April 8, 2026

Knock, Knock: True Scary Ice Fishing Story in the Middle of the Night

Knock, Knock: True Scary Ice Fishing Story in the Middle of the Night
Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
Spreaker podcast player badge
Audible podcast player badge
Castro podcast player badge
RSS Feed podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player iconSpotify podcast player iconSpreaker podcast player iconAudible podcast player iconCastro podcast player iconRSS Feed podcast player icon

A lonely ice fishing hut, a brutal Ontario snowstorm, and a series of slow, deliberate knocks at the door in the dead of night — tonight’s Weekly Spooky episode delivers a deeply unsettling true scary story about isolation, fear, and the kind of experience that refuses to make sense long after the sun comes up.

If you love true horror stories, creepy wilderness encounters, paranormal mysteries, strange campfire tales, and stories about being trapped alone in the dark while something waits outside, this one will get under your skin. Set miles from shore on a frozen lake, “KNOCK, KNOCK” turns an overnight fishing trip into a nerve-rattling nightmare of pounding walls, unseen visitors, and footprints in the snow leading in every direction. Lock the door, keep the heater running, and listen close.

“KNOCK, KNOCK” — by Gary D, Ontario, Canada aka Blue Fire Raging

🎧 LISTEN NOW and subscribe for spine-tingling horror stories every week!

🎉 Unlock exclusive bonus episodes and support the show on Patreon!
👉 WeeklySpooky.com/Join

📬 Contact Us / Submit Your Horror Story!


🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.480 --> 00:00:04.839
Miles from shore, alone in an ice fishing hut during

2
00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:10.039
a snow storm. He woke to something knocking at the door.

3
00:00:10.679 --> 00:00:14.560
Then the walls started pounding from every side, and by

4
00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:18.960
morning the snow outside held tracks that made even less

5
00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:27.559
sense than the night before. What's that you want to

6
00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:39.039
be scared? He Come with me. You will experience tales

7
00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:44.079
over our room, ghosts and death own. It is not

8
00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:51.359
recommended for the week at art listeners in the dark,

9
00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:57.799
It's more fun at that way way. This is Weekly Speaking,

10
00:01:04.519 --> 00:01:10.519
Hello my Spookyes, it's Wednesday, and you know what that means.

11
00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:15.159
It's time for a little spooky in your weekly, and

12
00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:18.519
tonight we have a brand new author making his Weekly

13
00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:24.400
Spooky debut, Gary d Up in Toronto. But before we

14
00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:26.599
get to that, I want to mention I'll be making

15
00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:30.840
some appearances around Ohio in case you want to meet

16
00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:34.840
me in person, although I'm not as scary in real life.

17
00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:39.280
I'll be at the Cinema Wasteland Convention in Cleveland, Ohio,

18
00:01:39.719 --> 00:01:43.519
April tenth through twelfth. You can do a little googling

19
00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:46.200
to find the place, but I'll be there all weekend.

20
00:01:46.519 --> 00:01:49.400
Come by and say hi, maybe even buy a movie.

21
00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:53.760
That'd be nice, And the following weekend on April eighteenth

22
00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:57.840
and nineteenth, I'll be at the Oddities and Curiosities Expo

23
00:01:58.040 --> 00:02:01.879
in Columbus, Ohio. I'll be a guest of Terror Vision

24
00:02:01.959 --> 00:02:06.040
Records and Graveface Records. And by the way, several of

25
00:02:06.040 --> 00:02:09.680
you Spooky's actually discovered this show because you met me

26
00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:13.800
at the Oddities and Curiosities Expo. It's a place just

27
00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:17.479
maggoty with Spooky. So if you get a chance, please

28
00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:20.599
stop on buy say hey, I'd love to see it.

