Coolest personal encounter

General discussions on hiking in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest
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anna in boots
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Re: Coolest personal encounter

Post by anna in boots » July 5th, 2008, 7:12 pm

Ewwwww!

Splintercat, you are naughty!

anna in boots
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jeffstatt
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Re: Coolest personal encounter

Post by jeffstatt » July 7th, 2008, 11:26 pm

I'm glad BCJ and Spintercat pulled out those old stories again. I thought of them immediately when I saw this thread.

Well I've got two. I'm not sure either of them count as "cool".

I met Geraldo at Mt St Helens. He was part of the schlew of national media that decended on Johnson Ridge when the volcano got active back in 2004.

(seated off to the left)
Image

Here's my other experience. UFO Lights on the PCT!?

I few years ago I started taking advantage of doing evening hikes with the long summer evenings. One steamy August night I jogged back into Gillette Lake. I arrived at the lake right at dusk. I hadn't seen a sole the entire night. So I'm just hanging out a for a few seconds as the last of the sunlight relented and got a drink. I had turned off my headlamp to enjoy the stars. After a few minutes I hear a snap of a twig, I look downtrail and at no more than 30 feet away a flashlight turns on pointing at me. YIKE! Then just as fast it turns off and whoever it was disappeared. Well this totally creeped me out (especially since at the time I didn't realize there were spots to camp near the lake. )

Nevertheless that was my queue to head back to the car! It's pitch black now so...I've got my headlamp on and I'm jogging out at a pretty good clip on the PCT section. Even though I've rationalized the flashlight dude to myself - I'm a little on edge right?

After about 10 minutes I come around a corner and there are these four lights floating in a perfect square in the middle of the woods. WHOA! :shock: The lights are very bright, are different colors, and the top two are slowly blinking in some pattern. I stop dead in my tracks. The lights were no more than 100 yards ahead - just floating there in the middle of a small gully . I turn off my headlamp to get a better look. These are Miami vice colors with no discernable frame or mechanism behind it. .

What the eh?

The spock-like rational side of me was convinced there was some logical explanation so I continued to hike toward the lights in the pitch black - and the lights started moving through the forest with me! Freaky! Another 20 steps or so and...I realized what it was. It was the lights from the Bonneville Damn off a few miles in the distance. :roll: Total optical illusion.

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Martell
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Re: Coolest personal encounter

Post by Martell » July 8th, 2008, 5:23 am

I've got a weird lights story too Jeff.

My dad and I were backpacking and we had set up camp literally in the middle of nowhere. We had been hiking off trail and were pretty deep in the brush and we just set up camp. The forest we were in had like 3 feet of duff it was so built up. The trees and branches were so thick we barely had room to set up a tent and cook dinner, but we were tired, so we did.

Anyways, about 2 AM my dad wakes me up, "Did you just turn on your flash light?"

"Umm nope."

So we sit there and all of the sudden this bright light shines directly on our tent. Keep in mind we are in the middle of nowhere. After a minute it goes off and we begin whispering. So we are talking about how with all that duff we should hear anyone coming for miles. Why would a ranger be out there? What the heck can it be? The light comes on again and we try to peer out from the tent- too hard to tell where it's coming from.

After much discussion we finally came up with the theory that since it was close to a full moon, it may have been moonlight striking the tent. The forest was so thick that the moon could be hidden most of the night, but if there was a hole above, and a cloud moved away, a moon beam would give the same impression as a flash light. I still couldn't sleep the rest of the night.
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anna in boots
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Re: Coolest personal encounter

Post by anna in boots » July 8th, 2008, 6:36 am

The lights I saw saved my life.

I was returning from a way-too-long hike in the Lost Creek Wilderness of Pike National Forest, Colorado, many miles from civilization in any direction. Lost Creek is one of those places that are just so flippin' beautiful, peaceful and devoid of humans that you are never in a hurry to turn around and go home and you end up staying to see the sunset every time.

Well, I did that in wintertime without sufficient clothing or water to cover my extended stay (Hey, it was sixty at noon.) I came back down that mountain exhausted, shaky, and a little bit punchy and disoriented. The night was as black as it gets and there was no moon. All the slush and snow on the trail had magically transformed back into ice the second the sun took a header.

I was in some kind of a trance, singing to keep myself awake and coherent, just putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to think about cougars, then I saw it. There was a spotlight on me from directly above. Not bright, pure white, kinda mellow, like the fluorescents in a greenhouse. It flashed once, faded, and was gone. I stopped, scanned the ground, searched the sky, peered through the eerie white aspens...nothing. But the light gave me an idea: I had a headlamp with me. I had totally forgotten about it. I put it on and pressed forward.

Ten steps ahead of me was a washout completely slicked with hard ice. If I had walked into it without my headlamp, I would have landed in a crumpled, bleeding pile at the bottom of a very long, very painful fall. When I saw that ice, I just stopped and stared, then smiled. The lights were a precognitive warning, me watching out for me, some part of my brain getting my attention about proper lighting. They were most likely only visible to me; I've had similar experiences since, always informing me ahead of time about impending disaster.

Very cool.

anna in boots
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jeffstatt
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Re: Coolest personal encounter

Post by jeffstatt » July 8th, 2008, 6:58 am

whoa freaky!

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Don Nelsen
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Re: Coolest personal encounter

Post by Don Nelsen » July 8th, 2008, 4:59 pm

anna in boots wrote:Ha ha! Seems we have a couple celebrities in our own midst. It could snowball. There could be a whole forum dedicating to "Joe and Don Sightings" and a paparazzi could form at trail heads where they are rumored to be. Joe might evolve into a scruffy-bearded guru and collect a following of runners behind him like in Forest Gump. Don might attain Kilroy status; we could start seeing DON WAS HERE scratched into blow downs on trails from here to Alaska.

