Hiking is scary enough during the day-time, what with all the physical exertion, possible encounters with wildlife, and the fear that your granola bar stash will run out and you'll be forced to eat your own arm. So I can't even begin to imagine how scary it is at NIGHT. Someone recently asked Reddit, "Late night hikers what is the creepiest thing you have seen while hiking?" And these responses ensure that I will never ever go hiking at night, or during the day, or leave my apartment, ever again. Here's the 20 creepiest:
1) I noticed a black van meander down the street.
From SleepyElie::
I go out for walks very late at night fairly often, so I've seen a few things.
The creepiest though, happened about two months ago. I left the house around 1:30am, and it started off as a normal walk. I wandered around the town till about 2:00am, when I decided to go home. I was walking back the route I had came when I noticed a black van meander down the street. Didn't really pay to much attention to it though, at first. I did pay attention though when I saw it slowly drive by me for a second time. I wasn't entirely sure it was the same van though, so I just continued walking. But this time I kept an eye out. And low and fucking behold, about ten minutes later, the same damn black van came down the street again. This time I knew for sure because it didn't have license plates. Now I was fairly scared, so I picked my pace up a little bit. When the van came around again this time, it stopped in the middle of the road a few houses in front of me. I stopped, turned around, and booked it back in the other direction. I made a few turns onto different roads, and then ran right into someone's yard. I waited behind their fence, and the same fucking van came down the street. I assume that when they couldn't find me, they finally decided to fuck off. But I waited in that yard for about 20 minutes before I ran back to my house and practically threw myself through my bedroom window.
2) Somebody had slashed the front right tire.
From tall__guy
Not hiking so much as car camping, but we were way the fuck out there in the middle of nowhere on BLM land in Colorado. We drove for an hour and a half down a forest service road and didn’t see another soul. You could see headlights and hear cars from miles away from our campsite - it’s not like somebody could have snuck up unnoticed.
We had 3 cars with us and 8 people. Just got done eating dinner, cleaned up, it was getting dark so we went back to the cars real quick before hitting our tents for the night. Somebody had slashed the front right tire on each of the 3 cars with what appeared to be a box cutter. Everyone thought it was a prank but it become very apparent, very quickly that it wasn’t. All of us were beyond spooked, like panicking, scary to watch spooked. We all had spares, and one dude had a gun, so we threw on our donuts while that guy literally guarded us and got the hell out of there.
I still have nightmares about it sometimes. Just knowing there was some person, probably watching us, maybe wanting to harm us, makes me feel physically ill to this day.
Edit: Well this blew up. To answer some questions:
This was south of Gypsum. And it was 100% not private land, this was a marked forest service road in an area with dispersed camping I had visited several times before.
There were 3 guys and 5 girls, the guys were all together cooking the whole time leading up to us discovering the tires being slashed. These people are my best friends and this would be wildly uncharacteristic of any of them.
For those wondering how we didn’t hear it, our cars were parked ~30 yards away from our fire/tents. And a car coming down a road is easy to pick out from the sounds of nature. A gentle hissing gets lost in the wind. We heard it as soon as we started walking up.
The tires were slashed on the exact same spot on the sidewall. It would be almost impossible for something on the road to puncture the tires like that.
Also, there was no cell service. We called the cops and ranger as soon as we got back to the highway, told them exactly what FS road we were on and gave them coordinates, but there isn’t a lot for them to do. Cop told us it was good we were packing and to be careful out there.
3) I didn’t hear her walk up, I just see her standing there super still.
From smashew:
Not on a trail but walking my dog late at night...
It was about 1:00 in the morning, my dog rang her bell and I begrudgingly got up to take her outside. When she wants to pee in the middle of the night I don’t take her very far, just in our side yard. I took a flashlight with me Incase she decided to poo so I could pick it up.
I’m standing there waiting for her to do her thing, she is doing the doggie walk in a circle thing. Then all of the sudden the dog gets spooked and whips around. Out of the corner of my eye I see this chick just standing there. I didn’t see her walk up, I didn’t hear her walk up, I just see her standing there super still. Based on her position, She had to have come from between my house and my neighbors house. Which is odd, because behind our houses back up to a green belt.