29
00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:23.319
And if it's your first time here with us at

30
00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:27.599
Weekly Spooky, make sure you subscribe on your favorite podcasting

31
00:02:27.639 --> 00:02:31.280
app because there'll be something very scary here waiting for

32
00:02:31.319 --> 00:02:34.479
you on Friday, and a deep dive into our vault

33
00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:38.840
of nearly four hundred episodes on Saturday. And if you've

34
00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:41.240
been a listener for a while and love what we're doing,

35
00:02:41.319 --> 00:02:44.919
remember you can go to Weeklyspooky dot com and support

36
00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:47.560
us for as little as one dollar a month and

37
00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:52.759
get two bonus episodes for your trouble. But now, as

38
00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:57.520
for tonight, there are some sounds that should never reach

39
00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:02.800
you when you're completely alone, not when you're trapped inside

40
00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:07.319
a tiny shack on a frozen lake, not when the

41
00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:12.199
wind is howling, the snow is piling up and the

42
00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:18.479
nearest safe place is miles away. Because if something knocks

43
00:03:18.520 --> 00:03:21.960
on your door out there in the middle of the night,

44
00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:27.560
you really have to wonder what could possibly be standing

45
00:03:27.639 --> 00:03:31.520
on the other side, And do you really want to

46
00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:44.599
find out Knock knock? By Gary d Up in Ontario.

47
00:03:45.080 --> 00:03:49.719
Hi there. My name's Gary and I'm located in Ontario, Canada,

48
00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:53.439
and I've been an avid fisherman as well as salesmen

49
00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:58.080
of various different things for many years now. And with

50
00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:00.879
that being said, that doesn't mean that I'm now going

51
00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:03.360
to try to sell you on this story that I'm

52
00:04:03.400 --> 00:04:06.639
about to tell you, as I'm sure that after hearing it,

53
00:04:07.319 --> 00:04:09.479
there will likely be a few of you who will

54
00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:12.879
tell me that you're not buying what I'm selling. Hey,

55
00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:16.680
that's totally okay and fine by me, because in the end,

56
00:04:16.759 --> 00:04:20.040
all that really matters is that I know that it happened,

57
00:04:20.519 --> 00:04:22.959
and I'm the one still having to deal with the

58
00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:27.399
after effects. And as you're gonna find out shortly, it's

59
00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:30.160
not like I'm claiming to have seen a ten foot

60
00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:34.240
tall fire breathing three headed demon with glowing red eyes

61
00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:37.040
and antlers sprouting out from the sides of its head.

62
00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:41.800
But what I did experience that night was every bit

63
00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:46.199
as freaky, bizarre and disturbing, and yes, it scared the

64
00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:50.680
crap out of me. Bottom line being that some experiences

65
00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:55.639
are just far, far stranger than others, and this is

66
00:04:55.839 --> 00:05:01.240
definitely one of them. So, without further ado, let's get

67
00:05:01.279 --> 00:05:04.920
into my story. Back when I was a teenager and

68
00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:08.879
pretty much throughout my twenties and thirties, I was quite

69
00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:13.399
the avid fisherman. I fished throughout the spring, summer and fall,

70
00:05:13.439 --> 00:05:16.839
but also did my fair share of fishing through the

71
00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:21.160
ice during winter. Over the years, I rented ice fishing

72
00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:26.040
huts on many different frozen lakes all across Ontario, including

73
00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:32.439
some with names like Temegami, Nipissing, Jumping Caribou Cross in Simcoe,

74
00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:35.800
And to be honest with you, it was really more

75
00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:40.040
about the journey than it was about the destination. There

76
00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:43.600
was just something about sitting all alone in a remote

77
00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:47.439
location somewhere and then being forced to deal with nothing

78
00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:51.560
but your own thoughts that I found kind of therapeutic.

79
00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:54.839
And if I caught fish, which I usually did, that

80
00:05:55.120 --> 00:06:00.519
was secondary and a bonus or cherry on top. And

81
00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:02.839
as luck would have it, it was late one night

82
00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:07.480
on one of these midwinter ice fishing excursions when the

83
00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:12.199
only frigid ice water flowing wasn't located just below the

84
00:06:12.279 --> 00:06:16.639
ice under my feet, but was also trickling down the

85
00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:21.600
center of my spine. I'd rented a six by six

86
00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:24.639
by six foot tall at its highest peak fish hut

87
00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:28.279
also known as an ice hut or ice shanty from

88
00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:32.160
a small time hut rental operator located on a sizeable

89
00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:36.560
lake up here in Ontario. This guy, Tyler, had four

90
00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:38.839
of his huts set up in the shallows for those

