Not scary but pretty funny one time me and some marine buddys were in a tent in Afghanistan when a big rat ran in the tent everyone started freaking out trying to get away lol it reminded me of the cartoons where the girl jumps on the chair screaming and here we are supposed to be these big tough marines lol anyways keep up the great work man 🖒
Count me in! I once woke up in my hammock in the early hours of the morning to some rustling noises. There was a buck in my campsite, nothing out of the ordinary right? Then I heard a low whisper, on the other side of my hammock, there were 2 hunters cutting through my campsite, rifles in hand, in a standoff with the deer. Way too much action in my semi awake state, at first I though I was dreaming.
Boyscouts, scoutmaster spends all night telling scary stories around the campfire, then in the middle of the night screams and crashes through tents scaring everyone. We all run from our tents, and half of us end up crashing into the lake right buy the camp site. He spent next hour apologizing to parents, and helping us get warm and dry by the fire.
I'm in. Craziest noise was at Lake Vesuvoius, Ohio. Pitched my tent at the beach section. 10:30pm, crazy noises like a woman being something or other. I yelled what the leap is going on, it continued. For another 20 minutes. I drank the last two shots of whiskey, and reluctantly deduced to slumber. Woke at 5:30am and finished the loop. Stopped into Lowes nearby to buy some supplies to fix my bed where I was staying. Got to talking to an employee about the noise...he said hold on ill be right back. He came back with a game cam photo of a mountain lion with a bobcat by the neck passing by. So yeah, I puckered up the next four times I stayed the night along the Lakeshore Trail. Terry
When they are so damn "tame" that tossing a stick/rock towards them to chase them off simply encourages the little bastards to run up and sniff it, thinking it's food. Anyone who reads this, please God don't feed the damn raccoons. Later, the little jerk chewed everything that had a scent- sunscreen, hand sanitizer, anything I wrapped duct tape on, etc. Taught me to put EVERYTHING into a hanging bag after that.
I appreciate the posts! Literally was just starting to pack for a trip and started watching the video and you were immediately was like, ‘I would not take this backpacking.’ And I slowly removed my bigger lamp from my bag slyly like you could actually see me. Thanks for the content! Thanks for helping me out a ton with my packing and progressing in my backpacking and camping experiences!
I completed an FKT on the Centennial Trail SD in Mid August of 2020. During that trip I was able to set an FKT. In 58 hr I slept 8 hrs. I didn’t take a sleep bag or tent. Temps got down to low 40’s. I did have Escape SOL bivy. Was my worst nights sleep for 2 nights. I did it on purpose for weight savings and I knew it would make me get up and move!! I think I was lighter than your UL set up. I just had food and water and a few other items. I am going to do it again in a few weeks because my time got beat 4 days later. I know I can drop off several hours. I just bought the Nightcore NU35 rechargeable for my next trip. I will be hiking I total darkness about 25-26 hours on this ATTEMPT. I hope to go 48 hours. Check out the video at. Lance Smith Centennial FKT SD.
Hey Bryce! Not a question about this video but I wasn’t sure how else to each out - thinking you would have good advice. We have a group of backpackers traveling from Michigan.to Red River Gorge. To cut some drive time, we’d like to use an evening to drive to somewhere around Dayton. While we won’t be backpacking that night per se, any recommendations north of Dayton for a group of backpackers to car camp one night?
My last section hike of the VIT , camped by the side of the trail after hiking over 35 miles. At 4 am, I wake up hearing noise in the distance.. still not fully awake I’m debating if it’s my imagination. Noise are getting louder, mama bear and cub are coming my way on the trail. I keep telling myself that they will head back in the woods but when it becomes clear that they will definitely walk pass my camp site. I reached for my bear bell and rang it... At that point the very loud discussion between mama bear growls and cubs whinings stopped leaving the full quietness of the forest in full display. I heard mama bear’s low growl just outside my tent....! Then heard her roaring back and forth along the river bed, in what seemed to me like she was clearing a path for the cub up in the tree.... This lasted 2 hrs and during all that time I was hugging my bear spray ( with the safety off ) harder that anything I cuddled with before. I am grateful that after these 2hrs she called her cub from the river side. I heard him come down from the tree, claws scratching on the bark . And they were on their way... ( growling and whining). This was on my second night out on my EP.3 Video of section hiking the Vancouver Island trail. This seems like an amazing head lamp and would love to enter the draw..🤙
I woke up one night and heard this wierd nasally growling noice...extremely loud. I thought my hiking buddy Sparky, was turning into a zombie. I grabbed my trekking pole, walked to his hammock..... Found out he was just snoring.
In my last video I mention my weirdest night-time occurrence actually... I heard a mob of kangaroos hopping through the bush towards my tent. As usually happens, some stopped and froze when they obviously saw my tent and some kept going on their way to the river for a drink. one stopped right by my tent to rip grass from the ground and have a bit of a feed (seriously, in the dead of night that sounds very weird)... but the WEIRDEST thing about that encounter was that a couple of roos actually jumped into the water and were splashing around in there for a good 20 minutes. I have no idea what they were doing, but I'd guess there were some tasty river plants in there that they felt was worth getting wet for on a 0'C degree night.
This looks like an upgrade to my petzl nao headlamp. It's large but has a long lasting rechargeable battery and a ton of power, enough for night paddling or scaring off bears. Which is my scariest night story, this spring I woke up to a mom and cub bear while camping on the side of a lake and I used the nao headlamp to spot them at about 200 feet. I yelled at them for a few minutes and they ambled off slowly, stopping to look back and make sure I wasn't following. Good to have a powerful light in that situation. It's surprising how quickly you can get back to sleep after that when you're tired.
92 degrees at 10pm. 3 kids 4, 2, and 3 months out the back of the van....raccoons started climbing into the van to try and get my trash bags hanging from the back door. Didn't sleep great the rest of the night. Those fat little trash pandas were bigger than my baby! 😅
Love your videos, thanks for all the hard work. This is not scary, but I had a friend who would always wake me up super early when we were backpacking by peeing near my tent. Fun?????? Lol
I was with friends in Dartmoor. As we gently whafting to sleep I started to hear my friend shouting "WHAT THE..." "ARRRR!!!" "FUCKING HELL!!! ARRGGGGHHH" "ITS A FUCKING HORSE!" A dartmoor pony had nuzzled into the side of his tent and awoke him in the middle of the night. Needless to say we all took a while to get to sleep; him from fear and us from laughter.
Camping at 10.5k ft unplanned on Froze to Death Plateau. All water sources were dried up or melted, 2 of my party were missing after attempting to summit a nearby peak. We got socked in with fog and couldnt see more than 20 feet. Pitched a tarp to sleep. Lit lights under it to make it glow. At about 9pm (5hours late) the two miraculously stumble into camp. It then rains all night, so I collect water waking up every 30minutes until about 3.30 when I fall asleep. Wake up to the sounds of nearby grunting animals. Look around to see 6" of snow and 15-20 big horn sheep wandering around our encampment. I've had scary moments near moose, but this tops all with worries for friends and the extreme conditions. I'm from Ohio, so everything about this situation was surreal and near terror inducing :-)
Bryce, Bryce, Bryce, Bryce. So how important is nutrition to the community of thru-hikers that you have experienced? Vitamins, minerals, fresh veg., protein, basically the food pyramid. I would think thru-hikers experience as much physical and mental stress as pro athletes. If it's not a priority (like keeping base weight low), why isn't it a priority to the thru-hiking community?
Hey Bryce, I'm in! I'll keep the story short. Woke up to 10 sets of waist high or higher glowing eyes looking at me and rustling around. Got out of the hammock to get a closer look only to find out it was a bunch of deer. Next morning I discovered I was sleeping near a mulberry tree. The deer must have come in for a late night snack. Thanks for the content - I'm still waiting for my LiteAF multiday bag to ship...I'm pretty pumped about doing a super light, no luxury loadout also. Cheers from Michigan.
