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What strange things have you seen in the woods or desert?

That whole area is on a huge natural gas field; oil and gas exploratory rigs came and went frequently. We had reckoned that the house, as well as some surrounding cutovers, were going to be prepared for a drilling rig. Or UFO's.
 
AMproducts said:
Some years ago (geeze... 12+ or so) I was working graveyard so I was often up at weird hours with nothing to do. One night I decided to drive out to the Hawes Bunker Complex, that used to be located off HWY 58, about 18 mi east of Kramer Junction. I had never been there before, but had a good idea where it was, I think I left around 3am or so, and since I was living in Pasadena at the time, I think I decided to take the "back way" up, which meant route 2, to angeles forest hwy, then up to 14, and eventually 58 (btw, this is the most terrible way to get there, I think it took 4 hours).

Anyways, I got there just after daybreak, looked around the site, exploring things, and eventually started to go inside. As usual, people had started fires inside, and the walls were covered in black soot, going from the warm desert morning inside even with a good flashlight really limited visibility. Same kinda story, heard weird sounds, and since I was alone I didn't want to invest a lot of time stumbling around in the dark, especially in the middle of nowhere desert.

I did eventually get back to visit the site with friends a few times before the government came in and bulldozed the site, it was a neat place, not as extensive as you would think a government communications bunker would be.
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That sounds awesome. I'm always fascinated by photos and stories of people exploring old and abandoned structures. Have any pics?

SIGAHOLIC said:
Not something I saw or found, but plenty weird nonetheless!

Back in the early '70's, my wife and I joined a REI backpacking lake cleanup in the Three Sisters Wilderness. All went well, the lake got cleaned and we all had a great time! Hiked back to the trail head and found out from the bus driver that two outlets up the highway, about a mile and 1/4, an axe murderer had killed two young women in they're tent! The guy had run over the tent and finished the job by hacking them up with his axe!
I was unarmed on this trip, but I never went to the woods again without a 6" .357 mag.
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Great choice for a woods gun. Between creatures of the two legged and four legged kinds, I never go out unarmed either.

westernjeep401 said:
As kids, my cousin and I both had Honda 3-wheelers; a 200 Big Red and a 250X (or something like that). Used to ride them dawn till dusk.

He lived wayyyy out in the sticks of North LA, right near the AR border. We decided to ride out to the swamp, which must've been 20 miles away via logging paths, high-lines, and deer trails. Was a creepy place but uneventful.

That's about it.

LOL, but on the way back, I ran out of gas, and switched to reserve. Looking to the right (had made it back to a Parish road at that point), there was this old house about 100 yards away. We decided to take a break and investigate it; under the carport was a 1959 Ford Custom 2-door sedan, black, with LA plates that had 1977 registration on them (this was like 1984). It had a 223 six with column shift 3-speed manual tranny. Anyway, it was clear that the place was unoccupied. My cousin said a very old man lived there, but had not been seen in several years. We knocked, and opened the door after a few minutes of waiting. He called out "hello" several times, only to be greeted with a slight echo. You see, the house was fully furnished, but was somewhat musty from a few leaks that had developed in the roof. There was rotten food in the fridge, dishes in the cupboard, and clothes in the closet. A few dishes were in a disused sink. It just looked as if someone stopped living there, and time was taking the place and car back to the earth. Both of us got very cold chills, like we were being watched or something, and at almost the same time sprinted out the door, back to the road and ATV's. As we sat on them, we looked back at the house and just got this feeling it was "looking" back at us.

The next summer, we went back there. The house and car were gone. Just a grassy clearing was all that was left.
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SKrueger said:
Gone!! you sure you weren't on a different knoll or something? Cuz dude gone is just creepy :confused::confused:
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That reminds me of houses in Fallout New Vegas or something. The fact that the house was gone definitely raises the creepy factor. Lots of great memories exploring the deserts of eastern Oregon via 3-wheeler. I was wondering how you had that much range :D

SIGAHOLIC said:
In the mid '80's a coworker and I were varmint hunting at China Hat and Newberry Crater in Central OR. We were taking a break, parked in some shade, when a small plane slowly flew over, did a slow circle then flew straight and low, right over us, parallel to the road! About 300 meters from us big, stuffed trash bags were dropped from the aircraft! IIRC, three bags! We skyed on out of there, reported it to the ranger at Paulina Lake, then went on with our hunt! We never heard back from the LEO's, but I'm guessing that the smugglers were out of there almost as fast as we were! I don't know how heavily armed they were, but we had enough weaponry to fight a small war! We also had young family's that needed us, so.......:)
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Running into grow ops is a very real danger, especially here in Oregon. My hope is that as marijuana legalization spreads eventually it won't be worth it.
 
AMproducts said:
You never learn nothing if everything always goes to plan.
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Absolutely. Those sort of trips always make for the best stories too.

Two buddies and I left to shoot on a mountain around 9am. Got there and there was about 8 inches of snow but we made it to our location in my FJ80. Pack up to leave around noon and the Tundra that was shooting in the same pit as us is stuck good. Come to find out it's 2WD and they really shouldn't have been there. Neither of us have any recovery gear, no winch, no hi-lift. No room to get around them (or I'd have given them a ride into town). After spending hours trying to get them unstuck one of them decides to hike a mile to see if he can get cell coverage, which he does, and calls a buddy to come help. Guy shows up with in a Cherokee with bald mud tires and a length of 1" rope! We end up getting them unstuck but in the process my FJ80 slides into the 18" of deep, soft snow to the side of the road -- now we're stuck! One of them gives me a ride into town and I call my brother, who eventually shows up in his truck with a winch. By the time we finally got home it was after midnight! At least a few times we thought we were going to be spending the night up there, waiting for other shooters to arrive in the morning (popular spot). Thankfully I equip the FJ80 with everything we'd need for a few days in that very situation, so it wouldn't have been too bad.
 
