Live in Eastern Tennessee. Great cost of living. Access to mountains, streams, trails, rivers, and lakes. Involved in literally all things outdoors.
30M with thousands of and thousands of hiking hours, miles logged, and campsites stayed at. This was a unique and weird experience that I genuinely can’t explain.
Huge snow storm about to blow in from Gulf. No one else should be on the trails. It’s just me and my friend, let’s call him Joe due to the nature of his job.
We just happen to have the same days off and decide to do some deep winter camping towards middle/eastern divide line of Tennessee. Remember I have camped, fished, climbed, caved, and grew up in these hills and valleys. I know what to expect from weather all the way to animal life etc.
Two days before we were supposed to get a hug snow storm we decided to have an easy hike in and easy hike out to avoid the worst of the weather. Hike in is beautiful. No bugs, no tourists, no rangers. Just me and Joe walking and talking. This trail is absolutely cake, almost no elevation gain and just cruising.
Set up camp in a valley, stream running beside us. Fire wood is scarce so while Joe heads up the valley to take photos of sunset I want to get the fire going. Start dragging and chopping the downfall. Used all the wood near camp so I starting hiking up the valley to find bigger logs. And came across something odd. A small rock “tablet”. Absolutely square and tucked into the base of a tree. No writing. Nothing too odd about it. But it gave me a sense of dread seeing it. Like when you see a sharp knife in something hand or something suddenly holding a gun. Just a tension in the air.
Move on and realize we are probably good for fire wood. The night goes on and we make dinner, laugh and tell stories about our year. I forget about the weird tablet thing. Another family actually hikes in after dark which was odd. Father and son. They set up camp and start their own fire.
Cold night so we turn in earlier than normal. Zip up tent and sleeping bag. Call out to Joe goodnight and try to sleep. I had some terrible freeze dried food and being 30, well, acid reflux isn’t fun. I tossed and turned a lot and couldn’t sleep. Bone conducing headphones in listening to Hardcore History. And then I heard something screech. Muffled but close enough to get through the sound of my podcast. I ripped my headphones off and this time it was clear…it was…loud? Like the sound was clear. More clear than anything else I had heard. And it was absolutely terrifying. I froze in place. My whole body immediately in a cold sweat. I heard the kid just down the hill try to wake up his dad and ask what that noise was but he never got a response. He must have done what I did and realized he needed to not move. He wasn’t brave enough to ask again as the screech happen again and I squeezed my eyes shut hoping whatever it was didn’t know we were there.
I’ve heard all manner of wildlife. This wasn’t natural or any bobcat, mountain lion, elk or etc. I had ever heard. Then I heard it moving…well…maybe walking towards camp from the ridge above me. It had been flurrying all night and I could hear snow and leaves crunch as it came closer. But then it stopped. I held my breath and tried to not move a muscle. It then walked away. Back up the hill.
I let out a light breath and whispered out to Joe. “Joe what the hell was that, did you hear that holy shit.” I had roughly said…and from the side of the hill opposite of us ..the side that…thing walked down…“I don’t know Chris, get some rest and we will talk tomorrow.”….in Joes voice… perfectly Joes voice. His inflection and all. I almost got up and ran but it felt like a if I did I would die. Idk how else to describe it. It felt like doom.
I laid there for hours. It felt like that night wouldn’t ever end. I never heard it again. And eventually exhaustion got me. My eyes couldn’t stay open any longer and I dosed for what had to be less than 5 minutes. I woke up panicked reaching for my phone/wood hatchet. And heard it fucking sprint away from my tent. Back up the hill. Long strides. Bounding almost.
I sat there till dawn with my hatchet in my hands.
Joe was up first. I heard his tent unzip. “Woah it snowed a little last night”. I unzipped just as fast and to my horror…tracks led up the valley. Tracks I had never seen before. Bipedal. Round indentions on the balls of the feet with three other round indentions for toes. We could only find one intact track….all the others look like they had been scraped over with a hand or broom. It was still snowing so it got covered up too quickly and both our phones had got the power sucked out overnight. Joe didn’t believe me. But on the way out of camp. The kid across from me locked eyes with me. And I could tell he heard it too..tears welled up in his eyes and he begged his dad to leave.
We hiked out in awkward silence. I walked into a gas station half way home and the stress bled off me, tears filled my eyes too. I had never been so scared in all my years of outdoor adrenaline rushes. Turns out local lore says there is a “Screamer” that roams the area. Me and Joe haven’t talked since.