Horror Stories - 6 Most Disturbing TRUE Forest Horror Stories That Still Haunt People

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Starting point is 00:01:18 Also, don't forget to like and subscribe if you're enjoying the episodes. Story one, I have spent most of my life out in the Oregon wilderness. I've hunted, hiked, and camped alone more times than I can remember. Because of that, I have a well-earned respect for the four. and generally I feel at home there. A few summers ago, my wife, our young daughter, and our two German shepherds decided to spend a long weekend north of Mount Jefferson. We had found a perfect little spot hidden off an old forest road. It wasn't a designated camping area, but a natural horseshoe of trees with a flat clearing, a fire ring, and enough space to keep

Starting point is 00:02:04 the dogs out of sight of anyone who might drive by. They can look intimidating and get loud if they're startled, so privacy is always a plus. That first night my daughter wanted her own space, so we set up a small two-person tent right next to ours, maybe about two feet away. We had our male shepherd guts sleep in her tent to protect her. He's afraid of nothing and extremely protective, the kind of dog that would hurl himself at anything that looked like a threat. My wife and I stayed awake almost the entire night, just listening. Every so often we heard heavy deliberate footsteps moving around the area. It wasn't the quick patter of raccoons or the scampering of squirrels.

Starting point is 00:02:50 It sounded heavier, slower. Shortly before the trip, I had read a news story about a father in California who was killed inside his tent while camping with his kids. Because of that, I packed a rifle and two pistols with our gear. Even with the guns and the dogs, the night fell tense. We kept telling ourselves it was probably deer or elk passing through, but we barely slept. The next morning we went out for a short walk down the road. About 300 feet from our camp, I noticed a narrow side path blocked by what used to be a gate.

Starting point is 00:03:25 Just some rusty posts left half hidden by brush. Something blue farther in caught my eye. Before I could get a good look at it, guts tore off to the wall. down the old road, running toward it like he'd spotted something alive. My stomach dropped. I pictured him bursting into someone else's campsite and scaring some poor family. I ran after him, but when I caught up, he had stopped about 20 feet in, just standing there. There were no people and no movement. Curiosity pulled me forward and the rest of my family followed. The small clearing ahead looked exactly like a campsite, a tent, a cool, and a course of the

Starting point is 00:04:05 cooler, a folding table, blankets, even a small propane stove. But absolutely everything was destroyed. The tent was in shreds, the blankets torn. The cooler crushed as if something very heavy had stepped on it. The propane tank was dented and flattened. If it had just been animals, I might have believed it. But this looked stranger, more intentional. No blanket of snow could have done that, especially under that tree cover. We stayed there for a good while circling the wreckage, barely talking. Eventually we headed back, trying to convince ourselves that someone had just abandoned their gear

Starting point is 00:04:48 and then the animals had trashed it. That afternoon my daughter and I were tossing a botchy ball around the campsite while my wife walked off to the north to have a bit of privacy. She was only about 70 feet away, but I couldn't see her through the trees. Out of nowhere, guts bolted again, this time straight toward where she was. He didn't hesitate or look back. That alone put me on edge, so I started running too.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Then my wife came trotting back toward me. She had a scared look on her face. Guts kept going deeper into the trees until I called him back. Our other shepherd, Leah, who was usually the bold leader on hikes, stayed pressed up against our daughter's side, the hair on her back standing up. She refused to move from that spot. That had never happened before. My wife told me she had suddenly felt like someone was watching her

Starting point is 00:05:43 and then saw guts coming at her like a projectile. We looked for tracks, broken branches, anything that would explain what had happened. Nothing. The forest was still an untouched. By then it was already too late to pack up and drive home. We decided to stay one more night. We all slept together in the big tent, and I strung up a perimeter line with a makeshift alarm.

