13 campers share their most terrifying experiences in the woods.

The great outdoors is beloved by many. Fresh air, animals, pretending like you're an explorer I assume these are the things people like about it (personally, it isn't for me). It's important to respect mother nature, as you never know what she's capable of.

On a popular Reddit thread in the Ask Reddit Subreddit, people fond of the outdoors share their harrowing experiences.

They write:

1. Ocksu2 says:

Many years ago, when I was about 14, I was hiking deep in the woods behind my house with some friends. We were miles away from home- further than any of us had ever gone before. And we came up to the edge of a clearing and a little further down the treeline, we saw a lump of clothes underneath an old deer stand.

We got a little closer and we could make out legs and arms and boots. They were wet from rain and had been there for a while. Obviously, our first thought was that it was a hunter who had an accident and fallen out of his stand and was dead.

We were freaked out and it took us a little bit to get up the nerve to get a better look. It wasn't until we were practically on top of it that we realized that it was a dummy.

We had wandered all the way up to the edge of a big Christmas Tree farm's property and the dummy was part of their decorations from a haunted hayride thing they did. They must have forgotten about it when closing up for the year. We had a good laugh but we were all scared sh*tless for a few minutes.

2. Withthisaccountican says:

When I was about fifteen years old, and some of my friends decided to go camping at a nearby lake. It was a three-four hour hike, and the nearest house was Maybe three hours away. We brought some homemade wine and drank the whole night and ate poorly grilled hot dogs. Life was good.

We all shared the tent, so it was crowded as f*ck in the tent, but we all fell asleep around 2 AM. At four in the morning, I wake up because I can feel someone running their hand down my forearm. Not that unlikely that someone would brush up against me since there wasn't any space to move around in the crowded tent.

But this is the arm that is facing the tent. So someone touched me from the outside of the tent. I sit up and am instantly horrified to see that all my friends are sound asleep in the tent with me. I put on my deepest voice and shout, 'Whoever the f*ck you are, you need to leave!'

And a low manly voice answers me, 'You should pack up your stuff and leave,' not threatening or aggressive. Just calmly and in a dead, kinda way.

By now, all my friends are awake and are just looking at me. No words, just pure horror in their eyes. I say: Okay, we will go, but you must leave. 'Hurry up,' he replies.

When we get out of the tent, this man, who is f*cking huge by the way, has taken the little row boat that was lying at the bank and got into it and is just sitting in the middle of the lake and watching us pack up our stuff and trying to get the f*ck away.

We had to walk around the lake on our way back, and he was just sitting there watching us. We never went back.

Some context:

This was 17 years ago in a rural Scandinavian country. We have a 'free to roam law', so we were not trespassing. We knew our way around the small town we grew up; everybody knows everybody. There have been no people missing and or found dead.

There hasn't been a murder in generations. We told our parents, who at first tried to calm us down, and they said that we were probably overreacting. But the way he caressed my arm before he told us to go was not normal; when we told them everything and what he said to us, we were told never to go back.

3. BrunoGerace says:

An after-dark flash flood roared through camp. Twelve of us five of them were sleeping in the canyon bottom.

It's amazing nobody died. That was 32 years ago and I still sleep lightly and always pack clean underpants.

4. jubstep45 says:

Walking in the pitch black out to a deer stand. So dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Heard something circling me, something large; it was trotting along. No big deal; I figured it was a deer.

Then it stopped and let out the most bone-chilling howl I have ever heard. So loud it was like it was inside of me. A few wolves howled back in the distance, and it ran off. I needed new underwear.

5. Worldly_Salamander_ says:

I was backwoods camping in Canada with my ex. Deep forest; we'd been out there a day or two and hadn't seen anyone. We were playing cards in the tent and heard something in the bushes making a giant racket that evening. It was getting steadily closer.

It got to the area we were in and stopped. We debated what to do but finally opened the tent, completely freaked out, and found chickens. Three chickens en route home to an organic farm we didn't know was nearby.

6. BionicGimpster says:

I was backpacking with my dog and about 12 miles from the road and trailhead - so pretty far from people though popular enough that other hikers might be around - though we saw no one all day.

At about 2 AM, my dog started this low deep growl and woke me up. Turn on my headlamp and see his teeth showing, and he's right on top of me. I hear heavy footsteps (black bear/moose?) near the tent.

I leash my dog so he doesn't tear thru the tent, and the footsteps move further away but keep circling my tent. All of my food and toiletries are hung in a tree in a bear bag - nothing in the tent to draw a bear's attention.

