[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Missing411 - Attempts to shed light on strange missing persons cases in national parks (Page 3 of 14)
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OP we need mspaint of artist rendition of dude in suit for putting up signs around the neighborhood. Looked a lot like this http://iv1.lisimg.com/image/7311298/600full-cillian-murphy.jpg ETA: Or this http://thumb7.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/2234105/210109039/stock-photo-man-in-a-suit-puts-medical-gloves-on-standing-in-front-of-a-forest-background-210109039.jpg Mspaint dude http://i.imgur.com/DWByY7k.jpg Very nice! |
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My parents Volunteer at parks in the winter. Mostly small state parks and almost every year they have had people commit suicide at them. One time while on a hike they found a note in a mountain dew bottle. I can see there being shenanigans here but i bet a bunch of them are people walking off into the woods to kill themselves One of the cases was a little boy up in the mountains above Fort Collins, CO. I heard the story and remember, it was very wierd. Not a suicide. |
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Quoted: One of the cases was a little boy up in the mountains above Fort Collins, CO. I heard the story and remember, it was very wierd. Not a suicide. Quoted: Quoted: My parents Volunteer at parks in the winter. Mostly small state parks and almost every year they have had people commit suicide at them. One time while on a hike they found a note in a mountain dew bottle. I can see there being shenanigans here but i bet a bunch of them are people walking off into the woods to kill themselves One of the cases was a little boy up in the mountains above Fort Collins, CO. I heard the story and remember, it was very wierd. Not a suicide. Mountain lion. That's what happened to my middle school gym teacher's little boy...  |
| Weird shit happens when you go out in the middle of no where. I still love it and will never quit exploring as many isolated places as I can, but people forget that it can be dangerous out there. The are the natural hazards of exposure, and falls, vehicle breakdowns, becoming lost, attacks from animals, and the most dangerous animal of them all: man himself. People are used to living a sheltered life, they don't realize that out in the wild places you are usually only a freak accident away from having to fight for your life. Even then, there still weird and unexplainable shit that goes on. |
OK. I got one. Back in 2006 - I think it was just before Labor Day weekend - it'd been a really hot summer of death and mayhem in our duty station of Rocky Mountain National Park. We got callout for an agency assist from the Boulder County Sheriffs Office who were a day into the search for a young Marine who had gone missing in El Dorado Canyon.
As far as vertical elevation goes, El Dorado Canyon is some wild country but it's literally 15 minutes from downtown Boulder, Colorado. To the north is Boulder but to the west, unseen and unnoticed by most is rural farmland. It kind of reminded me of the nuclear desert from The Hills Have Eyes. My team members and I were assigned as a technical strike team who was to scramble and climb some of the more remote, western most ridge tops and scan for sign. If need be we would rappel down to investigate any clues or sign of the missing young man. We would also be enlisted in the event a find was made and a technical recovery team was needed. So we arrive meet the young man's father and hiking partner. His father had come in from out-of-state if I remember right. His mom was there and both parents spoke to the teams heading out that morning. Things were pretty emotional as you can imagine. The young man's brother was either an active-duty Air Force officer or at the Academy in Colorado Springs but he walked in with our team. I spoke to the reporting party - Lance Hering's best friend - and he told me the story. Him and his Lance, who had done multiple combat tours overseas had needed to blow off some steam so they hiked in a couple miles to boulder around on some of the rocks there. Lance took a fall from a little over head high and hit his head. He was bleeding profusely and his longtime friend tried his best to staunch the flow with a T-shirt. He did what he could for Lance who is semi-lucid and in and out of consciousness. He sat Lance up against the rock with what little food and water they had left and ran for the trailhead. Once there he alerted the state park rangers who immediately grabbed a hasty med kit and ran back up the trail. 40 minute had elapsed and Lance was nowhere to be found. We walked past the point last seen, the boulder, and there was still a sizable pool of blood of the base. We worked all day, every now and then I'd look out to the Western expanse and hope that Lance hadn't somehow, in a delusional state, gotten up and wandered out of the park. There was a rail way and a couple of smaller country roads out there. What if he'do been picked up and dropped off some random spot somewhere in Denver. He was young and in good shape and it's not all that uncommon for people with head injuries to just keep going. We got called back to our park because the holiday weekend was getting apeshit crazy. That morning 120 Marines showed up to assist with the search for Lance. I think the search went on for five days total with no significant leads. His parents hoped that maybe he was still alive out there and that he wandered out to that road. Not in his right mind, he had hitchhiked and ended up in some big city. Maybe he was homeless today but soon would snap out of it. Others talked of kidnap. A couple of the search teams reported seeing a lot of mountain lion sign. I saw some big scat. If I remember correctly a canine team had actually come across a cat who had hissed and postured as if it was guarding something. Although the Sheriff's Office didn't say it, a lot of us thought that maybe Lance had gotten up and wandered off and gotten himself grabbed by a big cat. No one would've found his body cached under a rock and covered in leaves and dirt. Searching for responsive person is hard enough imagine looking for a scattering of bones. Lance Hering had disappeared into thin air. Two years later, Lance is found.... 
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Mountain lion. That's what happened to my middle school gym teacher's little boy...
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My parents Volunteer at parks in the winter. Mostly small state parks and almost every year they have had people commit suicide at them. One time while on a hike they found a note in a mountain dew bottle. I can see there being shenanigans here but i bet a bunch of them are people walking off into the woods to kill themselves One of the cases was a little boy up in the mountains above Fort Collins, CO. I heard the story and remember, it was very wierd. Not a suicide. Mountain lion. That's what happened to my middle school gym teacher's little boy...
If I recall correctly, he was seperated, seen later by two fishermen, but ended up at a much higher elevation, and his shoes, intact, were stacked on neatly on a rock. |
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Went hiking by myself one day to The Chimney Tops in the Smokies. It's a short trail horizontally, but it's steep as hell. There's one straightaway that just goes up at a 60deg angle for what seems like forever. About halfway up the trail, it intersects the Appalachian Trail. Anyways, Went up to the top and enjoyed the view. On my way down I get past the AT and getting pretty close to the end, and all the sudden this dude appears walking behind me. Early 20's, jet black hair, and he's wearing business attire.  Dark grey slacks, darkish shirt, tie, and fancy black shoes. Reminds me a lot now of the scarecrow guy on Batman Begins. Just walking behind me about 20 yards keeping pace. Something really felt extremely off, other than his dress, and he freaked me out. WHO THE HELL goes hiking in business suits? Who even goes to Gatlinburg in a business suit? All I had on me to defend myself was a camera tripod, so I decided to start walking slower and let him pass me, thinking I'd be safer if he were in front of me than behind.
