Booze and Boos
Appearances
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
It would be me, the water, and that kind of quiet you only get in a place where the world's overlooked. So I spent Friday night packing up my gear, fishing rod, small tackle box, a couple of sandwiches, a water, and a .45 that I carry when I'm inside remote areas, and the rest of the standard odds and ends you would need.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
I'm not a prepper or anything, but I've done enough solo hikes to know you don't really mess around with this kind of stuff. You gotta plan for a good time, but prepare for a bad one. Saturday morning came. The sky was a kind of clear blue that practically begs you to hit the road. The drive out there was pretty uneventful, though.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
Just me rolling through backcountry highways, an old barn sliding past me, the occasional deer crossing sign, of course, and just that gnawing excitement that comes before a new adventure. I hit that last turnoff that Tyler had mentioned to me, a gravel pullout near the edge of a tree line. Sure enough, there was this old slope leading down.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
No signs, no markers, just the faint depression of a trail that had been there long before that road had. I parked and did a quick check on my gear and started down it. The sun was filtering through the pines and long fingers, that kind of dance on your skin and make you forget for a second that you're heading inside a place that doesn't really care if you come back from.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
There was also this certain thrill to it. Sure, being out there where people don't go anymore, where cell phone signal dies and the only sounds you hear are the wind and the birds. But that's the point, isn't it? No one to bother me, no one to bother with me either. The trail actually looked better than I expected it to.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
It was narrow, sure, but packed dirt and a few old switchbacks, and a constant downhill grade that lets you know you're leaving the familiar behind you. I moved at a steady pace, a heart light, a sharp. Somewhere below that creek waited for me like a secret. I'd been on the trail for maybe 45 minutes when I hit the first switchback. The descent was steady, but nothing too punishing.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
No need for trekking poles or careful footwork. Pines flanked on both sides, their needles softening the ground, the air nice and cool and clean. Birds chattered overhead and for a while, I let myself sink back into that rhythm, one bootfall after another, red tube gently knocking against my pack. Now, around two miles in, things changed.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
The trail curved left, hugging the side of the ridge when I came to a fork that I hadn't been warned about. Tyler's directions were usually pretty thorough, obsessive even. He'd mention no fork, no deviation, just follow that trail all the way down. But here it was, two narrow paths splitting at a patch of brush. One angled to the left, toward a strand of sycamores.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
The other veered to the right, steeper, rougher, cutting deeper into the canyon. I stood there for a moment, chewing on the inside of my cheek, scanning the treetops as if the right answer might be hanging there in front of me. The left trail looked like it just wrapped around the ridge, maybe skirted the canyon, but the right?
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
The right hand dropped hard, where the water should inevitably be, right? So, I took the right. And at first, it didn't feel like the right call. The trail narrowed but stayed visible, flanked by a rock outcropping and a cluster of oaks. But half a mile in, it began choking down. Shrubs and young saplings pressed in on me, branches clawing at my sleeves.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
I had to duck under deadfall twice, and the ground was getting wetter. Mud slick under my boots. I pushed on still, though, figuring it had to open up. And this is where I noticed the silence around me. At first, it was very subtle, just the fading of a bird song, the way my boots sounded sharp against the ground. But soon, it was like the woods had swallowed their own voice.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
I paused, hands on my hips, catching my breath. Something about that stillness just made the hairs on my neck rise up. I turned back to look up at the trail, and there I saw a figure, just barely peeking from behind a tree maybe 50 yards up. It was a blink, a flicker of movement there and gone. Dark hair, pale skin, maybe a woman. I froze. My heart began to hammer.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
Logic now kicked in, telling me, OK, it's just another hiker or maybe a local who knows the area better than you do. But that trail was a complete mess. Nobody in their right mind would come down this way unless they were as stubborn or dumb as I was. So I called out to them. Hey, are you are you all right back there? Of course, I got nothing in response, no reply, no sound of any footsteps.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
So I waited, counting in my head. One, two, three. But the woods in front of me remained dead quiet. My skin began to crawl at the thoughts. I shifted my pack and gave those woods another hard look and then turned back down trail. The trees began to thicken, crowding the path until the trail just straight up vanished. Ahead it was nothing but undergrowth and scattered boulders.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
Across this narrow ravine, I almost missed it, sat what looked like some kind of makeshift camp. A tarp hung low between two trees, a pile of firewood stacked under an oak, an old Coleman cooler tilted on its side. Someone was or had been living out here. My stomach turned to the thought, maybe I hadn't imagined that figure after all.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
Then, that's when I did hear footsteps, soft, almost thoughtfully, moving through the brush to my left. I froze, ears straining, feeling my throat go dry. Suddenly, I slid my phone from my pocket, not to call anybody, there wasn't any bars out here, but to use the screen like a mirror. I angled it over my shoulder, and there between the trees, maybe 30 feet back, was indeed a woman.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
I've always been a guy who needs to get outside to break away from the concrete and the noise and just let the woods remind me what quiet really feels like. I'm not really the type who does it for Instagram or tell people that I escaped to nature on the weekends. I need it like I need sleep.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
