K, my turn. I grew up in the sticks of Southern Illinois. We were on 8 acres, nestled inside a handfull of 250+ acre farms around us. "Trespassing" was not a thing for me growing up. Nobody cared where I walked as long as I did not trample crops and I kept my hunting to my Dad's place. I could literally walk for most of a day in any direction from my parents' house without seeing another human being if I didn't want to. I could fill books with stuff ranging from just plain weird all the way up to "WTF".
1) I dated a girl for a while who the parents were not fond of and eventually they banned her from the property. Well, I'd say I was going somewhere for the night but I'd really go pick her up, drive back home, and park up near the road on a trail we had, just out of sight from the road and way out of sight from the house so I don't think the parents ever knew I was there with her spending nights in a tent in our woods. I think mostly the car was not seen from the road. Well one night we're lying there asleep and I wake up to the sound of that "keew" sound a white tail deer makes right before he high-tails it. It thought maybe they just smelled us and knew we didn't belong, but then the whole herd did this stampede on either side of the tent, all around us and they took off across the nearby road and through the soy field on the other side. At this point I knew something was chasing them. It was also obvious it was not coyotes or I would have heard a lot of howling and yipping. In S. Illinois this leaves 2 other possibles: hominid or feline. I rolled up on top of the girl and put a hand over her mouth, woke her up and whispered that she was not to move or make a sound and we just lay there waiting. After a while I heard 2 faint footfalls right next to the tent but I think the cat passed on by in pursuit of the deer. For all I know he sat right next to the tent all night, I did NOT go out to find out, just sat there with my camping pistol, unable to sleep all night.
2) One night camping in SW Missouri I was frightened awake by the sound of a roar. Not human. Definitely coming from a large chest cavity, I'm sure it was around a 300 lb. black bear. Put on boots and headlamp, went outside and started growling and yelling at the woodsline, kukri in one hand, pistol in the other. I heard him saunter off but never saw him. I threw some decent sized rocks in that general direction and we didn't hear back from him all weekend. This was early spring and we were the first campers of the year.
3) One time in the woods I saw a human-shaped shadow that was running from tree to tree, staying just in my peripheral vision. I thought maybe I was seeing things from walking too hard uphill so I sat down to catch my breath. Smoke-shadow-human thing kept running around me, staying maybe 30 ft. away the whole time. The dog had his hackles up the whole time and he was generally very laid-back, big dumb lab/shepherd mix. We took off the way we came in.
4) As a kid in the country I watched the night sky a lot, drew the same picture of aliens over and over, used to think I could see their ships in the sky. To be fair, I have NO memory of any contact of any kind. I have NO memory of actually seeing one, or actually seeing a UFO, just probably shooting stars. This was when I was maybe 8. Moved back to the farm later in life with my wife and baby. We woke up one night and I experienced a brief sleep paralysis. For the record, I can actually fight sleep paralysis pretty darned well and make myself wake up and make the use of my limbs return. Well I did that this particular night and sat up. I could feel everything was all wrong. I could feel we were being scanned. Thank gods we were all in the same room or I would have been terrified for the 2 year old. I felt this weird pulling, sucking feeling in my legs and feet as if I were being drawn outside, and even felt some subliminal urges to go outside and investigate. At this point, with the weird feelings and sleep paralysis I thought it was possible I was dreaming so I woke my wife up. I asked her if she felt anything strange and she confirmed the weird pulling on her legs and feet, like a sideways gravity. I got out the rifle and and looked out the windows but never saw anything. Eventually the feelings subsided. I got an hour or two of sleep around dawn. All that said, when I watch these "I was abducted" shows on cable TV, I get this really sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and often experience PTSD-type episodes. I am pretty sure there are repressed memories somewhere in my head that have yet to surface. If I had the time I'd probably go to a good hypnotist and have them record a session with me.