Real Encounters

*Disturbing Camping Encounter*

Background: I work summers as a camp counsellor in the northern parts of Ontario, Canada.

On the date this particular incident occurred, I was camping with a group of ten year old boys on the same lake the summer camp was based on. So, like a routine camping trip we canoe out to the site and set up our tents.

Me and my co-counsellor ( Mike ) take turns supervising the kids while they swim, build forts and play games etc. We cook some food over the fire, sit around and tell stories, cook smores, the typical Canadian camping experience.

Around 9:30ish, I tell the kids its time for bed and they head into their tents, which were positioned a small walk away from the shoreline but still in line of sight from where we had the fire pit. So the kids have gone to bed and me and Mike are shooting the shit by the water smoking a cigarette, just basically hanging out before we decide to head into our tent and call it a night.

What happened next still troubles me to this day, and remains my go-to scary campfire story. We were both gazing into the pitch black night water, when we saw a small light approaching us slowly and slightly above water level. We speculated what it could possibly be for a few minutes, before it came close enough for us to see that it was mounted on the front of a kayak and that someone was approaching our campsite.

Now, it is important to note that as a camp counsellor part of our training goes over how to deal with stranger encounters in an environment where we are responsible for a group of children on public property. I was prepared to give the mystery paddler the typical speech about how we are camping with a group from a recognized organization, and we would respectfully ask that they find another campsite, however this person's appearance shook me to the bone as the light drew nearer.

Paddling this kayak was a woman, who looked to be in her 60s. She had incredibly long, wisps of grey hair that was trailing in the water. Her skin looked like old leather, and her dead looking eyes were tough to spot under all her wrinkles. She looked directly at me, and when she spoke I realized she was missing most of her teeth.

"Are all your children safe in bed?"

She asked me pointing in the direction of the tents.

Not really knowing how to respond and quite frankly shitting myself, I responded by telling her that they were fine and she had to leave.

"Thats good. Just as expected for this time."

She said with a smile, then turned her kayak and paddled off into the night.

At this point in time, myself and Mike were legitimately very creeped out not only be the appearance of this mystery women who resembled a freaking corpse, but also her inquiry on the whereabouts and safety of the kids we had brought on this trip. Not knowing what else to do we grabbed our hunting knives and sat by the fire after checking on the kids. Half an hour later is where shit started to get really creepy.

Across the lake, a female counsellor was leading another trip for kids the same age group. She sent me a text which read something along the lines of

"Hey, Sean. Stop screwing with us. This isn't funny, my kids are really creeped out."

I instantly called her and let her know I had just seen someone near my campsite that seemed eerie, and that I was not trying to play a joke. Apparently one of their kids had opened their tent door to take a piss and seen a woman with long hair standing with her arms opened towards them near the shoreline.

Credits: Reddit, Coronaisntbad