91
00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:43.439
fishermen targeting northern pike and yellow perch, and then I

92
00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:47.040
think there were like another four huts located about five

93
00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:50.600
miles out in about sixty to seventy feet of water

94
00:06:50.680 --> 00:06:53.839
for those wanting to catch the deeper dwelling lake trout

95
00:06:53.879 --> 00:06:57.959
and whitefish. With regards to the fish hut itself, it

96
00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:01.879
had a good sized propane tanks wrapped and mounted firmly

97
00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:05.360
to the outside wall, with copper piping feeding it into

98
00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:08.639
the hut then connecting to a small heater which was

99
00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:12.720
there to keep me warm. So basically there to potentially

100
00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:16.600
keep me from freezing to death. I gotta say the

101
00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:20.680
accommodation was pretty crappy, with there just being two wide

102
00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:25.480
and very hard wooden planks, one located on each side,

103
00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:29.759
which were covered with a very thin and barely padded

104
00:07:29.879 --> 00:07:33.639
kind of cheap pleather material, which I'm guessing was there

105
00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:38.160
to make it waterproof. And last, but not least, of course,

106
00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:41.399
there was a large exposed hole which had been drilled

107
00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:45.399
in the ice right between the two benches. And yeah,

108
00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:50.000
I know what you're thinking. Yes, it was uncomfortable as hell,

109
00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:52.839
especially if you're going to be sitting there in that

110
00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:57.560
same damn spot for over fourteen hours straight. Shit, that's

111
00:07:57.639 --> 00:08:00.839
longer than it takes to fly the five thousand miles

112
00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:05.879
from JFK in New York to Honolulu, Hawaii. Anyway, on

113
00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:09.600
this particular ice fishing trip, I was gonna be fishing

114
00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:12.000
all alone, and on top of that, I was going

115
00:08:12.040 --> 00:08:15.279
to be pulling an all nighter. That meant being dropped

116
00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:19.000
off at my hut by snowmobile at around four thirty

117
00:08:19.079 --> 00:08:22.680
or so in the afternoon and then not being picked

118
00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:27.199
up again until about seven the next morning. Yeah. I

119
00:08:27.240 --> 00:08:30.199
know some of you are probably rolling your eyes right now,

120
00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:33.000
as you're sitting in your car, a bus, the subway,

121
00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:36.240
a plane or a train, or maybe even just sitting

122
00:08:36.279 --> 00:08:39.080
in your favorite chair at home or laying in bed,

123
00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:42.879
you're probably thinking out loud, are you freaking out of

124
00:08:42.919 --> 00:08:47.080
your mind? Dude? Why the hell would you even do that? Actually,

125
00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:51.120
it's just another humans idea of having fun. But you

126
00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:54.320
won't find me out there bungee jumping, hang gliding, or

127
00:08:54.519 --> 00:08:57.919
climbing a mountain just because it's there. We all have

128
00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:02.200
our vices, hobbies and addictions, and this just happens to

129
00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:06.440
be mine. So once I got dropped off at my hut,

130
00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:09.600
Tyler then double checked the propane tank to make sure

131
00:09:09.639 --> 00:09:13.440
it was full, and he also checked my heater just

132
00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:16.879
to ensure that it was working. He then loaded me

133
00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:19.559
up with a bucket of live minnows to use his bait,

134
00:09:20.039 --> 00:09:23.799
wished me luck, jumped back on his snowmobile, and then

135
00:09:23.919 --> 00:09:27.480
headed back to shore. What he did tell me though,

136
00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:32.000
just before leaving, which honestly kind of freaked me out

137
00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:35.600
at least a bit, was that, as far as he knew,

138
00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.240
I was going to be the only one fishing out

139
00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:42.200
here in this small cluster of deep water fish huts tonight,

140
00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:47.960
so I would be truly out here all alone. I

141
00:09:48.039 --> 00:09:51.080
shut the door and slid the bolt across to locket,

142
00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:54.039
and then got down to business getting all my gear

143
00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:57.759
ready for fishing, as I heard the sound of Tyler's

144
00:09:57.799 --> 00:10:02.960
snowmobile getting quieter and quieter as he headed back into shore.

