Shadowing Practice: 3 True Isolated Deep Forest Camping Horror Stories - Learn English Speaking with Video
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I live on the western half of North Carolina, just outside of the Appalachian mountain range.
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There's tons of forests with hiking and camping and pretty much any outdoor activity in this area,
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so it's always been a big part of my life.
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This trip wasn't supposed to be anything too special.
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There was an old fire lookout along the Appalachians that I'd been to a couple of times before, because it was such a great view.
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It seemed like pretty much no one really knew about this spot.
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The trail was maybe 10 -ish miles, and even though I probably could sleep in the tower if I wanted to,
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I always opted just to use my regular tent setup
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and just sleep near the tree line right by the tower just because it was old and I didn't fully trust it.
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After a long hike, when I got there,
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I walked up the circular stairs all the way to the top and enjoyed the view for a while.
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It was around 4 p .m., and I actually stayed inside the tower until sunset, which was around 7 or 8.
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It was always a really stunning view, and the silence that covers the whole forest and mountain range after sunset was very calming as well.
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After it got dark, I grabbed my stuff and headed down and back into the forest, then laid out my tent and everything.
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I never really build campfires or anything when I do trips like this, always just skeptical about accidentally starting a forest fire.
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But for light, I carried a really powerful LED lantern.
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It was enough to light up most of the campsite, and it held a charge long enough to last multiple days of use.
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After finishing getting my tent and gear organized,
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I turned it off and got in the tent to spend the remainder of the night laying down on my phone.
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Although, just a few minutes after getting inside, I heard a noise in the distance.
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It was someone whistling, coming from the direction of the fire lookout tower.
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It didn't really sound like they were whistling a tune, but more like the whistle you would do if you were signaling to someone else.
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They made probably 10 loud whistles over the course of a minute, before they stopped.
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I waited to see if I'd hear it again, but didn't hear anything else.
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It kind of had me uneasy though, because nobody seemed to be out here, at least not during the day.
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I should also mention this was in the fall of 2021.
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So not only was this not a popular trail, but it was also during the pandemic when nobody was really outside at all.
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It didn't make sense to me that someone would be showing up this late.
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Like they almost surely had to have been in the area already.
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But how did I not see them before?
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To make myself feel better, I got up and grabbed my lantern,
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but kept it off and walked up to the tree line to get a view of the tower.
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I was just trying to look from a distance
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and see who it was and what they were doing to make sure I was safe to stay here.
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The tower looked empty, and I didn't see anyone outside of it either.
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I stood in place for a few minutes before my eyes caught something.
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Along the tree line on the other side of the tower, there was a figure.
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He was about 60 yards away.
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He was standing still, and I think facing me, maybe even looking right at me.
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It freaked me out, and I quickly backed up to conceal myself more in the dark.
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Then I heard that whistle again.
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It was definitely from the figure I saw.
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Was he trying to signal to me?
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I thought that would have been impossible, but I knew that something really weird was going on.
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I mean, if he was trying to signal to me, and had seen me, then wouldn't he have waved or something?
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Not just stood there creepily and then whistled after I left.
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I got back to my tent, but I left the flaps open so I could keep watch still.
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I never checked the time to see how long I was waiting around for, but more than 15 minutes for sure.
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I still had that feeling like I needed to stay awake, which, come to think of it,
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probably should have been enough for me to realize that I needed to leave,
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or at the very least move a little deeper into the forest away from the fire tower
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and away from whoever that was standing out there.
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But then I heard movement behind me.
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I got out of the tent and turned on the lantern, holding it up to try and see in the dark.
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It didn't reach as far as I hoped for.
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Whatever I heard sounded just 30 to 40 feet away, like an animal or person passing through a bush.
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I stood and waited, just staring in that general direction for a full minute
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and just when I was about to turn it off and go back.
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He whistled again, extremely loud, from the dark just behind the light,
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and I was extremely disturbed and genuinely scared.
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But I took a few steps forward, holding the lantern up to try and find him.