Thin, tangled hair, clothes dark and baggy. She wasn't walking toward me, at least not directly, but weaving through the trees, keeping pace, eyes flicking between the ground and where I stood. I didn't want to wait anymore. I turned and started back uphill, keeping my pace steady, pretending not to notice her. I didn't sprint, not yet, just moved fast enough to show that I was leaving the area.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
My hands were itching for that .45 on my hand, but drawing it now felt like this kind of escalation that I wasn't quite ready for. The trail then narrowed, pinched by this fallen tree, and I jumped it, gasping and tasting copper on my tongue. My mind spat half-formed plans out. Loser at the fork. Call out if I saw anybody. Fire a warning shot if I had to.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
The sounds behind me grew sharper, more desperate. Sticks snapping, breathless hitches. The slap of souls against dirt. Enough. I yanked that .45 from the holster and fired two shots into the air. The echo cracked through the trees like a whip, and for a heartbeat the woods froze as well. And then, through the hush, the unmistakable sound of retreat, footsteps pounding back the way they come.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
I spun around and caught a quick glimpse of her, the woman hair flying, arms pumping, bolting back down the trail like something feral, something that had been burned by the sound of that gun. I holstered the pistol, wiped sweat from my brow, and kept climbing. No stopping now. No stopping until I saw my truck. The climb out of that canyon felt twice as long on the way back.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
My legs were burning, lungs straining, every muscle wired tightly, waiting for the slap of feet to return behind me. But the woods had gone still again, almost too still, like they were watching, holding their own breath. I kept my head down and pushed up the trail, counting every bend and switchback, feeling sweat bead down my spine.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
I told myself over and over, do not look back, do not give her that satisfaction, do not show her that you're scared. But every now and again, I couldn't help it. I'd glance over my shoulder, eyes darting through the trees. Nothing, just shadows, just the wind teasing the undergrowth. When I hit that fork again, I barely slowed. I could see now how I'd been led wrong.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
The overgrown path that I had taken was just subtle enough to pull somebody in without really thinking. Tyler's directions had been clear. No forks, no turns. Which meant the path shouldn't have existed. And my gut twisted at that thought. The last mile was a complete blur. The sky was starting to dim and the sun was dipping behind the ridge.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
That's probably why I was all ears when my buddy Tyler told me about a creek on the backside of a ridge around two hours from where I live. According to him, no one went back there anymore. That old trail was basically erased when a service road was built a few years back, and people just forgot about it, which to me sounded like a gift from God.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
The woods were slipping into that blue-gray half-light that makes everything look wrong. Every sound around me was amplified. The snap of twigs, the hush of the wind, my own ragged breathing. I kept my hand near that gun, listening for anything and everything. By the time I saw the edge of the trees and the shape of my truck parked in that gravel turnout, it almost felt like a hallucination.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
I half stumbled up that last stretch, boots slipping and heart hammering like it wanted out of my chest. I threw my gear in the back seat without any kind of ceremony, climbed into the cab and locked the doors. I sat there for a moment, hands on the wheel, forehead resting against the rim, letting the tremors roll throughout me. My mouth was dry, tongue sticking to the roof.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
And when I finally started the engine, the sound nearly made me flinch. That drive home was dead quiet for two hours. No music, no podcast, just the hum of the tires and the relentless replay of what I'd seen. The woman's pale face between trees, the ragged clothes, the way she sprinted when those shots rang out. When I got home, I didn't even unpack.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
I walked inside, sat on the couch, and rang Tyler. He picked up on the second ring, voice easy and relaxed. Yo, how was it? Catch anything good? I swallowed. My throat was raw. Hey, quick question. Are you really sure about that trail? You said no forks, right? Yeah, man, dead straight. It's been a couple of years since I was down there, though, but it's a simple run. paused. Why?
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
Did you get turned around or something? There was a fork, though. About two miles in, took me off the main trail and down toward a ravine. I pinched the bridge of my nose. Tyler, are you sure you're remembering right? There was a pause on the line, just enough to raise every hair on my arm. Then his voice came back a little quieter. Dude, no, there's no fork. There's never been one.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
I closed my eyes and my skin felt cold all over, like the sweat I'd worked up on the climb had now frozen in place. I told him I'd fill him in later, hung up and just sat there in the dark, listening to my house settle, every creak and pop sounding a little too sharp for my own comfort. My mind would not let it go, the fork, the woman, the camp tucked away like an old scar in the landscape. Sleep.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
Sleep. Didn't come easy that night. And, I'm sure you can guess, I never went back to that canyon. Not once. Not even to check if the fork was actually still there. Tyler tried to talk me into another trip months later, but I turned him down straight up. Whatever's down there, or whoever's down there, can keep it.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
5 Scary DEEP WOODS Stories to Listen to While Outdoors | FT. Booze and Boos
So, Tyler is the kind of guy who's always brimming with half-baked plans and back pocket shortcuts, so I had him lay it all out for me. He promised if I followed his directions exactly, I'd end up at the kind of fishing hole people would daydream about. Deep pools, overhanging willows, shaded banks. No tourists, no hikers, no boot prints in the mud.