22 Horrifying Experiences People Had While Hiking or Camping

Someone woke up to a sleeping bag full of cockroaches
22 Horrifying Experiences People Had While Hiking or Camping

There’s nothing as majestic as the great outdoors, where you can feel the warmth of the sun, the wind on your skin and the wriggling of cockroaches in your sleeping bag. 

The unfortunate part of choosing to commune with nature is that it gives nature the opportunity to commune with you back in ways that you’d likely prefer to avoid. Brave explorers have flocked to Reddit to share the horrifying experiences they’ve had while searching for a taste of adventure, and let these tales serve as a warning for the many things that can get into your sleeping bag when you’re not looking. 

BoredAsHellAndAngry 1y Once in the wilderness me and a couple of other guys, drunk as we were, started howling at the moon only to inadvertently attract real wolves. They showed up at our camp site about 1½ hour later when we were in our hammocks getting ready to sleep. No harm done. They sniffed around for a couple of minutes and then went off. Guess they were disappointed in what they found and luckily not desperately hungry. Anyways, I was very scared and tried to remain completely still and silent during this brief encounter. ... 5.7k
The_Spyre . 1y On a backpacking trip in the Sierra Mountains in California, my buddy forgot to put his toothpaste in the bear bag, which is a bag you put all food and aromatic items in to hang from a tree branch at night so the bears won't eat it. At about 2 a.m., we hear him yelling and get up to find a huge black bear on top of him in his tent trying to get at the toothpaste. The rest of us had to bang pans and throw rocks to get the bear to leave him alone. ...
pirate737 . 1y Sheer terror when I was a kid at boyscout summer camp. One kid left a couple airheads out on the picnic table. Everyone woke up in the middle of the night to, no joke 30+ raccoons fighting over airheads and going into tents looking for more food. If you've never heard that many hissing and growling raccoons at the same time good for you. ... 6.7k
Bacnnator . 1y When I was 5ish I slept walked out my tent and off a small cliff in NC into a lake woke up down there then screamed until my parents found me ... 5.2k
eljo555 . 1y I was a kid and on a family camping trip, the rest of the family slept in the trailer and I slept in the Mexican hammock. In the middle of the night something was forcefully pushing the hammock around and it didn't feel human. It was terrifying. It turned out to be a deer rubbing its antlers on the hammock. We can laugh about it now. ... 1.4k
404 Magnus_40 . 1y Solo camp in the middle of nowhere. When I woke up in the morning someone had made a cup of tea and partially drunk it in the middle of the night. No sign of anyone anywhere. ... 6k
pamacdon . 1y Camping in the Serengeti with Masai tribe men as guards. Sitting around the fire when suddenly the masi looks out into the pitch blackness, turns the flashlight on illuminating The eyes of a lion 40 yards out. Just staring at us. I never heard a thing ... 9.4k
perc10 . 1y Went camping in deep Appalachia in a tent. Woke up to a weird feeling that I was laying on something. Then I felt it move. A snake had made its way under my tent and I think it was trying to get warm as it stopped moving right under where my back was. After me moving a bit it finally went on its merry way. I'll never forget how it felt moving underneath me. ... 18.1k
ArfOtter . . 2y A friend of mine camped on the beach in Hawaii, despite the signs everywhere that said no camping on the beach. When she woke up in the middle of the night, her sleeping bag was full of giant cock roaches. ... 113
-MultiFOrms . 1y Mountain lion came very close to me. It didn't seem aggressive but it was curious. After a few minutes of us staring at each other and me pissing my pants he finally lost interest and disappeared into the forest while i got the fuck out of there ... 1.3k
LIRON_Mtn_Ranch . 2 2y When I was young and broke, I spent the night in the redwood forest in Northern California. Laid a large blanket out, and curled up in a sleeping bag and some blankets on that. In the middle of the night, I woke and turned on my flashlight. The perimeter of the blanket was LINED with long legged black spiders, standing leg to leg facing outward. I figured they were waiting for some hapless bug to come walking along, curled the blankets tightly over myself, and went back to sleep. When I woke again, it was full daylight and