A shooting buddy and I got stranded in the desert one time due to a malfunctioning relay in my old Ford and the resulting dead battery. We had found a new place to shoot! This place was a bit remote, and the "almost road" leading to it probably wouldn't even qualify as "primitive". It was 105*-110* out there that day because desert + summer = heat. I left my buddy there with the guns, EZ-Up and cooler, but no AC without a running truck. He wasn't too happy about it, but what are you gonna do? LOL.

My "hike" consisted of a nice walk around the end of an outdoor shooting range. The range was the closest "civilization" I was going to find, and obviously the only hope of easy "help" in that situation. The shortest walking distance would have been to walk straight to the range. Unfortunately, my truck was at the "target end" of the range..... but about 5 miles due east - and straight down range. It was a Saturday, so I knew there would be plenty of people there, I just didn't want to get shot in the process.

So I walked about a full mile South first, before heading West to what I thought would be the firing line, before proceeding North again. As I am heading West, I came across some fairly fresh tire tracks that were not on any trail or road. Umm, OK. It's open desert. Nothing odd about that. People drive across the desert all the time. Then I spot what looked like disturbed earth and rocks, with some dried up desert plants and cactus carcasses laid on top. Uhhh, OK. Somebody probably came out here and stole a full grown Saguaro cactus or something, because the tracks drove away from there too.

So I keep trucking across the desert on my "hike". By now I am hearing the gunfire from the range fairly loudly, so I am making progress. As I'm maintaining my brisk pace, I start to wonder about that disturbed earth.....

Why did somebody pile stuff on top of where they dug it up?
By now I am beginning to wonder if it was a dead body buried out there?
Or maybe a weapons cache?

I keep walking until I think I am at the distance West, then turn North and yep, about a mile and there are a bunch of guys shooting away! As luck would have it, I found a decent soul to drive the 20 mile route to get back to my truck by roads and trails, because nobody is going to be able to drive the route I just walked! We get the truck started, I thank my new "friend", and we crawl our way back to paved roads. It's freaking hot out there. I am hot, hungry and I am ready to call it a day.

I never reported it to the Sheriff or went back to just look or check it out. I could probably get pretty close to pinpointing the location on a map. There's no telling if it was just covering up the theft of a cactus, or if it was in fact a dead body or weapons cache. I wasn't going to waste my time to find out or waste anybody else's time on a "what if" scenario. If it is a body, digging it up won't bring them back anyway.

What would you guys have done?

D2F18F77-7443-4325-9F4F-0A14A82883AB.jpeg
 
MadDuner said:
A shooting buddy and I got stranded in the desert one time due to a malfunctioning relay in my old Ford and the resulting dead battery. We had found a new place to shoot! This place was a bit remote, and the "almost road" leading to it probably wouldn't even qualify as "primitive". It was 105*-110* out there that day because desert + summer = heat. I left my buddy there with the guns, EZ-Up and cooler, but no AC without a running truck. He wasn't too happy about it, but what are you gonna do? LOL.

My "hike" consisted of a nice walk around the end of an outdoor shooting range. The range was the closest "civilization" I was going to find, and obviously the only hope of easy "help" in that situation. The shortest walking distance would have been to walk straight to the range. Unfortunately, my truck was at the "target end" of the range..... but about 5 miles due east - and straight down range. It was a Saturday, so I knew there would be plenty of people there, I just didn't want to get shot in the process.

So I walked about a full mile South first, before heading West to what I thought would be the firing line, before proceeding North again. As I am heading West, I came across some fairly fresh tire tracks that were not on any trail or road. Umm, OK. It's open desert. Nothing odd about that. People drive across the desert all the time. Then I spot what looked like disturbed earth and rocks, with some dried up desert plants and cactus carcasses laid on top. Uhhh, OK. Somebody probably came out here and stole a full grown Saguaro cactus or something, because the tracks drove away from there too.

So I keep trucking across the desert on my "hike". By now I am hearing the gunfire from the range fairly loudly, so I am making progress. As I'm maintaining my brisk pace, I start to wonder about that disturbed earth.....

Why did somebody pile stuff on top of where they dug it up?
By now I am beginning to wonder if it was a dead body buried out there?
Or maybe a weapons cache?

I keep walking until I think I am at the distance West, then turn North and yep, about a mile and there are a bunch of guys shooting away! As luck would have it, I found a decent soul to drive the 20 mile route to get back to my truck by roads and trails, because nobody is going to be able to drive the route I just walked! We get the truck started, I thank my new "friend", and we crawl our way back to paved roads. It's freaking hot out there. I am hot, hungry and I am ready to call it a day.

I never reported it to the Sheriff or went back to just look or check it out. I could probably get pretty close to pinpointing the location on a map. There's no telling if it was just covering up the theft of a cactus, or if it was in fact a dead body or weapons cache. I wasn't going to waste my time to find out or waste anybody else's time on a "what if" scenario. If it is a body, digging it up won't bring them back anyway.

What would you guys have done?

View attachment 4789
Click to expand...

Grab a couple buddies and dig in the off chance that it's guns!
 
runeight said:
I can not discuss what I did or did not see.

All I can say it was a something on a piece of paper and it was 1968.
Click to expand...
MadDuner said:
Everything I ever signed had a 50 year clause.....
Time to spill the beans!
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If I were a betting man, I would bet that paper had a cosmic connection to Timothy Leary . . . . .

"The most important thing you do in your life is to die."
― Timothy Leary
 

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