Spring is fast approaching. And with that, we’re gonna be seeing more warmer weather around (whether or not it’s climate change-induced). This can only mean one thing—camping season.

Heck, even folks on Reddit are already talking about it. Albeit, it’s camping horror stories, after Redditor r/Liversojunmy asked the campers of Reddit, what’s the most disturbing thing you have seen while camping? But hey, consider this a bootcamp, both for your physical prep as well as your mental one.

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#1

A friend of mine wild camped and found a nice spot. When the sun came up she found out that she was in someone’s backyard and the family was sitting there eating breakfast and watching as she quietly packed up and left. .

© Photo: jeffbell

#2

Arrived at a campsite around 3 pm in Val Verde, CA area to camp one night with my boyfriend (who is a Black man.. and that is important detail for later) in 2012. Maybe one other family in the whole area, but felt just like us. We set up and we’re chilling until Around 7 pm when like 10 pickup trucks arrive and maybe 30 people congregate. They are immediately loud and obnoxious and too close, but whatever… we only staying for one night so whatever. The huge group start to stack big pile of wood to make a huge bonfire and we start to notice.. hmm, they are all men. White men. Most of them are bald. Hmmmm… Then one younger guy comes over to us and offers us a beer! How nice.. he says hey sorry if we are loud but here’s a peace offering! Then just before he turns back to his group he says “you and that n-word better get out of here before dark”….. it was an Aryan brotherhood meet up. We got out of there so fast.

#3

Went to an empty campground in the mountains in california. The weather was bad, January of ‘16 or ‘17. We were set up near a small river cooking a late dinner in the dark after night fell. My old dog, a huskie, starts absolutely losing his mind. He was screaming and barking at a place beyond our lantern light away towards the river. I flipped on my headlamp, and it was a mountain lion. It stared back at me for a second or two, then turned and I lost it in the brush. Those eyes staring back at me… bring your dog camping with you!.

© Photo: ComputerPresent7486

So, folks on Reddit have recently gathered to share some disturbing camping stories around a virtual campfire that is this thread right here.

The thread got a modest amount of attention, racking up just a few hundred shy of 2,000 upvotes, but the audience was engaged leading to nearly 1,000 comments.

#4

Went camping on the Mendocino coast of California in 80’s/90’s, the first night at the campground we hear what sounds like a woman screaming like she’s being murdered. It terrified us all awake, after a sleepless night we learned that there was a peacock sanctuary nearby and that’s how they sound.

© Photo: SageRiBardan

#5

A forever ago my friend and I were camping in a horse pasture (with the owners permission) with my friend’s horse, it [darn] near crushed me when it decided that he wanted to be in the tent too and see what we were doing.

© Photo: Waltzing_With_Bears

#6

Not my story, but my childhood friend wandered off with a buddy on a scout trip and found a corpse in the woods. Had a .22 caliber hole between its eyes. The two of them were 13-ish. He went to the trial, and had been advised that he might have to testify, since he discovered a [end] victim. But, they ended up not calling either of the kids.

© Photo: p0k3t0

Now, some find camping scary and that’s OK. Who wouldn’t be anxious about treading into grizzly country with poor reception and intrusive thoughts of randos roaming about, looking for fresh meat or something.

But, a little bit of planning and prep can go a long way to keeping you sane during camping: pitch your tent during daytime, get familiar with your surroundings, try to drown out the noise (e.g. camp near water), plomp your tent against something so you’re not exposed, or simply bring more friends (animal companions included).

#7

Was at a campsite in rural Buffalo, NY, when a family of about 5 showed up and unpacked at the site next to us. Seemed like nice people, exchanged pleasantries, and went about our separate business setting up camp. The next morning, when we unzipped our tent and went to prep breakfast, we realized they were all still asleep, ON THE GROUND. No sleeping bag, no tent, just lying down, fully clothed, like they had been raptured. Remember, this is Buffalo, NY – even in the summer, it gets cold at night. That was spooky, but we decided to leave them be and get packed up. Once we got back from a breakfast run, they were up and packing. Seeing that we were back, the father came over to us and introduced himself. Said we seemed like nice people, and that he wanted to warn us about the imminent collapse of the US Economy. He eyed our car and said that it’ll be the only type of currency available once the banks shut down, and that we should be careful, since someone will want it more than our money when “China invades”. He pulled out his phone to try and show us a YouTube video that explains the whole thing, but we somehow extricated ourselves, and booked it. Packed up and left faster than we ever have before. The disturbing thing was not just what he said – it was how calm and genial he was while saying it, as if he was talking about the weather. TL;DR: went camping, saw another family sleep outside with no tent or sleeping bags – just flat on the ground. They then warned us about China invading the US.

