(11:09):
like a teenage boy. I remember being confused trying to
figure out where that was coming from. I asked my
friend if she heard it too, and she nodded, looking
just as freaked out as I. Fell, and then it happened.
Ahead suddenly appeared under the shower stall. Peeking through the
gap at the bottom. It was a teenage boy grinning
(11:32):
up at me. While I stood there, completely naked and
frozen in shock, I screamed loud. I jumped back, wrapped
a towel around myself, and kept screaming until my mother
burst into the block. Through tears, I somehow managed to
explain what just happened. My mom waited for my friend
and I to get dressed, then rushed back with us
(11:53):
to the tent and told my dad what happened. Without
a beat, He told her to alert the camp staff,
grabbed the kayak paddle and took off to the back
of the shower block. Unbelievably, he found the guy still
crouched behind the wall. We suddenly heard more screaming, but
this time from the boy as he bolted, springing past
(12:14):
our tent le like his life depended on it. With
my dad chasing after him, paddle in hand yelling all
the way, my dad chased him clean off the campground
and out of sight. That creep never came back. Later,
the camp management told us there had been a few
recent reports of a young guy lurking near the women's
(12:34):
shower block. Even worse, they believe he wasn't even staying
in the campground, just some random perverse sneaking in. I'm
a male fourteen, Me and my friend group around the
same age, all love one thing, sailing, so in the
(12:59):
event of a boat in the lake in Italy where
we were all from, we decided to participate. Since it
was the lake hosting the race, there's a lot of
green and camping nearby, so my friends suggested that we
spend the night all sleeping in one campground. We brought
our tents and sleeping mats and we found the perfect spot,
(13:20):
kind of isolated with a beautiful view of the lake.
One small issue. The camping was more like an open
space than the little forest, so we were surrounded by trees,
but the only way to get in and out down
a narrow road. We parked our camper there and us
teens prepared to sleep outside while the adults slept in
(13:40):
the camper. We had a shit ton of fun, joking,
starting a fire, you know, all the things you'd do
on a camping trip. When it was time to sleep,
we all went into our tents and drifted off into
our dreams. Well, hope so for my friends, but not
for me. I just couldn't sleep, probably because of the
(14:02):
uncountable number of cokes I downed just a few hours prior.
As I stared at the tent ceiling, I started having
this gut feeling that we weren't alone out there, that
there was something, or even worse, someone there with us.
I didn't think much of it and tried to sleep
until I heard a loud sound of a tree branch breaking,
(14:23):
and I was the only one to hear it. My friend,
who was also in the tent with me, suddenly woke
up and whispered what was that. I simply told him
that it was probably an animal wandering around stepping on
a tree branch on the ground, as often occurs in
the forest like that. As I kept explaining, my friend
(14:44):
made a sign for me to shut up and listen footsteps.
That's what ran through my mind as soon as I
heard the leaves and branches moving on the ground. What
happened next, though, is scary. We were suddenly woken up
by our campers anti theft alarm going off. We all
picked out of our tests just to see a silhouette
(15:05):
of a man running away into the woods and a
crowbar left near the camper's front right door. Thankfully, the
alarm went off and scared of the thief, because if
it hadn't happened, most likely all of our belongings that
were inside the camper would have been stolen. This is
(15:29):
pretty fresh. It happened last weekend. It was supposed to
be a perfect weekend, just me and my two friends,
Emma and Jake going for a short camping trip in
the mountains, the kind of trip where you leave the
city behind and lose yourself in nature. For a few days,
I'd been itching for a break from work, so when
(15:50):
Jake suggested the trip, I jumped at the chance. A hike,
some fresh air, and a cozy campfire to unwind sounded
like everything I needed. Gluing the alcohol, we arrived at
the trail head late in the afternoon. The sun was low,
casting the orange glow over the trees, but the air
smelled of pine and everything fell so fresh and clean.