I step off the trail a little ways and act like I'm about to start taking pictures of some flowers. He gets about 5yds away from me and stops and looks at me. A couple seconds later, he asks in a very calm tone "how far do you think we are from the parking lot?" He wasn't sweating despite his clothes and the hot spring day. I was about to fight right there, but said "about half a mile." He said, "which direction?" I looked at him like  and pointed DOWN. Then, like he was snapped out of a daze, he says "thanks" and keeps walking.
I waited about 3min (which was probably a mistake, should've kept him in sight) and proceeded down the trail. Once I got to the pull-off/parking lot, I didn't see him anywhere. In fact, that day, there was nobody else on the trail, except for a couple guys I saw on the top of the chimneys hours before. Quoted:
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Tell us about the strange experience you mentioned This. You have a tag. Went hiking by myself one day to The Chimney Tops in the Smokies. It's a short trail horizontally, but it's steep as hell. There's one straightaway that just goes up at a 60deg angle for what seems like forever. About halfway up the trail, it intersects the Appalachian Trail. Anyways, Went up to the top and enjoyed the view. On my way down I get past the AT and getting pretty close to the end, and all the sudden this dude appears walking behind me. Early 20's, jet black hair, and he's wearing business attire. Dark grey slacks, darkish shirt, tie, and fancy black shoes. Reminds me a lot now of the scarecrow guy on Batman Begins. Just walking behind me about 20 yards keeping pace. Something really felt extremely off, other than his dress, and he freaked me out. WHO THE HELL goes hiking in business suits? Who even goes to Gatlinburg in a business suit? All I had on me to defend myself was a camera tripod, so I decided to start walking slower and let him pass me, thinking I'd be safer if he were in front of me than behind.
I step off the trail a little ways and act like I'm about to start taking pictures of some flowers. He gets about 5yds away from me and stops and looks at me. A couple seconds later, he asks in a very calm tone "how far do you think we are from the parking lot?" He wasn't sweating despite his clothes and the hot spring day. I was about to fight right there, but said "about half a mile." He said, "which direction?" I looked at him like and pointed DOWN. Then, like he was snapped out of a daze, he says "thanks" and keeps walking.
I waited about 3min (which was probably a mistake, should've kept him in sight) and proceeded down the trail. Once I got to the pull-off/parking lot, I didn't see him anywhere. In fact, that day, there was nobody else on the trail, except for a couple guys I saw on the top of the chimneys hours before. Angels have the ability to take on the form of a human. Many needy people are actually Angels and by helping them you may not be aware (Hebrews 13:2). This also applies to demons/fallen angels taking human form. |
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The biggest gripe I have is that he's selling only paperback books, and they are through a bigfoot website. The amazon books are being resold at much higher rates because people other than Paulides see a demand and think charging $150 will fulfill it. I wish he'd 1.) Lay off selling through a bigfoot website if he wants to be taken seriously, and 2.) Offer his books digitally. CanAm Project Quoted:
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I looked into getting some of his books last week. Most were over $150 on Amazon. The biggest gripe I have is that he's selling only paperback books, and they are through a bigfoot website. The amazon books are being resold at much higher rates because people other than Paulides see a demand and think charging $150 will fulfill it. I wish he'd 1.) Lay off selling through a bigfoot website if he wants to be taken seriously, and 2.) Offer his books digitally. CanAm Project You realize that Paulides is a bigfoot "researcher" right? So it's not surprising that he sells that way. |
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So, I have to add this, I have hiked the wilderness of Western Washington since I was 8 but I have never had a weirder or more odd interaction than I did in July of 2013.
We had just taken my 5 yo on an overnight into a USFS wilderness area and on the way out to the trailhead I thought we encountered a bear... ...I made a thread about asking for a better backpacking rifle which is now archived here http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1514905_Backpacking_rifle__am_I_doin_it_wrong_.html So here was the weird thing my dog (Husky-Shepard) did not even have a clue, never even raised a back hair. My wife and I are the only ones that heard the growling. I can reconcile the fact that she (dog) did not smell anything as we were hiking in a river canyon. But, that dog would bark and chew at the windows (I still love huskies) if our neighbors so much as shut their car door. That stinky hairy bitch hated everyone except the three of us and her cats. But nary a peep from her, just weird is all, as I trust a dog's sense very highly. |
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After the last thread on this guy, I went and ordered his books from his website, it was about $100 and got them all in a timely fashion. Read them through back to back. They are interesting, but I found most of the stories could have very mundane explanations. He never really comes out with any theory of his own, and he makes a bigger deal of the NPS not keeping a record of missing individuals than I think he needs to. In the later books he repeats a fair amount of the stories from his earlier books. He has some charts and graphs about missing individuals, but when you look at it over the context of 100 plus years, and across the country, it's not really a unusually large number of individuals. There are clusters of areas with large numbers of missing individuals, but is it a function of inhospitable terrain or something else. For example, he talks about large numbers of individuals with disabilities turning up missing, with implication that something is targeting them. I think it is more likely that individuals with disabilities would be more likely to have problems dealing with difficult terrain and inclement weather. The most interesting cases were where the individual (usually a child) disappears from inside a house or a yard. I also read the Reddit stories, they are fictional . I worked for a Federal land management agency for 35 years, we did not, and do not have dedicated search and rescue positions. Whenever a person turns up missing it is turned over to the local law enforcement agency. I have participated in several searches over the years in my capacity as member of our local law enforcement, but the Feds don't have people or programs dedicated specifically for that. The most interesting search I was on was looking for a young lady who turned up missing. It took us three days to find her, after she had been reported as missing a week. We found her by smell. It seems that drugs and booze don't mix well even in the woods. She had the half empty whiskey bottle still clenched firmly in her hand when she was found. Yup. Same with the "zomg weather rolled in right after they disappeared!" thing. Gee, do you think that maybe the times they have trouble finding a body might be the ones that happen to coincide with bad weather making the search more difficult? Nah, must be bigfoot and his weather machine. |
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Just read part 1 of the reddit thing... WOW that is some freaky stuff. The staircases are the weirdest thing... Why are they told NEVER to go near them? Why didn't he ever actually check one out? This his story is not quite believable on unexplained or explainable deaths. LEOs are (normally) are part of SAR and a kid that has been missing for 2 month, 10 miles away from where he went missing would be investigated as a homicide, it would not be a recover op |
