re: Scariest thing that happened to you in the woods

One that would have been creepy but we missed out on the action...Me and a couple kids who are successful youtubers were catching snakes in the Pearl River WMA last year. They were in the middle of filming a video for their channels with some snakes we just caught, and a couple wildlife agents walked up on us. Apparently a mentally ill lady had parked on side the road, removed her clothing, and was walking around nude in the swamp. We had seen the car randomly parked on side of the road when we had come in. They had already found her, but they asked us to keep an eye out for her car keys or any personal effects that she had discarded. File that one under “close calls”.

quote:

---

1000 pound moose

---

Scariest animal in the woods. Big, Dumb and bad vision make for a dangerous combination....

I thought of another. It had the potential to go bad when it was going down, but wasn't scary as it was happening. I didn't really think much of it until later and realized we got lucky.

When I was working on the coast of NC, we were riding around on some timber company property. Long story short we managed to get our jeep stuck about 3-4 miles back in on the lease. We'd see a little farm house on the way in, so we started hiking out to see if we could use their phone (it was in the days of old bag cell phones with spotty coverage and even worse battery life). Along the way we spotted a big timber rattler on the road, but that wasn't the scary part.

We got up to the farm house and there were a couple of dudes there. It was a little strange because you could they they were nervous from the jump. At first, I took it as it isn't often you have three guys walking up on you in the woods. Mind you, we're all in BDU pants and t-shirts. We told them what we were doing and that we'd gotten stuck. When we asked them to use the phone they said, (again in a nervous tone) "Uhhh, We don't have a phone here. It's our parents old homeplace. They've passed on but we still keep up the farm." Longer story shorter, we had our dead bag phone and plugged it into their car and got a signal. We called a wrecker (which is a totally different story for another day) and the guy said he'd be there in about 1/2 hour.

Well while my co-workers (from Ohio and Mass) were making small talk, I started walking around the farm. I wonder around to the back porch and see all these 5 gallon buckets 1/2 full of corn and water. Having grown up in the shadow of the Blue Ridge mountains in western NC, I knew INSTANTLY what was going on. The farmhouse was cover for a moonshine operation.

About that time, my co-worker from Ohio, who was one of the nicest guys I've ever know, but clueless to the situation walked around the corner. He said, "Hey look a that. What are they doing? Sprouting corn?" I played it off and said we'd better get back to the front of the house the wrecker would be there soon. I'm sure the dudes "working the farm" were as freaked out as I was.

It wasn't until we were 1/2 back to our homebase that I filled the other two guys in on what was happening there. I'm not sure they believed me.

quote:

---

Scariest thing that happened to you in the woods

---

a bear shite

I was hiking in the woods on a long 8 mile hike and I got lost.

For anybody interested in weird stories on people going missing in the woods, there's a really good documentary called Missing 411: The Hunted. I believe it's on Amazon Prime Video. Tons of unexplainable stuff happens out there.

quote:

---

I caught over 30 cottonmouths last year (and 103 sightings) - it’s what I do for fun

---

Two things:
1. This is the weirdest damn hobby I've ever heard of, and
2. Where can I subscribe to your YouTube channel.

My Bear Story-


I was alone at Redlands WMA in the vicinity of the old firing range walking along a trail on the Apalachee River near the dead end of Old Triple/Tremble/Trimble Bridge Rd (depending on what map you are looking at). I was actually right where the ruins of the old bridge were. I had just been scouting for sign. I was unarmed as nothing was in season and I didn't have a CCP, thus it would have been illegal. I did have my wife's fancy DSLR camera though.

Although I was practically on the banks of the river, there's privet thicket that obscures the view down to the actual water. I hear what sounds like all kinds of ruckus in the water, and I assumed it is a herd of deer splashing through, coming toward me. I got the camera ready to try and take pics. Then once the ruckus got on land, it no longer sounded like deer, it sounded like humans. Stomp Stomp Stomp type sounds, ripping through the thicket. Right at me, I might add. My mind immediately jumps to something out of a movie scene of escaped convicts tearing arse away from a work detail, so I start to get scared. All this happened in the span of 10 or 15 seconds, mind you. So as to not startle these potential murderers, I start making sound, I forget exactly but something along the lines Hey! Yo! or something. I was jacked on adrenaline and I don't remember exactly.

What popped out of the thicket about 50 feet from me were two giant black bears.

And yes, we startled each other. They didn't run, they looked at me and started to approach. This is where that true fight-or-flight took over, I didn't even make the decision consciously, my body simply reacted. The trail going up to my nearby car was about half the distance between me and the bears. I couldn't cut around because of the old bridge ruins, any cut-back and around would have been hundreds of yards. I sprinted my best 40 yard dash directly at the bears and turned up the trail and could hear them behind me, they were following me, and I get up to my car.

Then it turned into the horror movie scene where I'm getting my keys out and have to unlock my car, no remote keyfob on that car, old fashioned car key and lock. I pulled it off perfectly, a video of it would be a great "IN" gif on this site.

I'm safe in my car, and the bears weren't visible, I cracked the window to listen, and I could still hear them on the trail I just came up. They weren't afraid of me at all, and I'm lucky I didn't trip. And obviously they didn't want to kill me too bad, or they would have caught me.

I no longer enter woods unarmed.

Oh, and that camera I had ready for the deer herd? When the bears popped out, the thought of taking a picture never even entered my mind. True fight-or-flight involuntary response to GTFO!