(16:14):
We packed our gear and headed out on the trail,
ready to take in the scenery. It was a relatively
easy hike, or so we thought. The map we picked
up at the radar station made it seem straightforward, a
loop trail with some great views at the top. We'd
get there, have a little break, then head back before dark.
(16:35):
The first hour was a breeze, just as sounded, crunching
leaves beneath our boots, and an occasional trip of birds.
The woods were thick with towering trees, but the trail
was clear and well marked. We stopped once to take pictures,
laughing about how out of shape we were. It was
at a strenuous hike, but the incline was enough to
(16:57):
leave us breathing a little heavier than usual. But then
something changed. It wasn't anything drastic at first, just a
shift in the air. The woods felt quieter, the kind
of silence that creeps up on you and makes the
hairs on your neck stand up. I shrugged it off.
Nature does that sometimes. Emma, always the optimist, smiled and
(17:20):
said maybe we'll see a deer or something. But as
we pressed on, things started to fill off. The trail
began to narrow, the trees almost seemed to close in
around us, and then about an hour and a half in,
we came across a fork in the path. One trail
feared left, heading deeper into the woods boiled. The other
(17:42):
one cut right and seemed to lead up a giant
slope towards the ridge. Neither of the trails were marked.
I double checked the map, but I didn't show anything
that looked like a fork. This was weird. I remember
feeling a knot twisting my stomach. We're not supposed to
have a fork here, are we. Jake then looked at
(18:02):
the map. No, it's supposed to be a continuous loop.
Maybe this is the old trail or something. We should
just turned back, I said. I was already feeling uneasy.
We've been on this for over an hour. I didn't
want to get lost. They both laughed it off. Come on,
we're fine. Let us take the right path. It will
(18:24):
get us to the ridge for a better view. I
wasn't sure, but Emma was excited, so against my better judgment,
we chose the path to the right. The higher we went,
the steeper the incline became. It wasn't much, but enough
to make the climb feel more taxing than it should
have been. The trail was still faint, the ground covered
(18:45):
with loose rocks and roots, making it tricky to keep
our balance. Are you sure we're going the right way,
I asked again. I'm pretty sure, Jake said, looking back
over his shoulder. I think it was just a little
off track, no big deal. But as we climbed, I
started to feel a growing sense of dread, like something
was wrong. The trees were thicker here, blocking out more
(19:09):
of the light, and the air was colder. I thought
I was tripping, but a feeling of being watched crept
over me. I couldn't shake it. Finally we reached the
top of the ridge. The view was incredible, though the
valley below stretched out. We all stood there for a while,
catching our breaths and snapping pictures, but I couldn't stop
(19:31):
looking around me. The more I stared into the distance,
the more I felt something was missing, something that didn't
feel right. I had no idea what it was. Maybe
I was just overthinking it. Okay, let's head back, I said,
pulling out the map again, hoping to get a sense
of where we were. When I looked at the mask,
(19:52):
something didn't make sense. The trail I was supposed to
be on, the one where we were supposed to follow
back to the campsite, wasn't even close to where we were. Uh, guys,
we've got a problem. I think we're lost. There's a
brief silence. I could see the realization in their eyes
(20:12):
before they even said it. The map wasn't matching up
to the terrain we were seeing. The path that we
had followed didn't look like it was on the top
of the loop of the map. This doesn't make sense,
Emma said. We just followed the ridge right, we should
be able to see the trail on the other side,
but there was nothing, just endless trees stretching forever. Maybe
(20:36):
we took the wrong fork, Jake suggested, though we didn't
sound convinced. Be this backtrack, we'll find the right one.
We retraced our steps, but the further we went, the
more disoriented we became. The trail wasn't just unclear, it
was disappearing. What had been a recognizable path was now
nothing more than the vague outline in the underbrush. Every
(21:00):
turn seemed to leave further away from where we came from.
The sun was now setting fast, orange light shining over
the dark woods, and the temperature was getting colder. That's
when I heard it. There was a distant rustle, a
crack of something snapping behind us. I stopped dead in
my tracks. Did you hear that? Jake? And and my froze too.
