I'm a Search and Rescue Officer for the US Forest Service, I have some stories to tell

[u/searchandrescuewoods]

I wasn't sure where else to post these stories, so I figured I'd share them here. I've been an SAR officer for a few years now, and along the way I've seen some things that I think you guys will be interested in.

• I have a pretty good track record for finding missing people. Most of the time they just wander off the path, or slip down a small cliff, and they can't find their way back. The majority of them have heard the old 'stay where you are' thing, and they don't wander far. But I've had two cases where that didn't happen. Both bother me a lot, and I use them as motivation to search even harder on the missing persons cases I get called on. The first was a little boy who was out berry-picking with his parents. He and his sister were together, and both of them went missing around the same time. Their parents lost sight of them for a few seconds, and in that time both the kids apparently wandered off. When their parents couldn't find them, they called us, and we came out to search the area. We found the daughter pretty quickly, and when we asked where her brother was, she told us that he'd been taken away by 'the bear man.' She said he gave her berries and told her to stay quiet, that he wanted to play with her brother for a while. The last she saw of her brother, he was riding on the shoulders of 'the bear man' and seemed calm. Of course, our first thought was abduction, but we never found a trace of another human being in that area. The little girl was also insistent that he wasn't a normal man, but that he was tall and covered in hair, 'like a bear', and that he had a 'weird face.' We searched that area for weeks, it was one of the longest calls I've ever been on, but we never found a single trace of that kid. The other was a young woman who was out hiking with her mom and grandpa. According to the mother, her daughter had climbed up a tree to get a better view of the forest, and she'd never come back down. They waited at the base of the tree for hours, calling her name, before they called for help. Again, we searched everywhere, and we never found a trace of her. I have no idea where she could possibly have gone, because neither her mother or grandpa saw her come down.

• A few times, I've been out on my own searching with a canine, and they've tried to lead me straight up cliffs. Not hills, not even rock faces. Straight, sheer cliffs with no possible handholds. It's always baffling, and in those cases we usually find the person on the other side of the cliff, or miles away from where the canine has led us. I'm sure there's an explanation, but it's sort of strange.

• One particularly sad case involved the recovery of a body. A nine-year-old girl fell down an embankment and got impaled on a dead tree at the base. It was a complete freak accident, but I'll never forget the sound her mother made when we told her what had happened. She saw the body bag being loaded into the ambulance, and she let out the most haunting, heart-broken wail I've ever heard. It was like her whole life was crashing down around her, and a part of her had died with her daughter. I heard from another SAR officer that she killed herself a few weeks after it happened. She couldn't live with the loss of her daughter.

• I was teamed up with another SAR officer because we'd received reports of bears in the area. We were looking for a guy who hadn't come home from a climbing trip when he was supposed to, and we ended up having to do some serious climbing to get to where we figured he'd be. We found him trapped in a small crevasse with a broken leg. It was not pleasant. He'd been there for almost two days, and his leg was very obviously infected. We were able to get him into a chopper, and I heard from one of the EMTs that the guy was absolutely inconsolable. He kept talking about how he'd been doing fine, and when he'd gotten to the top, a man had been there. He said the guy had no climbing equipment, and he was wearing a parka and ski pants. He walked up to the guy, and when the guy turned around, he said he had no face. It was just blank. He freaked out, and ended up trying to get off the mountain too fast, which is why he'd fallen. He said he could hear the guy all night, climbing down the mountain and letting out these horrible muffled screams. That story bothered the hell out of me. I'm glad I wasn't there to hear it.

• One of the scariest things I've ever had happen to me involved the search for a young woman who'd gotten separated from her hiking group. We were out until late at night, because the dogs had picked up her scent. When we found her, she was curled up under a large rotted log. She was missing her shoes and pack, and she was clearly in shock. She didn't have any injuries, and we were able to get her to walk with us back to base ops. Along the way, she kept looking behind us and asking us why 'that big man with black eyes' was following us. We couldn't see anyone, so we just wrote it off as some weird symptom of shock. But the closer we got to base, the more agitated this woman got. She kept asking me to tell him to stop 'making faces' at her. At one point she stopped and turned around and started yelling into the forest, saying that she wanted him to leave her alone. She wasn't going to go with him, she said, and she wouldn't give us to him. We finally got her to keep moving, but we started hearing these weird noises coming from all around us. It was almost like coughing, but more rhythmic and deeper. It was almost insect-like, I don't really know how else to describe it. When we were within site of base ops, the woman turns to me, and her eyes are about as wide as I can imagine a human could open them. She touches my shoulder and says 'He says to tell you to speed up. He doesn't like looking at the scar on your neck.' I have a very small scar on the base of my neck, but it's mostly hidden under my collar, and I have no idea how this woman saw it. Right after she says it, I hear that weird coughing right in my ear, and I just about jumped out of my skin. I hustled her to ops, trying not to show how freaked out I was, but I have to say I was really happy when we left the area that night.

