3 Freaky Things Hikers & Hunters Find in the Woods
The fact that there’s a rational explanation doesn’t quite stop the shivers down my spine.
Here’s a bit of secret wisdom courtesy of everyone who has ever spent a significant amount of time in the deep backwoods: Sooner or later, you’re going to see something freaky. Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to get a glimpse of a cryptid like Bigfoot (although I don’t mind admitting I am keeping my eyes peeled and always will). However, there are some slightly more common sights…and the fact that they do have perfectly rational explanations don’t quite stop the shivers down my spine. I personally have witnessed all three of the below weird woods scenarios in my time…what about you?
1. The Bear Skeleton
Black and brown bears can be found across much of North America, and of course they don’t go to nursing homes and hospitals to die. So it’s only natural that hunters and hikers will find their remains every so often, and it’s certainly nothing to be freaked out about…except for one thing. It’s fairly common for the skull to disarticulate from the rest of the skeleton over time, and when that happens, you’re left with a skeleton that looks very, very human. The one I came across–probably a cub–had me briefly convinced that I had discovered the remains of a human child. (Thankfully, the skull wasn’t too far away and my heart rate dropped back to sublethal speeds fairly quickly once I spotted it.)
Of course, there’s a reason to still be a tad freaked out. Hikers and hunters find real human remains all the time. Some of them are accidental deaths; some are suicides; and some? Some are murder victims.
2. The “Satanic Altar”
This one almost didn’t make my list because you’re actually much more likely to see it near the trailhead than you are by the time your cell signal finally craps out. However, you will occasionally find these little displays far deeper in the wilderness than you’d expect. The one I saw wasn’t quite as elaborate as the “satanic” altar pictured above, but it will give you a little turn to come ’round a bend to find someone’s weird woods worship.
In general, this actually shouldn’t be a terribly big concern. The people who build and leave things like this in the wilderness come in two flavors: teenagers being “edgy,” and New Age types. The image above was most likely courtesy of the first, because the hand-made five-pointed star has its apex pointing down, in a pentagram. If it were pointing up, that would be a pentacle placed there by a Wiccan or nature worshiper of some sort. Either way, neither of these types is likely to harm you. Seeing a “satanic” symbol out in the pristine woods is jarring–even enraging–but it was almost certainly put there by a teen or teens who then went home and spent an hour popping zits.
3. The Stairs to Nowhere
I’ve seen them, and sooner or later you probably will, too. You’re out backpacking in the middle of nowhere. You haven’t seen another human being for a couple of days, and your map has no record of any sort of habitation here…but what’s this? Stairs. Just a set of stairs. Maybe you can see the remains of a foundation there, but maybe not.
There’s little mystery as to what happened here–obviously, this used to be someone’s cabin, but most of it has long since returned to Nature. But there’s something eerily evocative about realizing that you’re standing on the grave of a long-forgotten home, the stairs standing like a nameless cairn in memoriam. Certainly enough so to have inspired one of the best long-running series on social-media board Reddit, posted by u/searchandrescuewoods. The series is hosted on the Reddit “nosleep” board, which means that it’s most likely fiction…we hope. Here’s the archive of stories…but before you head down that internet rabbit-hole, let us know what the freakiest thing YOU ever saw in the woods was!
As a teenager in 1950s I was squirrel hunting beside a creek. Looking up in trees. I fell through some rotted boards covered in leaves into a pit. It was probably dug to hide moonshine as I has seen remains of several old stills.. Did not take me long tp scramble out of pit and the area.
Unusual findings out hiking: Horse skull in Wisconsin, Fox skull in Morton Arborteum in Illinois. In Washington State on the Northwest side of Mt Rainier National Park, I found two cases of empty butane cylinders hidden in bushes, an about $4 worth of change in a firepit at the same location, along with burnt steel tent poles. Hmmm? I wonder what they were cooking?