It is probably 40 degrees outside and this lady, about 20, is in super short shorts and a t-shirt. I looked at her, told her she scared me, and she mumbled something like, “nice night, what are you up to?” Standing there holding the leash with my dog, I said, “I’m walking my dog...” then she said, “cool, cool... do you know how to get into my house, I locked myself out.” Pointing to my neighbors house...
Now, I’m a good American, I know my neighbors, and this wasn’t my neighbor, who is a single 30 year old female. She hangs out with my wife, so I know her really well. So I asked her, “that house?” Pointing directly at my neighbors house. She nodded. I said, “you don’t live there... I know who lives there.” She just scoffed and wandered her way into MY back yard. I followed her said, “what the hell are you doing?” She them took off running, scaled my fence... which item of note, it isn’t an easy fence to scale. It is a deer fence. It is a see through fence that goes up 3 feet with cattle gate, then the top of the fence is stainless steel wire that runs horizontally. It is the type of thing that, if you weren’t expecting it, you’d easily trip over as it is extremely hard to see and not Very common. Any ways, she scales the fence and ran away into the green belt.
I always have a pocket knife on me and was fortunate enough to have my, unfortunately, useless dog.... so I looked around my house, neighbors house for other people... shined my light in the green belt... and nothing.
I have no idea how she wound up back there. What she was doing. What she intended to do... but she scared the ever living shit out of me.
Edit: Green Belt - unincorporated land, zoned to never have anything built on it. IE: backing up to the edge of a forest, cliff, etc...
In my case it was a wooded area for about 1/2 a mile of nothing. Rattle snakes, deer, mongooses, etc live in that green belt.
4) We both clearly heard a child say "I'm over here"
From PlantBasedSpaghetti:
It was in the summer around dusk and I was camping at a remote campground with my dad. There was a lake right next to the grounds and my dad and I would trail blase through the forest right next to the lake because if you went far enough there was a really pretty waterfall. A few strange things happed on this hike. We found a slash pile that had a little kids shoe on top. When we came to a small clearing, my dad had to take a leak to he faced one side of the clearing and I faced the other and we both clearly heard a child say "I'm over here". My dad thought it was me, and when he realized it wasn't, we spent half an hour looking for someone, but we found nobody. After that, we gave up on going to the waterfall and started to make our way back to camp, but there were clear sounds of something following us (twigs snapping, bushes shaking). We haven't been camping there sence.
5) Out for a pooper.
From joebot777:
I once shined my headlamp on a man masturbating next to a juniper tree when I was going out for a pooper by the juniper tree
6) But then we realized they too, were sprinting at us.
From PrimordialEntropy:
I had a group of friends who used to get together and play Manhunt in a local park at night. Just a different way of saying a big game of hide and seek tag where 3 people start off "It" and everyone else goes and hides in the park. As they find and tag people, they become "It" as well until eventually there is only 1 - 3 people left then we start again, and play into early morning. Well one night I was it with my friend and his younger brother. We were heading to the middle of the park, to a hotspot for hiding places. There is a long stairwell that leads up a huge hill to a pavillion and field. We were slowly walking down those stairs, maybe half way down when we notice two folks way below us. Thinking it was one of our friends, we tell out: "HEY, WHO'S THAT?' Instead of the normal reaction, which is to call out your name then Sprint away trying to avoid getting tagged, a strange voice responds "Who the FUCK ARE YOU?" We at first started sprinting down at them, like we normally would. But then we realized they too, were sprinting at us. We don't even hesitate, we turn around and Sprint up the stairs, as fast as we can, adrenaline kicking it, hairs sticking up on the back of my neck. We make it up on top of the hill and pause, when I look back and they are RIGHT behind us, not more than ten feet away, which is absurdly fast because of how much distance we had had between us. We lose our shit and start sprinting as fast as possible to the park trail, that wraps around the entire park and leads to a road where one of our friend's live and that we use as a meet up spot between games. It's a two mile run back from where we are so we book it, sprinting as if our lives depended on it. Occasionally looking back and seeing the two people following behind. As we get nearer our energy is spent but we push on and make it to the street, looking back and there is no sign of the two strangers. All of our group is back at the house, lounging on the driveway, having decided to prank us that night, and while we were off in the park searching for them, they would meet back at the house until we gave up. We shared our story with them and some laughed in disbelief, others wanted to search the park for those two randoms, but we never discovered who they were. All I know is that they were incredibly fast, and shady as fuck.