Starting point is 00:06:09 A little mint tin with coins and a couple of keys inside, zip tied to the cord so it would rattle if something hit it. When I went to tie it to a tree, I noticed another older cord there, browned with age and almost blended into the bark. It was strung at the same height and had rusty washers tied to it. Whoever put it there had done exactly what I was doing. maybe a decade ago. That sent a chill through me. I didn't want my family getting nervous, so I asked them to sit in the truck for a while

Starting point is 00:06:40 as I dumped a full magazine from my 45 into the ground. I wondered whatever was out there to hear it and no, we weren't going to be an easy target. That night was quiet. The dog stayed calm, no footsteps. At first light, we packed everything up and left. Months later, I saw a missing, 411 documentary on Amazon, and on one of its maps there was a cluster of cases marked

Starting point is 00:07:07 almost exactly where we had camped. My mind immediately went back to that shredded campsite in the woods, less than 300 feet from where we had slept. To this day, I still don't know what happened there, but I'm convinced that guts kept us from finding out the hard way. Story 2. In 2012, I made myself a promise to get active again. Before having my first chance, child, I was the kind of person who loved playing sports and going out for runs. But at some point, between diapers, work, and sheer exhaustion, that part of me faded away. With the new year, I decided it was time to change that. I started running with my friend Hannah. She's one of those people who can convince you to keep going even when your legs are screaming at you to stop,

Starting point is 00:08:01 so she was the perfect partner. Almost every afternoon after work, we would head out to a forest on the edge of town. It wasn't completely wild terrain. There were lights along the paths for those who wanted to run at night, and they stayed on for about 45 minutes after you flipped the main switch. There were different routes, some shorter ones you could finish before the lights went out, and longer ones if you wanted to push yourself. The air was always crisp, and in the fall, the smell of damp leaves and pine made that my favorite time of year to run. Shortly after we settled into the routine. We started noticing a guy who always seemed to be hanging around the parking lot. He was thin, probably in his late 20s or close to 30, and he wore athletic clothes, but we never

Starting point is 00:08:51 saw him run. The strange thing was that he didn't talk to anyone or make eye contact. Hannah and I even started to think that maybe he lived nearby in the woods because he showed up no matter the weather, cold rain, whatever. We got used to seeing him sitting alone on a bench or leaning against the fence. We never went up to him. There was something about him that kept both of us at a distance. One afternoon, Hannah had to stay late at work, but I decided to go out anyway. When I arrived, my car was the only one there. It was already cold, the kind that bites at your cheeks. So I stretched quickly, turned on the trail lights, and started the five-kilometer loop. I didn't see the man anywhere and thought maybe the weather had to be.

Starting point is 00:09:38 finally driven him off. I was wrong. I had just crested the first steep hill when I heard it, heavy uneven breathing behind me. I turned my head and there he was, running toward me. He wasn't wearing running shoes, just regular sneakers. And the way he moved wasn't normal. His arm swung stiffly at a strange angle, lifted in a way I'd never seen before, almost mechanical. And for the first time he looked me directly in the eyes. That alone was enough to make my stomach clench into a knot. I can't really explain it. It was like his entire expression was made of pure intention, and that intention was not good. I didn't stick around to find out what he wanted. I picked up my pace, my heart pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. His breathing grew louder,

Starting point is 00:10:33 faster as if he were forcing himself to catch up to me. I thought about my little girl at home and something primal kicked in. I ran harder than I ever had in my life. At one point, I yanked off my necklace and let it fall to the ground, thinking that if something happened to me, someone might find it. I tried to scream for help, but the sound came out weak and broken, as if my lungs couldn't handle both the running and the shouting at the same time. The parking lot felt impossibly far away.

Starting point is 00:11:05 I knew that if I tripped, if I couldn't get my car open quickly enough, it would all be over. So, in a split second, I made another decision and veered off the path into the woods. I ran a few yards between the trees and threw myself face down, feeling around blindly for a rock or a stick, anything I could use if he caught up to me. Suddenly my bright running jacket felt like a beacon in the dark. I heard his footsteps reached the spot where I'd left the trail, and then they slowed. He stopped. I did too. I could almost feel him scanning the tree line, listening.

Starting point is 00:11:45 I held my breath until my chest burned. Then I heard him mutter something in a language I didn't recognize, and his footsteps moved away. I didn't trust it. If he was waiting for me in the parking lot, that would be the worst possible outcome. So I went deeper into the forest instead, trying to figure out a detour that would lead me out to the main road. Somewhere behind me, the trail light switched off. For a moment, I actually felt safer in the darkness, until suddenly they came back on. That meant someone had turned the switch again.

