Title says it all. If you have a camping experience that was scary in any way, shape, or form, post it here.
Myself, I have three I would like to share.
Zombie
[spoiler]I was on an amazon hiking trip I. The mountains, and after and exhausting day, we set up camp. The camp area was relatively popular, since there were designated camp sites an everything.
Right before I fell asleep, there was a blood-curdling scream, to which some others responded: 'Was that one of ours?' 'Nope'
That night, I woke up because I needed to take a piss. I got out of my tent, but something seemed off. When I climbed back into my sleeping bag, I couldn't sleep, so I listened to the silence of the forest.
Only, it wasn't silent. I began hearing noises, growling. I thought it was a bear, and I was terrified as I sat there, thinking it was coming closer. Eventually, it sounded like it was right outside my tent. Then, I heard something that set my hairs on end.
A guttural human moan filled my ears, and my mind immediately went back to the scream. In my terror, I logically assumed there was a zombie outside my tent. I sat there, unmoving, for an eternity. Finally, I shifted, and nudged my tent mate awake. I asked him what he thought he heard, and he responded:
'It's just people snoring.'
I sat and listened. Surely enough, I could pick out the individual snores of people around me that formed such a horrible sound. I felt pretty ridiculous after that. [/spoiler]
It's too damn dark
[spoiler]On a different hiking trip, I had one of the most terrifying experiences in a long time. After setting up camp and having a great dinner, we went to sleep under a very cloudy sky. My luck would have it that I would need to go to the bathroom that night. I woke up, and the first thing I noticed was the silence. It was completely quiet, even with my tent mate snoring next to me. The air even hung heavy with silence.
Next, I noticed the darkness. I waited for my eyes to adjust, but they never did, and I eventually used my flashlight. It cut trough the darkness like a hot knife through butter. When I got out of the tent, it was worse.
I could feel the amount of space around me in the forest, but it was completely silent. Nothing moved. The wind did not blow. The silence was suffocating. Not only that, but I was blind everywhere except where I pointed my light.
I then poked my way through the dark, pissed, and got back as quickly as possible.[/spoiler]
My Brother Almost Died
[spoiler]I wasn't there for it myself, but my brother told me this story after the fact.
We were at Havasupi, and we had hiked down to moony falls, and were walking along the river.
Needless to say, there was a lot of cool formations cut out by the river, but at one point I was walking , and someone pointed to a little blue spot in the water and said 'don't step there'
As it turns out, my brother had been walking along and had stepped in that very spot. He said there was a strong suction, and he was pulled under the water. He didn't know where he was for a second, and he said he hit some stuff underwater. He was running out of breath, but finally he came up from under the falls. Nobody had even noticed that he went under. He could have drowned down there.[/spoiler]
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Not a camping story, but here goes: I work an over-night shift desk job about 45 minutes from where I live. I drive the same route, every day, and never deviate. EVER. The route basically takes me down a main road (normally deserted at close to midnight) and then I can either A) Take highway 36 (if you live in Colorado, you know how crappy a choice that is) or B) cross the railroad tracks and take the frontage road next to the highway in to the next exit. I take B, and the road is not only always empty, but is largely devoid of street lights and runs down-hill from the highway (just close enough to see it, but not close enough to get adequate light from it). So one night, I'm driving in, cross the tracks, and start down this frontage road when I notice something is IMMEDIATELY off. Firstly, there is a train just stopped on the tracks right near the turn on (not unusual), but all its lights are on, the conductor is leaning out the window, and it's pulling cars I've never seen the likes of before (look kinda like they might be carrying livestock, but seem too heavy-duty for that). Secondly, there is a homeless looking man standing in the MIDDLE OF THE FREAKING ROAD about 20 feet from my car. I obviously stop my car and idle for a second, trying to figure out what's happening. The conductor obviously sees the guy, and I originally figure maybe he was hitching a ride on the train. But then things hit a level of eerie I've never experienced before, and the homeless-looking man starts to move towards my car. But it's not normal movement, it's a jerky, rigor-mortis type walk and he's dragging his feet too much, swinging one arm too widely, and his heads cocked at a strange angle. I mother-blam!-ing panicked, gunned my car and sped around the guy, never getting a really good look at him. Needless to say, I get in to work shaken but none-the-worse-for-wear. The next day, though, I'm making the same trip in, but now there's a cop with too many road-flares blocking the road. I can't see anything past the flares, and I'm told I have to take the highway, with no reasoning given other than "just do it,". As I'm pulling around to take the detour, I notice there is a HUGE armored bus-looking behemoth of a vehicle driving down the closed road behind the cop. I have never seen anything like it before, and was baffled as to what it's purpose could be. So, I jumped onto the highway, and slowed down (yeah, yeah, rubbernecking, whatever) and took a peek down the hill at the frontage road where there was a fleet of vehicles and the bus-thing all circled up in an open dirt lot at the end of the shops running down the road. Now, I saw no chemical smoke, no people, just a ton of flares and a ton of vehicles. The news later reported that some employees had called in a HAZMAT team for a chemical clean up, but I know that there's just a storage building (like UHAUL) and an office-type business at the end of these buildings, and I also know they are all closed completely by the time I drive by. Still convinced that I witnessed a zombie and a subsequent zombie investigation.