7) "I'm gonna kill you, motherfucker!"
From AGalaxyOfMyOwn:
Not so much hiking as walking home after work one night a lot of years ago.
I normally got off around 7pm and my walks home were uneventful. However this night I covered a half shift for someone and worked until 11pm. There was a trail behind some train tracks I would take home to avoid walking beside traffic and whatnot.
I came to realize that night those trails were a lot different at 11pm than they were at 7pm. I happened across a guy who was laying by his bike moaning in pain. It didn't sound like real moaning, more like a kid's fake "I have a tummyache and can't go to school" moan.
I also noticed his bike was standing up on it's kickstand. It didn't make sense to me he would set his bike up properly only to fall to the ground in pain. He saw me and called out to me for help but I kept walking and turned to make my way back up towards the street.
As I turn, I suddenly hear some shuffling around and the previously "hurt" gentleman yells at me: "I'm gonna kill you, motherfucker!"
He hops on his bike and starts rushing towards me. At this point, I'm most of the way up the incline going towards the railroad tracks that ran parallel to the street. I haul ass up there and as I get over the tracks, my would-be assailant proceeds to hit the tracks with his front tire and flips over his handlebars, hitting the ground hard.
He is now moaning in pain for real and makes genuine calls for help. I used a pay phone at a gas station to call the cops and explain what happened. They get there and the officer explains to me this guy's a village idiot who does this shit to rob people, and it's not the first time they had to pick his ass up after he biffed on a bike trying to rob someone.
I told the officer he threatened to kill me and he laughed. Dude wasn't even armed, and apparently has had his ass kicked more times than he can count using that little line of his
8) My heart was beating so fast and i could taste blood.
From strawberry_myork:
my repost from a different r/askreddit post a while ago. wasn't so much "hiking," but it was late at night.
i was walking around my neighborhood alone once, enjoying the night air and watching the stars. there was this little pond near my house, with a wooded area that had trees, a bench and a rope swing that went out over the water. i sat down on the bench to look at the stars and i heard some rustling off to my right, towards the trees. bears were not uncommon where i'm from, so i took out my flashlight and shone it around over there. i didn't see anything. it freaked me out, so i kept my flashlight on and my senses aware, but i stayed on the bench to mull over my thoughts and watch the sky some more. i don't know why i did that, cause that's typical horror movie shit.
anyway, a few minutes pass and i near nothing more, so i lean back into the bench and start to relax a bit. i'm staring up at the sky with my flashlight pointed downwards, so as not to create any light pollution, when i notice something in the tree in my peripheral vision. i couldn't tell what it was but the branch was swaying slightly, and the rustling noise was back too. i immediately sat up and stared at it, but hadn't shone my flashlight at it yet in case of pissing off some huge bird or something else. i don't think i've ever been that scared. i remember my heart was beating so fast and i could taste blood. i stared at it for what seemed like forever, and it slowly stopped moving. but the shape was still there. bears do climb trees sometimes, so i was hesitant to run away in case that's what it was. so i just kept staring at it.
after a while i mustered up the little raisin-esque kahooneys to shine my goddamned light at the tree. it was a man. a fucking man. in the tree. crouched in the tree like some silent, naked monkey. he had no expression on his face but his eyes were open really, really wide. when my light landed on him he started to move like he was going to come down, but i didn't stick around to see if he did, i jumped the bench and ran for the fucking hills. i ran to my house and around to the back door and locked myself in without looking back once. i went around and made sure every window and door was locked, i even checked the attic.
I never go out alone anymore.
Edit: i did call the cops but they didn't find him and nothing came from it. I was hella paranoid for months after that, and started carrying pocketknives and/or pepper spray whenever i went out at night, even if i wasn't alone. Be safe, my dudes.