Starting point is 00:12:20 Maybe another runner, or maybe him. I didn't stay to find out. The ground was uneven, and I fell more than once, scraping my hands and knees. but I kept moving. Finally, through the trees I saw the glow of headlights on the road. I stumbled toward them until I reached the shoulder, covered in dirt and shaking. The first car that passed slowed down when the driver saw me waving. A man in his 40s with his two kids in the back seat rolled down the window,

Starting point is 00:12:51 probably thinking I'd been in an accident. Between sobs and gasps. I told him I needed to go home, not back to the parking lot. When I finally walked through my front door, my husband insisted on going to get the car and calling the police. I told him there wasn't much to report. There had been no actual attack, just a chase. But deep down, I knew that man had fully intended to hurt me. When my husband came back, his face set at all. The driver's side window had been smashed.

Starting point is 00:13:25 My phone was gone. And the small photo of our daughter, the one hanging from the rearview mirror, had been taken. Whatever that guy was after, it wasn't just a random scare. I still go running sometimes, but never on that trail, and never, ever alone. Story 3. It's strange how certain memories stay buried for years, and then suddenly something small pulls them back to the surface as if they had never left. A few weeks ago, I was reading posts on the internet and one of them suddenly took me back to an experience I had at a summer camp when I was about 12 or 13 years old. At the time, it didn't make the news, and it probably wouldn't have made much sense to anyone on the

Starting point is 00:14:16 outside. But for me, it was the most terrifying moment I had lived through up to that point. That particular summer, my parents sent me to the same camp as always. It was tucked away in the mountains, with days full of hikes, trail exploration, and swimmed. and icy streams. I wasn't exactly popular there, especially after a car accident years earlier, at school, which had left me a bit behind socially. Most of the kids my age avoided me, so I tended to spend time with the younger ones or with those who weren't bothered by my quieter and more childish ways.

Starting point is 00:14:56 The camp grouped us by age, blue for the youngest, yellow for the middle group, and green for the older teenagers. I was supposed to be in yellow, but for some reason they placed me in green, with kids who were 16 or 17. That difference made it obvious to everyone that I didn't fit in, and they didn't hesitate to let me know it. One of the last days there, our group hiked out to a remote area of the forest to have a picnic. After eating, the counselors suggested playing hide-and-seek. Most of the older kids rolled their eyes or just stayed sitting. I, on the other hand, was thrilled with the idea.

Starting point is 00:15:36 When the counting started, I took off running off the trail, determined to find a hiding place no one else would think of. I pushed aside ferns, jumped over a narrow little stream, and kept going until the sounds from the camp faded away. That's when it happened. Out of nowhere, a hand grabbed me by the hair so hard that my head snapped backward. Before I could regain my balance, the grips slid down to my neck. and squeezed, pulling me back against a body much bigger and stronger than mine. My legs kicked

Starting point is 00:16:08 against the ground. My hand scratched at his arm. Nothing made him let go. His voice came out fast, low and full of threats. He promised to hurt me in ways I didn't fully understand at that age, but enough to make my stomach turn to ice. He dragged me farther away from the path, his fingers digging in like steel. I screamed until my throat burned. but the forest seemed to swallow the sound. The more I struggled, the more determined he seemed. In the middle of the chaos, instinct took over and I twisted just enough to sink my teeth into his hand

Starting point is 00:16:45 with all my strength. My mouth filled with the taste of sweat and dirt. He let out a scream, a soundful of rage and surprise, called me crazy, and yanked his arm away. That was my chance. I tore free and started to run. My legs moved without thinking. My chest heaved so hard it felt like my ribs were going to split. I jumped over the stream again and caught sight of one of the few people at camp I actually liked.

Starting point is 00:17:15 I didn't stop to explain anything. I just kept running until the trees opened up and I reached the group again. The counselors were there, but I didn't tell them. My voice wouldn't come out right. And part of me thought that even if I tried, it wouldn't do much good. I had never seen any his face. I didn't know if he was a stranger or someone from our camp. That night I called my parents and told them I wanted to go home, but they couldn't come pick me up right away. I had to finish camp like everyone else, including the long bus ride back. Lying in my bunk bed, I couldn't stop thinking that if the man was one of the older campers, he could come into the cabin and do whatever he wanted while I slept. I never found out who he was, and I haven't wanted to. That little stretch of

Starting point is 00:18:04 forest is still fixed in my memory, and I know I will never walk through it again. Story 4. In 2008, when I was around 10 years old, my family lived in a quiet neighborhood in the Netherlands. Our house was in Nightmeggen in an area called Wisenhof. Behind the backyard, there was a pond with a walking path that curved around it. If you followed that path for a couple of minutes, you would reach the edge of the forest. There a large circular loop began. The neighbors used it all the time to jog, walk their dogs, or enjoy the shade on warm days. It wasn't huge, maybe a 20 to 30 minute walk, but it was peaceful and gave you the feeling of being apart from the rest of the neighborhood. My parents often took us there with our dogs, so by the time this happened I knew the loop