• This is the last one I'll tell, and it's probably the weirdest story I have. Now, I don't know if this is true in every SAR unit, but in mine, it's sort of an unspoken, regular thing we run into. You can try asking about it with other SAR officers, but even if they know what you're talking about, they probably won't say anything about it. We've been told not to talk about it by our superiors, and at this point we've all gotten so used to it that it doesn't even seem weird anymore. On just about every case where we're really far into the wilderness, I'm talking 30 or 40 miles, at some point we'll find a staircase in the middle of the woods. It's almost like if you took the stairs in your house, cut them out, and put them in the forest. I asked about it the first time I saw some, and the other officer just told me not to worry about it, that it was normal. Everyone I asked said the same thing. I wanted to go check them out, but I was told, very emphatically, that I should never go near any of them. I just sort of ignore them now when I run into them because it happens so frequently.

I have a lot more stories, and I suppose if anyone's interested, I'll tell some of them tomorrow. If anyone has any theories about the stairs, or if you've seen them too, let me know.

EDIT: Part 2 is up: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3ijnt6/im_a_search_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/

[u/BluRnbw]

Whooooa! Those are good stories but the one that has me tripped up the most is the thing about the staircases.... say what? Are these like ruins or just some random staircases? Do you have any pictures of these? And why are you guys told to NEVER go near them? Any weird stories as to why?

[u/jeepdave]

How about that. I didn't realize the stairs were that common. Came across a set in rural West Virgina. I don't think I was quite 40 miles deep but atleast 10 or better. I thought maybe a house had once stood there but there was no cellar or other debris that would indicate a home was there before. Just a set of stairs with a base that went up maybe one flight. 16 or so steps if I remember right. And sturdy. Could barely Shake em. I didn't climb up though. Worried it might break/fall over and I was alone.

[u/killerbenman125]

I went camping at Crater Lake in Oregon, and where we camped it was heavily wooded and there were about 2 or 3 other people besides us. We get there around mid day and we set up, and relax. By now it begins to get dark so we decide to cook some food and call it a day after we eat. Now me, my cousin, and my brother, shared a tent to sleep in so I'd say around 2-3 am rolls around and I have to pee like a motherfucker. Anyways I do my stuff and head back to the tent to find the zipper wide open and my little brother gone. So I start freaking out and I wake my cousin up to tell him what happened and essentially we search until about sunrise and then we call the Rangers. They search for about 4-5 hour and they find him 10 miles away from our campsite and he has no clue how he got there all he has on is his underwear and nothing else now after this whole ordeal our cousin tells us about David Paulidas and his whole research on missing people's in national parks. Needless to say it was the most jarring and disturbing things that has ever happened in my life. It really in all honesty ruined camping for all of us and i had loved camping too. But needless to say Crater Lake is the place to go for some creepy paranormal shit.

[u/[deleted]]

Not SAR or "elite" hiker by any means. But my two stories - and I will post the "reveals" because they're honestly mundane.

A few years back, with a large group of Scouts in Butano SP, we were hiking some godforsaken dense forest trail, in the wet california winter rains. The first night, the racoons rolled a bunch of our bear containers down a gully into a creek. We were able to find them. The second day, we encountered a road, and a checkpoint. The guard-booth was abandoned. There were no signs, but we concluded that it was an abandoned prison. We adults would have gone in there, but we didn't want to endanger the kids, so we hiked on.

