Not that I've seen anything too remarkable (a couple of strange men in the woods at night etc). But we've all had that feeling that there is something watching you…

Human seagulls?

the owls are not what they seem….

A ghost, it was there 1 second and gone the next!

Or was it a tree….that looked a bit like one after getting all uncool about riding alone and getting freaked out….

A field full of penned sheep, halfway up Glen Tilt. Nobody needs hundreds of glowing eyes staring at them, especially with a bladder full of coffee and energy drink!

A load of French men buring vines in England at night as some kind of ritual.

Was quite odd.

Turned out they owned the vineyard that's near the Sustainability centre on the SDW. Every year they come over and have a fire in Feb time to mark the start of the new season or something.

Couldn't really undersatnd a word they were saying as my french is rubbish.

Anyway was odd.

I was riding across the moor on my commute home last winter, pitch black all around me apart from in front obvioulsy, and felt something brush against my right shoulder. More than likely a bat or owl but I got a major shiver down my spine.

On a fast descent through the woods, the side of a very large, very black cow.

Just barely in time to stop before colliding with it… 😯

I know of another rider who riding on his own could smell cigarette smoke. Stopped his bike but could not locate the the smoker.. Someone was there watching him..

I almost got pushed off my bike one night by someone or something on a quiet country lane – it freaked me out when it happened as I thought I was being attacked, it freaked me out even more when I realised nobody was there.

not so much spooky or strange as OMG! WTF! Aaaarrrgggghhh!! would probably be the badger that stepped out infront of me while descending rather quickly on a night road ride! most sideways I've ever got a roadbike! They're **** big aren't they?

spookiest night ride was actually a road ride too, the night after I went to see 28days later I was out riding country roads after midnight alone and ended up daydreaming (always do on roadrides) about the film, each remote house, hamlet, farm etc. I passed seemed more and more quiet, just the odd one having an upstairs light on but no sign of life, after about an hour I still hadn't seen another living soul. Ok, not that spooky or weird just made me think "what if?"

I nearly always nightride on my own so if I found nightriding spooky I don't think I'd do it.

I was having an already freaky ride late one evening earlier this summer.. (riding through some unknown sections way deeper in the woods than usual with marines on manouveures all around..)
At a very spooky bit of ancient woodland.. I sat down for a rest and to soak up some atmosphere… next to a small pile of large old bones.. some with very neat breaks.. a hacked up body perhaps..?

Feeling spooked and a bit jumpy I was heading home trying to get back before lighting up time and failing fast… with the sound of an injured animal echoing around the trees.. when I spotted a very large man in a very clean tux stomping cheerfully through the woods towards the desolate and barren center of the gorse common.. this was during the week that the hunt for Raoul Moat was underway..

I didn't like it

Rode into the middle of a full on deer rut. Totally Sh1t myself.

Seen many many 'beast with 2 backs'.

on a fast descent 5 of us just about stopped in time as some scouts had decided it was a good spot for a night camp! They had their stoves set up right across the path, gave us some very nice hot chocolate though!

Some hairy and horned highland cow appear out of the darkness one night when riding back home. It was just stood there on the trail and it did not move a muscle. It scared the living daylights out of me. It was docile enough fortunately. They had introduced them to help manage the heath land.

A few years ago was riding alone through woods in winter on a misty night, soiled myself when a barn owl silently flew over me and my lights just illuminated its creamy white underside, still haven't cleared the climb through those woods as quick 😯

Riding round Sherwood Pines at night I've had a few moments (especially in the blair witch like bit on the return leg). But the weirdest was coming along the trail, my lights picked up three bikers riding across the trail ahead of me. Well, the reflection indicated three bikers. When i got to where they'd crossed I realised there was no path at all that they could have taken. I was spooked good and proper until i heard a noise to my left and looked over to see four sets of deer eyes peering back at me!

I've also been riding a fire road in Pines and heard thunder getting louder and louder – suddenly about 5 yards ahead the entire herd ran across in front of us. That made us jump.

Last night saw a strange glow coming through the trees… rode past… then my curiosity got the better of me, turned and rode back to where it was coming from. "Is it a UFO?".. "Someone has dropped dead and their torch fallen to the ground?".
Nope. It was one of those solar garden lights a chav had probably nicked from someone's garden and chucked there.
It's in my garden now 🙂

A couple years back whilst riding on Woodbury Common a load of local marines had set up for the night right next to the start of the trail I was planning on riding, like literally on the entrance so was forced to go right past one of their tents front wheel hit what I thought was a stick (had a very week 100 head light on at the time) looked down to find the stick was in fact a miss laid SA80 rifle complete with one of those very expensive scopes, and not a marine in sight!

I've both spooked & been spooked by the marines on Woodbury – just glad the grenade range is shut now!

Husky sled teams practicing at night in Ramscombe on the quantocks. Very loud and very fast….

