DESCENT INTO MADNESS
Summer
August, 17, 2007
Undisclosed Location: Fire Season
As the sun began to break over the horizon, I would begin a
journey that would forever change my life, my reality.
I was fully prepared to enjoy a 3 week stay in the mountains,
to escape the stress of everyday life.
My journey began. It was fire season; fires were burning all
through the mountain sides due to a rather irresponsible log hauling trucker
who let his chains drag an unprecedented amount of miles through the thickly
forested asphalt roads. As a retired
fire fighter, I would risk the harsh elements to achieve being alone. I was driven out to an undisclosed region, in
an area where one among three hard to find glacial lakes would be my target. On
foot now, I had packed pretty heavy. A three week stay in the deep mountain
woods requires quite a few provisions.
Trekking up and down through treacherous mountain terrain, I
would stop occasionally to check my topographical map to ascertain if I was
staying true to my objective. As I was quite a ways in now, I began paying
closer attention to the tracks left behind from previous travelers and wildlife
within the area. The tracks I would find would tell a tale all their own. It
had been a fierce winter, made worse by an even wilder fire season in full
swing. The weight impressions found within the predator’s tracks said that they
were very hungry and not having much luck with the sparse amounts of fleet-
footed tracks left behind by their quarry. Human tracks indicated that the last humans in
the area had departed around 3 months prior with no recent human activity.
Moving along I would, on and off, get the strange feeling that eyes were upon
me, scrutinizing me.
As I neared my destination, I noticed that predator tracks,
or predator activity of any nature ceased to be present at all. Finally, the
magnificent glacial lake was within eye sight. As I broke through the last of the densely
wooded area ,the lake gleamed before me. Long heavy strides drew me closer. Nearing the water’s edge, I would notice
something that would cause me instant concern. Lying in front of a tall thick
tree was a small pen light and wadded toilet paper where someone had squatted
to defecate. This alone would not be what concerned me, other than to feel
disgust for someone who would treat nature in that way. The real concern came
from seeing that the toilet paper had become unraveled stretching out, and into
an arch through the tree line across the ground floor. The toilet paper was
followed closely by drag marks from foot heels digging in deep.
I immediately would drop all of my equipment except for my
gun, and begin following the signs of someone’s apparent struggle. As I
followed, I could see clearly that someone was being dragged from the spot that
they had chosen to defecate. This person was kicking and trying to roll from
side to side to regain their feet. The drag tracks showed clearly that this is
what had happened by the way they would break from time to time; shrubs had
been ripped from the ground by one hand, while the other hand never released
the toilet paper roll. The toilet paper had broken its length a few times only
to catch on shrubbery to again continue unraveling along the way in semi high
swinging arches to drag across the ground. This indicated that that hand was
coming up and down wildly. I reached an impasse as the struggle and Toilet
paper trail would end at the base of the stony mountain overlooking the lake.
No more signs for me to follow; I would stop and begin
racking my brain for information. Had
there been any previous reports of wild animal attacks in this region? Had
there been any missing person reports filed recently involving this region? As
I concentrated, I would recall that several mountain lion attacks had been
reported in the region that seemed to align with the signs of struggle I had
found. Disconcerted, yet not swayed from my own agenda, I would file these
thoughts away for my return into society. Feeling I had solved the mystery, I
cleaned up the toilet paper and buried the feces at the bottom of the tree
where the struggle had begun. A feeling of uneasiness at the find lay heavy
within my thoughts for a while.
After setting up my camp, traveling off a ways to dig a deep
hole behind a large boulder for personal needs, I was relieved to finally be
able to unwind. I built a nice controlled fire and sat on a log to gaze awhile
into the golden flames as dusk was rapidly approaching. I had gingerly set a towel down on the ground
at my side where I would set my holstered gun down, a large mag light, and a
few other necessities. The gun that I had with me was a .357 magnum with hollow
tipped ammo holstered in an old style split hard leather gunslinger holster
borrowed from my wife’s father. I had no previous experience unholstering a
firearm from this type of holster.
Sitting somewhat contently with dusk having set, the silence
I was enjoying was abruptly interrupted by sound of movement from somewhere out
of sight in front of me. The sounds were quickly followed by movement from all
around me. Something, or rather some things, had surrounded me.
Darkness now surrounded me with the exception of the small
firelight from my fire as whatever had me surrounded held its positions. I
stood, bent down, picked up my mag light, and flashed it directly in front of
me. Two distinct sets of eyes shined back at me, flashing the light all around
me as more and more sets of eyes revealed themselves. At first I could not make
out any bodily outlines to go with the many sets of eyes that had encircled me.
