We Should’ve Never Camped Here… TRUE Scary Camping Stories Deep in the Woods
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What prompted the camping trip?
It was early September of 2006 when the idea first came up. A camping trip, just like the old days. I hadn't seen Ryan or Mike in nearly a year by then. Life had kind of scattered us. I was stuck working 60-hour weeks at a hotel front desk in Connecticut. Ryan was driving trucks for a moving company up in Maine. And Mike, well, he bounced between construction gigs and his girlfriend's couch. But when we all finally got on the phone one night, just shooting the crap like old times, the idea came up naturally. "'Dude, you remember Ledgeview?' Ryan asked. "'I did. I remembered it too well. We'd camped there once before in high school. Back then it was this kind of unofficial spot about two hours into the state forest.
No marked trail, no designated campsite, just a flat clearing near a stream where someone had made a fire ring out of rocks.' There was a steep ledge you had to climb over to get there, hence the name, and it was just far enough off the beaten path that you never saw anyone else. No rangers, no hikers, total privacy. The first time we went there, it was perfect.
What was the initial experience at Ledgeview?
We were seventeen and stupid and high as hell, and we stayed up all night throwing logs on the fire, eating canned ravioli, and passing around a cheap bottle of fireball like it was liquid gold. It felt like freedom. Like our own little world. So yeah, I remembered Ledgeview. And against better judgment, I said we should go back. We picked a weekend later that month. I requested time off and got approved surprisingly quick. Ryan said he could take a long weekend and Mike... Mike never had to ask anyone for time off. He just kind of showed up or didn't. We all agreed to pack light but smart this time. We weren't kids anymore. Sleeping pads, tarps, headlamps, good boots. I picked up some freeze-dried meals from REI and even a compact stove.
Ryan said he'd bring his dad's old weatherproof tent. Mike was on firewood duty. He had a bunch of pre-split logs in his garage. we met up in the morning just outside the forest and convoyed in with two cars it was about a forty five minute hike to the ledge maybe more now that we were older and a little heavier the trailhead was barely marked and we had to bushwhack for a bit but when we got there man it hit me that weird mix of nostalgia and something else not dread exactly just discomfort like walking into an old house that used to be full of people but now it's just empty and stale and quiet The fire ring was still there, blackened stones, half sunk into the dirt. We stomped down the overgrowth and laid down a fresh tarp, set the tent up, got a fire going, cracked a few beers.
What strange occurrences happened during the camping trip?
It didn't take long for it to feel normal again, familiar. The first night was great. We didn't stay up quite as late as we used to, but we had music, stories, dumb jokes. Mike brought a Bluetooth speaker and a handle of whiskey and got real emotional for a minute about how much he missed us. I remember laughing until my stomach hurt. It was the next morning that things felt… off. I woke up early, maybe 6 or 6.30, and crawled out of the tent to take a piss. The fire had burned out to cold ash, and there was this thick mist rolling over the ground. The air smelled weird, not smoky, not woodsy, just wrong, like stagnant water and metal. The stream nearby was barely moving. I remember crouching down to splash some on my face and thinking it looked too dark, like the water wasn't reflecting right. When I got back to the tent, Ryan was sitting up, rubbing his eyes. I told him about the mist and the water, and he just shrugged, said maybe a storm was rolling in. Mike didn't get up until almost 10.
He stumbled out of the tent looking like hell, pale, eyes sunken, said he hadn't slept well. That something kept waking him up. Said he kept hearing noises, like crunching footsteps outside the tent. But he assumed it was one of us. We told him we hadn't moved all night. That afternoon we decided to explore a bit like we used to. We hiked along the ridge past the stream and into a thicket of dead pine trees. The deeper we went, the quieter it got. I know people say that a lot in these kinds of stories. The woods got quiet. But this wasn't just birds or bugs going silent. It was everything. The kind of silence that presses on your eardrums and makes your heartbeat sound louder than it should.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What prompted the camping trip?
0:20–1:29
2
What was the initial experience at Ledgeview?
1:29–3:07
3
What strange occurrences happened during the camping trip?
3:07–6:04
4
What did they find in the woods?
6:04–11:32
5
What happened to Ryan?
11:32–18:02
6
Why did Mike disappear?
18:02–21:21
7
What is the significance of the photo?
21:21–30:29
8
What led to the final encounter?
30:29–1:13:28
Speakers
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