Creepy spot on Benson Plateau

[drm]

It ain't unique to Benson and it ain't just forests.

Benson Plateau is the only place ever mentioned to me, or that I've seen posted, as spooky, until your post. And having the weather change is a whole 'nother matter. I've been spooked when a dark cloud comes over the ridge and I heard a boom. Different weather means different mood.

it was just that one spot

Most people haven't been that specific but still seems part of the trend for BP.

[kepPNW]

It ain't unique to Benson and it ain't just forests.

Benson Plateau is the only place ever mentioned to me, or that I've seen posted, as spooky, until your post.

Seems to be a common theme, here on this board, for Larch as well. Even Devil's Rest, sometimes.

[viking]

I had a similar feeling on the Wyeth trail a few years back. Even my dog was acting weird and it was only while hiking through a short section of trail. It was winter and there was snow on the ground, coming back through that spot after visiting North lake there was cougar tracks all over the foot prints I had left. He had walked down the trail 50 yards or so and over 100 yards up hill after me and then departed off the end of the switch back where his took place. Up hill on a little rock out cropping with a great view of the trail were marks where he had been laying down.

[mreha]

I had a similar feeling on the Wyeth trail a few years back. Even my dog was acting weird and it was only while hiking through a short section of trail. It was winter and there was snow on the ground, coming back through that spot after visiting North lake there was cougar tracks all over the foot prints I had left. He had walked down the trail 50 yards or so and over 100 yards up hill after me and then departed off the end of the switch back where his took place. Up hill on a little rock out cropping with a great view of the trail were marks where he had been laying down.

Hmmm...well, I had camped the night before at Benson Camp, and there was a young couple with a dog camped at Hunters Camp. The dog had been going crazy barking all morning, so it wouldn't surprise me if something was in the area. It would definitely explain the feeling of being watched.

[Koda]

About 20 years ago I did some fishing and hunting out past Estacada with this guy from work who grew up out there and he told me about all the cults out there and brutal activities they did in the forest there and it left me with a creepy feeling I’ve never got over. It’s a beautiful area out there but I always feel like whatever went down there hasn’t gone away, my imagination tells me the rocks and the trees have been there for hundreds and thousands of years and my take is they have seen it all and know the bad stories and when you get that creepy feeling it’s the rocks and trees talking to you trying to tell you what went down… something must have happened at Benson Plateau…

[Limey]

We've done a lot of off trail explorations and once found ourselves in an area of Tygh creek that was dense dark woods with amazing massive dark rock outcroppings. It felt ancient and there was such a sense of foreboding that I actually pressed myself up against the rock to see if I could pick up any vibes. I,m pretty sure there's a story there somewhere and it wasn't a good one. I could only handle about 10 minutes in that area before I got a very strong feeling that we needed to get out of there. It was an overwhelming depressing feeling. I really wanted to explore that area but those feelings were strong enough that I will never go back. No feelings of being watched or anything like that, just that this was a really bad place. I tend to feel like Koda that there is some sort of energy that stays in these places.

[aiwetir]

This is my guess:

I work in wildlife biology and eventually you somehow get a sense of what's around. You hop out of the truck and you think "there's a bear here" or you spend the day looking over your shoulder for the bear but never see it, then you get home and your coworker asks if you saw the bear.

I once did a murrelet survey in an alarmingly creepy but beautiful cedar swamp and when I got back, the person who had been there before asked if I liked the creepy spot. So I think we know what's out there either through smell, pheromones, or some other sense that we haven't put a label on yet.

There was one area that creeped me out every time I went in so I kept trying to schedule other people to work there instead. Inevitably something would happen and I would end up going in. On my last time in, things got weird, noises I'd never heard, Stellar's jays freaking out, I got nervous and left a little early. On the way out, there was a large log that I had to slide down on the way in and in the middle of where I had slid just 2 hours earlier there was a cougar turd.


Anyway to make a long story longer, I think humans have some senses that run below our conscious level and the best we can do with that information most of the time is get feelings from it. I'm not saying that creepy places are full of predators, and no one needs to start worrying about that, but pay attention to these things and start connecting the dots and maybe you can get more in touch with what's making you feel that way.

[forester]

About 20 years ago I did some fishing and hunting out past Estacada with this guy from work who grew up out there and he told me about all the cults out there and brutal activities they did in the forest there and it left me with a creepy feeling I’ve never got over. It’s a beautiful area out there but I always feel like whatever went down there hasn’t gone away, my imagination tells me the rocks and the trees have been there for hundreds and thousands of years and my take is they have seen it all and know the bad stories and when you get that creepy feeling it’s the rocks and trees talking to you trying to tell you what went down… something must have happened at Benson Plateau…

That is a very good way to put that feeling. aiwetir also had a good explanation. I've been a part of those feelings, both alone and with others. One time, my wife and I were walking a few hundred yards apart on two separate flats that had a thin run of trees between them. We could not see each other but we had walkie talkies. She said something about feeling weird, like something was watching us and that something was wrong. Over the radio, I laughed it off, but I stopped walking and stared in her direction because I had been feeling the same way for 10 minutes, just hadn't said anything. She was bothered and because of my feelings, I felt I should listen. I started walking back towards her and we had some fairly inexplicable, strange things happen shortly after. We eventually packed up our camp and headed back home a couple hours later instead of spending another night as planned. As we loaded the car, I sensed something watching us from one particular spot nearby in the forest. It was actually thin, without any brush or big trees. Nothing was there, but I couldn't take my eyes off that one spot. The compulsion to look was incredibly strong.

There is something to be said for locations absorbing energy, or ghosts/manifestations, or evolutionary memories, or our senses picking up current environmental stimuli that our brain doesn't quite know what to do with. Whichever of those things or combination of them, they lead to strange feelings. Those feelings are caused by something that we haven't quite been able to place our scientific finger on.

[Maka Mani]

Had a similar experience on Tanner Creek just North of the Moffet Creek Trail a few weeks ago. It was around 5am and I was approaching the first creek crossing when I got a huge hit of really smelly dirty animal body odor. At first I thought it was me, but this didn't smell human at all. (After a quick investigation , it was concluded by me that my stink was independent of this new found stench)Then I thought I was down wind from a bear perhaps, sipping on the early morning creek rush.There were a lot of ripe blackberries around too! I made a quick sweep of the immediate area and saw nothing. Heard nothing. I then imagined it was Bigfoot, hanging out and watching me! I laughed to myself and headed North. For a quick second there, I had that elusive, mysterious feeling one can have all alone on the Forest. This time it was triggered by my nose!

[Maka Mani]

why is the one campsite call "Hunters Camp", whats the story behind that?

My theory is areas of the plateau were used as a base camp by the Natives to hunt game.