Top 5 Spookiest Outdoor Experiences

Did I see any ghosts? Nope. Zombies? Nope. There have been just a few happenings while out in the wilderness that have caused the hairs on my arms to stand up or give me the heebie-jeebies.

Sometimes it's a certain campsite that just doesn't feel quite right, or maybe a scary encounter with wildlife. Either way, I know we have all had something strange happen when we've been outdoors.

1. Camping with Tori Baird (Tori Goes Outside/Paddle Like a Girl) can be… interesting. We always seem to get ourselves into some sort of situation.
   
   Last year on our first-ever “Solo but Not Alone” canoe trip in Algonquin I landed my solo canoe right next to a bag of garbage that had 7 empty tuna cans and some granola wrappers at a campsite. Then up by the fire pit there was a bottle of hand sanitizer.

   After getting a fire going and making dinner, we had some drinks around the fire. We were having a great time. Just before dark, we went back to hang the rope for our food. On the way, I stepped on a rusty nail. Punctured the bottom of my foot! 2 for 2 at this campsite now.. 3 for 3 if you count me tipping my canoe at the start of this lake!
   
   

   Rope hung, we went back to sit by the fire as dusk set in. We thought it was best to burn the garbage and then remove the cans and pack them out with us. Just as it was getting dark we heard a tree branch break in the bushes behind our site. It was gusting wind so decided that it was probably the wind.

   Moments later we heard rustling leaves. Hmm.. it’s not windy right now. And at that moment, Tori’s dog Buck got up and started walking near the trees. I yelled.

   “Go away!”

   Nothing.

   I whistled, clapped my hands and yelled again.

   Nothing. It moved closer. Large movement coming closer.

   Shit.

   F*ck.

   More breaking branches on the ground and rustling leaves. Tori, with bear banger in hand, lets it off into the bush.

   “B-A-N-G.”

   Nothing.

   NOTHING!

   It moved closer.

   What. The. F*ck.

   Hearts racing we grabbed the axe, loaded another banger and Tori had her hand on the bear spray at the ready.

   It slowly retreated off.

   Slowly.

   Non-chalantly.

   “What do we do now?!” We both asked.

   No WAY were we sleeping on this site. It was now completely dark out.

   “We have to pack up and leave this site.” We decided.
   

   Hearts racing, we threw everything into our canoes and paddled the eff out of there and into the dark night.

   We followed the shoreline back to the other campsite. Keeping as close together as possible, we finally made it to the landing of the other site.

2. Same trip with Tori, different day.

Around dusk we hung our rope and when it got dark we hung our food. Back to the fire we heard a branch break beside the bay we were on.

“Must be a tree falling.”

Then we heard “oooooh.”

Then we heard “oou-wah.”

It was a moose! Cool! We knew when we pulled up to this campsite that it would be the perfect place to see a moose. Too bad it was dark.

We decided to head to bed. After pissing around in my tent, blowing up my sleeping mat and getting my sleeping bag out, I finally laid down and let out a good sigh. Then I heard what I thought was Tori dragging her tent over to mine.

“Are you dragging your tent??” I asked.

“Uhh, yeah. Do you not hear that?!?!?!?!?!” She said.

We both listened and all we could hear was an angry moose moaning, thrashing and breaking branches only 100 or so feet from our campsite. Not sure if it was fighting another moose or just angry AF.

I definitely didn’t feel safe in my tent. They were so close that thoughts of them not paying attention to where they’re fighting could bring them up onto the shore and trample us in our tents.

“What do we do?!” Tori asked.

I didn’t know the answer, but didn’t feel safe in my tent.

We got out and went bushwhacking along the shoreline in the opposite direction until we reached an occupied campsite.

“Hello?” We said from the shoreline.

A light turned on inside of a tent. “This site’s occupied.” A voice came from inside.

“Yeah, we’re the ones on the site beside you. Sorry to bother you but we’re really scared.” I said.

“Oh?” Another voice said.

“Can we come up?” I replied.

We went up to their tent and explained what had been going on. The guy wanted to know if he could follow us back to our site so that he could hear the rutting moose.

I had to give them fair warning. “Before you come out of your tent, you should know that I’m holding an axe. I don’t want to frighten you.”

Nervous laughs proceeded.

When we all returned to our site, the moose had trampled off.

3. A really dumb thing I did was provoke a bear who then charged at me.

I was doing a photo shoot for my friend, Shanna, when we saw a bear walking toward us in Bala.

Just had to get the shot, so I followed it around town. Photographing with my 300mm zoom lens.

It swam across the river and then ended up in some bushes around an apple tree. It was eating and I kept moving closer and closer. It was showing its teeth and growling, but I didn’t get the hint.

It had enough and eventually charged at me. I totally deserved it and from that point on I gained more respect for wildlife and definitely keep my distance.

4. Camped out on Evelyn Lake in Temagami and found a cool-looking piece of driftwood that had a spooky face in it.

5. The last super creepy thing that happened out in the woods was during a canoe trip on Harry Lake in Killarney Provincial Park. We paddled around the lake to explore and landed on site 132 to check it out. Right away there was an eerie feeling to it. There was moose scat, turned over rocks, and the feeling that something was watching from the forest. Banjo, our dog was acting weird. I waited by the shoreline for the others to finish exploring when I looked down and saw this...

Please tell me I’m not the only one who’s experienced some creepy sh*t in the woods.

Tell me your story in the comments!