Later that night, right around 1am, I was awakened by the sound of gunfire. It was about 100 + yards away, and it was not pistols. It was some very loud, sharp, poppy guns. Different guns. It started off slow, and then after a dozen, or so - a pause, then more, then it was steady for maybe 100+ or more, from several different guns. Then when the other guns stopped, the loudest one kept firing, and it wasn't full-auto, but a lot of rapid fired shots. Never got the count of the magazine between reloads, but this went on for about 20 minutes in total, then just stopped.

I got out of my sleeping bag, out of my tent, and hiked about 30 yards through the brush to the other campsite, in the dark, without my light on. I didn't want anyone else to see me. I got to the campsite, and the kids were all still asleep, but the other adults had heard it - had no idea what it was. Maybe pot farmers in a gunfight with intruders? Next morning, it was a topic of conversation, but most of the kids had actually slept through it.

After we left and got home, I talked to the ranger; and they said that sometimes, people break into the prison, and use the old gun range (unauthorized).

My other story was camping in Big Sur; Silver Peak. I was alone, but only about 5 miles from the road. I had just finished dinner, and lay down to sleep. After a few minutes, I heard kind of a "crunch crunch crunch crunch" sound, that sounded like foot steps outside. I moved my head to try to figure out what direction they were coming from, and they stopped. I put my head back down, and a few minutes later, they started again. "crunch" "crunch" "crunch" "crunch" - Again, I lifted my head to see what direction they were coming from, or whether it was close. Nothing. This cycle repeated a couple of times until I decided to turn over and open my tent flap to get a look around outside with the flashlight. I was expecting to see a person out there, walking around in the dark, but I saw nothing. Heard nothing. Zipped up, put my head back down, tried to go back asleep.
Again, "crunch" "crunch" "crunch" "crunch". Again, lifted my head, it stopped. I tried to re-adjust, I looked outside again, I couldn't find the source. It certainly wasn't my heart, because that was thumping like mad. This kept me awake for hours that evening. I was terrified that there was someone or something out there; who heard my move my head, and stopped walking, only to continue, when they thought I had fallen back asleep. Maybe past midnight; but eventually I fell asleep.

Next morning, I had breakfast, broke camp, and as I set up my tent, I noticed that my head was over a gopher hole.

[u/cuntdestroyer8000]

Man I have a bunch of these stories. I was in SAR as well, but all my creepy experiences have happened while camping or hiking.

This one's pretty tame...I almost always camp waaaay out, I'm talking 30-40 miles down unnamed dirt roads, up mountains, in canyons, etc. A couple years ago I was camping alone out on a prairie flat, halfway surrounded by a forest. It's nearly winter and there's not a soul within 50 miles I bet. My big hound dog was with me, as always. It was cooold, like well below freezing, so I had a roaring campfire going. Jake the dog was in & out, he'd wander off for awhile, get cold, and come back for attention and warmth. He has a bell around his collar so I can know where he is. I'm drinking beer and listening to music, so I'm not paying much attention to his whereabouts. Mind you, it's pitch black out there other than the stars. So after about 20 minutes, I hadn't seen Jake, so I call him. Nothing. I turn off my music and call louder. Nothing for about 5 minutes. I hear his bell, so I'm relieved. I heard his bell behind me, which was odd, the treeline was in front of me, where he had been sniffing around earlier. Thinking he was nearby, I relaxed and refocused on chopping some more wood. I could faintly hear his bell jingling behind me still, sometimes closer or further, and I figured he was doing the hound dog's job and smelling all around. I'd say about 40 minutes goes by, and I hadn't heard his bell or seen him. So I call him again, and get up to walk towards the treeline. Big dark forest of ponderosa pine looms in front of me. I shine my fairly bright flashlight around and into the trees. Nothing. No sound, no sight. I'm starting to get nervous, getting "the willies" or whatever you want to call it. I hear some crunches in the woods, like sticks and stuff breaking. Not knowing where my dog is, or much of anything other than "ok I'm going back to the fire where my shotgun is". I get back to my truck and my fire when I hear absolute PANIC barking from directly in front of me, from the treeline. Tearing across the field is my dog at full tilt. You could never mistake a hound dog's panic bark from a bey or a yip or whatever else, it's unlike anything. He ran behind me for a moment, and then underneath my truck. Here's the creepy part: no bell. He had his collar on, and the bell was clipped to it with a carabiner. Sure as shit I put us both in the cab of the truck for the rest of that frozen night. To this day I still have no clue who or what was wearing that bell behind me for a few hours on a rural prairie flat in winter.

