Strange Encounters

My strangest encounter happened last fall. I was camped at the Wedge in the San Rafael Swell, and a good friend and I were up late around the camp fire having a few drinks. We decided to hop on my ATV and ride a short distance to find a geocache that's designed to only be found at night (you start at the given coordinates and use a flashlight to follow reflectors through the trees until reaching the geocache). We arrived at the final location and signed the logbook in the cache container, and as we were putting it back we heard what sounded like a coyote call out very close to us--maybe only 100 feet away and at the top of a small hill. We were both, like, "WTF?", and my friend called out, "Better watch out, coyote, we've got a gun!" A voice called back matter-of-factly, "So do I." Our minds raced trying to comprehend what was happening, but flight won out over fight and we walked very quickly away from the voice and toward the ATV. Once we reached it I sped away as quickly as I could, and we didn't breathe a sigh of relief until we were back at camp and safe around the fire.

The next morning we went back to check the area out, and found some tire tracks leading off the gravel road into the junipers and pinyon pines, and two sets of footprints going a short distance to the top of that hill. We eventually reasoned that it was a couple of guys out calling coyotes late at night, and they were probably almost as surprised to encounter us as we were to hear them. The only worrying thing is that both parties were likely armed--I know I was. Good thing nobody really freaked out. :eek:
 
Okay, I'm jumping in on the Strange Encounters but more along the lines of the one John had at Lake Powell. Around 7-8 years ago, I was hiking the Boulder Mail Trail into Death Hollow. It was a hot day and we were nearing the end of the dry slickrock section as we descended into Death Hollow. There is one part of the descent where the trail is chiseled into the cliff with a nearly 800 foot drop to one side. As we were walking along it, I looked down to the river and saw what appeared to be two people laying on the sand next to the water. I squinted a little harder and I was pretty sure I was staring at two naked women!! We joked around but in reality, we all start hustling down that trail a bit faster than we normally would have.

We made it to the bottom in good time, hopped in the river and made our way to that first bend. As we rounded the corner, I could tell that they were still there, out on the sand, butt naked. And then.... then... I saw it. JUNK. It was two european DUDES who weren't the least bit shy about what they were doing. We talked to them briefly and made out way down canyon to our a campsite. :(

I think I'd still be traumatized were it not for the complete opposite experience last year at Deep Lake in The Wind Rivers. :D
 
This is not quite as Eurotic :D as Nick's but here it goes.
I had a weird encounter last August when I went car camping at Butterfly Lake in the Uinta's. We were sitting around the fire about midnight or so when I noticed this ball of light to the east. It was right by Hayden Peak and it was just hovering there moving side to side up and down for about 10 min or so then it shot off. Just before that I had asked my friend to verify that I wasn't dreaming and he saw it as well. Was it a UFO, who knows, but it was weird none the less. A little later that night I was in my tent and I saw a glow outside and this weird sound kinda like a quiet engine. Well I woke my friend up and asked him if he was hearing what I was and he said "yeah what about it"? I said "don't you think it's weird"? He's says "not unless you think two people going at it is weird". i was like who the hell sounds like an engine while having sex? Well, this girl did and the light was a lantern they left on the table. I've never heard anything like that and don't think I will again unless that same couple some how chooses a campsite near me.
 
I have another one...didn't happen on a trip though. Picture this: A blond, in hot pants, a tank top and high heels. Walking down the stars...when she turned around, it was my 80 year old neighbor, who is man! :speechless:
 
I was with a good friend, who at the time was the official photographer for a well-known govt. agency out of SLC. We hiked up from the wash to the Black Dragon petroglyphs to find a middle-aged couple hanging out. Nothing unusual, except the woman was topless. She acted as if it were perfectly normal to hang around with nothing on. My friend was kind of a serious guy, just a little uptight, older, and married, and I could see this bothered his sense of propriety, but we all had a nice conversation in spite of it. He told me later he didn't dare take his camera out, even though that was the main reason for us going up there in the first place. He was worried she would think he wanted a picture of her hanging out while he was on official business. :)

Another time I was camping way out in the Burr desert in my pickup camper. It was after dark and I was about to go to bed when it sounded like a bomb exploded right over the camper. It was really loud, and I dove outside kind of panicked. Nothing. I found out later a lot of people had seen a meteorite explode over that part of Utah.
 
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