Sorry I have nothing, no scary night hikes. But last labor day weekend down in red river gorge my son got so creeped out by the sounds he went to bed lol!!! "Some knocking and stuff like that." Are there more comments than usual? Wonder why? Your moving up in the world!! "Carol Baskins!!"
creepy camping story- with my teen kids in catskill mtns in NY. Campground was in the valley next to the lake and the Escarpment trail was up the mountain from the campground. Woke up at 5 am to loud shrieking over and over. I’m positive wasn’t fox or coyote or owl - I’ve heard all those plenty before. Sounded like came from the escarpment and like a woman in great danger. Thought maybe someone had fallen off the cliff (in the dark????) but rangers said no. None of my kids heard it. Still dont know what it was, but freaked me out!
I'm in - but maybe too late. 83 yrs old and still hiking - last vivit to Mayakka River State Park Bee's Island campsite at 5:00 a.m. heard a chilling bark from an unknown annimal. Sounded somewhere between a cayote and dog but not identified. Heard it then nothing and again about every 1.5 minutes and continued for 15 minutes. Hair raising for sure,
That lantern is super sweet ..car camping material for sure dude...i just use my headlamps till they die..if ya don't do much night hiking I guess ya don't need alot of lumens ..i think my black diamond is like 500...my buddy has a miners light off of Amazon that's like 10000 lumens...it has a flashing police light on it🤣🤣🤣
I’m in. My first solo was this year. Found a nice quiet camp spot all to myself. I’m in my tent when I hear voices. 6 20 something kids show up. Reassured me I would be safe as they were all packing. Don’t know about guns but they had enough smoke to last them all night. They giggled all night. Me, didn’t sleep a wink. They stayed and I moved bright and early the next morning.
Crazy looking head lamp...Petzl is and awesome product though. I don't really have any crazy stories...pretty boring actually. Maybe that headlamp would make me more exciting like bacon.
Rolled up late one night to our campground minutes after a severe microburst. I had no idea it had just happened. Just throughly confused why big mature pines lay across the road to our site. Confused even more when other campers approached asking if we were OK. “Uh, yeah, I guess so? But I’d be a lot better if this tree wasn’t blocking my spot.”
Craziest story. Overnight near Grayson Highlands on the AT in Virginia. I stowed my food bag in a bear box nearby. In the middle of the night I'm woken by heavy breathing, sniffing, snorting. I turned on my head lamp. A bear was pushing it's snout against my rain fly. I yelled, it didn't move. I punched it, it left. Turns out I forgot to put my trash bag with my food bag. Not making that mistake again.
I do not like the bulkyness of that. If you happen to choose me for the giveaway, give that thing to the person two posts before mine chronologically. Night hike story. Hiking in desert at night. Slipped on some gravel on a rock surface (think marbles in a concrete floor). Threw my hands up reflexively, my right hand came slamming down on a cactus. Picked thorns out of my flesh for days.
Went camping in Birkittsville, MD where Blair Witch Project was filmed. Never been scared in the woods, always comfortable by myself in the woods. Kept hearing noises all night. Didn’t sleep a minute, scared to move in my tent because I didn’t want to make any noise and draw attention to myself from the “thing” outside. Got up at day break only to find squirrels all over the place running around up and down trees making all the noise. Now I’ve heard squirrels in the woods and never paid any attention to them but when you might have a witch roaming around at night a two pound squirrel running through leaves is terrifying.
Was hiking with my teenager and we slept in Hennesy Hammocks. I woke up in the pitch-black night hearing the, what i thought, was the noise of a badger. I was trying to make some noise to make it go away but I found out that I was not able to speak or move. I was caught between sleep/dream and awake. I fell asleep and then again I was caught in dream/awake state with the sensation of something pushing against the walls of the hammock. Like being in between two big animails leaning against the hammock. Not scary , just weird as I knew I was only dreaming somehow. Finally i woke up and turned on my PETZL Reactik plus. It's front heavy and needs an upgrade :D
Backpacking trip in scouts in bear country for the first time with Midwest farmland scouts. Coming back from campfire only myself had a flashlight with everyone crowding around me walking just .5 mile.
So a few weeks ago a friend of mine from work and I went motorcycle camping in the smokies, as we set up our tents at a motorcycle campground on a rv pad he put his tent right beside mine. No big deal right, well not for me but he was going to have an issue. You see, I've been told that I snore and sometimes talk in my sleep. So I told him that if he hears me talking or snoring he'd been warned and it's not my fault. 😆 So about 3am or so I get up to go to the restroom and his tent is gone. 🤔 Where's his tent? His bike is still where it was? Here he moved three rv pads down to get away from the racket I was "ALLEGEDLY" making in my sleep. So in the morning we get up and start to pack up and whatnot and the guys that were 6 rv pads away from me asked my friend " did you guys hear that talking and laughing all night long"? I thought our group and you two guys were the only ones here last night. Which was true. So yeah, I guess I can say that I might talk in my sleep a little bit. I hope I win that headlamp. Really like the channel, keep up the good work.
2020 solo overnight at Allegheny NF, passed day hikers who reported a bear crossed the trail, heading toward the Reservoir inlet where I had planned to camp; got to my site hours later, set up my tent on the very edge of the inlet, near where it ran shallow to the forest edge. 30 minutes after my fire died, drifting off to sleep, bear-bag high and away in the woods, something the size of a chubby nine-year-old with pool goggles began to lose footing at higher elevation, opposite side of the inlet, spooling itself with hillside vines, tumbling faster in a race with debris and cramping, ultimately cannonballing into the Reservoir. Freaked out, I opened my tent door forgetting my headlamp wrapped around my wrist-staring at the churning inky water, and could barely make out the head of whatever it was as it thrashed a second then nodded and nodded as it swam like it had 2 summers of lessons toward my muddy banks side of the inlet. I crouched back into my tent for my knife, but when I looked back out all I saw-and heard-were the lapping waves of the splash sped up and cresting now as it must be nearing me, paddling and swallowing guts of unfiltered water. I wanted to shout ‘hey bear’-I wanted to scream ‘ice-cream’-but it never came out of the water. I’m in.
On the Appalachian train. Got to Blood Mountain cabin on a Friday night only to be told I couldn’t stay there as they had 20+ kids already in there already . Spent the night on the ledge of the mountain only to be woken up by something at my feet at about 4:30 am. Shown a light and it was a skunk. Didn’t know I could jump straight up into the air and navigate the ledge in the dark. Made it to Neel Gap in about 30 minutes flat lol!
Was at summer camp in 5th grade, we were sleeping under the stars on a small summit that was all exposed granite telling ghost stories during a full moon. While lying down getting settled for bed, someone was telling a story about vampire bats sucking the blood of their victims right as the story ended, a huge swarm/flock of bats flew through our group of over 50 campers - chaos resulted, campers screaming, running around, hiding in their bags, sticks swinging (one I believe had fire on its end), small rocks being thrown, etc. picture a bunch of pre-teen kids trying to cope.
I am in. This light looks interesting. No real crazy stories, except maybe not paying attention and having to jump a sleeping porcupine on the trail at Oil Creek State Park. I had to stop and see if it was dead, he wasn't. Lol Love your videos!
Most of the creepiest moments happened in one night. While trying to fall asleep, I heard coyotes barking and howling in the distance. Then while sleeping I was awoken by the beavers having what I was pretty sure "sexy time" in the lake. Lastly, I was awoken to squirrels throwing pine cone bombs on the top of the tent. Much like the Farmers Insurance commercial: www.ispot.tv/ad/dO0i/farmers-insurance-hall-of-claims-vengeful-vermin
I’m in Bryce! As far as stories go my creepiest nights in the woods are ones from my childhood growing up in the PNW. I’ve been around long enough to remember Leonard nimoy doing his show “ in search of” and the one about Bigfoot always got the hairs on the back of my neck raised going through the cascades😳 and I naturally assumed Sasquatch was roaming everywhere out there at night!