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Quoted: OK. I got one. Back in 2006 - I think it was just before Labor Day weekend - it'd been a really hot summer of death and mayhem in our duty station of Rocky Mountain National Park. We got callout for an agency assist from the Boulder County Sheriffs Office who were a day into the search for a young Marine who had gone missing in El Dorado Canyon. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/09/16/us/16marine600.1.jpg As far as vertical elevation goes, El Dorado Canyon is some wild country but it's literally 15 minutes from downtown Boulder, Colorado. To the north is Boulder but to the west, unseen and unnoticed by most is rural farmland. It kind of reminded me of the nuclear desert from The Hills Have Eyes. My team members and I were assigned as a technical strike team who was to scramble and climb some of the more remote, western most ridge tops and scan for sign. If need be we would rappel down to investigate any clues or sign of the missing young man. We would also be enlisted in the event a find was made and a technical recovery team was needed. So we arrive meet the young man's father and hiking partner. His father had come in from out-of-state if I remember right. His mom was there and both parents spoke to the teams heading out that morning. Things were pretty emotional as you can imagine. The young man's brother was either an active-duty Air Force officer or at the Academy in Colorado Springs but he walked in with our team. I spoke to the reporting party - Lance Hering's best friend - and he told me the story. Him and his Lance, who had done multiple combat tours overseas had needed to blow off some steam so they hiked in a couple miles to boulder around on some of the rocks there. Lance took a fall from a little over head high and hit his head. He was bleeding profusely and his longtime friend tried his best to staunch the flow with a T-shirt. He did what he could for Lance who is semi-lucid and in and out of consciousness. He sat Lance up against the rock with what little food and water they had left and ran for the trailhead. Once there he alerted the state park rangers who immediately grabbed a hasty med kit and ran back up the trail. 40 minute had elapsed and Lance was nowhere to be found. We walked past the point last seen, the boulder, and there was still a sizable pool of blood of the base. We worked all day, every now and then I'd look out to the Western expanse and hope that Lance hadn't somehow, in a delusional state, gotten up and wandered out of the park. There was a rail way and a couple of smaller country roads out there. What if he'do been picked up and dropped off some random spot somewhere in Denver. He was young and in good shape and it's not all that uncommon for people with head injuries to just keep going. We got called back to our park because the holiday weekend was getting apeshit crazy. That morning 120 Marines showed up to assist with the search for Lance. I think the search went on for five days total with no significant leads. His parents hoped that maybe he was still alive out there and that he wandered out to that road. Not in his right mind, he had hitchhiked and ended up in some big city. Maybe he was homeless today but soon would snap out of it. Others talked of kidnap. A couple of the search teams reported seeing a lot of mountain lion sign. I saw some big scat. If I remember correctly a canine team had actually come across a cat who had hissed and postured as if it was guarding something. Although the Sheriff's Office didn't say it, a lot of us thought that maybe Lance had gotten up and wandered off and gotten himself grabbed by a big cat. No one would've found his body cached under a rock and covered in leaves and dirt. Searching for responsive person is hard enough imagine looking for a scattering of bones. Lance Hering had disappeared into thin air. Two years later, Lance is found.... |
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Because it's fiction? Quoted:
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Just read part 1 of the reddit thing... WOW that is some freaky stuff. The staircases are the weirdest thing... Why are they told NEVER to go near them? Why didn't he ever actually check one out? For those who don't know, that's posted on the "No Sleep" horror fiction sub-reddit. |
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Realistically, people going missing in out of the way places don't really need some paranormal or government conspiracy thing to make them creepy. Wild animals, suicides, freak accidents probably account for the majority of them. And sure you've got the weird ones where someone goes missing "50 yards away" from the person they were with. So? If you've been out in the wilderness, you know that you sometimes don't hear people from relatively close distances. And you absolutely have human predators stalking these locations. They're out of the way, but not so out of the way that they don't have parking lots. Plenty of room to hide. Isolated victims. Slow response times. Carry a gun. Give your kids one too. All of these stories include the line "I was watching my kids like a hawk and looked away for one second..." |
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I listen to that on the way to work just for entertainment, crazy shit Quoted:
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... he's been on Coast to Coast several times I listen to that on the way to work just for entertainment, crazy shit I was walking on a trail on Hokkaido island and was followed by a short guy with a large nose for an hour and several attempts to ditch him. I finally lost him in a cave. I was pretty creaped out |
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Angels have the ability to take on the form of a human. Many needy people are actually Angels and by helping them you may not be aware (Hebrews 13:2). This also applies to demons/fallen angels taking human form. Quoted:
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Tell us about the strange experience you mentioned This. You have a tag. Went hiking by myself one day to The Chimney Tops in the Smokies. It's a short trail horizontally, but it's steep as hell. There's one straightaway that just goes up at a 60deg angle for what seems like forever. About halfway up the trail, it intersects the Appalachian Trail. Anyways, Went up to the top and enjoyed the view. On my way down I get past the AT and getting pretty close to the end, and all the sudden this dude appears walking behind me. Early 20's, jet black hair, and he's wearing business attire. Dark grey slacks, darkish shirt, tie, and fancy black shoes. Reminds me a lot now of the scarecrow guy on Batman Begins. Just walking behind me about 20 yards keeping pace. Something really felt extremely off, other than his dress, and he freaked me out. WHO THE HELL goes hiking in business suits? Who even goes to Gatlinburg in a business suit? All I had on me to defend myself was a camera tripod, so I decided to start walking slower and let him pass me, thinking I'd be safer if he were in front of me than behind.
I step off the trail a little ways and act like I'm about to start taking pictures of some flowers. He gets about 5yds away from me and stops and looks at me. A couple seconds later, he asks in a very calm tone "how far do you think we are from the parking lot?" He wasn't sweating despite his clothes and the hot spring day. I was about to fight right there, but said "about half a mile." He said, "which direction?" I looked at him like and pointed DOWN. Then, like he was snapped out of a daze, he says "thanks" and keeps walking.
I waited about 3min (which was probably a mistake, should've kept him in sight) and proceeded down the trail. Once I got to the pull-off/parking lot, I didn't see him anywhere. In fact, that day, there was nobody else on the trail, except for a couple guys I saw on the top of the chimneys hours before. Angels have the ability to take on the form of a human. Many needy people are actually Angels and by helping them you may not be aware (Hebrews 13:2). This also applies to demons/fallen angels taking human form. I may have encountered one. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did. 
