3 Disturbing TRUE Hiking Horror Stories
#Horror #Story #Stories #Scary #Ghost # Haunted #Fright #Nightmare #Real #True #Paranormal
#Horror #Story #Stories #Scary #Ghost # Haunted #Fright #Nightmare #Real #True #Paranormal
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00:00I'm a big hiker. I was doing some hiking in Utah during a cross-country trip I was taking
00:13after breaking up with who I thought was going to be my fiance. Long story short, I caught
00:18her messing around with one of my closest friends. Total betrayal on both sides. I was
00:2431. Utah was actually one of the states I was most excited about passing through. There
00:29are some great forests out there that I think every hiker would dream of exploring. I had
00:34picked Uina Wasatch Kesh National Forest as my Utah destination because I had heard a
00:38lot of great things about it. One of its biggest upsides for me was that it had a lot of secluded
00:43areas that I could easily access. I prefer hiking alone, so bustling hiking trails swarming
00:49with people aren't really my thing. I picked an unnamed area of the forest and drove my
00:54car as far down this narrow access road as I could. I parked, stepped out of my car and
01:00took in my surroundings. I geared up and checked my phone. No service, just the way I like it.
01:06I made a mental note of my starting point and began the trek. I know hiking alone in uncharted
01:12territory is dangerous, but I don't think I have as much fun following a designated route.
01:17I always download the digital map of whatever location I'm planning to explore. A lot of people
01:22don't realize that your phone's GPS still functions without service. I know what you're
01:26probably thinking, but no, I didn't get lost. I wish I could tell you that that's what the story's
01:31about. The reality of what happened to me is something I'm still trying to wrap my head around.
01:37My destination was a lookout point at the summit of the mountain, which was maybe three or four
01:41miles away. The terrain was pretty difficult, so I was only clearing about one and a half miles an hour.
01:47About an hour into my hike, it began raining. Although it was light, I refused to continue.
01:53Hiking in the rain is a massive pet peeve of mine. Annoyed, I turned around and began retracing my
01:59steps. Eventually, I spotted my car in the distance and I was relieved that this failed
02:04outing would soon be over. I reached my vehicle and was met with a horrifying sight. All four tires
02:10were slashed. I felt the fear start to set in. There wasn't a chance in the world that all four
02:16tires had been coincidentally punctured. This had been deliberate. I whipped my head around,
02:21scanning the forest in every direction. Nothing. I listened as carefully as I could,
02:27but anything I might have picked up on was drowned out by the patter of raindrops on leaves and brush.
02:32I weighed my options. Without service, I was basically screwed. I'd need to get service so I could call
02:38for assistance, but as far as I remembered, I had lost service over 20 miles down the access road.
02:44Walking back to civilization seemed like a grueling option. I needed to find high ground. Luckily,
02:50the destination I had originally sought out was just that. I had to chance it. I didn't feel safe
02:56walking 20 miles down the road where I'd basically be out in the open. Without another thought, I turned
03:02back towards the woods and began my route once again. I was about halfway to the summit when I picked up
03:08on a faint rustling coming from behind me, maybe 40 or so yards away. It would start and stop in
03:14tandem with my movements. I didn't want to turn and look. I just picked up the pace, knowing I was
03:19probably a faster hiker than whoever or whatever was stalking me. The sun was starting to go down,
03:26casting an eerie shadow over the forest. The rain was still falling, and I was starting to get nervous.
03:32After putting some distance between myself and whatever was stalking me,
03:36I cast an inconspicuous glance over my shoulder. I didn't see anything, but someone could have been
03:42easily hiding behind any of the countless trees in the forest. Finally, I reached the peak. By some
03:48miracle, there actually was service up there. I didn't waste a second, not even pausing to admire
03:54the view. I told the police exactly where my car was and explained what happened, including my suspicion
04:00that I was being stalked. I also told the operator that I had AAA. I hung up, relieved that someone
04:07knew where I was. There was still a glaring problem, though. I'd have to navigate back through the forest
04:13before it was fully dark while somehow avoiding whoever was stalking me. I couldn't just march in
04:18a straight line back through the forest. That was asking for trouble. I thought for a second, before
04:24concluding that I'd have to try to walk in a semicircle back to my car, hopefully avoiding any kind of
04:29trap someone had set. I walked parallel to the cliff for a while before entering the woods from
04:34a different angle. I hadn't bothered to analyze this area of the forest, though, so I pulled up
04:39the map on my phone and prayed my navigation skills wouldn't let me down. Things were going well for a
04:45while. I hadn't heard a single unusual sound behind me or in front of me. I might have spoken too soon,
04:51though, because not 30 seconds after having that thought, I heard a twig snap from my left.