145
00:10:04.279 --> 00:10:06.799
Once I settled in, over the next few hours, I

146
00:10:06.840 --> 00:10:09.840
caught a few fish, ate a sandwich, had a drink,

147
00:10:10.039 --> 00:10:14.440
not alcoholic, and then just kinda laid back to try

148
00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:18.519
and get some sleep. And over time I could hear

149
00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:25.320
the wind really picking up outside, blowing stronger and stronger.

150
00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:29.159
So I popped open the front door for a second

151
00:10:29.240 --> 00:10:34.759
and saw that it was snowing really hard. Great, I

152
00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:38.320
was now in the middle of a bloody snowstorm. I'd

153
00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:41.399
probably knotted off for maybe like an hour and a

154
00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:46.000
half or so when I suddenly heard this on the

155
00:10:46.039 --> 00:10:49.480
side of the hut, which made me jump straight up

156
00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:53.519
out of my sleep. My heart was pounding like a jackhammer.

157
00:10:54.519 --> 00:10:57.360
I figured, because of the high winds, a random piece

158
00:10:57.399 --> 00:11:02.639
of ice probably just slammed up against the wall, and

159
00:11:02.679 --> 00:11:10.480
then a few minutes later another loud thud, and then

160
00:11:11.039 --> 00:11:16.600
another and another. It must have happened at least a

161
00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:20.799
couple dozen times, and literally sounded like it was hailing

162
00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:25.519
golf balls outside, and I'm thinking to myself, like, what

163
00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:29.679
the actual fuck? I looked at my watch and saw

164
00:11:29.720 --> 00:11:33.240
that it was after midnight. I drank from my bottle

165
00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:36.960
of water, and then just sat there listening to the

166
00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:41.320
howling of the crazy wind outside, which sounded a lot

167
00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:45.240
like a runaway freight train would one that was heading

168
00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:49.639
straight to hell. And just as I was starting to

169
00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:55.320
fall asleep again, I hear another thud, but this time

170
00:11:56.360 --> 00:12:01.960
it was much much louder. Just the sheer shock of

171
00:12:02.039 --> 00:12:06.039
hearing this super loud bang, I felt like my heart

172
00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:09.320
had suddenly hit the ejector seat button and had shot

173
00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:14.519
itself up into my throat. I can't remember exactly how

174
00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:18.720
long it was quiet after that, meaning only hearing the

175
00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:23.320
sound of the raging winds and snow storm outside, before

176
00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:37.600
the shit decided to really hit the fan. At some point,

177
00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:41.360
as I sat there, just kind of all dopey and

178
00:12:41.480 --> 00:12:46.159
half asleep, and amidst all of the howling wind, the

179
00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:52.960
weirdest thing happened rhythmically and methodically. I heard, plain as day,

180
00:12:54.120 --> 00:13:01.240
a slow and loud knock knock knock at my door.

181
00:13:02.519 --> 00:13:07.519
What the hell? I look at my watch again and

182
00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:10.879
see that it's now like to thirty in the morning.

183
00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:18.519
I yell out, Hello, Hello, who is it? I get

184
00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:24.440
no reply. My heart's racing, and I'm thinking to myself, Okay,

185
00:13:25.080 --> 00:13:27.879
I'm sitting here all alone, in the pitch dark, in

186
00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:30.720
the middle of the night, in this tiny little wooden

187
00:13:30.759 --> 00:13:34.399
ice shack, like five miles out from shore and in

188
00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:38.399
the middle of a frozen lake. And now suddenly, randomly,

189
00:13:38.440 --> 00:13:44.519
there's somebody knocking on my front door. Really so not

190
00:13:44.759 --> 00:13:48.919
thirty seconds after that first knock, I hear it again,

191
00:13:49.840 --> 00:14:01.120
that slow metronome like knock, knock, knock, This time, stupidly,

192
00:14:01.799 --> 00:14:04.759
I opened the door a tiny bit to take a

193
00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:09.039
look and scream at the top of my lungs, who

194
00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:13.679
is it, who's out there? What do you want? At

195
00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:17.320
this point, my head is spinning, just trying to make

