Scariest moment alone in the woods?, page 1

Phsaw.

Thats nothing. I've got the story that will keep you up at night. Its one of the clearest and most fearful memories of my life.

We were just young pups, my cousin and I. Both us into boy scout type things. We snuck off to the woods near our houses, close to the national forest, with our shiny new official scout mess kits. All we'd found to cook in them mess kits was a can of pork N beans, but that didn't sway the excitement. Sure, we'd camped out and eaten in the woods before, but with a real mess kit? Man, that was somethin!

Being good scouts we went pretty deep into the woods and set up a right proper stone ring campfire. Nothing large, just enough to warm up some beans. While the beans warmed, we kept busy by pokin the fire and gettin the thermos and a treat we brought. Thats when it happened.

Looking back I don't think we even noticed it at first, and even when we did begin to notice, it weren't no big deal. It sounded like it was maybe a few hundred feet away, near the old cemetary, where the headstones were broken and worn so badly that you couldn't make out a name.

See-un's-how we'd snucked out, we was kinda on the lookout for one of our brothers to come track us down and take us home. But that ain't what we heard. So we probably kinda ignored it a bit. Till the sound gots closer.

We looked at each other a little worried, and kinda stood up a bit to see what it was. A kinda shuffling thru the leaves noise. It was headed our way, but we couldn't see it, even though it was broad daylight. It sounded sorta like sswwwhhhp sswhhpp scuurraacct, sswwwhhhp sswwhhpp scuurraaaacctt, real slow, almost creaping toward us.

I whispered to my cousin that it sounded like somebody was takin two steps, and then draggin somethin. He agreed, and strained to see what the heck it was. We could tell by the sound that it was comin our way, and our young minds struggled to figure out what to do. Of course, there was nothin to be ah-scared of, nobody lived round hear for many a year. We decided to stay put with our lunch.

That didn't stop it from comin our way though. Soon it was close enough that we were pretty darn near scared to death. Still we waited. Weren't nutin gonna stop me from cookin on my new mess kit! But still it came.

What to do, what to do. Panic set into us when the sound was close enough that we should've easily seen it. Whatever it was seemed to be purdy near right beside us. But there was nutin to be seen. Nutin. I couldn't comprehend what could sound like someone walkin, and draggin somethin, but yet not be seen.

Bout the time it was clear to us that we should be able to reach out and touch it, but still couldn't see it, we lit outa there like scared rabbits. To heck with the fire and the beans, I wanted to live! Run, RUn, RUN, I screamed like a little girl. But we couldn't pull ahead. It was still right there beside us as we ran, you could hear it crashing thru the brush close enough to touch, feal it breathing down our necks. But there was nutin to be seen. Nutin. Run, run, run, was all I managed to get out as we hightailed it down the trails.

I'd never run that fast before. I didn't even know I could. We finally broke free of the woods and into the field near where we had parked our bikes, but we kept running. Next thing I know there is a terrible ripping, crashing sound. It was so loud that we both stole a glance over our sholders while we ran.

It was a tree. It must've been 50 foot tall or so. It went straight up out of the ground about 4 feet. Root ball and all. I'm tellin ya, it went straight up in the air. Trees don't normally do that you know. Then we heard a strange crying yell and we saw the tree coming our way. It tried to throw the dang tree at us! I couldn't even manage to yell at this point, but my mind was screaming Run Run RUN.

Well, we managed to escape to our bikes and ski-daddle. We talked about it at home. Panting and sweating like we were, our folks were gonna wanna know what was goin on. So we snuck in, cleaned up, and pretended nothing happened.

Oh, we went back, don't you worry. I ain't gonna leave my new mess kit out there for nothin. It took about a week to gather the courage up to take a few buddies and go gather our stuff. The fire was out, the beans were still there, badly burnt of course, but no sign of the, uh, whatever it was. The only sign left that anything had happened was that tree, uprooted and layin there partly in the field. The root ball was about 15 feet from the hole in the ground.

I never went back to that part of the woods after that. Years later the developers moved the few headstones that were left, ripped out that part of the woods, and built nice houses back there. For some unknown reason people never stay in them houses too long though.

A couple weeks ago I found an old article from 2002 with pictures of footprints in that same area of the national forrest. The men in the pictures were adament that they saw bigfoot. They described hunting, hearing strange noises, a strong sense of fear, and finding the footprints later. A cold chill went up my spine.

I showed the article to my cousin a few days after that. I didn't tell him anything about it, he just happened to be over for a visit. I just said, "hey, come look at this for a second". The boy is now a grown man. 6'2', strong as an ox, and happy as a clam. But as he read the story, his demeanor changed from jovial to tense. His color changed from well sunned to pale, in the span of a minute. You could actually see a shiver run up his spine, and his hair stand on end. His eyes got watery and he cleared his throat.

He looked at me with a strange look and simply said; That area is just about where it happened. We haven't talked about that day for well over 30 years. Do ya think thats what it was? A bigfoot?

I was shocked. I knew he was talking about that day. But, over the years I had tried hard to convince myself that it didn't happen. Just a boys imagination I'd say. I'm a full grown man with a family I'd tell myself. Hell, I'm Airborne, thru and thru I'd say. I've done things people will never even consider doing, let alone get the chance to try.

But deep down I knew it did happen, and I know that there's something out there in the woods. Something that causes me to tremble even as I write this. Something that'll leave a mark on your soul. The kind of mark that makes even the strongest men shiver when he's thinks of it.

P.S.
Thats a true story of my scariest day in the woods. I've never told it to anyone. Ever. I rednecked up the writing a bit, since thats how my cousin talks, and wrote it in the format of a story, but thats it.

Nothing remotely like that ever happened to me again, though I'm quite sure thats how I wound up at ATS. Deep down I'm still searching for an answer to something that happened to me decades ago.

Some days when I let myself ponder it, I wonder if maybe, just maybe this is the reason why they can't find bigfoot.

He's invisible!