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I only needed to take five steps before his figure appeared in the light lights.
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He was looking right at me, standing completely still, but something didn't look right about him.
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Could've just been the shadows and the way the light was barely hitting him, but it sent chills through me.
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He looked uncanny and off -putting, and I don't believe in any weird stuff or anything, so I don't mean this in a literal sense,
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but something didn't feel human about him.
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I took a few steps back, letting the blanket of darkness cover him again.
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Then I just stood in the middle of my campsite.
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I was scared to start packing and take my attention off of where he was,
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so I ended up just standing there and waiting for a while.
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I never heard the person move, and after several long minutes, I took a few steps forward again and held up the lantern,
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and the man was gone.
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I don't know why I thought that would have made me feel safer, but it actually made me way more scared.
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I ran back to my tent and started frantically taking it down.
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Not even 45 seconds in, a voice called out from right behind me,
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on the opposite direction of the campsite of where I saw the man before.
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He said, please help me.
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His voice was dry and monotone, and it sounded like he was literally right behind me, just 10 feet away in the dark.
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I stared at where I knew he had to be standing, but I didn't turn on the lantern,
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honestly terrified of what I'd see if I did.
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He spoke again.
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Please help me.
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I took a step back and slowly bent down and grabbed my bag.
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The tent was still only halfway packed, but I didn't bother with it.
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I began taking slow steps away, backing up toward the fire lookout tower where the trail was.
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He asked for help again one more time before it went quiet.
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I got another 20 steps back from the campsite.
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Then he whistled again, so loud it felt like it echoed through the whole forest.
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I turned and booked it, and didn't stop until I was well down the trail.
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I got to my car an hour before sunrise.
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No idea who that man was or why he was out there following me and whistling or pleading for help,
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but I could tell in his voice that he was faking it.
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I don't even want to think about what would have happened if I turned on the lantern and tried to help him.
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This happened almost two decades ago.
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My family was kind of unique in having a really big age gap between me and my older brother.
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Jake was 14 years older than me, and at the time, I was either 11 or 12.
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He'd already been living away from home for years, but he would visit pretty often, and I still considered us to be close.
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One summer, when he came back for a week, he invited me to go camping with him, since I'd been asking to for years.
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My parents finally agreed to let him take me this year, and so we found a spot we could all agree on and planned it out.
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The drive out there took around an hour but we lived in the woods already, so this was still very remote feeling.
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My parents dropped us off on a small gravel path and Jake and I walked down to the campsite.
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No one else was there or around at all, and this wasn't one of those long hiking trails to get there.
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During the day, between all the trees, you could still see the road in the distance.
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It was one of those unused forest service roads that just had a bunch of other campsites and trails along it,
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at least from what I remember.
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Anyway, we had that whole day to set up our stuff
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and just mess around and catch up on life over the last six or so months that he'd been away for.
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Once it started getting later, we built a campfire, and while Jake was cooking dinner, I went for a short walk up and down the trail.
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I didn't go very far, only gone for like 15 minutes.
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And when I started walking back and could see the campfire through the trees,
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I noticed Jake was standing up and gesturing with his hands as if he were talking to someone.
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I then walked closer and could kind of see someone standing across from him.
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The trees were blocking most of my view, but there was definitely someone there talking to my brother.
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Being young and nervous and confused, I didn't want to walk up with some stranger there.
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I stayed a little bit off the trail and waited for a few minutes.
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When I saw the guy walk off, Jake stayed standing and watched him for a while, before sitting back down.
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I then hurried up to the campsite.
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Jake looked deep in thoughts, or maybe worried.
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I asked him who that guy was, and why he came up to the camp.
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He put on a short smile and said it was nothing, that the guy was just looking for directions.
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And every time I tried to pry for more, he gave short answers, saying we were all good and that it really was nothing at all.
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He was clearly trying to avoid talking about it.
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It was pretty strange, but I trusted him, and assumed he knew I'd be worried about it
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and didn't want me to be uneasy the whole time we were out there camping.