(21:25):
There it was again, closer to this time, A low growl. No, no, no, no,
Emma whispered. Something moved in the trees. It wasn't the wind,
It wasn't a small animal, it was something much larger. Guys,
we need to move now. We started walking faster, but
(21:46):
the rustling behind us didn't stop. It was following us.
Whatever it was was circling us, moving between the trees.
I could feel it, watching, waiting. My legs started to
burn from the speed, but I couldn't stop. I didn't
dare stop the sound. I'll never forget. A loud snap
(22:07):
of a branch right behind us. Run, Jake let out.
We didn't need another warning. We spread it through the trees,
not caring where the trail went, just knowing that we
needed to get away from whatever was out there. The
woods were no longer peaceful. They were full of danger,
full of things that we couldn't see but could fill
(22:28):
closing in on us. The rest of the hike was
a blur. We pushed through the trees, tripped over roots
and logs. Every once in a while, screaming for help,
even though we knew no one was around. Our legs
were heavy, our hearts racing. We were panicked. I'm not
gonna lie. Finally, just as the light of day disappeared,
(22:50):
we stumbled on the main trail. We didn't stop running
until we reached our campsite. When we looked back into
the forest, we couldn't shake the feeling that whatever had
followed us, whatever that had been watching us, was still
out there. The next morning, the rangers at the station
looked at us like we were crazy when we tried
(23:11):
to explain what happened. There's nothing out there, just wildlife
and maybe some folks who got turned around. But I
know what I heard and I know what I felt.
Whatever was out there, it wasn't just wildlife, and it
wasn't something that I ever wanted to encounter again.
This started when I was at my childhood friend's apartment
for what was supposed to be a little fun movie night.
We hadn't hung out in a while, and we're catching up.
Her place was cozy, a little disorganized, and full of
girly decor. We were in our coffeest sweatpants about to
watch Princess movies. Her apartment isn't the tidiest. Things are
(00:30):
a bit scattered around, but it's clean and so authentic,
which always made me fill out home. We decided on
ordering pizza for dinner. She mentioned that Sherwood, someone I
hadn't met yet, would bring the pizza over. At first,
I was not happy to hear that. I thought that
she meant she had invited other friends a boy over
(00:53):
to join us, which wasn't what I had in mind,
but I was in for surprise. Sherwood turned out to
be our delivery guy that night. He wasn't joining us.
When he got to the apartment, there was this awkward
air about him. He was obviously nervous, fumbling a bit
(01:13):
with the pizza boxes and not quite making eye contact.
My friend introduced us quickly, and it was clear from
her overly thankful demeanor that Sherwood did a lot more
for her than just fetch dinner. After handing us a pizza,
there's a brief moment of for small talk. My friend
(01:33):
was super nice to him despite his awkwardness. He wasn't
the best conversational list and seemed really out of place
than Sherwood. As for my number, I was in a
tough spot because our mutual friend was sitting right there,
so I just gave it to him. We chat it
for maybe five minutes before my friend gave him a
(01:55):
queue to leave with something like that, he's so much
for dropping this off. He seemed to get the hint.
We both gave him a hug before my friend said
something like drive safe, giving him another queue to leave.
When I asked my friend what was that all about,
she basically explained that Sherwood was her unpaid personal assistant.
(02:18):
He did her grocery shop being he dropped off pizza,
and did all this other stuff. I think Sherwood was
just a really lonely guy desperate for interaction, especially female interaction.
My friend and I were both young and immature back then.
We were about twenty three, but I think we both
(02:38):
knew that there was something seriously wrong with Sherwood. It
was a little hard to articulate because we couldn't exactly
point out what his problem was. Sherewood started a group
chat with my friend and me. He just sent a
meme or two every week. It felt like he was
trying to stay relevant without being in truth of maybe
(02:59):
he would she used to being sidelined or even blocked
by other girls in the past. It felt like he
was trying to make me remember him, but also carefully
not trying to give me a reason to block him.