Umm that altar you found, was not Satanic…it was a Pagan (Witches) altar, probably in celebration of some festival of the wheel of the year too much white around, besides Satanists depending upon their flavor, their altars usually are just a nude young lady and or imagery, that they’re not usually going to leave behind either. The fact that the pentagram is upside down means nothing other than male energy and was probably an altar to Pan or Cernunnos (pronounced Ker-new-nos…Keltic word) Or depending upon the flavor of Witchcraft it is, could also mean one of learning to control both their light and dark side…
Satanist like doing their rituals in confined spaces privately and usually a wee bit underground as well, that’s why most of them never leave a city. But Pagans or Witches on the other hand are more likely to traipse out into the woods just before evening, set up an altar (like this one), wait for whatever appointed hour, then do the ritual (which usually involves a vigil and may even be done “Sky Clad” (naked)). Whatever it was, the but the one thing I’m pretty sure of it’s not Satanic.
When I was a teenager in the late 70’s, a friend of mine and our girlfriends were walking animal paths on a bright full moon night in southern Minnesota. We were out in the middle of nowhere on land running adjacent to Rice Lake state Park. Well into our wandering we came across an overgrown graveyard with about 20 headstones from the mid to late 1800’s. Being late in the fall with a cool breeze and crunchy leaves under foot it sure left an impression. Needless to say, the young ladies didn’t wonder off too far from us for the rest of the night.
Hidden POT farms dot Appalachia along with old moonshine still’s and sites
I always clear the area quick and do not go back.
If you see a moonshine still, always add a log to the fire. Someone is watching and this will ease the tension.
What were the stairs made of if they are the only remains left of the original structure??? You would think the stairs would be made of construction materials consistent with the ones used to build the rest of the abode. Like for instance, WOOD.
Hiking Timpanogos in Utah Valley, came upon the remains of a B-25 bomber. Lots of big chunks of engine and aluminum parts.
Back in 1977 give or take a year I going to check a trout line on the tickfaw river late one night with my brother-in-law and two nephews.
Pitch black out and the youngest separated from us by 20 yards are so. He called out to us, he came across a small, two grave cemetery. The old wrought iron fence was mostly standing. The graves were from the 1860’s if I remember correctly. We went back during the day, but was never able to find them. Wanted to see if we could locate the homestead that must have been close. Never did find it again and I wonder what happened to them as the area was developed?
I’ve come across patches of flowers that could only have been planted by some person. I assumed that they were at a home but there is no evidence of buildings of any kind.
Several years ago I was hiking in the woods surrounding The Yaak, Montana, when I encountered a stripped 1948 Hudson Hornet, lying on it’s side. There were no roads evident, and no nearby houses. I always wondered how it got there.
One time, back in the late 1970’s, my friends and I came across a huge, monolithic, block of concrete in the woods. The best measuring device we had with us was a dollar bill, and using that we approximated the block to be 25 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 8 feet high. The block was almost entirely covered in moss, and surrounded by mature growth trees. At first we thought that it might just be a really odd shaped rock, until we peeled off some if the moss and could clearly see the lines from the forms. there were no brackets, fittings , or anything else we could find. We even boosted one guy up on top of it to look and he reported no protrusions there either, just flat concrete.
That area of Eastern Iowa was known for lead mining back in the day, so we scouted the immediate area for any signs of a shaft, tailings, or any other indications of mining activity. Nothing. A couple of days at the local library looking at old maps of known mines still left us clueless.
To this day, over 40 years later, I still wonder just what in the heck purpose that huge block of concrete had once served.
Probably a nuclear waste dump site that nobody was supposed to find, they are often capped with concrete like that, with no markings, just flat well angled concrete…they are usually about 10 feet thick too, and structurally reinforced with 1 inch rebar embedded within the mass. Best not to hand round one of those much, just in case there is a small crack somewhere.
Back in 1996 I was attending Phase 2 Combat Medic course at Fort Meade, SD. One weekend some of the others in the class and I were hiking some local nature trails near a fast running stream that was located at the bottom of deep ravine, about 60 feet down. We climbed down into the ravine and were walking along the stream when we came along the upside down remains of a Ford model T that I would guess was from around the lat 1920’s. Interestingly the road above was not very close to the ravine and the weird part was, the vehicle itself did not appear to have the structual damage one would expect to find if the vehicle had rolled down the ravine. I have often wondered what was the story behind that car.
It would take to long.
Actually all the u/searchandrescuewoods stories are false, written by a young lady who admits she never intended for them to be real. But, at 70 years I’ve come across a number of steps in the woods, the house long since rotted away. You have to stop and wonder who might have lived there.