Becoming very nervous, I strained to see an outline. As those eyes were not advancing on me, I
retained a level of calmness. At last, one set of eyes shifted its stance, stepping
awkwardly enough into my light beam to reveal that it was a deer. I was
surrounded by a large pack of deer all staring intently at me as if some
unknown event was about to take place. It hit me hard that this type of
activity from deer had not been something I had ever experienced or heard of
before.
As I stood perplexed by what was happening, my senses were
beyond full capacity. My hearing felt inhuman to sound, picking up the
slightest vibrations. Eyes pierced cleverly through the darkness for movement.
Smells of the trees, the water, the deer pack, and the dirt beneath my feet all
permeated the air filling my nostrils as I drew in short, quick breaths. A
sound I was not meant to hear occurred directly to my left and very close to
me. The sound was that of a big framed body trying to silently shift its weight
on a dry forest floor. I jerked the light quickly to the spot. My light fell
directly on a massive crouched figure. Panic began to set in. The figure began
standing up; I exhaled, and said out loud “OH S#@$ it’s a bear”!
My light completely
lit up a creature straight from legend. Every inch of this creature was
revealed to me as it stood reaching its full height in front of me. I made out
long bulky arms leading into even bigger hands, thickly muscled legs, big feet
with toes, a massive body shagged with lengthy hair, impossibly wide shoulders,
a juggernaught shaped head, a face that appeared to be a cross between a
caveman and a modern day human…..those eyes…..those eyes shimmered a glowing
red hue where the irises should be, as a wicked intelligence that far surpassed
my own burned into my mind. I exhaled once more saying aloud, “ F$#% its not a
bear” and promptly slid into 1st degree shock.
I could not move, I
could not rationalize a thought. The icy unfamiliar grip of fear held me rooted
in place. There we stood modern man face to face with a creature from ancient
legend. The creature was not menacing me with any forward advance so far, nor
was it even looking at me menacingly. It appeared to merely be waiting for what
I would do next.
As the shock of what then stood before me began to wear off,
I am ashamed to say that fear had not left me as I dropped to the ground clambering
for my gun. I struggled trying to pull the gun free from its holster convinced
that this enormous creature was at that very moment bearing down on me to maul
me to death. Unable to free the gun from its holster, I arose pointing the
holstered gun straight at the creature, determined to fire through the holster.
What would be waiting for my fear driven action was
unexpected to say the least. The creature had not moved, it looked at the gun
in my hands seemingly recognizing something that could very well harm it. With
a look of disgust, the creature slowly turned its back on me, walked silently
away, and out of eyesight. I would remain standing with gun in my hands, rooted
in fear, legs shaking uncontrollably for a good while. I spent a terrifying
night wide awake in those dark woods as there was no safe way out; nowhere to
run to.
As soon as dawn lit the land, I would fight off the need to
run right the hell out of those mountains. Instead, I began investigating every
inch of my camp. I would find and take pictures of large bare foot prints that
had come down from the mountain to silently check out my camp site, stopping to
check out where I had dug my hole for personal needs, before winding its way
back to within a few feet of me to watch me.
Surprisingly, at the hole I would find a mass of the thickest hair I
have ever seen within a few feet of that spot. Set upon a medium sized stone
just outside of camp was a very precariously placed piece of shrewd art work
made out of a few wood chips and broken twigs. The stone was the back drop to a
face made of the wood chips, and twigs. I was shocked to look at the stone from
a different angle and see an exact duplicate overhead shot of what the camp
site looked like. After combing the area for clues, I would surmise that
natural predators had been intentionally steering clear of this area within
about a quarter mile in each direction, with the lake as the epicenter. On my
hurried way out, I would notice destruction in the forest that I had not seen
on the way in. Trees broken like tooth picks, thrown about with strength that
bellies the laws of nature. Spots in the ground that showed this creature had picked
up my trail on the way in and at exact spots where I had stopped turned to look
around to see if anything was tracking me, deep skids from a pursuing creature
would slide out of view. A strange hooting sound followed me all the way out,
sometimes answered by another hooting sound from a different area.
A wild eyed man would come out of the mountains telling an
even wilder tale. A small town at the base of those mountains still tells the
tale of that man to this day.
This Bigtruth exclusive is a guest post by The Traveller
Blog post by Dan Lindholm