I can't speak on his behalf. That's just what it
felt like. Sherwood also offered to help with Aaron's the
first time. I said, thanks for asking, but no, he
(03:23):
asked every weekend after that. One day, I made a
mistake of accepting his help. I knew better. I had
recently found a great deal for a new washing machine
on Craigslist, but I had no idea how to pick
it up and install it. When I mentioned it in chat,
Sherwood excitingly volunteered to take care of the whole thing.
(03:45):
He handled the whole pickup and installation like a champ,
which saved me so much hassle. I tried to pay
him for his efforts because I wanted to show appreciation,
but he wouldn't accept my money. I insisted did. Eventually,
he suggested that I could pay him back by joining
him on a hike. I wasn't easy about this. It
(04:08):
felt a bit too personal and almost like it could
be mistaken for a date. But Sherewood framed it as
nothing more than a friendly outing, like a transaction. To
balance out the favor, I agreed to the hike. I
rationalized it by telling myself it was a fair trade
for installing a washing machine and that it was generally
(04:29):
a form of payment, Especially since I didn't think he
had too much friends. The hike felt like it was
maybe a way for him to show companionship. I thought
it might be nice helping him. Part of me was
still uneasy about spending time with him in such an
isolated setting. The day of the hike, Sherewood picked out
the trail that was nearby. I had been there before.
(04:52):
It's gorgeous. As we were walking along together, he chatted
about ordinary things like work, the weather, and his hobbies.
Everything seemed normal until he suggested we go off the
main path to see something special. He wanted to share, like,
what could that even mean? We reached a secluded spot
(05:13):
in there was a dead body. My heart pounded so
violently as Sherwood stood there so eerily calm and nonchalant.
The calmness in his demeter made me feel even more uneasy.
It felt like he wasn't just showing me a dead body,
but also revealing a darker side of himself. It smoked bad,
(05:35):
but not like in the movies. I didn't know how
long it had been there. I'm not a biologist, but
my guess is it had smelled a lot worse before,
but now it's gone down. At that moment, I mumbled
some excuse about needing to get back quickly and started
walking briskly towards the main path. I was urging Sherwood
(05:56):
to follow me. I thought maybe this was some twisted
my game, like a way to intimidate me or show
me that he wasn't just some harmless little boy. Maybe
he was trying to send a message that said, you
should know I'm familiar with things like this. Maybe he
just wanted me to think about him more. Sometimes when
I talk to people, I feel like they only even
(06:18):
noticed me for the time We are together, and then
they don't think of me until the next time we meet.
It's possible that Sherwood felt that way with me, and
maybe he got showing me a dead body would make
him less forgettable. I have no idea, but on the surface,
he seemed oblivious to how inappropriate this was. As we
(06:39):
walked back together, I was in full fight or flight mode,
instinctively looking around to see if there was any other
hikers or rangers, anyone that can make me feel like
I wasn't alone. The moment I spotted someone else on
the trail, I called out, not to expose Sherwood, but
just asking for directions back to the parking area. I
(07:01):
wanted to make sure that Sherwood and I wouldn't be
left alone together. I asked this gentleman to walk us
back to the parking lot. I wasn't gonna take no
for an answer. I kept pretending like I was confused
about his directions, and eventually he agreed to just walk
us there. Getting help from that guy was away for
me to renchor myself to safety and normalty. While I
(07:24):
was still in shock of what Sherwood has shown me.
