Strange or Unexplained

[zilla]

This other time at Band camp..  

Many here have sent me pm's and emails requesting the end to the Ted the Caver story.  Alas there is none,  BUT, There is this story that I believe inspired the Ted the Caver tale..

  The Fear of Darkness

[vermontrad]

Wow! Great thread. Read tedthecaver that zilla posted, holy crap, scary cool story, he should make a movie. Unless it's true and....

Bigfoot, scary caves, Black Panthers stalking you and we all choose to go in the woods with a only bow and arrow!!!

cool...

[adkmountainken]

as i said before stories like these are why i carry a BIG, BIG bowie!!!!

[Raineman]

Okay, I have one.

My Dad and I booked a bear hunt at the Harrisburg show back in (I think) 1982. We were going to bowhunt bears, and nobody wanted to guide us except for this guy "Harold". We were recurve shooters, but we had our "hi-tech" wheelies to go bear hunting.

Well, Harold was more than welcome to have us because he guided gun hunters and was trying to get some "primitive" hunters in his camp. You see....he had killed a bear with a spear! and was building a bowie knife to kill one with.

(This guy was certifiable, and wanted to make a name for himself. If I remember correctly his name was Harold Schmidt and he operated a lodge on upper Shin Pond in Patten)

So he puts me, at age 16 (having never been in the BIG woods, and all the Bigfoot stories floating around) in the stand he killed his "spear bear". I saw absolutely nothing for two days. He told me to walk another mile back one day and climb in to a very high stand for a change. This stand was so high that a 40 yard shot was straight down!. I got up there and immediately fell asleep.

I awoke, nearly falling out of the stand (safety belts hadn't been invented yet) to a giant "CRASH", and watched a tree finish falling.  I thought I saw a large black thing, way bigger than a bear. I sat for another hour looking at every possible movement and decided it was time to get the heck out of there.

I climbed down and never looked back. I was "on the hoof"! I looked like the FTD man in the express lane. I do remember looking over at my original stand site thinking I should sit there for the rest of the evening. NOT HAPPENIN'....I was gone to the road.

That was the worst time I had. I got to the road and realized I had a couple of hours of light left and I was ON THE GROUND. This was a bad thing in my opinion. So I started to walk back to my original "spear" stand. Halfway back I saw another tree fall, and I was GONE! back to the road and looking for something to hide under. What the heck did I know, I was just a dumb kid with a Savora broadhead......no match for the evils of the BIG WOODS.

I waited by that road.....twitching at every fly that farted.........and wanted to believe that I heard the truck coming.

I kept hearing something in the edge of the woods. I crossed the road, and kept on hearing it. It was getting on towards dark and I looked up the road hoping to see a glow of headlights and saw a giant black blur crossing the road. I jumped back to the other side of the road, afraid as all get out to scream, in fear of letting whatever it was know of my presence, and nocked an arrow.

I must have looked like John Voight in Deliverance, holding that bow with the arrow bouncing off the rest like Curly from the Harlem Globe Trotters was dribbling. The sounds I heard from the forest were unsettling to this day, even as I write this.

I watched a large black form in the falling light work its way towards me from the other side of the road. All at once, the brush exploded towards me and as the glow of a headlight peaked over the horizon I found myself at full draw, face to face with one of the largest bull Moose in Maine, a mere roads width from me.

The next thing I seem to remember was "Harold" screaming at me in the truck going down the road asking me why I had not shot the biggest Moose he had ever seen. I had apparently gone blank. To this day, my Dad tells me that they had to take the arrow off my bow, ease my arm from full draw, and slap me awake once I got in the truck (evidently taking several miles to do so).

Scared?  Ohhhhh yeahhhh!

Had I known what I know now, I'd have one BIG picture to show ya.

[T.J.]

These stories are exactly why I carry a handgun while bow hunting (well that and because of any wild dogs)

[Flesner]

I wonder if ol' Harold ever got into a knife fight with a bear!!??

Geezzeee!

