#Area/Woods #Person/Stranger #Animal/Dog #Location/Canada/Ontario #Activity/Hunting

Goodnight

I was out hunting in Northern Ontario, no roads (except for a logging roads) within 130 km. I was late on the bear season so no one was out hunting in my quadrant. I found a nice camp site along side a river and hunted from there. On the second day of my hunt, I came across the bear tracks. I tracked it for about two hours, and then turned around.

This is when shit got very fuckin' weird. I always track on one side of the tracks and return on the other. About 200 meters down the east side of the tracks, I ran into another human footprint, which disappeared across the trail and into the woods on the west. My dog (czech wolfdog) didn't seem to smell anything, so I returned to camp with minimal concern.

I got back to camp at around 7:30 at night, made a quick dinner and had a cigar by the camp. At around 12:00 I heard a snap of a branch. After hunting for 20 years, only two things snap branches, bears and humans. I grabbed my firearm and a flashlight and went out after the noise. Every 100 yards, I would scan with the flashlight. My dog freaked, started growling and advancing into the woods slowly, I pulled back on my leash to slow his advance and switched on my flashlight. I saw a pair of eyes looking right back at me, it stared for about five seconds and disappeared into the woods. On the walk back i felt anxious, scared, and uncomfortable i could feel someone watching me.

The next night, the same thing happened. My dog went wild, like I have never seen him. He was whimpering, growling, and clearly very anxious. At this point, I was terrified. I didn't go hunting that day and didn't close my eyes once.

That night, I sat up with my flashlight, constantly scanning the tree line. I guess I dozed off at around 1 and woke again at 3, I was sweating, confused, and very scared. I scanned the forest, and just barely visible about 25 yards in the forest there was a man and his dog.

He was looking right back at me. I started to approach him, shouting to him. I got within 10 feet, he looked awfully disheveled and stank. The worst part was that he just stared and smiled his eyes showed zero emotion and whispered "Good night".

I ran back to my tent, packed it into my pack and loaded it onto the trailer of the atv and drove out of there.

Edit: I didn't realize that this wasn't going to get buried. I would have spent more time on the story, and not rushed it. I left out the very last part were I had to look for my keys to the car for a solid 25 minutes at 4 in the morning.

Thanks for the compliments on the story! it was definitely a terrifying point in my life.