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We hung around the campfire for the rest of the evening.
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Jake was definitely acting different though, constantly looking around, and even though we were talking the whole time, he seemed distant.
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a couple hours after sunset i was really tired
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and went into my tent to sleep jake said
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that he wasn't too tired yet and was going to stay up for a little while longer by the campfire
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it took me a long time to settle in but i think i fell asleep sometime around nine
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I woke up very groggily several hours later, say 1 or 2am,
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and right away I noticed the orange glowing light outside of my tent from the campfire that was still burning.
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I thought it was crazy that
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Jake was still out there and hadn't put it out and gone to bed yet.
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I sat up and unzipped the tent, saying Jake's name as I looked out.
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But Jake wasn't there.
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I stuck my head out and looked around.
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He wasn't anywhere around the campfire.
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I crawled out and quickly looked into his tent, and then tried looking around at the dark.
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I was too scared to say his name or call out for him anymore though, now feeling like I was alone in the forest,
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in the middle of the night, and being just 11 or 12, this was absolutely terrifying to me.
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It didn't help either that it was dead quiet, just the crackling fire.
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I had a really unsettling feeling,
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a creepy feeling that something was happening in the darkness around the campsite that I wasn't able to see.
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And after a minute, I got back in my tent, zipped it up, and just stayed in there waiting and listening for Jake to get back.
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I didn't know where he was, and I didn't know what else to do, but standing out there in the dark was too scary for me.
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About ten minutes later, I started hearing something in the distance.
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It was footsteps rushing toward the campsite and running right up to the outside of my tent.
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I froze, completely terrified, and staring at the zipper.
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Then I heard
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Jake whisper my name.
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His voice was harsh and rushed.
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I unzipped the tent and couldn't even ask him anything before he told me we needed to pack and leave right away.
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He had this horrified look over his face.
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I didn't question him.
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I started packing.
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Jake took his stuff down and then helped me with mine.
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And the entire time, he was glancing around at the dark, almost like he was expecting something to be out there.
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We rushed down the trail back to the road
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and walked along it for about a mile until he was able to get a cell signal to call our parents.
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During the hour we waited to get picked up, Jake wouldn't say anything about what was going on.
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To be honest, I don't think at the time I even wanted to know.
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I could just tell from his demeanor that it was something seriously bad.
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I also think he was texting our parents while we were waiting on the side of the road, because when they picked us up,
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they didn't ask what was going on, as if it wasn't strange that we needed to get picked up in the middle of the night.
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I think the three of them were purposefully trying to not talk about whatever happened while I was around,
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probably to protect me and not scare me, but it kind of did the opposite it.
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A few days after, I caught
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Jake and my dad talking about it late in the night downstairs, when I had gotten up to get some water,
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but they stopped as soon as they saw I was awake.
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Even now, so long after it all happened, my parents say it's up to my brother if he wants to tell me,
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but Jake immediately goes cold every time I bring it up, so I just stopped asking.
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I don't know what happened out there in the woods,
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or why he was gone in the middle of the night just to run back and have us pack and leave,
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but I trust that he made the right decision to keep us both safe,
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and has his reasons for not telling me what really happened that night.
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This was 2015.
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I had just turned 30
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and went out to a very remote area of Washington State to camp at for a couple of days.
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The campsite I was at was a free public spot down a kind of untamed two -mile trail.
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Lots of overgrown bushes and trees.
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But this was Washington, so it's just a given for most non -state park campground trails.
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It was also late autumn, which is off -season for hiking and camping in this area.
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Almost nobody was out there, even on the roads getting to where the trailhead was was.
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The campsite only had two spots, and both were empty and didn't look to have been actively used at all in weeks,
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or maybe even months.
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I took the opportunity to set everything up and lay everything out, which I usually wouldn't do if I thought other people would be around,
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just to be respectful of the space.