[brmize]

Ok, I sit here and read this until 1am, stand up to go to bed... Giant crack of thunder. This thread is awsome. My only strange encounter was an owl that passed six inches in front of my face while I was sitting in a brush pile in the dark. Brushed my face with a wing, now I am not so sure it was random anymore and maybe an aborted attempt at snagging a meal. Of course climbing into the middle of a  brush pile that has been sitting in a remote area for 3 years, in the dark was probably not overly smart to begin with. I almost had to stab a squirrel in self defense once. Boy do they get aggresive when they can't make you out completely. My Grandpa is convinced he saw a timber wolf on his farm in Soldier, KS. My Dad thinks it was a coyote but my Grandpa has seen his share of coyotes in what was at the time for him 60 years of hunting, fishing and farming. Two of my Brothers were pinned down for over half an hour by a very aggressive Whitetail buck when legal shooting light was still a long ways off. He actually came within 20' of them stamping and snorting and tossing his head. One of them watched him through crosshairs the whole time, I was proud of them for not freaking out and killing him in the dark, they were only 15 and 17 at the time. My other Brother swears he heard a scream in the dark while walking to his stand in the same area. We tease him now because his light is on from the time he leaves the truck until he gets settled in his stand. However that would be rather unsettling in an area where there should be no such animal and carrying a weapon that only kills by hemorrage. My Grandpa also has some awsome stories about hunting Roe deer and European hare in France and Germany during WWII but they are not really unusual except for the German villager who came to him completely aggitated and upset wanting him to follow him. My Grandpa thought "Now what in the heck could this be about?" So he grabbed his Thompson and went with the guy. What he found was a huge European hare. The guy was jumping up and down and pointing so my Grandpa thought  "What the Hell." and gave it a short burst. It of course took the hare's head completely off, 3 rounds of .45 ACP will tend to do that, but he said that guy was so happy and hugging him. My Grandpa figured it was probably the first meat this guy's family had gotten in a very long time.
Well I guess I had quite a few stories.

Brian

[Black Gold]

I was 18 years old and had just graduated high school.  My grandfather (who at the time was in his upper 80's) called me from the farm and said that he had just seen what he thougt was some sort of lion.  Being from the coastal bend of Texas that is something that you dont hear every day.  I told him to calm down and describe what he had saw.  He said near his cattle troughs he saw an animal cross that had very short hair, long fangs, and a skinny tail with a large puff of hair on the end.  He said it was really tall and must be some sort of lion or panther.  He said that it went into the hay barn (3 sided)and he never saw it come out.
At this point my curiosity was extremely high as to what he was talking about.  My grandfather is "old-school" and has probaly only spent 4 or 5 nights away from his farm his entire life.  He does not watch anything but the news and polka dancing and I knew his knowledge of animals was not much more than was native to the area.  I jumped into my truck and headed out to the farm to see just what was in that hay barn.  
When I arrived I grabbed my rifle and headed out to the hay barn.  I was about 40 yards from the open side when I spotted something looking back at me from the bottom of the square bales.  I raised my rifle and saw a weird looking creature with long fangs staring right back at me.  I didn't hesitate and fired a round striking the animal in the head.  It dropped dead and  I cautiously approached with the worse case of nerves that I have ever had.  After a lengthy process to make sure the animal was dead I got close to have a better look.  I was standing there staring at something with four long legs, a long tail with a puff of white hair on the end and long fangs.  My mind was racing trying to figure out what exactly it was.  I kept thinking some sort of dingo or hyenna that had escaped, but wasn't sure at all.  I went back to the house and called the local game warden who came out to have a look himself.  He told me that it was actually an old coyote that had gotten the mange so bad that it was about to kill him.  All his hair was gone except for the tip of his tail and his skin had began to tighten and shrivel (thus making his lips pull up exposing his teeth)...He said it was one of the worst cases he had ever seen and that the animal should have been dead a long time ago.  