We got to the parking area. There I called my
friend and told her I was with Sherwood. I suggested
he could drop me off with her and that we
would be there in twenty minutes. Sherwood agreed that was
a way of making sure that if anything happened, it
(07:45):
was on record that Sherwood was the last person to
have been with me. Also, I immediately text my friend
what happened to get that on record too. When I
got to her apartment, we said thanks to Sherwood and
kindly told him to go away. I had already told
her through texts, but then I started going into detail,
the fact that the body had insects, the fact that
(08:07):
the face was decomposing but still recognizable. Her reaction was
pure horror, not just about the dead body, but also
how nonchalantly Sherwood had treated the whole situation. She confessed
that she always sensed something was off about him, even
though she never imagined anything this disturbing. We both agreed
(08:28):
that we needed to remove Sherwood from our lives. She
admitted that she felt stuck and that she had become
too reliant on Sherwood. Just to fire him called Turkey,
We planned out how we would do it. It was
this gradual phasing out plan. We would limit our interactions
to times when others were present. We would slowly reduce
(08:50):
our responses to his text I never asked for help
from him again, and my friend would ask for less
and less help. Sherewood kept texting during the weekends, offering
to run errands or asking if I needed anything, to
which my friend would reply, I'm trying to work on
being more independent, but you've really been such a help. Eventually,
(09:12):
as my friend started dating someone new, she introduced Sherwood
to her boyfriend, Chrewood never contacted her after that. I
had called the cops the same night of the incident,
but it was a while before we heard the news
about it. At least a full month later, a news
report confirmed discovering a dead body in the area where
Sherwood had taken me hiking. They had made an arrest,
(09:36):
not of Sherwood, but of this guy that Sherwood followed
on Instagram. I have no idea if Sherwood was connected
with the murder. Reflecting on everything, I think there's one
clear moral to the story. Trust her instincts. All prefaces
(10:01):
by saying, this creepy incident happened back in two thousand four,
when my family and I went on a camping trip.
I was twelve at the time, and my best friend
had came along with us. Up until this moment, the
camp had been pretty uneventful, just your typical fun outdoor stuff,
until everything suddenly took a dark turn. One evening, my
(10:25):
mother was in the kitchen area a TV room, while
my friend and I were taking a shower in the
bathroom block next door. The showers were built with concrete
walls that didn't go all the way to the ground. Instead,
there are shallow gutters beneath them that carried the water
outside to the drains. This men if some one walked
(10:46):
around behind the shower block, they could see our feet.
It was a weird set up, but no one ever
really went back there. It was fenced off and only
maintenance had any reason to be behind the block. Well,
part way through the shower, we start hearing this eerie,
calculating laughter coming from right behind the block. It sounded
(11:09):
like a teenage boy. I remember being confused trying to
figure out where that was coming from. I asked my
friend if she heard it too, and she nodded, looking
just as freaked out as I. Fell, and then it happened.
Ahead suddenly appeared under the shower stall. Peeking through the
gap at the bottom. It was a teenage boy grinning
(11:32):
up at me. While I stood there, completely naked and
frozen in shock, I screamed loud. I jumped back, wrapped
a towel around myself, and kept screaming until my mother
burst into the block. Through tears, I somehow managed to
explain what just happened. My mom waited for my friend
and I to get dressed, then rushed back with us
(11:53):
to the tent and told my dad what happened. Without
a beat, He told her to alert the camp staff,
grabbed the kayak paddle and took off to the back
of the shower block. Unbelievably, he found the guy still
crouched behind the wall. We suddenly heard more screaming, but
this time from the boy as he bolted, springing past
(12:14):
our tent le like his life depended on it. With
my dad chasing after him, paddle in hand yelling all
the way, my dad chased him clean off the campground
and out of sight. That creep never came back. Later,
the camp management told us there had been a few
recent reports of a young guy lurking near the women's
(12:34):
shower block. Even worse, they believe he wasn't even staying
in the campground, just some random perverse sneaking in. I'm
a male fourteen, Me and my friend group around the
same age, all love one thing, sailing, so in the
(12:59):
event of a boat in the lake in Italy where
we were all from, we decided to participate. Since it
was the lake hosting the race, there's a lot of
green and camping nearby, so my friends suggested that we
spend the night all sleeping in one campground. We brought
our tents and sleeping mats and we found the perfect spot,
(13:20):
kind of isolated with a beautiful view of the lake.
