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Probably the weirdest thing that has happened to me was on a solo backpacking trip, eastern sierra onion valley trailhead. Original intent was to climb university peak. This was probably around 2010 or so?
I went to work for a little bit that morning so I didnt get to the trailhead until afternoon. I barely had enough time to get to my first destination, bench lake...the one that sits below the north face of university peak. By the time I got there, set up camp and had dinner it was night. I had set up maybe a hundred yards or more from the lake, so I went to get some water from the lake for the night, and next morning.
I walked over and started circumventing the lake maybe 10 yards from it on a little use/game trail as it was surrounded by bushes, I was trying to find a break in the bushes to get to the shore. I finally spotted a very large conference room table sized boulder nestled in the bushes, maybe 5' x 12' and 3' in height and very flat, and a way to the lake.
So I hopped on top of this boulder and on the other side was a very small little beach just big enough to crouch down to gather water. My back was pretty much against the boulder. I use a steripen to purify water 1 liter at a time, and I believe the 1 liter setting takes 90 seconds to zap. So I spend probably less than 5 minutes to zap a couple liters. I finish up, and stand up and turn around to hop back up on the boulder to go back to camp.
The moment I turn around "WHOOOOSH" something very large and very white flys within 3 feet of my face. I dont even have time to think about it as the very next moment I had a vision. There was a native american male in his mid 20's that lay dying on that rock in front of me. A woman was kneeling beside him. I just thought to myself "this guy died on this rock"
So after the vision was over, I felt the adrenaline rising up in me as that white thing had startled the ever living shit out of me. But despite that I wasnt scared or felt threatened in any way, and just walked back to my tent and went to sleep.
The next day I opted out of university peak, and instead just hopped over the ridge and toured the kearsarge lakes. I ended up hooking back up to the kearsarge lakes trail, back over the pass to the trailhead and my vehicle.
So obviously I would tell my friends and family that story and no one could wrap their head around it...that would just say things like "how high were you?" and "oh thats weird!" We just dont have any context or room for that sort of thing.
Think about what you are thinking about right now. You probably either dont believe it or are trying to come up with some rational explanation for it.
So because of that, this experience kind of bounced around my head, and felt....i dont know unresolved.
I forgot about it but every now and then it would bubble back up to the surface, I would become a little obsessed by it, and would read up on the history of the tribes of the eastern sierra, none of which would help resolve this experience. Finally maybe around 5 years ago I sent an email to the big pine paiute tribal historical lead, and got a positive response. This relieved 90% of these unresolved feelings.
Maybe 2 years after the experienced I had hiked by this lake on another backpacking trip but I just passed through and at the time I did not have these unresolved feelings at all so I just hiked through without stopping or even thinking about it. But other than that I have not gone back. I will go back. I kind of need to go back. Maybe this year is the year. I do need to find that boulder...in the day time... and i dont know what but maybe just sit there for a minute.
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