Alright everyone, I’d love to hear your theories on this, or if you’ve ever experienced anything like it. I’ll preface this by saying I’m a firm NON-BELIEVER in ghosts, spirits, aliens on Earth, Bigfoot, basically anything that’d be on Unsolved Mysteries, although this would fit the bill. Bit of a long post, so bear with me.

A buddy and I were fishing a small OP river this morning. Hiked in about an hour before first light, and found a gravel bar to stand on waiting for enough light to see our floats. It was pitch black, as you’ve gotta hike down into a canyon. We were not drinking, using drugs, or sleep deprived.

We’d been there for about 15 minutes, when all of a sudden there was a flash probably 20-25 feet across the river from us at water level. The flash was somewhat muted, as if it were a camera flash with a paper towel or thin sheet placed over it. Both of us looked at each other, bewildered. He and I grew up in the woods, and in 30+ years each, had never seen something like this.

We were absolutely stumped, slightly unnerved, but continued waiting for first light.

About 10 minutes later, there was a flash in the woods behind us at about the same intensity, but enough to slightly illuminate my friend, which is what caught my attention. He was facing down river towards me so he saw the flash at about a 90 degree angle, while I was facing towards the river, but caught his sudden illumination in my periphery.

At this point we were pretty much ready to get moving down river and wait somewhere else for enough light to see without our red lens headlamps which had been turned off on our heads.

Couple more thoughts:

We found about an inch or two of snow accumulation on the drive in, and were the first vehicle to access this area easily in the last 24 hours. No vehicle tracks. No one else was up there.

If these were game cams that for some strange reason had a flash camera instead of night vision capture, they’d have been facing each other. One across the river, and one behind us. No reason for them to be set up like this, as well as triggering after we’d been there for several minutes, and again several minutes later. Absolutely confident these weren’t game cams.

We were 2-3 miles from the nearest house, 5+ miles from any development, and 2-300 feet down into a canyon, far from any human presence. No logging or anything nearby.

I’m absolutely stumped. Anyone experience anything similar or have a theory?

I'm always interested in stuff like this. My oldest sis has a way about her that has attracted paranormal ghost stuff that I have witnessed. Curious if, after it got light, you investigated the area where the light may have come from?

You've come to the right place. RICH GEE?

It got light enough to barely see as we were leaving. Nothing out of the ordinary. Pretty familiar with this spot, and the river is narrow in this section. We had maybe 50 yards of timber behind us before it met the canyon wall. Both flashes seem like they’d have originated no further than 10-15 yards from us.

Just absolutely stumped, and I’ve never had an experience in my life where there was NO logical possibility.

Obviously you were flashed by a pair of Sqwatch working parallels while grid assessing you.

You're very fortunate you had another male present or they may have begun wood knocking.

Couple coworkers said something similar, haha. Some of them aquatic Sasquatch I suppose.

sounds like the wrong (or right) mushrooms.

Wish it were! Maybe we would have caught some magical fish that morning too!

Game cams that were not aimed precisely at you that picked up some small animal movement.

This could definitely be the case. Maybe we flushed some chipmunks or raccoons. Would seem fairly likely on the flash behind us, but it’s the one in the river that still seems off. Just a strange spot to set up a game cam, compounded with the rarity of white flash game cams.

Probably gonna chalk it up to this for the time being, as it’s the most logical scenario.

Maybe the one in the water was a reflection?
I mean, we know it wasn't UFO Aliens don't we? Well, don't we?

We’d have cast our shadows if the first one came from behind us as well. The first one was definitely concentrated on the opposite side of the river.

In going over the experience again with my wife just now, I realized I may not have correctly worded my original description of the light. These lights were less of a quick “flash” like a camera, but more of a 2-3 second gradual glow/illumination before rapidly dimming.

Sounds cool nontheless. Keeps you on you toes in the deep woods in the pitch dark! You never know?

Plate tectonics and geological stress releases .

Or

Susquatch trail cameras working with low battery operation...

I saw mysterious flashes in the 60's.

Is the flash the amount of time it takes a device like a phone or tablet to come on at a lock screen but then turn off again?

Not at all. Phones were in our waders and these were much much brighter than even a phone’s flashlight.

You got flashed?

I don't mean it was your phones necessarily but that the light exhibited the same characteristics of a device coming awake and then going back to sleep.

Oh I see. Yeah, it was similar to that, both in duration as well as the time from start to finish of each “flash”. Much brighter though. Again, almost like a floodlight or garage door light.