Like all children, we loved to go on summer hikes with our friends. We’ll go to the sea, then to the forest or to the river. Sometimes we went for a night or two. And this time we went into the forest for two days. And here I would like to move away from the topic of the hike, because this is quite important, and talk about the area where I live. We have a sea that surrounds our island, huge forests, rivers and mountains, and this is Russia. If anyone hasn’t guessed, then I’m talking about Sakhalin Island (find it on the map, please). And on our island there was once penal servitude. That’s why we have many legends about convicts. And this story is partly about them.

So, let's continue about the hike. We gathered for the night. We took tents, pots and other camping supplies. And then the day of the hike arrived. At 7.30 we stood at the bus stop and waited for the bus. I think there were about nine of us then. I won’t mention their names, because I might confuse something and it won’t be true. But it doesn't matter. Let's continue. After the bus arrived, we got in and drove to one stop. From there we could get into the forest to our place. We walked for about three hours and when we arrived, we were already exhausted and quickly laid out our tents in order to rest. After resting, it was necessary to prepare a place for a fire, bring firewood, and do some work, such as fetch water from a makeshift well.

And so, by the end of the day everything was ready. The fire was burning, the porridge was cooking, birds were singing and all sorts of insects were buzzing. Grace! And it began to approach evening and everyone became bored and someone suggested the idea of ​​​​playing hide and seek, traffic lights, cards, etc. After several hours of “unbridled” fun, everyone got bored again. And the idea came to my mind to retell horror stories to each other. We sat for about 15 minutes and each remembered several horror stories. You should have seen us sitting around a smoldering fire in the darkness of the night and telling each other some nonsense. From the outside it seemed that these were not tourists telling horror stories, but rather Satanists plotting something evil. In general, by 1.30 we were all tired and decided to tell the last story and go to bed. AND last story said that at night in our forests you can see convicts cutting down trees. At night. With lanterns. Brad I thought. But in vain.

After an hour of my insomnia and two awakened comrades, I was “thrown out” of the tent outside. There was nothing to do and I decided to sit by the almost extinguished fire. True, after I put a stick there, it flared up and it became quite light. But the light came not only from the fire. It came from the lanterns. Just not ordinary ones, but old ones, oil or kerosene. At first, I thought that these were other tourists on motorcycles (they used to stop by to visit us). But these were not tourists, but those same convicts in robes with chains. They felled trees. Something unusual happened before my eyes. Trees fell and immediately appeared in the same place. I hastened to wake up my friends. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, I finally lifted several people out of their sleeping bags and showed them this miracle. And to say that they were surprised would be an understatement. And when they realized what was what, they simply began to look at the convicts. After some time, the convicts disappeared into thin air, and we went to bed.

Well, that's all I wanted to tell you.

And just a comment on this story:

I once wrote to an old friend, with whom I went to the same school as a child. We hadn’t seen each other for 10 years, and when I learned that she lived not far from me, I invited her to visit on occasion, saying, come over for tea, we live nearby, let’s sit and reminisce about our childhood. Well, he invited and invited, as if he were an old acquaintance, without any ulterior motive. And so, we sit, drink tea, talk, we talk for a long time - I look at the clock, it’s already past midnight - I understand that my friend is clearly in no hurry to go home. I start hinting from afar, saying that I have to get up for work tomorrow, but oh, how I don’t want to, and sleep, they say, there are already 5 hours left. Sitting. It should be noted that I did not notice any hints, coquetry or other signs from her throughout the evening - an ordinary conversation between two childhood friends. Well, I think it's okay. I make myself and her in separate beds. She asked to take a shower, and although I still didn’t fully understand her intentions, taking advantage of her absence, I still put the “essential item” under the mattress, just in case.

It turns out that he immediately starts a conversation again in the style of: “Do you remember Romka? Petka-Vaska-Natasha.” Those. hints - well, zero at all. And so we go to bed, turn off the light - she rustles in the dark, undresses, lies down in her bed and with a playful intonation deliberately declares: “Only I will sleep without a top, don’t peek!” “Okay,” I say. And in order to finally dot all the i’s, I make a joke: “If it’s scary to sleep alone, come!” “And I’m already scared!” And she jumped into bed with me, half naked, all pressed against me, giggling, throwing her leg over me. Well, there’s nothing to guess about. And as soon as I start to touch her with my hand, she suddenly jumps up and exclaims in a completely indignant tone: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!” I, of course, was taken aback by such a reaction, and could not say anything other than “well... uh...”. She lay back and snuggled again. I lie there and frantically think about what I’m doing wrong and what I should do next. I don’t touch, I’m silent. Think. After just a couple of minutes I hear him sniffling. I'm quietly freaking out. In the morning, as if nothing had happened, she woke up, cheerfully thanked her for the pleasant evening of memories, and went home.

