A few years back I went camping with some buddies. We have a usual spot that we park at and then hike up to the lake. Wildfires had destroyed a lot of the surrounding areas back in 2017 and there is a lot of new/fresh growth that has been starting, but lots of the big trees are all gone and the landscape has completely changed, but we love our spot.
We parked the vehicles and gathered our bags, the hike is only about 30-40 minutes depending on conditions and how much beer we feel like bringing. The 4x4 club actually maintains the camping area up there, and sometimes we have to share the lake with a couple guys who make the sketchy drive up, no big deal, everyone’s usually pretty good and there is enough spots to camp that it’s still pretty private.
We trek to the lake, seeing the familiar landscape clouded by the destruction of the fire, drinking and smoking along the way. We usually go for 2-3 nights at a time, and this time was no different, 2 nights, 3 days, enough beer and snacks for 5. We had our fishing gear, we usually can catch a few every hour in this lake but its been less since the fire.
The lake was empty, and we knew it would probably remain that way because it was almost 4pm and people usually will head up before the sun starts setting which made us happy. Having the lake to ourselves meant no rules; music blaring, smoking joints without hiding it from people with kids, etc. We each have a 2 man tent, so we spread them out about 15-20 feet apart at the cliff that overlooks the lake, perfect spot for the morning where you can wake up and just jump the 10 feet into the water.
We start cutting wood, gathering kindling, and stones to make a fire. We are pretty savvy campers so just a lighter and a hatchet is all we need.
There were three of us up there that night. Mark, Aaron, and myself. Aarons the best fisherman and always comes the most prepared even though if shit hit the fan we are a 30 min walk from the cars. He gets his line in the water as soon as the tents and fire pit was up. No more than 7-8 minutes go by and he’s yelling at us to get the fire going because he’s got one on the line.
Perfect, nice little snack right away. Aaron bonks the fish and immediately starts gutting it, 30 minutes later we are all sharing some lemon pepper trout.
The night goes pretty smoothly until about 9pm. We hear a vehicle coming up the rocks, we were a little disappointed but we had the best spot for camping, they’d have to find somewhere else.
The Jeep stops right behind us and we can hear a full carload of drunk guys talking and laughing. The passenger rolls the window down and asks us if we are here alone or if the other spots are taken down the road. We let him know that we were the only ones, they wish us a good night and carry on to the next site. Seemed like decent guys. We went back to shooting the shit, drinking, and smoking.
Around 11 we hear the vehicle tearing down the road towards us, maybe they were just coming up for a rip, maybe they forgot something.
They get to us and stop, screaming as us,
“WE NEED A FIRST AID KIT! - DO YOU HAVE ONE?”
Aaron runs to his tent and grabs his bag, one of the guys steps out from the back seat bleeding from what looked like his armpit, but he was hunched over and grasping it so it was difficult to see where the wound was. Mark and I sit the guy down next to our fire and give him a bottle of water, he was going white, shock was about to set in, he needed to get to a hospital.
Aaron came whipping around with bandages and antiseptics.
“Can you lift your arm so I can clean it?” Aaron asked
“Yeah, I think so” The guy replied and gingerly started raising his arm, with his hand still grasped tightly under the pit.
“Okay, I’m gonna need you to move your hand” as Aaron used a alcohol wipe on his own hands.
Blood came pouring out way faster than anyone expected, there was no time to clean the wound properly, he doused a clump of gauze in alcohol, shoved it up there and used the remaining gauze to wrap around his shoulder as fast as he could. Then a tensor bandage to hold everything in place.
“You guys gotta get him down to the clinic, there’s no way he should be here overnight”
The guys agreed, thanked us and got him back in the vehicle. We heard the steady roaring of the engine as it slowly faded into the sounds of birds and crickets.
“Well that was exciting.” Mark said nonchalantly and we all sat down and breathed calmly again.
“Wonder what he did”
“Probably fell jumping in the water, those rocks are pretty jagged if you don’t jump far enough”
The site below ours, where the guys ended up, was a lot more risky then ours. The rocks made for a dangerous jump where you needed to clear about 5 feet of distance, almost impossible without a running start, and when you are drunk, not the best idea.
It was almost midnight by the time we decided to get ready for bed. We stumbled in to our tents while still talking, got in our sleeping bags and then something weird happened.
Mark brought a Bluetooth speaker along, had been using it all night and we had turned it off and he brought it into his tent. All of a sudden a very high pitched wailing came from the powered off speaker. I’m assuming everyone jumped like I had, while I yell out a “What the fuck!”
We could hear mark fiddling in his tent until the sound stopped, “What the fuck was that” you could hear him muttering to himself.
“Sorry guys, it’s off…again.”
We had a little chuckle and we all wished each other a good night.
3:02am
I wake up. I have to pee. I unzip the tent and go piss into some close by bushes. I was a bit tipsy still but nothing I couldn’t manage. The lake was shimmering from the moonlight and as smooth as glass aside from the occasional water bug ripple you could see dancing across.
I finish up by business and go and stand on the cliff over the water, I reach into the cooler and grab a water bottle and chug.