04:56I turned to look but didn't see anything, and a few minutes later, I heard another sound,
05:01this time from directly behind me. My blood ran cold as it dawned on me. There were multiple
05:07people out there. I picked up the pace again, settling into a light jog. As if things weren't
05:13terrifying enough already, I stumbled upon something that brought my panic levels from a 5 to a 10.
05:19There was a makeshift campsite literally tucked away in the woods. There were 12 or so logs sitting
05:26around a campfire. Someone had been here recently. I jogged around it and continued on, casting glances
05:33behind me every so often. A few minutes later, I heard something from my right. This time,
05:39I turned quickly enough just to barely see someone's foot jump behind a tree.
05:43That was it for me. My light jog instantly turned into a full-on sprint through the woods.
05:49I didn't care how loud I was being. I needed to get out of that forest. As I ran, the sounds around
05:56me continued getting louder. It was clear that I was being chased. They weren't even trying to hide it
06:01anymore. I continued running, afraid to look behind me. At one point, I couldn't resist the urge anymore and
06:07shot a glance over my shoulder. I counted at least 6 people, all of whom were wearing white and charging
06:14toward me. I kept running, knowing my car wasn't far. The next few minutes were the most terrifying
06:19moments I've ever experienced in my life. Imagine being overwhelmed with exhaustion while the threat
06:25of death looms over you. I couldn't slow down. My life literally depended on it. Finally, I saw my car in
06:32the distance, and right behind it was a police officer. I reached his car and keeled over,
06:38almost throwing up before he even had a chance to speak. I turned around, and those people that had
06:43been chasing me were nowhere in sight. The cop told me that he had gone ahead and called AAA,
06:48which I was beyond thankful for. I gave him a full police report, and what he told me was chilling.
06:55Apparently, Utah houses the largest population of Mormons in the country, and it isn't uncommon to
07:00encounter woods folk in unmarked forests. The specific forest I was exploring actually had a
07:05very rich history, especially as it pertains to woods cults and religious groups. The cop told me
07:11that I had probably stumbled upon one such group, and that I was stupid to explore a random part of
07:16the woods. In all honesty, what that cop told me all those years ago was probably true. I still can't
07:23wrap my head around this, though. If they were mad that I was infringing on their land, why not just tell
07:28me that? I don't see why they'd feel the need to stalk and chase me through the woods, especially
07:33after slashing my tires. This experience is still something I think about all the time.
07:48I'm not going to call myself an expert hiker, but I've been avidly enjoying the activity for a few
07:53decades now. I've traversed all the major trails in America, and I've been to over 75% of this
07:58beautiful country's national parks. As such, I've had to find new ways to excite myself.
08:04I recently picked up a new hobby, scouring Google Maps for vast, unnamed forests and just exploring
08:10them. It's a little unconventional, but I think the added excitement is worth the risk of getting lost,
08:15or at least I did. I carry a pack of homemade route marking stickers that I periodically slap onto
08:21the trees so I don't forget my way back. As I pass each one, I pull them off the trees so as not to
08:26leave any litter behind. I'm surprised more people haven't picked up on this trick. It makes getting
08:31lost in a forest nearly impossible. Anyway, there was a slightly more daunting task ahead of me this
08:37time around. I had decided to explore Dudley Town Forest in Connecticut, which I'm sure would give
08:43any normal person pause. If you don't know, the whole town has been abandoned since the 1800s,
08:49and there are all sorts of creepy accounts about strange things and stuff like that.