Edit 2: fixed opposing tenses
Edit 3: Thanks to all the lovely lads in the comments, I've concluded that this was, in fact, a crackhead and I happened to just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still don't recommend going out alone or unarmed at night, though. Be safe, please.
9) No animal did it.
From bandanajack:
Usually, it's what I hear. Large (fallen) branches snapping just out of sight of my head lamp. Or waking up an hour later and hearing steps and leaves rustling, but too exhausted and fearful to inspect or want to know (probably nothing important anyway).
One time I returned to my car after a late night hike with friends and my SUV was covered in... foot/hand/paw prints. They were just sooo large and even dragged a little in the dust. It was on/near a large military base in the mountains. I think some local enlisted may have made them to scare us. But it was just so well done. Pretty scary for all of us because it's what you'd imagine the Blair witch would do. No animal did it.
10) It was quiet as a grave.
From Cyanora:
I go hiking in the woods that permeate my town, sometimes so late that i get to see the sun rise out there.
The strangest thing i ever saw was what I could only describe as a shanty town was built up seemingly overnight deep into the woods. Simple little hovels made of scrap metal and bed sheets and a small firepit that someone had made out of an old tire, with the fire still burning. But that wasn't the weird part.
The weird part was that this was well passed midnight when i found this place and it was quiet as a grave. There was no one there. Someone made the trouble of getting a fire going and then left it. From the look of it this place could hold about a dozen or so people and yet there was nothing there but the fire they abandoned and whatever possessions they had left in the shanties.
11) Seeing your Dad look frightened is scarier than anything your own mind can come up with.
From -zombae-:
when i was very little, like five or six, my dad used to take me on all sorts of adventures through nature, especially when we owned a little cottage up in the scottish highlands. now, my dad is sort of a combo irish bloke + yorkshire laddy type of fellow and very spry (despite his being about 55 at the time), and on this particular occasion had decided we were going to go hiking way up into the cliffs (i was quite happy with this development as it meant a piggy back ride for at least 90% of the difficult bits.)
this was a proper, proper trek, he wanted to get to one of the highest bluffs so we could have an amazing 360 degree view of the gorgeous meadows and some sparkling sea, but after we reached the top plains, where it's all short, windwhipped grass and you can see for miles, he suddenly turned very still and very quiet.
when you're small, your parents are God so seeing your Dad look frightened is scarier than anything you own mind can come up with, so i was pulling on his arm and going, "what, what?" - my mum is epileptic and i saw her fits when i was a kid so i thought it was happening to him too, or something similar, and i wouldn't know what to do because we're up on this huge cliff and no one is around, when just as fast as he started it, he snapped out of it, fireman lifted me right up and just started striding away without a word.
over his shoulder, i could see a big, pale yellow object stuck into the ground like an obelisk. i know now that it was a refrigerator.
when i was older and i asked my Dad about it, he stiffened up and told me that when he was a boy in the 50s, he and his little friends had found an old style fridge in the woods, and being little boys, they opened it. well, of course, they had found a body - another child, who by whichever means had found themselves in the fridge and unable to get out. my Dad has never mentioned a gender which leads me to believe he either witnessed a very decomposed or skeletonised individual, but i can't ask him. remember that episode of the Simpsons where they unlock Homer's PTSD and it turns out he found a dead body when he was a teenager? my dad grew increasingly uncomfortable the first time we saw that episode and had excused himself to the kitchen before the ending. my Dad has seen some gnarly shit but for wherever reason he will not discuss anything further about this dead child in the fridge, only that it happened.
so when he explained, i assumed it was the trauma and i said something like, "oh, that's awful - so when you saw the fridge up there, it brang up the old memories?" and he honestly looked at me like i was an idiot, i'll never forget it.
"no, Amy," he said in a very low tone, "it was because it was the same fridge."
clarification edit: i was a little girl, so there was no chance my Dad was going to open the fridge while i was right there and also possibly relive the experience of seeing whatever a mummified corpse inside a fridge looks like. no, i don't believe it was the same fridge (it literally would have had to traverse an ocean), but i believe my Dad believes that it was. someone pointed out it should have been reported just in case - i have absolutely no doubts that he did, but he's in his 70's now so i don't intend on asking. i guess if you're ever up in the cliffs of the Isle of Skye, just keep your eyes peeled for a big beige fridge?