After this incident, I generally shied away from girls for a long time. He completely refused to understand what was going on in their heads. Even to this day I cannot understand what happened then and what intentions motivated my friend. So don’t blame yourself - perhaps your classmate was really just scared at first, then just cold, and then just hot. Sometimes it is impossible to guess what a woman wants.

I propose to dedicate this post to similar juicy stories that still haunt you.

One of my acquaintances, a mountain hiker, told me this story.
Further from the narrator's perspective:

We moved from the village to the mountains. It was a wonderful day, the sun was shining, the birds were singing. A kilometer from the village we found strawberry thickets, ate our fill and moved on. On the first day we climbed one peak (it was very difficult to climb). Our guide showed us from the top of Hoverla on the horizon, showed us the Montenegrin ridge and in which direction Transylvania is located. We went down at about five o'clock, took a break below, and, happy and well-fed, went on. Here it must be said that it gets dark quite quickly in the mountains, as soon as the sun sets behind the mountains. It was getting towards evening, we were walking along one of the ridges and decided that we needed to look for a place to spend the night. Below, to our left, an almost bare slope began, and then it was quite dark and dense pine forest. In general, we collected firewood, lit a fire, and set up tents. The girls prepared dinner and we all ate together. We made some tea (ordinary black tea in the mountains with the addition of herbs is something) and began to tell stories. Meanwhile, the sun had already set and the sky was overcast, although the sun had been shining all day. Well, we told a few stories by the fire and gradually began to disperse to our tents. I went down to the forest to relieve myself before going to bed. Downstairs, when I turned off the flashlight, I already felt uneasy. This is a very creepy feeling when you are standing in the dark, there is an ancient forest around you, and you are constantly listening and peering into the darkness (though, when you turn on a flashlight, it gets even worse, because you only see tree trunks, the light of the flashlight does not penetrate further, but anyone in the forest can see you perfectly).
So, I returned to my tent and climbed into it. I talked with the girls some more, then they decided that it was time to go to bed, they turned off the flashlight, they lay down, but no one could fall asleep. Here, somewhere else, lightning flashed and the rain began to beat on the tarpaulin of the tent in large drops. One of the girls whined quietly, I calmed her down, rolled over and tried to fall asleep. But then I heard footsteps. Of course, at first I thought that it was one of our people (there were three of us in tents) who went outside, but the steps... they were too heavy. It was as if someone very large was slowly moving from foot to foot. And walked around our tents. I pulled the ax closer to me and was very glad then that our tent had a “dressing room”. In general, I don’t know how long these steps continued, but in the end sleep overcame fear and I fell asleep. The next morning it turned out that everyone heard the steps, but no one left the tents. Everyone lay there and was afraid. It was a terrible night...

My wife and I loved being outdoors and on weekends we often spent the night in the forest. Our red cat Musya is our constant companion and has always been with us on our hikes.
The weekend came, and we jumped into the car and drove into the forest. Each time we chose a new place. Leaving the car on the forest road, this time we decided to go further. They took their things and wandered into the thicket. Soon they found a path and followed it. On the way we smelled organic matter and what seemed to be the smell of hydrogen sulfide.
We quickly found a cozy clearing. We pitched a tent, collected firewood and began to prepare food. We always take with us 5 liters of Arkhyz water in a plastic bottle with a handle, pasta and stewed meat. Muska was constantly spinning under her feet and playing with butterflies and flies. We must give her credit: during all our campaigns she never ran away or disappeared. Soon it got dark and we started getting ready for bed. According to established tradition, a collar was put on Musya, and a leash from it was tied to a peg driven into the ground near the tent. The leash was always long enough for the cat to sleep peacefully with us in the tent, and if she wanted to go out to relieve herself, she could do so completely calmly. So we climbed into the tent and took Muska with us. After talking a little, we fell asleep...

