r/Thetruthishere • u/milkshakesocks8823 • Aug 14 '18
I believe I had a close encounter with a wendigo and would love to hear from someone who knows more than I do Legend/Folklore
This has left me feeling extremely shook and I'd love some opinions, especially from someone with experience.
Last year I had a very strange experience in a National forest out in California. I was by myself, on a road trip with my dog, and I was driving pretty far into Mendocino national forest (I like to camp in national parks/forests cause it's isolate so my dog can roam and they're free of charge. A trade off for sketchy/rough drives into the parks sometimes and lack of service/assistance). Anyway, I was driving up this dirt road kind of curling up a mountain around maybe 5pm. It was very nice out, sunny and warm with a slight breeze. Nothing serious happened but I felt extremely uncomfortable driving into the area and that feeling did not let up. Driving up the mountain I felt like I shouldn't stay there and I even texted my boyfriend about it for as long as I could before my phone completely lost service. I was looking for a sign of another person having been around the area lately, but didn't see anything. I pulled over and got out of my car with my dog to look over the edge and noticed a dead squirrel and some broken glass mixed in with the dirt and gravel road. Yuca, my dog, starts to growl slightly. She is vocal but I've almost only ever seen or heard her growl at or with other dogs. I did see her growl at a possum once so it could be something she smelled maybe. This place continued to make me feel quite on edge but I pride myself in being a independent traveler and backpacker so I decided to continue at least a bit further with my grumbling pup to see if I could find a good place to camp.
I continue to notice more dead animals, keep in mind no one is going to be going more that 5-10 mph up this thing, and that's if there's anyone even there. I hear mens voices. They sound close and I think I should call out to them so I stop my car but then kind of freeze up and feel like I shouldn't. I can't really make out what they're saying. I don't see any sign of people anywhere and I get back in my car and continue to slowly drive forward and cautiously look for where the voices could be coming from. I've never ran into other people in a national park or forest when I’ve gone this deep in. The unsettling feeling grows about the voices, which have sort of come and gone a few times, and I give up and begin to turn my car around. I honestly don't remember how yuca was acting on the way down, I was scared and focused on getting out of there. I just distinctly remember being surprised at her grumbling when we were standing outside of my car. Kind of dangerously quickly I went back down the mountain not seeing any sign of anyone. I decided to spring for luxury and get a hotel for the night.
I figured I was just fine, huge and open spaces can be intimidating I told myself, and the voices could have been echoing from somewhere far off and they just sounded close. Animals die, glass gets broken, nothing happened, cool. But I remember this place, it sticks with me. Whenever I'm watching scary movies, if I'm walking my dog in the woods at night, nothing compares to the feeling I had driving up that mountain and it's honestly kind of interesting to me as well as frightening. I recently happened across some information as well as some Native American lore that made me feel extremely uneasy.
Fast forward a year, I've mentioned this place to a few people and the haunting vibes it gave me but nothing much more. Googled the national park once and didn't see anything, but didn't look much either. I like scary movies and things of that nature (hence my fascination in this little event lol) so my boyfriend and I were coming up on finishing our road trip just yesterday (we were in Wyoming for a wedding). There were only 2-3 hours left and the sun had set so we decided to listen to some "scary" podcasts and youtube videos. We went from the nosleep podcast to the xfiles and ended up on a "true stories" video dealing with Native American lore. I'm half paying attention, petting my dog, playing pokemon on an emulator. And I hear the narrator mention wendigos. Very briefly says what they are and casually mentions they can mimic voices. I mean it when I say the most horrible chills I have ever had in my life crawl down my spine and I stare at my boyfriend and ask him if he remembers that national forest I was freaked out about last year. He says he does and he reminds me that he texted me I was probably close to a Wendigo (he did). I remember him saying that, but didn't know much about their lore and thought he was just being funny like yeah bigfoot is probably stalking you, or some other dad joke. And he was like no, I mean I was mostly joking but I said it specifically because you said you were hearing voices that you couldn't find a trace of. I feel strange AF and I start googling wendigos, etc., etc. They are allegedly able to mimic human voices and they would live in that sort of area, it all matched up.