I was in Yosemite and had been drinking a little whisky after my hike up to Yosemite Falls that day. I decided to take a night hike "alone". I was way down the trail when I started to see signs posted saying (Mountain Lion spotted in the area. DO NOT hike at night and DO NOT hike alone. Well it was a little late at this point and yes a little too much whiskey made me think that this was funny. I just started saying out loud, bring it on Mountain Lion. BTW Bryce the lower section of site 10 in Mohican is shut down. :-(
We were doing a 48 hour survival training for a regional SAR team when it was almost time to go crash for the night. We heard a wrestle on the logging road above us and then thrashing. I look over at my Hammock set up and all of a sudden a buck come shooting off the hill through my campsite destroying everything and hit my pack so hard but it through my camp Axe 30 feet from my camp. Oh and I’m definitely in on the giveaway
Coming from Indiana, on a trip to Arizona. I'm with my girlfriend in a tent on BLM land. Wake up to the sound of coyotes. Never have heard them before didn't know what was going on. Just know I was too much of a weenie to look outside. They sounded like they were two inches from the wall of the tent. She still married me.
Sleeping at the base of the South Sister and heard something scratching on my tent. I called out, who's there, grunt, grunt and then a groan. I unzipped my tent a little bit. Oh shhhhttttt and there was the Restless one staring at me with a really goofy grin. DANG, that was the worst nightmare of my life... By the way, is it possible that you have the new light upside down? 🤔
Put me in the drawing ... My old Pr Petzel zipka just died. Two stories. 1) could have used this lamp function to watch the snow fall inside the tent during a brutally cold winter camping trip where our breath froze and came back down as 'snow'. 2. The time the neighbors in the next campsite started yelling and screaming and hitting their pots since they were sure there was a bear. Light would have been nice to be able to confirm the sighting or their craziness.
Not the scariest, but earlier this year my hiking partner and I were testing out our new Kammock Mantis hammocks and enjoying a few beverages. 4:00 am i wake up to screaming and swearing. He had gotten into the whiskey and forgot to open the bug net after relieving himself. Ripped it wide open on his first night.
I'm in. My story really isn't creepy but more of a "was it a bear" story. Me and the wife were backing for 2 nights in Yellowstone a few years back. First day we setup camp at a campsite around a small lake. We were the only group there out of 4 campsites. The first night I left my sandals outside of the tent since they stunk of feet and river water. I saw them the morning of the second day before I went on a hike around the lake by myself. The wife stayed at camp in her hammock and read a book. When I came back, the tent looked like it was slightly bent. Like as if something pressed it flat to the ground and let it pop back up. There was 3 small holes in the rain fly and my sandals were missing. Nothing else was ripped up or missing. My wife didn't hear anyone or see anyone come down the trail to the lake. This was a fairly heavy undergrowth area around the lake. Not much traffic or trails leading into or out of the lake. If someone bushwhacked to the lake you would have heard them a good distance out. I keep telling myself that it was a small animal that thought they smelled like food. Since then I hang my camp shoes with the food bag so they don't go missing again when I go hiking.
It's a long story but the scariest moment while solo backpacking had to be being woken up by people tapping on my tent in the middle of the night asking for help. How they were asking for help though was rather creepy... Two people were speaking to me in hushed voices and they wanted me to come help their 'buddy' who was injured down on the trial. idk about any of you but if I was night hiking and I needed to get someones attention for an emergency, I wouldn't be creeping about on someones campsite. Long story short and after some questions that I asked them I screamed at them to get the !@#$ out of here and I heard three people running from my campsite, yet only two were talking to me. The next day I hiked back up to the car where there was a forest cop parked near the TH. Apparently there was a report of an older couple people having been robbed 48 hours prior to my encounter. Leading up to this incident I never carried bear spray or a firearm with me while in the back country. Too heavy too bulky. That incident changed things for me and I am not going into the woods unarmed ever again.
Backpacking at Grayson Highlands, there was a thunderstorm after we went to sleep. We had lightning strike so close, the flash and boom happened simultaneously. We jumped up and opened the doors to look around, and there were 3 ponies curled up between our tents. We figured we must have picked a good spot if the ponies weren’t getting out of there, and went back to sleep.
I took a trip with a few guys from work, one who had never been camping. He woke up to because he had to pee but heard a growling noise and would not leave his tent. Because of this, he drank 2 bottles of water to make room (makes sense right?) and let then let go in those....Turns out the bear he 'knew' was outside waiting for him was me snoring in my tent 15 feet away...It made for great laughs at breakfast!
I was doing my 1st solo trip and was at Mohican. All of a sudden I hear these demon like noises in the woods that scared me to death. Luckily i had cell service and started googling animal noises. Only to find out what I was hearing was barred owls. (Im from Puerto Rico,no barred owls there) anyway, i hear them now all the time when i backpack and always think of that night and how scared I was.
Archers fork on Halloween night couple years back over shot campsite. So decided to hike at night with our Walmart head lamps could not see a damn thing. Heard gun shots every noise was a huge fucking animal we thought coming to get us. Pop out of woods on gravel road to two trailers looking taped together to make a double wide to people saying they had no car ( with 15 ish in drive way). Get back to parking lot said to my lady let’s camp here she said hell no it is grave yard and it is Halloween so got in car and drove home. To which I said You can leave now and beat the traffic or you can stick around a beat your meat.
I'm in! I only have been on two trips, five nights total. Nothing too crazy, but a night hike in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park I got to see a long haired bearded guy hiking without any light and wearing combat boots and a sundress! The wife was certain we were not making it out of there alive.
I don’t want the headlamp, but I wanted to add my story, my wife went with me for her first overnight ever. We camped at bear pond in the adirondacks and all night long we heard loud splashes in the water.....she was convinced it was big foot...until the morning when she finally saw the beaver smacking the water.
Sleeping in my my hammock in the dinkey creek wilderness. It was incredibly bright night and in the middle of the night sometime, I heard some crazy sounding howls. Not like coyotes but deeper. In the morning I asked everyone else if they heard it and they all did. It woke up all 5 of us.
I'm still too much of a rookie to really have any great stories, but while camping in southern IN and having the magic combination of hearing gunshots a mile or so away, my campfire shifting and flaming up so the light was cast from front to the back wall of my tent (so it looked like people were coming up the trail while shining a flashlight on my tent), and not yet realizing that in the dark sizes are magnified to the point that the raccoon exploring my camp sounded like a bear or human. Second solo trip and I didn't sleep much at all.
I was trying out a new pair of gloves. They were too small but it was so cold and wet out, I couldn't really feel how tight they were. By the time I realized, circulation had been cut off so long I couldn't move my hands for about an hour. Really thought I had done some damage
My young daughter and I ended up as the only campers at a campground because of a computer glitch. Totally Alone was not what we mentally had planned for. To top that off the stream was roaring so we couldn't hear a thing outside of our tent. The bears could have been having a disco dance in our campsite and we wouldn't have heard them. I'm in!
I'm in... Was doing camp chores and hearing what sounded like someone banging logs together. Went on a short hike after for some views and heard it again. Got a small fire going and heard it again. Went to sleep and about 2 a.m. with one of the most windless nights I ever camped in, I mean not even the slightest breath of air was moving, and I'm awoken by the cracks of a tree starting to fall and then relief as it crashes to ground like 25 yrds away. I'm not saying it was bigfoot but...... It was bigfoot
Tent camping at Mother Neff State Park in Texas, I heard something chewing on my plastic tent stakes in the middle of the night. It may have been an armadillo, but I never saw it.