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That first day, I had arrived at 2pm, and I knew it was supposed to be raining on and off all afternoon,
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so I got a campfire going early and made sure to collect any dry sticks I could find.
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Obviously, it being basically a wet rain forest, there wasn't a whole ton of wood I could use.
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Knowing this, I did come prepared with a couple special long -burning fire logs.
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They're about the size of a candle, but it's this hard pressed, durable treated wood that stays lit for hours.
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It's not the most useful thing in the world because it's so small, but dragging out full bundles of firewood wasn't exactly an option.
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These only weighed about a pound each.
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By the time it got dark out, I'd run out of any usable wood and sticks, so I grabbed one of the special logs.
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And out of nowhere, while I was on my knees trying to light it, I heard someone whisper.
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Just a quick, soft whisper.
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Lasted no more than half a second.
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I jolted and nearly dropped my lighter, but quickly realized it was pitch black all around me and started hurrying to light the wood again.
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I got it to catch 20 seconds later, but it was still just impossible to see anything around me.
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Now, after a minute of sitting there, still shaken by it, I started to calm myself,
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and realized that it had to be wind hitting a tree weird.
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or just anything but someone whispering.
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Because that didn't make any sense.
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No one was out here.
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And because I was so focused and busy trying to light the wood, and the sound was so quick and short,
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I didn't really catch any distinct word or anything.
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So I couldn't confirm it either way.
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Couple minutes of thinking later, I had completely brushed it off.
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I stayed outside for another hour and a half, then got in my tent and slept until morning.
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When I woke up, it was still raining a bit, so I made coffee and breakfast inside my tent and didn't really go outside until noon.
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As for the rest of that day, I didn't really do much at all.
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Just hung around, relaxed, and enjoyed the calm sounds of the rain hitting the trees.
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Same as last night though, once the sun was setting, I tried having a campfire with regular sticks, but it didn't work out,
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and I resorted to using the special logs again just to keep a little bit of light around.
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And eerily around the same time as last night, just after the sun went down and everything got really dark,
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I heard a short, quick whisper from just outside of the campsite.
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It happened as I was digging through my bag looking for something to eat.
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So, again, I was kind of in the middle of something.
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It startled me, though, physically dropping the bag and looking up at the forest.
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I could see maybe five feet in front of me, before it was pitch darkness.
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And just like last night, I couldn't tell what the whisper really was, like if it was a word or not,
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which then made it easier for me to convince myself it had to be something else, just a strange sound between the wind and the rain.
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Although, I'll admit, this time I stayed cautious much longer than just a couple of minutes.
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I mean, probably an entire hour,
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I was looking around at the dark and staying focused so I could hear it more clearly if it happened again.
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But with nothing to look at, eventually I did get bored and stopped intensely listening.
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I got up from my chair
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and started moving stuff out of the tent to make space to roll out my sleeping bag,
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just to prep it for whenever I decided to go to bed.
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I swear to God, just a minute after I started to, I heard it again. That whisper.
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It was like it would only happen while i was busy
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and not paying attention this time i genuinely got pissed off thinking
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that i was going crazy and was overly on edge just hearing nonsense that wasn't actually there
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i still looked around for a minute but i knew i wasn't going to see anything
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i frustratingly got the sleeping bag rolled out and had the tent ready then sat outside for another hour,
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before I got in the tent and went to bed.
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I got comfortable and fell asleep abnormally quickly.
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I don't know exactly what time I woke up at.
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Could have been an hour later or four hours later.
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But it was still pitch black, because I couldn't see anything when I opened my eyes.
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I had this really strange feeling though, almost like I was confused about something, but I didn't know what,
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because obviously I was sleeping.
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Then, just a moment after waking up, before I could even analyze this weird feeling I had, suddenly there was a sharp,
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loud whisper from directly outside my tent, almost right in my ear, just on the other side of the fabric,
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like someone was pressed against the tent.
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I jumped up, scrambling around for my headlamp, but I genuinely couldn't see anything.
