Wearing rainhoods and that eerie feeling

When it's raining hard enough to use a hood on your rain shell, ever get that eerie feeling that you're being followed/stalked?

Coming down off Balsam Lake Mtn in the catskills, it's raining, got my hood on my Marmot precip up.. I would get some weird feeling that something or somebody was following me. Every little sound caused by the friction of the hood on my ears would play havoc with my brain..it was weird and I think I get this feeling a lot, especially when hiking solo in the rain, without somebody else's footsteps or conversation.

Ever get this feeling or is it just me?

Jay

YES!!!!
Must be something about how it kills about half of your peripheral vision...
Hope no stalkers are reading this...they will know to follow Precip wearers!

Twice, I looked back, expecting to see Freddie (...and not the funky one )

Jay

Jay H said:

When it's raining hard enough to use a hood on your rain shell, ever get that eerie feeling that you're being followed/stalked?

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No more than when I'm not wearing a hood.

Lately I've been using a Seattle Sombrero instead of my Precip's hood and like it much better. It's much cooler and I don't lose my peripheral vision.

Jay H said:

Ever get this feeling or is it just me?

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You should know how many times I stop and try to hear more from this fictional maniac...

It freaked me out more than one time

timmus said:

.....this fictional maniac...

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Not always fictional. IIRC, you were here when this guy was around:

http://newmud.comm.uottawa.ca/~pete/trailwork2005/may14/tw8.jpg

Then, of course, there's The Nye Wolf

Whenever someone says, "It's your imagination." Don't beleive them!

Jay H said:

Ever get this feeling or is it just me?

Jay

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I'm not paranoid, I just think they're after me.

Seriously, I think I know what you mean. Since you can't see all around, and your audio senses are somewhat muffled due to the rain, you are kind of hiking blind & deaf. Actually, this happened to me once. After huffing for God knows how long with my hood on, I stopped in the middle of the trail in my typical gasping for breath. Finally, someone went around me (in the trees) and shocked the crap out of me. I think they had been on my tail for some time judging by the inconvenienced look on their face....

I don't get an eerie feeling--I just don't like tunnel vision and my hearing blocked. I use a thermal/rain hat and add the hood only as a last resort.

Doug

Hell, I thought I was being pretty quiet too.

I find a baseball cap (with or without the hood) really helps this problem. I'm also quite pleased with my new Precip's hood (and how it turns) relative to other raincoat hoods I've suffered with.

Happy trails!

--M.

With Good Reason...

You never know when a freakish dog-wolf hybrid from Maine (no jokes, please) is following you....

Seriously, not only is it the paranoia but the damn noise from the rain that gets me - feel like I have a bucket on my head.

Much prefer to wear a hat with an all-round brim - no rain in the face OR down the back of the neck.

After having a kind (possibly sadistic), quiet (actually stealthy), older woman scare the bejeezus out of me while I was eating lunch on Slide in a light rain, I now see the advantages of my hat and keep my hood down most of the time.

Judging by her reaction, watching someone throw his food in the air can be quite amusing. She was kind enough though, to not tell her comapnions why she couldn't stop laughing when they joined her; she left that to me.