Now that summer has kicked into gear some friends of mine were recently digging out their camping gear for the season. It brought up some memories that I think I’m finally ready to try and work through
So about 3 years back I went camping with a large group of friends and their families. We rented a strip of 4 different campsites along a river and set out for a long weekend.
Important to note is that at the time I was recovering from an accident. I’d been hit on my bike and injured my right knee badly. At this time I needed a cane to get around.
We got to camp in the early evening. It was 5 couples, 5 kids, a few dogs, and myself. Since there were so many of us we opted for 4 campsites that sort of formed a little isolated pod so we didn’t bother others. I think the camp had 12 sites total that we set up into 3 different pods. After a little time unloading I went with a few of the adults and kids to check out the trail down to the water.
On the trail to our left was a forested area which sloped uphill. To the right the trail turned from dirt to rock and abruptly dropped off into the river about 10-15 feet below. This section of river wasn’t too wide, maybe 20-30 feet across.
We hiked along for a while, probably not a mile away from camp but close to it. Despite my limp I kept pace with the kids fairly well. The trail was about 2-3 feet wide at the most and we were walking single file. While going over a tree root that ran across the trail my friend Lee’s son that was walking in front of me slipped. He started to fall to the right. I felt my gut plummet, sometimes you just know something bad is happening right in front of you. I knew he was going over the edge. I grabbed his right shoulder and I yanked him as hard as I could back over to the left. And then he was going to be ok and he was going to land back on the trail. But I was not. My right leg gave out from under me as I shoved him and I toppled over and down the embankment to the water.
The water was very cold, it was very deep, and it was very fast. The first few moments were chaotic. Getting air, staying upright, trying to grab rocks and boulders. Breath, don’t go into shock. Focus, grab something. I glanced back at my group and was surprised to see how far away they were already.
The side of the river I’d fallen in was very sheer. I think the water level was a little low that year. It meant that even though there were some large rocks there was also a lot of dirt. Nothing to grab on to at the speed I was going. I needed to swim across the river where the banks lined up more with the shoreline.
There were quite a lot of boulders right under the surface that I kept getting smashed on. Hitting my head and passing out became a big concern. It took a long time but I slowly made my way across.
I pulled myself up to shore panting and shaking. At first just from cold and then as a sort of delayed reaction from the fear. I’ll admit it took me a while to calm down. I couldn’t hear my friends yelling anymore. I’d drifted so far.
So I took stock of the situation. I had a couple scraps, I was cold and wet, my cane was gone, my phone was back at camp so undamaged but not useful to me, but the most serious problem was my left ankle. I don’t know how but either in the fall or against the boulders during the swim I had seriously sprained my ankle. Between my left ankle and right leg I could not walk. I couldn’t even get upright on my feet.
I felt so grateful that I had been with a group. I knew that they would be coming for me or would get help.
They tell you to stay put when you get lost so I knew I shouldn’t go far but I had pulled up in a weird spot and I was tucked away in an area I thought would be hard to see from the other bank. I knew they were going to search along the river so I figured there wasn’t much harm in getting to a better spot. The sun was going down over the trees and I wanted to get in the light and dry out as much as possible before it got dark in case it took a while to find me.
Walking wasn’t an option so I crawled sort of army style on my hands and knees. About 100 yards away the banks turned to small river rocks like smooth gravel and jutted out from the treeline forming a small beach. On the crawl there I found a branch I thought I might use as a walking stick and brought it with me.
I set myself up on this new shoreline. It was like a semi-circle of rock 20 or so feet in diameter that eased down into the river. Behind it was a dense treeline. I could see that the water wasn’t too deep here; maybe waist height. I thought about trying to cross but I figured I would be swept away again.
So then I began my wait. I yelled out a couple times but didn’t hear any responses. I dunked my sprained ankle into the cold water to try and help with the swelling while wrung out and dried my clothes as best I could. I remember this part very specifically. I kept my left shoe on. I’d been told in scouts that when you hurt an ankle you want to keep the shoe on because once it swells up you won’t be able to get it back on. I did however take off my water logged right shoe and set it on the rocks next to me.
The sun went behind the clouds fairly quickly. I hoped my friends and the kids weren’t too worried. While I wasn’t having a great time, not knowing if I was ok or not must have felt awful for them.
I think that’s about when I started to hear it. Or to notice it anyway. Just sounds behind me in the woods. Bird squawks, squirrels rustling, branches crack. Then they started to change. I heard a bird take flight and then I heard no more birds. I stopped hearing small creatures in the underbrush.
I think I can describe now what I was unaware of in the moment that was so unnerving. It was a sense of something approaching, or gathering. I would hear a twig snap from the woods behind me to the right that sounded far away. 100 or more yards, muffled by the forest. Then shortly after from the same direction another crack. Closer, 50 yards maybe? Then a small rustle of leaves, 10 yards or less behind me. Then silence. No sounds retreating again into the woods.
Something came close to me. Came through the woods and right up to the treeline. Then I never heard it leave. Then it happened again. A gathering. Something big, coming up behind me and not leaving.