One afternoon about 1987, I was eating at the Cattle Barron restaurant in Portales NM for lunch with my then-GF. While we were eating, what appeared to be a tall, somewhat well dressed Hispanic woman about mid-40s or so in a black skirt walks in (my back was to the entrance), passes our table on to the back of the restaurant where a series of tables had been set up for a party that had just paid their bill and left and starts eating leftovers from the table. That's when I started to notice something wasn't right. She walks right up and starts eating what's left of a chicken leg (I think) while standing. She then looks at me directly, and asks me a question using my first name. I can't remember what the question was, but I was shocked. I was, in fact, speechless. How in the Hell did she know who I was? How did she know my name? I don't know who this woman is, and never saw her before. I don't even remember if I understood what her question was, but I didn't know what to do. She used my first name and it left us both stunned. I should have offered to buy her something to eat, but I didn't. The way she glared at me led me to believe she was testing me. She knew exactly who I was. I failed that test, and I pray humbly to almighty God he will forgive me whether she was an angel or not. The manager (his name was Mike) came over later on and told us he asked her if he could help her. She just stood there and ate food off the plates the customers had left. He told us he offered to feed her a bowl of soup if she was hungry, but she declined and politely left as soon as he told her she needed to leave. Maybe there's a rational explanation, but I haven't been able to think of what it could be. |
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Quoted: I may have encountered one. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did. One afternoon about 1987, I was eating at the Cattle Barron restaurant in Portales NM for lunch with my then-GF. While we were eating, what appeared to be a tall, somewhat well dressed Hispanic woman about mid-40s or so in a black skirt walks in (my back was to the entrance), passes our table on to the back of the restaurant where a series of tables had been set up for a party that had just paid their bill and left and starts eating leftovers from the table. That's when I started to notice something wasn't right. She walks right up and starts eating what's left of a chicken leg (I think) while standing. She then looks at me directly, and asks me a question using my first name. I can't remember what the question was, but I was shocked. I was, in fact, speechless. How in the Hell did she know who I was? How did she know my name? I don't know who this woman is, and never saw her before. I don't even remember if I understood what her question was, but I didn't know what to do. She used my first name and it left us both stunned. I should have offered to buy her something to eat, but I didn't. The way she glared at me led me to believe she was testing me. She knew exactly who I was. I failed that test, and I pray humbly to almighty God he will forgive me whether she was an angel or not. The manager (his name was Mike) came over later on and told us he asked her if he could help her. She just stood there and ate food off the plates the customers had left. He told us he offered to feed her a bowl of soup if she was hungry, but she declined and politely left as soon as he told her she needed to leave. Maybe there's a rational explanation, but I haven't been able to think of what it could be. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Tell us about the strange experience you mentioned This. You have a tag. Went hiking by myself one day to The Chimney Tops in the Smokies. It's a short trail horizontally, but it's steep as hell. There's one straightaway that just goes up at a 60deg angle for what seems like forever. About halfway up the trail, it intersects the Appalachian Trail. Anyways, Went up to the top and enjoyed the view. On my way down I get past the AT and getting pretty close to the end, and all the sudden this dude appears walking behind me. Early 20's, jet black hair, and he's wearing business attire. Dark grey slacks, darkish shirt, tie, and fancy black shoes. Reminds me a lot now of the scarecrow guy on Batman Begins. Just walking behind me about 20 yards keeping pace. Something really felt extremely off, other than his dress, and he freaked me out. WHO THE HELL goes hiking in business suits? Who even goes to Gatlinburg in a business suit? All I had on me to defend myself was a camera tripod, so I decided to start walking slower and let him pass me, thinking I'd be safer if he were in front of me than behind.I step off the trail a little ways and act like I'm about to start taking pictures of some flowers. He gets about 5yds away from me and stops and looks at me. A couple seconds later, he asks in a very calm tone "how far do you think we are from the parking lot?" He wasn't sweating despite his clothes and the hot spring day. I was about to fight right there, but said "about half a mile." He said, "which direction?" I looked at him like and pointed DOWN. Then, like he was snapped out of a daze, he says "thanks" and keeps walking.I waited about 3min (which was probably a mistake, should've kept him in sight) and proceeded down the trail. Once I got to the pull-off/parking lot, I didn't see him anywhere. In fact, that day, there was nobody else on the trail, except for a couple guys I saw on the top of the chimneys hours before. Angels have the ability to take on the form of a human. Many needy people are actually Angels and by helping them you may not be aware (Hebrews 13:2). This also applies to demons/fallen angels taking human form. I may have encountered one. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did. One afternoon about 1987, I was eating at the Cattle Barron restaurant in Portales NM for lunch with my then-GF. While we were eating, what appeared to be a tall, somewhat well dressed Hispanic woman about mid-40s or so in a black skirt walks in (my back was to the entrance), passes our table on to the back of the restaurant where a series of tables had been set up for a party that had just paid their bill and left and starts eating leftovers from the table. That's when I started to notice something wasn't right. She walks right up and starts eating what's left of a chicken leg (I think) while standing. She then looks at me directly, and asks me a question using my first name. I can't remember what the question was, but I was shocked. I was, in fact, speechless. How in the Hell did she know who I was? How did she know my name? I don't know who this woman is, and never saw her before. I don't even remember if I understood what her question was, but I didn't know what to do. She used my first name and it left us both stunned. I should have offered to buy her something to eat, but I didn't. The way she glared at me led me to believe she was testing me. She knew exactly who I was. I failed that test, and I pray humbly to almighty God he will forgive me whether she was an angel or not. The manager (his name was Mike) came over later on and told us he asked her if he could help her. She just stood there and ate food off the plates the customers had left. He told us he offered to feed her a bowl of soup if she was hungry, but she declined and politely left as soon as he told her she needed to leave. Maybe there's a rational explanation, but I haven't been able to think of what it could be. |
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I may have encountered one. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did.
One afternoon about 1987, I was eating at the Cattle Barron restaurant in Portales NM for lunch with my then-GF. While we were eating, what appeared to be a tall, somewhat well dressed Hispanic woman about mid-40s or so in a black skirt walks in (my back was to the entrance), passes our table on to the back of the restaurant where a series of tables had been set up for a party that had just paid their bill and left and starts eating leftovers from the table. That's when I started to notice something wasn't right. She walks right up and starts eating what's left of a chicken leg (I think) while standing. She then looks at me directly, and asks me a question using my first name. I can't remember what the question was, but I was shocked. I was, in fact, speechless. How in the Hell did she know who I was? How did she know my name? I don't know who this woman is, and never saw her before. I don't even remember if I understood what her question was, but I didn't know what to do. She used my first name and it left us both stunned. I should have offered to buy her something to eat, but I didn't. The way she glared at me led me to believe she was testing me. She knew exactly who I was. I failed that test, and I pray humbly to almighty God he will forgive me whether she was an angel or not. The manager (his name was Mike) came over later on and told us he asked her if he could help her. She just stood there and ate food off the plates the customers had left. He told us he offered to feed her a bowl of soup if she was hungry, but she declined and politely left as soon as he told her she needed to leave. Maybe there's a rational explanation, but I haven't been able to think of what it could be. Quoted:
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Tell us about the strange experience you mentioned This. You have a tag. Went hiking by myself one day to The Chimney Tops in the Smokies. It's a short trail horizontally, but it's steep as hell. There's one straightaway that just goes up at a 60deg angle for what seems like forever. About halfway up the trail, it intersects the Appalachian Trail. Anyways, Went up to the top and enjoyed the view. On my way down I get past the AT and getting pretty close to the end, and all the sudden this dude appears walking behind me. Early 20's, jet black hair, and he's wearing business attire. Dark grey slacks, darkish shirt, tie, and fancy black shoes. Reminds me a lot now of the scarecrow guy on Batman Begins. Just walking behind me about 20 yards keeping pace. Something really felt extremely off, other than his dress, and he freaked me out. WHO THE HELL goes hiking in business suits? Who even goes to Gatlinburg in a business suit? All I had on me to defend myself was a camera tripod, so I decided to start walking slower and let him pass me, thinking I'd be safer if he were in front of me than behind.