Many of the "chupacabra" stories and pics that you see are of coyotes that this has happened to.  If you google search images for chupacabra you will find some game camera pics of coyotes that look just like the one I killed.  I was kinda disappointed that it wasn't something "cooler", but at least it settled everyone down knowing that it was just a sick coyote.

The following pic is from google images....It is not the one I killed, but almost an identical match...mine was darker....
 

[Raineman]

Actually Flesner, Maine outlawed bear hunting with a knife when they found out he was making one (like they outlawed bear hunting with a spear soon after he did it). He had it all figured out down to the hollow tree he was gonna do it in. Dude was nuts.

[SouthMDShooter]

Wow! These are incredible stories i've read all of them. So i guess its my turn to put in my short story.
  This was about 5 years ago, I was 13, and it was spring gobbler season in WV. My father was set up on the edge of a clearing and I was about thirty yards behind him calling, when i start hearing something walking behind me (im thinkin oh great this one is going to come from behind and bust us) when all of the sudden i roll my eyes to the left so i can see what this is. And i see a black bear cub about 10 to 15 yards from me then i see my dad stand up and start yelling at me to run towards him, and my stomach is in my throat and i take off. WHen i get there i turn around and see the sow running back through the woods. My dad tells me she was about ten yards behind the tree i was sitting against and i just it was a turkey. close call.
 
  :eek:

[Problem Child]

Here's mine; I was riding my mountain bike on a closed(to vehicles)Game Management area in Central Mississippi about 8 years ago. I was about 2.5 miles from my truck on a dead-end road.I had ridden to the end of the road and turned around and was starting back and decided to stop for a water break.I was looking up the gravel road for any deer/critter crossing when an animal stepped into the road about 100 yds away. At 1st I thought it was a LARGE Coyote so I just happened to have a Stenier Monocular with me so I looked to see what it was. I knew then I was looking at a LARGE Cougar. It's face was wrinkled like a Shar pei dog. It's coat was about the color of a deer and the tail was as long or longer as the body. At the time a friend had a Rottweiler that weighed about 95 lbs and this cat was much larger. So there we were just staring at each other. I really wasn't scared of the cat but I did have a little concern because the cat was between me and my truck and there wasn't another way around. I did wait about 30 minutes before heading back. I had no weapon but the cat was going to be wearing my mountain Bike if it came down to it.  

[Eric Krewson]

Another real short one. When I was about 10 or 11 I trying to get to sleep one summer night as close as I could get to an open window,(nobody had A/C back then) when a storm moved through and lightning struck about 30yds from my window while I was looking out. The lightning hit the ground then formed a basket ball sized ball of very bright electrical energy which rolled around in a zig-zag pattern under the trees for about 10 seconds before dissipating. Pretty cool looking!

[Flesner]

Black Gold,

My cousin shot a 'yote in the Illinois  mississippi river bottoms near Hannibal, Mo. around 1982 or so.
It looked a lot like the one in your picture. The amazing part of this is that it was winter and the wind chills had been below zero that month pretty often. The day it was shot the temp was below 0 and wind chills of -20 to -30.
I'll never know how that thing survived without hair.

[Blue Buck]

I'll give one.  Not a sasquatch story (aren't they the best!)

My girlfriend and I were tracking a deer on a very dark night.  I had her stand at last blood.  Her flashlight batteries went dead so she stood there in the dark.  By this time, I was making large circles as the blood had run out.  I dropped down a ravine and followed it to the bottom of the bluff.  She couldn't even see my light for about 20 minutes.  Anyway, I make my way back to her.

She says, "Butch, something has been growling at me since you left."  I cut the light and sure enough it starts up again.  It was like a house cat that gives off that pissed off purr/growl only much deeper.  Definitely not a coon.  

Every time I shinied the light up - it was perched in one of the many huge oak trees around us - it stopped.  I couldn't pinpoint it.  Cut the light and it would start again.  Never did get the light on it.  We finally left.

Like I said, she stood there for about 20 minutes with that thing growling because I told her to never leave last blood.  Yep, I married her.

