Scary Stories

[catdaddy]

I don't consider myself a spooky person. For example, when I was a kid, we lived next to a large cemetery and we had no compunction at all to headlight rabbits amongst the grave stones after dark. My dad was a fearless type of individual and he would not accept any less from his boys.  He subjected my brother & I to some scary situations that today I would never subject my son to. I could expound at length on this topic but for purposes of this venue I will limit it to one example.

Dad was a avid coon hunter and loved his Plott hounds. One night when my brother and I were 11 & 12 respectively, we were coon hunting on a September night in the Pearl River swamps, Copiah County MS. Around midnight, the dogs had swum the river and treed a coon on the opposite side. We had good tree dogs and good tree dogs won't leave the tree. The nearest bridge was miles away. So, without too much discusson, my dad had us strip off our clothes and swim the 50 yards across the river, leash up the dogs and swim back with them. I believe if my mother had ever discovered this caper she would have divorced my dad. This was a potentially dangerous and quite spooky event, especially for a pre-teen kid--but looking back==it was these types of events that helped to shape the man I am today.

I didn't intend to belabor my response to the initial poster's request for stories that had an alarming affect on us, but I thought it might help put the following tale in proper context.

in 2007, I was turkey hunting in Marshall County MS. It was a remote track of land about 3/4'ths a mile off the road. To reach the property , you have to gain access to two locked gates. I was on this piece of property early in the season when the temps were still on the "airish" side. The weather was not perfect for turkey hunting and he gobblers seemed to agree----it was after 9:00 AM before I heard my first gobble--it was a distant, faint and weak gobble, but a bona fide gobble just the same.  That lone pathetic gobble was all it took to renew by spirits and off I went in that direction.  I got close enough to work this bird a bit, but I could tell he had some hens with him so despite my best efforts in luring him within shotgun range, he drifted off to the south. I backed away from my position with a plan to make a safe circle and get in front of this bird.

I did go far until I came upon a very steep sided, sandy botton creek with a 1/2 inch of clear water trickling in the bottom. I decided this would be the perfect travel route for me, I would be hidden by the tall banks and walk quietly on the soft sand. I had not gone up the little creek but very short ways when I saw something that literally stopped me in my tracks with amazement and gave me more that a touch of a spooky feeling. It was that kind of feeling that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck like a mad dog. What I saw was a bare adult human foot print in the sand. It had crisp edges to it and I could tell it was fresh. Keep in mind it was cool, I was way deep in the middle of brier infested country and to my knowledge--there was not a house for miles. I rationalized that who ever owned this print was very tough or very crazy with a good possibility of being both. I was a bit surprised to find myself "spooked" at this situation and had absolutely no interst in proceeding any further up this creek. I deliberately turned around and eased myself out of there. For me on this day, it wasn't so much what I saw that gave me a chill, it was the imaginary image of what I didn't see that gave me the "willies" and caused me to leave a gobbling bird.             

[TClark]

2 Scary ones for me. My brother in-law and I were bow hunting in Cannain Valley WV.
We were about 75 yards apart. Just at darkness fell, I heard the most blood curdling screaming. Then I saw a spot of white coming directly towards me screaming so loud. I thought I'd just try to scare what ever it was and made a mountain lion type growl.
It worked and it turned and ran off...whew!!!  Got up to my brother in-law to see if he may have seen what the heck it was. Here there were two gray foxes playing beneath him and he decided to stick one. It was first the combination of both of em screaming then just the live one that came at my direction. It was sad and he felt so bad after he did it...the other one crying for it's mate/brother/sister/mom.  He did mount it though, but to this day that screaming haunts him because his decision was the cause.
#2  I went hunting alone in Cannain Valley. hiked the mountain that day and found a heavy trail. the first day in the tree, I saw this HUGE body moving slowly through the saplings. Then I could make out a foot step then the belly line. It was enormous...couple steps more and I'm thinking, Oh God, please let it come this way". Then it stepped out and lifted it's head. I tell ya, it looked like he was lifting a tree. As it turned to go the opposite direction, I could plainly see it was an elk and it was indeed huge. If it had bugled, I'd a probably fell from the tree for sure.
I watched it too long and before I knew it darkness fell. It was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of me. I knew the mountain pretty good and it was a 20 minute hike back down to camp. I knew it I got "off track", I could easily get hurt and maybe still be laying there. Anyway, I got to the first ridge and was just walking at a slow pace. Then I heard something directly behind me. FEAR set in, I turned and looked but couldn't a seen anything any how it was so black. With the hir standing on my neck I dared to take a few more steps. Three steps, then something behind me took three steps....Holy Crap...took three more, it took three more...two more, it took two more. took one more, it took one more. Thought " I'm SO out of here"!!  I'll never know how, but I made it off the mountain without once falling, walking into a tree or stumbling over a boulder. TO heck with the camp, I jumped right into the van, slammed the door shut and locked it and sat there shaking like a leaf. THEN, I got my flashlight from the van and looked around and saw nothing, never did I hear anything more. I had two more days to hunt, but I was totally done with the mountain top.