12) I stayed up all night with bear spray and a hatchet
From Yukon__C14:
While it did not happen during the hike, rather the camping, it was still the creepiest thing I’ve experienced out there.
Was working at a summer camp for kids and we went on an overnight outing. Had a cougar circle our camp from around 11pm to roughly 5am. It was crying out, hoping one of us would separate from the group. I stayed up all night with bear spray and a hatchet keeping an eye on it with the other staff.
13) I don't go hiking at night in that particular park anymore.
From Bored_Science:
I drove to a park to go hiking at night in the mountains (so safe I know) And I hadn't even turned off my car and I already feel like I'm being watched. There weren't any cars around so I thought maybe it was just me being paranoid for some reason. But for some reason I looked to my right and I see this weird looking humanoid shape on top of the little bump hill about 50 feet away. At first I though it was a weirdly shaped tree until I saw the arms move (no wind at all). So now I know there's a person staring at my car trying not to move, for what I assume is for me to get out of my car and leave to a more secluded area as we were next to the road.
Of course I left, I don't go hiking at night in that particular park anymore.
14) "There’s a man coming towards us"
From malibubuddtattoos-:
It was around midnight in a clearing for picnics in a large park that lots of people hike through, pitch black, no one around, i was with my boyfriend at the time, we got pretty frisky at one of the picnic tables, and I’m facing a river which is sort of illuminated from the moonlight, he’s facing the solid black tree line, we’re trying to have a good time and he becomes completely still and in a low voice says ‘there’s a man coming towards us’ I turn my head, see only a white T-shirt approaching us at a brisk walking pace from the trees, and that’s all I needed to see, I ran, knowing my bf would catch up. He did. I was never down for midnight forest stuff again. Haha
Edit - The man in the white shirt probably got within 25 feet of us by the time I had my shit together enough to bolt. Still freaks me out. He said nothing just walked very fast towards us. Neither of us looked back.
15) Human remains were found.
From wee_g:
Not super scary but was camping with a few buddies once pretty far out in a sort of sand dune type terrain in Australia. The plan was to just hike to a good spot we knew well and get drunk. We got to the spot and pitched tents and were chilling, our spot is on top of a really high dune because the view from the top was just mesmerizing with the ocean and wilderness.
Anyway's we just got the campfire started and out of no where this Jeep just comes flying over the lip of this hill right next to us and almost crushes a few friends of mine and one of the tents, like I said this sand dune is really high up so I have no idea how they managed to get up it at the speed they did. They slammed the brakes and no one can get a look at them as the windows were tinted and sped off over the dunes. That was more chaotic and random but the creepy part was about an hour later I went off to do a piss in a bush near by and was looking down the hill and just saw a figure staring up at me, friend of mine came behind me to piss in a bush next to me and scared the shit out of me.
When I pointed the figure out to my mate it just took off over a lip of a hill. Definitely a night I won't forget and I don't think I've returned to that spot since.
EDIT: I should have added all this was at night time. EDIT 2: Cannot believe I missed out this part, but this occurred around 3 years ago and about two months ago human remains were found right next to our spot, scary shit goes on in those dunes I tell you.
16) The dog she was walking started to growl.
From UWCG:
Back in our old place, one night my girlfriend and I were walking our dogs around the neighborhood; she's a lot smaller, so I was walking two of the dogs and she was walking one, who was a former service dog. He was a real gentle dog, albeit a bit older. Other than snatching the ball away from the others during fetch, he'd never shown a bit of aggression.
I walk a bit ahead of my girlfriend because of the two dogs pulling pretty hard on me, but not too far, maybe ten or fifteen feet ahead, but around a corner.
As I found out later, she'd slowed down in part because she'd noticed someone nearby acting strangely, scoping out a house I think; when he spotted her, he said hi and she responded in kind, asked how he was. Before he could answer, the dog she was walking started to growl and she apologized, commenting that he was a guard dog. The guy looked at her and said, "Well, he's doing a good job tonight." She was pretty spooked and hurried to catch up to me; we were more careful on night time walks from then on.