Starting point is 00:19:01 like the back of my hand. It was a Saturday afternoon, and my sister, who was 14, said she was going to take the dogs for a walk. She asked if I wanted to come along. I didn't have anything better to do, so I went. We had two dogs, Jip, the bigger one, always pulling on the leashes if he wanted to lead the way, and Evie, the smaller one, who went at her own pace and stopped to sniff everything. That day I was walking Jip, which basically meant I was being half-drag trying to keep up while my sister walked Evie.

Starting point is 00:19:38 We entered the forest and started the loop. It was one of those quiet days when you can hear every little detail, the crunch of leaves under your feet, birds moving above, and every now and then a breeze shaking the branches. Jip was getting impatient because Evie kept stopping. My sister told me to go on ahead with him so he wouldn't jerk my arm out of its socket. It wasn't unusual for us to separate a bit along the path, since the trail always looped back to the same point and the place was very safe. I didn't think twice about it.

Starting point is 00:20:12 I took a bend in the path and kept going for maybe a minute before deciding to look back. I could see my sister in the distance, standing still while Evie sniffed around at the base of a tree. I didn't wait. I just assumed they'd catch up with me soon, so I kept walking until I lost sight of them. A little while later I heard quick footsteps behind me. I turned expecting to see my sister jogging to catch up.

Starting point is 00:20:39 And there she was, walking fast, tense, urging Evie along. She didn't say much, just quietly told me we should keep going. Her face was pale and it was obvious something wasn't right, but I didn't push her. The rest of the walk back passed in complete silence. Even the dogs seemed calmer than usual as if they had picked up on her mood. When we got home, I asked her what had happened. She told me she had seen someone in the forest, and not just anyone.

Starting point is 00:21:12 A man dressed in a full-mime outfit standing behind a tree watching her. She tried to act like she hadn't noticed. him, but as soon as she started walking again, he began to move too. He didn't walk on the path. He stayed among the trees, moving from trunk to trunk, always at her pace. She said it was like he was using the trees as shields, peeking out just enough for his face to be seen before slipping behind the next one. Every time she looked back, he was still there, closer than before. And at the moment she turned the corner toward where I was, he disappeared. At ten years old, I didn't fully understand how unsettling that really was, but I remember

Starting point is 00:21:54 feeling guilty for having gone ahead and leaving her alone, even if it was only for a short time. My sister never brought it up again after that day, but she has always been certain about what she saw. Nothing else ever happened, and shortly after we moved to another neighborhood. Even so when I think about that loop, I can picture what she described. strange figure in a mime costume moving silently between the trees. And it still makes my stomach turn. Story 5.

Starting point is 00:22:33 When I was 20 years old, I spent a summer working at a children's camp in the Czech Republic. It wasn't the typical American movie-style camp with crowded cabins and strict schedules. This one had a different rhythm, slower, tucked deep in the forest on the outskirts of a small town. Our group slept in a large wooden lodge with a huge open field in front of it, and around us ran narrow trails that twisted between the trees. Every now and then, locals or the odd hiker would pass by, usually without paying much attention to us. One warm afternoon, I was sitting at a long table at the edge of the field with about five kids doing crafts. From where we were, you could easily see anyone walking along the nearby trail. That's when I was. saw a guy appear. He looked to be around 30 with long matted dreadlocks, heavy work boots,

Starting point is 00:23:26 patched up pants, and a loose metal band tank top. When he noticed us, he slowed down and then started walking directly toward the table. In check, he asked me if I had any cigarettes. I tried to give him a polite no, telling him in check that I didn't speak the language very well. My idea was that he'd lose interest and move on. Instead, he immediately switched to English. That threw me off. In that part of the country, it was normal for people not to speak it. From there, he started asking about my tattoos

Starting point is 00:24:00 and said he was thinking about getting a new one soon. He brought up the cigarettes again. I answered politely that I didn't have any, keeping my responses short so as not to drag out the conversation. He asked for my name. hung around for a bit and finally walked off back toward the trail the rest of the day went by normally at least until the evening around 6 p.m. the kids were playing out in the field while we waited for dinner some counselors were organizing games others were chatting near