One small issue. The camping was more like an open
space than the little forest, so we were surrounded by trees,
but the only way to get in and out down
a narrow road. We parked our camper there and us
teens prepared to sleep outside while the adults slept in
(13:40):
the camper. We had a shit ton of fun, joking,
starting a fire, you know, all the things you'd do
on a camping trip. When it was time to sleep,
we all went into our tents and drifted off into
our dreams. Well, hope so for my friends, but not
for me. I just couldn't sleep, probably because of the
(14:02):
uncountable number of cokes I downed just a few hours prior.
As I stared at the tent ceiling, I started having
this gut feeling that we weren't alone out there, that
there was something, or even worse, someone there with us.
I didn't think much of it and tried to sleep
until I heard a loud sound of a tree branch breaking,
(14:23):
and I was the only one to hear it. My friend,
who was also in the tent with me, suddenly woke
up and whispered what was that. I simply told him
that it was probably an animal wandering around stepping on
a tree branch on the ground, as often occurs in
the forest like that. As I kept explaining, my friend
(14:44):
made a sign for me to shut up and listen footsteps.
That's what ran through my mind as soon as I
heard the leaves and branches moving on the ground. What
happened next, though, is scary. We were suddenly woken up
by our campers anti theft alarm going off. We all
picked out of our tests just to see a silhouette
(15:05):
of a man running away into the woods and a
crowbar left near the camper's front right door. Thankfully, the
alarm went off and scared of the thief, because if
it hadn't happened, most likely all of our belongings that
were inside the camper would have been stolen. This is
(15:29):
pretty fresh. It happened last weekend. It was supposed to
be a perfect weekend, just me and my two friends,
Emma and Jake going for a short camping trip in
the mountains, the kind of trip where you leave the
city behind and lose yourself in nature. For a few days,
I'd been itching for a break from work, so when
(15:50):
Jake suggested the trip, I jumped at the chance. A hike,
some fresh air, and a cozy campfire to unwind sounded
like everything I needed. Gluing the alcohol, we arrived at
the trail head late in the afternoon. The sun was low,
casting the orange glow over the trees, but the air
smelled of pine and everything fell so fresh and clean.
(16:14):
We packed our gear and headed out on the trail,
ready to take in the scenery. It was a relatively
easy hike, or so we thought. The map we picked
up at the radar station made it seem straightforward, a
loop trail with some great views at the top. We'd
get there, have a little break, then head back before dark.
(16:35):
The first hour was a breeze, just as sounded, crunching
leaves beneath our boots, and an occasional trip of birds.
The woods were thick with towering trees, but the trail
was clear and well marked. We stopped once to take pictures,
laughing about how out of shape we were. It was
at a strenuous hike, but the incline was enough to
(16:57):
leave us breathing a little heavier than usual. But then
something changed. It wasn't anything drastic at first, just a
shift in the air. The woods felt quieter, the kind
of silence that creeps up on you and makes the
hairs on your neck stand up. I shrugged it off.
Nature does that sometimes. Emma, always the optimist, smiled and
(17:20):
said maybe we'll see a deer or something. But as
we pressed on, things started to fill off. The trail
began to narrow, the trees almost seemed to close in
around us, and then about an hour and a half in,
we came across a fork in the path. One trail
feared left, heading deeper into the woods boiled. The other
(17:42):
one cut right and seemed to lead up a giant
slope towards the ridge. Neither of the trails were marked.
I double checked the map, but I didn't show anything
that looked like a fork. This was weird. I remember
feeling a knot twisting my stomach. We're not supposed to
have a fork here, are we. Jake then looked at
(18:02):
the map. No, it's supposed to be a continuous loop.
Maybe this is the old trail or something. We should
just turned back, I said. I was already feeling uneasy.
