I live in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Northeast Georgia
it's a beautiful area with hundreds of miles of national forest
some great state parks and a ton of fantastic camping places
unfortunately my hometown is also relatively poor
while there are some out of town residents from Atlanta and other places
a lot of people where I live are dirt poor
I do freelance work as a technical writer .. so I can do most of my work online
if I didn't have that going for me though I'd absolutely have to move somewhere else
it's one of those small towns that will rob you of your ability to accomplish anything in life if you get stuck there
without anything else going for you at least
excluding a handful of doctors lawyers in Georgia Power Company employees
the only employment in area is Walmart fast food
and maybe if you're lucky working at a grocery store
to the east of my town There's this massive National Forest
it's loaded with great camping sites
and lots of relatively unused hiking trails
I really enjoy going on them with my dog
but it can be a bit of an unnerving experience sometimes
it's a 10 mile drive out from town
and there's no cell phone service or homes for many miles
in the past there had been a lot of vehicle break-ins at the trailheads as well
it was so bad that the gravel parking lots glitter with bits of broken glass
from what I'm assuming were car windows
sometimes there were really Shifty people hanging around as well
or just driving around in the Forest roads
these were some really rough roads too
you'd see these beat up 500 dollars cars just barreling along roads meant for a 4x4
some of these people you see in those cars you can just tell at a glance that they're Shady
all that being said it was still my favorite place to Camp
you just had to be a bit careful
a few years ago
two of my friends and I decided to go play paintball in the National Forest
probably not legal
we decided to turn this paintball Expedition into a full-on camping trip
so we could play the next morning as well
after a pretty uneventful first day of shooting paintballs at one another
we drove a couple of miles to one of the more popular camping spots
unfortunately a church group or something had taken up every spot in the area
this was really the only spot we were familiar with
and it was getting quite late at this point
we had to keep on looking for another
we drove about an hour further into the woods
by this time it was really getting dark and we were getting really worried about finding a new spot
we all had GPS on our smartphones but none of us could get any service
we turned off onto an unfamiliar road that was in very rough shape
in fact it looked like the forest service Rangers had used a backhoe to block off the road with a mound of dirt
a broken metal barrier lay in the woods nearby
it looked like 4x4 Vehicles had been going over the mound
so it was pretty worn down at this point
our F-150 had pretty high clearance so we decided to just go over the mound
there was this old Gravel Road on the other side pretty much Clear of debris
we drove a few more miles down this road
and came across an opening next to a small Creek
there were some blue tarps hanging over a plywood picnic table nailed to a tree
this was a pretty odd set piece
that being said it was pretty much dark at this point
we couldn't keep driving around all night in the woods looking for a camping spot
we left the truck light running and went to set up the tent
as we were doing so I started to notice there was a lot of trash in the woods surrounding this site
I could see a green bottle laying on the ground
took a look at the label only to see it was a bottle of Home and Garden insecticide
I was really tired at the time
I thought someone must have been dumping their garbage out illegally here
none of us really thought it was weird that someone would be dumping garbage in an area more than an hour away from the nearest home
we set up camp grab some beers and made chili from scratch
by this time it was around 11 pm
as we were eating though we noticed a faint glow coming from the other side of a nearby Hill
at first we thought it was Moonlight filtering its way through the trees
however the angles just didn't make sense
it didn't seem to be a bright light and it wasn't moving either
it was kind of like that glow you'd see when looking out over a bright City
we couldn't identify the source itself though
since there were no other access roads in the area
it couldn't be other campers the
hill was about a quarter mile from our camp site
so we decided to go and investigate this odd occurrence
under normal circumstances I probably wouldn't have done so
however we'd all had a few rum and cokes in our stomachs
so two of us Jacob and I decided we'd go take a quick look
my other friend Isaac decided to stay behind and pop some popcorn or something
we started walking toward the light source
and the situation got even stranger
as we looked on all the trees in the area had their bark knocked off in a circle around their trucks
at first we thought it could have been the work of a beaver that lived in the creek or something
but that didn't make any sense
why would a beaver go around all these trees and just knock the bark off in a circle
Jacob and I started talking about this ghost beaver in a pretty loud voice
probably due to our sheer drunkenness
as we were about to Crest the top of the hill
Jacob tripped on a rock and shouted out oh
a few seconds after he yelled the light whatever it was went out
we looked at each other maybe we really didn't need to see what that light was after all
we walked back in silence
looking back over our shoulders every few seconds
we decided to turn off our flashlights as well and just use the Moonlight to get back
when we arrived within a couple hundred feet of the camp site
I could see Isaac walking in circles around it
it was wearing a hooded coat I hadn't seen him wearing before
and for some reason
he was now carrying his paintball gun in his hand
that seemed a bit odd
the fire had started to die down now
so we couldn't see anything else very well
at this point we'd been gone for almost an hour
from the distance it looked like Isaac was looking for something
he kept on walking around the site peering into the tent occasionally
only when we had almost arrived back
we saw Isaac walk up the road we'd come in on
we figured he was going to use the bathroom and didn't want to wander through the woods like us or something
when we got back we sat next to the fire
and waited for him to return
all of a sudden we saw him Lurch out of the tent instead
he stumbled a few feet forward and vomited
after we had left he'd had a few more rum and cokes he mumbled
well we asked him why he kept on wandering around the campsite with the paintball gun
and he got a strange look on his face
they're locked up in the cab of the truck did you unlock it or something
we went and checked entered the door code
and saw all our paintball equipment just as we left it before
the keys to the truck were still hidden
I Got a Sinking Feeling in the pit of my stomach
Isaac what were you doing after we left
uh I was watching a movie on my phone and then I fell asleep I guess
that was you walking around with your paintball gun just then right
Isaac said he'd been in the tent ever since we'd left
and he had been wearing the same unhooded fleece all night
someone had been walking around our camp site searching
and it was not Isaac
at this point all of us were way too drunk to drive
but we decided to go ahead and pack up and go back to my house for the night
we didn't even bother packing up the tent
we just folded it down with the sleeping bags and everything in it
we jumped in the F-150 and I started to drive out
when we got to the dirt Hub
I could see something gray blocking our path back
the metal barrier that had been laying in the woods earlier
was back on its stand right on top of the hump earlier
by this point all of us had sobered up to the situation
no one wanted to leave the car to move it out of the way
I had a metal guard on the front of the F-150
so I drove forward slowly tapping the metal barrier with the front of my truck
I guess it popped off with a force
and we drove over it slowly
we were terrified it would pop one of the tires as we drove over
but thankfully it didn't
as we continued to drive down the road
I could see a vehicle following us with its lights off
probably one thousand feet behind us
I almost wouldn't have noticed
if I hadn't kept catching glimpses of it as the Moonlight reflected off
I started to drive as fast as I could on that Forest Road
and the other vehicle kept pace behind
it never got any closer though
it just stayed one or two turns behind us
we could only see it when the road straightened out
after about 45 minutes of speeding along gravel roads
we made it back to the main paved Road
I started to drive everyone back to my house
but I decided to go a different way just to be safe
I didn't get pulled over for a DUI somehow
camping can be very fun
but rural camping can be dangerous
I've driven past that metal barrier since that time
but it's always been in place like it's supposed to be
I would never go down that road again at night though ..