I’m in. Idk what this animal is, some say it’s some kind of bird but it’s the one that sounds like a women screaming getting murdered and I’ve heard it many times from a distance. One night, somehow I walked up to one in pitch black silence and it let out a scream like 5 feet from my face, I sprinnnnted away.
I went out to Eklutna lake for a 2 nighter this summer. I figured Friday I'd be able to stay at a car camp spot then hit the trail early Saturday. Ended up with all those sites full so I had to hike around the opposite side of the lake to camp. The site was awesome, near the water and beautiful views, but i was a solid mile from the trail head. Once I decided to turn in I woke up multiple times to the sounds of big mammals. I know one was a moose but I'm pretty confident I had a bear go by about 20 feet from my tent. I was a little uneasy but figured the tent was my best bet at that point. Lol
When you wake up to a sound in the woods and look around. One set of eyes in the distance reflecting back. Look around and see a second set of larger eyes staring back. Make some sounds to scare them off, but the larger set doesn't flinch. Shut your light off and pretend you can go back to sleep. Kick yourself for not bringing the Everclear to make you not care about the eyes!
Creepiest night of sleep while backpacking, was in Zaleski just about a month ago and was lucky enough to come across a baby tic nest in the middle of the night while trying to find fire wood. Let's just say we go out of there pretty early that day
Camping along the river in the Wallowa Mountains. Less than 10 minutes after I later in my tent, I heard footsteps. Many more throughout the night😳 send me the headlamp please 😂
Was backpacking in Yellowstone sick with bronchitis coughing and hacking I called a bull moose into camp he wanted to make me his girl friend it was night kind of scary especially when he came back the 2nd night!
I’m in! Just returned from North Cascade and Paintbrush Canyon in the Tetons and a moose came through the campsite - the clothes hanging next to the tent must have scared him and he starred stomping- couldn’t get my light to turned on fast enough!!
Craziest night time backpacking story? I have no idea what was making all the noise outside my tent because my light failed me. Cheaper is rarely better when it comes to lights.
Woke up to what we later determined was a barred owl. I fell back asleep right away but not my wife. The next day I was scared I might say the wrong thing to her, as she needs her sleep! I'm in!
Swore large beasts were prowling around outside my tent all night on the Sheltowee. Come morning, realized it was nothing more than shelled beatles between ground polycro and tent floor....uuugghhh
The last night on a 7 day section hike of the AT I decided to just stay in the shelter due to the amount of dead trees in the tenting area (I hardly use the shelters). I had mice running around me all, all, all, night long and I couldn't sleep at all. I barely got 3 hours maybe and had a 12 mile hike to the end.
Last week I was out on a overnight alone. About 2:00 am I had a fox come into camp and started screaming it woke me up. The fox spend most of the night screaming around camp. I enjoy your videos.
I would like to win the head lamp please. The first time I went camping, I set my tent on a slight slope kinda close to a river. This was in the spring with light rain, in the middle of the night I woke inches of water in my tent, and slightly crooked. Did not expect to go river rafting that night!
Sleeping in tent long ago in Yellowstone. Thought a bear was outside the tent, was very scared. When we went out it was a couple of priest walking around camp just as it was getting light out.
I heard the loudest damn bird call ever at dusk and again at dawn. Hiked out the next morning and down the trail was a house that owned peacocks! Google peacock call- really loud birds.
One time I was camping on a sand bar late at night laying in my hammock trying to fall asleep and heard sounds like a metal canoe hit rocks on the creek I was camp on which no one would do cause its to shallow jumped up and ran to the creek and there was no one there at all no canoe... ghost canoe ? BTW I really like the design of that light.
Went camping in upstate Arizona set up camp and went to sleep after a long hike. I woke up in a sudden cold snap and when I turned on my headlamp to look around my tent was covered in spiders crawling all over my tent.
Dude that’s a dope headlamp I’m gonna be getting one even if I don’t win so anyway I did have a kind of scary moment in the woods camping I was tent camping and it was 2 am when a stampede of elk or deer not sure but it was so close one snagged the tarp with his antler and tore it completely down so I just laid there and was glad it wasn’t me that got snagged !
First and only solo trip took my dog for his second trip. He kept waking up and freaking out from movements and sound out of the tent. Him being on edge but me on edge.
Not my kind of headlamp, especially at that price. But it is cool to see Petzl continuing to try and innovate in an area that doesn't seem like there can be much growth in my eyes. I use the Petzl Bindi but I think the Nitecore NU25 still reigns supreme when it comes to backpacking headlamps. Going to submit a story but not to enter the contest. This is just for others who can relate: My wife and I went hiking last spring and we left right after I got home from work. We had to hustle to the campsite which was located only a few miles away. We got there at dusk, set up camp, and decided that we wanted to walk around a small loop that was about 2 miles near the campsite. So my wife loves to talk about supernatural tales from her culture and thought that some night-hiking would be the perfect time to do it. She began to tell a story about Pishtaco and how it makes humans into Chicharrones (which are delicious by the way). No sooner does she finish the story when we hear a sound like nothing I could remember in any of my nights outside. It sounded like "Who cooks you?" "Who cooks you?!?!" We scan everywhere with our headlamps, trying to find the Pishtaco. After 30 seconds (but what seemed like hours) of trying to find the creature, we see a barred owl in a tree and it calls out again. Damn, they make a haunting call at night but we were incredibly thankful that the Pishtaco had not found us.
Woke up to the handles on my trekking poles partially eaten off. Apparently a porcupine or marmot got to them and really needed the salt so took chunks out of them with their teeth.
Headlamps make all the difference in the world. Then I got a cheap one and thought it was good until I got a good one. The first good one I had had a push button on it and I was less than intrigued just because the push button would turn on in my pack. So now I have a petzyl that has a turn knob. This one does look interesting though. If you want to join in, we have a FB group for camping/youtube channels (over 200 channels) called Camping UA-cam Community Support. Feel free to come by and share your videos.
Great video! Sweet headlamp, check out my story. Smokey Mountains, 3 or 4 years ago. Hazel Creek campsite a boy and his dad were backpacking and a bear pulled the kid out of his hammock by his head. The dad had to fight the bear of with his fists. My group was less than a mile away at the very next campsite. Next morning saw blood and bloody bandages and 4 rangers armed with serious weapons asking if we were heading out and we told them we were he says good because we are closing this area down right now. Creepy. True story. Kid had to be life flighted out and he survived but with a whole lot of stitches. Thanks for the videos!
The head lamp is kind of sci-fi. My strange G rated backpacking story is. When I was hiking the AT of the Shenandoah I found an small clearing in the bush. I woke up to a baby bear crying and it was coming closer. Maybe 5 min past after the bear cub past me, something running super fast through the bushes and it ran into my tent. Idk what it was but it nearly flattened my tent.
When you doing the super heavy gear trip?that'd be interesting to see ..maybe call it the NOOB trip..🤓
Not scary but pretty funny one time me and some marine buddys were in a tent in Afghanistan when a big rat ran in the tent everyone started freaking out trying to get away lol it reminded me of the cartoons where the girl jumps on the chair screaming and here we are supposed to be these big tough marines lol anyways keep up the great work man 🖒
Count me in! I once woke up in my hammock in the early hours of the morning to some rustling noises. There was a buck in my campsite, nothing out of the ordinary right? Then I heard a low whisper, on the other side of my hammock, there were 2 hunters cutting through my campsite, rifles in hand, in a standoff with the deer. Way too much action in my semi awake state, at first I though I was dreaming.
Boyscouts, scoutmaster spends all night telling scary stories around the campfire, then in the middle of the night screams and crashes through tents scaring everyone. We all run from our tents, and half of us end up crashing into the lake right buy the camp site. He spent next hour apologizing to parents, and helping us get warm and dry by the fire.