We've been on this for over an hour. I didn't
want to get lost. They both laughed it off. Come on,
we're fine. Let us take the right path. It will
(18:24):
get us to the ridge for a better view. I
wasn't sure, but Emma was excited, so against my better judgment,
we chose the path to the right. The higher we went,
the steeper the incline became. It wasn't much, but enough
to make the climb feel more taxing than it should
have been. The trail was still faint, the ground covered
(18:45):
with loose rocks and roots, making it tricky to keep
our balance. Are you sure we're going the right way,
I asked again. I'm pretty sure, Jake said, looking back
over his shoulder. I think it was just a little
off track, no big deal. But as we climbed, I
started to feel a growing sense of dread, like something
was wrong. The trees were thicker here, blocking out more
(19:09):
of the light, and the air was colder. I thought
I was tripping, but a feeling of being watched crept
over me. I couldn't shake it. Finally we reached the
top of the ridge. The view was incredible, though the
valley below stretched out. We all stood there for a while,
catching our breaths and snapping pictures, but I couldn't stop
(19:31):
looking around me. The more I stared into the distance,
the more I felt something was missing, something that didn't
feel right. I had no idea what it was. Maybe
I was just overthinking it. Okay, let's head back, I said,
pulling out the map again, hoping to get a sense
of where we were. When I looked at the mask,
(19:52):
something didn't make sense. The trail I was supposed to
be on, the one where we were supposed to follow
back to the campsite, wasn't even close to where we were. Uh, guys,
we've got a problem. I think we're lost. There's a
brief silence. I could see the realization in their eyes
(20:12):
before they even said it. The map wasn't matching up
to the terrain we were seeing. The path that we
had followed didn't look like it was on the top
of the loop of the map. This doesn't make sense,
Emma said. We just followed the ridge right, we should
be able to see the trail on the other side,
but there was nothing, just endless trees stretching forever. Maybe
(20:36):
we took the wrong fork, Jake suggested, though we didn't
sound convinced. Be this backtrack, we'll find the right one.
We retraced our steps, but the further we went, the
more disoriented we became. The trail wasn't just unclear, it
was disappearing. What had been a recognizable path was now
nothing more than the vague outline in the underbrush. Every
(21:00):
turn seemed to leave further away from where we came from.
The sun was now setting fast, orange light shining over
the dark woods, and the temperature was getting colder. That's
when I heard it. There was a distant rustle, a
crack of something snapping behind us. I stopped dead in
my tracks. Did you hear that? Jake? And and my froze too.
(21:25):
There it was again, closer to this time, A low growl. No, no, no, no,
Emma whispered. Something moved in the trees. It wasn't the wind,
It wasn't a small animal, it was something much larger. Guys,
we need to move now. We started walking faster, but
(21:46):
the rustling behind us didn't stop. It was following us.
Whatever it was was circling us, moving between the trees.
I could feel it, watching, waiting. My legs started to
burn from the speed, but I couldn't stop. I didn't
dare stop the sound. I'll never forget. A loud snap
(22:07):
of a branch right behind us. Run, Jake let out.
We didn't need another warning. We spread it through the trees,
not caring where the trail went, just knowing that we
needed to get away from whatever was out there. The
woods were no longer peaceful. They were full of danger,
full of things that we couldn't see but could fill
(22:28):
closing in on us. The rest of the hike was
a blur. We pushed through the trees, tripped over roots
and logs. Every once in a while, screaming for help,
even though we knew no one was around. Our legs
were heavy, our hearts racing. We were panicked. I'm not
gonna lie. Finally, just as the light of day disappeared,
(22:50):
we stumbled on the main trail. We didn't stop running
until we reached our campsite. When we looked back into
the forest, we couldn't shake the feeling that whatever had
followed us, whatever that had been watching us, was still
out there. The next morning, the rangers at the station
looked at us like we were crazy when we tried
(23:11):
to explain what happened. There's nothing out there, just wildlife
and maybe some folks who got turned around. But I
know what I heard and I know what I felt.
Whatever was out there, it wasn't just wildlife, and it
wasn't something that I ever wanted to encounter again.
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