That’s the clarity I have looking back on it now. At the time it was more subconscious. I would hear something, and turn around expecting to see a deer or something of that stature had walked up but there would be nothing. I can only describe the strangeness of it as if you heard someone walk down the hallway to your room only for no one to knock on your door. I thought something had to be there in the woods. It felt wrong.
I called out for my friends but I wasn’t sure I heard a response over the river. It got quiet and started to get dark.
I had progressed to feeling bad for myself. I figured I was allowed to at that point. I was cold and hungry. I couldn’t walk. When they did find me I’d probably have to leave and get my ankle looked at and get a new cane so I wouldn’t even get to camp. I was in a proper mood when the first pebble landed.
A foot or two off to my right a small pebble plinked down amongst the other rocks. Silence. Complete. No birds, no squirrels, no chipmunks. I looked over my shoulder. Nothing but the dark tree line. I turned back to the water.
A few minutes pass then another small stone. This time I saw it as it sailed from behind me and landed near my outstretched leg. I turned my head again, this time I called out ‘Hello?’ to the woods.
Silence. Oppressive silence.
It kept happening. The rocks got closer. They got a little bigger. Finally one hit me in the back.
I spun around and yelled ‘Stop it! Stop doing that!’ I grabbed the walking stick and got to my knees. Under my weight the waterlogged stick snapped. A foot long length broke from the end and I scrambled to stay upright.
Silence again… but this time expectant? Evaluative?
It was getting dark now so I didn’t see it until it was already coming at me but another stone flung out from the tree line and landed by my knees.
I gripped up on the stick. I’m sure I was starting to tremble. ‘Cut it out’
Another stone was thrown my way and hit my thigh.
I swung a bit wildly with my stick even though nothing was within my reach. The treeline started maybe 15 feet away. I grabbed the smaller piece of the walking stick and chucked it into the woods.
‘Go away! Leave me alone!’
I waited and held my breath.
A rock maybe a bit smaller than my fist, the largest yet, shot past my right elbow and splashed into the water behind me. I started to swing wildly again and yelled. What I yelled I couldn’t tell you exactly.
I’m not sure how to describe this type of fear. There was an undeniable maliciousness that chills me to my very core when I remember this. I felt toyed with. I know that something heard me on that shore. Something with intelligence and coordination. Multiple somethings. I really think they knew I was hurt and, as hard as it is to admit, mostly helpless. There was something so sinister about this to me that I still can’t fully wrap my brain around it.
I didn’t just yell, I screamed. As loud as I possibly could. I tried to get up but couldn’t stand. The water was behind me now and I splashed into the shallows trying to create more distance. Rocks kept pelting my way.
Then they seemed to slow down. When I stopped to breathe I heard shouting in the distance. Voices I recognized were muffled by the trees calling my name. I’ve never felt relief like that in my whole life.
I yelled out ‘I’m here, I’m here. I’m across the river.’ over and over again.
The rocks stopped entirely. Only for a moment. I turned back to the woods and then one hit me in the gut.
They weren’t coming as fast but the rocks were bigger now. baseball size I would say. I could just barely see them coming in the near darkness. I remember raising an arm to try and protect my head. They hurt now when they hit.
I kept screaming for help while trying to fend off the attack. I got as far into the river as I dared. Stones splashed into the dark water around me. One look over my shoulder and I could see flashlights briefly shining between the trees across the river. They were still fairly far away.
I’m really not sure how I made it through the next few minutes as they worked their way to the opposite shore. I can only say that I never turned my back to the forest again and kept my eyes trained on anything coming out of the woods. For all the good it would have done me as a weapon I never let go of the branch I had. I never let up on moving around and making noise. I never made it seem I would go easily or quietly. I really think that might have saved me somehow
All at once as my friends showed up on the other shore the activity stopped. There were no forest service or search and rescue with them. Just four of the adults with flash lights and whatever equipment they could muster up in a hurry.
We yelled back and forth to each other. I hate to admit it but I had about lost it at this point. Seeing them made me feel better but also took the fight out of me. Instantly I felt drained. I was about sobbing and asking them to help me and to get me out of there.
Since the river was wider here and less deep two of them waded across. One of these guys, we’ll call Travis, is a huge muscly dude. Him and Lee got over to me. Lee asked if I was ok and wanted to look me over for injuries. I remember saying I’d be fine and to just get me out of there. That we all need to get out of here. Travis scooped me up in sort of a reverse piggyback. essentially we were chest to chest with his arms hooked under my legs. Lee held on to my arm to try and keep us balanced.
We walked back across the water and I kept my eyes locked on the woods. I didn’t hear anything over us splashing through the river and it was now dim enough I couldn’t make out many fine details. But I know at least one more stone came flying as it hit Travis dead in the back only a foot from my head. I thought I might have seen another few hit the water as we crossed but I’m not sure.
We got to the other shore and Travis set me down. Everyone asked what happened but I just couldn’t answer them. I do remember thinking that I needed them not to panic. All I could do was try to keep my voice level and say ‘We need to get out of here’ over and over again.