I clap my hands - something is still slowly circling - not something a moose would do, and a bear might if he wanted food - but I've got nothing and a really big dog with me. I decide to step out of the tent with the leash in one hand and bear spray in the other - yelling, 'Hey bear'

The footsteps stop - the dog's nose is in the air telling me to look right - but nothing in my headlamp that I can see. Didn't hear anything run off, but it was quiet. I give it five minutes or so, get back in the tent, and it starts up again - slowly circling maybe fifty feet from me. Maybe an hour later, I hear the footsteps wander off into the woods.

At dawn, I take the dog and the bear spray and start looking for tracks. I find a clear path in the leaves that had been trampled but no tracks. The dog's nose is on the ground, and I follow his lead - and he follows the loop around our campsite. We finally see a few human footprints - not shoe tracks - a regular size (not bigfoot) bare human foot.

Plus - yup, a human turd and toilet paper. Some a**hole was wandering around the middle of nowhere, near the tent and circling my tent for an hour or more, and left a dump for me to find.

7. notTomHanx says:

A few years ago, a teenager on the next road went missing. They said he was autistic and ran away from home on foot. We're in a very rural area, they had cops and people walking in the woods for a couple of weeks looking for the kid, never found him.

The following summer, I found a jacket, some empty Pepsi cans, a knife, and a lighter, at the base of a tree in the woods on our property. They came and looked again, but didn't find anything else. It was confirmed to be his jacket.

8. captainkatalis says:

As a boy scout, we found a bunch of scorpions in our tent. We ran outside screaming our heads off, and then lightning struck a tree-like twenty yards away. We turned on our heels and ran straight back to the scorpions

9. darthrio says:

Absolute silence. No wind, no animals, nothing. One second there were all the sounds of nature, then nothing. Lasted for a few seconds which felt like an eternity.

10. Psychological_Put395 says:

I work in the bush and sometimes spend months out there most terrifying was seeing a bear start to circle me right as the helicopter pilot radioed me to say he couldn't get to my location because of the weather. Luckily I had a shotgun with me, and eventually the pilot got down to me, but yeah, sitting there in the sleet while watching that grizzly slowly and sneakily try to cut around my position in the fading light was absolutely terrifying.

The whole time I was trying to come up with possible ways to keep from being outflanked and to keep visual contact with it in case I had to shoot it. This was in the late fall, so the bear probably hadn't put on enough fat for the year and was looking to supplement it. Spooky stuff!

11. AzazelM says:

I was wild camping and testing out my new hammock I usually take my dog with me, but as it was a new hammock, I thought I'd go solo. I set up just before it got dark; I couldn't get comfortable in it, so I slept on the ground. At some time in the early morning, I feel my dog sniffing my ear.

I thought, what is he trying to do it's way too early. Then I remembered my dog was at home and bolted upright, turned on a torch, and saw the back end of a small badger running away (it must have been young). In the morning, I saw all the signs of a badger run that I was right in the middle of; no idea how I didn't notice it before!

12. Inevitable_Shift1365 says:

I was in my twenties growing pot in the coastal mountain range of California. Found a trash bag partially buried with a human torso missing its hands, feet, and head.

13. SkyTheGreat says:

Backpacking the Maryland/PA section of the Appalachian Trail around 17. Four of us were sleeping under a tarp tied up with a paracord, so we only had protection from the rain. I’m guessing around 2 AM; I’m woken up by hearing branches breaking and movement nearby.

Nothing out of the normal. This time of year, the worst it could be is a lone curious black bear, and they don’t pose any real threat. The sounds start getting closer and more rhythmic. Something walking. I turn on my side to see if I can see anything.

As the walking gets closer, I see movement in the leaves, with nothing making it. I perfectly hear a person walking towards us and eventually making its way around our makeshift shelter. I freak out and lay in complete silence for what feels like an eternity until my friend lying next to me finally says, 'You heard that sh*t too, right?'

Nearly jumped out of my sleeping bag but also confirmed I didn’t dream the whole thing. Still have no explanation and am half convinced we just had a collective fever dream.

In a non-paranormal sense and way scarier than what I typed above. I was stalked by a mountain lion in the Rockies a few years ago.

The unease turns into full terror when you realize what is happening. Then fighting every instinct not to run like a mofo is a unique experience. Having that primal feeling that you are prey is f*cking terrifying.