I recently came across a thread on hiking alone/weird experiences while in nature. This reminded me of my own story from 2005, so I wanted to share it here.

My hiking experience was this: I was solo camping at the Lake Dubonnet campsites west of the lake (near Interlochen, MI). In the morning I set off for a hike around nearby Lost Lake (fitting name!?). I realized after a short while as I neared Lost Lake that the forest was absolutely silent, not a sound. No birds, not a squirrel, nothing. I felt like I had entered a sort of dream state, thinking, am I dreaming this? Why is the forest silent? As I kept walking, I started to hear the sound of (what I thought was) a helicopter coming nearer. I was confused by that, but there is a Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City, so I thought maybe a helicopter was flying back to town? By that time I had previously lived in Interlochen for 2 years and had never heard such a sound, but your mind tries to make sense of things.

I kept walking, and the sound continued to come nearer and then became deafening, as though it was a buzzing IN my ears. At that same point I then felt as tho I could "see" behind me, and that a bear (???) was running up to charge from behind and tackle me. At this point the "helicopter" noise was super loud and I panicked, whipped around, and: nothing was there. And the noise stopped instantly. And I felt like I had just woken up. I shook my head, super confused, looked all around me, looking in the sky for a plane or ANYthing, but there was truly nothing. I was beyond perplexed, of course! I wanted to get back to my tent and car ASAP, but I did NOT want to turn around and walk back past Lost Lake any more than I had to! So I kept going on the trail which thankfully was circular enough to get me back to the campsite.

I've never experienced that again, either in that exact spot or anywhere else; I guess I'll forever be puzzled. I watch Ghost Adventures and have seen ppl who've experienced similar things to my story, so that sort of makes me feel less alone! Would be happy to hear of any other 'lost time' experiences anyone has had.