In the summer of 2005, six fourteen-year-old Boy Scouts from South Carolina set out to prove they were ready for anything. It was supposed to be their final challenge before aging out of the troop—a week-long wilderness survival test in the Francis Marion National Forest, just northeast of Charleston.

Their scoutmaster dropped them at a remote trailhead with only the essentials: a map, a compass, and an emergency radio. No adults. No safety nets. Just a simple plan—hike eight miles into the backcountry, set up a primitive camp, and spend a week living off the skills they'd spent years developing. For the first day or so, everything went according to plan. The boys found a quiet clearing by a creek—secluded, serene, and perfect. 

They pitched their tents, made camp, and laughed about how easy this was going to be.Then came the second night. The woods fell silent—eerily silent. Then came the howls. Deep, resonant, impossible to place. What began as strange noises quickly escalated into something far more sinister. Over the next two nights, the scouts endured a terrifying series of events that shook their confidence and stripped away any sense of safety. Footsteps circled their tents after midnight—heavy, deliberate.

 Their food bag, strung high in a tree for bear safety, was ripped down like it was nothing. One tent was pushed in by something large enough to leave massive handprints in the fabric. Rocks the size of baseballs were hurled at them from the darkness with enough force to strip bark from nearby trees. A thick, musky odor hung in the air. And through it all, they saw them—huge, hair-covered figures moving just beyond the tree line.

The breaking point came on the third night. Seven pairs of glowing eyes appeared around the campfire—eyes at least eight feet off the ground, unmoving, unblinking, and far too intelligent to be mistaken for animals. The message was clear: you don’t belong here.

At first light, the boys made the call to leave—three days early. But getting out wasn’t simple. Whatever was out there followed them the entire hike back. One scout saw a massive figure standing in broad daylight in the middle of a creek—impossible to mistake or explain away. Later, their path was blocked entirely by the largest creature yet, forcing them to cut through dense brush to escape.

This is a firsthand account from one of those scouts—now in his thirties—finally breaking the silence on an experience that’s haunted all six of them for nearly two decades. Officially, it was just another uneventful primitive campout. But unofficially? It was three days of something stalking them. Watching them. Controlling whether they left… or didn’t.They made a pact to keep it quiet, afraid of being laughed at or called liars.

 But now, for the first time, one of them is telling the truth about what really happened in those woods.This is the real story of what drove six confident Boy Scouts out of the forest—early, terrified, and forever changed.