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Ever felt scared on a solo night ride? I've had it the last few times. Same woods but different place each time. Not had that 'there's someone behind you!' feeling for good while before this. Could it be because we're approaching all hallows eve?
Oh yeah! Used to do lots of night riding in Singapore - the jungle is very spooky at night, and always in the back of my mind was "are they 100% sure they shot the very last tiger in Singapore?"
The local riders would absolutely not ride at night at all during Ghost Festival, and thought us laowais were crazy for doing so.
Do you get Civets in Singapore as the ones we saw in the zoo there were rather large and fast and as I'd never seen one before freaked me out a little.
Gives you the willies
Same woods but different place each time.
Is this a vailed reference to dogging?
Usually mundane things like temp change/inversion, damp air, or other atmospheric/geological phenomena that make us get the fear. For me it’s a strong wind in the trees I find unsettling/unfriendly. Probably a primal flight response to having temporarily, (effectively] lost two senses (hearing and sight) for the purpose of detecting approaching predators
There's nothing in the woods at night that isn't also there in the day.
It's just at night, it's awake and hungry.
HTH.
It's why I cycle quicker at night, just to get out of the woods. The worst is hearing foxes.
Night riding with a mate, we stopped in the middle of a clearing, stunning sky, turned lights off and I asked him what would he do if he turned his light back on and there was a little girl standing in front of him...he didn't want to turn his light back on.
Doesn't bother me anymore. I live on the edge of the woods and night ride solo loads in there so I've got over any worries about monsters (even with the recent reports of a big cat attacking a dog here). Quite often turn all my lights off on the forest roads if it's not too cloudy.
I will admit though, that before I moved here my first ever attempt to ride solo in the woods I bottled it and didn't even get the bike out of the car...
Usually mundane things like temp change/inversion, damp air, or other atmospheric/geological phenomena that make us get the fear. For me it’s a strong wind in the trees I find unsettling/unfriendly. Probably a primal flight response to having temporarily, (effectively] lost two senses (hearing and sight) for the purpose of detecting approaching predators
Either that or vampires or crackwolfsnakes or rabidbatdemons or something, mebbe
Nearly had a coronary from a Herron flying up from a stream once, bloody big and very close.
@didnthurt never saw civets, but a friend swore he saw a binturong (bearcat), despite officially none remaining in Singapore. Very possible though - as we definitely did see various escapees - ox, strange non-local deer, etc - that had obviously come from the Singapore Zoo. Of course, again officially there are no escapees from the zoo...
Here in Texas now it's the very real racoons, skunks, possums, porcupines, and scorpions you have to watch out for!
#edit - oh and coyotes. Forgot about them.
I asked him what would he do if he turned his light back on and there was a little girl standing in front of him…he didn’t want to turn his light back on.
I don't blame him, you evil bugger.
Usually grouse with their weird noises and the tendancy to fly up just before you step/ride on them.
I asked him what would he do if he turned his light back on and there was a little girl standing in front of him…
Louise?
Nearly had a coronary from a Herron flying up from a stream once, bloody big and very close.
Had that one night walking home from friends, bloody heron took off about ten feet in front of me, just by the side of a tunnel under a railway embankment, where it was completely black. As it got higher it was silhouetted against the night sky, the damned thing looked like bloody pterodactyl! Certainly boosted my heart rate for a few minutes
Cycling round Rutland water at at around 2am, 15 years ago with a friend and come across 4 dudes in Buffalo and North face gear, with one of them on top of a van with a big **** off high powered rifle facing out into the water.
Shat bricks and left. No idea why we didn’t call the police.
Its not abnormal to get freaked out from time to time.
Some minor thing triggers a mental warning and then the mind goes into a panic loop trying to figure out what triggered it.
Even better once you have freaked yourself out somewhere once you will be ultra sensitive to anything and hence risk it firing again more often.