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Took me way too long, and by the time I got out of the tent with the light, no one was there.
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The headlamp was worse than the fire log too, not really lighting up the area at all.
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In a panic, I started packing up, and my heart stayed racing for the entire time.
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I never once stopped looking around or listening though.
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Then I threw my bag on my shoulders
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and ran down the trail back to my car
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and ended up spending the night sleeping on the side of the road about 20 miles from where the trailhead was.
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I still don't know what I was hearing that night.
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But from everything that happened, I think it's nearly impossible that it was all just a coincidence.
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Personally, I feel like something was telling me I shouldn't have been there,
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and I'm 100 % certain that something was going to happen if I didn't leave.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Esta lección de conversación se basa en el vídeo “3 True Isolated Deep Forest Camping Horror Stories”. Este vídeo tiene 260 frases y 3783 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 25:28. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 149 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. El 83 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| tent sustantivo | /tɛnt/ | tienda, toldo |
| trail sustantivo | /tɹeɪl/ | rastro, pista |
| whistle sustantivo | /ˈwɪs(ə)l/ | silbato, pito |
| lantern sustantivo | /ˈlæ̝ntɚn/ | farol, fogaril |
| scare verbo | /skɛɚ/ | asustar, atemorizar |
| hike sustantivo | /haɪk/ | caminata |
| rush verbo | /ɹʌʃ/ | correr, apurarse |
| pitch sustantivo | /pɪt͡ʃ/ | tiro |
| log sustantivo | /lɔɡ/ | leño, tronco |
| darkness sustantivo | /ˈdɑɹk.nɪs/ | oscuridad |
| genuinely adverbio | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/ | auténticamente, genuinamente |
| sunset sustantivo | /ˈsʌnˌsɛt/ | puesta del sol, puesta de sol |
| stare verbo | /stɛɚ/ | mirar fijamente, quedarse mirando |
| lookout sustantivo | /ˈlʊkaʊt/ | mirador |
| confused adjetivo | /kənˈfjuːzd/ | confundido |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| end up verbo | terminar, ir a parar | |
| get out of verbo | salirse de, ponerse fuera de | |
| light up verbo | iluminar | |
| wake up verbo | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | despertarse, recordar |
| back up verbo | retroceder, ciar | |
| drag out verbo | eternizar | |
| get back verbo | regresar | |
| get back to verbo | responder / contestar (en un rato), volver / tornar a contactar |
Frases que vale la pena repetir
Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:
- Was he trying to signal to me?
- It didn't reach as far as I hoped for.
- I didn't really catch any distinct word or anything.
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | was extremely disturbed · have been actively used · was pressed |
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | it's always been · have waved |
| Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa | sunset, which was · autumn, which is |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 68 contracciones y formas reducidas, como didn't, wasn't, don't. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: rush /ɹʌʃ/, sharp /ʃɑɹp/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, shake /ˈʃeɪk/, brush /bɹʌʃ/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, accidentally /ˌæk.sɪˈdɛnt(ə)li/, coincidence /kəʊˈɪnsɪdəns/, abnormally /æbˈnɔɹ.mə.li/, preposition /ˌpɹɛpəˈzɪʃən/
Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:
- s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: scare /skɛɚ/, stare /stɛɚ/, scary /ˈskɛə.ɹi/, stairs /ˈstɛɹz/, skeptical /ˈskɛptɪkəl/
- /v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: whoever /huˈɛvɚ/, convince /kənˈvɪns/, actively /ˈæktɪvli/, gravel /ˈɡɹævəl/
- /z/ — sonora, no /s/: confused /kənˈfjuːzd/, resort /ɹɪˈzɔɹt/, physically /ˈfɪz.ɪ.kli/, stairs /ˈstɛɹz/, freeze /ˈfɹiːz/
Cómo practicar con este vídeo
- Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
- Haz shadowing frase por frase a velocidad normal, repitiendo cada una hasta que tu ritmo coincida con el del hablante.
- Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como tent, trail, whistle.
¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.