I step off the trail a little ways and act like I'm about to start taking pictures of some flowers. He gets about 5yds away from me and stops and looks at me. A couple seconds later, he asks in a very calm tone "how far do you think we are from the parking lot?" He wasn't sweating despite his clothes and the hot spring day. I was about to fight right there, but said "about half a mile." He said, "which direction?" I looked at him like and pointed DOWN. Then, like he was snapped out of a daze, he says "thanks" and keeps walking.
I waited about 3min (which was probably a mistake, should've kept him in sight) and proceeded down the trail. Once I got to the pull-off/parking lot, I didn't see him anywhere. In fact, that day, there was nobody else on the trail, except for a couple guys I saw on the top of the chimneys hours before. Angels have the ability to take on the form of a human. Many needy people are actually Angels and by helping them you may not be aware (Hebrews 13:2). This also applies to demons/fallen angels taking human form. I may have encountered one. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did.
One afternoon about 1987, I was eating at the Cattle Barron restaurant in Portales NM for lunch with my then-GF. While we were eating, what appeared to be a tall, somewhat well dressed Hispanic woman about mid-40s or so in a black skirt walks in (my back was to the entrance), passes our table on to the back of the restaurant where a series of tables had been set up for a party that had just paid their bill and left and starts eating leftovers from the table. That's when I started to notice something wasn't right. She walks right up and starts eating what's left of a chicken leg (I think) while standing. She then looks at me directly, and asks me a question using my first name. I can't remember what the question was, but I was shocked. I was, in fact, speechless. How in the Hell did she know who I was? How did she know my name? I don't know who this woman is, and never saw her before. I don't even remember if I understood what her question was, but I didn't know what to do. She used my first name and it left us both stunned. I should have offered to buy her something to eat, but I didn't. The way she glared at me led me to believe she was testing me. She knew exactly who I was. I failed that test, and I pray humbly to almighty God he will forgive me whether she was an angel or not. The manager (his name was Mike) came over later on and told us he asked her if he could help her. She just stood there and ate food off the plates the customers had left. He told us he offered to feed her a bowl of soup if she was hungry, but she declined and politely left as soon as he told her she needed to leave. Maybe there's a rational explanation, but I haven't been able to think of what it could be. I sat in an alley holding the hand of a pregnant, drug adict as she told me her life story. She poured her heart out and admitted she was planning on killing herself. She left the needle on the ground and left at sunrise. I hope they both made it. she was only 16 and had a rough life |
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I sat in an alley holding the hand of a pregnant, drug adict as she told me her life story. She poured her heart out and admitted she was planning on killing herself. She left the needle on the ground and left at sunrise. I hope they both made it. she was only 16 and had a rough life You did more for that young girl than I did for that woman eating someone else's scraps from a dirty plate they were finished with. Whether that pregnant gal you sat with made it another day, or another year or died that night isn't the point. You did well. |
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You did more for that young girl than I did for that woman eating someone else's scraps from a dirty plate they were finished with. Whether that pregnant gal you sat with made it another day, or another year or died that night isn't the point. You did well. Quoted:
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I sat in an alley holding the hand of a pregnant, drug adict as she told me her life story. She poured her heart out and admitted she was planning on killing herself. She left the needle on the ground and left at sunrise. I hope they both made it. she was only 16 and had a rough life You did more for that young girl than I did for that woman eating someone else's scraps from a dirty plate they were finished with. Whether that pregnant gal you sat with made it another day, or another year or died that night isn't the point. You did well. That was a turning point for me with guilt and depression after my medsep. I was drinking a couple bottles of whiskey a week and spending a lot of money at strip clubs with one failed suicide attempt. She helped me as much as I pray I helped her. |
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There are stories of people in the middle of nowhere in suits and dress cloths from all over. In AZ there have been a number of sightings and as the OP sighting they aren't sweating when its hot out and they give you a sketchy feeling and either don't say much or anything at all. When my dad and I dit the AT the Smokey's were the only section that felt odd as eyes were on us. Even when we would be with another group of hikers others would comment on the feeling as well. Quoted:
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Tell us about the strange experience you mentioned This. You have a tag. Went hiking by myself one day to The Chimney Tops in the Smokies. It's a short trail horizontally, but it's steep as hell. There's one straightaway that just goes up at a 60deg angle for what seems like forever. About halfway up the trail, it intersects the Appalachian Trail. Anyways, Went up to the top and enjoyed the view. On my way down I get past the AT and getting pretty close to the end, and all the sudden this dude appears walking behind me. Early 20's, jet black hair, and he's wearing business attire. Dark grey slacks, darkish shirt, tie, and fancy black shoes. Reminds me a lot now of the scarecrow guy on Batman Begins. Just walking behind me about 20 yards keeping pace. Something really felt extremely off, other than his dress, and he freaked me out. WHO THE HELL goes hiking in business suits? Who even goes to Gatlinburg in a business suit? All I had on me to defend myself was a camera tripod, so I decided to start walking slower and let him pass me, thinking I'd be safer if he were in front of me than behind.
I step off the trail a little ways and act like I'm about to start taking pictures of some flowers. He gets about 5yds away from me and stops and looks at me. A couple seconds later, he asks in a very calm tone "how far do you think we are from the parking lot?" He wasn't sweating despite his clothes and the hot spring day. I was about to fight right there, but said "about half a mile." He said, "which direction?" I looked at him like and pointed DOWN. Then, like he was snapped out of a daze, he says "thanks" and keeps walking.