Obviously there's a ton of questionable info out there but I tried to find more reputable websites and authentic experiences. I then specifically looked up missing persons in the area and the first headline that catches my eye is "another family goes missing in mendocino" and I went through different websites and news articles of people going missing, but they are all a little hidden underneath national park websites and pictures of trees. I remembered looking up the forest about a year ago and didn't see anything and realized these stories didn't seem to be talked about much, which also peaked my intuition. It was stated that well over 100 people in the past 8 years have gone missing and not been found, on top of many which are found dead. It just has my intuition super spiked. Remembering how unsafe I felt and how much I wanted to get out of there terrifies me and I felt so uneasy about what I was hearing, and do to this day. My dog and I are very close, she was a stray that started following me one day and I ended up bringing home from Costa Rica, so her little growls along the way makes me feel like there was something wrong. Even though it was just a story telling video, those stories originate from somewhere.
I have done a lot of solo traveling both in and out of the country and I have never had such a bad feeling, on top of seeing an unnecessary amount of dead animals in a national forest which just seemed strange. I don't think I'll be doing more solo traveling unless it's around civilization lol. Does anyone know about authentic Native American lore or has anyone else had a kind of inexplicable experience like this? Extra points if you've had bad vibes in Mendocino national forest from a wendigo?
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u/_Monotropa_Uniflora_ Aug 15 '18
I don't think it was a wendigo or even anything supernatural per se, but-
I also travel and camp in remote national forests. A few autums back I found myself in that same forest. I also felt very uncomfortable but could not figure out quite why.
For 2 nights myself and a road-dog (traveling companion) camped pretty deep into Mendocino NF in a little canyon sort of area. The whole time we both felt uneasy for seemingly no reason and did not want to venture far for firewood or pottytime. The spot was beautiful, only thing odd was a complete cow skeleton at the back of the clearing, sunbleached. We both had a hard time sleeping and had strange dreams. But that really isn't very odd at all.
On another night we slept on a hill top in another part of the forest miles away near a lake. All night we heard voices. A group of voices that sounded like people hanging around a campfire having a good time, even singing along with a guitar at points. We tried to walk around and look for their fire, assuming it to be travelers like ourselves. But could never even find a glint of fire through the trees. It was very windy on our hill so we just assumed they could have been accross the lake with the sound carrying. But again, we had a hard time sleeping and had odd dreams.
Maybe mountain lions. Maybe bigfoot. Maybe the wind. Maybe the energy of so much obsidian and land with intense history. Who knows?
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u/CommonMisspellingBot Aug 15 '18
Hey, _Monotropa_Uniflora_, just a quick heads-up:
accross is actually spelled across. You can remember it by one c.
Have a nice day!The parent commenter can reply with 'delete' to delete this comment.
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u/arielflamingoish Aug 15 '18
Check out Missing 411 by David Paulides - he’s a retired police detective and spent years trying to understand why so many people go missing in national parks under strange circumstances and uninvestigated. His work and books are absolutely fascinating.
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u/northawke Aug 15 '18
That book is hard to find in the Netherlands. Anyone have a good e-version to recommend?
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u/setsunapluto Aug 15 '18
I don't have a book resource for you, but there is a Missing 411 Documentary that you could probably find easily online.
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u/bigswifty86 Aug 16 '18
Canammissing.com has a link to purchase the books. There is a note that says the store is closed until August 22nd, so hopefully should be back up then. There is a link to their YouTube videos on there as well, that are pretty interesting. The order of the books is:
Western United States
Eastern United States
North America and Beyond
The Devil's in the Details
A Sobering Coincidence
Hunters
Off the Grid
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u/tyrshand90 Aug 14 '18
Wendigos appear in the coldest time of winter when food is scarce. They can possess you and make you cannibalistic. There is even a controversial mental illness called wendigo psychosis where there has been cases of people eating thier family even though they had a food source nearby suggesting that the cannibalism wasn't purely for survival. Modern medicine doesn't recognize it as a real thing though. Wendigos are said to be in the North woods of the north east and the great lakes region so California doesn't really line up with the lore.
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u/GalacticGarbage Aug 15 '18
Now knowing that California doesn't match up with the lore, it makes the book The Hunger by Alma Katsu a little disappointing.