They took turns carrying me out. I got the details from them later but one of the kids had brought a set of walkie-talkies. So they radio back to camp that they’ve found me and that I’m in a bad way. They were thinking someone was going to need to leave to take me to the doctors to get my leg looked at. It took them so long to get to me because about 50-100 yards or so from where I tumbled off the trail diverges and no longer follows along the river. They were beating back the plant life trying to follow the river. A couple of them took the kids and rushed them back to camp and came back out to look for me. They were yelling for me but didn’t hear anything until they came around the last bend. The forested hills were just absorbing too much sound. They did call forest and emergency services, in fact one of them had to take a car and drive down the road until they got a cell phone signal. They were getting ready to send someone out. Once my friends knew they had found me they got a call in to cancel the search and that they would take me to a doctor as none of my injuries were life-threatening.
The hike back was pretty bad. It was a grueling trek in the dark over hills and back to camp. I was out of it at this point. The pain was setting in and I was still in panic mode. I was looking over my shoulder and jumping at every sound.
We did eventually make it back. It was fully dark at this point. I remember the kids ran up and then the adults sort of ushered them away. I think word had made it back that I was not ok in any real sense of the word. Though seeing everyone did help calm me down considerably.
They laid me out in the trunk of Travis’ SUV and started gathering up my things. I think the adults had a bit of a meeting about what to do. Lee came over to me and very calmly told me they would load up my stuff and one of them could take me into town. I remember grabbing his arm and telling him ‘No. we all need to leave. We need to go now’
I must have looked like a feral animal at that point. He tried to calm me again but I wasn’t having it. Another friend walked up and I told the two of them ‘We have to leave. It isn’t safe here’. I will always be so grateful to them for this. They listened. Another brief meeting between the adults and they started to break down camp.
I had felt guilty about this for a long time but now I’m so glad we left.
Things hadn’t fully been unpacked but a couple tents had to be folded back up. I took a second to breathe and calm down. It was going to be ok. I watched the others work. A campfire had been lit as soon as we got there. It had been left unattended during following chaos and was burning down. The light stopped before the edges of our little campground.
That icy feeling crept back into my veins. I watched my friends, their kids, and the dogs coming in and out of the darkness. Flashlights swinging wildly but only briefly illuminating a spot.
I grabbed Alexandria who was the oldest kid, 11, at the time. ‘Get the other kids and put them in this car ok?’ She got a little wide eyed and nodded. She started to gather them up and into the car. I fumbled around in the back and found Travis’ hatchet. I kept it clutched in my hand but folded a blanket over it. I can remember thinking I didn’t want the kids to see. I saw one of the dogs at the edge of the campfire’s light. He was staring into the night. ‘Lexi, get the dogs too. Then you get in the front and lock the doors ok?’
The dogs jumped up into the trunk with me. Alfie (since passed) was an older german shepard and I had never seen him like this. You can feel the tension when a guard dog is on alert. He sat next to me and stared out into the dark. I’m sure nothing could have gotten past him to those kids.
Either my friends were picking up on this or my mania was catching. Tents, coolers, and bags started flying into cars. A final few scans of the sites and we were out of there. Our caravan was flying down the freeway to a motel.
This is the only part of the night that’s blurry for me. The drive, checking in, getting into rooms. It’s just flashes. I do remember giving someone a handful of bills and telling them to order pizza.
The kids and dogs got settled into a room with a movie and pizza. The rest of the adults and I convened in the adjacent room. I popped off my left shoe and iced my ankle. I told them it was fine to wait a bit to see a doctor.
I don’t think ‘What happened?’ even needed to be asked. It was hard to get the words out. I remember I started with ‘There was someone in the woods’.
It wasn’t easy to tell them. I didn’t have the words yet to explain what it felt like. That something chose to hide out of sight and torment me while I was lost and injured. The sheer sense of wrongness and evil. I still feel the dread rising in my throat when I remember. It gets to me how little sense I can make of it. I saw nothing, I heard nothing, I didn’t even smell anything from the woods. There’s nothing that lives in the woods that can or should be able to throw like that. Not rocks that heavy or thrown that accurately.
It was quiet for a minute after I got through it. The room felt heavy. Lee raised his head. ‘I saw it. Well not whoever it was. Something hit the water about 10 feet shy of us when we crossed back. Didn’t see anything on the other shore.’
Travis shook his head ‘I felt something but I didn’t know what it was’
We stayed at the motel for the night and cut the trip short the next day. In the daylight things didn’t seem so bad but we were all still creeped out.
We never really talked about it much in the couple years after. I generally thought they believed me but I always felt bad for ruining the trip. Still, the creeping feeling I get on the back of my neck when I remember this has me thinking I made the right call.
One of the families has gotten back into camping. I got a text from the wife the other day ‘Is this your shoe?’ The attached photo was of a right sneaker. The one I had on that day that I took off to dry on the shore. She said she found it tucked into one of the girls’ sleeping bags.
They had followed us back to camp. They were out there that night. Still watching