I'm in. Craziest noise was at Lake Vesuvoius, Ohio. Pitched my tent at the beach section. 10:30pm, crazy noises like a woman being something or other. I yelled what the leap is going on, it continued. For another 20 minutes. I drank the last two shots of whiskey, and reluctantly deduced to slumber. Woke at 5:30am and finished the loop. Stopped into Lowes nearby to buy some supplies to fix my bed where I was staying. Got to talking to an employee about the noise...he said hold on ill be right back. He came back with a game cam photo of a mountain lion with a bobcat by the neck passing by. So yeah, I puckered up the next four times I stayed the night along the Lakeshore Trail. Terry
Im in. Camping with a raccoon trying to ravage the site at 2am is not pleasant to wake up to.
When they are so damn "tame" that tossing a stick/rock towards them to chase them off simply encourages the little bastards to run up and sniff it, thinking it's food. Anyone who reads this, please God don't feed the damn raccoons. Later, the little jerk chewed everything that had a scent- sunscreen, hand sanitizer, anything I wrapped duct tape on, etc. Taught me to put EVERYTHING into a hanging bag after that.
I appreciate the posts! Literally was just starting to pack for a trip and started watching the video and you were immediately was like, ‘I would not take this backpacking.’ And I slowly removed my bigger lamp from my bag slyly like you could actually see me. Thanks for the content!
Thanks for helping me out a ton with my packing and progressing in my backpacking and camping experiences!
I completed an FKT on the Centennial Trail SD in Mid August of 2020. During that trip I was able to set an FKT. In 58 hr I slept 8 hrs. I didn’t take a sleep bag or tent. Temps got down to low 40’s. I did have Escape SOL bivy. Was my worst nights sleep for 2 nights. I did it on purpose for weight savings and I knew it would make me get up and move!! I think I was lighter than your UL set up. I just had food and water and a few other items. I am going to do it again in a few weeks because my time got beat 4 days later. I know I can drop off several hours. I just bought the Nightcore NU35 rechargeable for my next trip. I will be hiking I total darkness about 25-26 hours on this ATTEMPT. I hope to go 48 hours. Check out the video at. Lance Smith Centennial FKT SD.
Cool first look. Definitely a unique design on that one. I'll probably kick and scream when the NU25 gets discontinued.
Hey Bryce! Not a question about this video but I wasn’t sure how else to each out - thinking you would have good advice. We have a group of backpackers traveling from Michigan.to Red River Gorge. To cut some drive time, we’d like to use an evening to drive to somewhere around Dayton. While we won’t be backpacking that night per se, any recommendations north of Dayton for a group of backpackers to car camp one night?
My last section hike of the VIT , camped by the side of the trail after hiking over 35 miles.
At 4 am, I wake up hearing noise in the distance.. still not fully awake I’m debating if it’s my imagination.
Noise are getting louder, mama bear and cub are coming my way on the trail. I keep telling myself that they will head back in the woods but when it becomes clear that they will definitely walk pass my camp site.
I reached for my bear bell and rang it...
At that point the very loud discussion between mama bear growls and cubs whinings stopped leaving the full quietness of the forest in full display.
I heard mama bear’s low growl just outside my tent....!
Then heard her roaring back and forth along the river bed, in what seemed to me like she was clearing a path for the cub up in the tree....
This lasted 2 hrs and during all that time I was hugging my bear spray ( with the safety off ) harder that anything I cuddled with before.
I am grateful that after these 2hrs she called her cub from the river side. I heard him come down from the tree, claws scratching on the bark . And they were on their way... ( growling and whining).
This was on my second night out on my EP.3 Video of section hiking the Vancouver Island trail.
This seems like an amazing head lamp and would love to enter the draw..🤙
I woke up one night and heard this wierd nasally growling noice...extremely loud. I thought my hiking buddy Sparky, was turning into a zombie. I grabbed my trekking pole, walked to his hammock..... Found out he was just snoring.
In my last video I mention my weirdest night-time occurrence actually... I heard a mob of kangaroos hopping through the bush towards my tent. As usually happens, some stopped and froze when they obviously saw my tent and some kept going on their way to the river for a drink. one stopped right by my tent to rip grass from the ground and have a bit of a feed (seriously, in the dead of night that sounds very weird)... but the WEIRDEST thing about that encounter was that a couple of roos actually jumped into the water and were splashing around in there for a good 20 minutes. I have no idea what they were doing, but I'd guess there were some tasty river plants in there that they felt was worth getting wet for on a 0'C degree night.
This looks like an upgrade to my petzl nao headlamp. It's large but has a long lasting rechargeable battery and a ton of power, enough for night paddling or scaring off bears. Which is my scariest night story, this spring I woke up to a mom and cub bear while camping on the side of a lake and I used the nao headlamp to spot them at about 200 feet. I yelled at them for a few minutes and they ambled off slowly, stopping to look back and make sure I wasn't following. Good to have a powerful light in that situation. It's surprising how quickly you can get back to sleep after that when you're tired.
92 degrees at 10pm. 3 kids 4, 2, and 3 months out the back of the van....raccoons started climbing into the van to try and get my trash bags hanging from the back door. Didn't sleep great the rest of the night. Those fat little trash pandas were bigger than my baby! 😅
Love your videos, thanks for all the hard work. This is not scary, but I had a friend who would always wake me up super early when we were backpacking by peeing near my tent. Fun?????? Lol
I was with friends in Dartmoor. As we gently whafting to sleep I started to hear my friend shouting "WHAT THE..." "ARRRR!!!" "FUCKING HELL!!! ARRGGGGHHH" "ITS A FUCKING HORSE!" A dartmoor pony had nuzzled into the side of his tent and awoke him in the middle of the night. Needless to say we all took a while to get to sleep; him from fear and us from laughter.
Camping at 10.5k ft unplanned on Froze to Death Plateau. All water sources were dried up or melted, 2 of my party were missing after attempting to summit a nearby peak. We got socked in with fog and couldnt see more than 20 feet. Pitched a tarp to sleep. Lit lights under it to make it glow. At about 9pm (5hours late) the two miraculously stumble into camp. It then rains all night, so I collect water waking up every 30minutes until about 3.30 when I fall asleep. Wake up to the sounds of nearby grunting animals. Look around to see 6" of snow and 15-20 big horn sheep wandering around our encampment. I've had scary moments near moose, but this tops all with worries for friends and the extreme conditions.
I'm from Ohio, so everything about this situation was surreal and near terror inducing :-)
Bryce, Bryce, Bryce, Bryce. So how important is nutrition to the community of thru-hikers that you have experienced? Vitamins, minerals, fresh veg., protein, basically the food pyramid. I would think thru-hikers experience as much physical and mental stress as pro athletes. If it's not a priority (like keeping base weight low), why isn't it a priority to the thru-hiking community?
Hey Bryce, I'm in! I'll keep the story short. Woke up to 10 sets of waist high or higher glowing eyes looking at me and rustling around. Got out of the hammock to get a closer look only to find out it was a bunch of deer. Next morning I discovered I was sleeping near a mulberry tree. The deer must have come in for a late night snack.
Thanks for the content - I'm still waiting for my LiteAF multiday bag to ship...I'm pretty pumped about doing a super light, no luxury loadout also. Cheers from Michigan.
Sorry I have nothing, no scary night hikes. But last labor day weekend down in red river gorge my son got so creeped out by the sounds he went to bed lol!!! "Some knocking and stuff like that."
Are there more comments than usual? Wonder why? Your moving up in the world!!
