Your True
Tales
February 2003 –
Page 8
Woods
Creature Attack
by Eric V.
This incident happened to my older brother when he was 18 or so, which would make it 1976 or 1977. He told my my family about what happened to him at the time and I don't think anyone really believed him. It made quite an impression on me, being only 9 or 10 at the time. I recently asked him if he'd made up the story (which he would admit now, believe me), and said that it really had happened and retold it.
He and a friend (who brought his dog) took off after school on a Friday to go camping at Little Eightmile Lake, which is in the Enchantments region of the North Cascades mountains, near Leavenworth, Washington. From the parking area it's about five miles to the lake, and in a national forest, so there's no one else around other than other hikers. They set up camp by the lake, ate, and leaving the pots and dishes around the fire, hit the sack in their tent. I know that now fires are forbidden, but they must have been okay then, or they were being scofflaws. Anyway, they were awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of something crashing around in the trees around their tent. My brother said that it then began running through the camp site, scattering the cookware and making a noise that he says he can't compare to anything else. He retold this story to me in the mid-80s and at the time Buick was running TV commercials in which at the end, a hawk or some bird of prey screams. He said that's the closest he can describe it, but it was much too loud to be a bird and too deep in pitch.
By this time his friend's dog was freaking out trying to get out of the tent (which was zipped up), and also trying to bark frantically, but it had had its vocal chords cut, so could only rasp, which made the whole thing even more unsettling. They could see the shadow of the thing against the tent walls (either it was a moonlit night, or the fire's embers were glowing enough, not sure) and he said it was big - at the time he thought it might be an elk for some reason. At some point the thing began pelting the sides of the tent with small rocks and circling the tent. After more crashing around the tent and screaming whatever it was made an exit through the woods.
They didn't open the tent (or sleep) until first light. Outside the tent all their gear was scattered, and a metal cooking pot was partly flattened. He said that large branches had been pushed or kicked or thrown into the clearing they were camping in, and although the dirt was disturbed in the area, there weren't any footprints they could find.
I've read some similar stories from other readers, so I thought I'd add this one. Sasquatch? Skinwalker? Demon? Who knows, but it's a story that I've thought of often since I first heard it as a kid.
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