A listener writes “On August 5th of this year, I know the date cause I took a video of the beautiful spot and posted it on Instagram.
I went out to do a little camping and I had intended to fish on the Klickitat River, East of Glenwood Washington. I had camped there before with no occurrences so I was not concerned. I was on my motorcycle with very few supplies, just a tent, sleeping bag and water. I had a perfect spot on the edge of the canyon overlooking the river below.
This is an area with many scrub oak, and many dried leaves on the ground. I explored the area before dark so I knew how noisy it was walking through the leaf litter. I set up a tent and was prepared to camp without a fire as it was dry and a burn ban was in effect. I enjoyed the sunset over the canyon with Mt Adams in the distance. I could hear an elk bugling in the meadow and walked out in the dark to see the landscape under a bright moon. The moon faded behind the clouds so I walked back near my bike and tent.
It was well after dark and I was smoking a cigar when I heard what sounded like voices at the bottom of the canyon. As my awareness prickled, I made a conscious effort to control my rising anxiety.
Out of context and out of no-where, with a giant booming voice, I heard a single word directed right towards me. I could not comprehend what the word was or even what it sounded like, it was clear and articulate but not discernable. This was completely audible and unmistakable. At this point my fear was rising but I still was trying to control my reactions.
I then started to hear foot steps approaching at a distance from an area I had walked earlier.
I shined a small flash light in the direction of the approaching foot falls and saw eye shine but could not see a figure from behind a tree. The light I had with me was not enough to illuminate any details at the distance of what was walking towards me.
I could not make out anything other than a silhouette of a large figure. It continued to approach slowly even as I shown a light towards it. It was walking towards me in an area where the tree branches hung low. I could not tell if my flashlight could not penetrate past the branches or the figure was too dark. The footsteps continued to approach and finally turned away, dropped over the edge of the canyon with barely a sound. It was a terrifying 15-20 feet before turning away and I could no longer control my fear. The fact that it continually approached me, made no sense and heightened my alarm.
I scrambled, bunched up everything I brought with me with a bungee cord to my bike. The encounter was not aggressive but I was terrified. The figure seemed to absorb the light, I’m not sure it my flashlight was just not sufficient or the character of the figure’s color, it was just barely visible. I panicked, could barely kick start my bike and just tore out of there. This was by far the most vulnerable situation I have been in and I was in utter terror in spite of my attempts to not be.”