196
00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:22.720
sense of what's going on. But then a possible explanation

197
00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:29.360
suddenly pops inside my head. I'm thinking, okay, maybe because

198
00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:32.919
of this terrible snowstorm and knowing that I'm sitting out

199
00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:37.240
here all alone, Tyler got worried about me, so he

200
00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:39.320
came out here to pick me up and bring me

201
00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:46.679
safely back to shore. Then suddenly again I hear that

202
00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:58.200
same rhythmic knock, knock, knock, So I slide the door

203
00:14:58.279 --> 00:15:02.720
lock across and open it just a crack and yell

204
00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:10.360
Tyler is that you. No response again, Tyler is that

205
00:15:10.399 --> 00:15:16.559
you out there? Nothing? And then I realize I don't

206
00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:19.799
see a snowmobile anywhere near the front of the hut,

207
00:15:20.759 --> 00:15:25.120
so I quickly shut the door and relock it. And

208
00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:31.879
now I've completely lost it psychologically. I'm basically shitting my

209
00:15:32.039 --> 00:15:36.000
pants in panic mode, wondering what the fuck is actually

210
00:15:36.039 --> 00:15:40.440
going on. For like maybe the next twenty minutes or so,

211
00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:45.080
the knocking stops, and I'm finally able to enjoy some peace.

212
00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:51.000
But then, completely out of the blue, I suddenly hear

213
00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:55.720
a crazy barrage of very loud, irregular knocking sounds coming

214
00:15:55.879 --> 00:16:02.120
from all four walls of my hut. It's like a

215
00:16:02.159 --> 00:16:05.799
group of escaped lunatics from a nearby asylum is playing

216
00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:09.320
the fist and knuckle bongos together on the walls of

217
00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:13.840
my hut at the same time. Come on, I try

218
00:16:13.879 --> 00:16:18.720
to look out my tiny plexiglass window, but it's completely

219
00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:22.879
fogged over with condensation because of how freezing cold it

220
00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:26.159
is outside compared to how warm it is in the hut.

221
00:16:26.919 --> 00:16:30.360
I quickly wipe it away, but then I see that

222
00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:33.720
the outside of the window is completely caked with snow

223
00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:39.320
from that wicked snowstorm going on. The sporadic, staccato type

224
00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:43.759
hammering just continues on and on, and the psychological stress

225
00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:46.600
is making me feel like both my heart and head

226
00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:50.080
are about to explode. I scream as loud as I

227
00:16:50.200 --> 00:16:54.159
possibly can, Who the fuck are you and what the

228
00:16:54.240 --> 00:17:00.320
fuck do you want? Please let me alone. This does nothing,

229
00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:04.880
no response, and the knocking seems to be getting louder.

230
00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:09.680
This is so screwed up. None of this makes any sense.

231
00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:14.279
The knock knocking on my hut continues for like I

232
00:17:14.279 --> 00:17:17.079
don't know, at least a minute or two, when all

233
00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:25.400
of a sudden, just like that, it completely stops. And

234
00:17:25.480 --> 00:17:29.920
now all I can hear is the loud, howling wind

235
00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:37.519
and my fast, heavy breathing. I sit slouched over with

236
00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:40.640
my head in my hands and look down at my

237
00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:45.160
watch to see it's now almost three point thirty in

238
00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:50.359
the morning. I've barely gotten any sleep, and at this

239
00:17:50.519 --> 00:17:53.279
point my heart's racing and pounding in my chest so

240
00:17:53.480 --> 00:17:57.559
hard it's like it's trying to escape my body, or

241
00:17:58.359 --> 00:18:03.920
like it's some wild, frenzied animal continuously throwing itself over

242
00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:09.920
and over against its bony cage in a desperate attempt

243
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:15.000
to break free. I'm mentally and physically exhausted, and my

244
00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:18.640
bloodshot eyes are burning like someone's poured salt into them.

245
00:18:19.880 --> 00:18:25.759
I'm done. I'm completely done. I just wanted all to stop.

246
00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:30.440
I racked my brain trying to make sense of it all.