"Carol Baskins!!"
creepy camping story- with my teen kids in catskill mtns in NY. Campground was in the valley next to the lake and the Escarpment trail was up the mountain from the campground. Woke up at 5 am to loud shrieking over and over. I’m positive wasn’t fox or coyote or owl - I’ve heard all those plenty before. Sounded like came from the escarpment and like a woman in great danger. Thought maybe someone had fallen off the cliff (in the dark????) but rangers said no. None of my kids heard it. Still dont know what it was, but freaked me out!
I'm in - but maybe too late. 83 yrs old and still hiking - last vivit to Mayakka River State Park Bee's Island campsite at 5:00 a.m. heard a chilling bark from an unknown annimal. Sounded somewhere between a cayote and dog but not identified. Heard it then nothing and again about every 1.5 minutes and continued for 15 minutes. Hair raising for sure,
That lantern is super sweet ..car camping material for sure dude...i just use my headlamps till they die..if ya don't do much night hiking I guess ya don't need alot of lumens ..i think my black diamond is like 500...my buddy has a miners light off of Amazon that's like 10000 lumens...it has a flashing police light on it🤣🤣🤣
I’m in. My first solo was this year. Found a nice quiet camp spot all to myself. I’m in my tent when I hear voices. 6 20 something kids show up. Reassured me I would be safe as they were all packing. Don’t know about guns but they had enough smoke to last them all night. They giggled all night. Me, didn’t sleep a wink. They stayed and I moved bright and early the next morning.
Crazy looking head lamp...Petzl is and awesome product though. I don't really have any crazy stories...pretty boring actually. Maybe that headlamp would make me more exciting like bacon.
Rolled up late one night to our campground minutes after a severe microburst. I had no idea it had just happened. Just throughly confused why big mature pines lay across the road to our site. Confused even more when other campers approached asking if we were OK. “Uh, yeah, I guess so? But I’d be a lot better if this tree wasn’t blocking my spot.”
Craziest story. Overnight near Grayson Highlands on the AT in Virginia. I stowed my food bag in a bear box nearby. In the middle of the night I'm woken by heavy breathing, sniffing, snorting. I turned on my head lamp. A bear was pushing it's snout against my rain fly. I yelled, it didn't move. I punched it, it left. Turns out I forgot to put my trash bag with my food bag. Not making that mistake again.
I do not like the bulkyness of that. If you happen to choose me for the giveaway, give that thing to the person two posts before mine chronologically.
Night hike story. Hiking in desert at night. Slipped on some gravel on a rock surface (think marbles in a concrete floor). Threw my hands up reflexively, my right hand came slamming down on a cactus. Picked thorns out of my flesh for days.
Went camping in Birkittsville, MD where Blair Witch Project was filmed. Never been scared in the woods, always comfortable by myself in the woods. Kept hearing noises all night. Didn’t sleep a minute, scared to move in my tent because I didn’t want to make any noise and draw attention to myself from the “thing” outside. Got up at day break only to find squirrels all over the place running around up and down trees making all the noise. Now I’ve heard squirrels in the woods and never paid any attention to them but when you might have a witch roaming around at night a two pound squirrel running through leaves is terrifying.
Was hiking with my teenager and we slept in Hennesy Hammocks. I woke up in the pitch-black night hearing the, what i thought, was the noise of a badger. I was trying to make some noise to make it go away but I found out that I was not able to speak or move. I was caught between sleep/dream and awake. I fell asleep and then again I was caught in dream/awake state with the sensation of something pushing against the walls of the hammock. Like being in between two big animails leaning against the hammock. Not scary , just weird as I knew I was only dreaming somehow. Finally i woke up and turned on my PETZL Reactik plus. It's front heavy and needs an upgrade :D
Backpacking trip in scouts in bear country for the first time with Midwest farmland scouts. Coming back from campfire only myself had a flashlight with everyone crowding around me walking just .5 mile.
So a few weeks ago a friend of mine from work and I went motorcycle camping in the smokies, as we set up our tents at a motorcycle campground on a rv pad he put his tent right beside mine. No big deal right, well not for me but he was going to have an issue. You see, I've been told that I snore and sometimes talk in my sleep. So I told him that if he hears me talking or snoring he'd been warned and it's not my fault. 😆
So about 3am or so I get up to go to the restroom and his tent is gone. 🤔 Where's his tent? His bike is still where it was? Here he moved three rv pads down to get away from the racket I was "ALLEGEDLY" making in my sleep. So in the morning we get up and start to pack up and whatnot and the guys that were 6 rv pads away from me asked my friend " did you guys hear that talking and laughing all night long"? I thought our group and you two guys were the only ones here last night. Which was true. So yeah, I guess I can say that I might talk in my sleep a little bit. I hope I win that headlamp. Really like the channel, keep up the good work.
2020 solo overnight at Allegheny NF, passed day hikers who reported a bear crossed the trail, heading toward the Reservoir inlet where I had planned to camp; got to my site hours later, set up my tent on the very edge of the inlet, near where it ran shallow to the forest edge. 30 minutes after my fire died, drifting off to sleep, bear-bag high and away in the woods, something the size of a chubby nine-year-old with pool goggles began to lose footing at higher elevation, opposite side of the inlet, spooling itself with hillside vines, tumbling faster in a race with debris and cramping, ultimately cannonballing into the Reservoir. Freaked out, I opened my tent door forgetting my headlamp wrapped around my wrist-staring at the churning inky water, and could barely make out the head of whatever it was as it thrashed a second then nodded and nodded as it swam like it had 2 summers of lessons toward my muddy banks side of the inlet. I crouched back into my tent for my knife, but when I looked back out all I saw-and heard-were the lapping waves of the splash sped up and cresting now as it must be nearing me, paddling and swallowing guts of unfiltered water. I wanted to shout ‘hey bear’-I wanted to scream ‘ice-cream’-but it never came out of the water. I’m in.
On the Appalachian train. Got to Blood Mountain cabin on a Friday night only to be told I couldn’t stay there as they had 20+ kids already in there already . Spent the night on the ledge of the mountain only to be woken up by something at my feet at about 4:30 am. Shown a light and it was a skunk. Didn’t know I could jump straight up into the air and navigate the ledge in the dark. Made it to Neel Gap in about 30 minutes flat lol!
Was at summer camp in 5th grade, we were sleeping under the stars on a small summit that was all exposed granite telling ghost stories during a full moon. While lying down getting settled for bed, someone was telling a story about vampire bats sucking the blood of their victims right as the story ended, a huge swarm/flock of bats flew through our group of over 50 campers - chaos resulted, campers screaming, running around, hiding in their bags, sticks swinging (one I believe had fire on its end), small rocks being thrown, etc. picture a bunch of pre-teen kids trying to cope.
I am in. This light looks interesting. No real crazy stories, except maybe not paying attention and having to jump a sleeping porcupine on the trail at Oil Creek State Park. I had to stop and see if it was dead, he wasn't. Lol Love your videos!
Most of the creepiest moments happened in one night. While trying to fall asleep, I heard coyotes barking and howling in the distance. Then while sleeping I was awoken by the beavers having what I was pretty sure "sexy time" in the lake. Lastly, I was awoken to squirrels throwing pine cone bombs on the top of the tent. Much like the Farmers Insurance commercial: www.ispot.tv/ad/dO0i/farmers-insurance-hall-of-claims-vengeful-vermin
I’m in Bryce! As far as stories go my creepiest nights in the woods are ones from my childhood growing up in the PNW. I’ve been around long enough to remember Leonard nimoy doing his show “ in search of” and the one about Bigfoot always got the hairs on the back of my neck raised going through the cascades😳 and I naturally assumed Sasquatch was roaming everywhere out there at night!