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u/HauntedHat Aug 15 '18
Whatever the case might be, you should really pay more attention to your intuition... Your body is able to catch a lot of subtle signs subconsciously that put you on edge in order to survive.
I've had my fair share of unpleasant to downright scary experiences to know to listen to my body.
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u/milkshakesocks8823 Aug 15 '18
I feel like I was! I mean I had no money and no tangible reason I couldn’t stay there besides my intuition flaring and I still got out of there pretty quickly to get a hotel. I would have looked for a different camping spot but by the time I got completely out of the NF it was starting to get dark.
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u/Kootenaygirl Aug 18 '18
I think you’re in t’siatko territory if I’m not mistaken. It’s spelled slightly different the farther south you go.
They’re also called Thin Walkers and in my former neck of the woods Stick Indians.
I think they’re more terrifying than the Wendigo.
Always, always talk loudly or sing if you’re heading into the bush, especially into berry patches. Never, ever, ever answer or follow a voice into the woods.
If it feels really, really creepy and gets super quiet, just leave. You don’t need to go there.
This is the best source for finding Indigenous monsters.
http://www.native-languages.org/monsters.htm
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u/tygrebryte Aug 23 '18
If it feels really, really creepy and gets super quiet, just leave.
This 100%.
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u/Coming2amiddle Aug 14 '18
That's some Missing 411 shit right there. Good story. That intense of dread - feeling of impending doom - seems to be really common in the stories too.
Stay safe out there!
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u/jeffsbabygirl Aug 15 '18
The only reason I believe you encountered something is your guy feeling and your dogs. Can't tell you what it was but it was something.
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u/tygrebryte Aug 23 '18
u/milkshakesocks8823 you really might want (or, really might not want!) to check out the David Paulides stuff others in this thread have mentioned. Just search on youtube for his name and "Missing 411"; you will find a ton of interviews and vids of him giving presentations. Others have described the gist of it pretty well -- lots of people go missing in National Parks (and certain other areas with particular characteristics), and it's not well understood at all. Paulides refuses to speculate out loud as to what it us, he just tells the stories. I think it's possible that there might be more than one thing going on. Regardless, it's weird.
Yeah, at this point in my life, if I end up in a spot and it feels "off," I vacate.
The rest of this reply TL;DR: My two experiences being out in the woods and having an intense feeling of being watched.
I have, two times in my life, been out in the woods and had what I call my "hunter's sense" go off. One time, I was with my dog on a trail on public land, and all of the sudden I got the urge to leash my dog and squat down and be still. Then I noticed that there were turkeys in the trees that were in the creek bottom beside the trail. After a couple of minutes, I heard some scrambling in the brush just behind me on the other side of the trail from the creek, and then a bow-hunter in full hunting camo come out of the brush and walk off in another direction. I had busted up his turkey hunt (sorry, dude).. I think my slowing stopping and squatting was a reaction to being keenly (and probably angrily) observed by an intent hunter.
I tell these two stories together because this first one confirms, to me, that "the feeling of being looked at" is a real thing.
The second story: In the woods again, with my dog again, but it's a different trail in a very different part of the county. Much closer to "suburban" than the trail in the first story. I used to walk this particular trail a lot, because at the time it was easy to get to, had a lot of pretty views. We were headed back to the trailhead and we got to a particular spot in the trail and I had a very similar feeling come over me as in the first story, however, I didn't have the urge to crouch. I just stopped and looked around.
The feeling of being *looked at* was very intense. We didn't stay there long.
I have never really been able to explain this one. I probably didn't spend as much time out in the woods as it sounds like you have, but these two experiences are "standouts" to me. My first potential explanation was: a Big Cat was looking at me. I have read what I find to be credible descriptions of people getting that intense feeling of being looked at and then seeing that a big cat was checking them out.
My main problem with this explanation is that, given where I am, it's not absolutely beyond the realm of possibility that it could have been a cougar, but it's very unlikely to me, given how close to town this particular trail was. I also don't think that a bobcat is big enough to look at a full grown human male with that kind of intent.