247
00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:37.480
And then I think maybe a group of young punks

248
00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:40.640
came out here from shore, poured out of their minds

249
00:18:40.680 --> 00:18:43.400
and thinking it'd be fun to scare the shit out

250
00:18:43.400 --> 00:18:46.240
of some poor fucker sitting all alone in an ice

251
00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:48.359
hut in the middle of the night, in the middle

252
00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:51.000
of a frozen lake, and in the middle of a snowstorm.

253
00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:57.559
That just didn't make any sense at all, though, who

254
00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:08.599
in their right mind would even do that. And then

255
00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:12.039
for the next couple of hours or so, and right

256
00:19:12.160 --> 00:19:17.400
up until sunrise, all I did was just sit there, listening,

257
00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:24.680
listening carefully to see if who or what had gone away,

258
00:19:25.559 --> 00:19:30.680
or if they were actually still out there, just patiently

259
00:19:30.759 --> 00:19:33.279
waiting for me to crack open the door so that

260
00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:37.240
they can then grab me and do who knows what

261
00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:41.559
to me. My heart's calmed down a bit by now,

262
00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:45.359
but my mouth and eyes are dry as hell, and

263
00:19:45.400 --> 00:19:50.799
I have a hard time swallowing. Then, finally, my heart

264
00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:55.480
skips a beat when I hear the distant sound of

265
00:19:55.519 --> 00:20:00.559
a snowmobile approaching from off in the distance. The closer

266
00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:04.799
it gets, the more the clenched feeling of tightness relaxes

267
00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:09.039
in my chest. Eventually it pulls up right in front

268
00:20:09.079 --> 00:20:12.160
of my hut. I hear it shut off, and then

269
00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:15.960
I hear the loud crunching of footsteps in the snow

270
00:20:16.839 --> 00:20:22.079
as someone approaches my front door. Still leary and not

271
00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:25.599
really wanting to open it, I call out through the

272
00:20:25.640 --> 00:20:31.839
closed door, Tyler, is that you? I hear a snort

273
00:20:31.880 --> 00:20:35.200
and a slight chuckle, and then, in a kind of

274
00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:42.200
mocking voice, I hear Tyler reply, actually, no, it's just me,

275
00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:46.200
Santa Claus, and I'm wondering if you can help me

276
00:20:46.279 --> 00:20:49.960
find my lost reindeer. What the hell of course it's me,

277
00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:55.160
who else would it be? Relieved? I swing open the

278
00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:59.279
door and see Tyler standing there, and as I step out,

279
00:20:59.319 --> 00:21:03.960
he says Holy crap, man, I should have charged you extra.

280
00:21:04.880 --> 00:21:07.000
You have some friends out here last night and throw

281
00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:12.680
a party or something. What's with all the footprints? So

282
00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:15.599
then I step out a little further from the hut

283
00:21:16.039 --> 00:21:21.200
and see that there was deep snow drifted up everywhere outside,

284
00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:24.799
but all around the walls of my hut the snow

285
00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:30.440
was completely trampled down. I take a closer look and

286
00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:35.119
could see large footprints, but the wind and blowing snow

287
00:21:35.160 --> 00:21:38.519
had changed their shape, so there was no way of

288
00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:43.720
knowing what made them. The weird thing was that there

289
00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:48.759
were absolutely no snowmobile tracks anywhere to be seen other

290
00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:53.440
than those left by Tyler's machine. And the final bizarre

291
00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:56.720
icing on the cake was that there were about ten

292
00:21:56.880 --> 00:22:01.720
different individual sets of footprints, all scared and leading off

293
00:22:01.720 --> 00:22:08.720
in completely different directions out into the lake. To this day,

294
00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:12.680
I still think about it from time to time, wondering

295
00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:17.279
and trying to figure it out what really happened that night.

296
00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:21.759
If it actually was just a group of bored teenagers

297
00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:25.200
out having some fun by scaring the shit out of someone,

298
00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:29.759
then why the hell didn't I hear their snowmobiles and

299
00:22:29.880 --> 00:22:32.160
being out in the lakes So far as I was,

300
00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:38.480
and given the bad snowstorm, does that explanation even make

301
00:22:38.519 --> 00:22:42.839
any sense? And why would all of those footprints lead

302
00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:48.119
off in different directions? And yes, this was the very

303
00:22:48.279 --> 00:22:52.519
last time that I ever went on an overnight fishing trip.