I waited about 3min (which was probably a mistake, should've kept him in sight) and proceeded down the trail. Once I got to the pull-off/parking lot, I didn't see him anywhere. In fact, that day, there was nobody else on the trail, except for a couple guys I saw on the top of the chimneys hours before. There are stories of people in the middle of nowhere in suits and dress cloths from all over. In AZ there have been a number of sightings and as the OP sighting they aren't sweating when its hot out and they give you a sketchy feeling and either don't say much or anything at all. When my dad and I dit the AT the Smokey's were the only section that felt odd as eyes were on us. Even when we would be with another group of hikers others would comment on the feeling as well. Yup never ignore that, your senses are alerting you of danger. |
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Quoted: No I don't think I have, unless I was drunk. Don't freak me out man, lol. Quoted: Quoted: Weird have you posted that before here? Somewhere I have heard almost that exact same story or one very similar to that No I don't think I have, unless I was drunk. Don't freak me out man, lol. Well hell I read a story about a man in a suit on the trail out in the sticks here sometime too. Seriously. Seriously |
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Weird have you posted that before here? Somewhere I have heard almost that exact same story or one very similar to that Quoted:
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Tell us about the strange experience you mentioned This. You have a tag. Went hiking by myself one day to The Chimney Tops in the Smokies. It's a short trail horizontally, but it's steep as hell. There's one straightaway that just goes up at a 60deg angle for what seems like forever. About halfway up the trail, it intersects the Appalachian Trail. Anyways, Went up to the top and enjoyed the view. On my way down I get past the AT and getting pretty close to the end, and all the sudden this dude appears walking behind me. Early 20's, jet black hair, and he's wearing business attire. Dark grey slacks, darkish shirt, tie, and fancy black shoes. Reminds me a lot now of the scarecrow guy on Batman Begins. Just walking behind me about 20 yards keeping pace. Something really felt extremely off, other than his dress, and he freaked me out. WHO THE HELL goes hiking in business suits? Who even goes to Gatlinburg in a business suit? All I had on me to defend myself was a camera tripod, so I decided to start walking slower and let him pass me, thinking I'd be safer if he were in front of me than behind.
I step off the trail a little ways and act like I'm about to start taking pictures of some flowers. He gets about 5yds away from me and stops and looks at me. A couple seconds later, he asks in a very calm tone "how far do you think we are from the parking lot?" He wasn't sweating despite his clothes and the hot spring day. I was about to fight right there, but said "about half a mile." He said, "which direction?" I looked at him like and pointed DOWN. Then, like he was snapped out of a daze, he says "thanks" and keeps walking.
I waited about 3min (which was probably a mistake, should've kept him in sight) and proceeded down the trail. Once I got to the pull-off/parking lot, I didn't see him anywhere. In fact, that day, there was nobody else on the trail, except for a couple guys I saw on the top of the chimneys hours before. Same...it involved a long bridge though, if I remember correctly. Maybe I saw it on reddit? |
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Quoted: Same...it involved a long bridge though, if I remember correctly. Maybe I saw it on reddit? Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Tell us about the strange experience you mentioned This. You have a tag. Went hiking by myself one day to The Chimney Tops in the Smokies. It's a short trail horizontally, but it's steep as hell. There's one straightaway that just goes up at a 60deg angle for what seems like forever. About halfway up the trail, it intersects the Appalachian Trail. Anyways, Went up to the top and enjoyed the view. On my way down I get past the AT and getting pretty close to the end, and all the sudden this dude appears walking behind me. Early 20's, jet black hair, and he's wearing business attire. Dark grey slacks, darkish shirt, tie, and fancy black shoes. Reminds me a lot now of the scarecrow guy on Batman Begins. Just walking behind me about 20 yards keeping pace. Something really felt extremely off, other than his dress, and he freaked me out. WHO THE HELL goes hiking in business suits? Who even goes to Gatlinburg in a business suit? All I had on me to defend myself was a camera tripod, so I decided to start walking slower and let him pass me, thinking I'd be safer if he were in front of me than behind.I step off the trail a little ways and act like I'm about to start taking pictures of some flowers. He gets about 5yds away from me and stops and looks at me. A couple seconds later, he asks in a very calm tone "how far do you think we are from the parking lot?" He wasn't sweating despite his clothes and the hot spring day. I was about to fight right there, but said "about half a mile." He said, "which direction?" I looked at him like and pointed DOWN. Then, like he was snapped out of a daze, he says "thanks" and keeps walking.I waited about 3min (which was probably a mistake, should've kept him in sight) and proceeded down the trail. Once I got to the pull-off/parking lot, I didn't see him anywhere. In fact, that day, there was nobody else on the trail, except for a couple guys I saw on the top of the chimneys hours before. Same...it involved a long bridge though, if I remember correctly. Maybe I saw it on reddit?  |
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Quoted: This seems to happen a lot here in WA. People who have no idea what they are doing go out in the woods with no supplies and get into trouble. They think that the outdoors is like a Disney movie and find out too late that Mother Nature can be a real bitch and that a lot of her lessons are pass/fail. Quoted: Quoted: From the Sad But Not Spooky Files. A couple of years ago, a young woman named Maureen Kelly walked away from a campground in Skamania County here in WA., in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. She wanted to go on a 'spiritual quest', and left the campground around 5:00 pm wearing only a fanny pack...apparently, naked is more spiritual, who'dathunkit. They tracked her across a ravine, then lost the track...no further trace of her has been found. Nothing. Nada. Zip. However, I know just how dangerous the back woods of Western Washington really are, just how steep and slick and treacherous the ground can be, how astoundingly thick the undergrowth is. I love the mountains and forests of Washington, don't get me wrong...but I know, I know the mountains don't love me back. At best, they are utterly indifferent to me, at worst actively hostile and trying very hard to kill me. A lesson this poor girl learned the hardest way, I'm afraid. This seems to happen a lot here in WA. People who have no idea what they are doing go out in the woods with no supplies and get into trouble. They think that the outdoors is like a Disney movie and find out too late that Mother Nature can be a real bitch and that a lot of her lessons are pass/fail. |
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Well hell I read a story about a man in a suit on the trail out in the sticks here sometime too. Seriously. Seriously Quoted:
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Weird have you posted that before here? Somewhere I have heard almost that exact same story or one very similar to that No I don't think I have, unless I was drunk. Don't freak me out man, lol. Well hell I read a story about a man in a suit on the trail out in the sticks here sometime too. Seriously. Seriously The first time my dad and I went to hanging lake in Glenwood canyon Colorado we came across 2 women in business suits hiking down the trail close to the top. Both had done the entire trail in high heels.
