People Describe The Creepiest Things They've Encountered While Hiking

"A few years ago, I was backpacking in Eastern Washington with some friends of mine. I don't know how well you guys know Eastern Washington, but it's pretty much dust, sagebrush, and dirt.

We decided to hike up onto the top of this canyon, and from up there, you could see miles and miles of nothing. After a few hours of traversing the top of the cliff, we eventually found a little crevasse that kind of took us underground into a pretty decently sized cave.

The cave was filled with little bones, like mice and bats. In one of the corners of the cave, there was a rock fixture that jutted up from the ground and almost made a separate "room." In the room, we found lots of scratches on the walls, photographs, and three bottles with notes in them. While this was kind of off-putting on its own, we figured it was just some sort of joke, and we'd find silly S.O.S. notes in the bottles.

The scariest part about it all was the photographs were super ordinary, of families and normal people, and two of the notes in the bottles made no sense at all. While it was English, it was pretty much straight gibberish. None of the words made sense in context with the other words. The third bottle had a super ordinary letter talking about what they've been up to like something you'd send to a fairly distant relative after not talking with them for a while.

"I was backpacking in Yellowstone above the tree line at about 10,500 feet. We are hiking on a ridge above a lake when all of a sudden we come across a horse skull. No body, just the skull.

"A few summers ago, I was canoeing in the Boundary Waters with some friends. A few days into our trip, at least two days of paddling from the nearest entry point, we found the creepiest campsite on an island. There was brand new, abandoned camping equipment everywhere, like a sleeping bag and camping pad. Throughout the campsite, sticks with the ends charred had been stuck in the ground. In the remains of the fire was a heavily charred toothbrush, along with the remains of a wallet, glasses, papers, and some clothes.

"I took my young children to a cave not far from the house. It's a popular spot, but we had the place to ourselves. You can walk through it in about 30 minutes without too much difficulty. It has a tiny exit at the opposite end. It was pretty muddy, so we decided to turn around and head back to the entrance.

"Hiking the Appalachian Trail, my brother and I came across a young man who had hung himself. We sprinted up to the bluff where he was strung up. I wrapped my arms around his waist to take weight off his neck while my brother cut him down with his Leatherman. He had thrown the rope up over a tall branch and lashed it off with a clove hitch at the trunk like you'd hang a bear-bag.

He must've climbed the branches and dropped once laced in. We probably shouldn't have even tried; he was dead for sometime before we happened across him. Fortunately, no critters had come to tear him apart before we found him. It would've only gotten grislier from there. We called 911. We ended our trip pretty damn quick."

"While out exploring an old abandoned quarry with some friends, I found this dude staring at this rock, occasionally twitching, but he never turned around. We were pretty creeped out, so we didn't investigate and left pretty soon after.