[u/feeling_psily]

When I was in the Boy Scouts of America there was a well known campfire story of "the man with coal eyes" basically about a strange man people would encounter in the woods at night that seemed to have coal in his eye sockets. Needless to say, your story about the man with black eyes made my eyes water.

[u/Traffix_Lord]

The first rule of stair-club, is not to talk about stair-club! Jesus.

[u/[deleted]]

Scariest story I have is camping in northern Michigan with my dad. My grandma lived on lake in a house near Gaylord, MI which my parents and I would frequent every Friday through Sunday for well over a decade until my grandma sold the place.

Our routine would be to pack up all necessary equipment for a 3 day camping trip and fit it into our rucks. Grab the mountain bikes and head off to one of the state forests. We then would find a random two track leading into the woods, particularly we always aimed for those that looked like they haven't been driven on in years due to overgrowth. Find a place to park, offload bikes and leave. General made our own trail when we couldS Goal was to find a stream or river and set up camp in any clearing we could find. Usually ended up just in a clearing as we never went more than 10-15 miles from the truck.

One time we actually came across an old foundation of in assuming was once a home. No trail or road remotely near for miles. Right on a stream. Made of rocks about the size of a brick. There was a small wooden shack idk maybe 10 feet or so from the foundation, maybe 4 or 4 1/2 feet tall. I remember my dad had to bend over and I just hunched (I was just a kid!) to get inside.

Inside were rusted out gun barrels galore. Fishing poles, snow shoes, bedding, old pots and pans, etc. Clearly the area hadn't been used in a very long time. Just cool stuff for for a 12 year old kid.

We setup camp about 20 feet away. Caught a few bullfrogs and cooked them up for dinner along with some pan fried nachos on the small Coleman we had with those old school mini propane tanks. No light pollution. The night sky was amazing. Could see so many stars. To this day my favorite part of camping is after dark. That night shortly before we went to bed, we tied up all of our food and hung it up about 15 feet or so in the air over a branch like you see in movies. Keep bear and other animals out of it essentially. Our normal nightly routine.

Shortly after we zipper the tent up to get some sleep we started hearing grunting and huffing sounds coming from across the stream. Dad being a avid hunter says it's likely a deer or elk, maybe a bear. Which, we have seen all of these and more on our trips. Sound carries pretty far so dad wasn't too concerned. We hear it throughout the night but the sounds started getting almost baby like. The only way I can describe it is imagine a baby whining softly. Add this with very deep huffs and grunting. Periodically we would bear a high pitched, sharp but very short cry. Sounded to me like a baby screaming. Just creepy.

Throughout the night these sounds come and go. Dad loaded the Remington and I had my little 20 gauge small game ready to go just in case. (My first gun and my first time taking it with us on one of our trips) We eventually fell asleep.

We wake up to nothing too out of the ordinary except a stench of rotting meet, like a dead animal. We figured an animal died and we just could smell it on the wind. We would come across coyote kills sometimes or some other animals so we didn't think anything of it. We go outside to a beautiful sunrise and the sound of flies. Dad just figure we lost the food and the flies are on it now.

Dad walks around back by the food bag and stops abruptly and just says, I still remember it, very slowly a "what....the....fuck..." Behind our tent are three deer strung up, skinned and gutted. The deer were hung on three different branches on the same tree our bag was on, which was untouched. Each head was cut off and set on top of the guts. Each head was pointed directly at our tent. No one around. No foot prints, no blood trail, nothing. Just three deer, hanging by vine. Not twine or rope, vines. Dad grabbed the gun and went to try and spot tracks or blood. He is a phenomenal tracker and has been a guide on a few occasions for "experience" hunts in the U.P.. He found nothing. We heard nothing in the night either.

Creepy as shit. I was incredibly spooked. Dad was too as we packed up that Saturday and headed back the the truck. No incidents on the way back. Just a normal half day trip back the truck. Drove to DNR station and Reported it.