[T.J.]

Black Gold- I saw the pic before I read the story and the first thing I thought of was a chupacabra. I grew up in florida and have heard a lot of stories about them.


Blue Buck- Great call, I'd a married a girl like that too!

[hockeyref]

This one is more humorous than spooky...

Several years ago I set up on a hillside with my back against a 3 foot wide tree with a bunch downed branches in front forming a natural blind. Acorns everywhere and a couple heavily used "deer freeways" emerged from the pine trees 40 yards to my left and merged into one about 15 yards down the hill from me...... I wasn't too worried about what was up the hill from me as we had never noticed any deer come down the hill in the open. They usually came out of the pines and across the side hill in the evening.

The difference this year was that someone had built a permanent tree stand about 40 yard further down the hill over the summer. Now the problem with this is that this is on public lands and the PA laws are pretty specific in that you can not damage any tree without written permission from the land owner, and no damage or permanent tree stands on public lands......

SO, how does this fit in with what's about to happen? Well, I get there about 3:30pm with last light coming at about 5:30pm. I'm all settled in for the evening "feeding parade" to begin, it's now about 4:40pm and I hear the leaves crunching behind me. Something is coming down the hill. The steps sounded too steady and rhythmic to be a deer and they never come down from up there - right? I figure that it's another hunter - maybe the SOB that built the permanent stand is gonna walk right past me and climb up into the tree for last light! As the steps get closer (I estimate about 40 yards away now) I ease my head around the trunk of the tree I'm leaning against just enough to make out a dark form easing down the hill. Now my first thought is, "Man that's some nice camo he's wearing. It really blends in". My next thought is, " I'm gonna wait till this sucker gets right next to my tree and I'm gonna just lean out from behind the trunk and scare the bejezus outa him. GOOD IDEA, LET'S DO IT!

SO just as the steps reach the backside of my tree I stick my head out and I'm sitting there nose to nose with a big 'ol doe! I dunno who was more surprised! She snorted (spraying deer snot on my left cheek and shoulder) and jumped about 5 yards back up the hill and ducked behind some small trees about 15 yards to my left. As she jumped I came to full draw but couldn't find the spot before she got behind the trees. So there I am sitting on the ground with a 65# longbow at full draw with this doe peeking out from behind a tree and trying to figure out how that brush pile just moved. She had a clear view and was looking right at me keeping a tree between me and her vitals. While she was watching me a smaller doe walked down behind her followed by a small 6 point buck .....no shot on any one of 'em so I slowly eased the bow down. Now I don't mean I lowered the arrow, I literally eased the bow sideways and onto my lap at full draw and then eased the arrow down. I had to let the nock go because my draw hand was shaking so hard I worried the end of my arrow would look like a dogs wagging tail! I went so far as to slowly turn my head so that I was looking 90 degrees from her and looking out of the corner of my eye to keep tabs on them.

Now this stand off went on for what felt like 20 minutes or more but was probably more like 5 minutes. Slowly she began walking on down the hill towards the other two but the trees and ground cover ensured that I had no shot. It was starting to look like they would meander down to the "freeway and eventually offer me a decent quartering away shot. Right about the time that glimmer of hope hit my mind she stopped and stared right at me. She snorted several times and stomped her fron hooves... That was all the other two needed and they "waved their white flags" at me and bounded off into the pines. She snorted and stomped a few more times and then waved bye-bye too....

Great experience... exciting, and frustrating all at the same time. Not as dangerous as being stalked by a mtn loin or a pissed bear. Still wish I would have gotten a shot off. I probably had the snap shot on her as she jumped up hill but the only thought in my head was "don't risk a gut shot"!

[Muzzyhole]

Hey Aeronut,
Didn't you see a gorilla in a wetsuit one time??    

[T.J.]

ttt

[xpauliber]

We need more stories!

[ogopogoman]

I saw a yote with mange shot last winter that looked like that. nasty disease!