© Photo: Crafty_Equal_6601

#8

I was camping on a beach in Costa Rica. It was beautiful. The first night. I could hear something moving around my tent. I peaked around through the top as best I could. Couldn’t see anything. The sound is non-stop. Something is right next to me. Moving all around my tent. After like an hour, I need to know. Finally, I open the tent and look around. Thousands of crabs we’re heading back to the ocean and were falling of this little 1′ wall. Laughed once I figured it out but [darn] I was terrified.

© Photo: HereTooUpvote

#9

This is a story about my grandma that I didn’t hear directly from her, but from my family. My grandmother (born in the 20’s) grew up in suburban Florida and didn’t really have any experience with wildlife. After she married my grandfather, they went camping in Yellowstone (possibly their honeymoon, not sure). They went for a hike and when they came back they saw a bear at the camp ground sniffing around the steaks my grandma was gonna prepare for dinner. My grandma ran up to the bear and smacked on the nose with the flat side of an axe (not recommended). Fortunately the bear ran off. Now, I have no idea how big this bear was, may have been a baby for all I know, but still makes for a good story.

She was also a real life “Rosie the riveter” during WW2. My grandma was a bad**s.

And, actually, knowing is half the battle with getting over the fear of camping. And there’s quite a bit to learn.

First, you gotta figure out your camping equipment. It goes without saying that sleeping bags, tents, flash lights, wet wipes, first aid kits and the like are a must. It also helps to have a camping stove, though some prefer going old-fashioned and setting up a fire using the wood they find on site.

#10

Went to the forest with some friends one winter. we were completely unprepared and ended up sleeping bunched in a tiny tent in the snow. I woke up in the middle of the night hearing these grunting noises next to my head. I thought it was my friend snoring but then realized there was this giant snout poking the fabric of the tent on the outside and literally breathing in my face. I barely held myself from screaming when the bear got bored of trying to get inside and left. We went outside in the morning and there were massive paw prints everywhere plus the leftovers of our food were gone. Lesson learned the hard way.

© Photo: Embarrassed_Ad1722

#11

My family had some land in a remote part of Colorado. We always had creepy nights up there where it felt like someone was watching us. My brother was up there once and heard footsteps around his tent and got so scared him and his fiancé left in the middle of the night. A few weeks later, 4 of us were up there and we found four rat tails nailed to the side of an old shed we had. We sold the land a few years ago.

© Photo: tater08

#12

Went camping as a kid up in the Appalachian mountains somewhere in Virginia with family out there. In the middle of the night we heard a scream that woke us all up that sounded like a woman being murdered. I [darn] near peed myself. They told me it was some monster which only scared me more. YEARS later I came across a video of a fox screaming and it was the exact same sound.

Once you have the equipment sorted out, it’s time to decide on a location. While you can’t sort out all of the logistics without actually going to the site, you’d be amazed how much online maps, reviews and general inquiry online could help.

Whatever the case, always keep several things in mind, with the first one being water sources. While having a bit of a reserve is good, carrying enough water for the entire camping trip is not practical. So, setting up next to water and sourcing from there (boiling it too) is definitely a good solution.

#13

I went on a family camping trip in Austria as a kid. The camp site was in a forest, and my dad picked a nice spot between some trees. Unfortunately our tent wouldnt fit so we had to move along a bit. That night there was a massive storm and I remember my parents tying the tent to the car and spending most of the night holding the tent down. In the morning we woke up and it was a bright sunny day. We opened the tent to find a 2 foot thick tree laying across the spot we originally picked. If our tent had fitted in that spot we would have probably been killed. My mum cut the trip short at that point.

© Photo: User

#14

A couple came to the spot next to ours after we had been camping for a few days. They were there for about two hours after unpacking and setting up camp, just practicing knife throwing and cracking a whip. One of them cut their finger off and the other came and asked if we could watch their campsite until they got back. We did. We also played Indiana Jones for about 3 hours drunk off our a*s trying to swing from a broken branch of a tree with that whip. They never came back and we let the park ranger know to look after their stuff.

© Photo: AtTheTopOfMyLungs

#15

Not long ago, Me and my friend went camping together. It was a public trail, so other campers were expected. Though, I didn’t expect to wake up at 4am to a balding middle aged man squatting behind a tree about 3 or 4 metres from our tent with a trowel in hand; we locked eyes and he just said “I’d give it 5 minutes.”.

© Photo: User

Setting up in an area that has trees is also a good idea. Trees provide shelter from the wind, the sun, and extreme weather conditions, all the while giving ample opportunity to use them for traps or hang things on them to deter wild animals from the camp. And if there aren’t any trees, bushes and bigger rocks are better than nothing. Oh, and make sure there aren’t any murderers around.