08:53You should do some research on the place if you're interested in that sort of thing.
08:57I'm not though. I'm not superstitious, and I don't believe in the ghost stories.
09:02Technically, this forest is off-limits to the public, but that hasn't stopped me before.
09:07As I saw it, I was basically guaranteed to not encounter anyone in those woods,
09:11which is usually what I go for. I'm also from New England, so the drive actually wasn't so bad.
09:16I entered the woods around noon to ensure that the sun didn't go down before I finished hiking.
09:22My first impression of the woods was honestly pretty freaky. I had heard that it was dead
09:27silent in there, and I was surprised to discover that it actually was. You don't really notice or
09:33appreciate all the sounds in the forest until they aren't there anymore. Imagine closing your
09:37eyes in a silent room and only being able to hear your breathing. That's what it was like.
09:42To be completely honest, this silent phenomenon wasn't something foreign to me. I'd been in
09:48forests void of animals before. I kept walking, placing my stickers as I went, trying to shake
09:53the eerie feeling the forest was inducing. I kept thinking I would eventually stumble upon an animal
09:59or at least some indication that there was life in there, but I had no such luck. After a while,
10:05I was honestly hoping to encounter a person even. That's how unsettled I was. Pretty soon though,
10:11the silence of the forest stopped bothering me so much. For the first time since I'd stepped foot
10:15in those woods, I was calm. The feeling didn't last long though. Out of nowhere, I picked up on a
10:22sound that sent the uneasiness rushing back in. It was like a wailing kind of moaning sound. The kind
10:28of sound you might imagine a wounded animal making. That's the best way I can put it.
10:32I still have trouble describing it, even to this day. It was especially creepy since it was the only
10:41sound in the whole damn woods. I paused and listened, trying to figure out what it could be.
10:48I had never heard anything like it. There was a chance it could have been a whistling made by the
10:52wind, but there wasn't any wind to begin with, so that didn't make sense. I concluded that it was
10:57most likely a wounded animal, even though I knew it probably wasn't. I walked away from it until the
11:03sound faded away. You're probably wondering why I didn't just turn around and leave right there.
11:08I wish I had an answer to that question. I told myself that if one more creepy thing happened,
11:14that would be it for me. As I walked, I started thinking to myself, how would an animal even get
11:20wounded in a forest like this? Like, was there someone hunting in here? There's no way I could have
11:25missed a gunshot. Maybe the hunter had taken the shot before I was an earshot. Maybe he neglected
11:31to put the thing out of its misery. Would someone really do that, though? It was hard to imagine.
11:37All these thoughts and more were bouncing around in my head when I stumbled upon something.
11:42On the tree directly in front of me, there were honest-to-God carvings. I know it sounds cliche,
11:47but I'm being dead serious. The carvings weren't symbols, and they didn't look like letters either,
11:53just random slashes and bits of missing tree bark. I started looking around, and saw that several of
11:59the neighboring trees were covered in the same marks. That was it for me. I turned around without
12:04another thought and began walking back, unsticking my trail markers as I passed them. I'm a curious
12:10person by nature, and even I was thinking, screw this. I followed my trail markers for a while,
12:16before seeing something in the distance I hadn't seen before. There was what looked like a bear's den up
12:22ahead, or at least a cave of some sort. I stopped walking, confused. I know myself. There was a 0%
12:30chance I would have overlooked something like a bear's den, and that's when it hit me. My trail
12:35markers should have been shoulder high, not waist high. My blood ran cold. I turned around and began
12:41sprinting back the way I had come, constantly looking over my shoulder. How could I have been so
12:46absent-minded? Someone had moved my stickers in an attempt to lure me into that cave. But how?
