These are fun to read. Anyone have spooky or weird stories? Inside or out of the BWCA. I am an avid hunter and outdoorsman. I have a few:)

Look up Spooklight in southwest Missouri.

Had a buddy up near Orr, not BWCA but northern MN, walking out of the deer woods after hunting one evening. He suddenly heard something following him. Mind you its pitch black, before headlamps became real popular. He'd stop. It would stop. He'd make a couple steps. It would make a couple steps. Though he had a high powered rifle, the feeling wouldn't go away. He'd pick up the pace, and it would pick up the pace. Finally he turned and confronted it... was a rope that he was dragging from his backpack. Maybe not a spooky story in the end, but gave him the willies for a solid ten minutes. Makes me laugh every time I'm walking back from my deer stand.

THEGrandRapids: "Had a buddy up near Orr, not BWCA but northern MN, walking out of the deer woods after hunting one evening. He suddenly heard something following him. Mind you its pitch black, before headlamps became real popular. He'd stop. It would stop. He'd make a couple steps. It would make a couple steps. Though he had a high powered rifle, the feeling wouldn't go away. He'd pick up the pace, and it would pick up the pace. Finally he turned and confronted it... was a rope that he was dragging from his backpack. Maybe not a spooky story in the end, but gave him the willies for a solid ten minutes. Makes me laugh every time I'm walking back from my deer stand. "

Great one!

One creepy tale among the Chippewa people is that of the Baykok—giant skeletons with translucent skin and black eyes that turn red when they stalk prey. The Baykok are believed to have come into existence after a hunter was left to die in the cold after being trapped. The hunter was angry that his fellow tribesmen had failed to help him from his predicament, so he held onto his life force and transformed into the hulking skeleton which the Chippewa people have come to know.

The way to detect a Baykok’s approach is to listen for his taught skin stretching and his bones popping. He prefers to attack at night by putting people to sleep with invisible, poisoned arrows. Once the victim is unconscious, the Baykok slices open the victim with a knife, cuts out the liver, and replaces it with a stone. The Baykok gets a free meal while the victim, unable to remember the attack, slowly dies from the lack of their liver

THEGrandRapids: "Had a buddy up near Orr, not BWCA but northern MN, walking out of the deer woods after hunting one evening. He suddenly heard something following him. Mind you its pitch black, before headlamps became real popular. He'd stop. It would stop. He'd make a couple steps. It would make a couple steps. Though he had a high powered rifle, the feeling wouldn't go away. He'd pick up the pace, and it would pick up the pace. Finally he turned and confronted it... was a rope that he was dragging from his backpack. Maybe not a spooky story in the end, but gave him the willies for a solid ten minutes. Makes me laugh every time I'm walking back from my deer stand. "

Wonderful story! I will be sharing this one on next weeks trip.

3rd BW trip I had ever taken:
Canoe with two guys comes slowly up to our camp on Nina Moose Lake close to sunset and stops the canoe about 50 feet from our camp to ask how the fishing was. I tell him and then he just sits there with his partner for a minute, not saying anything. He had black eyes that just stared at me for that minute without saying a word. Then he slowly puts the paddle in the water and slowly paddled away. At the time, I thought, "Man, that guy was slow". It was days and weeks after that it began to creep me out. I was on that trip with my wife, and my brother who paddled as a solo.

bassnet: "Look up Spooklight in southwest Missouri."

Lived about 50 miles from this, can verify I have seen it on more than one occasion. Not really creepy, but was different for sure.

emptynest56: "3rd BW trip I had ever taken:
Canoe with two guys comes slowly up to our camp on Nina Moose Lake close to sunset and stops the canoe about 50 feet from our camp to ask how the fishing was. I tell him and then he just sits there with his partner for a minute, not saying anything. He had black eyes that just stared at me for that minute without saying a word. Then he slowly puts the paddle in the water and slowly paddled away. At the time, I thought, "Man, that guy was slow". It was days and weeks after that it began to creep me out. I was on that trip with my wife, and my brother who paddled as a solo."

Good one...

I was deer hunting about 6 years ago with 5 of my buddies on a friends property north of Palisade, MN. 2 of us decided to take the 4 wheelers to the thousands of acres of public land nearby. Its in the middle of nowhere, and nobody really hunts it. We wheeled in about 3 miles off a dirt road, and then split up with our climber deerstands. I found a nice spot after about an hour of scouting. Big rubs and scrapes all around.
It was dead calm that afternoon, and I watched a huge doe and her fawn walk by. I had a doe tag, but I can never shoot one with a fawn.
About 45 mins. before shooting time ended I heard a tree to my direct right fall down. Big tree! Kind of caught me off guard. 5 minutes later another fell slightly to my right, about 5 minutes later another fell in front of me. This was thick woods and they were just beyond my sight. This happened 2 more times with the last tree falling straight to my left.
Don't know what that was, but it was the first time I ever got down from my stand early, and used my headlamp walking out about a mile back to my wheeler.