17) Two cubs and no mother.
From preserved_fish:
Two cubs and no mother. In other words, I had probably come between them.
18) Nothing good would happen if he realized I was listening.
From walkingmonster:
When I was younger and stupider and going to college in the north Georgia mountains, my friends and I would go night hiking a lot on the trails near campus. I got pretty familiar with the area, and being out in the wilderness at night in general, which probably made me too confident.
One night the full moon was out, and the weather was perfect, so visibility was crazy good (everything was basically washed in dim blue light). I was slightly stoned, and feeling adventurous, and I love doing fun stuff alone, so I decided to go enjoy a night hike by myself. I took a flashlight, but this was around 2002 so no cell phone. I chose a super easy trail that was mostly flat/ maybe a mile loop, in pretty secluded area, but not exactly a national park or anything (very rural area). I didn't even need my flashlight for most of it, and just hiked in the moonlight; it was actually a really cool/ beautiful experience at first.
At some point I started feeling uneasy, and maybe a millisecond later I heard a man's voice. It was coming from a good distance ahead of me, somewhere off in the woods, maybe from the right side of the trail. He was crying.
I'm honestly an empathetic person, and 99.9% of the time I hear someone crying I want to comfort/ help them in some way, but this time I felt sick in the stomach, like a dry panic attack, if that makes sense. I remember coming very close to calling out to him, because my brain was trying to tell me he might be hurt, which was the only reason I hesitated - but it was like my body shut my voice down before I could say anything, and I knew I had to stay very quiet. He was sobbing like he'd just found out a loved one had died, but also gibbering, and almost-babbling, like he was less than a person. There was a shrillness to it, under his crying, like he was holding back a scream - but perpetually, on and on, as if he'd been doing it all night. I remember it vividly, and my spine is tingling like crazy even as I write this. It's hard to explain, but I knew deep down he wasn't right in the head, and nothing good would happen if he realized I was listening.
I went back the way I came; it was like I had tunnel-hearing, and the only sound in the world was that crying. I was hyper-aware of everything else around me, and beyond paranoid that I would snap a branch, or snag my boot on something. I worried the man's crying would get louder if I wasn't paying razor sharp attention, getting closer, or turn into an outraged crazy-person scream.
Thankfully it just faded the further I got from it, and I made it back to my car. Still, I was convinced some wild-eyed hermit was going to rush out of the forest and bite me to death, right up to the second I locked my doors and got the fuck out of there. I finally had the rest of my panic attack on the drive back. I managed to park back at campus, and I just sat in the car and collected myself. Adrenaline is fucking powerful.
I have never felt a shred of guilt about leaving that guy crying out in the woods in the dark. I know I was slightly stoned, but slightly is the key word there. I'm convinced to this day I was in very real danger that night. Definitely not as insane as most of the stories in threads like this - but sometimes I get that same sick feeling deep down, whenever I wonder what might have happened if the moon been less bright, or if I'd been more responsible, and I'd decided to use my flashlight even once. He'd have seen me for sure.
19) I heard little girl laughter, high pitched and maniacal.
From DyingLion:
I walk at night in my rural area regularly. I’ve encountered black bears, coyotes, bobcats, angry deer, and everything on down, with no real concern. But the creepiest encounter, was a little black pickup truck with rainbow and unicorn stickers. Bubblegum pop music blaring, and it smelled like cottencandy when it passed me. First time it passed me it swerved to hit me. I jumped out of the way easily. I thought nothing of it really, just figured they were startled by seeing me at night with my reflective gear. The truck circled back and comes at me again. I saw it coming this time and grabbed my dog up just in time to jump into a ditch. I heard little girl laughter, high pitched and maniacal. The tiny truck circled back for a third go at me, but by then I was hiding in my neighbors shrubbery. I watched it slowly drive down the road, hearing giggling as it passed me. Fortunately it kept on going and I made it home just fine.
And that's why I'm never leaving my house again!!!!