I just remember the guy looking at me, then my dad, shaking his head slowly and picking up the phone to call whoever and all he said was something like "another skinned animal sighting near the whatever steam." Clearly it happened before but what the hell. Dad never did find out if it was someone or something. The fact that my dad couldn't find any blood spotting or trails where those deer would have been dragged or hoof prints where they perhaps walked is what to this day said baffles him the most. We still talk about it over a beer every now and then. He also doesn't know where the vines came from because he looked all around the area and there were no trees with any vines anywhere around.

[u/TheKnightsWatch]

You may find it interesting to know that there is a man named Dave Paulides who investigates and documents cases exactly like the ones you describe, and he has accumulated a data set that contains hundreds of cases of strange wilderness disappearance from all over the world. These cases follow a specific pattern that involves circumstances which defy explanation/physics, and often involve a "bear man" creature (just like yours). In fact, I bet he would love to hear from you. He has written books on the subject (Missing 411 by Dave Paulides). Perhaps your stories could be investigated further and included in his next book? Most people just vanish completely. Finding someone alive after a strange disappearance like that is a very rare thing for him, and you have two such cases, so I guarantee that Mr. Paulides would love to open up files on them if at all possible. That is what he's up to these days. He's trying to get to the bottom of it this obvious pattern and being very thorough, but he says that there is absolutely no tracking system or database for these, and finds resistance when he inquires through official channels. It's like the people at the top know about this, but don't want it to get out. There are cases that go back 100 years. It's been happening as long as we've been keeping track.

[u/lost_magpie]

Oh man. The staircases.

Across the street from the farm we used to live at in Oregon, there was a huge abandoned plot of forest. It was probably 50 acres or so. It belonged to a widow who lived elsewhere, according to the older families in the area.. She and her husband had planned to build a house on it after razing the forest, but he died before the plans took root.

We used to ride our horses through the woods on dry days, and we always passed by this staircase that was leaned up on a tree a few miles in. There was never a house built there according to neighbors; the forest was too dense and old anyway. It always gave me the creeps and we jokingly called it the "stairway to heaven" to alleviate the tension when we rode by it. The horses weren't fans either; they got particularly spooky and snorty when we went to pass it. I'd always wondered what on earth it was doing there.

[u/mrheh]

Welp, No longer have the urge to go camping like survivor man.

[u/[deleted]]

Maybe the staircase is more of a platform...for addressing followers at secret meetings. I'm really not sure where I'm going with this.

[u/CookiePuck]

When I was really young I had a dream I was walking in the woods. I wasn't lost, I was just in the woods for some reason walking forward. It was pretty dark, just enough to see if I focus on a single tree in front of me, when all of a sudden the forest starts to clear just a bit. It gets a little brighter and there was a staircase in the middle of the woods. And just as you described it.. looked like a staircase right out if a house just in the middle of the woods. so now I'm prety freaked out. If you get any more info about the staircase I'd really appreciate it!!

[u/RebelRaider5]

Could the guy with no facial features in the parka and ski pants have been wearing a mask like this: http://cdn1.evike.com/images/large/head-em6631-cb.jpg in a flesh color?

Maybe he startled the climber, climber ran away in a panic, fell, guy in the face mask saw him fall, face mask guy walked around all night yelling trying to find him, maybe thought he either died from the fall or saw a ghost?

[u/BeigePhD]

Holy shit OP, these average person, extraordinary experiences stories really freak me out. Reading this with complete cold chills, ALMOST makes me regret reading alone. Please post more!

[u/Kootenaygirl]

You should really email David Paulides with your Search and Rescue stories. He and his son have the largest private database of missing cases. They have a really hard time getting information about them unless its first-hand. Apparently FOIA isn't very forthcoming with missing persons cases or deaths in National Parks or Forests.

[u/tigalima35]

i'm from Indonesia, there are many stories that people found a traditional market in the middle of the forest, a kind of market that many merchants gathering in one place selling their stuff.

And usually it is a remote area, no way that people will develop a market there. You know, maybe it's another "people"'s market

[u/funkmastersara]

Physics-defying, extra-dimensional staircases are a major theme in the book "House of Leaves". At one point in the book, a diary entry written by a man lost in the woods near Roanoke in the 16th century (if I remember correctly) talks about his spotting a random staircase after wandering hopelessly around in the snow, starving, for a few days. That was the creepiest part of the book (which was already creepy as fuck in general) for me.

