A listener writes “It was late fall in about 1998 or 1999. I was in the Navy, stationed at Naval Hospital Bremerton, WA. I hiked a lot back then and that particular weekend I was actually supposed to take someone with me but they backed out at the last minute.
I decided to go on my own anyway. I got up about 4 am as it was a several hour drive to the trailhead and I wanted to get to the camp site before dark. I went to Dosewallips in the Olympic Park and hiked into Olympic National Forrest. When I got to the road from the highway, it was in rough shape as the rain caused some landslides and once I got so far, the road was closed with a locked gate, so I just parked on the side of the road and hiked in to the trailhead. It was about a 4-5 mile hike to the trailhead and there was absolutely no one there. No rangers, no people, no vehicles, no animals – just me.
I reached the trailhead and started the long 16 mile hike to Bear Camp. It was raining the typical PNW rain – slow drizzle that will absolutely drench you more than any rain you’ve ever encountered. And, it’s very cold rain too. Anyway, about 3:00 pm I made it to Bear Camp. I actually wanted to go to another camp about 4 or 5 miles further. You had to cross a stream to get to that camp and then it was supposed to be a smooth straight hike from there.
Unfortunately, when I made it to the stream, the bridge was gone and instead there were huge boulders and broken trees all jammed together. Not little saplings. No, these were large Douglas fir trees (maybe 10-15 year old trees?) and they were all jammed into this extremely dangerous looking blockage. I stood there about 15 min trying to figure out how to cross. Eventually, I decided it was just too dangerous, so I went back to Bear camp, about ½ mile away or so.
This part here is more of an afterthought… When I was studying the stream crossing, I noted how quiet it was on the other side of the stream. It was very still, full of moss, close trees, and it was a little warmer…
Anyway, I went back to the Bear camp site and set up camp. Bear camp is really a ranger station that is used for emergencies and they have a primitive shelter there; but, you’re not supposed to use it unless you are in an emergency situation. I wasn’t so I set up my tent. The shelter is located about 100 feet away from the main camp site. Bear camp is really just a cropping of three trees and the trail goes between them. They’re big old Doug firs, so the area under them is all dirt and pine needles. One of the trees had a huge root about 2 feet tall and about 10 feet long tapering from the trunk down to the ground around the 10 foot mark. The root was a natural barrier so I set my tent up right beside the root. So, the root was on my right side. On the left, was about 5 – 6 feet open space and then the tree branches dropped straight to the ground. Another natural barrier (tree limbs). So, I felt pretty safe. Remember, I was there all alone so if something happened to me it could be bad or worse, fatal; and, I didn’t want to die or get injured.
So, I set up camp, ate, and got into bed. It gets dark about 5:00 pm at that time of year and daylight was fading fast. I read a book for a little while before passing out. I’d guess about 1:00 or 2:00 am, I woke up. My right elbow was seriously hurting from the cold temperature (old tennis elbow injury). I tried rubbing it to make it stop but that didn’t help. I tried to go back to sleep but all of a sudden, I just got scared for no reason. I mean I was terrified.
Then, I heard footsteps, very loud and powerful footsteps. Whatever I heard was just on the other side of the tree limbs to my left, maybe 8 – 10 feet away from me. I didn’t even hear it until it was just a few feet from me. It completely snuck up on me. I’ve hunted a lot and been in the woods a lot, but I’ve never heard anything this heavy before. I could literally feel the footsteps. They were even, steady, very loud, and made the ground shake. I’m not exaggerating this. It literally shook the ground. I first thought, oh great a bear is f—— with me. So, I pulled out the only weapon I had, a 4 inch camping knife. You know, something that wouldn’t help me at all. But, it made me feel better so I held on to it. Also, my food was hung up on a bear wire about 20 feet away and this creature never even walked to that area so I don’t think it was after my food. The bear wire was about 20 feet high, typical bear wire basically.
Now, I’ve heard bear before. I’ve seen them walk, I’ve been near them. They kind of lumbar along real slow and graze as they’re moving. This didn’t walk like that. It was regular paced two feet walking sound. I was terrified more than I’ve ever been in my entire life. I had no idea what it was or why it was f—— with me. This thing deliberately walked around the entire camp site twice. Each time, it stopped just at the edge of the tree limbs. Then, it made a kind of grunt noise; and, something on the other side of the meadow (about 50 – 60 feet away) responded with the exact same sound. Then, whatever the f— it was just left.
I never heard it come up. I never saw it. I never heard it leave. I stayed awake terrified for the rest of the night and at first light at 4:00 am I packed up my shit and tore out as fast as I could. Again, I never saw a single person the entire time I was there. Not even when I made it back to the park entrance. No one at all. I was completely alone.
I think about this a lot these days. I tell myself it was a bear. I mean, it’s called Bear camp for a reason, right? Anyway, if, and I stress IF, this wasn’t a bear what the f— was it? It scared me so bad I’ve never been camping or in the woods since. That was over 20 years ago and I would only go there if a lot of people were with me. I question myself. Did this really happen? And, years later, after I’ve played that whole situation over and over in my mind, this is what I came up with.
When I went to the old bridge; the soft, mossy area on the other side was a nursery. Whatever it was saw me when I was studying the blockage on the stream and it wanted me to go away as it probably had a young one in the nursery. It came down to basically let me know that whatever it was knew I was there and was letting me know it was there. I mean, why else would this creature come to my camp and not go for my food? It wanted me to know it was there, a conscious thought. Regardless, I’ve tried to convince myself that this was just a bear encounter but if so, it was the oddest bear encounter I’ve ever had. Normally, bears will scope your site out and go straight for your food, but again, this creature didn’t do that. So, if this wasn’t a bear, what was it?
So, that’s my story. It’s not a very convincing nor was there an actual sighting, but that’s what happened.”