A few false positives is better than missing that tiger hiding behind a tree. So in evolutionary terms it makes sense it has been selected for to a certain degree.
raybanwomble
Cycling round Rutland water at at around 2am, 15 years ago with a friend and come across 4 dudes in Buffalo and North face gear, with one of them on top of a van with a big **** off high powered rifle facing out into the water.
Shat bricks and left. No idea why we didn’t call the police.
The Rutland panther had gone for a swim?
More to the point, what were you doing riding round there at 2am?
Don’t get me started on the panther, used to cycle back home to Oakham from my first job as a teen (kitchen porter at Barnsdale Hall Hotel). ****ing tree fell on me once as well!
More to the point, what were you doing riding round there at 2am?
Trying to get murdered apparently. In all seriousness I think we had stayed up playing xbox and then decided it would be a right laugh to go for a ride.
First time I heard the rutting red deer at night I didn't know what the hell it was. Regularly I get deer, owls, rabbits and badgers jumping out at me when out riding at night (although no doggers yet) but although they give me a fright and make me pedal like mad for a bit that isn't the feeling I'm talking about. I'm talking about when you feel the the hairs on your arms stand up and you get that electric shock down your spine feeling for no apparent reason at all.
Remember doing a solo night ride and seeing deer eyes reflected, which freaked me right out until I realised what they were - I had "big cat of..." images in my head. I tried to logically dispel the fear - after all, what the heck would a big cat live on round there? Then I remembered the deer eyes, and I pedaled for home, possibly faster than I ever have before.
If anyone knows the Riverside path from Rawtenstall to Ewood Bridge - that freaks me out walking the dog down there on my own at night especially going under the motorway bridge. Something not right about it and I won't go that way anymore!
Last night ride I went on was accompanied by shouts and occasional gunshots. I don't think they were close enough to be any danger but a little unnerving.
Not a night ride thing (I won't do them any more) but a place thing.
Blackwater Lodge in the Glen Livet Glen Fiddich area. An abandoned set of farm buildings in the middle of nowhere. Each time I've approached the place I start to feel uneasy and pick the pace up to get past it. There are pictures of the inside of the house on Flickr that make me feel uneasy as well.
I always,always think of the Blair Witch Project when I'm in the woods at night.
Thing is I am pretty impervious to horror movies. Genuinely don't bother me but this movie and riding in the woods are not a good combination for me.
If I was ever to pass some sticks arranged in a certain way ala Blair Witch I would instantly crap myself. The Exposure lights are great at making shadows move too...
On summer solstice I like to wild camp on an ancient burial mound near me. 20+ bodies were exhumed from there back in the early 1900's. Love the place, very calming during the day but I usually resort to taking a small bottle of vodka with me to get me to sleep during the night! It was there I first went through my "Blair Witch syndrome" and learnt I have a bit of an issue with it.lol
This tree has caused me an issue on occasion too...
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Last night ride I went on was accompanied by shouts and occasional gunshots.
Where do you live? Manchester?
The only thing I tend to watch out for is startling a badger - I see quite a few and they can't half shift. Only other issue is the odd 'yoof' but that's when I don't turn down the retina burners, especially if there is a group smoking weed under a canal bridge !
Or dog walkers, in the middle of absolutely no-where with a dog on an extending lead, in the pitch black, no lights or reflectives. That's fun.
It's a bit boring in the UK, no bears, no werewolves (the one in London was the last), nothing with really big teeth (except badgers).
I went out on the bike on Halloween a few years back - mistake. Only done about 500 yards, one group of teens shout 'biker', got past them to come across another group, one lad threw an iron bar at me, fortunately it bounced off the front forks. Said a few expletives, but me vs 10 isn't good odds. A few miles later I spotted a couple of bobbies on the beat, spoke to them and they warned me off going anywhere near the village centre and housing areas as things were kicking off ! This was Marple !