12:53Was it really possible that someone had been tracking me this entire time? I didn't have time
12:58to think all of it through. I was busy focusing on getting the hell out of that forest. The issue
13:03with that, though, was that I literally had no idea where I was going. Without those trail markers,
13:09I was as good as lost. I kept running, not even trying to be quiet. It would have been pointless
13:15anyway. The forest was dead silent apart from the sounds I was making. I stopped to catch my breath
13:20and pulled out my phone, praying for signal. By some miracle, I did have a bar. I found my parked
13:26car's location on the map and figured out which direction I needed to go. It wasn't far. And just
13:32like that, the signal dropped. It didn't matter, though. I knew where I was going now. And that's when
13:38the wailing started up again. Only this time, it was twice as loud. I ran faster than I had ever
13:44run before, even though my most fit years were behind me. The sound seemed like it was coming
13:49from right behind me, but every time I turned to look, I couldn't see anything. After the worst 10
13:54minutes of my life, I finally reached the edge of the forest and the wailing stopped abruptly.
13:59I jumped in my car and sped off before whatever had been chasing me had a chance to catch up.
14:04That day ruined hiking for me. Here's my rational explanation for what happened. Some hermit or
14:11woods freak lives in those woods and noticed me before I noticed him. He then, for whatever reason,
14:17tracked me and messed with my trail markers, hoping to lure me towards that cave. I'm assuming he had
14:22a whistle or something that made that wailing noise, which is why it stopped so abruptly once he
14:27realized he wasn't going to catch me. I know there are holes in this explanation, like how could
14:32someone blow through a whistle for that long while simultaneously running at full speed?
14:37I'm open to anybody suggesting explanations. Maybe there's a reason that forest is off limits to
14:42civilians.
14:52When I was younger, my childhood home was the most fitting for squad hangouts.
14:57There were a few reasons for this. My dad had a massive man cave in the basement with an almost
15:02unlimited supply of beer. Plus, my parents usually let us drink down there and left us alone for the
15:07most part. I lived on a pretty large plot of land, and my house boarded a decently sized woods.
15:14If you were to walk through the woods from my house, you would find yourself on a dirt road.
15:18On the other side of the road was the reservoir, a spot that has had my heart since I was a kid.
15:22I've cut countless holes in the reservoir fence, so many in fact that the water commission stopped
15:28repairing them. After all, it is illegal for any civilians to trespass on reservoir property.
15:34As a kid though, it was my sanctuary. I'd go there to smoke, to get away from my parents, to swim,
15:40to think. It truly was a beautiful place, and probably the only thing I miss about that era of my life.
15:47My friends and I were shooting a few rounds of pool in my basement with some obnoxious EDM music in the
15:51background, when my friend Chester had the brilliant idea of taking a hike through the
15:56woods to the reservoir. The boredom was beginning to kick in, so we all agreed. Plus, the sun hadn't
16:02gone down yet, so it wouldn't be a nightmare trying to navigate. There were five of us. Me, Chester,
16:08Rick, Jasper, and Hassan. I can't remember too many specifics, but I'm pretty sure Rick and Hassan
16:14snagged some beers for the journey. They were the drinkers of our friend group. I had already had a
16:19few drinks, so I didn't want to overdo it. The reservoir was huge, so even after crossing the
16:25fence we still had some walking to do. It was honestly still a little muddy in the woods from
16:29the earlier rain, but we were already committed to this plan. There was a cliff on the near side that
16:34we usually chilled on, so that's where we went that night. After a while though, we decided to keep
16:40walking and hang out on the far side of the reservoir. In order to get over there, we would have to walk
16:45along the near side to the end, where we could cut across to the other side. Then we'd be able to walk
16:50along the far side until we reached this really smooth section that we used to call the beach.
