[MichaelMyers]

Day 2 continued/Day 3

Well I've been putting off writing this part all day. It's just a wrenching and unpleasant experience to recount, even in (relative) safety.

About 7:30 pm, before turning in for the night--- last night of this stupid, ill-conceived trip, I told myself---I decided to do a quick survey of the campsite. Not sure what motivated me to do so. Like I said, snow was falling now and I had no reason to pace the perimeter of my resting place instead of settling down for the night, especially given the events of the past 48 hours. But pace I did.

As I scanned the area that led in the (rough) direction of the cave, I saw something move in the darkness. It was barely visible as it was reflected by my firelight and just behind a rocky escarpment. It was hidden by some rocks, whatever it was. It disappeared and I continued staring in its direction for a solid 10-15 minutes, figuring I might see it in the distance again if I waited.

Then, it stood up.

From now until the day I die, I will never forget the total terror I felt while looking at this creature. It was like evil and death itself had been incarnated, and every fiber of my body was screaming to me that it could not be real. A large, bipedal brute stood just beyond the lighted threshold of my fire. It just stood, looking at me. How to describe it? The stench was overwhelming. A massive, stag-like head. Well over 7". But the scariest part was the eyes: big, vacant, dark. No gleam or reflection to them. Lifeless.

[To give you a sense of this creature, I’ve attached two images. Take the body/mass of the grizzly and (the best I could find) the head of the buck. Yeah.)

Luckily my survival instincts kicked in. I was carrying my rifle with me as I canvassed the site. I took off the safety, and delivered an 8mm to its head from basically 5 yds. distance. A deafening shriek followed, absolutely terrible to listen to. It went straight to your bones. The beast shook for a moment, but didn’t fall, so I delivered another round at the chest, and it screeched again and began running---much, much faster than you’d think it’s size could carry it.

I bolted too, and the next few hours are a blur. I ran down into a wash, looking ridiculous because I tried to keep my gun trained behind me the best I could as I ran (in the dark, in the snow…not fun...Wendigo Dundee I am not!). I found a small crevice in an embankment that hid me, where I spent the next several hours. I heard grunts and screeches in the distance: they sounded close, but could have been further away. Who knows. I sure as hell wasn’t going to check. I spent the whole night hiding in the corner of a small hillock, my gun pointed at the dark, adrenaline pumping through my veins. The most terrifying and exhausting night of my life.

Dawn eventually broke, and the my last discovery should just about wrap this one up…