Every year, my stepdad's family has a family reunion camping trip up in Northern California. My mom married him when I was 22, and I'm only 27 now, so I have only been to a few of them.
I moved to Chicago two years ago, so I have missed out on the last couple reunions. The first one I went to right after their marriage. My little brother, mom, and stepdad threw all our camping gear into his truck and decided to make a road trip out of it, heading from Southern California to the camp grounds up north. It was about a 13 hour drive.
When we first stopped for gas just outside of Los Angeles, still about 11 hours from our destination, a very creepy guy who was pumping gas next to us looked at our gear in the back of the pickup and said "You ought not disturb nature this weekend.
It won't be kind to you. The woods don't want you out there." We ignored him, finished pumping gas and left. We hit a rest stop several hours later. It was basically a preserve that was also a truck stop.
It had a little informational wall that told us about he local wildlife. We all went to the bathroom and my little brother and I came out to read about the animals in the area. When we walked around to the other side, where it gave info about the plants, we noticed a piece of paper folded and taped to very middle.
I unfolded it, and it read "Leave nature alone. You've already been warned."
Immediately my brother and I are creeped out. First the guy at the gas station. Now, hundreds of miles north, we find a note that seems directed at us. Of course, my mom and stepdad don't seem too bothered by it so we pressed on and eventually arrived at the campgrounds.
We all hop out of the car and stretch our stiff and cramped legs. We go and pick out the plot of land we intend to camp on and set up our tents. I set mine up a little further into the trees than the rest of them.
My brother stayed closer to the fire pits and the trail. The campground even had cabins, but I didn't want glamorous camping. I wanted it to be as rugged as it could be for being on a campground like this.
Then we go to meet and greet the rest of the family. It was my first time meeting the extended family of my new stepdad, and I got along with them all quite nicely. My new cousins were really great people. They were a very welcoming family.
After some activities for the day, we head back to the tents, and my mom and stepdad's tent has been deconstructed and has a dead woodpecker sitting right in front of it. My little brothers tent is still perfectly constructed, but it was then sitting in the back of the pickup truck.
My tent was moved, into the middle of a clearing that the campground used as an archery range.We all have a mutual "WTF" moment, and we all get to work on putting our tents back.
At this point, I moved my tent closer to my family's tents. After we finish up, we get in our tents and get to sleep. That night, we ALL heard footsteps outside our tents. Normally we would assume it was the people who owned the campgrounds, doing a walk through to make sure everyone had put their campfires out before going to bed.
But these footsteps were running. Back and forth. When my stepdad or I would poke our heads out of our tents to see, nothing was there.
Nobody really slept that night. The next morning we discussed our experience with the grounds owners and the rest of the family, and they all said they didn't know anything.
We assumed maybe one of the younger kids was bored and playing a prank. But it didn't add up, given that we saw nobody out there and it just wasn't possible for anyone to hide that quickly.
The second night, after we all went to our tents to sleep, we had an easier time. No footsteps. But I did hear my little brother reading out loud, which was weird. He didn't bring a book with him, so I had no idea what he could be reading.
I assumed maybe he was borrowing one of the books I brought, but when I checked my bag, both the books I brought were still there. So I listened more closely, and he was reciting perfectly the stuff we had read on that informational wall back at the rest stop.
When I woke up the next morning, my brother was already awake and he immediately asked me. "Did you hear mom reading last night?" I was a little stunned, but replied. "Uhhh. No.
I heard you reading or reciting the stuff from the wall at the rest stop." He looked puzzled, and explained that's what he thought he heard our mom reading. "I heard your voice." I stated. And he replied "It was mom." I could tell he wasn't lying.
He smiles when he tries to prank people. He's notoriously bad at keeping a straight face, so I believed him.We heard the same thing at the same time, but he heard our mom's voice, and I heard his. When we went to talk to my mom about it, she wasn't in her tent. But there was another dead woodpecker in front of the entrance.
We found my mom up in the Rec Room, along with my stepdad. We explained to both of them, and they both seemed very concerned. We asked what was wrong, and they showed us a note. "Last warning." They had already seen the second dead woodpecker outside their tent, and had chosen not to clean it so they could tell the grounds owner and show him.
We packed up our things and threw them in the back of the truck. We weren't ignoring it anymore. We decided to stay in a hotel in a nearby town, have one last breakfast with the family the next morning, and then head back to Southern California.
So that's what we did. The next morning we went back to the campgrounds to meet up with everyone and have breakfast, say our goodbyes, and then head home. We pulled in, and parked at the Rec Room, ate, had some conversations, and then decided it was time to go.
But when we got outside, everything we had packed in the truck was missing. We found it all set up, back at the spot we had been camping when we first arrived. Where all the creepy shit was happening.
The Rec Room walls were almost completely made of floor to ceiling windows, and our truck was parked right in front. We had a perfect view of it, and we saw NOBODY touching our stuff. And nobody else seemed to have seen anything either.
It somehow just appeared at our old camping spot. This time, we opened the tents, and each of us had a dead woodpecker inside, and notes that said "Safe Travels." The following year, everyone decided to have the reunion at a different campground, breaking a tradition of having it at the same grounds they've had it at for 25+ years before that.
It wasn't just my mom, stepdad, brother, and I that were shaken by this. Even though we seemed to be the only ones being targeted, it inspired the whole family to find a new place for the reunions after that. Everyone was scared. The two reunions I went to the following year, at a new campground, were fine. Nothing creepy.
/Atlas_Black/