Not a lot of people like to be alone. That may be why podcasts are all the rage right now. Having voices in your ear all day is comforting for those with long commutes or who work at home. But, there are people who enjoy the solitude, like camping, or are forced to serve in lonesome situations, like if you're in the Navy on a submarine. Many of these people took to Reddit to answer user, r/EndlessRunaway, who asked:

Redditors who spend a lot of time in seclusion (at sea, in the air or out in the wilderness) what's the creepiest or most mysterious thing you've seen, found or experienced?

On a two week solo backpacking trip I had four days in seclusion between Ranger Station check ins. On the first day of the seclusion; I felt like I was being stalked. As I lay in my tent that night I could hear what sounded to me like footsteps around my camp but never coming too close. In the morning I checked all around and found no evidence of footprints or having any wild life around me. I broke down camp and took off trying to put it behind me.

The second night was the same thing. I grew so paranoid that when I would hike during the day I would go over rocks, walk through streams; anything to try and break the trail so I couldn't be tracked. I'd go around a blind turn and than sit there for an hour waiting to see if something would come behind. At night I couldn't sleep for more than 10/15 minutes before waking up.

Finally I got to the Ranger Station check in and told them what I had been experiencing. I went and set up camp as close to the station as I could. Later the Rangers; they offered for me to sleep on their couch for comfort and so I could actually sleep. I accepted and stayed the night indoors.

I walked out to my camp in the morning and it had been destroyed. My tent was cut on the side, sleeping bag ripped and backpack turned inside out. The Rangers came and reported it; took pictures and everything. I ended up getting one of the Rangers to give me a ride back to base camp and going home the next day.

HoneyBadgerPanda

While on deployment my ship found a ship adrift off the coast of Australia. As an engineer trained for vbss I was tasked with assessing the ships mechanical status on boarding.

It was deserted. Fish in the hold and stuff set out like people were just there. There was food on the galley area that was still warm, etc.

We never found the crew so we towed the boat in for the authorities.

Absolutely scared the f--- out of people and those who didn't board the ship didn't believe us when we were telling them about the state of it.

oscurotek

My fiance and I went hiking up a mountain in the Pacific Northwest last summer. It's perpetually muddy due to a large number of waterfalls along the sides of the trail, so there's no way you can avoid getting at least a little dirty.

Around an hour and a half up the trail, we passed two men wearing black suits, black hats, black glasses, holding black leather briefcases and wearing black dress shoes. Completely clean dress shoes. And immaculately clean, pressed pants. Not a spot of dirt or a wrinkle on either of their clothes.

As we passed each other, one of them whispered something in German. I looked back at them and they were both standing still and looking back at us, staring.

One of the creepiest things that has ever happened to me, and I've had my fair share of strange experiences!

WendigoPrincess

Hearing the faint sonar pings from the Russian subs in the middle of the night out in the Baltic Sea

feelthatk188

I was never really in seclusion, but I was a US Navy submariner. One time through the periscope, I saw a potted plant on a plank floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, several hundred miles from the nearest land.

TriblialBrainDamblge

I was in a remote area surveying populations of various organisms in mountain streams. One morning an older man crossed the stream I was standing in. We both froze for a second and he continued on his way.

He didn't have any gear with him and it's a 15-20 mile hike from the nearest (dirt) road. My point is he wasn't just casually wandering through.

FookYu315

So I worked at a ranch in southern Arizona, right on the border. I didn't really consider it to be secluded because I had horses and cows. In hindsight, I guess it was really lonely because sometimes they'd talk back to me.

Anyways, doing fence borders with a guy from another camp and we had to go down into this dry river bed. As we round the bend we see a bunch of beat up trucks sitting there armed to the teeth. Turns out we ran into some kind of big deal for a cartel. The other guy told me to keep steady and we just walked straight through them on our horses. Everyone staring at us, looking like they were ready to shoot us up if we made one false move.

I asked about it when we got to the other side without turning into swiss cheese and the more experienced rancher told me: "The Cartel only cares about Border Patrol and Cops. They know this is a ranch, and they know we roam around here, and they know we don't say much." Reason being, if they ever assumed the ranchers were the snitches, they could easily find our little ranch houses. Only had 1 person to so many acres. Could have been offed and left there for many days before someone noticed. With all that in mind, I had a very passive relationship with those kind from then on.

MrGordley

I was on a the bow of a sailboat crossing the Atlantic in pretty heavy winds, going about 15 knots. Crew had to be stationed alone on the bow in two hour shifts at all times, keeping an eye out for anything in the water. About 10 meters away from me I see a weird glint in the water. Then I realize it's a partially submerged shipping container. Before I had time to even open my mouth, we passed it by, missing it by a few feet.

And that's the story of how I nearly got shipwrecked in a storm in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.

_Ayy_2_Brute_

When I was a scout in Iraq, I was setting up a concealed observation post when we saw the largest cat through our thermals. Like Lion/Cheetah/Leopard (the thermals were fuzzy, but we could identify size based on distance with the laser range finder)

The thing is all three of those animals used to live in Iraq - but they have been LONG since extinct in the area.

