This is a true story. As far as I can tell I’m not being gaslit.
This has been going on for a couple years now but it hasn’t gotten to me until now. I work as a paddling coach in Ottawa Canada. I coach sprint kayak and canoe, dragon boat, stand up paddle board, and an assortment of other boats. I work year round but when the water opens up I work out of a camp 10min outside of the city. The club is surrounded by deep woods and several other camps. The plot of land next to where I work is owned by the YMCA and used for a summer camp, but the camp only takes up about a quarter of the area. The rest of the forest is filled with a spider web of deep wood trails that go on for km. I used to train my athletes on the trails but for a couple years now we haven’t been allowed to use them. Anytime we go on the trails now a representative of the YMCA usually comes and kicks us off.
It all started about two years ago. I was up river aways coaching a dragon boat session. We were paddling along side the shoreline owned by the YMCA and just as we were taking a break I heard the most chilling scream coming from the woods not too far from shore. It sounded like a women’s, but it sounded really off, as though see was struggling to get air or something. The whole boat stopped moving and stopped to listen. It was quiet for a long time until I asked if anyone had heard that. A dragon boat holds 22 people and just as I asked everyone looked at me and nodded. People were quiet for awhile to see if it would happen again. This first incident happened late in the summer so I assumed it was just a camp kid screaming at a bug or something, it happens. When we didn’t hear it again, we decided to continue the workout. Just as we got going however, it happened again. Still the same gargled scream just beyond the tree-line, and again everyone in the boat stopped to listen. I wasn’t 100 percent sure what to do. I had never dealt with anything like this before. It was one of those things that you question constantly, not sure if what you heard was legit or not. I beached the dragon boat on shore just so we could take a look. Everyone was guessing that the source of the scream could not be more than beyond the tree-line. A couple of the guys and me took a look around but couldn’t see anything. It was honestly a really chilling situation. We all eventually decided to call it a day and head back. I assumed it was just a camp group hiking the trails and it eventually left my mind.
Flash forward to last summer, I heard the screams again only a handful of times over the season. I can’t say how many times but it couldn’t have been more than 3. Each time it would happen, me and whoever I was with could never find where it was coming from. It was always the stretch of beach owned by the YMCA, never anywhere else. This all happened and different points of the summer. It was never just one part of the season. I want to say that this wasn’t the only weird shit going on at the club. Besides the odd disembodied screaming, myself and others would hear a few different sounds coming from the woods by the club. This would include a weird rasping wind blowing through the forest immediately followed up by the sound of what can only be described as someone gutting a fish but really loudly. It’s so hard to explain but I want to do the sound justice because it has just chilled me to the bone.
The worst thing I’ve experienced at work is somewhat too common now a days. It usually happens when I have my younger training group with me. With this group I coach mostly sprint canoe and sprint kayak and the group ranges in age from the youngest being 12 to the oldest being 17. I train the kids after school and sometimes we go late to just before the sun sets. Sometimes I’m stuck closing up the club in the dark with the kids which is when this usually happens. From time to time when its just on the cusp of being dark out, me and my athletes hear footsteps coming from the woods the surround us. They always stop just short of the tree-line. It doesn’t sound like someones running through the trails or anything, but as if someone is walking through the underbrush. Just as we hear it me and the kids always fall silent and look to the exact same place. This usually prompts everyone to drop whatever they are doing and hightail it to the parking lot to drive off.
Now all of this would have been fine. I’m a tough guys, I don’t scar easy, at least I didn’t think so, but a couple of days ago something finally put me over the edge. It’s been an exceptionally warm spring in Canada which has allowed me to start work on the water 3-4 weeks earlier than usual. I was out on the water with a dragon boat crew and we were paddling up and down the range of beach owned by the YMCA. Again it happened. Everyone one stopped paddling and just stared at the stretch of beach. The scream sounded different now, still female, but really demonic. All of my hairs stood on end. The whole boat laughed awkwardly assuming it was just a member of the club, or a member of the YMCA hiking the old trails, but I didn’t laugh. It hit me almost immediately, it couldn’t have been a member of our club because I was the last booking of the night, and it couldn’t have been any members of the YMCA because it was too early in the season, the YMCA camp hasn’t been opened for the season yet.
That was the other night and I haven’t decided what to do. The whole thing has put me on edge and I haven’t allowed myself to stay later then 8 these last couple of days. I’m not a usual on these kinds of subreddits but I thought I needed to get my story out there. It isn’t just me either. I’ve talked to the other coaches at the club and all of them have heard the screams. We all just don’t know what to do about it. I know some of the stories on the subreddit aren’t really true but I promise I’m not making this up. The screams usually happen a couple times a summer and usually in twos so I will try to get a video of it happening if I can.
Thanks,
- T