I once took a friend on his first night ride near me. Part of teh ride is down an old railway line which is pretty overgrown and spooky, but then it turns up a track through the woods.Muddy and a bit tough going in parts, so not easy to ride fast. I didn't warn him about the pheasant pens on one side of the trail (loads of fenced in cage areas where they breed pheasants for hunting later on). As we start up this trail, the rustling gets louder and louder until they all start running/flying whatever, making a huge noise.
I couldn't keep up with my mate as he sped off!
The only time I've ever felt scared at night was when I woke up in Ben Alder bothy and had a strong feeling somebody was looking in the window at me. I think it has a bad reputation for that kind of thing.
Back in my Endomondo days, I had my phone set up for aural mileage updates.
On my first solo night ride going through our local woods, I almost had a nasty accident when I heard a voice just over my shoulder in the pitch black darkness.
Not worried these days, generally, although it’s probably more than a coincidence that some of my strava pbs have been set, at night, on my own.
Don’t get me started on the panther,
I get that a lot...
I've been surrounded by boar slogging up a steep climb in the dark, snorting sounds and bushes twitching, definitely gave me a bit of motivation to keep going
Where do you live? Manchester?
I'm fairly sure it was hunting rather than murders. FC trail centre with lots of farmland around but not somewhere I've heard shots during the day before.
Once I was out nightriding solo through my local woods. Miles from anywhere.
I kept feeling like I was being watched, as you do. Saw an owl flying overhead. Pretty cool. Thought nothing more of it.
On the way back, my lights caught a pair of eyes reflecting back in the middle distance. Wondered what creature it was this time. Turned the bars towards it and there was some dude just standing there dead still in the middle of nowhere!
I'm not sure if he was trying to give me his willy or what, as I noped it straight outta there.
That is spooky. What with human eyes not being reflective, an’ that.
MrSparkle
Member
That is spooky. What with human eyes not being reflective, an’ that.
He was approx 10 feet away from me, the eyes in the distance belonged to something else
eta: thinking about it, it may have been a dog walker with his dog on a long lead. I wasn't hanging about to check in any case
Thanks for the stories, glad I'm not alone and maybe I'm not as big a wus as I thought. 👍 😀
@krixmeister - have you ever camped in Palo Duro Canyon? Turkeys. Turkeys running about in gangs. Very strange sight.
Yeah..
When night riding off road I used to listen to music..
It's odd as when I had the music on, it made things spookier.
When you cant hear things it makes it worse as you then try harder to hear sounds between the beats/instruments/tracks etc.
I dont do it anymore as it freaked me out.
The story about the Bothy is feaky as ****!
I had a man wave at me with his angry willie once.
I didn't know where to look & politely declined his "offer".
It's not the scarytoothyhairies that bother me, it's people. I say people, guys. not necessarily aroused, it's more their hatchets and axes that concern me.
(With male death by homicide rates as high as 20% in the tribal and hunter gatherer societies humans spent most time evolving in- see Jared Diamond, jared Leto, jarred/jehosophat whoever out of the sex on fire bros or tha wikki, that's enough references- the most dangerous thing you could possibly meet out in the woods would be strange men, so no surprise we're programmed to worry about this, I recon.)
...and I'm also conscious of how high viz I must be with bright lights and kit with reflective bits. I mean you wouldn't even need night vision goggles, I'm a very obvious target.
I don't let any of that stop me mind you, and do night rides over the moors (which I know really really well) on my own if no one's up for it, and have dodged the hatchets so far.
But I moved away rather quickly one time when late evening cautiously skirting the edge of an old and somewhat isolated quarry on the moor in total black and drizzly conditions, I stopped and for some reason shone my light into the middle of it, and about 30m away were three big guys, backs to me. One turned round...
I've no idea what happened next. It's a shame the path away from there isn't a strava segment...
I’ve no idea what happened next.
Mansubstantiation? Bless. One soggy biscuit between them...
I get it a fair bit, but oddly enough a recent solo bivvy with temperature inversion that I dropped into then climbed out of in the dark was fine. Good job really.
It was worse in the days when I just ran bar lights.