BornCavalry

Former 68W with 3 combat tours, I might be able to explain this for you.

During Saddam's reign him and his friends were crazy wealthy. Like richer than God wealthy. Often times they'd be so wealthy they'd start running out of expensive s--- to buy. Seems like once they had the big houses and fancy cars they'd just buy crazy s--- like gold toilets (seen it), gold guns (also seen it) and even sometimes large animals of prey (vultures, falcons, tigers etc).

The thing is, when Saddam fell, so did a lot of his friends. I've heard stories of the house staff of a lot of these people not wanting the animals to be killed when looters ransacked the estates of the uber wealthy. Instead they'd release the animals. I guess they thought the animals had a better chance of survival on their own.

That's what we were told by our 1st Sergeant(he could've been f---in w us) Still crazy.

GromflomiteAssassin

While out fishing i became good friends with a fat beaver. He chilled next to me while i fished for about 2 hours. Just watching me cast and catch fish. We watched an osprey dive into the lake and get a bass which was an amazing moment. When the sun started setting he sauntered back into the lake and we went our separate ways. The best fishing experience i had so far.

itsbernstein

Driving through the middle of Montana one night, going about 100mph, passed something on the side of the interstate that looks like a mangled body. Turned around at the next pass, came back. Definitely a body. Put my lights on it and tried to call 911 on my cell. No reception. Got in the car to see if i could pick up cell reception (lights were still on)...nothing there but the blood splatters. Drove away QUICK

TaiChiDeathmatch

NEVER.

GET.

OUT.

YeOldManWaterfall

Several years ago I was fly fishing in late February and stumbled on two guys disposing of a human body. The ground was still frozen so they opted to hide the body in a drainage pipe at the base of a dam. Needless to say I did a complete 180 turn while muttered something to myself like, " Jesus is it cold! Impossible to fish in these conditions." And made a somewhat chaotic bee line back to my car. When I looked back I could see them peeking out from behind a tree, so I followed the imortal words of Saint Clark W. Griswold and, " Rolled em up."

A few weeks later I saw those same familiar faces, but this time under a news headline saying that they had been charged with murder.

TroutsBane

On a small sailing boat in the Pacific, sailing south from Panama to Ecuador in the middle of the night. Two people on deck -- the helmsman and me, theoretically on lookout but really just there to keep the helmsman awake. It's well after midnight and we're away from major shipping lanes...

...And then I see a light off the port bow. It's far off and distant and under the sail, and therefore hard to keep track of, but it's there. It isn't moving. And it seems to flicker and dim but gradually I become aware it's getting a little brighter, bit by bit. And then I realise it's a boat, and it's coming right for us, and by this time I can hear the engine and I yell to the helmsman: "Hard a-port."...

...So we steer to the left, and the oncoming boat passes on the starboard bow. It's less than 10 metres away, a big RIB with a massive outboard engine at the back traveling at full throttle. There's enough light from the moon and our running lights to see that there's only one person aboard, slumped upright over the steering column, and a load of fishing equipment in the back. Then it's gone into the night, still travelling straight at maximum speed.

This was over ten years ago. To this day I have no idea if that midnight fisherman was alive or dead, if he'd fallen asleep at the wheel or suffered a sudden heart attack or what...

...I still wonder sometimes.

BillybobThistleton

I went on a two and a half week long hike in the middle of nowhere Nevada. Like a couple of hours from even the smallest of towns. One night, I decided to set up camp on a ridge line overlooking a valley with a dirt road bisecting it.

Most nights I would've had a small fire, but it was breezy and was cutting across the ridge pretty hard. I think the weather saved my life.

At about 10pm, a truck drove down the road and there was a rhythmic pattern of "door opens, dome light comes on, driver grabs something from the passenger floorboard, drops it out of the truck, closes the door, drives slowly for 20 seconds, and repeats." He did that for what looked like a mile. I thought it was weird, but whatever. 15 minutes later, a different vehicle, a suburban, drive up along the road. The driver was holding a flashlight out the window and stopped in the same spots the truck did. Open door. Pick up something. Close door. Drive. Open door. Pick up something. Drive.

I don't know what the f--- it was, but I'm convinced that I would've ended up with a couple more bullets in me than I'd like, if I had that camp fire.

_Toolset_overreacting_

I was living in a dirt floor cabin for about 6 months. I would pack a lunch and hike out half a day in random directions. One day I found an abandoned hotel with an attic full of bats. The old kitchen was full of taxidermy.

Not abandoned old taxidermy...current taxidermy, in various states of finish.

There was a closet with stacks of dead birds, tools, woodworking tools and glass for the display cases, etc. I noped out of there in a hurry. I took my brother there later because he didn't believe me...so I have a witness.

ruf---ingkidding

I was 13 and on a week long camping trip. There were two adults and five other kids my age. One night we had spent all day kayaking and got caught in a deluge that threw off our whole schedule for the day. We couldn't quite make it to the location where we were supposed set up camp for the night before sunset so we just settled a few meters off of the river. We were so exhausted that the adults didn't even want to build a fire. Since we didn't have much light and it was hot they told us that we didn't have to build our shelters we could just lay out in our sleeping bags.