16:55After about 20 minutes of walking, we found ourselves on the far side of the reservoir,
16:59finally. It was then that stuff started getting weird. Hassan put his hand up and pointed into the
17:05distance. Remember, we were on the far side of the ovular-shaped reservoir, but we hadn't walked all
17:11the way down to the beach yet. Hassan was pointing to our right, where we realized that something was
17:16moving toward the reservoir on the same side that we were on, albeit much further down. The five of
17:22us quieted and kept watching as the dark figure slowly made its way towards the water. We were
17:27all kind of excited by this because it meant we might have some kind of encounter, which we usually
17:32welcomed. As the figure made its way towards the water and out of the woods, we realized that they
17:37were dragging something. The further they got, the more we could see. Eventually, we realized what
17:43was being dragged. A large black garbage bag that clearly had something relatively heavy inside of
17:48it on account of how slowly the person was moving. Now, I don't want to make any assumptions, but there
17:54have been a couple bodies found in that reservoir over the years. So in that moment, we quickly assumed
17:59the worst. We weren't smiling or even talking anymore, just staring quietly at the figure dragging what
18:05we guessed to be a body towards the water's edge. After reaching the water, he knelt down over the bag
18:11for a few minutes. We couldn't really tell exactly what he was doing from so far away. We figured that
18:16was a good time to get out of there, since he was distracted. Before we could leave though, Chester
18:22spotted something else that stopped us in our tracks. Three more figures emerged from the woods, two
18:27dragging bags. The third figure was carrying a kayak over his head. I honestly started feeling sick.
18:34I lived only ten minutes from one of the most crime-ridden towns in America,
18:38so if this was somehow gang-related, that would have made a lot of sense.
18:42The first man we noticed got into the kayak, while the other three helped load one of the bags onto
18:47his lap. He rode out to the middle of the reservoir, and we watched as the garbage bag
18:52disappeared below the surface. He rode back to the shore and repeated this process twice more.
18:58And then, like a scene from a movie, my phone rang. The annoying tune cut through the silence like a
19:03razor blade, and my nervous self couldn't mute it fast enough. The four men froze and turned to look
19:09in our direction, which is when we ran. And just like that, the sanctity of my backyard reservoir
19:15was gone forever. Rick shot a glance over his shoulder and yelled out that they were following us.
19:20It was the scariest moment of my life. Running in a forest is actually insanely difficult.
19:26Factor in the threat of death, and it's twice as bad. We ran all the way back down the bank, cut across,
19:31and started making our way through the woods on the near side back to the hole in the fence.
19:36I don't know if it was the nerves or the alcohol or both, but to save my life I couldn't remember
19:41where the damn hole was. I reached the fence first with my friends close behind, and they began panicking
19:46when they saw that I was tracing the fence aimlessly, searching frantically for a hole that could have
19:50been anywhere. We ran along the fence, and I was ready to give up, when Rick pointed ahead of us and yelled.
19:56It was just a few feet away, and we bounded for it. As I was helping Chester through,
20:02we heard the sound of a tree branch being stepped on not far behind us, and I knew they were closing in.
20:08The chase didn't end there. We ran through the woods all the way back to my backyard,
20:12and we were relieved to have made it. It was then that Hassen called the police.
20:17We told them what happened, and they said they'd send a squad car to my house immediately.
20:21I knew I was going to get heat for trespassing, but I didn't care at that point. My friends were
20:26relieved to be safe, but I wasn't as relaxed. The path from the reservoir to my house wasn't
20:32super far, and they could have easily followed the tracks we left on the trail. Eventually,
20:37the police arrived and listened to what we told them. The police searched my property for any signs
20:41that we were followed, and my stomach dropped when they actually found one. There was a set of muddy
20:46footprints that led to my backyard fence, which I told the police weren't ours. They asked if I
20:52was positive, and I told them I was. Why would I jump my own backyard fence? Luckily, the police didn't
20:58find anyone hiding on my property, so they left and told me they'd keep me updated about the reservoir
21:03situation. To my surprise, they actually did. After a few days, the police fished out three bodies from
21:10the reservoir. No surprise there, and it was a huge news story for a while. My parents and I were
21:16terrified for a long time, knowing that some criminals knew where we lived. For months afterwards,
21:21my mom swore she saw people in the woods at night, and even claimed to have seen a camera flash one
21:26night. This incident was actually one of the main reasons we moved out of that house. Fast forward to
21:31today, and as far as I know, the police were never able to find any sort of connection or make any arrests.
21:38The reason I'm writing about this now is because I recently stumbled upon a depressing news article
21:42about a teenager drowning in that reservoir, which brought all these memories back. That place
21:47is definitely cursed, and I still wonder about all the tragedies that might have happened there
21:52that no one knows about.
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