A Hunter's Harrowing Night

I was 14 when the story took place. It was my first year hunting deer with my family to be specific, my father, my cousin and myself. To paint a picture my blind was two miles south of my father's with his stand being nine miles southwest of my camp. We drove a four-wheeler about 100 yards away from his stand, which left me with a while to walk before I even got to mine.

I live in northern Michigan and during the winter it gets dark quickly and early it was around 4 p.m. when I started to get cold and decided to close up my tent. I was hunting with a 243 rifle that had a pink camo cover on it with a strap around it so I could hang it off my back. I closed up my blind zippers and put my garbage away in a bucket I had. As I was throwing away my trash, I heard a couple of leaves crumble. So I immediately turned my head up to see if it was a deer. After about a minute, I brushed it off as a squirrel or a bird.

Disappointed, I closed my blinds and headed to my father's. As I was taking my first steps out of my blind, I could see a fresh pathway brush through the leaves. It was a wide path, not from a small animal or even a deer. I immediately started thinking a bear or a wolf.

So I started speed walking to where my dad was. I started to panic as it started to get even darker and I was still roughly a mile away. I was just walking as I was stopped in my tracks by one of the most haunting and horrifying noises I'd ever heard. The best way to describe it was a bear slash man that was being murdered. Sounded roughly 150 yards back as I started to run. Running with boots and thick hunting gear was hard with £20 on my back.

But fear pushed me through and I didn't stop. Around 25 seconds later, I was still running when I heard it again. This time, it was louder and closer. At this point, it was completely dark out with the moon being the only source of light I turned around with my headlight. And what I saw is still the most terrifying thing I've ever seen around 50 yards away.

I saw a black figure in the dark illuminated by the moonlight behind it. It was around 10 feet tall and skinny without thinking twice. I started running while trying to get my gun off my back. I didn't know where I was running, but I just ran. I ended up on a road that I recognized as rabbit road, the road that connects my camp with the entrance to the hunting area.

I ran on the road until I got to my camp. By the time I got into sight of my cabin, I turned around again and saw it again this time further away. It was still standing up and I can only describe it as a tall black, skinny figure. It had long arms and long legs. As I got on my cabin steps, I threw up from exhaustion and continued to vomit for about a minute as I later passed out. I woke up to the sound of my dad's four-wheeler turning into the cabin driveway.

I started crying as I ran up to him, hugging him. I quickly told him the story of what happened and how I ran back without stopping. He didn't believe me at first. But as we got settled inside, his face started to change. As he saw the desperation in my eyes, I didn't sleep that night or for weeks after people told me it was most likely a bear or I was just seeing things.

But I know what I saw. I'm older now and I only hunt with someone with me. I also hunt with a bigger gun because it reassures me that I could shoot something larger as I'm writing this. This was the most scary experience of my life.