So a few years ago I lived in a trailer with a family friend a few miles away from where I grew up with my family. I wasn’t exactly happy living here because I moved in so my sister could move out because she couldn’t handle being around our family friend who was also her ex. A little bit of context I was (m24) at the time my sister was 21 and our friend was 26. Me and my friends trailer was pretty nice in good shape and sat on the edge of a very dense patch of forest and a horse ranch.
My friend and I would sit on the deck every night and have a few drinks to get over the stresses of our day and then we’d walk our dogs up and down the tree line until sunset. We never walked our dogs near the woods after dark because we didn’t have any light casted near the trees and after dark it’s just a thick walk of black with no visibility. The woods are connected to a hiking trail that goes for miles through several cities in the streets that I live in and is open from sun up to sunset and has police at the main entrances every night.
One day after a few months of living here my mom calls me at around ten p.m in the middle of summer and informs me that a beloved pet I raised for 13 years was not doing well and I’d need to come say my goodbyes. This pet was an 18 year old black lab blue tick hound mix who I loved very much but he was too old to make the move. So me and my buddy talked about trying to find a ride to go and see my dog with no success so at around 11 p.m me and my friend decided to hell with it there is a side entrance to the hiking trail about a mile up the road and it should’ve only take about 2 hours to get to my old town. So we grab some flashlights we grab my Rottweiler and out hunting knives just in case and gear up to make the hike.
After about 15 minutes of walking we get to the trail entrance when suddenly my dog whose never shown signs of being scared of anything pulls away hard and starts whining like she’s scared. Shocked and confused not picking up on the signs we decided to take her home jog back and make the hike without her. At around 11:30 we get back to the entrance and look down the sloped path into the woods. We can see for about ten feet into the path before you loose all visibility and I start to get chills. Asking why was my dog so scared this trail always has people hiking on it and it’s a very well marked path. I shrugged off the nerves and me and my buddy started walking. The woods sounded alive with birds, bugs, owls and even the occasional deer. The night was warm the air was cool and after our eyes adjusted the moon lit the path very well.
The trail was made up of chipped gravel and was roughly 15 ft wide. All in all the trail was the furthest thing I’d ever call scary and me and my friend knew the trails well. We walked for about an hour when we noticed the road could be seen from the trail and cops were spotlighting so we ducked into a ditch and waited for them to pass. When the police finally left we got up to our feet brushed off the dead leaves and dirt and crossed an opening into a thick patch of woods that went for about three miles with no lighting from the moon. We readied out flashlights and started in no knowledge of what we were about to endure.
We keep walking lights aimed down the center of the trail and we walked for about fifteen minutes when suddenly we noticed the woods went dead silent. Me and my friend looked at each other confused but we figured there must be a coyote or something out in the woods. We new that we had heard some on the trails in the fall when he and my sister lived here but we weren’t worried about a single coyote.
Me and my friend take about three steps and suddenly we hear an ear piercing howl from no more than 15-20 feet behind us a howl so loud it shook my ear drums and brought ice to my veins. While shaking I pull out my knife as does my friend together one dog would be very little to worry about. My friend stands next to me standing at 6’ dead which calmed me down he’s got size I’m not alone this will be fine! The woods suddenly came alive with branches breaking and howling all around on either side of the trail. The fear instantly returned may friend turned white as a ghost.
My friend was an avid hunter and in all my years of knowing him I’ve never seen him run from an animal and I’ve never seen him scared. He grabbed my arm causing me to drop my knife and ran! We ran sprinting down the trail flashlights aiming everywhere illuminating more and more eyes! Dozens of them all over following us as we sprint at full speed hearts pumping great the branches breaking all around getting louder and louder!
Suddenly my knee gives out I start to cry not in pain but out of fear. My mind is racing my heart screaming my buddy stands over me reaching for my arm while scanning with his light yelling. Then the thought hit me I can’t die here I have to say good bye to my dog we are almost half way. So I push myself to my feet and grab my buddy’s arm and fight through the pain with every ounce of energy I have and we kept running full speed through the dark. We kept running with our eyes wide scanning the path ahead watching them circle when suddenly it starts to rain.
The rain starts coming down harder blasting our faces soaking our cloths and making it hard to see. We keep running so do they. After about 20 minutes we break into an opening that connects to the street to my old town and we decide to ditch the trail thinking it’ll be safer on the road. We were right for the most part. soaked from the rain weighed down with wet cloths and with an injured leg I hobbled over to a street light and crouch to catch my breath. My buddy comes over and grabs me and tells me to check my phone so I do and what it says haunts me. When we started getting chased it was around 11:40 and now it’s 2:40 am. I check my gps and see we are still an hour away. We get up and look to the woods with lights ready and see no less than ten coyotes at the edge of the woods with many more howling behind them. Scared to death I start to panic when suddenly a car passes by and causes the dogs to retreat to the woods.
We use this opportunity to make some distance and start jogging to town checking the woods every few minutes and Sure enough they were there. Tracking us all the way. On edge and on alert me and my friend make our way till we finally get to the bridge into town knowing the coyotes won’t follow us any further. We jog to my parents house about ten minutes across town and get there at about 4 a.m. I go into the kitchen where my dog was placed to stay calm till the end. I was too late he was cold and stiff to make a traumatizing night worse I never got to say good bye and ask myself does he think I abandon him…. Does he know I’ll always love him.? I walk into the living room with tears streaming down my face and pass out on the couch. Wet, tired, hurt and scared and to this day I am terrified to go in the woods at night.