At night we woke up from the sound of someone quacking sharply, and this quack ended with a barely noticeable crunch. Then we heard someone walking around the tent, rustling branches. I took the phone, turned on the screen, it was 2:17 am. Shining the screen, I found a knife and, daring, shouted: “Who’s there?” The rustling suddenly stopped, as if whoever was walking suddenly stopped. Then there was a sound like someone chuckled. And then the completely indescribable began: slowly between the buttons closed tent, parting the tarpaulin, an object similar to a cow’s horn, thick, with black hair at the base, poked into the tent. This was accompanied by the sound: “buude, buude, buude.” The sound or “voice” was very strange, low and loud, and the manner of “pronunciation” was similar to the way the deaf speak. My ears were ringing with fear. Who or what was it? The horn remained in the tent for just a few seconds, then abruptly disappeared, the sound of retreating footsteps was heard, and then everything fell silent. We sat in the tent and did not dare to leave until the morning.
As soon as morning came, we went out and saw a cross in front of the tent! It was made from two sticks and wrapped with grass and branches and stuck into the ground. Since the phone remained clutched in my hand, I took a photo of it. I was sure that he had not been there yet in the evening! And most importantly! Musya is missing! The peg, leash and collar remained in place, only the collar was torn. It didn't take us long to realize that it was extremely unsafe to stay here. We called Musya, but we guessed that it was useless: she never ran away, and the torn collar made us understand that it was useless to call and search. Leaving the tent and grabbing everything we needed, we rushed back to the car. And we reached the city without incident.
For a long time we did not dare to return there, but it was a pity to leave the tent, and after some time we finally returned. And, oddly enough, for a long time they could not find the place where they stopped for the night. We got lost until we noticed something strange: quite a lot of tree trunks were cut either with a knife or a machete, and some even had drawings on them (photo). And suddenly we noticed some object in the bushes. Approaching it, we were dumbfounded: we saw a clearing with a dug-out dugout, and everything said that they LIVE here (photo). And when they saw the remains of a tarpaulin (possibly from our tent) and our Arkhyz bottle, we realized that it was useless to look for our things. Suddenly it became very alarming, and we, not daring to stay here for long, quickly left. No matter how much we wandered, we, of course, never found the tent.
Returning to the road, we saw another cross! It resembled the one that was discovered that terrible morning, and... near the car... Musya, or rather, her almost rotten corpse. I swear she wasn't there when we arrived...
A year has already passed, but I am not left with a depressed state and some kind of detachment. Needless to say, we never went into the forest again. And a month after this incident, my wife left for someone else, and I became seriously ill. I can’t write anymore, it’s bad and painful.

The story happened to my friend many years ago when he was a student. In the summer, during the holidays, he and three of his friends decided to go hiking in Western Ukraine. Moreover, it was supposed to travel some distance by train (to a certain settlement), walk partly, and sail partly along the river on an inflatable boat. We thought it, we did it.
We reached the village, stocked up on provisions, and walked through the forest to the river. They had a map with them, oh, probably not of very high quality, because they walked for a long time, evening was approaching, the river near which they planned to stop was not at the indicated place. And suddenly, on the path along which they were walking, a grandmother appeared, warmly dressed in a precocious manner. The tired guys asked her how far it was to the river. The grandmother looked at them carefully and said: “There is no river here. It would be better if you guys returned home. Because there is a black cat walking here. She will eat you and drink you” (grandmother’s spelling). Deciding that the old woman had lost her mind, the guys, laughing, went on and very soon came to the river that was on the map. Here they pitched a tent, inflated the boat, prepared dinner, and, on the occasion of the long-awaited rest, drank a bottle of Port wine.
Yes, skeptics, four healthy, athletic guys drank a bottle of wine, and most of the bottle came from Genka Y. (I’ll call him that!). As you understand, there was no total intoxication. The guys sat near the fire, sang songs with a guitar, and began to go to bed. They had a two-person tent, and Genka volunteered to spend the night under open air in an inflatable boat, so that (in his words) “no one snores in your ear!” We fell asleep quickly, the physical activity during the day had an effect. Next, according to my friend, this is what happened: in the middle of the night, three friends in a tent were awakened by loud meowing. Even this was not a meow, but rather a howl. Moreover, the sound was increasing, with modulation that gave goosebumps. There was a full moon in the sky, and the shadow of a large cat was moving across the tent. The cat not only walked around the tent, but also tried to tear through the fabric with its claws. The guys clearly saw claws from inside the tent when the cat, growling and howling, tried to get inside. My friend said that the only thought of those in the tent was the thought of Genk, who was sleeping outside.
The horror they experienced (I remembered the words of the strange grandmother) made them unable to do anything. The cat howled and scratched into the tent almost until dawn, fortunately, summer nights short. Even after everything calmed down, the guys did not immediately crawl out of the tent. And what did they see? Genka was lying on the grass, completely naked (his things were piled up next to him), and the inflatable boat was missing. When everyone woke him up, it turned out that he had heard nothing and absolutely did not understand what had happened.
The boat was found half an hour later: it was hanging high on a tree. With great difficulty we managed to remove it. That's it. There are no explanations.
R.S: Genka died of leukemia that same year.