Cyanora 4y I go hiking in the woods that permeate my town, sometimes so late that i get to see the sun rise out there. The strangest thing i ever saw was what I could only describe as a shanty town was built up seemingly overnight deep into the woods. Simple little hovels made of scrap metal and bed sheets and a small firepit that someone had made out of an old tire, with the fire still burning. But that wasn't the weird part. The weird part was that this was well passed midnight when i found this place and
strider14484 2y Night 1 of a trip at Sleeping Giant in Canada, I believe. First night out, I'm always a little jumpy because it takes a while to get used to the sound of the woods, and this was no exception. It was a solo trip, so just me in a little tent on the edge of the forest, looking out onto a small slope down onto a pebble beach. I was having some real trouble getting to sleep, the woods were just so loud and my mind kept jumping to 'serial killer' instead of 'normal wildlife'. I was trying
CaptValentine . 1y I was on a trip with the YMCA Camp Widji and on our last day on trail we got up early to hike the last few miles to where the van to pick us up was. We rounded a turn on the trail and could see the van and a weird swirling dark cloud on the trail ahead. Then the guy in front screamed and all of us were attacked by these big black wasps. I accidentally got on in my hand and it was the size of a cicada. I only got two stings but the
BungJovi . 1y Me, my old roommate and a friend went hiking into the woods in Tennessee. We were going along minding our own business, then we came up on a stream. On the other side of the stream, getting ready to cross, was a group of about 5 or 6 dudes only wearing socks and shoes. Naked bros hiking in the woods. I'm all about being in your birthday suit or whatever, but it was weird seeing it for the first time and apparently its a thing. ... 478
Kamala_2024 1y Hiking early morning in Hawaii and my stomach notifies me that it's time to go #2. I find a porta potty near the trailhead and jump in to do my business. Once complete, I flipped my headlamp on to find the toilet paper, but instead find a huge (5 in diameter) banana spider hanging out in the corner of the porta potty. Trying not to spook it I slowly reached for the 1-ply. As I do, my headlamp shines on this monster and it proceeds to FREAK TF OUT!!! It runs in circles for a bit, both of
Nice_Raccoon_5320 1y Leach on my eyeball at age 10 still my go to camping story. Fell asleep in the car, which was carrying some firewood on the roof rack. Woke up with a puffy eye that both mum and dad were frustratingly you'll be fine about without even looking (unlike their usual best parents vibe) We were playing cards and my mum let out this piercing scream and turned away from me. Family friend flicked off the big juiced up leach which had crawled out of my eye and was heading for my nose. I watched the leach burn in
(okaythen_ 1y I was about 8, I didn't want to sleep in the tent with my sister so I slept on a cot under the stars. Woke up to a bear sniffing my head/ neck. I was basically paralyzed with fear, the bear left me and went to sniff around for snacks. It made enough noise to wake my parents who then scared t away. I moved my cot into my sister's tent immediately after. ... 4.2k
dmmaus . 2y Great Dividing Range in Australia. Doing it in summer, so we didn't take tents - just slept in sleeping bags in the open, under the stars. (We had tent flies with us in case it rained.) Gorgeous. Except for the one night when we camped near a huge infestation of caterpillars. Fuzzy hairy ones. Spent the whole night half asleep, and peeling tickly fuzzy things off my face. ... 2.9k
If-By-Whisky 1y When I was a kid (probably around 11-13), my best friend's grandparents lived on a farm (maybe 100 acres of forest with a few clearings and a house) that we used to camp out in all the time. One night, a few of us were camping and we heard repeated thumps and screaming coming from the trees. We had literally just finished reading a book about Bigfoot in school and were positive that Bigfoot was out in the woods hitting trees and roaring. We got out of the tent, terrified, and walked through the woods towards the noise
mentallydistressed1 . 1y Thought our tent was being attacked by 3 bears. Turns out someone's dogs just got loose and the light outside made them look gigantic. ... 8.2k
KingRoyIV 1y I was camping once in the UP in Michigan, in a pretty secluded spot with distinct individual campsites. It was in the fall, so dead leaves were all over the ground. When we were settling in to sleep, we started to hear these slow, consistent footsteps on the leaves. They'd walk around the campsite, circle our tent, just walk all around without any clear goal and without stopping. Obviously we assumed it was some kind of animal, but when we rushed out with a light there was nothing - I mean no sound, no trace of anything. Once we were

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