80. Isolated Trails
About a year ago, I was camping along the PCT in Washington. It was late October and getting to around freezing in the middle of the night in the mountains. So, there were no other people, which was what I wanted. I got to the trail late and hiked with my dog for a while in the dark with my headlamp. We found a place that was a few hundred feet from a small river.
It wasn’t loud but you could hear it. I get to work starting a fire when my dog suddenly starts barking. I’m pretty paranoid so I keep a 3800-lumen flashlight and a big knife on me. I whirl around and shine the light and grab the knife. Nothing. I sweep the trees, looking for the reflection of eyes. Still nothing. Dog’s on alert but not barking.
I get back to work and this happens a few times. Each time I grab the knife and light but can’t see anything. Eventually, I search the brush around the clearing but still nothing so I go to bed thinking maybe something small. Around 1 am I’m woken up by something rustling around outside. By the sound, I think it was probably the size of a coyote. I don’t get out of the tent.
About 3 am I’m woken up by a loud screech and two large animals bolting through my clearing. It’s cold and dark and most of the way up a mountain so there shouldn’t be anything. I’m a little freaked out so I grab my knife and listen in the tent. There’s a screech in the distance then nothing. Ultimately, I wake up and it’s raining so there are no prints, and nothing else happened.
But it sure freaked me out. If I had to guess, I’d say a goat or something with hooves became a midnight snack for whatever was lurking around my site.