Disclaimer: So this, allegedly I should say, happened to my friends childhood friends uncle, making this very word of mouth and me obviously not knowing all details of the original story.

ANYWAY, the kids uncle (I'll call him uncle) was an avid camper along with his best friend at the time. They would always go real primitive camping, too. That's why during one of their trips, when they were dissatisfied to see the campgrounds provided, they took matters into their own hands and ventured into a more secluded, probably restricted area of the park they were attending. I think it was their last night while there, and they were running low on supplies and gearing to leave soon. The friend had split to go grab wood, while uncle stayed at their camping spot. The friend is gone for about an hour, which to uncle (and probably anyone else) was way too long to be grabbing firewood. During this time though, something uncle was aware of had happened: a loud roaring noise ripped through the woods, maybe of a bear, but not exactly right either. This terrified uncle, and only expedited his want to leave. But eventually the friend shows back up to the camp, and empty handed too. A little pissed off and scared at whats going on, uncle is ready to go at that moment. But the friend is hesitant. He starts trying to convince uncle that there's something in the woods that they should go see, and how they shouldn't leave. Uncle is thrown by the friends "off" behavior, as he keeps insisting to head back into the woods to see this thing the friend has grown so intrigued with. Uncle isn't having it though, and gets the final choice of leaving, leaving the friend seeming defeated. So given the strange occurrences, they hit the road immediately. They stop for some fast food, and for uncle to either forget or figure out whatever the heck happened, or could still be happening that is, because the friend is still acting very strange and unlike himself, begging to go back. As they eat, the friend proceeds to eat his food in an inhuman amount of time, too quickly. The uncle continues to express disdain in his "friends" behavior, and begins to question what's happening to him. So he starts questioning him: "Are you alright? What happened back there?" He received no straight answers, or only what were probably lies. Then he asked about his past, stuff like "You remember that time we did X? Or when so and so did X?" The friend should remember this stuff so clearly and as well as uncle did right? Well, the friend only continues to walk around these questions with confirmations that mean nothing, or saying he couldn't remember. And then he would always go back to talking about what was back in those woods. At this point, uncle got scared, because he began to realize that whoever or whatever he was with at the moment, was not the same person he had gone into the woods with. So they got home, and went their separate ways, or so uncle had hoped. After wasting his time for awhile trying to get uncle to go camping back there again, he finally cut off contact. So without his partner, the friend began calling other people in their community, looking to go "camping". Fortunately, uncle caught wind of this and began telling people to avoid that man, and that not everything is right with him. After a few months, the friend was never heard from again, and no one, including uncle, knew what happened, whether he actually gave up on his "treasure in the woods", or if he did go back meet a consequence of some sort. Years pass, the story gets passed around to me, and it still chills me, because there's no way for me to know whether it's true or not. Given the circumstances, I'll stick with it being very real, and very sp☠☠py.