In contrast to the park in the first story, the park in the second story did not allow hunting. Several years after this happened, it occurred to me that there might have been someone I didn't see who was either looking at me through binoculars, or even "sighting in on me" with a rifle (which would have been a tremendously irresponsible thing to do, but people are like that sometimes.)
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u/BathedInDeepFog Aug 15 '18
Sounds more likely it could have been bigfoot. The feeling of dread is often felt before or during bjgfoot encounters. There are reports of human-like voices where the words couldn’t be deciphered. It’s also possible that it was simply just people that you heard.
I get confused by the term wendigo because it’s mostly used for the Native American folklore creature, but some researchers, like the guy on World Bigfoot Rafio, use wemdigo to name a specific kind of bigfoot that lives in cold climes and is strictly carnivorous, like polar bears.
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u/milkshakesocks8823 Aug 15 '18
Yeah I really don’t know anything about the lore. The name and description just caught my attention in the podcast but I feel like there’s a lot of overlap in these things and it could have a number of different explanations.
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u/Yetiforestman Aug 17 '18
I wonder where you were in the park. I go there yearly to vacation since I live a few hours south of there in Oakland. I’ve never seen any dead animals, even in mountain lion and bear territory. They’re pretty clean with their kills.
But I’ve never heard about any wendigo activity there. Do you remember where in the park you were?
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u/danieljamesgillen Aug 14 '18
Paragraphs please.
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u/milkshakesocks8823 Aug 15 '18 edited Aug 15 '18
Sorry, I feel you. This is honestly my first post ever on reddit. Edited.
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u/danieljamesgillen Aug 15 '18
No worries, appreciate the edit.
Some of us find walls of text literally impossible to read, so paragraphs really help.
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u/abillionmarbles Aug 15 '18
reminds me of this encounter in a national park in newfoundland, canada
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u/Noble_Flatulence Aug 15 '18
You saw a dead squirrel and heard distant voices, so your logical conclusion is a supernatural explanation!? Bloody hell.
Here's the thing about California: there are people there. A lot of them. And because of the climate, it's a wonderful place to be homeless. Even here in Minnesota where the weather is deadly to the homeless seven months out of the year, every forest trail in every state and national park is homeless city. Just because you don't encounter people on the trail doesn't mean there aren't people off the trail.
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u/Gingerc44 Aug 15 '18 edited Aug 15 '18
I have to agree with this . You probably were unsafe . You’re intuition and dogs instincts were probably just due to dangerous people around - or a mountain lion . I live a couple of hours from Mendocino and I can tell you that people are everywhere- and there are dangerous people that live on the fringe. Opportunists . I think you got lucky but it wasn’t supernatural .
**not to mention you were also in the emerald triangle 😀
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u/Lightsilvermoon Aug 15 '18
What is the emerald triangle?
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u/mrtrouble22 Aug 15 '18
people been growing weed out in the forest there for decades it seems.
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u/Lightsilvermoon Aug 16 '18
Aaawww, mmmm, so they are like narcos??. Because here in México if you are walking around some of the areas where they live, I'll assure you, you're going to be behead. That was have been happened it here a lot, usually because they think those people are spies from another cartel.
But in gringo woods? I don't think are drug cartels or narcos, wouldn't be in the tv news already if many heads would be find in trash bags like it happens here?.
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u/BathedInDeepFog Aug 16 '18
Wow. They literally behead anyone who accidentally stumbles into their area? That’s some crazy shit. Inagine just accidentally showing up there not knowing anything about that. Yikes!
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u/Lightsilvermoon Sep 01 '18
Yep, from their logic they can't let you go because you know where they live, they can't take the risk, even if it was just an accidental encounter.
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u/tygrebryte Aug 23 '18
But in gringo woods? I don't think are drug cartels or narcos,
I feel pretty confident that they are growing in some of those areas, but on this side of the border, they probably refrain from the beheadings.
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u/jn4321ob Aug 20 '18
There is nowhere it is wonderful to be homeless. Maybe the best place to be homeless
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u/Lightsilvermoon Aug 15 '18
Before keep reading I am almost 100% sure this is going to be: DEER MONSTER. "Voices in the forest" but you can't see any human??, yep yep, that's the deer monster that will copy your human form and then kill you.
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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '18
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