The Tunnel Hill Trolls. I was approaching a crossroads in the woods on my own but a good 50 yards away. Through the pine trees on my left I saw all these coloured (bright white, red, blue and yello) lights weaving like fairies through the trees, bobbing up and down here and there, but silently. I knew what it was within a second or two but it looked flippin amazing. Like watching some CGI alien special effect, only real.

went for a bivvy on one of the wettest nights of the year, we heard and then saw a tree (massive thing) fall down, the ground was obviously so wet the roots just pulled out of the ground.

upon hearing i thought the world might be ending, only for a second, then seeing made us realise the 'power of nature' if we had been 50m down the trail we would have been gonnas!!

count yourself lucky you weren't there when they had one of their cross nights, where you either have to cross dress or ride a cross bike. Or buy beer. I've seen photos…….

Close encounters with bats and owls aside, last year on a long, long descent spotted a guy with an mtb hiding in the ferns, rolled in a tight ball trying to pull the bike further in with him…

…called the police as very odd behaviour imo (and there had been a couple of expensive bikes nicked in the weeks before)…they rang me back about 30mins later "can you tell us again where he was hiding please" – like he was really still gonna be tucked in the bushes!

I was once riding across the local moor to a friends house for dinner having just been sitting in the pub talking about the witches that "live" in this moor. I was already a bit freaked out (dark, no streetlights) when I felt something scrape over my helmet – a second later I saw the owl. But it scared me enough to go full pelt to my friends where I turned up dripping with sweat much to everyone's amusement.

Riding through the woods which were pitch black other than my light, I suddenly heard a bloke say 'Alright' right near me. Didn't stop for a few seconds then turned my light off and looked back and there was no sign of him so he was clearly in the woods, in the pitch black doing who knows what. Admittedly it wasn't the most threatening of comments but…

Horses scare me in the daylight, so I wouldn't want to come across them in the dark.
There's one over my local field that chases me. He does, he bloody chases me! Luckily he's on a chain. But I don't know how long the chain is!

are you sure he wasn't just taking a dump?

One of my colleagues was hit by a deer on his way home from work.
Wrecked his bike too. Oh dear 🙂

Maybe. Still an odd thing to be doing in the middle of the woods on your own (or not, I suppose…)

Riding through the woods which were pitch black other than my light, I suddenly heard a bloke say 'Alright' right near me. Didn't stop for a few seconds then turned my light off and looked back and there was no sign of him so he was clearly in the woods, in the pitch black doing who knows what. Admittedly it wasn't the most threatening of comments but…

are you sure he wasn't just taking a dump?

Might have been telling somebody ' I need to wipe'

Chased by a pack of pigs in the NF one night – don't know who was more scared – them or me, either way I pedalled for England that night.

Was riding along the cycle path under Clifton Suspension one night in pitch darkness. My light picked out somebody running away from me down the path as fast as he could. He then suddenly jumped right into the undergrowth…………absolutely sh@t myself when I rode past where he had jumped in thinking to myself "any minute now he's going to jump me"……fastest peddling I have ever done to this day.

Last year I was down at Glentress night riding on my own (no one turned up), I had just decended Spooky Wood and I could see bright lights and machinery through the trees really close to me, I was totally spooked even though I realised they were cutting the trees in that part of the forest, was also a bit weird as it was at 9.00pm.

But imagine what we must look like ? I try to shield my lights when coming in to the view of a car but it must look pretty odd to see us lot tearing thru the woods with our big lights bouncing around.

Coming home the other night we rode thru the park and these two blokes dived off the path as we rounded the bend at speed… They must have thought we were a car or a motorbike or a swarm of ufos. Very funny.

I was doing a climb at 9PM one November night when I heard a quiet but definite "woop" kind of noise to my right. Before I could turn a branch about 2ft long and maybe 6" round came flying past the front of my bar lights. I looked to see who my prankster assailant was with my helmet light. There was no one there. I cleaned that hill in nano seconds before having a word with myself and going back to look. There was still no one there and I can't explain it at all. Another night at about 5pm but still pitch black I was doing the same hill but on another path and something breathed a rather large "huh" in my left ear. This time I threw the bike down and tried to confront whatever had done it. There was nothing and I daresay I looked stupid. I've never had any more bother from the denizens of the night in those woods though. There's plenty of other weird sh!t goes on there but if it's just down to weird people it doesn't bother me. Stuff I can't explain concerns me but not to the point where I'll stop doing what I want to do.

First night ride I did from where we live now was a misty night, but quite mooonlit, giving an eery glow to everything. Halfway up the long climb, through thick forest, I came around a corner to find a white peacock* stood in the middle of the track. It looked straight at me, squawked and flew off into the dark.

It felt like I'd stumbled into a cheap 70s horror film. Certainly made me pick the pace up!

* I've never seen it again

But imagine what we must look like ? I try to shield my lights when coming in to the view of a car but it must look pretty odd to see us lot tearing thru the woods with our big lights bouncing around.

Years ago the FC Ranger stopped me and my mate on a QE Park night jaunt as he'd had reports of people "lighting fires" in the woods! Night riding was pretty rare in them ol' days.

Riding in leigh woods a few years ago, almost hit a bloke sat in middle of the trail- he was dressed in white robes and reading a big book by torchlight! I said "evening" and carried on riding..somebody I know found a guy who had hung himself. Police asked them to wait by the body till they arrived..