I was in Yosemite and had been drinking a little whisky after my hike up to Yosemite Falls that day. I decided to take a night hike "alone". I was way down the trail when I started to see signs posted saying (Mountain Lion spotted in the area. DO NOT hike at night and DO NOT hike alone. Well it was a little late at this point and yes a little too much whiskey made me think that this was funny. I just started saying out loud, bring it on Mountain Lion. BTW Bryce the lower section of site 10 in Mohican is shut down. :-(
We were doing a 48 hour survival training for a regional SAR team when it was almost time to go crash for the night. We heard a wrestle on the logging road above us and then thrashing. I look over at my Hammock set up and all of a sudden a buck come shooting off the hill through my campsite destroying everything and hit my pack so hard but it through my camp Axe 30 feet from my camp. Oh and I’m definitely in on the giveaway
Coming from Indiana, on a trip to Arizona. I'm with my girlfriend in a tent on BLM land. Wake up to the sound of coyotes. Never have heard them before didn't know what was going on. Just know I was too much of a weenie to look outside. They sounded like they were two inches from the wall of the tent. She still married me.
Sleeping at the base of the South Sister and heard something scratching on my tent. I called out, who's there, grunt, grunt and then a groan. I unzipped my tent a little bit. Oh shhhhttttt and there was the Restless one staring at me with a really goofy grin. DANG, that was the worst nightmare of my life...
By the way, is it possible that you have the new light upside down? 🤔
Put me in the drawing ... My old Pr
Petzel zipka just died.
Two stories. 1) could have used this lamp function to watch the snow fall inside the tent during a brutally cold winter camping trip where our breath froze and came back down as 'snow'.
2. The time the neighbors in the next campsite started yelling and screaming and hitting their pots since they were sure there was a bear. Light would have been nice to be able to confirm the sighting or their craziness.
Not the scariest, but earlier this year my hiking partner and I were testing out our new Kammock Mantis hammocks and enjoying a few beverages. 4:00 am i wake up to screaming and swearing. He had gotten into the whiskey and forgot to open the bug net after relieving himself. Ripped it wide open on his first night.
I'm in. My story really isn't creepy but more of a "was it a bear" story. Me and the wife were backing for 2 nights in Yellowstone a few years back. First day we setup camp at a campsite around a small lake. We were the only group there out of 4 campsites. The first night I left my sandals outside of the tent since they stunk of feet and river water. I saw them the morning of the second day before I went on a hike around the lake by myself. The wife stayed at camp in her hammock and read a book. When I came back, the tent looked like it was slightly bent. Like as if something pressed it flat to the ground and let it pop back up. There was 3 small holes in the rain fly and my sandals were missing. Nothing else was ripped up or missing. My wife didn't hear anyone or see anyone come down the trail to the lake. This was a fairly heavy undergrowth area around the lake. Not much traffic or trails leading into or out of the lake. If someone bushwhacked to the lake you would have heard them a good distance out. I keep telling myself that it was a small animal that thought they smelled like food. Since then I hang my camp shoes with the food bag so they don't go missing again when I go hiking.
It's a long story but the scariest moment while solo backpacking had to be being woken up by people tapping on my tent in the middle of the night asking for help. How they were asking for help though was rather creepy... Two people were speaking to me in hushed voices and they wanted me to come help their 'buddy' who was injured down on the trial. idk about any of you but if I was night hiking and I needed to get someones attention for an emergency, I wouldn't be creeping about on someones campsite. Long story short and after some questions that I asked them I screamed at them to get the !@#$ out of here and I heard three people running from my campsite, yet only two were talking to me. The next day I hiked back up to the car where there was a forest cop parked near the TH. Apparently there was a report of an older couple people having been robbed 48 hours prior to my encounter. Leading up to this incident I never carried bear spray or a firearm with me while in the back country. Too heavy too bulky. That incident changed things for me and I am not going into the woods unarmed ever again.
Backpacking at Grayson Highlands, there was a thunderstorm after we went to sleep. We had lightning strike so close, the flash and boom happened simultaneously. We jumped up and opened the doors to look around, and there were 3 ponies curled up between our tents.
We figured we must have picked a good spot if the ponies weren’t getting out of there, and went back to sleep.
I took a trip with a few guys from work, one who had never been camping. He woke up to because he had to pee but heard a growling noise and would not leave his tent. Because of this, he drank 2 bottles of water to make room (makes sense right?) and let then let go in those....Turns out the bear he 'knew' was outside waiting for him was me snoring in my tent 15 feet away...It made for great laughs at breakfast!
I was doing my 1st solo trip and was at Mohican. All of a sudden I hear these demon like noises in the woods that scared me to death. Luckily i had cell service and started googling animal noises. Only to find out what I was hearing was barred owls. (Im from Puerto Rico,no barred owls there) anyway, i hear them now all the time when i backpack and always think of that night and how scared I was.
Archers fork on Halloween night couple years back over shot campsite. So decided to hike at night with our Walmart head lamps could not see a damn thing. Heard gun shots every noise was a huge fucking animal we thought coming to get us. Pop out of woods on gravel road to two trailers looking taped together to make a double wide to people saying they had no car ( with 15 ish in drive way). Get back to parking lot said to my lady let’s camp here she said hell no it is grave yard and it is Halloween so got in car and drove home. To which I said You can leave now and beat the traffic or you can stick around a beat your meat.
I'm in! I only have been on two trips, five nights total. Nothing too crazy, but a night hike in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park I got to see a long haired bearded guy hiking without any light and wearing combat boots and a sundress! The wife was certain we were not making it out of there alive.
I don’t want the headlamp, but I wanted to add my story, my wife went with me for her first overnight ever. We camped at bear pond in the adirondacks and all night long we heard loud splashes in the water.....she was convinced it was big foot...until the morning when she finally saw the beaver smacking the water.
Sleeping in my my hammock in the dinkey creek wilderness. It was incredibly bright night and in the middle of the night sometime, I heard some crazy sounding howls. Not like coyotes but deeper. In the morning I asked everyone else if they heard it and they all did. It woke up all 5 of us.
I'm still too much of a rookie to really have any great stories, but while camping in southern IN and having the magic combination of hearing gunshots a mile or so away, my campfire shifting and flaming up so the light was cast from front to the back wall of my tent (so it looked like people were coming up the trail while shining a flashlight on my tent), and not yet realizing that in the dark sizes are magnified to the point that the raccoon exploring my camp sounded like a bear or human. Second solo trip and I didn't sleep much at all.
I was trying out a new pair of gloves. They were too small but it was so cold and wet out, I couldn't really feel how tight they were. By the time I realized, circulation had been cut off so long I couldn't move my hands for about an hour. Really thought I had done some damage
My young daughter and I ended up as the only campers at a campground because of a computer glitch. Totally Alone was not what we mentally had planned for. To top that off the stream was roaring so we couldn't hear a thing outside of our tent. The bears could have been having a disco dance in our campsite and we wouldn't have heard them.
I'm in!
I'm in... Was doing camp chores and hearing what sounded like someone banging logs together. Went on a short hike after for some views and heard it again. Got a small fire going and heard it again. Went to sleep and about 2 a.m. with one of the most windless nights I ever camped in, I mean not even the slightest breath of air was moving, and I'm awoken by the cracks of a tree starting to fall and then relief as it crashes to ground like 25 yrds away. I'm not saying it was bigfoot but...... It was bigfoot
Tent camping at Mother Neff State Park in Texas, I heard something chewing on my plastic tent stakes in the middle of the night. It may have been an armadillo, but I never saw it.
I’m in. Idk what this animal is, some say it’s some kind of bird but it’s the one that sounds like a women screaming getting murdered and I’ve heard it many times from a distance. One night, somehow I walked up to one in pitch black silence and it let out a scream like 5 feet from my face, I sprinnnnted away.