If I were you, guys, I'd start making regular monthly deposits into that secret Swiss bank account to fund your escape. ;-)

anna in boots
Hi Anna,

I'm honored! - and thank you, I love the attention. Actually, it would be me who was the "scruffy-bearded.." one, though. :D

Truth be known, old Don will not be seen running much because of a couple of squished discs in his neck that refuse to get better. The good news is that I can hike any distance I choose but the pounding of running is out, maybe forever. All-in-all, I've run something like 25,000 miles since I started to run races in Oct. of '78 so it may be time to call it a day and slow down a bit.
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly

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chameleon
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Re: Coolest personal encounter

Post by chameleon » July 8th, 2008, 5:23 pm

Wow, you guys better be careful with descriptions of strange people...old women etc... how do you know they aren't on this forum! :) The old lady with the clean white shoes definately sounds like someone who might post here regularly.

Anyway, I have an encounter I had this past weekend that really makes me sad about some others we might encounter on the trails. I went on an over-night trip to get a nice morning shot of an off-trail falls, and camped near the top of an on-trail fall. As I hiked up (off-trail) to get to my campsite, I saw a person down below, who seemed to be heading out to the trail, and I thought nothing of it.

So I camped and had a great night! But the next morning when I went to pack up, my right backpack strap had been cut near the base, and near the top. Someone - the person I saw most likely - a tall blonde guy with a black packpack and white shirt - had snuck up (off-trail), probably grown angry that I was camping where they had wanted to, and sliced my pack strap! Well, if you're out there and reading this...I forgive you, but you could seriously hurt someone that way if they had to rely on that pack in getting out of the woods.

I'll post a photo later of the waterfall.

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sarbar
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Re: Coolest personal encounter

Post by sarbar » July 8th, 2008, 8:14 pm

I met Scott Williamson in 2006 on the PCT. I was a couple miles from the end of a very hard trip.....I was so tired I didn't care who he was and all I thought was "who the heck starts hiking uphill at like 4 pm?". :lol: Anyhoo....nice guy though, everyone in my group behind me did stop and chat with him.

On the other hand I have had at least a dozen times where people have asked if I am who I am while hiking. Usually it is because they see my son and I together - and recognize us from photos on NWHikers.

Now creepy stuff? Lets say I won't camp at South Sand Point on the Olympic Coast (where the old overland trail to Erickson Bay is). Not unless you like hearing the sound of young girls laughing and running on the beach at night. Nobody around for a couple miles at most that night, with footprints in the sand in the morning. My husband of course slept through it. I lied there quietly for a long time listening.
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Splintercat
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Re: Coolest personal encounter

Post by Splintercat » July 8th, 2008, 9:44 pm

Well, since this has moved into the mystery/paranormal realm, I do have a couple more to add:

Boulder Ridge Mystery

Many years ago, I was hiking up the Boulder Ridge trail shortly after it had been opened to the public. It's not so obvious now, but most of the initial section follows old logging spurs. I was hiking on a few inches of snow, in early December, and had walked in from the gate at the highway. Nobody else was there, and no prints in the fresh snow. As I arrived at one of the switchbacks in the old road grade, there's a big turnaround that used to be quite open. Out in the middle of this area, there was a tube tent made from a tarp, and a crude fire ring with a fire smoldering in it. Everything was covered in an inch or two of fresh snow, no new tracks. So I walked closer, and realized that there was clothing scattered around the ground, and cans of food by the fire ring that looked to have been cut open with a knife. At this point, I'm standing right next to the tent, but can't see inside -- and then see an oversized suitcase, laying on the ground, open and facing up, with snow partly covering it. More clothes scattered around the suitcase...

Momentary panic! At that point, I realized that this is not a hiker out for a night of camping! I sort of backed away, then REALLY HIKED OUT FAST! This was in the days before cell phones, so I went to the Welches grocery story and called the Clackamas County Sheriff. I never did find out what happened, though I watched the papers for a few days. I'm pretty sure that whoever had set up that little hideaway was sleeping inside that tent..!

Blue Lake Ghost

Also awhile ago, a friend had told me about a "creepy lake" that he had camped at near Mount Jefferson. It was Blue Lake, along the original Skyline Trail, but now located off the newer PCT route. It's a particularly deep lake for its size, as the name suggests. So on a backpack trip through the Jefferson Wilderness, I made a point of camping there. No ghosts to report, but the "creepy" part was a local legend that an early miner in the area had fallen into the lake, and sunk to the bottom, where he was preserved by the cold water for many years.

The creepy part that probably led to the legend is the incredibly clear water - and you can most definitely pick out tiny objects at the bottom of what must be a 40-50 foot deep lake, with almost vertical sides. Sort of a jumbo version of Little Crater Lake. The legend says that there are all manner of strange noises in the night, though I had none to report. Here's the lake in question, if you're looking for a spooky hike:

Image

Tom :)

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Don Nelsen
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Re: Coolest personal encounter

Post by Don Nelsen » July 10th, 2008, 3:23 pm

Splintercat wrote:Hmm... was the naked hillbilly hot... well, maybe in a Deliverance kinda way...

I'm pretty sure clips from that movie were flashing through my mind at the time..!

Tom :lol:
Hey Tom,

I think I found that hillbilly's camp last summer:
Image
Off to the side of the camp, I found this decidedly disturbing sight:
Image
I caught a glimpse of something a hundred feet out in the woods and went over to take a look and found this - With much apprehension, I took a look under the tarp and found only camping equipment.
Image
I left everything as it was and got out of there!
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly

"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller

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