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Quoted: This is what I tell everyone that will listen to me but they just say I'm full of shit while making fun of me for lugging around a full pack, Glock 20, and topo maps for the area I'm in. Something about the wilderness out here makes me uneasy regardless of how well prepared I am. Don't get that feeling in other parts of the country. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: From the Sad But Not Spooky Files. A couple of years ago, a young woman named Maureen Kelly walked away from a campground in Skamania County here in WA., in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. She wanted to go on a 'spiritual quest', and left the campground around 5:00 pm wearing only a fanny pack...apparently, naked is more spiritual, who'dathunkit. They tracked her across a ravine, then lost the track...no further trace of her has been found. Nothing. Nada. Zip. However, I know just how dangerous the back woods of Western Washington really are, just how steep and slick and treacherous the ground can be, how astoundingly thick the undergrowth is. I love the mountains and forests of Washington, don't get me wrong...but I know, I know the mountains don't love me back. At best, they are utterly indifferent to me, at worst actively hostile and trying very hard to kill me. A lesson this poor girl learned the hardest way, I'm afraid. This seems to happen a lot here in WA. People who have no idea what they are doing go out in the woods with no supplies and get into trouble. They think that the outdoors is like a Disney movie and find out too late that Mother Nature can be a real bitch and that a lot of her lessons are pass/fail. face but getting stranded somewhere when it is well below zero and you might not be seen for hours is serious but she is she type to warm her car up and take a light jacket when it is that cold with no thought of what would happen if she got stranded. |
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Ive read up on the little boy who dissapeared near cades cove that he covered in one of his books. IMO he twists stuff a bit to make his version a bit more mysterious/paranormal. He was on coast to coast a while back and I was intrigued at first. Some of his stuff is very bizarre. A lot of it seemed exactly like you described, very hyped up when it shouldn't have been. There was a story of a little kid on a ledge that was very strange, wanted to hear more about that case. |
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Quoted: Yotes get em. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: My parents Volunteer at parks in the winter. Mostly small state parks and almost every year they have had people commit suicide at them. One time while on a hike they found a note in a mountain dew bottle. I can see there being shenanigans here but i bet a bunch of them are people walking off into the woods to kill themselves Where are the bodies then? Yotes get em. |
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One of my high school teachers was in the Army in the early seventies. He was stationed in Germany and patrolled the border between East and West Germany.
He told of a story where he was patrolling the border far from any town and came up on a woman very articulately dressed as if she were going to a high class party or event. They took her back to base and turned her in to the local law enforcement. He said that was the weirdest thing that happened on patrol. |
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Good read, but fake as shit. Quoted:
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That Reddit SAR guy's stories sound...I don't know. Off? Like the staircase thing...almost seems like they're trying to create an urban legend. ETA: Just realized that whole subforum is fiction.  Good read, but fake as shit. The beginning stories were sorta plausible if you consider weird people seeing weird shit and just random unexplained events. And, I wouldn't put it past people to build weird shit in the woods just cause. But, his latest with the internal organs being swiss cheese and all deviates into lame scifi land and prompted me to read the side bar of the forum. |
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If I recall correctly, he was separated, seen later by two fishermen, but ended up at a much higher elevation, and his shoes, intact, were stacked on neatly on a rock. Quoted:
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My parents Volunteer at parks in the winter. Mostly small state parks and almost every year they have had people commit suicide at them. One time while on a hike they found a note in a mountain dew bottle. I can see there being shenanigans here but i bet a bunch of them are people walking off into the woods to kill themselves One of the cases was a little boy up in the mountains above Fort Collins, CO. I heard the story and remember, it was very wierd. Not a suicide. Mountain lion. That's what happened to my middle school gym teacher's little boy...
If I recall correctly, he was separated, seen later by two fishermen, but ended up at a much higher elevation, and his shoes, intact, were stacked on neatly on a rock. Also, the shoes show very little degradation from the the weather, even though Jaryd's remains were missing for 4 years. Here's Jaryd's case David doesn't interject his opinion on why people are going missing, just relates the unusual circumstance that are involved when people going missing, and where they are located. James McCrogan What the hell could get an Adult male across an 8' fence with his co-worker close by, Christopher Tompkins, and create no noise? David just released a new book on unusual cases in Urban areas, or not so remote places where people are going missing and are then found dead in nearby streams or bodies of water. It seems the bodies are found in areas where SAR teams had searched before, and dogs could not track. Here's his most recent interview and he outlines many unusual cases. |
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I had a similar thing happen to me once when I was 17 out drinking/camping with friends. It was early Winter and we, for some reason, decided to get a fire going in the small island of a dried up creek at the base of a 800ft tall ridgeline. We're sitting on stumps and joking and talking around and, from my 7o'clock at about 10yds behind me comes this blood-curdling scream that sounded like a woman getting murdered, except it lasted for a good 15sec. Sounded like what some describe as a banshee. Freaked our little 17yr old asses out so bad we decided to sleep in the back of an old ford ranger that we drove to the site, legs sticking out. (Turns out it was some sort of cat, I have no idea what kind) Later that night we're trying to sleep with our legs sticking out and we hear something creep up on us through the grass, footfalls could be heard. We freaked out again and in turn freaked out the possum and that was when we called it a night. Quoted:
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In 2001 I went deer hunting near Lumberton, NC at a bear preserve with a few buddies. I picked a spot on the edge of a farm field where the deer had been passing through to hit a trail that ran down to a stream. I set up in a chair with a fallen tree in front of with my Encore muzzleloader on it. There was small heard of deer in the field but out of my range and it was getting dark but my buddies had the Suburban so I was just waiting. I heard a leaf crinkle behind me to the right, I thought "Damn there's one coming up behind me!" and grabbed the Encore and turned to look. The biggest cat I have ever seen out side a zoo crept out from behind a big tree and stopped 10-15 feet from me. I was thinking "I have one shot, I have one shot, I have one shot." As I get the Encore close to pointed at it, it ran into the brush on my left. I could hear it in the bushes padding though, I just kept the gun pointed in the direction and waited. After a few minutes my buddies drove down and I ran over there and said "There is a big damn cat in those bushes!" they figured I was drinking over there and never did see it. I had a similar thing happen to me once when I was 17 out drinking/camping with friends. It was early Winter and we, for some reason, decided to get a fire going in the small island of a dried up creek at the base of a 800ft tall ridgeline. We're sitting on stumps and joking and talking around and, from my 7o'clock at about 10yds behind me comes this blood-curdling scream that sounded like a woman getting murdered, except it lasted for a good 15sec. Sounded like what some describe as a banshee. Freaked our little 17yr old asses out so bad we decided to sleep in the back of an old ford ranger that we drove to the site, legs sticking out. (Turns out it was some sort of cat, I have no idea what kind) Later that night we're trying to sleep with our legs sticking out and we hear something creep up on us through the grass, footfalls could be heard. We freaked out again and in turn freaked out the possum and that was when we called it a night. Y'all have never seen a bobcat? |
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I may have encountered one. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did.