#16

My sons and I went camping in a very remote spot deep in the Idaho woods. We went for a two mile hike even deeper into the woods and came across a perfect circle about five feet in diameter made completely of bones with a smaller circle of bones in the center of the circle with a deer skull placed directly in the middle. On the way back we looped around and found ourselves in front of a dense group of birch trees that gave off the darkest vibe. My sons and I all had goosebumps. We bypassed the birches and eventually made it back to camp. I think that ninety percent of the creepy, paranormal, supernatural stories you hear about the woods have rational explanations including my story, but even though the ring of bones was odd; it’s the dark ominous feeling that we all got from the birches that really unsettled me.

© Photo: User

#17

I was looking on FreeRoam for a dispersed campsite near Eugene, Oregon last year during a road trip. There weren’t a ton of options, but it was starting to get dark and I had been driving all day so I went up a forest access road a couple miles to the one site that was closest (about 20 minutes). It was super thick forest then out of nowhere a narrow driveway that opened up to a bushwhacked spot with a fire pit. There was a good amount of garbage and some shotgun shells lying around. That’s not super out of the ordinary, but something just felt off. I opened up my door and let my chihuahuas jump out, they are usually pumped to run around and chase each other, but they both immediately stopped as soon as they hit the ground, stared into the bushes about 20 feet away, and growled. I thought maybe there was an animal back there so I hucked them back into the truck and began setting up my rooftop tent. My stomach started gurgling and I realized I had to do my business….i grabbed my shovel and wipes and started looking for a spot to go down the road. The forest was so thick, there weren’t any good openings so I came back to the site and started walking the perimeter to find a hole to duck into, as things were becoming urgent. I found an opening, right where my dogs were staring and growling, and just out of sight into the brush was a mattress with dirty sheets and a perfectly intact milk carton. I got chills, and I could just feel that someone else was there, just out of sight. It was pretty dark at this point, but I quickly ran back to the road and dug my hole and did my thing, came back and started packing everything back up. There was no cell service, and for all I know there could be multiple people in the bushes waiting for me to go to sleep….and the shotgun shells…we just went into town and got a hotel. Intuition was SCREAMING at me to not stay in that place.

#18

Was with a group of about 8 people. We were in a very isolated location, not a formal campground. We always preferred to hike in and get as far away from other people as possible. Around 9 or 10 it was pitch black and the woods were silent, no wind. We were all pretty buzzed off whiskey at this point and out of f*****g nowhere this dude with a hunting rifle on his back steps into the firelight. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and basically looked homeless, kind of a blank stare on his face. Keep in mind, we were in the Rockies at like 10k feet, so it was not warm…and he wasn’t wearing a shirt. The fact that we didn’t hear him meant he had definitely snuck up on us. We went silent and just stared at him. He looked around, didn’t say a word, and backed into the darkness. We slept in shifts that night and kept the fire blazing. We could hear him moving around our camp till sunrise when I guess he gave up. We got out of there at first light and I reported it to park service. Creepy mother f****r.

Positioning is also key as, remember, you’re out in the wild. Your tent is your best shelter. And if a thunderstorm or a fog as thick as curdled milk comes about in the morning, you might not like the amount of excessive humidity.

Also, there’s this thing called altitude sickness—experiencing discomfort while camping each night in altitudes that differ drastically from each pitch—which happens with higher altitude locations above 8,000 feet. In that case, try to keep your elevation progression at around 1,000 feet between nights.

#19

Gotta rewind like twenty five years, the Blair witch project had recently come out, this is pre internet for all intents and purposes, and the rumors were that it was real found footage (silly to say today I know). We woke up in the morning to find stones piled in front of our tent like in the movie. I’m sure it was just some kids from a neighboring camp, but it still freaked us out.

© Photo: User

#20

As I was unpacking for a solo camping/quail hunt, 2 guys walked into my camp to chat. Dirty and very disheveled, obviously drunk they asked me if “you got bullets for that gun?” When they saw my shotgun case. After a few minutes they turned to walk back to their camp I saw that one of them had his scalp peeled back leaving and open and crusty wound the size of the palm of my hand. That night they drank and threw .22 rounds into the fire and ran. Eventually they passed out, the next day they were arrested and I was told that the one with the scalp wound tried to attack someone with a roofing axe a couple of days earlier and got the Uno Reverse card played and they were up there hiding out.

© Photo: KernIrregular

#21

A buddy of mine and I were paddling the Buffalo River in Arkansas. For reasons neither interesting nor relevant, we had to pull off and camp for the night next to a field in the middle of nowhere. In the middle of the night, we were awakened by ATVs not too far away. They got closer and closer until they were at our campsite. They started doing laps around our tent and yelling all kinds of things. It was exactly how you would imagine it would go in a movie right before the psycho rednecks do terrible things to the protagonists. Also, I’m from a redneck place where this was a completely plausible scenario ending with me and my buddy bleeding at least a little. So we just laid there and hoped for the best and fortunately they quickly got bored and left. .