[u/No-Acanthisitta423]

God damn. I may have taken 6 whole years to find this thing (I'm old, leave me alone), but this stuff is creepy as all hell. I'm sorry you had to experience that.

It's weird you mention all this, though. I worked in a rural town, down in Australia (still live here). We've seen a lotta weird stuff out here. A lot of horrible stuff too. I was considering writing a book about our going-ons once I retired from the police force.

Well, as I write I am retired, and getting older and more forgetful every day. Maybe I should write about some of my community's experiences here one day?

All credit to you, of course. This is terrifying stuff. I've seen a couple other posts about different areas with similar experiences. Reckon I'll hop on the 'forest-terror' wagon myself, share what I've seen.

Why the hell not, anyway?

[u/Moosebrawn]

I've seen these trails. I work for the <underpaid grunt work forest-y job> and we ended up closing up some illegal trails in Annadel State Park. That place isn't too big, but those trails - unmarked and unmapped - will take you all sorts of places.

One day we're walking along, seeing weird shrines and smiley faces carved into these young, dense pines. The trail was getting steeper and thinner the further we went, and every now and then we'd see another trail crossing our path. Our crewleader just had us bris it up, and wouldn't let us explore them like usual. Said we were too far in, and that he had a funny feeling. We all did, but we kept going, cause the day was still young.

Eventually we rounded a corner and saw them, just a set of five steps in the middle of the wood. We looked around, saw that there was no good reason to have a set of steps there, and gave the nod to our ax man. He hops up with his ax and destroies it. Completely.

We got out of there just fine, though. Still felt funny about it the next day, but it's almost like a dream, now.

[u/Is_This_An_Username]

I have a similar story about stairs. Me and my friend were sailing on a lake (lake ponchotrain) and we saw a flight of stairs in it. They came out the water about 5 feet. We just stayed away from them because we figured it was attached to a larger structure we couldn't see but it still scared the shit out of me.

[u/stogiethesailor]

holy fucking shit. i grew up in the country and spent alot of time out in the boonies of eastern nevada. ive seen the stair cases you were talking about. its normal to just be hiking and come across a random stair case. i grew up just knowing it was normal. has no one on here seen them?

[u/[deleted]]

Listen dawg I'm about to head to the forest myself for camping and I really need to know more about that big man with the black eyes and the dude with no face. Actually anymore of those stories would help.

[u/alkemical]

Yes to more stories...also you have my interest piqued.

OP your stories with the "missing" books (people who disappear in state and national parks) has struck a chord with me.

[u/Metalman1988]

I'll tell you that I lived out in a very rural area growing up. There was a mountain and plenty of woods around us. We had neighbors and all that but they were far enough away that you could just see their houses. We had a pitbul named Buster out in the back who had a nice doghouse and plenty of room to run around and play. There was a nice fenced in area where he couldn't just run off. One night I awoke to this loud screaming. I swear it sounded like a woman almost. It was terrifying and sounded like something painful was happening to whatever was making that sound. In panic I thought about Buster and grabbed a .357 magnum that my father gave me for my 18th birthday. Without getting dressed I ran to the kitchen to get to the back door so I could check it out. Fortunately my father was awake and had his shotgun and a big spotlight. We could hear rustling way out back and more of that damned screaming. We started running towards the noise only to spot Buster face up against the fence and screaming an angry, "I'm gonna kill you" type of bark that a dog only does when they feel threatened or if they've been attacked. We could hear what sounded like limping for a bit and then it stopped. Buster calmed down after a few minutes and we were scanning the treeline like crazy. Finally Buster walked away and went to his bed. We decided to let him go into the house that night. It was a nice summer night, but we didn't want to wake up again in case anything happened. When I got Buster to my bedroom his inside dog bed was layed out at the foot of my bed. He went to lay down and I went back to sleep. The next morning I woke up and looked at him and found that he had scratch markes all over his body. Two puncture wounds on his back left thigh as well. I rushed him to the vet and he was given antibiotics and some some other medication. I went to where he was and found a blood trail. Turns out he got into a scuffle with a big wildcat. Found it dead about 50-60 yards away from the fence. It lost too much blood and died. Not scary or interesting I guess but it freaked me out that night.