"Someone is looking out for you"

Published on 14 November 2024 at 21:56

What was watching her from the dark woods in Mount Rainier?

My sister is an adventurous person, so one summer weekend she decided to do an impromptu bikepacking trip to Mount Rainier National Park.  My sister is no newbie to the great outdoors, so she knew what she was potentially getting herself into.  She packed her bike with her tent, backpack, food, water and supplies and headed out.  On her first day she biked over fifty miles, certainly no small feat, but something she had worked up to after biking all summer.  On her second day she covered over thirty miles when she realized she was going through her water quicker than she had planned.  A lot of national parks will have places you can refill your water, but she quickly realized this wasn't going to happen because the location she was in was far too remote.  Her best chance of refilling it was at one of the lakes, but still risky since she didn't have any iodine tablets for water purification.  She continued biking until the path split into two different directions.  To the left was over ten miles of rugged wilderness and to the right was about eight miles.  She chose to go right because at this point, she was worried about running out of water and starting to feel drained.  The trail got more strenuous as it turned from a dirt path into four inches deep of rock gravel, that she now had to bike through, and it was starting to rain.  The trail narrowed and the trees were so thick that they blotted out any sunlight from coming through, so now it was dark woods on both sides of her that she was peddling through.  She came across a large pile of scat, whatever it was from, it was big and fresh.  And then, she came across another, wherever this thing was, it was ahead of her.  Then, she saw the deer.  Freshly killed it was picked clean to the bone, a full carcass with blood everywhere.  She contemplated snapping a photo of it, but then quickly decided not to as she felt like she was being watched from the forest.  Filled with fear she kept biking and tried to comfort herself with the fact that whatever had killed that deer now had a full belly so she should be safe.  The rain came down harder and she was feeling defeated and tired, but not able to stop peddling for the simple fact that it was better to keep going then risk stopping and encountering whatever was hiding in those woods.  The trail eventually came alongside a road and my sister was left with two options; keep biking and head straight up the mountain and get to her campsite in about two and a half hours or hitchhike to save time before it got dark and get there in about thirty minutes.  She decided to hitchhike.  A European man stopped to help her and told her that someone must have been watching out for her.  He normally didn't take this road home, but something told him to take this route today.  Years ago, he had been on a solo backpacking trip in Europe that went awry, and a stranger had helped him.  He promised himself that he would return the favor to a stranger one day and today was that day.  After my sister set-up her campsite she ran into a group of backpackers that were in Mount Rainier for the weekend.  She made friends and even got iodine tablets from one of them.  The next day she decided to go back home and got a ride with one of her fellow backpackers.  He said, "Someone must be looking out for you, because I normally don't leave my bike rack on my car, but something told me to leave it on."  My sister's angel must have been working overtime that weekend with all of the obstacles her bikepacking trip had.                  

Add comment

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Create Your Own Website With Webador