© Photo: mcloofus

While these are some of the basics, the more you know, the better off you’ll be, so consider learning some survival skills and camping hacks. You know, things like digging a half-donut shaped hole for your sheltered fireplace, bringing 3 times more firewood than you might think you’ll need, and knowing that a foil packet is ideal for slow-cooking things on hot coal.

#22

I camped next to a guy who had just got out of prison who was there with his new stripper gf and her infant and other young child. It was quite the train wreck to witness. They were arguing nonstop from the minute they arrived. The first night, the woman drove drunk out somewhere during the night and backed the car into a pole in some parking lot doing significant damage. The next night, the baby got sick and threw up in their tent and the guy was so [angry] he went and slept in the car. He was yelling about how bad it smelled. Then he broke up with her the next morning and was gone.

© Photo: rarecare

#23

Wasnt so much that I saw so much as heard. My brother and I went camping up the mountain for a couple of nights. First night was awesome, found a nice clearing where we could safely make a fire and camp out. 2nd night, started great, but as it got dark we heard a bear in the distance. There was a large clear cut area that it was in, so we could hear it from quite a long ways away, so we werent too concerned at the time. Then after the Sun went down, we heard it much closer, enough that we could hear its footsteps in the woods. We were a little freaked out, so we tossed some rocks and yelled, didnt seem to make a difference, it kept getting closer. Then… we heard more of them, at least 3 coming from different directions, basically surrounding us. One got real close and growled in the darkness. We all know what a bear sounds like from movies, but in real life, its much more gutteral, primal, you can feel it in your chest, and it also had this train whistle like overtone to it. It was the scariest sound ive ever heard in my life. We packed everything up like it was an olympic sport and got the [darn] outta there. Thankfully we had lots of light and a trail to follow. Because of the adrenaline, what took us 2 days to hike up, took us 3 hours to get back down. I remember constantly looking back to see if anything was following us. We found an RV campground near the base of the mountain and had to steal some water at 2 in the morning because we were so dehydrated by the time we got there. We probably could have just asked for some, but we were still in primal caveman running from predators mode.

© Photo: User

#24

About 40 years ago I went camping with two friends to upststate NY. One friend said he knew a cool place for camping. It was already getting dark when we left and, as was common at the time, we drank the entire way there. We get to the park and we’re pretty blasted. We grab our backpacks and our supply of beer and a bottle of Jack and start heading in. We were stumbling around but we ended up hiking for about an hour. Finally we were deep into the woods and we find a nice clearing. We set up the tent as best we can, start a big fire and continue to drink. We got wasted. The next morning, I hear noises outside the tent. I stick my head out and there is a troop of boy scouts surrounding our camp and several are raking dirt onto our fire, putting out the embers. One of the scouts looks at me and days “there’s no camping allowed here”. I look around and there are tons of people walking by looking at our falling down tent, beer cans all over and other debris. We were in some day park, like where people come on weekends to hike and play with their kids. Worse thing was, I look to the right and the parking lot and our car was right there, about 50 feet away. We thought we were deep in the woods. We packed our s**t quick and took off.

And if you’re camping in the winter, say, somewhere near ice, note that 4 inches is roughly how thick the ice should be for you to walk on or go fishing in… unless you’re taking a snowmobile which would require 5 inches, a truck which would require 12 to 15 inches, or an AT-AT which would require 60 inches. And if we’re that ridiculous, 12 to 15 is definitely safe for a Tauntaun.

#25

One time there were these campers across from us at another site and they were late twenties. They were drinking late into the night which usually isn’t a problem (Corp of engineer’s park) but this one f****r would make this loud scream everytime he took a shot and he wouldn’t stop doing it. At around 2 am finally someone pulled up on a gator and told them all to shut up. This guy wasn’t getting the hint and his friends were telling him loudly not to drink anymore or scream. It got quiet for about 10 minutes and then from inside my tent I saw headlights and heard a car pulling out. I figured someone was taking him home cause he was being annoying and ruining the fun for everyone. I’m finally starting to dose off and WITH MY EYES CLOSED I see a big blue flash and then a loud noise. There was a sub station down the street and I’m pretty sure that guy drove himself into it or something close to it cause it was crazy bright and loud. I would say I feel sorry for the guy but he was the most annoying person I had never met in my life. I probably heard him do his stupid a*s Mario scream 15 times that night after 1 am.

© Photo: Alexinaggtown

#26

Mountain lion tracks over our tracks. That was pretty spooky. Same area we camped next to this lake in July, and this rabbit came up and just hung out in our camp. We thought it was something terriyfing sneaking up (bear or aforementioned mountain lion) until this cute little bunny just pops out of the underbrush. He hung out with at our camp for probably 3 hours or so before we went to bed finally. The spooky part of the bunny was: what the [darn] is out there that this wild rabbit would rather stay super close to the humans. Kept my Glock on me for p**s breaks.

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