One afternoon about 1987, I was eating at the Cattle Barron restaurant in Portales NM for lunch with my then-GF. While we were eating, what appeared to be a tall, somewhat well dressed Hispanic woman about mid-40s or so in a black skirt walks in (my back was to the entrance), passes our table on to the back of the restaurant where a series of tables had been set up for a party that had just paid their bill and left and starts eating leftovers from the table. That's when I started to notice something wasn't right. She walks right up and starts eating what's left of a chicken leg (I think) while standing. She then looks at me directly, and asks me a question using my first name. I can't remember what the question was, but I was shocked. I was, in fact, speechless. How in the Hell did she know who I was? How did she know my name? I don't know who this woman is, and never saw her before. I don't even remember if I understood what her question was, but I didn't know what to do. She used my first name and it left us both stunned. I should have offered to buy her something to eat, but I didn't. The way she glared at me led me to believe she was testing me. She knew exactly who I was. I failed that test, and I pray humbly to almighty God he will forgive me whether she was an angel or not. The manager (his name was Mike) came over later on and told us he asked her if he could help her. She just stood there and ate food off the plates the customers had left. He told us he offered to feed her a bowl of soup if she was hungry, but she declined and politely left as soon as he told her she needed to leave. Maybe there's a rational explanation, but I haven't been able to think of what it could be. Wow don't know if she was an angel or not, but that would freak me out. I'd be afraid she'd eat my face off if I spoke to her 
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Lot's of Marijuana grown in state and national parks around here.
I have stumbled into pot patches before while out squirrel hunting. One time with three guys harvesting it. It was a pretty tense situation. All of us were armed. If I hadn't been, I don't think I would have been allowed to leave alive. I bet many of these disappearances could have something similar. |
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The beginning stories were sorta plausible if you consider weird people seeing weird shit and just random unexplained events. And, I wouldn't put it past people to build weird shit in the woods just cause. But, his latest with the internal organs being swiss cheese and all deviates into lame scifi land and prompted me to read the side bar of the forum. Quoted:
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That Reddit SAR guy's stories sound...I don't know. Off? Like the staircase thing...almost seems like they're trying to create an urban legend. ETA: Just realized that whole subforum is fiction. Good read, but fake as shit. The beginning stories were sorta plausible if you consider weird people seeing weird shit and just random unexplained events. And, I wouldn't put it past people to build weird shit in the woods just cause. But, his latest with the internal organs being swiss cheese and all deviates into lame scifi land and prompted me to read the side bar of the forum. That's the thing about stuff like this, and stuff like Paulides writes about. Eventually people are going to get bored of reading about what you originally wrote, so if you're writing fiction or trying to hype something up you have to go one step further. That's the point when things get too elaborate and turns off initially interested people who thought they were telling the truth. Then again, it can also bring in another group of people who eat that shit up. I prefer the truth, as many times it can be stranger than fiction. Like stories of people visiting Alabama.
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I heard him on "coast to coast AM" a few months ago.
Given that radio program usually has guys talking about how they are fighting ghosts with witchcraft, alien abductions sponsored by the government, and things "they" don't want you to know, I figured the national parks guy had to be looney tunes by association. |
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Y'all have never seen a bobcat? Quoted:
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In 2001 I went deer hunting near Lumberton, NC at a bear preserve with a few buddies. I picked a spot on the edge of a farm field where the deer had been passing through to hit a trail that ran down to a stream. I set up in a chair with a fallen tree in front of with my Encore muzzleloader on it. There was small heard of deer in the field but out of my range and it was getting dark but my buddies had the Suburban so I was just waiting. I heard a leaf crinkle behind me to the right, I thought "Damn there's one coming up behind me!" and grabbed the Encore and turned to look. The biggest cat I have ever seen out side a zoo crept out from behind a big tree and stopped 10-15 feet from me. I was thinking "I have one shot, I have one shot, I have one shot." As I get the Encore close to pointed at it, it ran into the brush on my left. I could hear it in the bushes padding though, I just kept the gun pointed in the direction and waited. After a few minutes my buddies drove down and I ran over there and said "There is a big damn cat in those bushes!" they figured I was drinking over there and never did see it. I had a similar thing happen to me once when I was 17 out drinking/camping with friends. It was early Winter and we, for some reason, decided to get a fire going in the small island of a dried up creek at the base of a 800ft tall ridgeline. We're sitting on stumps and joking and talking around and, from my 7o'clock at about 10yds behind me comes this blood-curdling scream that sounded like a woman getting murdered, except it lasted for a good 15sec. Sounded like what some describe as a banshee. Freaked our little 17yr old asses out so bad we decided to sleep in the back of an old ford ranger that we drove to the site, legs sticking out. (Turns out it was some sort of cat, I have no idea what kind) Later that night we're trying to sleep with our legs sticking out and we hear something creep up on us through the grass, footfalls could be heard. We freaked out again and in turn freaked out the possum and that was when we called it a night. Y'all have never seen a bobcat? Not in the wild, but I heard one that night. Got stalked by that same m-fer I believe a couple months later when I went to hike up to the top of the ridge. Sat down to rest on a log and heard some very slow, deliberate footfalls too large for a squirrel to make and I saw no deer around. I figured that's what it was, and if I couldn't see it I couldn't kill it, so I slowly made my way back down the hill. Somehow at the time I never connected the two events. I was 17 after all. |
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Shit like this is why I refuse to hike unarmed. My fucking camelback has a 28-2 in it right now. I got a hill people hear pack and take a pistol and a reload or two when I hike, which is pretty often. I get goofy looks occasionally but most people dont even look twice. Big packs with belly straps make it damn tough to carry on the waist. Its worth the weight to me. |
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I have a couple of stories in this vein. I was walking my dogs in the Fells near Boston, MA and I was coming up to a bridge when I noticed a couple of tall thin guys coming up behind me walking a little faster than I was. They went off a side trail after they saw that I noticed them. I then saw another similar guy on the far side of the bridge, the trail went through tall grass and had a bend so you couldn't see very far ahead. Then I saw that there was another trail that came back and the first two guys came down it towards me coming behind to cut me off. They were all staring at me hard. I walking two GSDs one who had been attack trained, I was carrying a Glock 19 and an NAA .22 revolver. I stared them down and kept walking, the single guy got out of my way, I guess they figured I would put up too much of a fight. I've spent a lot of time hiking in the Fells back in high school. I suspect they were either homeless making sure you didn't mess with their stuff, or gays that thought you might be looking for a date and that you'd follow them off the trail for some "fun". That place had a reputation as a gay hook-up area for many many years, and I saw several small (empty) homeless camps when I went off the trails scouting for places to play paintball. |