It couldn’t have been more than 3 minutes when I saw something. A tiny light at the top of the hill on the other side of the lake. We’ve hiked around this lake many times, never saw a camp site on the other side, way to dense of a forest, no flat spots for a tent unless you brought hammock tents, but the hike to the top of the hill was a rough one, we never actually went that far up on that side. But someone was up there.
I watched the static light for a few moments before I heard another tent unzip.
“God you pee so fucking loud.” Aaron said as he goes over to the same bush.
“Come check this out when you’re done.” I reply.
I point towards the light and he sees it, “Weird.”
The lake was small, maybe 200m across from where we were, and would take about 20 minutes to walk to the other side across from where we were now. They stocked it with fish for years and it was thriving because it was mostly untouched by the usual population, just hikers and 4x4ers that would clean up after themselves and not be dicks (Mostly).
“I wonder who’s up there, seems like a pretty tough hike with a pack - there’s no service roads over there is there?”
“Not that I know of, maybe?” Aaron said and he made his way back to his tent.
6:30am
My phone alarm goes off because I forgot to turn it off before I went to bed. “Fuck sakes” I grumble as I turn it off. I can hear Mark and Aaron talking - they are usually up at the crack of dawn for fishing, I like to sleep in a bit, the fish will still be hungry later.
I step out and I see Aaron pointing to Mark where we saw the light the night before.
“Wanna go check it out”
“Sure, whatever - just bring the binoculars so we can see our site if anyone starts fucking with it.”
No one ever did, but we all lived in Vancouver or close to, and trusting people wasn’t always the best course of action.
We made some coffee, ate some pepperoni, Aaron had a a fish but he hadn’t cleaned it yet so left it in some water in the cooler for later. We got our day packs on with basically water, snacks, and a joint in it and started walking.
Didn’t take long for us to reach the other side of the lake, the hard part was now, up, and pretty straight up.
Took us about an hour, but we looked back at the camp and figured we were about where we saw last night. Nothing, no people, no camp fire, no garbage, nothing. It was possible we were at the wrong spot but the areas not that big and we were in the only clearing we could see.
“Must have left earlier” Mark said as we all looked around.
“Pretty good spot to camp though, nice view” I said.
“No fishing up here” Aaron chimed.
“Pretty weird we can’t see any evidence of people, though” I said. “They did a really good job of cleaning up after themselves.”
We opened up the pack, grabbed some water, I grabbed the joint and lit it up. We passed it around until it died and put the roach back in my bag.
We decided to look around a little bit as we had never been to this place on the mountain before. There seemed to be a bushwhacked trail that lead into the dense forest behind us. We went in, The crest of the hill was behind us now and we walked down the other side - shielding our camp site from view. I made sure to tell the guys that we shouldn’t be too long down here if we can’t see our stuff. We got to a tiny waterfall where behind looked like a cool spot to sit and smoke if we hadn’t just had one. I only brought one actually. We would have done it if I brought two. We made our way down and stood watching the water bounce off the rocks for a bit.
“Okay, lets head back, gotta make that fish, I’m hungry” Aaron stated
We agreed and turned around. Mark saw it first, then me, then Aaron. We had walked around the side of the waterfall but we were focused on it, not on this giant hole in the ground.
“Holy shit, sink hole!”
“Stay the fuck away from the edges, Mark”
The hole was massive, about 8 feet across, and deeper than we could see. Visibility stopped around 10-15 feet down as we were already shaded by the heavy dusting of trees above us.
You could see that it recently had opened up, foliage that was still hanging on to the surface dangling into the abyss. The occasional spill of dirt still falling from the ledges, the uneasy sound of rocks bouncing around in rushing water below.
Mark gave a cliché, “HELLLOOOOOOOO” cupping his hands and doing his own echo.
No response.
We made our way back to the untouched site and Aaron began filleting the fish.
The rest of the day was standard, fun, uneventful, perfect.
Night came, and we were getting pretty loaded at this point, Mark went to grab his speaker from his tent.
Turned it on, and the high pitched wailing we heard the night before shot into the airwaves. “What the fuck is wrong with this thing” he said while frantically pressing the volume down button.
The wailing continued at a low hum while he inspected the device, turning it around and around, hitting it against the palm of his hand, shaking it until we heard a voice.
“… Hel….. Hellooo….” a faint woman voice said
“Umm, what the absolute fuck” Mark said.
“Picking up a walkie-talkie signal, maybe?” Aaron said
“It’s Bluetooth, not radio waves” I said, unsure if that even made sense.
“…Help me, pl… Hellooo? Can you hea…. Help me Please”
“Well I can’t respond on this thing.” Mark said “What the fuck are we supposed to do?”
“…Hellooooo…. CAN ANYONE…” Silence.
“Uhh I feel like we may need to tell someone about this” Mark said as we looked at each other with concerned faces.
We stood there for a bit, just looking at the speaker, waiting for the next oddity to come from it, A few radio cracks, something you’d hear if using a CB radio and someone triggered the mic without talking, no voice, no high pitched whine.
Minutes went by as no one said a word, gazes just focused on the shitty Bluetooth speaker.
The very common voice used by Alexa on devices these days, woman, robotic, soothing in a kind of condescending manner, that’s what we heard next.
“Come back to the hole, boys, you can still save her”
To Be Continued…