Probably 30 plus years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday. Staying at a resort on Lake Vermillion and went fishing one morning by myself. Set up in a bay lined with reeds and was having a great time catching slab sunnies in shallow water near shore. At one point a Great Blue Heron flies in and stands in shallow water near the reeds. Well, I kept fishing, cuz the sunnies were biting. After 5-10 minutes, and maybe a cast or two that got a little close to him, the blue heron gets up and flies out towards the boat, around the back(I was in the front), turns and does a fly by at eye level, maybe 20 feet off the boat, then goes back and sits in shallow water in the bay again. Strange, but the sunnies were biting. Maybe 5-10 minutes later the blue heron gets up again and flies towards me again, around the back of the boat and turns to fly by at eye level but this time maybe only 10 feet out. Very strange but yup, the sunnies were still biting. Another 5 minutes or so and he gets up again and flies towards the boat but this time as he circles the back of the boat he pulls up and lands on the outboard motor. Sits there about 8-10 feet away and stares at me with his big beady eyes for what seemed like a long time, but was probably only 15-30 seconds. No camera, no witness, and I will admit that i definitely put one hand out towards the oar that was lying on the seats, just in case. Then all of a sudden he got up and flew away, never to be seen again. At that point it didn't matter that the sunnies were biting, I started up the motor and headed back to the cabin to tell my story. Unfortunately in my haste I left the stringer of nice sunnies in the water and lost half of them.

I can picture that heron on the motor staring at me vividly. If I could draw i would sketch a picture of it. Definitely one of the weirdest experiences I have had. Wonder what was on his mind...

That would be cool to see.

The mind at times plays "tricks" with our "mind". Silly me as a Monday morning QB nearly 95%+ of the time realizes this or that or a friend say something.. What gets me is the less than 5% of "situations" that really go unexplained. Who knows for sure- but some of this stuff is not explained -- at least without a Faith in "something".

lindylair: "Probably 30 plus years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday. Staying at a resort on Lake Vermillion and went fishing one morning by myself. Set up in a bay lined with reeds and was having a great time catching slab sunnies in shallow water near shore. At one point a Great Blue Heron flies in and stands in shallow water near the reeds. Well, I kept fishing, cuz the sunnies were biting. After 5-10 minutes, and maybe a cast or two that got a little close to him, the blue heron gets up and flies out towards the boat, around the back(I was in the front), turns and does a fly by at eye level, maybe 20 feet off the boat, then goes back and sits in shallow water in the bay again. Strange, but the sunnies were biting. Maybe 5-10 minutes later the blue heron gets up again and flies towards me again, around the back of the boat and turns to fly by at eye level but this time maybe only 10 feet out. Very strange but yup, the sunnies were still biting. Another 5 minutes or so and he gets up again and flies towards the boat but this time as he circles the back of the boat he pulls up and lands on the outboard motor. Sits there about 8-10 feet away and stares at me with his big beady eyes for what seemed like a long time, but was probably only 15-30 seconds. No camera, no witness, and I will admit that i definitely put one hand out towards the oar that was lying on the seats, just in case. Then all of a sudden he got up and flew away, never to be seen again. At that point it didn't matter that the sunnies were biting, I started up the motor and headed back to the cabin to tell my story. Unfortunately in my haste I left the stringer of nice sunnies in the water and lost half of them.


I can picture that heron on the motor staring at me vividly. If I could draw i would sketch a picture of it. Definitely one of the weirdest experiences I have had. Wonder what was on his mind..."

He wanted the sunnies on your stringer and sounds like he got em.

emptynest56: "3rd BW trip I had ever taken:
Canoe with two guys comes slowly up to our camp on Nina Moose Lake close to sunset and stops the canoe about 50 feet from our camp to ask how the fishing was. I tell him and then he just sits there with his partner for a minute, not saying anything. He had black eyes that just stared at me for that minute without saying a word. Then he slowly puts the paddle in the water and slowly paddled away. At the time, I thought, "Man, that guy was slow". It was days and weeks after that it began to creep me out. I was on that trip with my wife, and my brother who paddled as a solo."

Similar experience on Lake 3 a couple trips back. A couple of guys paddled over from a neighboring site and began fishing right off shore. No greetings, no asking if we minded, and not really appearing to be doing much fishing. Just kind of hanging out and looking the site over.

My wife was getting a bit nervous, as was I, since we were aware that there were several other guys at their site, and it was just us. I walked over, said 'hi - getting any bites?' and got a loud 'NO!' followed by a stare and silence. The guys continued poking around vicinity for about an hour before leaving.

Out of hundreds of interactions in the BW, this was the ONLY one I would call negative, but it was a BIG negative.

Gentlemen - if your going to approach an occupied site, especially when a lady is present - DO NOT ACT LIKE A DAMN CREEP.