Everyone put their sleeping bags near a clearing that was created by a fell tree. But I saw the hole created by the roots and thought that there were possible creepy crawlies living in it. So I set my sleeping bag a little further back about four meters away from the clearing. I woke up a few hours later to these rapid clicking sounds and sniffing. (Thanks to the Internet I later identified it as deer noises.) There were a bunch of them. The clicking grew closer and was surrounded me on all sides. I had my flashlight but I didn't want to shine it because I was afraid to scare the deer/creatures because I thought they would trample me.

The most vocal deer then stepped on my sleeping bag and eventually sat down on it. I could hear the other deer get comfortable too. After a while I allow myself to peak out (not wearing my glasses) and I see maybe 15 deer/creatures all just watching the other campers. After several hours I fell asleep and woke back up as they were leaving at sunrise.

It was wholesome/creepy.

KOmouse

Three of us were sitting around a campfire on a bluff overlooking Bell Lake in Killarney Provincial Park, when suddenly there was a blinding flash that lit up the entire sky. We were stunned. After several moments of silence, one guy said, "everyone check your watches." To this day, none of us have any idea what that flash was, but we all saw it, and it freaked us out pretty good.

lvbuckeye27

So, I rode my horse the ~2 miles through the deep woods to get to this house, which is itself probably 1000 feet from a lonely gravel road that cuts through the forest. It is very secluded and almost creepy. The house is about 3 miles from a paved road.

I am less brave than I used to be, so when I entered the house I felt out-of-place and slightly scared. But I used my cell phone light to explore the rooms anyway. A lot was just as I remembered, but right as I was about to leave, I found a calf skeleton in the corner of the entry room.

I have no idea how this calf got shut up inside the building. The doors were firmly shut when I approached it. Also, the screen door opened one way, while the actual door opened the other, so that it was impossible for both to be open at once for some creature to accidentally wander in. Furthermore, the nearest cow pastures are a good bit away from the house.

I left the abandoned house with the image in my head of some deviant cruelly trapping a calf in there for sick purposes.

scoldsbridle

This happened once while camping with my then-fiance and a friend of ours. Camped out in the woods in the middle of nowhere on a hot July day. Night came, and it was a full moon so around midnight we decided we'd take a hike around for fun. We basically hiked a trail for a bit and then turned around and hiked it back to the campsite. When we were almost back, we saw a McDonalds cup sitting at the edge of the path. I found this strange as I didn't see the bright red and yellow container when we began the venture, but whatever. However, my buddy decided to open the cup up and found ice cubes at the bottom.

That day was easily 90+F and at night it was still in the high 70's, so that ice would not have lasted long. Somebody was definitely out there by us and we never found another sign of them. No sound of a car, walking or rustling - nothing.

We decided to pack up and go home that night.

alrashid2

More mysterious than creepy. We were camping in Montana near Yellowstone park in a small campground. It was the off season and there were maybe 5 other people there, including a couple 3-4 spots down who had a large dog with them in their RV. I walked by and the dog was friendly so I petted it and talked to it and went on my way.

Later that night I am sitting watching the sun set and reading on my Kindle when a cold nose bumps up under my arm, like dog does when it wants attention. I figured it was the dog and started scratching its head. Before i could look around, my friend came around the corner and froze with a look of fright on his face. I was scratching the head of a pretty big grey wolf. I had no idea what to do, I didnt want to keep touching it but I didnt want to stop and piss it off either. I scratched for maybe 5-10 more seconds and it just looked at me like "Thanks, bro" and walked off into the woods. We went to a hotel that night...

Northsidebill1

I live in the only house down a country road, everything else is pasture land and National Forest for several miles.

About 3am, my three large dogs go absolutely nuts barking, which sends my husband and i flying out of bed to check on our livestock, assuming coyotes were in the yard.

Before we could even get our shoes on, we hear muttering on our front porch. He grabs his rifle and whoever it is starts knocking on the door, with no real urgency but more like a casual visitor. I had my cellphone already dialing the cops, and my husband slid up to the peephole. A woman right around her late 20s-early 30s was standing outside, patiently waiting a few minutes and gently knocking on the door, not fidgeting or nervous, not being aggressive.

My husband said, "Ma'am, the cops are on the way. If you need help, they'll be here in just a few minutes and you're welcome to sit on the swing right there and wait on them, but if there's anyone with you, we are armed in here and will not hesitate to shoot if anyone tries getting into this house."

He said she kind of smiled, not creepy but like she was glad her knocking woke someone up. "That's okay, sir-i just wanted to let you know the thing in the woods is coming, and he'll be here soon. Good luck."

He said she turned around and walked down the driveway like she hadn't a care in the world. The cops looked all over the place and couldn't find her. It's a ten minute drive to our driveway from the main road, with no houses until you get into town, another 20 minutes away. Freaked me out for weeks.

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H/T: Reddit