It was dark, the sun had set an hour or so ago and the parking lot was empty. All that could be seen in the distance were the silhouettes of trees. The truck wouldn’t start, cranking the key over and over again the battery was dead. A low moan was heard in the distance and the creature was moving closer, step after step the beast lumped its way toward me.

.           .           .

            It was the summer of 1986 and I was sent by my family to volunteer for the national forest service. This involved me doing a lot of time with various Forest Rangers and helping people with whatever came up in a national park. For the most part it was exactly as you would expect, hiking here and there looking for people who were stranded or injured, directing people who were lost, and things of the such. But there was one night that went horribly wrong.

While I was spending the night at one of the outlying ranger outposts, I was with one other person, Ranger Dan. We were looking out for what we thought was a bear who had been causing problems in that area of the park. Around 3:00 in the morning I awoke to the sound of a large creature walking around outside, I looked to my window and a furry shape passed by. Getting up and putting on shoes I walked around the aging outpost to find Dan. He was wide awake peering out the window but I could tell something was off.

Whatever outside was not a bear?

Dan told me he was going out and I was to wait inside. He grabbed the flashlight and left. I could hear his footsteps move around the building but then suddenly stop.

I waited. Half an hour, which turned to an hour. It was then two hours and Dan hadn’t come back. I looked outside and saw nothing but darkness. Then it happened.

 On the opposite side of the station there was a crash and I heard a loud roar coming from creature followed by a stench unlike anything I had smelled before. That’s when I ran, out the door, down the steps and to the truck, flipped down the visor and jammed the keys in the ignition. Cranking the ignition there was no sign of the engine starting. I saw the outline of what seemed to be a towering man covered in hair making its way toward me, a Sasquatch.

            I got out and ran. Faster than I’d ever run before, but still I could hear heavy steps behind me picking up their pace behind me. Running down the closest thing there was to a main road I looked for help. The steps behind me were getting closer and closer. Turn after turn down the road thinking my life was going to end when suddenly I happened to see an oncoming vehicle. The vehicle was honking and swerved thinking they were going to hit me the footsteps behind me subsided. The presence of the car must have scared the beast. I was safe, for now. . .