A Nature Story.

The following story is most certainly true and an honest recount of the events that began seven days ago tonight. This is a short story of two men and their adventures in the wilderness over a two day period. Months ago when we first planned this trip the excitement began to build as we researched and saw all the area had to offer. We would make the six hour drive after work on Friday, hike into the heavily wooded forest, and establish our camp retreat for the weekend. I can remember jokingly telling my friend that we would be walking out of those woods on Sunday men. Looking back it’s quite eerie to think about. Neither one of us had ever camped in the wilderness nor had we ever been so far north before. Needless to say we were both working way above our pay grade when it came to experience.

For one reason or another, I didn’t take into account that we would be getting into the woods after midnight Friday until my buddy mentioned how the rules and regulations require a one mile hike away from any road ways before establishing a camp site. Suddenly, I realized that hiking into a definitive wilderness situation in the dark of night was probably not the best idea, but I would soon understand that there was very little we did plan for that weekend. Not only did I figure out our time of arrival only a couple days before, I also discovered the vast amount of wildlife that inhabits the area. According to the website those woods are inhabited by black bears, bobcats, and wolves. Awesome.

As we arrived shortly after midnight on a one lane dirt road roughly twenty miles from the nearest town (I use the word town loosely here), we climbed out of the car and immediately felt swallowed by the tall canopy of trees and crisp black sky pricked by the ultra white stars. It was quite beautiful to see the night sky that far north as the stars raced across one another and to see the immediate depth of them. It appeared as though there were stars upon hundreds of layers of stars. As we began unloading the car in the pitch black, moonless night, the sounds of the forest began to alert our attention and call us in so it seemed. Later, it would be agreed that those sounds were probably alerting us. With small flashlights and more gear than any two people should ever carry for such a long hike into the woods, at night, we entered.

As we followed a small game trail up a hillside and through the woods, paranoia and the sense of complete isolation began to creep in, and the star lit sky disappeared as we were officially under the canopy. For over an hour we struggled to find a spot to set up camp as the terrain was completely unleveled and on a steeply inclined grade. Eventually found what appeared to be a valley below us, we were only guessing since we couldn’t see ten feet in front of our faces. As we followed the slope down we found a spot that was level. At this point it’s roughly 2 am and we are both completely wiped out from the long drive and the hike that seemed just as long. We built a fire and then started clearing off an area for the tent. As the fire grew and lit up the area around us I could see that we were in a small valley surrounded by hillsides on all four sides. Around 2:30 we both crashed with a small fire going and all of our gear tied up as high as we could get it in a nearby tree. My friend is a heavy sleeper and was out instantly and snoring, I on the other hand am the complete opposite and all I could think about is what could possibly be in the woods around us. Finally, I drifted off warm and with about as much peace in my head as I could find considering the circumstances.

I’m not sure what time it was at this point, but the sounds that carried through the woods were clearly much closer than I had hoped they would be. As I heard the leaves rustling under the feet of them as they seemed to surround our camp, I wrote it off as only being coyotes as they howled for most of the night. These animals certainly knew we there, and I certainly knew that there were many of them. As the night crept along slowly I laid in my sleeping bag gripping an absurdly small knife and air horn as my buddy snored along with the howling. I prayed that God would send them away and protect us, and as this prayer became a meditation the morning light finally appeared. Early that morning we discussed our options for the day and one of them was to find a different spot to sleep Saturday night.

As we packed up our gear and began the 2 mile hike further into the woods I discovered a foot print near camp. It was quite large and so I looked it up, it wasn’t coyotes that had visited that night, it was a pack of wolves. The local newspaper mentioned that more than 60 alone inhabit the woods we were in. Our goal for a camping spot for that night had now become clearer. We were going to stay out of low lying valleys and find the highest point we could to establish a safer camp. After running into more than enough porcupines, which are quite huge by the way, we had come to what appeared to be the perfect spot. It was on the top of this mountain or hill on a point that stretched out from the rest of the mountain. It was flat at the top and about thirty hards across by a hundred yards deep. On three sides it was protected by thick woods and an extremely steep hillside. In my opinion it was the perfect place to set up camp since it minimized the amount of entrance and exit points for “nature” and gave us an advantage high above to hear them coming.