304
00:22:53.240 --> 00:22:56.079
A couple years later, after telling my story to an

305
00:22:56.319 --> 00:22:59.759
eighty plus year old longtime fisherman that i'd met while

306
00:23:00.200 --> 00:23:04.279
daytime ice fishing in the same deep water area and

307
00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:08.759
on that very same lake, he sent me straight on something.

308
00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:12.920
He explained to me how there was a long standing,

309
00:23:13.160 --> 00:23:19.839
unsaid and unwritten packed law or general understanding amongst all

310
00:23:19.960 --> 00:23:25.119
the ice fishermen that whatever weird shit happens out in

311
00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:29.599
the deep water fish huts late at night stays in

312
00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:39.759
those god forsaken deep water ice huts. And that, my spookies,

313
00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:43.000
is why if you ever get the urge to spend

314
00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:45.880
the night alone in a tiny shack in the middle

315
00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:52.200
of a frozen lake, maybe just maybe don't. Because the

316
00:23:52.279 --> 00:23:56.400
fish are one thing, wind is another. Even a blizzard

317
00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:00.240
you can explain away. But slow knocking at the or

318
00:24:00.279 --> 00:24:04.079
at two thirty in the morning, footsteps all around the hut,

319
00:24:04.119 --> 00:24:07.920
and a whole mess of tracks heading off in every direction.

320
00:24:08.119 --> 00:24:12.400
By sunrise no, thank you the fish they can keep

321
00:24:12.440 --> 00:24:16.039
the lake big. Thank you to Gary Dee up in Ontario.

322
00:24:16.440 --> 00:24:19.319
We look forward to featuring many more of his stories

323
00:24:19.400 --> 00:24:22.400
in the so make sure you're subscribed so you don't

324
00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:25.240
miss it, and we'll be back on Friday with a

325
00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:28.720
little horror taste test to help you start your weekend

326
00:24:29.079 --> 00:24:31.680
on the right foot. And if you love what we're

327
00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:34.160
doing here at Weekly Spooky and want to show us

328
00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:38.200
some support in a very direct way, head to Weeklyspooky

329
00:24:38.279 --> 00:24:41.200
dot com slash join For as little as one dollar

330
00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:44.319
a month. You get two bonus shows every month and

331
00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:47.839
my undying gratitude, and speaking of I want to say

332
00:24:47.880 --> 00:24:51.519
an extra special thank you to our Patreon podcast boosters,

333
00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:54.240
folks who pay just a little bit more to hear

334
00:24:54.279 --> 00:24:56.799
their names at the end of the show. And they

335
00:24:56.839 --> 00:25:01.160
are Kate and Lulu, Jessica Fuller, Mike Ish, Jenny Green,

336
00:25:01.359 --> 00:25:05.160
Amber Hansford, Karen We met Jack Kerr and Craig Cohen.

337
00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:07.119
And if you want to join them and hear your

338
00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:09.480
name at the end of every episode, just head to

339
00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:13.200
Weeklyspooky dot com slash join and sign up at the

340
00:25:13.240 --> 00:25:16.680
fifteen dollars a month or higher tier. It really does

341
00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:20.160
help a lot keeping the show going, especially as we

342
00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:24.200
publish so often every single week all year long to

343
00:25:24.319 --> 00:25:28.519
make sure the Halloween vibes never die, or if they do,

344
00:25:28.599 --> 00:25:31.640
they become undead. But now I'm gonna get out of

345
00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:33.559
here and get back to work because I've got travel

346
00:25:33.559 --> 00:25:35.559
ahead of me and lots of shows for you, So

347
00:25:35.640 --> 00:25:38.839
for myself, for my executive producers Rob Fields and bubbletopia

348
00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:42.119
dot Com, my producer Dan Wilder, and my composer Ray Mattis,

349
00:25:42.480 --> 00:25:45.960
I'll talk at you next time. Thank you for listening

350
00:25:46.039 --> 00:25:49.920
to me. Make sure to find your way back next week.

351
00:25:50.680 --> 00:25:55.880
But for now you are safe, trust me,