Gopher Holes
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.