We set up our camp and I began to build small fences on three sides of the camp to help detract large animals from entering into our area. I was mocked most of the time for choosing to do this but I knew that based on the night before, it might really work. I built the fences by finding small trees that had fallen and were roughly 10-15 feet long and 4-5 inches in diameter, I leaned them in between surrounding trees creating x’s in between them. The rest of the day was spent exploring and stockpiling firewood for the long night ahead of us. One thing I had read or heard a long time ago was to always have plenty of firewood, which we didn’t the night before.

As darkness crept in and the night sky came alive once again we decided to trade the evening for sleep. Within an hour or so I once again heard the wolves in the distance as they howled, but they were in the distance and I wasn’t worried. As I drifted back to sleep I was awoken by a low mumbling growl. The sound came from what I’m guessing to be 40 yards away and was on my side of the tent. It was a deep groaning and I could tell it was a large animal whatever it was. I grabbed my knife and four foot long spear, yes i made a spear, and woke my friend up. His response was an unkind way of asking me to leave him alone, so I made clear to him that he should both wake up his face and shut his face. What was out there was real, it was happening, and unfortunately it was on the unprotected back side of the tent. I could hear the foot  steps of this giant getting closer and it began to let out a horrible sound that was something I had never heard before. Obviously agitated and upset, it started spraying, or marking it’s territory if you will. Just then I heard another one moving several yards from it and they were both extremely upset with the idea that someone was there who wasn’t supposed to be. At this point I realized it wasn’t a bear, thank you Lord, but it was probably a moose or something else giant and temperamental. Google moose attacks and you’ll find out how dangerous those animals are, just slightly under bear in my opinion.

The animal and it’s companion terrorized our camp for an hour to hour and a half stomping its feet, snorting, and spraying. I can remember at one point it had to of been only feet away from my side of the tent, and I can remember thinking the sound of it walking reminded me of a Clydesdale horse. My friend and I through whispers decided not to scream and shout or use the air horn because it might set the animal(s) off. Instead we crawled under our sleeping bags hoping to mask our scent that had led it there. I prayed unrelenting that God would save us. I prayed so long that I came to the point where I was ok if that was to be my last night on earth. None of the prayer stopped our uncontrollable shaking under the sleeping bags. We were experiencing pure fear and terror in the face of the reality that we probably weren’t going to be walking out of those woods. It sounds dramatic to say, but we were both so well aware of the situation and how a stampeding moose or elk would most certainly kill us. While we were dealing with our fear of mortality, we could still hear the animal hunting us in its own volatile and pissy way. I was so convinced of something tragically happening that I turned my phone on under the blanket and attempted to text our latitude and longitude in a message to my father and sister, but my phone died before I could send it.

About half way through the visit from our new friend (at this point the other one had wandered off), the smoke from our campfire shifted directly at the tent. I am convinced that God was at work protecting us. All day and night we had a large fire going, and all day the wind and breeze was blowing it away from our tent, which was kind of why we positioned everything the way we did. Yet suddenly the smoke was aimed directly at the tent, significantly covering our scent enough that after about 30 minutes the animal began to leave. That was a loving God answering prayer. Once we were certain that the animal was gone we went out and built a huge fire that had now drifted off to only smoke. For the rest of the night I didn’t sleep. God had given me a sense of peace in my soul but the adrenaline of what had happened kept me awake praising him the rest of the night.

The next morning we made the 2.5-3 mile hike back to the car in pouring rain. Stopping in town for coffee we began to research what could have been stalking our camp the night before. What we discovered was it was a bull elk. Bull elk are quite large, 600-700 pounds and are extremely aggressive and territorial. Also, they are extremely agitated by loud noises and usually charge them rather than run away (airhorn). All of that we experienced the night before. It’s taken me 6 days to write about it because for six days I didn’t want to think about it. My friend and I have text-ed and I’ve told a few close friends and family members, but I was honestly embarrassed to talk about it out of fear that nobody would believe it, or care 🙂 So there it is, the closest I’ve ever been to death and nature all in one weekend. How sweet. As I said, I’m honestly convinced that God intervened into our situation, there’s no other explanation for why we were holding the air horn in the air ready to use it but didn’t, why the fire from the smoke shifted, and the animal didn’t charge our tent. The most humorous part of the experience is that we were so worried about bears, wolves and cats, but it was an elk that almost took us out. Those words I spoke to my friend months before the trip almost seem prophetic looking back. We definitely came out of there men.