The Ranger Asked Me To Describe The Man Again And Then Went Very Quiet
59% BELIEVED
CASE FILE #325
FILED: Apr 1, 2026
CLASSIFICATION: Wilderness Encounters
WITNESS ON RECORD: leobro
JURY OF 269 READERS HEARD THIS CASE: 158 believed it, 51 had doubts, 60 weren't buying it.
Eleven miles in, on a trail that takes a fit person five hours, I met a man walking out.
No pack. No water. Jeans. A red jacket, the cheap kind, zipped to the chin on a day that was twenty-six degrees.
He was walking at a good pace, and he said good morning, and I said good morning, and I asked — because you do, out there, it is the etiquette — whether he was all right for water.
He said, "I'm nearly there."
And then he was past me, and I walked on, and it took me about four minutes to work out that "nearly there" was, in the direction he was going, another nine miles of exposed ridge with no water on it.
I turned round. The trail behind me is straight for at least six hundred metres.
Nobody on it.
I sat down for a bit. I am not a nervous person. I have done long trails since I was twenty and I have slept alone in places you would not park a car.
At the ranger station I reported it, because you do that too: a man with no water is a body in two days.
No pack. No water. Jeans. A red jacket, the cheap kind, zipped to the chin on a day that was twenty-six degrees.
He was walking at a good pace, and he said good morning, and I said good morning, and I asked — because you do, out there, it is the etiquette — whether he was all right for water.
He said, "I'm nearly there."
And then he was past me, and I walked on, and it took me about four minutes to work out that "nearly there" was, in the direction he was going, another nine miles of exposed ridge with no water on it.
I turned round. The trail behind me is straight for at least six hundred metres.
Nobody on it.
I sat down for a bit. I am not a nervous person. I have done long trails since I was twenty and I have slept alone in places you would not park a car.
At the ranger station I reported it, because you do that too: a man with no water is a body in two days.
THIS EXCERPT ENDS HERE. The remaining 173 words of the testimony — and the reader jury — are on file at:
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https://www.swearithappened.com/wilderness-encounter-stories/the-ranger-asked-me-to-describe-the-man-again-and-then-went-very-quiet-325/
Votes on record: 158 believed · 51 unsure · 60 didn't · 59% of readers believe this story