Starting point is 00:24:32 the lodge I was watching a group of kids chasing each other when another leader got my attention and told me to get everyone inside immediately I followed their gaze and saw two men dressed very similarly to the guy from before, standing just beyond the tree line on opposite sides of the field. They weren't rushing toward us. It looked more like they were positioning themselves. It didn't take long before I heard them shouting my name from the forest. We gathered the children inside the lodge and locked the doors. The three male counselors went out to talk to them. From inside, I could hear parts of the exchange. The men claimed they had been hunting deer and thought one had passed through there. Then one of them said he was a friend of

Starting point is 00:25:17 mine and called out my name again. That's when it hit me. It was the same guy from earlier, now with company, saying he wanted to show me his new tattoo. The leaders came back in looking confused, asking me if I knew him. I explained what had happened in the afternoon and made it clear that I didn't want to talk to him. They went back out again, told the group to leave, and after some back and forth and a few more shouts directed at me. The men disappeared into the trees. For the rest of that camp session, I never fully relaxed. Every night I'd catch myself listening closely for voices outside,

Starting point is 00:25:55 half expecting them to come back. Luckily, they never did, but the thought that they might have lingered around out there stuck with me for a long time. Story six. In the mid-90s, when I was in the Army Reserve, I spent a while working as a fire, lookout in a huge national park. My office was a wooden tower above the treetops, with a view

Starting point is 00:26:22 that stretched for miles in every direction. Most days were long and quiet, just me, a pair of binoculars, and the slow heartbeat of the forest below. My job was to look for columns of smoke, watch for illegal campfires, and keep an eye on the wildlife. The closest person to me was another lookout about five miles away, and our only communication was an old, very static-filled radio. The shifts were one week on and one week off. We lived up there during our week, cooked on tiny camp stoves, and hiked down to the main station to shower and resupply. I got used to the solitude, though it wasn't without its risks. A co-worker had been killed by a grizzly attack a few months before I started, which was why every tower

Starting point is 00:27:14 now had a rifle. I had no intention of using it, but knowing it was there gave me some comfort. One afternoon while I was walking back from checking the perimeter, I came across a steel bear trap hidden under some brush. I disabled it, slung it over my shoulder on the way back to the Jeep, and figured I would turn it into the Rangers. Poaching was illegal and carried heavy fines, but there were still people who tried. Later that day, I heard gunshots, going through the valley. I scanned the horizon with my binoculars and didn't see anything, so I called it in over the radio to the other tower. Ben, the veteran, stationed nearby, said he hadn't heard anything, but that he had also been finding traps. That night I had just finished

Starting point is 00:28:01 dinner and was writing a letter home when I heard the engine of a truck in the distance. I assume maybe Ben had decided to drop by. Sometimes he made the drive over to share a drink and talk. Instead, four strangers got out. They all had rifles. One stayed by the truck while the others pulled more traps from the bed and started setting them along the edge of the forest. I grabbed my flashlight and the rifle, thinking I'd at least try to tell them to leave.

Starting point is 00:28:30 I was young and believed talking it out would work, but before I could finish a sentence, one of them gave me a hard shove. The flashlight fell to the ground and cracked, plunging us into partial darkness. Someone kicked the rifle away, and another boot slammed into my stomach so hard it knocked the wind out of me. Two of them dragged me toward the forest. We walked for what felt like forever, though it probably wasn't even a mile.

Starting point is 00:28:58 The silence was strange. No crickets, no owls, nothing. They shoved me to my knees, and I heard the sound of a gun being made ready to fire. My mind went straight to my family in Virginia, and I break. myself for the worst. Suddenly, sirens cut through the stillness. A ranger vehicle crashed through the trees and right behind it, Ben's pickup. He had heard an engine near my tower tried to reach me by radio, and when he got no response, he came. The poachers were arrested and taken away. Ben drove me back to the tower without scolding me for not reporting them sooner. He just shook

Starting point is 00:29:37 his head and said that could have ended badly. I stayed on the job a few more months before taking work closer to home. We kept in touch for a while. I even sent him an invitation to my wedding and a photo of my first child in 97. Years later, I found out he had passed away and I was reminded all over again how lucky I was that that night he had been watching my back.

Horror Stories - 6 Most Disturbing TRUE Forest Horror Stories That Still Haunt People

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