I went out to Eklutna lake for a 2 nighter this summer. I figured Friday I'd be able to stay at a car camp spot then hit the trail early Saturday. Ended up with all those sites full so I had to hike around the opposite side of the lake to camp. The site was awesome, near the water and beautiful views, but i was a solid mile from the trail head. Once I decided to turn in I woke up multiple times to the sounds of big mammals. I know one was a moose but I'm pretty confident I had a bear go by about 20 feet from my tent. I was a little uneasy but figured the tent was my best bet at that point. Lol
When you wake up to a sound in the woods and look around. One set of eyes in the distance reflecting back. Look around and see a second set of larger eyes staring back. Make some sounds to scare them off, but the larger set doesn't flinch. Shut your light off and pretend you can go back to sleep. Kick yourself for not bringing the Everclear to make you not care about the eyes!
Creepiest night of sleep while backpacking, was in Zaleski just about a month ago and was lucky enough to come across a baby tic nest in the middle of the night while trying to find fire wood. Let's just say we go out of there pretty early that day
Camping along the river in the Wallowa Mountains. Less than 10 minutes after I later in my tent, I heard footsteps. Many more throughout the night😳 send me the headlamp please 😂
I’m in. What, only one bigfoot story and no chupacabras or werewolves at all?
Lol I miss D battery technology. I remember having a casio keyboard in like 1992 that took like 12 D battery's
Was backpacking in Yellowstone sick with bronchitis coughing and hacking I called a bull moose into camp he wanted to make me his girl friend it was night kind of scary especially when he came back the 2nd night!
I’m in! Just returned from North Cascade and Paintbrush Canyon in the Tetons and a moose came through the campsite - the clothes hanging next to the tent must have scared him and he starred stomping- couldn’t get my light to turned on fast enough!!
Craziest night time backpacking story? I have no idea what was making all the noise outside my tent because my light failed me. Cheaper is rarely better when it comes to lights.
Woke up to what we later determined was a barred owl. I fell back asleep right away but not my wife. The next day I was scared I might say the wrong thing to her, as she needs her sleep! I'm in!
Swore large beasts were prowling around outside my tent all night on the Sheltowee. Come morning, realized it was nothing more than shelled beatles between ground polycro and tent floor....uuugghhh
The last night on a 7 day section hike of the AT I decided to just stay in the shelter due to the amount of dead trees in the tenting area (I hardly use the shelters). I had mice running around me all, all, all, night long and I couldn't sleep at all. I barely got 3 hours maybe and had a 12 mile hike to the end.
Last week I was out on a overnight alone. About 2:00 am I had a fox come into camp and started screaming it woke me up. The fox spend most of the night screaming around camp. I enjoy your videos.
I would like to win the head lamp please. The first time I went camping, I set my tent on a slight slope kinda close to a river. This was in the spring with light rain, in the middle of the night I woke inches of water in my tent, and slightly crooked. Did not expect to go river rafting that night!
Sleeping in tent long ago in Yellowstone. Thought a bear was outside the tent, was very scared. When we went out it was a couple of priest walking around camp just as it was getting light out.
No scary stories yet!!! Hoping to not have one for a bit longer lol - that headlamp rocks!!
Once I got to camp and realised I had forgotten to pack my beer. It was truly horrifying!
No story, but I am in because your headlamp is so much cooler than OutLans! 🤣
I heard the loudest damn bird call ever at dusk and again at dawn. Hiked out the next morning and down the trail was a house that owned peacocks! Google peacock call- really loud birds.
One time I was camping on a sand bar late at night laying in my hammock trying to fall asleep and heard sounds like a metal canoe hit rocks on the creek I was camp on which no one would do cause its to shallow jumped up and ran to the creek and there was no one there at all no canoe... ghost canoe ? BTW I really like the design of that light.
Went camping in upstate Arizona set up camp and went to sleep after a long hike. I woke up in a sudden cold snap and when I turned on my headlamp to look around my tent was covered in spiders crawling all over my tent.
I don't have a good story to share but would love to win. Look forward to the next stupid light 2.0. Thanks for the content.
Bryce I'm in just subscribed! That headlamp looks awesome
Alone on a trail in Borneo at first light and got chased by a sun bear. Never thought I could still run like that. lol.
Dude that’s a dope headlamp I’m gonna be getting one even if I don’t win so anyway I did have a kind of scary moment in the woods camping I was tent camping and it was 2 am when a stampede of elk or deer not sure but it was so close one snagged the tarp with his antler and tore it completely down so I just laid there and was glad it wasn’t me that got snagged !
First and only solo trip took my dog for his second trip. He kept waking up and freaking out from movements and sound out of the tent. Him being on edge but me on edge.
Asleep in my tent. Woke up to the sound of rain. Unzipped the door to find a friend sleepwalk peeing on my tent. He finished and went back into his.
I'm in. Best story is when headlamp was on in my pack and got to camp just before dark and had to set up with out a light.
Not my kind of headlamp, especially at that price. But it is cool to see Petzl continuing to try and innovate in an area that doesn't seem like there can be much growth in my eyes. I use the Petzl Bindi but I think the Nitecore NU25 still reigns supreme when it comes to backpacking headlamps.
Going to submit a story but not to enter the contest. This is just for others who can relate:
My wife and I went hiking last spring and we left right after I got home from work. We had to hustle to the campsite which was located only a few miles away. We got there at dusk, set up camp, and decided that we wanted to walk around a small loop that was about 2 miles near the campsite.
So my wife loves to talk about supernatural tales from her culture and thought that some night-hiking would be the perfect time to do it. She began to tell a story about Pishtaco and how it makes humans into Chicharrones (which are delicious by the way). No sooner does she finish the story when we hear a sound like nothing I could remember in any of my nights outside. It sounded like "Who cooks you?" "Who cooks you?!?!"
We scan everywhere with our headlamps, trying to find the Pishtaco. After 30 seconds (but what seemed like hours) of trying to find the creature, we see a barred owl in a tree and it calls out again. Damn, they make a haunting call at night but we were incredibly thankful that the Pishtaco had not found us.
Woke up to the handles on my trekking poles partially eaten off. Apparently a porcupine or marmot got to them and really needed the salt so took chunks out of them with their teeth.
Headlamps make all the difference in the world. Then I got a cheap one and thought it was good until I got a good one. The first good one I had had a push button on it and I was less than intrigued just because the push button would turn on in my pack. So now I have a petzyl that has a turn knob. This one does look interesting though. If you want to join in, we have a FB group for camping/youtube channels (over 200 channels) called Camping UA-cam Community Support. Feel free to come by and share your videos.
Thanks! I'll definitely check it out!
I’m in. Thanks for your time and effort with great videos and content.
Great video! Sweet headlamp, check out my story. Smokey Mountains, 3 or 4 years ago. Hazel Creek campsite a boy and his dad were backpacking and a bear pulled the kid out of his hammock by his head. The dad had to fight the bear of with his fists. My group was less than a mile away at the very next campsite. Next morning saw blood and bloody bandages and 4 rangers armed with serious weapons asking if we were heading out and we told them we were he says good because we are closing this area down right now. Creepy. True story. Kid had to be life flighted out and he survived but with a whole lot of stitches. Thanks for the videos!
😲 well that’s terrifying!
you have it upside down
It's actually not upside down. That is the correct way
Bryce Newbold are you sure? Cause I feel that the button on the top on mine is more comfortable. 🤷🏼♂️
The head lamp is kind of sci-fi. My strange G rated backpacking story is. When I was hiking the AT of the Shenandoah I found an small clearing in the bush. I woke up to a baby bear crying and it was coming closer. Maybe 5 min past after the bear cub past me, something running super fast through the bushes and it ran into my tent. Idk what it was but it nearly flattened my tent.
Soooo. What are the non-G rated stories? 😁
I’m in! Went to KFC and got some sporks for my next trip.
Have you even made a follow up video? I am looking for it bro!
Should have taped that lantern to your forehead for the thumbnail bro.
Looks like a pretty cool headlamp!
I can't think of a good story, but I'd still like to be in.